i'm not sure it's entirely correct to say hillary clinton is back. but she's definitely tiptoeing onto the public stage. after logging over 956,000 miles as secretary of state, clinton has been on a well-deserved vacation. that ended last night with her first major public appearance as a private citizen. clinton headlines a gala for a human rights organization at the kennedy center flanked by her potential presidential rival, joe biden. political junkies relished seeing the two of them on stage today. clinton skipped last year's democratic convention. even if clinton is considering heading back into politics, she has every incentive to wait as long as possible. let's spin. the first thing you hear about hillary clinton right now is she has record high approval numbers. but the bigger story is they always drop when she goes into

campaigns. that makes sense. she was up in the 50s, low 60s at times at first lady. dropped when she went to become a new york senate candidate. went up proving herself in government and dropped as a presidential candidate. there's no reason for her to jump back down to slide which she knows from presence dent cp. she does have a problem if we're going to be serious about her potential in the democratic primary? and that is, democrats don't like do-over candidates. the republicans constantly nominate people who lost in previous cycles. >> next man up. >> romney, mccain, george bush, sr., ronald reagan, they all went, ran, lost, came back, ran

in a prior campaign and won the nominee. since the primaries were handed back over to the voters from , mcgovern himself was a caretake care candidacy of rfk's tragic assassination. my thoughts are she's going to stay out of the water. but anyone who gets back on the inevitably bandwagon doesn't understand how democrats have historically looked at do-over candidacies. >> if i'm not mistaken, i think he just commented on the future, did he not? >> a little bit. >> promised to never do that. >> i think she's going to sit back as long as possible. but as long as she's sitting back, this sense of inevitability will continue to envelope her.

a lot of people say, she was going to in '08. 9 i don't think the inevitability was a problem in '08. she ran against a candidate in barack obama. early on, democratic primary voters who wanted something that didn't make them feel hypocrite call. that's not going to be a problem in 2016 or 2015 when we start this run-up. one of the things it does for hillary this time, she's such a large figure that she doesn't need to do anything to get attention the way you see rubio and paul making big policy moves and changes to get attention. she doesn't need to do that. i wanted to say, if i'm running her campaign or if i'm part of her team, what would i suggest that we do?

running on experience, trust and the historic nature of her campaign, the sort of thing of like, women of america, it's our turn this time. the one thing is that we don't know if it will be a change election or a continuation election. we won't know until 2015. but hillary is uniquely positioned to do either thing. to go either way. >> i think the inevitability business is dangerous stuff for her. she knows that. i think that sense of inevitability is more than just wishful thinking. it can have the effect of looking like entitlement. and that's what she wants to avoid, i'm sure. and her supporters would be wise to maybe at least pretend they're interested in joe biden or cuomo, just for her sake. so to speaking of biden, the other thing she has going for her that he can not compete with is the fact that she doesn't have to show up every day at

events. he's at efents all day, all week. he's on tv. making press conferences, doing interviews. he's mundane. she shows up after a month of being off camera and it's to huge fanfare. that's always going to be the case for her over the next few years, especially if she retreats back into private life and only show up at these sort of special moments. that is something he can't compete with. and he's going to be a sitting active vice president up until 2016 out there all the time, looking very routine and boring, next to her, looking very special. >> and you have to feel a little bit bad for him. he's always the bridesmaid, never the bride. i never both of them. to see them at the event together last night, like it's great. on the other hand, you're thinking, what is it like for him having to sing her praises? this is his main rival. but they have a personal friendship. it's a tough situation and he's been a fantastic vice president. if it wasn't for hillary, he

would be the front-runner. if she were decide not to run, he would be the democratic nominee although i think she's going to run. to your point, not only does biden seem mundane but he has to wade into publics. when you have to wade into publics, it brings your approval rating down because you become divisive. and republicans really sort of missed their chance to lay a glove on hillary. she's been out of politics for a while. but as secretary of state, she was still in a position in the administration where there could have been critiques leveled at her. instead, they used her and bill clinton as the contrast to the evil obama. and now that she's out of that official position, she does get to just show up to worldwide acclaim, looking great, weighing in when and how and if she wants to like she did on gay marriage. but to what you were saying about inevitability, toure, i think you're right in the primary.

i don't see anyone who can compete with her. she has it locked down. i think biden and others will stay out if she does decide to -- >> you agree we won't see biden versus hillary? >> i don't think so. but in the general election, i'm not as confident. i still think -- >> against who? rand paul? marco rubio? >> i'll spell it out for you. in recent polling, she's up on rubio by 12, paul by 11, jeb bush by 16. she's only leading chris christie by three points. i would caution democrats, i think he is the most dangerous republican candidate out there. i was somebody who was skeptical of him. i thought he only had regional appeal. he's impressed me. the thing he has that is so valuable and that you cannot teach a politician, just ask mitt romney, is he feels like a real person. now, he has taken being from new

jersey, governing a blue state. he has taken some more, quote, unquote, liberal positions, vis-a-vis, the republican base. but he's also a skilled and talented enough politician, i think to finesse that to be able to get through the republican primary. >> i think if you could parachute christie into the general, he would be dangerous. but getting through a primary when you have guys who are really rightward like rubio and rand paul -- >> and polished. >> very difficult for chris christie to get through a gop primary. >> his attitude is exactly why he can do that. i'll swat this away and make the attacks on him look silly. >> he has the tone, i think of the republican base. he has that aggressive, in your face, brash tone that they love. and if you are a skilled politician, you can finesse some of those policy differences. let's be real. he is a very conservative governor. >> the other piece to that if they are up against a hillary clinton and i think it's way too early to know what happens. this is not a republican party

that's proven itself adept at running against strong independent women candidates. >> that's true. >> okay. >> no? >> nothing? >> what do you want me to say? >> that i'm wrong. >> i think you make a good point. we might see republican women moving over to support hillary dealing with this is an historic campaign, i want to be a part of it. >> i don't think so. >> you don't think so? >> no, i don't. >> what i will say is you were talking about your tips to hill really and her running as an historic candidate. you have to be careful with that. you have to have surrogates that do that for you. the campaign itself can't be like, vote for the woman candidate. >> but way that barack obama was talking about hope and change -- >> and the strength that hillary has is the same as christie has.

if we believe the numbers, hillary clinton has a lot of independents who think she's done a tremendous job representing america around the world. up next, we'll look at the u.s. stealth fighters on the tip of the korean peninsula and americans who say they are concerned with what's going on there. a live report and some expert analysis next as "the cycle" rolls on for wednesday, april 3rd. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him,

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continued joint military drills

despite wardrums beating louder in north korea. south korean troops are positioned along the border standing at the ready. in a major escalation, the north is banning south korean workers from a joint industrial park. but it will hurt the north more than the south. it's being described as economic suicide since almost all of north korea's trade relies on this complex. the last time the park closed was during u.s. military drills in 2009. i want to turn now to "forbes" columnist gordon chang. gordon, let me start by playing some sound for you of jay carney earlier this week. take a listen. >> we have seen consistent behavior that is counterproductive, to say the least. the rhetoric has not been backed up by action.

and there is a pattern here. a pattern that is familiar. >> gordon, you and i talked last week. and you told me that you expected some kind of deadly provocation to happen when our military readiness was not on its highest level. does that sound from jay carney someone dismissing the north korean threats, does that sound like we are taking this seriously enough to you? >> i think the obama administration is doing the right things. it's first of all trying to reassure our south korean allies. we need to reassure with these overflights, b-52s, f-22s. they're losing their confidence in our ability to defend them. so the administration's doing the right thing with that regard. the administration needs to sort of tamp down the pressure, the temperature. i think they're doing a good job in that respect as well. but the point is, we haven't really seen the tip of this crisis yet.

that's going to be where this is where rubber meets the road. >> let's go to jim maceda who's been in the region. as the north continues to ratchet up the rhetoric, he's in seoul, south korea, following the latest developments. jim, when we last spoke on monday, you said the closing of this industrial complex one sign that the crisis has hit a higher level. this isn't a full-scale closure. but nevertheless, it's concerning, yes? >> reporter: it's very concerning, s.e. it's concerning because the industrial park really symbolizes so much more than the sum of its parts, in this case, the sum of its 120-plus factories. for the past decade, this has been the only north/south venture of the whole of the korean peninsula, bringing in some $2 billion in trade each year. but it's also a bellwether of north/south relations. this morning with a shift change of south korean managers and truckers trying to cross the

borders, they were told in so many words, turn around and go back. 800 or so south koreans inside the factories managing 50,000 north korean workers opted to stay in their factories and watch over their businesses. they're still there tonight. it's not a full-scale closure, as you say. but it is a closure of the border. and more importantly, it's a tearing up, really, of the only connective tissue left between the north and the south. if that weren't enough, it comes on the heels of kim jong-un's announcement yesterday, late yesterday, that he's going to, in fact, he may have already started to reactivate that old moth ball plutonium reactor in yongbyong. analysts are still saying tonight that these moves, the industrial park and the reactor are meant to scare south

koreans, to scare the united states into talks and more concessions. but here in seoul, i can tell you that anxiety levels have really gone on. >> jim, thanks for your reporting from seoul. another big issue here that we've talked about is the economy. gordon, i want to draw you back in on that. north korea is a country that ranked 197th in per capita gdp, under $2,000. they have been fight ing off th famine scare they had in the 1990s largely from external aid. how much of that plays into the current geopolitics? >> you have to remember that kim has been in power for less than 16 months. he hasn't consolidated his position. he is purging the officials loyal to his dad. they're not happy. you have to go back to 1949 to find a north korean leader who's had less support in the regime than kim jong-un. that's what makes this

dangerous. >> gordon, talk to me about south korea's new president. president park, first woman to be elected in south korea. i'm fascinated by that in and of itself. it's a relatively patriarchal society, largest gender income gap among any member country. how has she handled this crisis so far? what does she need to do going forward? >> what she's trying to do is to, again, keep the temperature down. but you have to remember that she's got a military that is really sick and fed up of abs b absorbing blow after blow from north korea and not retaliating. there's a new mood in the south korean public that's anti-north korea. we haven't seen it for some time. park has to reflect that. she ran for office on trying to open up dialogue with the north koreans but she isn't talking like that right now. that's not what south koreans want. >> gordon, i would think it's in china's interest to have north korea be less bellicose.

they certainly don't want the united states to have more excuse to put more troops in the region. they don't want strife in the region and yet you write, maybe not so fast. you write, the chinese by supplying the north koreans with weaponry, material support and diplomatic assistance have enabled their dangerous friends to destabilize the international community. and you say this even while some in beijing know this is not in china's long-term best interest. why are they doing this? >> well, china's going through a troubled leadership transition of its own. and in that, the chinese military's becoming more powerful. they have traditionally held pro-pyongyang views in the military. so you have many jens and admirals want to support the north koreans. it's a little bit of a disarray in beijing itself. the problem right now in china is even the civilians will engaging in war talk. this is not good for the region. and at the same time you have north korea acting up. i think the chinese at this point are not going to restrain the north koreans. and basically that means the

united states, along with its allies, have got to do that themselves. >> gordon chang, good to see you. thanks for coming. >> thank you. up next, sanford wins his south carolina primary but some republicans are none too pleased. what's next in this crazy comeback story? south carolina native jimmy williams joins us next. constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues... with three strains of good bacteria. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. i've always kept my eye on her... but with so much health care noise, i didn't always watch out for myself. with unitedhealthcare, i get personalized information and rewards for addressing my health risks. but she's still going to give me a heart attack. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

the bottom line is this, i've been unfaithful to my wife. i developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from argentina. simply thank the voters. this has been an amazing journey and while god may be a god of second chances, at times voters are a little bit less forgiving. >> forgiving they were last night from the appalachian trail to the campaign trail, former governor mark sanford defeated his opponent in the gop primary

run-off tuesday putting him in the driver's seat to win what has been now a vacated congressional seat in south carolina's district. his opponent in the mai 7th election will be elizabeth colbert bush. this morning, the former governor answered the question he's sure to hear throughout this campaign. >> why did you choose to put yourself through this and your kids as well? >> you do soul searching and you have a ping-pong match in your gut for a couple of weeks and you are fearful and you are afraid. one of the chief things i had to do before i made that decision was to sit down indeed with the boy and say, guys, if you don't want me to do this, i'm not doing it. but ultimately, all of them said, dad, you have to do this. you've long cared about this. and off to the races we went. >> joining us is south carolina's finest, jimmy williams. how are you? >> i'm pretty good.

>> warm, warm start. i was speaking to someone at the dccc. they said, this is great for p.r. but they have a zombie adulterer walking around and yet when i pressed this person a little bit saying, are you going to win this seat? they said, look, this is not friendly territory for democrats. can you unpack that contrast a little bit for us? >> well, the person that you spoke with the dccc is exactly right, it's not a democratic friendly district. it was even -- it was more of a democratic friendly district before the lines were redrawn in 2010. they took away myrtle beach which is the hottest, most fastest-growing section or part of south carolina, filling up with northeasterners who are retiring, more socially liberal, fiscally conservative. they brought it all the way down to hilton head and buford, a

more socially conservative area. so the district is in fact far more republican than it was before. but, it is also filled with women. over half the district is women in south carolina. i have to tell you, you have a lot of women down there, republican women who look at mark sanford and think he's a piece of -- well, i just won't say the word. it's not polite to say so. there is an opening here for colbert-bush. what most people don't know about her is she actually gave him money when she ran for governor. imagine if she gets up in the debate and says, mark, i gave you money and you violated my faith and my trust and you violated your wife's trust and the women of south carolina. and that could hit home very heavily with women in the first district. >> it's interesting that you're going to link those -- what her losing faith in him and jenny losing faith in him. and i think this is an example of karl rove being right that a lot of time gop primary voters cannot pick good candidates. but i'm also curious for you to

speak to what this says or the message we should take about the culture of south carolina which we think of as a very conservative state saying, okay, the republican voters saying, let's take a chance on this man who cheated on his lovely professional wife. >> well, listen, south carolina, especially the evangelical community, is filled with christians who believe in the act of redemption. they believe that if the sinner admits his or her sin, you should be forgiven. that is very much a tenor that runs through most of the churches in the state. however, that is not all of that district. you have a lot of sort of art si types, downtown in charleston, south carolina, that look at him with massive scorn. they think he's a carpet bagger, per se. they don't like him. and they sympathize immensely with jenny sanford. what i'm going to do is watching jenny sanford immensely. you just put up the clip about the boys and sanford having his fiancee on the stage.

something most people don't know. his children did not know she was going to be on that stage. and apparently mrs. sanford is beyond upset about this and is really just champing at the bit to go after him on this. the question is, will she stay silent? will she endorse? i don't think she'll endorse colbert-bush. but will she say, mark did that to his boys, to my children, that's not okay. if that's the case, that's going to be very important to watch. he could lose because of that. >> in a way, her silence would speak volumes in and of itself even if she doesn't endorse either side in the race. jimmy, an obvious question, but how important is colbert-bush's gender in this race? how important is it that she's a woman running against this failed man? >> massive. did you ever see the movie "steel magnolias"? tells you everything you need to know. this is a simple thing.

women run the state for all intents and purposes. they run the households, they run soccer camps, et cetera, et cetera. and women pay attention to this kind of thing. i have to be honest with you. most businessmen, the republican establishment, even the men in south carolina, are upset with sanford for trying to make this comeback. they have to make a decision, do they want to get him off their radar screen out of the political radar screen forever? if they do, they'll vote colbert-bush in and go after her in 2014. if they do that, that is the end of mark sanford's political career and it gets him out of their hair. at the same time, what if they don't want a democrat at all? the question becomes, it is a selfish choice for south carolina's republicans. but not for the democrats. the democrats would love to have colbert-bush in. >> i'm certainly not going to disagree that conservatives are a little less forgiving of adultery than liberals seem to be. where is nikki haley in all of

this, jimmy? >> who? >> he was her mentor. she's governor now in part because he left office. this seat is open because she took tim scott out of it when jim demint retired to go to heritage. and she's been almost silent on his run. what do you think that has to do with? >> well, i think nikki haley has massive problems all on her own that are completely separated from mark sanford. yes, he did groom her. >> like what? >> her popularity in the state is at like 39% -- no, it's 43% in the latest winthrop university poll. barack obama's outpolling her by seven points in the state of south carolina. that should tell you everything you need to know about nikki haley. she's wildly unpopular with most republicans. the speaker of the house, not a liberal, a very conservative speaker of the south carolina house, deplores her, hates her. they have an ongoing public battle going on. >> what does this have to do

with mark sanford, jimmy? >> you asked me about nikki haley. my point is haley's going to have no control and impetus on this. she's worried completely about her own race this fall. >> okay. >> jimmy williams, thanks. >> all right, guys. have a great day. >> thank you. i hear when you leave "the cycle" for the day, you get to bump your favorite tunes. can we get some reggae going, please? ♪ straight ahead, solving world peace is no game. or is it? ...so you say men are superior drivers?

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we didn't prepare for this. >> scenarioses can arise. hold up, who has tanks for me? >> i'm sorry. but we're going to keep focused on the food crisis. >> this is war. time for you to nut up, switzerland. >> yeah, nut up, switzerland! but better than taking advice from leslie, our next guest says we should be looking to 9-year-olds for tips on handling tough stuff li. this fourth-grader played his groundbreaking game. it challenges the most vexing problems on the planet. this sounds way more complicated than dungeons and dragons. with us, john hunter who's spoken at the u.n., the pentagon. now he's in "the cycle," the

crowning moment of his career, to tell us about his new book "world peace and other 4th grade achievements". >> thank you. welcome to all of you as well. >> welcome to your world. all right. i get that. >> thanks for having us. >> so tell me about this game. it sounds fascinating. >> this game is a geopolitical simulation. and my fourth-graders play it. they solve 15 interlocking global problems and do it in about eight weeks. it's a gigantic plexiglas structure, sands 4 foot by 4 foot by 4 foot in my classroom. there's always a saboteur always causing trouble. i use the skill set that child has to secretly trying destroy the game. >> do you find that public

schools today maybe overly emphasize history instead of emphasizing current events, stuff that's happening right now? >> my perspective is, of course, limited. i'm a small-town schoolteacher. but i think what we do have is an emphasis, at least in my school and the schools in my district, an emphasis on humanity and developing their real humanity as people and looking at curriculum at a lifelong process and that cement -- assessment is not a snapshot deal. they're learning to be the best people they can be. certainly the quality of who they are as a person is foremost in our education. >> let's say we could make you king of the department of education for a day. do you think that we're fundamentally approaching the education of our kids? >> what's my budget? >> in the wrong way. whatever you want.

should we be segregating kids by subject and by age the way we do now? >> the most successful teachers i've seen is teachers who actually ask the children -- they look to the children's passion, their interest and who they are and let that drive the curriculum design and development. i would ask first to look at our clients, our customers, our clientele and say to the children, what is it that really drives you? what do you love? what do you care about? what's really important to you? we'll talk about content. we'll show you the entire world. but let's see what you love. once you have a student's love behind something, the curriculum is driven much more powerfully than it could be if i just told them what to do. so i would ask about our clients. ask the students to tell us what they think we should do. >> john, amazing stuff. i wish you could make this into a home game so adults could play, too. >> well, we played with adults actually in bergen, norway, a couple of years ago.

beautiful game, lovely people. but adults are an entirely different animal. i find children are refreshingly more open to adventure and to failing. we have the luxury to fail in this kind of thing. the moral stigma for failure is taken out. we're going to be hopefully playing with generals in the pentagon next month. we've been invited to take that structure into the pentagon. they've asked if they can play with the kids and learn how they do it. it's impressive to think that children are going to be helping us to think about how we can do things better. >> john, here at "the cycle" we fired up your ted talk. as you may know, those can go either way. hu hunger, we have to solve it together. one of the points you made in that talk was you said that a lot of times schools for young children become exercises in control. and so it sort of takes kids and puts them in this box where they're warded for being volled

and you argued that there's a wisdom for students to negotiate or improvise a negotiation that adults aren't good at. >> there is a collective wisdom there. but allowing that empty space or silence to be in a classroom where students can have their best selves, their best ideas arise and emerge out of that and you as an adult, you listen and respect that and you bring that into the creative process of the curriculum, you have 30 teachers in the classroom in the students. you don't have to think you carry the entire weight of creativity upon yourself. i'm not that smart. i have to depend on these other brilliant people, who happen to be half my size, but they're wise and unique individuals in and of themselves. with that collective power, we have an amazing thing happening. i had the worst ted talk rehearsal in history. i almost fell off the stage. if you get through that -- >> it worked out. >> i survived. >> john, you sound like a model teacher. wish my kids could come through your class.

>> they'd recover nicely. usually they do. >> all right. thanks for being here. >> thank you. up next, at long last, we have white smoke coming from "the cycle" offices and we can announce who will fill steve kornacki's chair. ari, you have to get up. ♪ [ instrumental ] [ boy ] i used to hate eating healthy stuff. but badger likes it, so i do too. i used to have bad dreams, but not anymore. [ barks ] i used to be scared of the basement. but when badger's with me, it's not so bad. [ barking ] [ announcer ] we know how important your dog is to your whole family. so help keep him strong and healthy with purina dog chow. because you're not just a family. you're a dog family. departure. hertz gold plus rewards also offers ereturn-- our fastest way to return your car. just note your mileage and zap ! you're outta there !

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we are ready to make it official. my friend and yours, ari, is now our full-fledged co-anchor -- >> what? >> i had no idea. >> i'm really glad this worked out. >> welcome. >> as the sports anchor of this show on baseball' opening week, i want to officially designate ari as the rookie on our team. we traded steve kornacki to the "up" show on weekends. ari, congrats. but before you accept, i have a little presentation. this is our cast picture. you folks have seen this from time to time on this show. since i'm pregnant and "the cycle" management is too cheap to pay for a picture of a pregnant krystal for now, a new one of non-pregnant krystal after june -- i certainly don't want to remain pregnant krystal indefinitely -- we had to settle this. ari takes a picture. there it is.

we photoshop it in. >> very kremlin. >> you are really into what toure is saying. >> it's like you were there. >> when they staged that picture, they told me, just pretend it's not toure there. >> and one of our viewers also had an idea. he said, just put ari's head on kornacki's body. but we decided to do the full ari. so, welcome. we are very glad to have you. >> thank you. >> i'm so-so. >> s.e. is on the fence. >> give me time. >> in the spirit of the famous question posed to bill clinton, boxers or briefs, we figured we would give you a few this or that questions -- >> i don't want to know the answer to that. >> i didn't know we were doing this. >> he doesn't know the questions. my questions are lame and political. theirs are probably funny.

immigration or gun control? >> immigration. >> okay. >> i didn't know either/or -- >> because i don't understand the question -- >> i have more -- >> yes to both. >> i have more simple questions. some of the things i used to define who you are as a man, what is your favorite sports team? >> seattle mariners. >> mine is the person who occupied that chair once was a real foodie. real adventuresome food aficionado. i want to know, cous cous or half-and-half? >> half-and-half. >> back to my apparently confusing ones. >> red or blue? >> hillary clinton or elizabeth warren? >> elizabeth warren. >> oh, interesting. >> who is your favorite -- you're big into hip-hop.

who is your favorite emcee of all time? >> picking one is hard. holisisti holistically, jay-z. >> another question through the steve kornacki lens, if you don't mind this will eventually stop, right? >> why? >> today's not that day. so in terms of wardrobe, his wardrobe was pretty famous. so i want to ask you, sweater or sweater? >> i'm going to go with sweater. and it's a big sweater to fill. >> it is a big sweater to fill. >> one more, what is your favorite novel of all time? >> that is tough. >> no, it's not. >> i love "the emperor's children."

i have to pick, if i had to pick one -- >> you said it's not hard. what would be yours. >> mine's "rapid run". >> i live for "lo lita.""alita." >> does it have to be a novel or can it be any -- >> that is the question. novel. >> i have no idea. >> it can't be, like, a magazine. >> i pretty much only read nonfiction. >> ever? your entire life? even in high school when you were a little ball? >> i liked the "the great gatsby." >> that's a good one. a classic. >> it's a little bit tired of an answer. >> it is a classic. depap dicaprio would agree with you. >> is there anything you feel like as the newest member of the cycle team we should know or the viewers should know. >> there's so much to learn. we got into the reggae tone.

>> you have a musical background. >> we'll save that for another day. >> what's your musical background. >> i went to garfield high school. mclemore, quincy jones. i did rap a little bit in high school. that's something we're going to leave there. >> wow. >> how soon can we rap an intro? >> i do want to say, though, it is super exciting to be at the table, to be with you guys. many of you i know and have worked with in a number of ways. so it's really fun and has felt really natural. the other thing i just want to say is msnbc is a tremendous organization to be involved with. so i'm really thankful to the management, the staff of this show. >> you already got the job. >> that's how you know this is real, man. so i'm grateful to a lot of people. i don't have time and maybe nobody has the interest for me to do a whole long list. this is not an oscar. but i really am excited. excited to be here. >> we are really excited to have you. it's been great and fun. >> speak for yourself. speak for yourself.

>> many more great shows to come. all right. from one story that everyone is talking about today to another big talker on a slightly different note. today rutgers university in new jersey fired its head basketball coach after disturbing practice video. >> good. >> went public showing the coach abusing players and shouting anti-gay slurs. on the video you can see coach mike rice throwing basketballs at players' heads, shoving and kicking them. the university suspended the coach for three games in december after the athletic director initially saw the video. rice was also put in mandatory sensitivity training and anger management counseling. but espn made the video public tuesday, and the university could not escape the public damning over keeping rice on the payroll. we want to know if you think coach rice should have been fired in december before the video went public. mike johnson says, the problem should have been solved earlier. one of those players should have knocked him out cold and that would have stopped that nonsense right then. >> i don't know about that. >> little vigilante justice right there. like us on facebook and weigh in

on the rutgers scandal. i don't think that's the last we've heard of this rutgers situation. speaking of pr problems, up next, ari's angle on how you define a crisis washington style. let's play a little more reggae to welcome ari to the team. welcome to the new new york state. what's the "new" in the new new york? a new property tax cap... and the lowest middle class income tax rate in 60 years... and a billion dollars in tax breaks and incentives. new opportunities for business. over 250,000 new private sector jobs were created over the last two years. and 17 straight months of job growth. with the most private sector jobs ever. lower taxes, new incentives, new jobs, now that's news. to grow or start your business in the new new york visit thenewny.com

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hey. yo. whassup. guten tag. greetings earthlings. how you doin'? hola. sup. yello. howdy. what's crackalackin? it is great we express ourselves differently. if we were all the same, life would be boring. so get to know people who aren't like you. you'll appreciate what makes us different. the more you know. developing news this hour. nbc has learned president obama is going to give back 5% of his salary to the treasury. yes, you heard that right. the white house says the move is in solidarity with federal workers who are going to be furloughed as part of the

sequester. the 5% figure is about equal to the level of automatic spending cuts to most of the federal government which took effect on march 1st. now, the cynics would say it's clearly a political move. if you follow politics you have probably heard that the republicans are winning the sequester debate. that's the conventional wisdom in washington and the media. but it totally misses the point. the idea is that slashing spending has helped the gop because so far the cuts have not caused a major crisis. and the stock market is surging. but this all depends, i think, on how you define a crisis. lots of upper and middle class americans do own stock and so, sure, their portfolios have jumped 10.1% this year. that's enough to take some people's minds off the sequester. but another 140 million americans have no stock holdings at all. and over 12 million are unemployed. so the bull market does nothing for them. and as it happens, those are the same people hit hardest by these cuts. consider indigent seniors who are physically restricted from

leaving home for food. the sequester cut funding for the government's senior nutrition program by 5%. that works out to a $40 million hit to meals on wheels alone, the respected program that's delivered food to seniors for the last six decades. or think of the people who rely on public housing in washington. they make just $13,000 a year. that figure is so low because 40% of them aren't even working age. they're children or seniors. another 25% are disabled. the new cuts will put some of those people out into the streets. and if the sequester continues, about 125,000 public housing residents will face the same fate according to government estimates. now, look, i get the politics here. the poor and the homeless don't have the loudest voices in our democracy. they are, in a fundamental sense, politically invisible. their struggles are typically measured as merely a cost for the rest of us, not as a human or moral toll. and because of their powerlessness, washington only

calculates their worth by proxy. so their problems only matter when they reach a level that out rages over people or the press. that's a big problem here because we have a distorted feedback loop. way too many reporters have fallen for the simplistic, a.d.d. conclusion that if the sequester didn't kneecap the entire economy after just three weeks, then things don't look that bad. after all, the world hasn't come to an end. well, look, things never seem that bad from the top. they never look that bad if you ignore the poor, forget the elderly and cover tours of the public housing on pennsylvania avenue more than all the other public housing in the nation. which brings us back to my question. what is a crisis? if you define it as going hungry or losing your home, this is a severe crisis. but if you define it be who faces the risk then, yeah, it's true. there's no crisis for the political and media class. there's no crisis for the upper half of the country that owns stocks and follows the market. there's no crisis in the salaries for members of