specified delivery dates, and free insurance up to $50 all for the same low rate. [ woman ] we are the united states postal service. [ man ] we are the united states postal service. [ male announcer ] and our priority is you. go to usps.com® and try it today. >> a possible break through with president obama with the run but not with republicans. 64 hours from right now at the stroke of midnight on tuesday, the united states government may shut down or some kind of deal will be struck between now and then and there won't be a shutdown. this is a real time drama, playing out this weekend. we will dive into it all momentarily. the whole shut down drama is a demand the health care law be

gutted. also on today's show, i took to the straights of main street usa, for proximity stake manhattan. we will talk about the ghost of shutdowns past, some republicans who were there in 1995 are convinced their party is flirting with electtorial suicide. we will talk to the democrat in charge of winning back his house for the party, congressman steve israel. it's back. yes, up against the clock that is america's fastest growing favorite, a news show on a saturday morning. it will return there week with three new contestants. first at this hour, there is a lot more that we don't know tan what we know about what's going on in washington. what we know is that the house will be having a rare weekend session today and tomorrow. that is because yesterday afternoon, just before adjourning, the senate voted to change a bill passed by the house earlier in the week. >> that bill the one that was passed by the house was funded the government, meaning it would

have averted the shutdown for three months but it would have done so with a serious price tag, the eliminating after owl fuvending for president obama's health care law, dismantle obamacare. it was a the demand the house made in exchange for keeping the government opened. the nat the democratic controlled senate had absolutely no interest from passing that bill. so yesterday the senate took out a part of the bill that defunds obamacare and left the rest intact. >> to be absolutely clear, we will accept nothing as relates to obamacare. there is a time and place for everything and this is not that time or place. >> because the senate changed the bill the house passed the bill has been bounced back to the house. it's there now. it's why the house is in session this weekend. of course, the proverbial talk is ticking. now, what we don't know, what everyone is guessing about. what no one really knows yet, is

what the republicans who run the house are going to do this weekend. they have options. simply send what the senate sent them, put it on the floor, president obama would sign it. there would be for the shut down or defunding of obamacare. there is no sign yet at least the republicans will do this. there is immense pressure from conservative activists, from pressure groups, from the tea party to hold out longer, to use the threat of a shutdown. to use an actual shutdown to try to force the president to make some kind of concession on his health care law. so they pay tack on new demands. the repeal of one of the taxes that will fund obamacare is mentioned. so is a ban on members of congress, maybe a one-year delay of the individual mandate of the whole law. the law that all americans, excuse me, must have health insurance. if the house goes down this road at all. if it adds any new anti-obamacare language this

weekend, then the little will go back to the senate t. democrats will say, hey, we're not happy with this. this new stuff is mostly symbolic and we can live with it or they can say, this goes too far. if that happens the bill goes back to the house and we're probably talking about a shutdown. if all this isn't mind numbing and maddening enough, there is also this, the house could also pass a very short term bill to fund the government, meaning like a week of funding. bake amy, they could pass this, it would stretch out the back and forth for a few more days without shutting do under the government. at least not yet. those are the possibilities at this hour. leak we said, no one knows what will happen this weekend. there are a few other things we know. we will run those by you. we know house republicans are scheduled to meet at find today, four hours from now to come up with their plan this weekend. that's what they hope will come out of that meeting. we know that president obama is maintaining his posture that any negotiations over obamacare are

an absolute non-starter. >> the house republicans are so concerned with appeaseing the tea party they've threatened the government shutdown or worse unless i gut or repeal the affordable care act. i said this yesterday, let me repeat it. that's not going to happen. >> we also know courtesy of john bohner office that obama and the house speaker have not actually spoken in the last week. we know a group of conservatives in the house has apparently been meeting and strategizeing with ted cruz and to continue threaten a shutdown. we know we haven't even mentioned the elephant in the room yet. >> that is the looming debt ceiling dead lines, now less than three weeks away, even if they don't get their way here. if there is no shutdown in the end, republicans arealing they will take this same fight all over again, over the obamacare demand and many, many other demands that had nothing to do

with obamacare over the issue of whether to raise the debt ceiling. the consequences of not doing that would be far, far worse than the consequences of a government shutdown. if you needed proof of how bizarre all of this is, consider this all of this posturing, all of these threats, the looming deadlines and the catastrophic possibilities, because of all of this i haven't mentioned until now what otherwise would have been the biggest fuse from washington yesterday, a potential break through in the relations between united states and iran, the first phone call in 34 years between the presidents of both countries, which obama announced yesterday afternoon. we will talk about that phone call in a bit, but first, we are going to have to sort out what is going to play out in washington these next two days. to do that, we are joined by msnbc political analyst jill wagsh and msnbc opinion writer,

a national magazine reporter and a columnist at the guardian. thanks for joining us. we invited a lot of you before. all these latest developments. i hope it doesn't get too granular for this hour. >> that is the challenge to play out what is going to hatch, what could happen, what the consequences could be over the next few days. a place to start, i'll start with you, it seems to me the story of this weekend is that john boehner has a dilemma and i don't see what the sort of smart political answer is for him this dilemma. on the one hand, he can pass something that has broad support. he can bear defections and all that. the problem is the only thing democrats will pass is this clean, no defunding bill that came through the senate yesterday. there can be nothing else and a risk of a coup among republicans if he did something with the democrats. on the other hand, if he relies only on republican, his margin for error is this thin.

already, we are hearing from a couple dozen republicans this isn't enough of what's out there. so i don't see what john bohner can do this weekend. >> yeah, many of us don't know what he can do. i mean, one option would be and this has been some liberals are talking about this as an option that he actually allow, put the cr back on the floor, that includes if defund obamacare provision. it's going to keep going back and forth between the house and the senate t. government will shutdown and maybe after that, the conservative wing of the republican party within the house can see the amount of political capital they have in this fight, which isn't that much, to force president obama's hand to actually defund his signature health care law, which he has said repeatedly he isn't going to do. this isn't like a fiscal shift where there was wiggle room. do i tax a million, 450,000? he said repeatedly, he staked out his position, he is not going to doment that so it looks leak we are headed for a shut

jouvenl we'll see. >> that's the news. we mentioned this in the intro there-to-me has been the most extraordinary thing, a member of the u.s. senate, ted cruz allies from you that you, had been meeting and strategizeing with gin i dozens of members of the house. last night, 60 members put a bill together, an amendment together, that says we will found fund it if obamacare is delayed a year. they did it. ted cruz is functioning like as one of the whips in the house. >> boehner has lost control. >> did he ever have control? >> we have been watching this now for basically as long as he has been speaker where he has had this raucus raucous telling him what they want and what they want to do. now you have not only the raucus

caucus in the house, now he has senators cruz and lee from the other chamber coming over and picking off people and coming up with their own bill, this is outrageous. >> yeah, i was going to say as a long-term strategy, it's a loser. i think so. ted cruz, it's easy for him to stay electric for years. this is ted cruz playing chicken telling the people from the house, go ahead, don't turn. the thing, i just want to say is also the house has a very almost like literally living in a different reality than the rest of us. people in the house that say go ahead and crash that car come from very safe districts. you know, come from districts where they're not going to suffer for this. so they think they have their seatbelt on. >> they are getting there is that they all come from romney districts, which is true. they get the message. they are also getting messages, this is tom coburn a

conservative as far from oklahoma who svent us the greater good of the party. this is his advice. >> look, i've been through one of these before. the only time you shut down the government is when you shut it down and refuse to open it until you accomplish what you want. but we'll fold like hotcakes. look, you do not take a hostage you are not going to for sure schoot and we will not shoot the hostage. >> a lot of metaphors in there. right now the story even somebody like tom coburn his voice is not prevailing in the republican party at this point. >> well, there is a new party, there is the cruzicans. as we were saying, they come from safe districts. there was a great piece that broke down the dem gravgs they represent 18% of the country and they can destroy the global economy when we get to the debt ceiling. there are no repercussions. you see them again and again on

our network and others saying i was elected to represent my district and this is what my district wants and there is no sense of the greater good of the party or the country. >> a statesmanship. it's one thing to campaign. you come from your little district. but at some point the feeds the wants of your district have to give way to the needs of the country and the folks who come into congress in 2010 lack that latter part. they don't care it seems about the greater good of the country. when we're staring at a government shutdown, which is something -- you shut down the government five day, you pass a bill, a law, retroactive pay. the thing comes up. if we crash the debt ceiling, then you talk to people on the hill in the treasury, you talk to people in the white house, they all say we, there is no model for this. we have never been here before. who wants to play with fire? >> what i'm trying to figure

out, though, there is the greater good argument. your responsibility as leaders. we should never be flirting with the actual default in this country. what i'm looking for, this scarce me thinking about this process, what is the sort of selfish political incentive for the average, you got honor with the districts they come from. but where is the selfish political motive that is going to get republicans to some kind of a deal. >> they will lose the presidency again. they're operating. we talk about it again and again the republicans are operating in the off year election electorate. they pay no cost for doing this thing with the whiter, older, more conservative electorate. i want to say this is all, not all the heritage foundation and americans for prosperity did all this work pressureing from the right on these republicansism found the foley they did to convince republicans that wouldn't be the cost. this is the wording. they said in these districts, 60% supported a temporary slow

down in non-essential federal operations which left all services running him well, if you ask it that way. >> but it will be reported if we get to tuesday and mid-day and deal in this shutdown. but we'll pick it up, actually, president obama, we have president obama out this morning. we will play that and pick the discussion up after the break. . it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. .

>> past government shutdowns have disrupted the economy. this shutdown would, too. in a moment when our economy have steadily gained traction. a shutdown would be a muirly self inflicted wound. and that's why many republican senators and republican governors have urged republicans

in the house of representatives to knock it all. pass a budget and move on. >> that is the president just this morning, in his weekly radio address the best of radio address for peoples radios that come with tvs, i guess. just to show the state of plays right now, this is the most recent statement from republican leadership in the house, with titles in the house, john boehner the speaker after the president spoke yesterday, he said the house will take action that reflects the fundamental fact that the americans don't want a government shutdown and they don't want the train wreck that is obamacare. grandstanding from the president, who refuses to even be a part of the process, won't bring congress any closer to a resolution. so at this point i ask looking at this statement from boehner, looking at that time statement from what obama is saying, who here thinks when we get to midnight on tuesday, we are going to have a government shutdown? does anybody think we will not have a government shutdown? does anybody see a resolution before this?

>> i mean, we talked about before, they have no incentive too, right, inle the costs come. i do think there will be a cost. i'm not sure what it will be. it's very disingenuous polling. it probably will crumble. also, they've done disingenuous polling about obamacare. obamacare is unpopular because some people want to fix it, some people want it to xiang xiang. >> and some people want it to be more proifg. >> right. >> there is a large component of the people who say they don't approve of it because it didn't go far enough. >> it's in like the 20s, i think. when you combine it with people who approve, you do get a majority. >> right. exactly. >> there was polk not too long ago that did generic polk for congress. a democrat who wants to fix obamacare against a republican that wants to appeal, 15 something to 36 in favor. >> you made a point earlier. so there was a consensus at this table i guess we are headed towards a shutdown. i guess the one asterisk i put

on that is there is the possibility the house passes this woke-long extension. we could still be talking about the next saturday. you made a point that maybe boehner needs the shutdown. the republican establishment needs the shutdown to convince their members that hey, we need to back off. i guess talking about the political dynamics that we did in the last blocks i'm wondering, would even a shut down do that, you think? >> we'll see, we're all trying to predict something here that feels very unpredictable. it's unprecedented in many ways. can you see in the fiscal cliff, john boehner tried to put his own plan b to what president obama wanted to, do not do the $50,000 tax level. he couldn't even get support for that. we headed over the cliff t. senate passed something. after that it was kind of like, all right, let's take this vote then that none of us want to take and pass with democrats as well. >> nancy pelosi becomes the speaker for the day. they pass it with democrats. i don't really see that

happening at this point. maybe after a shutdown it would happen, i don't really see it happening before. you got, the thing is, you got true believers here who believe that the only way that they can vote for something is it has to include delays, defunding, repealing, scrapping altogether obamacare. that's the thing that sort of mystifies me that they're staring at a brick wall. they're yelping at a brick wall to fall down, but the president and the democrats on the hill have been united in the fact that they are not going to vote for anything that delays the funds or repeals and the president has been pretty clear as you said, it's like through yesterday, i'm not doing. and, yeah, on that point, here's harry reid, this is yesterday, too, the senate's message the senate democrats message to the republicans. here's harry reid. >> here's a president, who less than a year ago, won an election by 5 million votes.

five million votes. obamacare has been the law for four years. why don't they get out of life and talk about something else. >> the house speaker did try to talk about something else. the strategy that came out late in the week from the republican leaders was, we are going to try to defer this fight. take it off the government shutdown, get it off the table. get the republicans to pass this clone bill. tell them we will have a fight over the debt ceiling. it's not just obamacare. it's tort reform. it's the keystone pipeline and even on top of that on the table the republicans still said photo them. they're not able to put that on the floor this week. >> it's like a christmas tree, it's a more dangerous christmas treatment i love the metaphors we are using here t. debt ceiling fight if it does happen is actually much worse. much womplts you were right. a while ago, you said this has

never happened before we want have no models for this. because because there is only one other country in the world that operates this way. this is a crazy way to run the government to pass a bill that says this is what we're going to spend and have a separate process where we give the money to do it. i think denmark has the same system but they've never come close to doing something locate that. >> that's a great trivia question for up against the clock. but we will be joaned in a minute from now, somebody in the middle in the washington, d.c., u.s. senator angus king. also the historic phone call between the president and the united states of iran. we will talk about that with him as well. senator angus king joining us when we come back next.

"stubborn love" by the lumineers did you get my email? i did. so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too.

here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. you raise her spirits. we tackled your shoulder pain. you make him rookie of the year. we took care of your cold symptoms. you take him on an adventure. tylenol® has been the number 1 doctor recommended brand of pain reliever for over 20 years. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. ♪but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. ♪ save your coffee from the artificial stuff. ♪

switch to truvia. great tasting, zero-calorie sweetness... ...from the stevia leaf. from nature, for sweetness™ jcron: i'm sorry, who are you?nt we all like? jc: i'm your coworker! c'mon guys, i'm driving. hey, you guys comfortable? it's best-in-class rear legroom. and with a turbo engine that gets 35 hwy mpg. you know j.d. power ranked passat the most appealing midsize car two years in a row? i bet, uh, dan here wishes somebody found him most appealing two years in a row. ron: it's ron. jc: ron... exactly... vo: right now get the 2013 passat for 0% apr for 60 months with optional down payment match of up to $500.

>> just now i spoke with president rouhani. i believe we can reach a comprehensive solution. >> president obama describing the ten-minute phone call he made to president has san rouhani of iran yesterday. that was the first time these two leaders had direct contact since 1979. we will talk about this more in a minute. we will talk more about the shutdown. joining us to do that right now is independent senator angus ka kane. thank you for joining us. i want to get to iran in a minute. i want to pick up this discussion about this drama playing out in walk. i see you are back in maine. before your flight, you put a hot potato in john boehner's lap in the house. he has a clean funding bill. for the defunding for obamacare.

the house republicans have to decide what they're going to do with it. i wonder, what is your expectation of what will happen in the house. do you think we are as everybody on this panel said headed for a shutdown? >> first, let me show that the senate did the thing, sent a clean bill over to the senate yesterday afternoon. two important points, i don't want to get to wonky on you, one is the so-called hastert rule the speaker won't bring a bill to the floor of the house unless it has the support of a majority of the republican caucus. what that means is the republican caucus. >> holding the solution to the floor. most of the democratic votes and enough republican votes to

achieve a majority, but they've got this rule that if they can't have a unified caucus then nothing comes to the floor. that's one of the things i think people should realize out of 535 people in congress, this is like 120 or so that are, you know, it's the tail wagging the dog. the other thing that i think that's important and it didn't come up in your earlier discussion is there is a pernicious inner logic to what these people are doing. they hate government. they don't want government to work. they don't believe government can or should work. crashing the economy, crashing the government, a kind of weird success and it's very hard to reach agreement with people who don't share a kind of basic appreciation of the institution. this is dangerous. i've never been here before. >> on that point, let me just

ask you about a situation that could be coming up, you may be confronted coming back to walk. that is if the house republicans this weekend pass some sort of additional provision dealing with obamacare, there has been a whole range discussed here. what would be the delaying obamacare a year, there is talk of bank members of congress and staff from receiving government subsidies under obamacare, which would be more of a symbolic thing. are there any potential changes you might be willing to live with and pass a funding bill with the government? >> well, i mean, if it's a provision that says we're going to honor our mothers every may, you know, that would be okay. but if it's substantive, no, i don't think so. there is a principal at stake. we run the government, we pass budgets. then we are arc you about policy in the context of the legislation. this is a bad way, a precedent

to establish that you can take hostages and then negotiate. i mean, have you seen the list of things they're going to atoo much to the debt ceiling? i mean, it's everything burks i think i haven't yet seen that it has a statue of anne rand on the mall, but other than that, it's everything that they want. >> if rand paul is watching. >> i ran no an old history professor of mine the other day. this is a serious point. i don't want to make light of it. i asked him, has anything like this happened in american history before? and he said, of course, and i was a little surprised. he said, the articles of confederation. and he was serious. i mean, the chaos because of the articles of confederation did not establish an effective government, led to the writing of the constitution and these people are willing to risk the economy, everything else on the altar of ideology and it's, this

is a dangerous moment. it really is. >> transitioning, i want to make sure to ask you about, the intelligence, iran and huge news any other weekend, this would be a huge thing we are talking about right now t. phone call between the president of the united states and the president of iran, we know the position of the president of iran is not the same politically in iran as the president of the united states does. it's not necessarily the man who is calling the shots over there. i want to know what you make of this in the context of sort of the nuclear issue with iran and do you see real possibilities of a break through and an agreement sometime in the near future? >> well, all i know is the press conference that we saw the president have yesterday, but it is potentially huge. i mean, this has been a really dangerous destabilizing issue in the middle east for at least ten or 12 years and a nuclear iran is a dangerous thing for the

entire world. so this could be a big break through. now i remember hearing several years ago, that the supreme leader who is not the president but the top guy, that's a great title by the way, supreme leader, he has not, he has not been strongly in favor of the development of a nuclear weapon. i mean, that's sort of supposition, but i'm hoping this is a break through. i know the sanctions that have been applied to eastern by the united states and most of the rest of the world have really bitten, really have affected their economy in a significant way and it sounds to me like some people are saying, you know, is this really wore it's it? so there is a lot of steps between now and then, a lot of verification, a lot of those kind of things, but, you know, the president's had two pretty strong break throughs in international relations in the last week, which as you say, if it weren't for this drama that we were involved in would be at the top of the front page, but

i'm hoping that the iran thing as everybody is, will continue to move forward, because, boy, that would just be a huge relief to everybody and really, i don't think we can say it would stabilize the middle east, but it would certainly go a long way towards easing the tensions over there. >> high, senator. i kind of want to turn to the less optimistic negotiations with the republicans and not iran. and i'm just wondering what you think the impact of the discussion ted cruz had with the house republicans is, like have you heard anything among the fors that you have talked to about that? it's a pretty unprecedented action. i wonder what you think of it and what impact you think it will have, there is this republican senator within the house votes. >> well, it's a little unusual to say the least, but, you think the problem they've gotten themselves into is that they've got their troops and their base

sort of whipped up to the point where anything short of something dramatic, the repeal of the law or delaying a year or something like that is not going to satisfy. they're in a corner, in other words. and that's a dangerous place to put people and, you know, i don't know how they're going to get out of it. the speaker, he doesn't have a choice. is he going to lead the country or be a captive? he keeps getting hammered by these people. that's got to be the worst job in america right now is to be the republican speaker of the house. but, you know, at some point, we got to start thinking about the country and as i say, the real hard part here is that some of these people don't care. they care about the country. i'm in the accusing them of being unpatriotic. they don't care if the government shuts down. i don't think they care if we

default on our debt. by the way, we should stop saying debt limit. we should say the bill that allows the government to pay bills that's already occurred. that's what this is all about. most people think this allowings the government to spend more money. this allows the government to pay for money that's already spent it's like at the end of the month, you run up your credit card. you spend all this money, at the end of the month, you say, i don't think i'll pay off my credit card this month. >> that will ruin your credit, as it would the credit of the united states. >> that's a voice, you got to have fewer syllables, bumper sticker. we are short on time. we have jonathan caper, we want to make sure he gets in. >> senator, nice to sigh, you are as i call it the carlton of maine. py question for you is let's say we get to the point where we're looking at a breaching of the debt ceiling or not paying our bills, do you think the president should invoke the 14th

amendment? well, think they have to think about that and look at the provisions of the 14th amendment that talk about paying the debt and i think they just have to consider that, if it comes to that. i can't believe. it's odd to me that they're adding this christmas tree issue as you characterized it to the debt ceiling incareer, which, by the way, ronald reagan increased the debt ceiling i think 18 times. it's been increased 70 or 80 times in the last 40 years. this is routine. somebody suggested a great idea the other day. >> that is when we pass spending bills, it ought to have an increase in the debt ceiling because now these people can get the credit of voting for the spending. then they boat their chest about how fiscally conservative they are to vote against the debt ceiling that allows the spending they've supported. i mean, i think the president's got to look at all options. we can't afford to have a small group, relatively small group of people take down the u.s. and

perhaps even the world economy. >> okay. senator angus king, taking a brief break before returning to this mess in washington. thank you for taking the time this morning. appreciate it. how is the diplomatic message being received in iran? we will go live for reaction. >> that is next. for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it. nascar is ab.out excitement but tracking all the action and hearing everything from our marketing partners, the media and millions of fans on social media can be a challenge. that's why we partnered with hp to build the new nascar fan and media engagement center.

hp's technology helps us turn millions of tweets, posts and stories into real-time business insights that help nascar win with our fans.

>> where immigration you can only fear the past. you will understand that immigration is an added value. it is an invaluable energy infusion into this country. it always has been. if we close the door, this, it changes the definition of who we are. ♪

[ male announcer ] some things are designed to draw crowds. others are designed to leave them behind. ♪ the all-new 2014 lexus is. it's your move. . >> iranian president hasan rouhani is home. before he left, he took a phone call from the president of the united states. then he did what we do these days. he tweeted about it. president rouhani and president barak barak rapidly solve the nuclear issue. for more on what the people of iran are making of this historic outreach, i am joined by bureau chief, ali, curious to hear the reaction right now. i guess there was a report in the new york times overnight that some of the meeting in

iran -- media in iran had not reported this i want to know how many know about this and those that do, what are you hearing from them? what's their reaction like? >> reporter: well, good morning, steve. it's a mixed bag of reactions here. i would say for the most part relations are warming up. by and large the iranian people want a good relationship with the united states. they know a good relationship would translate into economic welfare, goods could be traded and life would become better, but there is a hard line core in this country that doesn't want good relations with the united states and that was very evident at the airport this morning when mr. rouhani arrived back from the united states. there was a group of two or 300 people at the airport. maybe two-thirds of them were in favor of mr. rouhani coming back. they were cheering him and they sacrificed a lamb for him at the

airport. there was a hard line core throwing rotten tomatoes at him, shoes at him and chanting death to america. now, maybe this phone call may have heralded in a new chapter of relations between america and iran. it has opened up new divisions in iempblt it shows this country isn't 100% on board with relations with america. this hard line core was very evident there, throwing shoes at the president. like i said to you there is a also a large, large majority of people wheer that really do favor good relations. >> those divisions will be critical to how this story progresses. ali arouza. thank you for that this morning. ahead, we took a field trip t. plan was to go to the heartland and talk to real americans about the law. we didn't make it past new york. we took video. we will show it to you next. we tackled your shoulder pain.

. >> want to make your head

explode? who doesn't. try to explain what exactly the american public thinks about president obama's health care law. there is evidence for every possible conclusion out there. ask people what they think about obamacare. it doesn't poll well. it's never polled well since it was enacted years ago. it's the major reason they won so big in the 2010 mid-terms. then ask people about each individual part of obamacare. suddenly the polling gets a lot better or don't ask them. ask them what they think about the o'fordable care act t. exact same thing. when you take obama's name out of it. opposition falls. for all of this, the vast majority of people say they don't understand most of the law. so we looked at all the poll this week, we decided we wanted to hear what what it sound like when you put all of those contradictory attitudes together so we went to the heartland, that's a lie. we were lazy, so we went out west 49th street in mid-town, manhattan. there were a lot of tourists

there. maybe that counts. your friend comes up to you and says i keep hearing about this obamacare thing, yoep how it works. how would you explain it to your friend? >> i would probably not be sure how to explain it. >> honestly, i have no idea. >> i'm not sure how it works. >> do you have a sense what it means for you as a consumer or anything? >> i do not. >> not everything is so clear defined. a lot of people are confused. >> everyone gets free health care, right? >> i would say small business people and doctors have talked to me and been scared to death ask things that the government ends up taking over are not as es efficient as private. >> it doesn't sounds good to me. i'd rather be able to choose my own doctor, my own hospital, my own care. >> there are four levels of health insurance and you can choose which insurance company or which level of coverage you want. >> it is for me. i want it. because my wife is a chancer survivor and also has diabetes. >> i know you can stay on your parents plan until you are 26.

that's what i'm milking it until then. >> milking it until then t. centerpiece of the law goes into effect until this coming tuesday when the state insurance exchanges open in the success of these, or the lack of success of the insurance exchanges is basically going to decide, is obamacare, is the affordable care. will it be remembered as and continue to be a successful law or not? will these healthy people sign up for it? i have to say, we did talk to a number of people who explained this thing impressively. we didn't find a bunch of people. at the same time, you can hear it there. there are a lot of different emotions and feelings. there is a lot of different information out there about this. now, we're at the point where from the administration's standpoint, you have put that aside and get people to sign up. >> one thing that's happening is individual states are getting branding on their own. in minnesota, their ads with paul bunyon, invading the bonn

docks. minnesota has a version of this where you get insurance, they allow everyone pretty much with preexistings to get health care in minnesota. but i do think it's interesting that you have to get away from the obamacare in order to make it work. even the interesting and terrible is that republicans are actually advising young people not to sign up for this. this whole plan hinges on getting people relatively healthy to become a part of the people of the people who are insured and republicans are telling young people not to do it. this is more than just sabotage. this is like ricking people's lives. >> another thing this does, you get healthy people into the pool, that's one thing. you get americans getting preventative care in their 20s, thinking about help. getting treatment for problems that exist early before they turn into something horrible later that costs a lot more. >> that is a part of bending the cost curve. when we have memth iier healthi

younger children, we will have better deposit problems. >> part of the problems with the opinions on obamacare and the gap between you noted the number of people who favor and oppose, also about equal percentages of americans oppose defunding the law, too. so you have this law enacted for four years where it hasn't been fully implemented. so people aren't able to see the potential benefits. now the flipside as you implement it. president obama is acknowledging there will be glitches. >> everyone's glitches will be played up. >> but the point is that you have this law and you have been messaging on it for a number of years and the people who stand to benefit from it, the uninsured potentially the ones making less than $50,000, those constituencies actually oppose, don't view obamacare favorably. you could reason if you were to rom it out and implement and it

goes well, opinions could change. it's not going to change until it is implemented. >> steven, you went to 49th street. >> hold the story up on 48th street. >> our msnbc colleague stephanie and i went to this littledown town belmont, outside of carolina, they intentionally use the phrase obamacare. what was interesting, there were people dead set against it. there were people for it, there were people that knew some things about it. but the vast, all of them the thing that ran through all of their comments, they didn't exactly know what obamacare did. they were confused by it. they didn't know what exactly the components were and that's what i think has been the problem all along. here's this great law that we all sort of know is going to help people will be very beneficial to people, but for the one can exactly explain why it's so important and what they get and what they get from it.

>> there is jonathan showing me up where his real reporting. going down in the field. we blew our travel budget on pastries. they're really good. >> they are. >> tacey are from sturbucks. i want to thank ali arouza for joining us. what stood out for me ought the global initiative. hillary clinton a potential up against the clock contestant. we'll explain next.

. >> if you have been watching "up" the last few weeks, you would know we have been doing a weekly game show up against the clock. hillary clinton at the initiative this week, she said something that made us perk up and think there is a game show question. >> the more i thought abouttive. more i realized how much they have in common, they're both left hand, they both love golf

they both are master politicians. each has only lost lost one election. >> that sound like a great trivia question. bill clinton and barak barak, name out who beat both of them? it turns out hillary was wrong. obama has lost once, it was a back if 2000 when he challenged chicago congressman bobby rush in the democratic primary. he lost by 40 points. bill clinton has actually lost twice t. first time came in 1974 in a race for congress against republican john paul hammerschmidt. the second time was in 1980 when he lost his re-election for governor of arkansas to fran white. this is exactly the political knowledge demanded of contestants on up against the clock. we have three new ones standing off the set here, car bo-loading on pastry, getting ready to play for the grand prize, we will bring them out and play up against the clock right after this. .

♪ >>. >> live from studio 3-a in rockefeller center usa. it's time for up against the clock! today's contestants originally from austin texas by way of lincoln, nebraska, it's anna marie cox. from newark, new jersey, home of the newark bears, it's jonathan. and the returning champion from brooklyn, new york, whose four-day winnings total 2 in cash and prizes and i ou, say hello to joan wall. how up against the clock coast steve kornacki. >> thank you at home for tuning in. we have two new contestants joining us today. welcome to you anna marie and

jonathan, they will be challenging our returning champion, who will be going for her fifth straight victory. joan, welcome back. we will give you a quick refresher. this is a rapid fire quiz of the week there was in politics. there are three rounds. in the first, they're worth 100, in the second 200. in the third, 300 points east. each round will be 100 seconds long, do the math. that means we will be playing for a total of five minutes. don't forget, we have several instant bonuses scattered around. these are follow-up questions. a no risk chance for to you double your winnings on a question you answer correctly. contestants, remember, you will be pen amized for encorrect answers. if you happen to ring in before i complete the question, you will be frozen out for three seconds and as always, i will remind our live studio audience here, please no, outbursts,

contestants require absolute concentration. contestants, are you ready? sounds like it to me. we will put five minutes on the clock and we go. thist 100 point round, it was recorded this week this former president attended a same sex wedding. a little early, jonathan. >> oh, no. >> and signed his name as the official witness. joan. >> george h.w. bush. >> that is correct. same sex wedding in kennebunkport, maine a. poll this week found one in five republican voters in south carolina said they will definitely not vote for whom in 2014? jonathan. >> boy, lindsey graham. >> that is correct. >> that ties the score at 100 points. at a fundraiser for the democratic national committee tuesday night, president obama said who has quote the same hairdo i had in 1978?

>> jonathan. >> toray. >> it is not. he'd be flattered to know you thought of him t. question is on the floor, 3, 2, 1. time t. correct answer is dante deblasio. i had to confess, my afro was never that good. it was a little imbalanced. his role as net king pin is coming to an end, but this actor has found work playing linden johnson in a new play. >> brian cranston. >> we have a three-way tie at 100 points. this is the final question of the 100-point round. 216 years after he left office, which commander-in-chief, for which commander-in-chief did a presidential library finally-of-of the week? jonathan a little early i'm sorry. we have to enforce. it's on the floor. >> george washington. >> that is correct. that brings us to the end of the

100 point round. we move to the 200 point round. it was reported this week that wendy davis will formally enter the race of the texas governor the thursday assuming she gets the democratic nomination. what is the name of the republican attorney general she will face in the general election? >> david dewhurst. >> incorrect. >> question is on the floor, 3, 2, 1. time. >> can i answer again? >> greg abbott. >> that is correct for zero points. between monday afternoon and tuesday, ted cruz held the floor for 21 hours and 19 minutes consecutively. how many senators in history have spoken non-stop for longer than that? >> zero. >> incorrect. question is on the floor. >> john a then. >> one. >> incorrect. >> anna marie, you want to take a shot? >> two. >> incorrect t. correct answer

is three. >> that was an instant bonus question. move on here. martin wagsh and john conley finished in the top two slots in tuesday's preliminary election and will compete in a runoff to determine the next mayor of what major east coast city. joan. >> boston. >> boston is correct for 200 points. final question here of the 200-point round. this former nba big man where an inability, famous inability to make free-throws became a part owner of the san francisco king, hoisted the wife of california governor jerry brown in the air. an fa marie. >> shaw keel o'neil. >> correct a. new part owner of the kings. anna marie 100. joan, zero. anybody's game for 300 points this former labor secretary confirmed this week that as a

graduate student in the late 1960s, he went on a date with hillary clinton. >> labor secretary? hint, he's short. jonathan. >> robert rice. >> robert rice the hint gave it away. correct. next, 300. in his marathon senate speech on monday and tuesday, ted cruz quoted from an acceptance speech delivered at the teen choice awards by what television movie star. a little early joan, jonathan. by what television movie star. anna marie. >> ashton cutcher is correct. >> for 300 points, this unsuccessful 2012 democratic senate candidate bashed her campaign staff in a remarkably candid interview within a nevada television station saying quote if i had to do it over again, i wouldn't let these people run my bath water. joan. >> shaern engel. >> incorrect. on the floor, 3, 2, 1.

the correct answer is shelly burkely. final question 300 point round. ten seconds, anna marie 400. jonathan 200. joe, negative 200 a. 300 point question, members of congress of both parties expressed concern this week, continuation here, members of congress from both parties expressed concern this week when the u.s. postal service announced plans to raise the cost of a first class stamp from 46 cents to what? jonathan for the win? >> 49 cents. >> correct. jo jonathan has defeated our returning champion. it was a wonderful run. thumpg for joining us. jonathan as our winner, that means you when our prize package. it includes the coveted up mug, the gold up muck.

we will have your name engraved on it. it will be a sharp east. close enough. you win an appearance on msnbc 3:00 p.m. show kite i cycle. now the most exciting part, jonathan, it means right now you get to play for the up against the clock bo fuss jackpot, which today is a brand-new never before used $50 gift certificate to little po land. the most authentic eastern european eating and drinking experience in new york's historic east village. there i am after a pierogi or two. all you need to do is answer that question t. one jackpot question. it is this. read from the screen, an earlier question mentioned all the way the new play about lbj starring brian cranston, in that same production, what former spinal tap member will play j. edgar hoover you have five seconds we

need an answer, please. >> ah, ah. >> incorrect. the correct answer michael mckeon none from laverne and shirley t. jackpot survives another show. congratulations, you are our champion. we will see you on "cycle" joan you have your $22 in winnings, an fa marie, you will get the whole edition for a family of all ages. thanks for playing, out there in tv land, thanks for playing along. we will see you next time on up against the clock. we will talk with congressman steve israel. stay tuned. thank you orville and wilbur... ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions...

in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it. [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay -- you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ save your coffee from the artificial stuff. ♪ switch to truvia. great tasting, zero-calorie sweetness... ...from the stevia leaf.

♪ unh ♪ [ male announcer ] you can choose to blend in. ♪ or you can choose to blend out. the all-new 2014 lexus is. it's your move.

>> we're in the middle of the 57th showdown. one thing seems certain when this one ends we'll turn around and have another one and go through this all over again. this has become the reality of divided government in the tea party era. for democrats, it seems increasingly clear, the only way to put a stop to this government brinksmanship is to take control from the gop. democrats will have to wait until november of next year to have a chance. even then, history says it is a long show. only three presidents have seen their parties pick up house seats in the mid-term election. franklin roosevelt in 1934, george w. bush in 2002. all of those exceptions came with asterisks of their own the great depression of 1934 impeachment in 1998 and, of course 9-11 t. most seats in the white house gained in those elections is nine, which is

about half of the 17 the democrats need to pick up to make nancy pelosi speaker again. so history is not on their side. maybe there is hope for democrats, as hillary clinton said on tuesday quote, it wouldn't be the worst thing for democrats if they shut the government down. we seen that movie before and it didn't work out so well for those so-called obstructionists. we are joining someone who would like to direct that sequel. steve israel the committee that recruits and funds congressional candidates in 2014. it's his job to win back the house for his party. congressman, thank you for the time this morning. i want to talk to you about 2014 and how all this shutdown talk plays into it. first, i want to ask you. we are sort of at this very weird weekend where the house will be in session. we have the republicans will be meeting at find today. they have to decide what they're going to do with this so-called clean government funding bill that was sent back from the

senate. what do you think you will be voting on this weekend in the house? >> well, thank you for having me on. the fundamental problem is, nobody knows what we will be voting on, john boehner doesn't know, the republicans are fighting a civil war. they haven't fixed out an exit strategy and every time they meet, they fight and every time they fight, they inflict further damage on the economy and on the country. look, i think we have a path to win 17 seats in 2014. what concerns me is what these house republicans are going to do to the country between now and then. >> well, let me ask you, i'm thinking back to the last, we've had a lot of these dramas. the one that comes to mind is the debt ceiling drama in 2011. we went up to the wire. obviously, that clearly hurt the republican party's brand, if you can call it that. i also remember the summer of 2011, the lowest point from a polling standpoint from barak barak. we have polling that came out

this week from huffington post, they're looking at the trend line really the last six months. can you see the last nine month, his average favorable approval rating has fallen from 51 to 43%. from your standpoint the democrats winning back the house, do you have a fear here all of this is causing voters to throw their hands up in the air? yes, it's the republican, it's the democrats, it's everybody. >> no, in fact, i have empirical data that refutes that. president obama and romney's policy was in 2012. 20s 14 will be a referendum on the chaos the shutdowns, the slowdowns and the cliffs that republicans are giving us. and that's playing out all across the country. we just did a research project and the 68 most competitive congressional districts in the country, over 60% of independent swing voters in those districts hold republicans accountable for the gridlock and want them to move the country forward. nearly 40% of republicans in

those districts believe house republicans are too extreme, not doing enough to cooperate and move the country forward. so there used p to be pocks on both your house, now they are holding them accountable for their actions and looking for national leaders with reasonable common sense solutions. that's what will happen in november, 2014. >> let me put it this way. even if the american people do decide they want to hold the americans accountable. i thinking of what happened last year the 2013 election. your party, democrats for house last year, got aological more votes nationally than republicans did. we talk about whether that's riging or the way the population is distributed in this country now, democrats tend to live in more concentrated areas. even if up win that argument, did you learn in 2012 that maybe you still can't win back the

house because of the structural factors? >> no, not at all. first of all, even after redistricting, there were about 52 house republican incumbent was are in competitive districts. even pundits say there are 51, 52, house republicans, who can be beaten. so that gives us a pretty good battle space. here's the other thing, steven, i don't care whether you wake up in a red district or a blue district or something in between. you want to make wake up with a member of congress who wakes up like you. not thinking of left or right, moving the country forward. last week, federal employees had to evaluate the navy yards because of a shooter. next week, federal employees may have to evaluate that building because of a shutdown of the government and furloughs. is that the kind of government that you want if you are in a red district or a blue district? no, you want a district, a government that's going to respond to you to the challenges, find some compromise and pursue common sense solutions and 2014 will be a

referendum. a common sense reasonable solution or the chaos and the crisis and the gridlock and the ideology and the extremism that these house republicans have brought to us. in an almost his tore ec way, for the republican congress in history has inflicted more damage and has been more ideological and extreme than this republican congress. >> congressman israel, it will be a reverend durnlgs 2014 will be a referendum on the chaos and obstruction. but it also depends on whether the obama coalition that showed up in 2012 and who gave million more votes to house members depends on whether they show up in 2014 and as we all know around this table, mid-term, mid-year, mid-term elections the turnout is down. the as anna marie, we were talking earlier the electorate is older and wider, what are you going to do to insure the obama coalition comes out and votes for democrats on the ballot when the president the person they come out for isn't on the

ballot? >> we're going to do two things, number one wlerks us a all the tools in our toolbox, to communicate with those voters, to persuade them to vote and turn them out. secondly, we will make a case, all we have to do is remind them, what has happened over the past several months if they don't go and vote in the 2014 election, they they are effectively re-electing house republicans who spend all their time bringing down the president and willing to bring down the economy in the pursuit of bringing down the president. that's the case we are going to make. i'm very confident those voters will respond. >> good morning, congressman, anna marie cox from "the guardian" a touchy, feely question. do you have sympathy for boehner? do you feel you know what he is going to? what would you do? it's an unenviable one for sure,

does your heart go out for what he is going through? >> look, i understand what he is going through. i would have more sympathy for him. i have more sympathy for the american economies and families feeling the impacts of what these republicans are doing. the s&p index declined for the first time last week because of john boehner's inability to compromise, because of his inability to bring republicans and democrats together. this is a guy who lives to keep his hands around the gavel rather than keep the economy moving. so, no, i don't have a lot of sympathy for somebody who feels it's more important to keep his gavel than to keep the economy moving. >> hi, congressman israel, congress woman joan walsh. there are reports you are having a hard time recruiting in certain districts because people want to wait until 2016 where they believe hillary clinton will run and her coat tails or cat suit tails will carry them to washington. what do you say to these people? >> well, actually, those reports

are not playing out good as they have been reported. in fact, of the 52 most competitive districts that we have in the country, virtually every single one has a recruit, a top tier candidate who is pursuing solutions. we are recruiting deep into red territory. we've got a wonderful candidate, somebody who is about solutions and common sense in montana. we got candidates who are running in republican districts fed up with the extremism and gridlock in california. great candidates in the pan hand him of florida. all across the country, ohio, right of center districts. center districts. we have recruit was are standing up. by the way, they're not politicians. these are small business people, entrepreneurs, innovators. they wake up in the morning thinking how do you move the economy and the country poerd? they are stepped upp, decided to run that. ry the backbone of our campaign to take back the house based on

solutions that makes sense for middle class families. >> all right, congressman israel. we did not get a chance to talk about this. i want to point out. you have something in common with steve martin and woody allen. you have been published in the shouts and mur murs column of the "new yorker." you have a piece that's new in there, sort of making fun of the dear american express, i have reachedpy personal debt ceiling it's called, to encourage people to check this out. we will try to tweet it out. maybe you have a future in comedy writing there. >> if it weren't so sad, it would be funny. >> i want to thank you congressran israel for joining us. we appreciate the time. what is the fastest way to get to texas? i think through wyoming and virginia. that's a campaign round-up. that's coming up next. [ music playing ] . i've saved $75 in checked bag fees. [ delavane ] priority boarding is really important to us. you can just get on the plane and relax. [ julian ] having a card that doesn't charge you foreign transaction fees saves me a ton of money. [ delavane ] we can go to any country and spend money the way we would in the u.s.

when i spend money on this card, i can see brazil in my future. [ anthony ] i use the explorer card to earn miles in order to go visit my family, which means a lot to me. ♪ mmm! this is delicious katie. it's not bad for canned soup, right? pfft! [ laughs ] you nearly had us there. canned soup. [ male announcer ] they just might think it's homemade. try campbell's homestyle soup.

so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, you can save money with progressive commercial auto.

[ sighs ] [ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. >> let's take a trip to a happier time t. year 1996, the economy was strong, seinfeld was on the air, michael jordan was winning championship himself. in wyoming alan simpson and dick

kane were the best of friends. this is from a roast in honor of simpson retiring from the senate that year. >> you know, one of the personal memories i have, of course, is the fact that we went to congress together. i got elected to the house the same year al got elected to the united states senate in 1998. we came back as freshmen, okay, you develop a unique relationship when there is one congressman from the state and two senators and the senators take you to lunch once a month to make sure you don't aspire to higher office. >> higher office, dick cheney. why are we showing you this now? something happened that drove a wedge between alan simpson and dick cheney's family. we will explain that in a minute. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature.

legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. man: sometimes it's like we're still in college. but with a mortgage. and the furniture's a lot nicer. and suddenly, the most important person in my life is someone i haven't even met yet. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. as you plan your next step, we'll help you get there.

picasso painted one of his master works at 56. doris taerbaum finished her first marathon at 50. not everyone peaks in their twenties. throughout their lives. passion keeps them realizing possibilities. an ally for real possibilities. aarp. find tools and support at aarp.org/possibilities. >> it's been a busy political week in washington, but there is also a lot of weird, wild political stuff going on far from the beltway. we wanted to give you a little of a tour. so we will start in wyoming. politics may be destroying a

famous political friendship between the cheney family and alan simpson. this is amazing, former senator alan simpson and his wife and have exhaustive 2,166 word statement detailing hostile interactions he had lately with lynne cheney the wife of dick kane, he accuses her of telling her one bold dam faced bold lie. he adds, i have had a belly full of it. it is amazing, it's a rather dramatic escalation of a bitter conflict that spilled into view early this week when it surfaced that his wife told simpson to quote shut up. the context, dick and lynne cheney's daughter liz is challenging republican senator mike enzy in the next primary. he happens to be his political property jay. lynne cheney says she loves simpson and his wife. as forbe the blowup. she adds, al was rude to my

granddaughter. i told him he was out of line. the top ec was not mike enzi. yesterday, he turned up the heat with that detailed colorful statement. here's another quote from it. she said, how could you forget the little 8-year-old, liz, who campaigned with us for you in 1978? how could you not support her? i said, you don't understand, i've known mike enzi for over 35 years. lynne cheney said i heard enough of that. i want to tell you something, shut up, just shut up, shut up. three times. i wandered off, stunned. go read the whole thing. this is not a normal statement. this is a very colorful. >> this is a facebook post. >> it started, i think it was the knees posted this on facebook t. media found out. >> lynn kane denied it, he's like oh, are you not going to deny this this really happened. >> you own this. >> i will tell you everything that happened. for her to say he was rude to her granddaughter. i pine, she's just to brazen.

it's just the two -- and liz kane's entitlement here, can we talk about that? we got a lot of crazy tea party people doing things because they believe in them. this is pure opportunism. in is a person who has had everything in life handed to her. she's never had to work a day in her life for anything. she thinks she is going to take this senate seat away from a friend of the fathers. >> it is not playing out. this seems like this is not a campaign that's going well. there was a poll a month or two down 34 points. i can't imagine how this is playing in wyoming. >> i i think a lot of people in wyoming think, wait a minute, you were just in virginia. >> right. >> that creature of washington and you are going to fly back here and tell us that we should vote for you? i mean, good luck with. that that, i mean, that works in places like new york, where someone who comes if from the outside runs away. >> and there is a tradition there. >> there is a tradition there. new yorkers love the kennedys and the clintons, but as we are seeing right now, wyoming is

sort of too through with the cheneys. >> there is not a lot of people there. they know tear representatives well in a way i am not sure other people can understand. there is one representative in congress. i think this is also a reminder the cheneys are some of the most brazen people in politics. i think to do what? cheney doing something out of political convenience? i am shocked. a cheney line. what could happen? ha! >> fun wyoming facts, a small state. there are only two escalators in the whole state in the population, milwaukee, memphis and louisville all bigger than the state of wisconsin. we will now turn to virginia where democratic gubernatorial candidate -- losing my train of thought here -- terry mccullough, they held a first televised debate on thursday. they wasted no time calming each other out by fame. here's what happened. >> he's referred to gay virginians as self-destructive

and soulless human beings. >> if terry is elected. we have to trade to quid pro quo. >> frankly, i think california women have had enough of ken cucinelli's experience. >> thank goodness i've taken latin. this is interesting the basic dynamic each candidate is particularly well liked. it certainly stooems seems if you look at thele poing now, ken cucinelli is more disliked than terry mcauliffe than there is in reverse. >> the gender gap is different. cucinelli has hurt himself with women. it's great to see people campaigning on women's reproductive rights in virginia. but it's a winning issue there. >> that is an interesting thing. virginia, a generation ago, solid republican, dope south conservative state and voted like a dope south state. now you have, right the issue terry mcauliffe, ken cucinelli

wins this, loses this thing, maybe it's because his ties to this business. maybe because he's too conservative. >> i think the reproductive rights issue some are overlooking as a national why, an issue played out in states and in districts which is that if you look at the swing states in the last election, where the republicans have pushed beyond the pale, whenitative gone out of their way to do things to women that are invasive, insulting. they have paid the cost with single and married single with children and with young single women. i think virginia has a case of. that i mean, they don't have that much of a chance. but there is. >> you tee'd it up as the third one, another governor's race, texas, 2014 democratic state senator wendy davis. she will likely be running for governor. she confirmed this week she had some kind of announcement in the next week, presumably. >> that means she will be

running for governor against greg abbott, jonathan the democrats finally have a chance to win the governorship of texas, to win state wide in texas. it's a story i have been hearing election after election after election. it keeps leading to lopsided republican wins. when you look at wendy davis, do you see any hope of that changing for democrats? >> look the luck has to change sometime some. where and if it starts to change with wendy davis, i mean, i've asked people, so, will texas go blue or go purple in time for 2016? 2020? folks say, no, it will be a very long time everyr be every that happens. as i said before, it has to start somewhere and given the reaction to wendy davis' real filibuster over something real, this is her shot, her personal shot. but this is also the democrat's shot to start the real process of turning texas purple. >> well, i think one thing it's

going to rely on is women. women are outraged t. other thing is latinos and latino women t. latino population is lagging behind the country in voter history. there are reasons for that. democrats know that will be the secret. if she can marry her popularity with women and reproductive rights and reproductive health and do something real turning out latino women and voter education, i think it's exciting. can se win? it's going to be very hard? does she set it up for a quicker turn purple? absolutely. >> it's the last democrat who won a governor's race in texas. anne richards in 1990. she obviously was historic to be winning the race as a woman. she also had this very, you know, populist apole. she had that speech where she ridiculed george burn bush, born with a silver foot in his mouth. i looked at wendy davis, she tapped into the populist view.

maybe a little ann richards thing here. >> it may be interesting to note, anne's daughter, cecil richards now runs planned parenthood. we will see this turn no a fascial race. will you see a lot of money pouring in. i gave money to wendy davis, i'll say right here, rather than buying the shoes, i gave money to her. you know, i think i.t. might take us a step towards turning texas purple. it will be interesting to watch. wendy davis is an amazing magnetic personality and i look forward to seeing it. >> let's also remember, she did another filibuster. it was on behalf of education. so she really does come with a populist record. not to diminish women's rights, it's not merely. it really is. >> it wasn't a one off. >> the filibuster, too, as a way of sort of building, getting a message out, that is what we will talk about tomorrow, so we will get to that in tomorrow's

show, a tease there. before that, it is not too early to talk about the mid-terms of 14, 1914, that is. we talk woodrow wilson. that's next. across america people are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®. he said victoza® is different than pills. victoza® is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once-a-day, any time, and comes in a pen.

and the needle is thin. victoza® is not for weight loss, but it may help you lose some weight. victoza® is an injectable prescription medicine that may improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. it is not recommended as the first medication to treat diabetes and should not be used in people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. victoza® has not been studied with mealtime insulin. victoza® is not insulin. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. symptoms of a serious allergic reaction may include: swelling of face, lips, tongue, or throat, fainting or dizziness, very rapid heartbeat, problems breathing or swallowing, severe rash or itching. tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. serious side effects may happen in people who take victoza®, including inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), which may be fatal.

stop taking victoza® and call your doctor right away if you have signs of pancreatitis, such as severe pain that will not go away in your abdomen or from your abdomen to your back, with or without vomiting. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you have any medical conditions. taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. the most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, and headache. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. if your pill isn't giving you the control you need ask your doctor about non-insulin victoza®. it's covered by most health plans. [ male announcer ] now, taking care of things at home is just a tap away. ♪ introducing at&t digital life... ♪ ...personalized home security and automation... [ lock clicks ] ...that lets you be closer to home. that's so cool. [ male announcer ] get $100 in instant savings when you order digital life smart security.

limited availability in select markets. ♪ >> to pay for world war i, the president of the united states oversaw the creation of a borrowing mechanism known as the debt ceiling. >> that is just one of the many ways that we are still feeling the reverb racings of the presidency of woodrow wilson. it was wilson more than anyone that created, shaped and defined the way the president as we see it the pay presidents see themselves. the annual tradition of the president walking into the house chamber and delivering a state of the union address to a joint congress, wilson was the first to do that before john adams, be every that, it was a written message t. federal income tax, american military adventurism.

it is no accident the president and george w. bush's policy compared to was woodrow wilsons. shortly before the end of world war i, he wrote to an arizona senator saying i am thinking now only of putting the u.s. into a position of strength and justice. i am now playing for 100 years hence, now, the u.s. 100 years later, most of those years, wilson's rep takes has been re-assessed downward in many ways, by african-americans, free speech, dissent. they all suffered. even wilson. was dissatisfied, frustrated by his limits in the way he was ultimately thwarted by congress. maybe a little of that sounds familiar these days, too. his legacy is a complicated one. someone here analyzing it is pulitzer prize winner. scott, thank you for joining us. >> happy to be here. >> i have been look forward to

haveing this conversation. make you can take us back to that time and look at the presidency as wilson envisioned it. the way he changed it. how just his vision of the presidency was a dramatic departmenture of what the country had known before him. >> it was, indeechld largely, when he arrived in the white house the legislature was dominating american government, in particular the senate, many of whom were in the pockets of a half doesn't very rich men in this country. wilson believed there should be a leveling of that. he believed the executive branch and the legislative branch should really co-operate and i money that literally. they, he wanted them to co-operate the government. so as a result of that, he really tried to humanize to personalize the presidency. as you suggested, he began showing up in the congress, which is something the legislature had never seen before, state of the union addresses. he called 2005 joint sessions of kovenlth whenever he had some

serious proposition to make, he would calm them all back, even in the dead of washington summer and get them talking. so the big thing wilson did, i think. this translates into present day and what is going on, in the international scene. he believed in sustained dialogue with adversaries. >> when he was, one of the themes i think of how we have been talking about the obama presidency is the limits that come with the presidency. you are a democratic president, especially in this day and age, the republicans control the house. the republicans insist on the 60-vote senate, on that become agnew tradition. there are serious limits on what you can do. wilson came up in some big ways, didn't he? >> he did. wilson believed there are no limits until somebody says there are. until the congress says enough or the sproem court says you are doing something ill local. the president can do whatever he thinks he can do. >> i was going to say, is the visiting of congress the calling the joint session, the humanization of the presidency,

i think there are people that mock the idea obama could be making more progress if he did those kind of things. you seem to say that did help wilson, do you think if he took that personal touch. i know some people of congress feel they have been snubbed by him. >> i think on both counts it helped wilson and can help obama. i think obama has a lot of the hallmarks that wilson had. i think just this idea of being rational, of thinking before attacking, things like that, he's often accused of being too slow in getting into wars. this was an accusation against woodrow wilson as well. he kept us out of war for several years before the first world war. i think the president could and is starting to rip a few pages out of the willson playbook. >> one of the things you said when it got to the center, you were looking at the newspapers, is all of these headlines, talk about that. . >> well, i will. in fact the one that struck a

me. i think is the historic calm for obama in the running today on the "wall street journal." well, i think this is historic in and of itself that president obama did something yesterday and the "wall street journal" used the word "historic" to describe obama today. this is just an outrage to me. but the thing is here we are in the 20th century playing on a map that wod row wilson literally drew in 1919 and i think just the concept again of having dialogue with enemies, having everybody sit at a round table. we have united nations in session today. we have the security council actually coming to an agreement on something here. everybody making a small compromise for the larger cause. these are all the ideas. >> that's sort of the best of wilson's policy. he envisioned the league of nation. we see how the united nations should work.

there is clearly a sort of a downside to the legacy of wilson's of the aggressive promotion of democracy world wide, over the last decade we learned that doesn't always work is there that is correct. that'. good or bad, love them or hate them, our foreign policy at this minute goes back to a speech woodrow wilson gave on april 2nd, 1917, the declaration of war he asked congress to prepare. in the middle of that speech he said the world must be made safe for democracy. basically every american incurrings since, whether it's vietnam, whether it's questioning about syria, wherever we have gone, iraq, afghanistan, has all gone back to that one wilsoniandepending not. >> we talked about his legacy being assessed downward since he left office. we always had this difficulty on questions of race, going back to a different era, era before civil rights and what we know today, but even for his era it

strikes me that wilson was way behind the times. look at theodore roosevelt, taft, wilson, wilson deserves some of that grief, doesn't he? >> he deserves some of it. he wasn't way behind his time. in fact, i think he was rather centrist in his day, truth be told. but he was a southerner, no question, raised in the south, raised with segregation. he did impose jim crow into washington, into the bureaucracy there. so that he does deserve the bad rap for, no question about it. he wasn't anti-african-american. he wasn't trying to put the black man back into the box. but he just believed the country wasn't ready for segregation. again, this was a period in which ku klux klan members proudly sat in the senate and on the supreme court. so in the scheme of things in 1913, wilson was somewhere in the middle. but he -- the most progressive president we'd seen was really the most regrelszive when it came to race. >> ten yoors before that theodore roosevelt invited an

african-american to the white house. i want to thank a. scott burke for joining us. read more about the 28th president in his book, "wilson." what do we know now that we didn't know last week? our answers after this. with an innovative showerhead plus wireless speaker, kohler is the proud sponsor of singing in the shower.

[ male announcer ] some things are designed to draw crowds. others are designed to leave them behind. ♪ the all-new 2014 lexus is. it's your move.

all right. we've reached the end. time to find out what our guests know now that they didn't know when the week began. jill? >> we know democrats hate ted cruz and a lot of republicans hate ted cruz, but ted cruz is currently leading the national republican 2016 race. he is the candidate who's on top. so what he's doing is working with the people that he's trying to reach. >> it's playing well in the bubble. definitely. jonathan? >> this so-called flip-floppery of the president when it came to military action against syria turns out has yielded incredible benefits. today we're talking about the first-ever conversation between the president of the united states and the president of

iran, first time since 1979. we're talking about the u.n. voting on a security council resolution to get syria's chemical weapons and before this week but syrian president or dictator bashar al assad finally admitted what everyone knew all along, that he had chemical weapons. the president's flip-flopping yielded concrete results. >> ana. >> a wonky point about the adorable care act on twitter, which is an account you can follow to get pictures of cute animals. republicans and democrats follow it. >> bringing the two parties together. my thanks to our guests. thank you for getting up and thank you for joining us today "f for "up." tomorrow, newt gingrich and thanking c-span for thiz theatrics.

how "snl" covers politics. up next, melissa harris-perry. a look at what it costs to keep someone alive for one more day and this painstaking question -- is it worth it? melissa is next. see you here tomorrow at 8:00. thanks for getting up. help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger.

you feel...squeezed. congested. beat down. crushed. as if the weight of the world is resting on your face. but sudafed gives you maximum strength sinus pressure and pain relief. so you feel free.

liberated. released. decongested. open for business. [ inhales, exhales ] [ male announcer ] powerful sinus relief from the #1 pharmacist recommended brand. sudafed. open up. ♪ from the #1 pharmacist recommended brand. ♪ save your coffee from the artificial stuff. ♪ switch to truvia. great tasting, zero-calorie sweetness... ...from the stevia leaf. from nature, for sweetness™ a confident retirement. those dreams, there's just no way we're going to let them die. ♪ like they helped millions of others.

by listening. planning. working one on one. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. that's how ameriprise puts more within reach. ♪ this morning, my question -- are you hoping your kids don't go to college? plus, the cost of life versus the quality of life in our final days. and how president obama is reshaping geopolitics in ways that no one thought possible. but first, our very own congress where no one's in charge, no one seems to have a plan, and the minions have run amok. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. late friday afternoon, president obama tried to do something rare in washington -- present a rational