times, the only way to get away with that is make sure that public opinion in your state can never be used against you, that nobody can volt you out of office. that's exactly whatp republicans in the north carolina senate are expected to finish doing tomorrow, and then send to that governor. watch this space. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you tomorrow. it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." >> the suddenly prudish new york newspapers want anthony weiner out of the race for mayor, but he showed up at a candidate's forum tonight and he got a big laugh. >> we are following multiple headlines this afternoon. >> tracy martin got a standing ovation. >> we won't let this verdict sum up who trayvon was. >> the pioneers of prejudice have added another despicable chapter to their musings on immigration. >> they have calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana

across the desert. >> bob mcdonnell. >> i'm not going anywhere. i love this job. >> he will pay back $125,000 in loans. >> what was he thinking? >> my wife and i are working through things in our marriage. >> what was she thinking? >> anthony made horrible mistakes. >> what is new york thinking? >> right now, it works for the clintons. will it work for anthony weiner and huma abedin. >> newspaper editorials say weiner should drop out of the race for new york city mayor. >> he sent an e-mail saying new york i'm not going to quit you. >> isn't that from brokeback mountain. >> i wish i knew how to quit you. >> he knows his movies. >> ignore this sideshow. >> he's learned absolutely nothing from the past. >> not only was he doing the self-ies last summer. >> what? >> self-ies, pictures of yourself. >> a campaign into the danger zone. >> danger zone. >> the expectation that is so low and getting lower.

>> risk taker anthony weiner who we now know has used the name carlos danger for online sex chats, admitted today that his campaign for mayor of new york is based on one very risky bet. >> i am positive this whole campaign on a bet, and that is that at the end of the day, citizens are more interested in the challenge they face in their lives than anything that i have done embarrassing in my past. >> a new poll will be released tomorrow showing how that bet is going with the citizens of new york, but he is losing that bet badly with the suddenly prudish new york newspapers. the "new york times" editorial today says, the serially evasive mr. weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the

web, and out of the race for mayor of new york city. he has already disqualified himself. the daily news editorial said he is not fit to lead america's premier city, lacking the dignity and discipline that new york deserves in a mayor. weiner must recognize his demons have no place in city hall. the "new york times" and daily news said anything about the suitability of rudy giuliani's problems when he was mayor. most of new york media watched largely without comment, as mayor giuliani hired an unqualified 28-year-old press secretary whom he became very close to on the job. the "new york times" and the daily news left it to vanity fair to expose giuliani's affair with his press secretary long after it was obvious to the city hall press corps. one source for the "vanity fair"

ex expose said this is a real indictment of the new york press corps. they stood by as mayor giuliani's second wife stepped completely out of public life while he was still mayor. refusing to attend public events with her mayor husband. when the mayor moved out of the official residence gracing mansion as his marriage was collapsing and moved in with two gay men as their house guests, that was treated by the new york media as a reasonable late 20th century marital transition because it was. there was no reason to think sleeping on a gay couple's sofa wasn't good for the mayor of new york. no reason to think that maybe using their guest room wasn't just a little bit humbling for someone who needed a little bit of humbling. the "new york times" did not order rudy giuliani to, quote, take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from the cameras, as the "times" has

ordered anthony weiner. the new york daily news did not think that mayor giuliani being forced to vacate gracy mansion by the collapse of his marriage meant, quote, he is not fit to lead america's premier city. as the new york daily news said of anthony weiner today, the new york daily news did not think that mayor giuliani having an affair with his press secretary, letting his marriage collapse very publicly, and very bitterly, and being forced to vacate the mayor's official residence meant that rudy giuliani was, quote, lacking the dignity and discipline that new york deserves in a mayor. the words that the daily news aimed at anthony weiner today. the "new york times" never suggested that arkansas governor bill clinton should stop his campaign for president in 1992 when one of his lovers came to new york city to hold a press

conference about their affair and play tapes of their phone calls before the new hampshire primary. >> yes, i was bill clinton's lover for 12 years. and for the past two years, i have lied to the press about a relationship to protect him. the truth is, i loved him. now he tells me to deny it. well, i'm sick of all of the deceit and i'm sick of all of the lies. last night, i sat and watched bill on 60 minutes. i felt disgusted and i saw a side of bill that i had never seen before. he is absolutely lying. i'm disappointed but realistically, i never thought he would come out and admit it. >> she's a legend and is described in some detail in the

supermarket tabloid what she calls a 12-year affair with you. >> that allegation is false. >> the man on "60 minutes" was not the man i fell in love with. i dealt with my hurt -- i have dealt with my hurt for two years now so this is nothing new to me. i would have liked to think that after a 12-year relationship, he would have had the guts to say, yes, i had an affair with this woman, but it's over, and that's the truth. >> everyone knew bill clinton lied about that. bill clinton lied to "60 minutes" about jennifer flowers, he lies to america, to the "new york times," to the daily news, and they were okay with that. they were all okay with that. the new york media never came right out and said it, but what was obvious was they thought lying about sex was okay. and then when president clinton lied about sex with an intern in

the white house, the new york media along with most democrats and liberals made it very, very clear that they really did think that lying about sex was okay. they said it outright, even under oath, as president. that's what bill clinton did. and in the 15 years since bill clinton told this lie -- >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. ms. lewinsky. >> -- in the 15 years since the president of the united states looked you, america, in the eye, looked everyone in the eye and said that lie about sex, the new york media and many democrats and liberals have actually somehow become far less forgiving, far less understanding about lying about sex. we are hearing shocked indig nns from people who never complained about bill clinton lying about sex, but now find anthony

weiner's lying about something that wasn't really sex to be outrageous. to be disqualifying. one of the founding principles of the gay rights movement that was born in this city, in new york city, was that people should not be judged, should not be rejected, should not be disqualified based on how they experience sexual pleasure. and one of the conventions of the new york media up until now has been that the quality of a politician's marriage or the lack of a marriage as in the case of the never-married mayor of new york, ed coch, has nothing to do with how they will perform in office. but what is it? what is it about anthony weiner that has driven the "new york times" and the "daily news" and many clinton-defending democrats and liberals to suddenly become so judgmental about a married

politician's sexual indiscretions? joining me now, pita bineert and joy reed. joy, is it sexting? is it the photographs? is it the technology, is it old fogies at the "new york times" who think, you know, affairs behind closed doors where there's no pictures that emerge, that's one thing? but this crazy stuff the kids are doing. >> these kids. well, i think to be fair to the new york media just for a moment. >> that's not what we're here for, joy. >> to be fair, he could have had the decency to dump his wife in a national press conference like giuliani did, or get new york police officers to walk her dog, because that's the way you do a sex scandal, with the kind of dignity and comportment we expect in a new york mayor. >> giuliani, his wife discovered that the marriage was over when he announced it in a press conference. >> correct. >> and this is the dignity,

peter, of gracy mansion. this is the dignity of new york city hall that must be preserved. i heard rudy giuliani cited today as one of the great oral class mayors of new york, along with bloomberg, whose shoes anthony weiner can't fill. >> i think it's partly the technological change. we have crossed a frontier now. if lyndon johnson could have done this, john f. kennedy could have done this, believe me, he said in the biography, the parts of the body that were private were never private when they were lyndon johnson's. it's a generational change. the other thing may be that there are not republicans in the story. if you had conservative republicans like baying for anthony weiner's head, with the possibility they could depose him as with bill clinton, a partisan instinct might kick in, but they're not part of the scene here, so i think that's why the media in some ways is playing that role. >> i don't care about the republican side of this kind of world, there isn't really a republican side. >> that's the point.

>> what fascinates me is hearing liberals who defended bill clinton all the way, which by the way was a perfectly legitimate pose to strike, that yeah, lying about sex or the sex lives of these people should be outside of the realm in which we judge how they do their work. >> right. >> they have lost their grip on that concept because of sexting, and i think they just don't like anthony weiner as a person, which is easy. he is an easy guy not to like. there's something going on here. >> and it would be more legitimate if we had a critique of anthony weiner's tenure in congress and said he was ineffective and wouldn't be a great leader, but the three great democratic presidents, frankl franklin delano roosevelt, clinton, and kennedy, you had his nurse that he was clearly apparently having an affair with. and we still celebrate him as a great leader because we compartmentalize the decision making in terms of the public good and the decision making in

one's marriage. ronald reagan -- nancy reagan wasn't his first wife. she was his second wife. do we think there's something less good about reagan because he was married twice because the first marriage fell apart? people cheat. i think that anthony weiner's weird peck adilloes with the twitter thing is weird, and if your name is anthony weiner, you probably want to be more circumspect with what you're doing with your phone, but i think this is not the discussion we have to have. who is the best mayor for new york city based on their record. >> another question is why is -- anthony weiner in the record as we know it so far, hasn't touched anyone. >> right. >> other than obviously himself. he hasn't touched anyone. why doesn't that somehow help him? it doesn't seem to help him. i get the feeling that the "new york times" editorial writers think that is sicker than the way bill clinton touched -- >> remember, by 1996, we didn't only know about jennifer

flowers, we knee about paula jones, and the paula jones case was clearly worse because that was sexual harassment. and people got behind him because they understood then what we don't understand now. there is no relationship between thou people act in their private lives and their public lives. george w. bush, privately cautious, publicly reckless. people are far too complicated to say, because he acted this way, he will act x way as mayor. human beings are too complicated for that. >> we do not yet have our local nbc video of the candidates' appearance, a forum, which i believe christine quinn did not show up for, but anthony weiner was asked, this is according to ida siegal's tweet of the thing. the candidates are asked, facebook or twitter, all answer, and the crowd erupts in laughter when moderator asks, weiner, facebook or twitter?

that's a new york crowd. they get a joke. they understand. >> he should have just answered yeah. >> the irony is the people are supposedly so puritanical and moralistic. it's the media that is. people actually repeatedly elect these guys. >> i was watching new york one, the local new york cable channel, news all day, out in the street with a microphone. hard for them to find someone who say they care about this. there was one guy, they asked him, great response. would you -- would you vote against anthony weiner because of it. he said, of course not. then he was asked, you're going to vote for him? oh, no, i'm not going to vote for him. but you couldn't get anyone on the new york street to animatedly come out against anthony weiner on the basis of this. >> because people want the democratic right to make their own decision and not have it be taken away from them from the "new york times," the "new york times" which did not call, as i recall, herman cain to get out of the race, when he would not

appoint a muslim to the cabinet. >> i think sexting the pictures have driven the "new york times" a little crazy, and the daily news a little crazy and they have not noticed how they have broken with their own precedence in covering these kind of things in the past. joy reed and peter, thank you very much for joining me on this very tricky to talk about subject on this family show, but we're finding a way. coming up, nsa leaker ed snowden is already planning his future life in russia. he just doesn't have permission to live there quite yet. and he's almost left the russian airport today, so the story says. and vladimir putin is a lot more welcoming to ed snowden than he is to some other visitors planning to come for the olympics. anyone who is gay or is suspected of maybe being gay, any tourists can be thrown into

prison for that now in russia. actor and playwright harvey fair steen is angry about it to say the least. he wrote a brilliant park about it. he'll join me for an exclusive interview coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] if you can't stand the heat, get off the test track. get the mercedes-benz you've been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. but hurry, offers end july 31st. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again.

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revealed that anthony weiner used the name carlos danger in his online sex chats, they have created a sex chat name generator. you plug in a name and it gives you your sex chat name. in slate's sex chat generator, lawrence o'donnell becomes diego jeopardy. chris matthews becomes manolo hazard. bill o'reilly becomes alfonzo clandestine. enough of that.

you can go to slate and plug in any name you're thinking about. coming up, it seems like edward snowden might, just might be officially taking up residence in russia when his lawyer visited the airport. we'll have the latest on his situation. >> and harvey fierstein will join us with a few things about russia that ed snowden is going to need to know. he's going to have to be very careful about these things, and he's not going to like them. ready? happy birthday! it's a painting easel! the tide's coming in! this is my favorite one.

it's upside down. oh, sorry. (woman vo) it takes him places he's always wanted to go. that's why we bought a subaru. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. after one month and a day in moscow's international airport, tonight, edward snowden is still stuck in the transit zone of that airport.

earlier reports suggested he would be able to leave the airport and take up residence in russia after receiving a certificate confirming that his timperary asylum request is being reviewed. but snowden's russian lawyer told reporters that he did not receive that certificate, and so ed snowden remains in the airport. snowden's lawyer arrived at the airport today with a shopping bag that some reporters presumed carried the much anticipated certificate and that snowden would soon be leaving, but his lawyer revealed it was the -- the bag was full of new clothes and russian novels, including, of course, "crime and punishment." if edward snowden is allowed to take up residence in russia, snowden plans to learn the language, study its culture, and find a job. a state department spokesman had this reaction today. >> we have seen, of course, the press reports and are seeking clarification from the russian government. obviously, any move that would allow mr. snowden to depart the

airport would be deeply disappointing. our belief is the only place he should be moving is back to the united states. >> tonight, the house of representatives voted on republican congressman justin amosh's amendment that would bar the nsa from using the patriot act from collecting americans' phone records. the amendment was defeated but just barely. 217-205, voting for the amendment were 94 republicans and 111 democrats. and a new nbc news poll finds that 55% of americans say they're worried the united states will go too far in violating privacy rights. 36% say they're worried the u.s. won't go far enough. joining me now is steve clemens, washington editor at large for "the atlantic." steve, the last polling information indicates the debate that edward snowden says he wants in his country is a debate he is winning among the american public. >> it's amazing.

and to see justin, a republican from michigan, on really with no preparation, very little lobbying, receive 205 votes in the house of representatives essentially in favor of limiting the national security agency's ability to collect this information, is really stunning. you know, there's this rule that you can get 80 votes in the house on anything. you know, ufos landed in rosual, new mexico. 80 votes, or 80 signatures, but 205 votes is a precursor to the likelihood that some legislative instrument as you know from your experience in congress, is something that's very achievable. so i think the white house and the intelligence establishment are looking at that with real fear today. this is the debate edward snowden said he wanted to launch and one that the president of the united states said he welcomed. >> well, the biggest movement in that vote, obviously, is 94 republicans voting against a national security component of

some kind. never seen a vote like that there. although it's very far away from the two-thirds they would need to override an obama veto, and the united states senate, it's kind of inconceivable it would get past filibuster tactics to reach a vote. i want to read something glen greenwald tweeted tonight. michele bachmann, eloquent champion of the obama nsa programs. hope this get shown on msnbc tonight. what glen is talking about, of course, is that michele bachmann voted with the majority on this, which say she voted with what is the obama position. >> well, i think in the case of michele bachmann, i think she's trying to look at where -- she's leaving the house. where is she going to get speaking fees and what not in the future? she may very well have a deeply grounded view that says whatever the nsa does is fine, but i think it's out of step with

where many republicans, as you just said, and many democrats, frankly are in looking at the case of, you know, yesterday, ron widen at the center for american progress gave one of the most amazing speeches i have heard on the subject yet, where he said basically a secret interpretation of a law, interpreting, a secret provision by a secret court sets up sort of a secret surveillance system, and said this is not consistent with democracy, and this is big brother, and we need to stop it. the fact that michele bachmann is on the other side of this is disconcerting, but she's leaving the house. many house members voted with amosh. >> and senator widen also suggested in a veiled way that there is more in the nsa mach e machinery than people realize and snowden has revealed, and he is of course bound by his secrecy oath to not reveal it. interesting thing in an nbc poll about snowden, having gone to the opinion poll about the issue, which is certainly

something snowden cares about more than his own individual polling because the snowden thinking seems to be dominating in the opinion poll on the issue. but snowden's personal favorability rating, it's 11% positive, 35% negative. 24% are neutral, and 31% who just don't know -- probably don't know who he is. but an 11% positive, 35% negative, is pretty bad stuff, as far as that goes. so he seems to not carry personal popularity. the group he was most personally popular with were obviously, one would expect, the 18 to 34-year-old group. even then, 15% positive is as high as he got with a 20% negative. this is not transferring the issue is not transferring into personal popularity for him. >> but that's, in a way, that's a good thing. you and i have talked about this where edward snowden in a way

with what he triggered with the nsa debate in my book is a bit of an unusual hero. but on the side of what else he divulged and on the other dimensions of america's intelligence apparatus, how it was looking at other geostrategic rivals, that went across a line that i think many people can't tolerate, including myself. so he became a muddy character for many people to try to assess in that sense. and i think that he continues to be muddy because he's over in russia. he's in a liberal society where, you know, he is trying to basically find refuge, and he's not here in the united states fighting that out. so it makes him muddy, but it makes the issue vital for the nation. i think it's important that we track this through. i think it's important for the obama administration. finally to let him disappear, and to have the debate we should have. >> thanks for joining me tonight. >> thank you. coming up, more on life in

russia today with harvey fierstein who wrote about vladimir putin's quote declared war on homosexuals. and in the rewrite, a special guest rewrite by the president of the united states. she's still the one for you -

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he was scrutinized by a neighborhood watchman, george zimmerman, because of the way he looked. not necessarily his skin color. there's no evidence of that, but

because high was a stranger to zimmerman, and was dressed in clothing sometimes used by street criminals. >> and last night's rewrite, where played that sound bite and deskrukted it and showed you at the end this picture of bill o'reilly and giraldo rivera wearing hoodies. hoodies that o'reilly called, quote, clothing sometimes used by street criminals. and then immediately after the show, i read this tweet rewriting my rewrite. the tweet was from james misarius. wait, o'reilly sells hoodies? now only $29.95. we then of course clicked on the link, went to o'reilly's website, where indeed the guy actually sells hoodies himself. and yet he still says hoodies make you look like a suspicious person. bill o'reilly, still stranger than fiction.

up next, the great tony-award winning harvey fierstein with a warning for edward snowden about life in russia and a warning for you maybe even thinking about visiting russia. this day calls you. to fight chronic osteoarthritis pain. to fight chronic low back pain. to take action. to take the next step. today, you will know you did something for your pain.

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mere putin, has declared war on homosexuals. so far, the world has mostly been silent. so says harvey fierstein in a "new york times" op-ed this week, it sights putin's support for the new law banning the adoption of russian-born children, not only by same-sex couples, but also to anyone living in a country that allows marriage equality in any form. putin has also signed a law that allows tourists, that's you, tourists to be thrown in jail if they're suspected of being gay or if they are pro-gay, and putin signed a law defining

homosexual propaganda as pornography. joining me to talk about why he ain't going to russia anytime soon, four-time tony-award winner harvey fierstein whose hit musical "kinky boots" swept this year's tonys with six awards. thank you very much for my kinky boots pin, which i'm going to try to put that on right now. >> you can wear that with pride. >> i knew about the adoption thing. that they had done in russia. everything else i read in your piece i did not know. >> i know. and the scariest one is the one that's still to come. it's rumored that he's about to pass a law that says that they can remove children from the homes of anyone who is gay or lesbian, even if it's their biological child. they can go in and remove those children. it's very frightening. very frightening. >> you talk about there are people in russia now who are -- some gay and lesbians who are already beginning to plan their escapes from russia.

>> they don't want to lose their children. they have to. it just reminds me so of the olden days and you wonder what have you got to gain from this? and you say, what has putin got to gain from war on homosehomos? we won't look at what else he's doing and how else he's failing and what's going on with their economy and everything else in their country. >> you compare it to the notsa playbook. you say his campaign against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people is one of distraction. a campaign of distraction, a strategy of demonizing a minority for political gain, taken straight out of the nazi play book. >> and isn't that what the conservatives are doing to the homosexuals in the united states? it's the same thing. they say we're conservatives, wi believe in smaller government. we don't want the government in our business, but now, who is in virginia running for governor of virginia, he now wants to? >> kutch anella. >> wants to bring back the laws

saying even married couples cannot have oral sex. i think that's called big government. like the biggest kind of government. >> your piece contains -- winter olympics coming up in russia. your piece contains a warning for tourists who might be going there for the olympics. >> four dutch tourists were arrested the other day. i think one had a rainbow pattern on their t-shirt and four of them were arrested. it's not that you're gay, not even that they think you're gai. if you say something pro-gay, if a teacher says to a student there is another way of living, you get fined. if a newscaster reports a story in a positive way towards gay, you can be fined. it's horrendous. >> if someone in russia reported that harvey fierstein said this tonight or wrote this in the "new york times" -- >> in a positive way. >> yeah. >> they can be fined. yeah. >> so edward snowden, if he gets to settle in russia, is going to

have to be very careful who he hangs around with or what he says. >> it's frightening. i get messages even from gay people in russia, thanks to facebook and tweets and all that, saying we're fine, and all that. and i say, you know, there's just something very -- having grown up with people with numbers tattooed on their arms. there's something that just gets me when people say, oh, we're just fine and all that. i had family members who thought it was just fine to stay in germany at those times. there is a war declared against us. somebody is willing to put you in jail because of who you are or what you think. what you think. and to me, that's very -- >> who you sympathize with. >> and the only way to get back at people like that is take the money away. you have to starve the rat out. putin is a rat, and you have to starve him out. you know? don't put billions of the

world's money into russia for the olympics. you know, take the olympics somewhere else. you know, that's my feeling. my feeling is we should boycott the olympics, but i'm just one person. >> you're going to boycott the olympics. you're not going. >> i don't like the winter olympics because they wear too much clothing. summer olympics, fine. >> figure skating, come on? >> the nipples are hard, but that -- >> can you help me out here, see where it says -- just said harvey. there's a prompter. i want to hear that voice telling what's happening on the show. >> coming up next, the president wants you to know that he is as frustrated with washington as you are. no, he ain't. >> not as frustrated as you are. >> that's next in the rewrite, but i do love what obama did a couple weeks ago. yeah. >> stick around then and watch the rewrite. >> okay. >> thank you, sir. [ male announcer ] if you had a dollar, for every dollar

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as ambassador to japan. caroline kennedy is president of the john f. kennedy library foundation and chairs a committee at the institute of politics at harvard university. she was also an early supporter of president obama in the presidential primary campaigns of 2008, his first campaign for the presidency. the world, of course, first got to know caroline kennedy by watching her play with her father in the oval office. the rewrite is next. olesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. it's been a happy union. he does laundry, and i do the cleaning. there's only two of us... how much dirt can we manufacture? more than you think. very little. [ doorbell rings ] [ lee ] let's have a look, morty. it's a sweeper. what's this? what's that? well we'll find out. we'll find out. [ lee ] it goes under all the way to the back wall.

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i have now run my last campaign. i do not intend to wait until the next campaign or the next president before tackling the issues that matter. >> president obama is trying to rewrite the future of the american economy, and rewrite the possibilities for the remainder of his presidency. first, today, he explained how he arrived at our economic predicament. >> 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 bargain. a sense that your hard work would be rewarded with fair wages and decent benefits. the chance to buy a home, to save for retirement. and most of all, a chance to hand out a better life for your

kids. but over time, that engine began to stall, and a lot of folks here saw it. that bargain began to fray. technology made some jobs obsolete. global competition sends a lot of jobs overseas. it became harder for unions to fight for the middle class. washington doled out bigger tax cuts to the very wealthy and smaller minimum wage increases for the working poor. and so what happened was that the link between higher productivity and people's wages and salaries was broken. used to be that as companies did better, as profits went higher, workers also got a better deal.

and that started changing. so the income of the top 1% nearly quadruples from 1979 to 2007. but the typical families' incomes barely budged. this growing inequality, inequality of opportunity, it's not just morally wrong, it's bad economics. because when middle-class families have less to spend, guess what. businesses have fewer consumers. when the rung s on the ladder o opportunity grow farther and farther apart, it undermines the very essence of america. >> as the president tried to inspire hope and momentum despite the reality of republican resistance, he reminded us today just how much republican resistance he has managed to overcome already. >> if you ask some of these folks, some of these folks

mostly in the house, about their economic agenda, how it is that they'll strengthen the middle cla class, they'll shift the topic to out of control government spending. despite the fact that we've cut the deficit by nearly half as a share of the economy since i took office. or they'll bring up obama care. this is tried and true. despite the fact that our businesses have created nearly twice as many jobs in this recovery as businesses had at the same point in the last recovery when there was no obama care. -- i appreciate that. that's what that's about. that's what this is about.

that's what we've been fighting for. but 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. this needs to stop. if you think you have a better plan for making sure that every american has the security of quality, affordable health care, then stop taking meaningless repeal votes and share your concrete ideas with the country. repealing obama care and cutting spend sg not an economic plan. it's not. >> the president mentioned many things today that require congressional approval, but promised to continue to think outside the box of congressional

approval. >> so yes, congress is tough right now, but that's not going to stop me. whatever executive authority i have to help the middle class, i'll use it. where i can't act on my own and congress isn't cooperating, i'll pick up the phone and call ceos, philanthropists, college presidents, labor leaders, anybody who can help and enlist them in our efforts. >> in a moment, i'm going to be joined by e.j. dionne to discuss the president's speech and what lies ahead. in the end, the president's speech came down to just one thing. >> the only thing i care about is how to use every minute of the remaining 1,276 days of my term to make this country work for working americans again. that's all i care about. ♪

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if we just stand by and do nothing in the face of immense change, understand that the part of our character will be lost. our founding presept about wide opportunity, each generation doing better than the last, that will be a myth, not reality. >> that was president obama at knox college today explaining what's at stake if congressional gridlock stands in the way of his agenda. joining me now, washington post columnist e.j. dionne, a senior fellow at the brookings institution and an msnbc krib b

contributor. this was the eternal optimist talking, especially when he was talking about a legislative agenda that will require republican cooperation. >> what i think this speech was about is changing the nature of the debate in the country, that presidents are successful not only for what they do but for how they influence what future presidents do. and how they influence the way people think about things. fdr did that, and ronald reagan did that. i think what he's trying to do today, and this is supposed to be part of an eight-week campaign where he's going to put more specifics on the table as the weeks unfold, is to say that this core conservative idea of trickle-down economics doesn't work. and that it's not only unfair, but that it's bad economics. and i was really struck when people starting saying, there isn't enough new policy here. it made me wonder, are conservatives smarter than liberals, because conservatives

knew reagan's job wasn't constantly to put new policy on the table. he was trying to set the frameworks of the policies they wanted could prevail, and i think obama was trying to do that today, and i think it's something he probably could have usefully done a long time ago, but i for one was glad he did it today. >> and he has to do it. you know, he's not -- he's the one person who has a job where he can't sit there and say, is what i'm about to say easy to do? he has to proceed as an optimist or he just becomes retired as of now. >> well, also, i think he's trying to remind people that if there were real problems in the fall, if we have a debt ceiling crisis, it isn't because he wants a debt ceiling crisis. it's because republicans are going to make this demands on government to slash it some more, that he thinks and that a lot of people think, would be very bad for the economy. and he's also trying, i don't

know if he can help, but he's actually trying to say, look, there are some republicans, look at the senate over there, who would actually like to govern the way we used to govern ourselves. instead of having government by sabotage, which is essentially what's been happening on obama care and a lot of other issues. >> he's also reminding everyone where the center of the governing playing field is. everything he talked about was something that at some point in our past has been supported by republicans and democrats. there wasn't anything that was out there on the edge of the left or the democratic party there. it was all mainstream stuff. >> right, it was all mainstream but in the broad, progressive tradition in the party. just for you, lawrence, i went back and looked at daniel patrick moynahan's old book "came the revolution" from 1986, and he was talking about what reagan and the conservatives did then. he said for this new group of

conservatives, they evolved into an all-encompassing ideology. it was creating a high level of civilization. what he was saying >> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, we have a strong lineup of news tonight on all in. president obama looks like he's ready for a fight. that's a good thing, because he's fighting to raise the minimum wage. if there was a single economic fight we need to.