the dow, killing bin laden, or health care that republicans have been promising this country for generations. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. thanks, chris. and thanks to you for tuning in. i'm live from miami. tonight's lead, president obama takes on washington. today the president delivered a major speech on the economy. he gave his vision for fairness in america. and showed a big reason why republicans attack him so much. because the president delivered a powerful message for a more fair, more just america. a case that is in direct opposition to the policies of today's tea party republicans. the president said that unfairness isn't always what

this country was all about. >> in the period after world war ii, a growing middle class was the engine of our prosperity. whether you owned a company or swept its floors or worked anywhere in between, this country offered you a basic. the sense your hard work would be rewarded with fair wages and decent benefits, a chance to buy a home, to save for retirement. and most of all, a chance to hand out a better life for your kids. >> that is the heart of the american dream. but the president made clear he knows that basic bargain is now out of reach for too many americans. >> even though our businesses are creating new jobs that have broken record profits, nearly all the income gains in the past ten years have continued to flow to the top 1%. the average ceo has gotten a

raise of nearly 40% since 2009. the average american earns less than he or she did in 1999. when wealth concentrates at the very top, it can inflate unstable bubbles that threaten the economy. when the rungs on the ladder of opportunity grow farther and farther apart, it undermines the very essence of america. that idea that if you work hard, you can make it here. >> if you work hard, you can make it here. that used to be true. but look at this. the blue line shows that over the last three decades, the poorest 20% in this country had income gains of 16%. but look at the red line. during that same period, the top 1% enjoyed gains of 281%. you heard me right. 281%.

something is seriously wrong with this picture. and in the last 35 years, workers' compensation has gone up by 6%. but for ceos, their compensation has gone up by 726%. this is exactly what president obama is vowing to fix and he made it very clear who was to blame. >> unfortunately over the past couple of years in particular, washington hasn't just ignored this problem, too often, washington's made things worse. to reduce our deficits with a sk scalpel by changing what we need. making government more efficient. instead of doing that, we've got folks who've insisted on leaving in place a meat cleaver called

the sequester that's cost jobs, it's harmed growth, it's hurt our military, it's gutted investments in education and science and medical research. >> and then he demanded washington get on board or get out of the way. >> with this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, washington's taken its eye off the ball. and i'm here to say this needs to stop. our focus has to be on the basic economic issues that matter most to you, the people we represent. that's what we have to spend our time on and our energy on and our focus on. >> washington has taken its eye off the ball.

this is the fight the right wing is afraid of. it's why they go after this president. and have done everything to block him. because they know he's speaking basic truths. trut tru while the poor stay poor. joining me now from the north lawn of the white house is valerie jarrett. white house senior adviser and assistant to president obama. valerie, welcome back to the show. >> reverend sharpton, it is always a pleasure to be with you. >> now, let me ask. how can the president break the republican foot dragging to make progress here? >> well, i think today was a good start. he really kind of shook them by the lapels and said come on. when you travel around the country and talk to the american people, when you talk to the business community small medium and large, they are all calling on washington to improve that

basic bargain. because it's in all of their best interests that we have a strong middle class growing from the inside out. it is in all of our best interests if we provide those ladders of opportunity into the middle class. as the president said so eloquently today, the rungs of that ladder are becoming farther and farther apart. for the first time, people are wondering whether or not their children are actually going to do better than they've done. that's always been a part of their american dream. that corner stone is if you work hard, you get a good education, a good job, you don't have to worry about going broke if you get sick or you're in an accident. and then at the end of a very long career, you can retire with dignity and a little money in your pocket. that's what the american people want. and their expectation is as the people who elected them in congress are going to be here in washington fighting on their behalf every day. what the president said today is we have to refocus our efforts and remember why we're here.

we're here to build that middle class. >> now, you know, the right wing has talked about their priority was deficit reduction. and when we look at the fact that we've seen the deficit fall steeply under this president. it's gone down by $800 million. now, that was the fastest deficit reduction we've had had since world war ii. >> that's right, reverend. >> he's rejected calls from republicans for more and more spending cuts. how do they try to justify spending cuts saying they're worried about the deficit when you have that kind of record from this president. the biggest reduction since world war ii of the deaf is sit. 12k3w4r well, i'm glad you brought up the president's record. because as you know over the last four and a half years, we have gone from losing 750,000 jobs a month to losing 4 million jobs in the last six months of

the prior administration. now we've had 40 straight months of private sector job growth. 7.2 million jobs. so our economy is coming back. our deficit is going down. the stock market is going up. the unemployment rate is coming down. we're seeing the automobile industry is back. we have rules of the road in place so that never again will the taxpayers have to pay the burden of bailing out the mistakes of a very few who take too many risks. so we've made a lot of progress. we now have an affordable care act in place that is going to make sure that every american has the access to affordable quality care. and coming up on october 1st, we're going to be able to register for exchanges for those who do not currently have insurance. and those who do, 85% of america is enjoying the benefits of a better health policy. so we have made progress. but i know you know that there are still too many people who are struggling. there are too many people who have been unemployed for a very long time who are having a hard

time getting a job. and so the president today lifted up those employers who are doing a terrific job. companies such as costco and the container store. and he's calling on everybody to say, look, we are in this together. we all have to participate in improving that basic bargain, that basic covenant that we have with the middle class that we're going to make sure that their lives are better. and we can do it. and all it takes is for congress to put aside their short-term political interests and focus on the people who elected them. that's the key. >> the key is what you just said. you just said the key. put aside their petty, short political interests. people are really hurting. we are talking about americans being able to provide for their families. this is serious. and they're playing partisan games with the lives of the american people. >> well, you're right, reverend sharpton. just think.

as you know over 37 times republicans in the house have tried to repeal the affordable care act. that means taking away benefits to senior citizens who are getting help on their prescription drugs, taking away the protections that we have in place that prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions or imposing lifetime caps or annual caps. so when you need your insurance the most, you can't have it. taking away the ability for adult children up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents' insurance. taking away preventive care that's available to women without a copay right now to make sure they stay healthy. they're focused on taking things away from people as opposed to making sure we have pre-k for all our children to make sure they get a good start. we discussed every dollar you spend on early childhood education saves you $7 down the line. instead of working on making

sure that our workforce has the skills it needs to compete in this job market, we have companies -- high-tech companies who have jobs unfilled because they can't find the people with the skills. so we have to align our markets. so that our schools are producing people who have the skills they need to compete in this global market place. there's so much, i could go on and on, what we could be doing to help the middle class. instead we're fooling around with wasting time on things that don't accomplish anything and move our country forward. that's what the president was talking about today. >> i'm glad to see that aggressive tone he came out with today. valerie jarrett, thanks as always for your time. >> you are welcome. thank you for echoing this message and making sure your listeners and your viewers understand what's at stake. >> all right. coming up, president obama's tough warning for the gop

obstructionists. >> i will not allow gridlock or inaction or willful indifference to get in our way. plus trayvon martin's father on capitol hill and speaking out on race in america. and some in the right wing media continue to distort the issue and attack the president. plus congressman steve king's ugly hate speech on immigrants. he's not backing down. so why is he still in a position of leadership? and friend or foe, i want to know. e-mail me. reply al is coming. what you wear to bed is your business. so, if you're sleeping in your contact lenses, ask about the air optix® contacts so breathable they're approved for up to 30 nights of continuous wear.

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"politicsnation" conversation on facebook yet? a lot of our facebook fans are talking about the president's major speech today. lynn writes i especially appreciated his promise to take matters into his own hands wherever and whenever he could. good point, lynn. me too. irmgard said he's in my home state and i pray he will get support soon because many americans are sick and tired of the hatred and obstruction. we'll talk how to fight that gop obstruction next. but first, we want to hear what you think. please head over to facebook and search "politicsnation" and like us to join the conversation that keeps going long after the show ends. [ male announcer ] ok, hers the way the system works. let's say you pay your guy around 2% to manage your money. that's not much you think. except it's 2% every year. does that make a difference? search "cost of financial advisors" ouch. over time it really adds up.

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i say to these members of congress, i'm laying out my ideas to give the middle class a better shot. so now it's time for you to lay out your ideas. you can't just be against something. you got to be for something. >> today the president made it clear he's had enough. he's done with the gop's fake scandals, done with the republicans wasting our time, he's done with the gop being against every policy and for none. because that's all the right is good for these days. just look at the cover of today's "new york times." house gop sets a new offensive

on obama's goals. the article says congressional republicans are moving to gut many of president obama's top priorities. one top republican even says those priorities are a, quote, going nowhere. it's clear the gop is against president obama. but what are they for exactly? the white house and i would love to know. joining me now is bob strum and ryan grim. bob, let me start with you. in the "new york times" the gops are vowing to gut his top priorities. but he's ready to fight. what's your reaction? >> he has to frame the debate here. do what he did in 2012. these republicans think romney won the election. they think that their extremist

tea party agenda ought to go into effect. you know, they have a big problem here. which is that their central objective which is to get rid of obama care is no longer popular. in the new national journal poll, people don't want obama care repealed. and what if these people go out and shut down the government so they can kill big bird by defunding the corporation for public broadcasting, slash medicare, slash medication, slash clean water. it's going to be more perilous if they crash the economy maybe on the order of 2008 by refusing to raise the debt limit. they're going to pay a price if that happens. >> now, ryan, the polling on the republicans in congress is just terrible. what leverage do they think they have to engage in this fight and go to battle when they certainly don't seem to have the public on their side and they're headed

into a midterm congressional election? >> part of it is that 150 or more republicans in the house really can get away with not being for something. as long as they're against something and that something is president obama, they're going to do well in their republican primaries and then they're going to win the general election. part of it, though, is that they genuinely misread the electorate. they saw the tea party and then saw polls that said a majority of people were unhappy with obama care. and so they went forward with it. what they didn't realize is that a significant portion of those people who said they were unhappy with it were people on the progressive side who wanted more. people who wanted single payer. so those are not the kinds of people who are going to ally with the tea party to repeal it. they implicitly understand what

obama was saying that you have to be for something. just look at their motto. repeal and replace. they knew they couldn't just be for repeal. but they have never come up with a replacement. >> what was interesting, bob, is the president called them out on what's your plan. we know you're against everything that i'm for, but what is your plan? and i think that in many places i agree with ryan that some people are safe beyond the reach because of how the lines we are gerrymand gerrymandered. but i think that will be a challenge if the president sticks to that. where is their plan? >> i think if they go down this road of obstruction and shut down the government, refuse to put forward any ideas, then the assumption that they're going to do well in 2014 could be wrong. ryan's right. about 150 of these folks are completely safe. but what's unfolding here is an

idea where the republican party could be competitive at a congressional level but could be entirely uncompetitive over time at the presidential level. you put all of this stuff together with what they're doing on immigration, and you can't even begin to figure out how they could win a national election because the primary electorate that's going to choose their presidential nominee is also the primary electorate that chooses those 150 people in the house who are telling john boehner if he makes any progress on immigration, if he makes any reasonable compromise on the debt limit, on funding the government that he's no longer going to be speaker. >> now, ryan, when you look at the fact they're now saying they're going to take a hard line on obama care and be flexible on it and the president says he's going to fight them, will the republicans chicken out at the end? >> yes. they certainly will. and all you have to do is look at what happened over the phil

buster a couple weeks ago. mcconnell would have liked to have towed the line. but what actually happened was that john mccain got enough republicans that said they were sick of the obstructionism and they voted and they cut their own deal with harry reid. he has already said, look, we're not playing games around defunding obama care and the debt limit. we're not playing games with the debt limit, period. he has already said that publicly. so you have john mccain. and that takes away all of mcconnell's leverage. he's going to have trouble because he now has a tea party challenger that he has to figure out how to do the local and national dance he's been doing so long. he's going to have to play that out on his own. reid is going to be talking to people like john mccain. once the senate goes, the house will fall. eventually they seem to come around. >> bob, let me show you the president addressed the gridlock on capitol hill. >> i will look to work with

republicans as well as democrats wherever i can. and i sincerely believe that there are members of both parties who understand this moment, understand what's at stake, and i will welcome ideas from anybody across the political spectrum. but i will not allow gridlock or inaction or willful indifference to get in our way. >> bob, can he break the gridlock? how does he do it? >> well, he's got to stand his ground especially on these big issues like funding the government and the debt limit. he's got to stand his ground the way bill clinton did actually when newt gingrich did this back in the 1990s. because if the government shuts down, it will be two or three days. and after that two or three days i think ryan's exactly right. the reaction in the country will be fierce and the republicans will have to back down. then they'll go into the 2014 midterms and i think they will pay a big political price. >> bob shrum and ryan grim,

thank you for coming on the show tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming up, trayvon martin's father fights for an honest conversation on race in america. but some on the right refuse to have a serious conversation about justice in america. tonight i'm taking on some of the false answers floating around here. this man is about to be the millionth customer. would you mind if i go ahead of you? instead we had someone go ahead of him and win fifty thousand dollars. congratulations you are our one millionth customer. nobody likes to miss out. that's why ally treats all their customers the same. whether you're the first or the millionth. if your bank doesn't think you're special anymore, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

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republicans always tell us we're making up the war on women. they claim there's no such thing as the war on the poor. but they're worried about one war. a war on common household objects. it all started with light bulbs. >> but you don't favor a woman or a man's right to choose a light bulb. >> whenever i need to put a bulb into the lamp, i reach into this green bag and i screw it in and i smile. a bit of my liberty back. >> i challenge the light bulb freedom of choice act. i believe in liberty for light bulbs. >> liberty for light bulbs. it's the great conservative cause of our time. but now we've got another bright idea. and it's spinning out of control.

the gop's new big fear is oba obama's war on ceiling fans. >> we've already seen the federal government stretch their regulatory tentacles into our homes and determined what kind of light bulbs we have to use, now they're coming after our ceiling fans. it is a sad state of affairs. when even our ceiling fans aren't safe from this administration. >> look out above. obama's coming after your ceiling fan. what next? toasters? waffle irons? toilets? >> frankly my toilets don't work in my house. and i blame you and people like you who want to tell me what i can install in my house, what i can do.

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hump day!!! yay!! get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. today trayvon martin's father went to capitol hill for a special panel on the challenges of being black in america. giving a raw emotional statement on his son's legacy and the fight ahead. >> we won't let this verdict sum up who trayvon was. i vow to do everything in my power not to give up fighting for him. not only the fight for trayvon, but the fight for so many other young black and brown boys of this country. >> later, tracy martin got a standing ovation. a father turning his personal tragedy into national action.

that's the real issue we're facing in this country. but the right wing spin machine doesn't want an honest conversation. they're trying to distort the truth and rewrite history. here's rush limbaugh's take on the legacy of slavery. >> this white guilt, it's time for all this white guilt to end. if any race of people should not have guilt about slavery, it's caucasians. >> now, even for rush that's a new low. a cynical display of willful ignorance. and when president obama makes an emotional honest statement about race and growing up black in america, the right wingers accuse him of dividing the country. >> the man who is supposed to unite the united states of america is an expert on the most

divisive form of politics in existence today. >> is our commander in chief doing more dividing than uniting? >> is it selective moral outrage? >> it is. and it's done by politicians and world leaders that want to get ginned up against each other. >> we all need to come together and work on these problems. and we can't let these right wingers tear us apart. joining me now are joy reid and joe madison. thank you both for being here. >> great to be here. >> thank you. >> joe, why are some right wing pundits so afraid of having an honest discussion about issues we're still facing in the country? what are they afraid of? >> blacks, hispanics, and women. your show at the very beginning showed king. look, this all boils down to the ballot box. and this is the time to take the conversation into action and start forming if there ever was

a time, it's right for coalition building. can you imagine if you billed a political and social coalition of african-americans, women, and hispanics and by the way, young white men who understand that they're not going to be regressives, they're going to be progressives. then you've got a political force that changes the very political culture of this country. and that's really what they're afraid of. so that's why -- i mean, that remark by limbaugh was -- i mean, i sat back and just cracked -- >> this is low for limbaugh. even for him it's way out. be u joy, there has been to be something like what joe's pointing out. there's no logic at all. it's an insult to their own listeners the kind of way that they are ducking and avoiding

and trying to play distractions. i'll give you an example. bill o'reilly last night on his show, he returned his favorite argument that the real problem in america is the black family. listen to this. >> i believe the root of the black crime problem in america is the disintegration of the african-american family. you've got to stop young black women from having babies out of wedlock. you got to discourage that actively. >> so, i mean, i don't know anybody that is not been dealing in the black community and the civil rights community with the black family and the need to strengthen it. we're dealing with births. we're dealing with the whole question of violence. i mean, you know that. i talked about it on the show last night. not only did we do a lot on trayvon martin here, when heidi ya pendelton was killed by blacks in chicago, we put her mother on this show first and i

stayed on that. but they will not deal with the question of inequality. we want to deal with all of it. they only want to deal with anything other than the fact that we still have a challenge of racial injustice and profiling in this country. >> i think it's appropriate you have joe on because both of you come from the talk radio world. i used to come from there. and if you understand bill o'reilly from this world and the way he operates is black talk radio has been a town hall. your program, joe's program, it's about people calling in and explaining what's going on in their lives and the host having a conversation. right wing talk radio traditionally has been personality radio. and rush limbaugh and hannity what they've had is this older

white conservatives saying we are under siege. and i am going to explain to you that you are under siege and keep you in a siege mentality all the time. this all sounds familiar, because it's a lot of the same things heard with ronald reagan. welfare queen. those people. black people. violent back men. all of these things are the constant sort of ingredients to creating a sense of grievance that goes along with the message that those black and brown people and are out of control this and not wanting to have children to stay home and out of the work place. all are destroying what they see as their america. it's great for ratings because it keeps people on edge, angry and feeling like they need to hear from their guru every day. it's all done for ratings. but it doesn't deal with real problems. >> and she's right. they they they. when the issue of trayvon martin had had nothing to do with any

of that, the sanford police would not respond. and how they automatically assumed one was telling the truth and the other must have been doing something that caused this. otherwise they wouldn't have let zimmerman go that night under stand your ground. had nothing to do with trayvon's family. george zimmerman did not know anything about his family. and he was not committing a crime. trayvon was there going home. so to bring up these issues and avoid that is very telling and may be exactly what joy is saying here. >> and what they're doing, reverend, is they're speaking in for lack of a better word abstracts. you mentioned ronald reagan. his name escapes me right now, but the campaign manager who -- and we have him on tape that said and he has since passed away. >> lee atwater? >> lee atwater. he said you can't use the "n"

word like you could in the 50s and 60s so let's use bussing. then let's use taxes. so here's what you've got to do in order to get southern former dixie crats to join the party. you have to speak in abstracts. that's what they're doing. because we don't hear the "n" word over and over and over, what we do here is this -- again, undervaluing, underestimating, marginalizing of people in this country of color. they say we're not going to be undervalued and marginalized. so get over it. and i'm telling you. the common denominator here is going to be we can have conversation, but conversation must lead to action. and the action has to be at the ballot box. >> and rev, if i could -- go ahead. >> even members of congress, i

want you to watch this because people need to understand how this goes. even members of congress are still facing discrimination and profiling. watch these two members of congress telling "the huffington post" what they still go through now. >> i was walking through the neighborhood in regular clothes, and a neighborhood security guard stopped me and asked me who i was, what was i was doing there, and if i had i.d. >> if you're walking down the street at night and someone looks around at you, i get the feeling that they think i'm following them. >> i've experienced so much racism. it isn't even comfortable talking about it any longer. >> you might get stopped by people in the store. you might get stopped by police. but you shake it a you have. >> and this is the kind of humiliation that the president was trying to address friday. that's what all of these

movements are about. no matter who you are, what you achieve in life, you are being profiled and held to a different standard. and that is the point. and that is not to not deal with family, not deal with out of wedlock birth. you've got to deal with that on top of that. and that's what they don't want to discuss. >> no. and absolutely. you showed the clips earlier of tracy martin. in that case and the jordan davis case, fatherlessness was not the problem. both these kids had involved fathers and parents with middle class jobs. so it's not black people refusing to work. these are congress people. the president of the united states. it doesn't matter what the content of your character is. it doesn't matter what you achieve or that you follow all the rules. but the problem is that to admit there's a bigger problem, a societal problem invites the need for a societal response. for the right to even admit that slavery was wrong is too much of an admission for them because it calls into question whether there needs to be a national

response because that needs government and they hate government. >> joe reed and joy madison, i've got to go. thank you for your time tonight. ahead, president obama wants to move the american dream forward for everybody. but republicans are trying to drag us back and it means big trouble for them in the next election. ...so you say men are superior drivers? yeah? then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. silence. are you in good hands?

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we call it the american dream. that's what makes this country special. the idea no matter what you look like or who you love or where you come from, you can make it if you try. that's what we're fighting for. >> president obama today saying the american dream should be for everybody. but too many republican lawmakers feel it's only for a select few. gop congressman steve king is under fire for making these offensive comments about undocumented immigrants last week. >> some of them are valedictorians. my answer to that is -- by the

way their parents brought them in. but they weren't all brought in by their parents. for everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another hundred out there that they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. >> this is the republican minority outreach? calling immigrants drug smugglers? it's offensive. but now king is actually defending his comments. >> this is real. we have people that are mules, that are drug mules. they're hauling drugs across the border. you can tell by their physical characteristics what they've been doing for months. going through the desert with 75 pounds on their back. >> immigrants aren't drug mules. they're mothers, fathers, and children. this is the problem with today's republican party. they keep saying they want to change after getting whipped in the last election last year.

instead what they really are for is more ted cruzs and steve kings and more ugly talk. and it's time for it to stop. joining me now is margie o'mara. thanks for being here. >> thank you, reverend. >> you know, gop leaders denounced steve king's comments, but isn't the real problem that the party's policies are just as intolerant as his rhetoric is? >> steve king is worried about drug mules. he should be worried about the horse manure in his talking points. this talking point is something we've seen over and over again. not just from king, but members of senators around the country for years. they keep trying to have these autopsies and try to recalibrate and reset their appeal to minorities and women, but the truth of the matter is when it

comes to policies they're not there. and when it comes to -- this stuff just seeps out. clearly they have a hard time connecting. that's why they continue to lose ground with minorities, with women, with younger voters. it's going to be a problem in midterm elections as well as the presidential election. >> we heard the autopsy as you say the republican party wanted to have or had and reach out. but even reince priebus, the head of the republican party actually said that he doesn't really like the word intolerance. listen to this. >> i don't know if i'd use the word intolerance. i don't have use for that word. i think it has another meaning that can go the other direction. it's not what you say, i think. sometimes our moms used to say it's how you say it. so i think that's really the issue. quite frankly i think some of that has been overblown.

>> i don't care for tolerance. he doesn't like the word. isn't priebus the guy that said he wants to reach out to minorities? >> yeah. i don't know what the other definition of tolerance is. what's that bad definition of tolerance that people don't like? hoors the thing that's the disconnect between the republican leadership and voters. washington post poll showed a number of republicans feel their party leadership is taking them in the wrong direction. the other thing i'd note is even a majority of republicans support a pathway to citizenship and immigration reform. even republicans in steve king's own district, a republican poll released yesterday or today said a number of republicans in his district disagree with him. you have this leadership that continues to believe that if they mover farther to the right that's going to help with their base, it's going to hurt them. but that's not true.

and it also hurts them with their own party which is growing increasingly discouraged by them. >> margie omero, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. coming up, we are already seeing the radical response of the supreme court's voting rights decision. reply al is next. [ male announcer ] this is george.

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it's time for reply al. keep sending me all your questions. friend or foe, i want to know. dr. paula writes the recent supreme court decision will embolden the forces of repression to pass even more demanding voter i.d. laws. fighting these laws in court is fine, but on a practical level, let's use this moment to

encourage people to register to vote. yes, dr. paula. it appears the decision has emboldened the right. today north carolina state senators have been debating a so-called voter reform bill for hours. but let me just show you what this bill would do. put in place strict voter i.d. requirements is one thing. then it would eliminate same-day voter registration. it would cut early voting by a week. it would stop extending polling hours for long lines. it would increase the number of poll observers and ban pre-registration for 16 and 17-year-olds. that's just a start. so you're right when when you say we need to encourage everyone to register in every gathering that coming together for any reason. we need to encourage people to register to vote.

a big takeaway from the march on washington august 24th is to target numbers of new registered voters around this country. we must galvanize and register to vote. it is imperative. benjamin writes why do democrats believe the affordable care act will be a success? well, benjamin, because when you look at the fact that people with pre-existing conditions can get insured, young people up to 26 years old can maintain themselves on their parents' insurance, seniors a lot of people that never could afford or never had the option of having health care can be insured. that's a success. the success of government, the success of a society is where it can give the most service to the most people. it is not on who wins an election, but what wins an election. and we as american people win

when more of us can be insured and given the health care that we need. we want to answer your questions. e-mail me. askrev@msnbc.com. remember, friend or foe, i want to know. well, that's going to be it for tonight. thank you for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. new york times to anthony weiner, get out. let's play "hardball." ♪ snoetd good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. new york has two historic mayors in a row now. rudy giuliani and mike bloomberg. they are not without controversy, of course. but in the end, both s