send the great one off than watching his show and admiring and enjoying. >> a great show. star power there. it goes to show what a great show it is and also "the sound of music." that's going to wrap it up around here. thanks, everyone. listen to the cheer. "morning joe" starts right now. >> if i blindfolded someone and took them at 2:00 in the morning into the hong kong and said where do you think you are? this must be america, it's a

modern airport. if i took him blindfolded to laguardia airport, you'd think, i must be in some third world country. not joking. >> okay, then. what we say right here. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday february 7th. with us on set we have i don't know meacham. i don't know, the way you took those off. >> i'm reading the paper. >> president and ceo of "politico" capital new york. jim. the host of "way too early" thomas roberts. >> casual friday. >> casual friday. >> is that your version of casual? >> it is. >> i'm in jeans. >> in washington, prize winning columnist and associate editor and political analyst eugene robinson. so joe, joe biden just being blunt. >> joe biden just being joe

biden. i've got to say, i've got to comment about john roberts. john roberts version of casual friday. the guy is like palm aspirins right there. my version of casual wednesday we remember this week was me wearing pajamas on set. >> i'm a huge admirer of elastic pants and you know that. >> can we see the pocket square in full? >> it's for the olympics. >> an american flag. >> and i wore my blue shoes. >> wow. >> those actually make the slacks. >> comfortable. all about comfort. >> you spent a lot of time planning that. >> i did. i laid it out last night. >> you know what my saying is, mika, clothes are good enough to

sleep in, they are good enough to wear the next day and i prove that every day. the comment by joe biden. he's right. laguardia is an absolutely miserable airport. the worst part is after you escape laguardia, certainly the delta terminal i go to all the time, they are making upgrades. once you get on the runway, you're lucky if you're 15th or 20th getting in and out of there. so the conditions especially -- >> that's the shuttle. >> the new york airports are deplorable. absolutely deplorable. >> go to jfk you have to add another hour just to walk to your gate. >> i did that yesterday. >> unbelievable. >> it was good exercise but that was it. >> you have to really make an extra hour. so if you're flying internationally, make three extra hours. i don't know. i think biden was absolutely right. should we get to the news, joe? >> lets do it. >> today's "washington post"

forecast 2014 midterm elections and republican party's chance of taking back the senate. some of their best opportunities to gain ground are in west virginia and south dakota where senators jay rockefeller and tim johnson are retiring. in both states republicans have over a 70% chance of winning. things are a bit closer in iowa, montana, louisiana where the gop holds a slight edge to pick up over 50%. overall the post gives republicans a 54% chance of grabbing the six senate seats needed to hold the majority. meanwhile -- why are you laughing, jim? >> how can you come up with a chance this far out? they aren't basing it on polling but old numbers. >> old numbers? >> not even old numbers but a lot of states are definitely competitive. if you look at louisiana, arkansas, montana, those aren't slam-dunks for the republican party, given the political party

which does favor republicans because of obamacare. >> you don't think they have a problem? >> they need a massive problem to lose control of the senate. you have to go through and sweep those states for republicans to have a majority. other than west virginia and south dakota, none of them are slam-dunks and some are difficulty. mary landrieu in louisiana is going to be tough to beat? >> joe. >> we better watch out, jim, you are getting perilously close to me criticizing nate silver in 2012. you wake up, gene, you see "the washington post" says republicans have a 54% chance of taking over united states senate a year from now with so many -- i think harold mcmillan said in politic, a week is a lifetime. you may roll your eyes. but at the same time we found out last year with nate silver

his numbers were pretty solid. you can brat doeak it down. south dakota, west virginia. all of us -- it's way too early to make these predictions, aren't they? >> it's way early. there's a 63% chance that i think it's really, really early to make this sort of precise prediction. we don't know what's going to happen. we don't know who is running in these states. however, nate silver's numbers were dead on, but he did know who the candidates were and i do this it's a prerequisite. i'm not going to dis my newspaper. >> joe. >> john, lets talk about the consequences of this.

democrats have to be worried about it. nobody is better than numbers than men and women in the obama white house. they had it played out perfectly in 2008, 2012. they understand these post numbers are accurate, too. they may be facing a battle in the senate. what's at stake for the obama presidency, for the obama legacy, if he spends his last two years in office with mitch mcconnell running the senate and john boehner running the house? >> it's been tough enough with split control. i think he ends up in a place where the first george bush was, where he ends up with a limited domestic agenda just because of the number of congressional opposition that appears to be quite satisfied to be reflexively oppositional to the

president. they adopt want to reach out if they have the senate as well they have no institutional reason to. one of the things that happened in this what were speed cycle is the '16 race which already fundamentally begun truly begins after the '14 election. the president trying to gather attention for issues that are important will be harder. >> one thing we know will stick is obamacare. the 30-second ads are out. here is one, especially the cbo's report this week that drew a lot of controversy. here is one about senator kay hagan of north carolina who some see as vulnerable in the 2012 elections, an ad from one of her potential challengers. >> kay hagan votes with barack obama 96% of the time. what will it take to change her mind? how many families will have to lose good health coverage? how many workers will have to lose their jobs?

how many people will have to pay for kay hagan's loyalty to obama. >> jim, we'll see a lot more of that over the next months in states like louisiana, arkansas and north carolina, actually, those ads are more effective. those are the three key states that determine who runs the senate next year. >> you brought up a good point earlier, what are the consequences for the president. the consequences in the short-term, not just 2014, you're seeing these senators start to back away for the president. kay hagan when the president goes for a trip there doesn't want to be seen with the president. you've got senators like pryor critical of the state of the union speech. that is what president has to worry about in the short-term, these senators have a political incentive to go against the president. his approval rating 37% on

average. that's not good. >> prior breaking from the president on minimum wage. just a week ago republican leadership seemed optimistic about comprehensive immigration reform which it stalled during last session of congress. >> this problem has been around for the last years. it's turned into a political football, and i think it's unfair. i think it's time we deal with it. how we deal with it is critically important. it's one thing to pass a law. it's another thing to have the american people behind that law as you're passing. >> seven days later there's reversal of expectations led by john boehner himself. take a look. >> i've never underestimated difficulty this year. frankly the biggest obstacle we face is one of trust. the american people, including my members, don't trust that the reform we're talking about will be implemented as it was intended to be.

the president seems to change the health care law on a whim whenever he likes. listen, there's widespread doubt whether this administration can be entrusted to enforce our laws. it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes. >> some democrats have said they are not discouraged by boehner's comments. senators like mitch mcconnell and jeff sessions has said the divide between the two parties is too wide. senator lindsey graham said there's a chilling effect from the health care law about getting high-profile projects passed. joe. >> jim, i want to go back to you just because this really does feed into the health care law. democrats rightly could roll their eyes at republicans, always pointing to the affordable care act for everything that happens, including the polar vortex.

in this case i've heard time and time again from house republicans, why should we pass comprehensive immigration first. we want border security first. he wants amnesty first. with obamacare he enforces what he wants to enforce and changes what laws he wants to change when he wants to change them. that's freezing the house republicans from going all in on comprehensive immigration reform bill. >> no doubt. speaker boehner had his leadership team behind the idea of doing immigration reform this year. they went into a retreat and every single member stood up at this retreat and said no way. there's no way we go for it. we don't trust the president to implement it. we don't like key policies debated by leadership, put out in talking points before they had this retreat. there was a small window of the problem is again politics affects everything in an election year. you have mitch mcconnell so

worried about his status in kentucky he went way to the right of speaker boehner and she we don't think it will happen. now prospects of significantly lower than they were a couple weeks ago. they were pretty darn low back then. >> you know, thomas, the interesting thing is that when john boehner and the house republicans come out taking this position on immigration reform, they actually are upsetting a lot of their natural allies, whether it's the u.s. chamber of commerce, whether it's k street, whether it's "the wall street journal." a lot of their conservative allies are really upset with him right now especially "the wall street journal" this morning. >> you make a great point. u.s. economy ampled 2.5% growth for 4.5 years. political class seems intent on

fighting over the blame rather than trying to escape malaise. the latest evidence is john boehner's punt on immigration reform. only days ago the house speaker floated a set of reform, but the response from anti-reform right was so intense that he emerged at the capital on thursday to more or less declare that nothing will happen on immigration this year. so great is the gop fear of talk radio backlash that it won't pass even smaller bills. the result of doing nothing will be defacto amnesty in which 11 million illegal immigrants will continue to work using fake doults and goal will look even more unwelcoming. i passed last year. everybody if it came to the floor of the house it would get by. john boehner thinks the haster poll, they didn't have it. >> they didn't have it.

they couldn't get a majority of republicans then but they could have gotten it through at that point. that editorial is right. this is not in the interest of the republican party. you know, these reasons, though, that i'm hearing for them not moving ahead don't make any sense. number one, president obama has said do it piecemeal. the white house indicated if you want to do it in pieces instead of comprehensive, that's okay. they will look at that approach. i think they will accept that approach. they want to get something to conference. i guess that's what republicans are scared of. number two, the idea what boehner said yesterday, we can't agree and it's obama's fault. if he stubs his toe in the middle of the night as he's going to the bathroom, it's obama's fault. it's laughable. >> all right. >> mika, my only pushback to the

"wall street journal" editorial would be it's not just talk radio republicans as "the wall street journal" dismissively puts anti-immigration bill caucus, this is probably fairly widespread. we saw george w. bush in 2006, 2007. as president of the united states thinks he had immigration reform passed. there was a popular uprising, the likes of which both sides of the aisle had seen. you had george w. bush, presumptive republican nominee john mccain, liberal line of the senate ted kennedy. you had "the wall street journal." you had "the new york times." you had the consulting class in washington, the lobbying class in washington, the chamber of commerce. everybody on the side of the bush immigration bill. and it didn't get passed. so this is -- you know, mika,

i'm a humble man, and i rarely say to anybody i told you so. but i've been saying this for a year now, oh, he's going to get immigration reform at the end of the year. he didn't get background checks. been saying all along, and go to the tape as they say, this is the hardest lift in a republican conference, in a house republican conference. i didn't think it was going to happen a year ago. i don't think it's going to happen now. >> okay. go ahead. >> going to ask joe, do you think there's the allergy to anything big is universal, beyond immigration reform. do you see any break in this gridlock, if the republicans take the senate, that will make 1990, '91 gridlock look fluid. >> i think the great distrust

isn't anything big, like you said. think about the last 12 years, we had big wars. iraq, afghanistan. both seen as failures by the american people. we had a big bailout, bank bailout where too big to fail got bigger. a big stimulus program where the president made it later a lot of those shovel ready projects aren't ready and they still aren't ready. there's a great distrust of t t that. on the republican side, harry reid, if they think they have a greater shot passing immigration reform a year from now, "washington post" says, after all, they have a 54% chance taking over, i did that for vandehei. it's going to pass on their terms. it will be like 1996 where bill

clinton had to decide do i want welfare reform or not. if i do, i have to sign the republican bill. that's what barack obama will face next year if the republicans take over the senate. that's what republicans are waiting for now. >> we still have to get to terry mcauliffe, 60 parties in 60 days, something about booze and cruise. we'll get to that. we talk too much here. >> we? >> joe, you'll be happy to know -- yes. >> we or mo? that was directed at me. you said we talk to much here. you're not talking about gene robinson. >> i don't talk too much ever. >> no, but i do. >> not thomas roberts, not meacham. could be vandehei. also, joe, you have something in common with an assistant secretary of state. it involves the need for a seven-second delay. we'll have that coming up. coming up also on "morning joe,"

tom harkin of iowa, david axelrod, nbc's david gregory and my conversation with the editor in chief cosmopolitan magazine joanna coles. that got interesting. up next, a look at the morning papers. plus, willie joins us live from sochi, the olympic park there. first bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. >> it's like 60 degrees in sochi. >> it's gorgeous. >> like where the winter olympics are, hold it in kansas city where it's 3 degrees. >> or new york. >> exactly. beautiful conditions in sochi the next several days, next week and a half at least. i have all good news for areas in the united states especially as we look to the east coast this weekend we get a break. the west coast you don't get a break, but that's exactly you what wanted. let me explain. another cold morning, especially northern half of the country. yesterday was the coldest morning of the winter. how about snow on the east coast? we're not getting any. no snow, maybe an inch or two,

buffalo, burglary, you'll see snow showers. the great news on the west coast, you're going to get drenched. drink up, california, you could get eight to nine inches over the next week and mountains could see snow in the next 48 hours. again, eastern seaboard no problems for any travel today through the weekend. we're slowly going to warm things up after a very, very chilly week, snowy week, too. you're watching "morning joe." [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah.

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papers, i can final see them. "wall street journal," five schools expected to open this morning after shutting their

doors for two days because of the lingering concerns over water supply. students and staff complained of feeling lightheaded and itchy after smelling a licorice-like odor. it's similar to an incident last month that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 residents. >> and from our parade of papers, "the washington post," the american heart association is just releasing new stroke prevention guidelines. for the first time are very specific to women. the report says women should monitor blood pressure before getting pregnant or taking birth control. in addition, the report says women who develop high blood pressure during pregnancy have doubled a risk for stroke later in life. stroke is the third leading killer for women in the united states. >> financial times apple repurchased $14 billion of its own stocks in the first weeks of decides pointing stocks.

tim cook says the move shows they are confident it will rebound. scores down 8%. apple bought back $40 billion of its shares over the last year. >> from the los angeles time any anti-abortion rights groups in the american life association are calling for a nationwide boycott of girl scout cookies. good luck there. the group says girl scouts are promoting abortion rights by supporting politicians like wendy davis. the statement on the website, cookies sales partnership with planned parenthood, the girl scouts don't have an official position on birth control. door to door cookie sales start tomorrow. i'm still trying to figure out, mika exactly how buying a cookie gets wendy davis elected governor of texas. i'm sure it was the fact she was 21 instead of 19 when she lived in a trailer. >> lets not go there. she lived in a trailer.

all right. >> lets not. by the way, can i just say, no, no, my grandmother lived in a trailer. some of my best summers were spent hanging out in a trailer in georgia. people talk about living in a trailer like living in a log cabin. they are kind of nice. try it sometime. go ahead, mika. >> i didn't say anything bad about trailers. >> people have been saying she lived in a trailer when she was 19. so what? >> it's not down by the river. come on. >> hey, hey, hey. do not criticize my lifestyle choices are my lifestyle choices. >> i'm not criticizing your van down the river. >> i was born to live that way, down by the river. do not judge me. >> down by the river. >> this is not a choice. it's a way of life. mika, go ahead. >> you have your treacherous

boots on. >> i do have treacherous boots on. >> you must know how to suffer. boston globe olive garden offering parents a free night out by picking up baby-sitting tab. the restaurant is teaming up with my gym childhood services, they can drop off at a participating gym and head to olive garden for $25 three-course meal. >> this sounds like an advertisement. >> can i borrow your kids? i'm taking kate and jack out to my gym. >> the promotion available tonight. we're going to the olive garden. >> i love it. >> an interesting piece in the "times" about pressure on middle -- high end doing well, low end, the red lobsters, olive gardens are in trouble. >> they are in transition for a lot of reasons including health.

>> mika, can i ask you a question. have you ever actually been to an olive garden before? >> not a literal one. >> hold on, everybody, please. i've got the witness. >> i've driven by one. >> have you ever been to an olive garden before? >> no, but would you take me to one. >> okay. so don't judge people who go to olive garden. go to olive garden and tell my friends -- can i finish -- get the tour of italy. there's 4,000 calories there but you get the best of everything in the tour of italy. this week's parade magazine, a special feature, 50th anniversary, beatles historic debut on the ed sullivan show. of course that's unbelievable. lets go to the video. it changed the world. >> very cool. >> they are arriving in new york.

unbelievable. >> look at the girls. oh, my god. >> change the world. fifty year ago on ed sullivan, changed american culture, changed american music, changed everything. you know what they are saying is changing the culture forever in richmond, mika. >> terry. >> terry mcauliffe. not exactly cutting a jeffersonian or madison-like frame there with his 60 nights of parties. >> virginia governor terry mcauliffe opening up his pocket in a charm offensive winning over republicans in the state legislature. this is -- at the center of his plan, top shelf booze and kraft beer. he's talking governor's mansion with better alcohol and opening up the doors to nightly receptions. he's even dubbed it 60 parties in 60 days. i can see the obama white house

taking a cue. his wife and kids in virginia for the school year. since he's home alone, he's reportedly telling reporters just to simply ring the doorbell -- lawmakers, not reporters, lawmakers, and grab a drink. >> virginia is for lovers and thirsty people. >> that is slightly jeffers jeffersonian. every night he was in the white house he would have dinner for lawmakers and he left his family at home. >> joe, this is a story just for you. take it away. >> well, you know what i'm going to say. >> what are you going to say? >> please don't make me say it. why don't you say it instead of me. >> okay. a top u.s. diplomat has been -- >> no, no, no. this is what bill clinton did. you could impeach him in the morning and he would golf with you in the afternoon because he

knew he needed another bill pass. this is something historians will note, that this president has never really gotten. he doesn't understand or he doesn't think it's worth it to him personally to reach out to people who obviously don't like his politics. that's what terry mcauliffe is doing for 60 days. it pays off for governors and presidents that do it. that's the reality of it. >> i think you can do it with kids. >> i take the opposite side of this. terry mcauliffe is a freak of nature. he really makes bill clinton look shy, reserve, lean. he has unbelievable stamina. he loves to party, loves to be around people. the president made a decision he wants to be with kids. i think a father spending time with his kids is not a bad thing for a president. there's no time set aside for

lawmakers. mcauliffe takes it to the extreme, spends so much time with lawmakers they won't want to spend time with terry mcauliffe. >> my goodness, i don't know. it's a fine line for sure. coming up, willie is out in sochi at the winter olympics. we're going to ask what to expect from opening ceremonies and if social media is overplaying the problems with the host city. >> speaking of top shelf liquor. >> that's true. "morning joe." sports is next with willie geist. eight million new jobs. new businesses. new factories. new hope. still, it's harder than it should be to raise a family... save for retirement. so president obama is urging congress to give america... a raise. his plan raises the minimum wage to ten ten an hour. and requires equal pay for women to boost family incomes.

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>> want to show you how beautiful it is in south beach, florida, i mean sochi, russia. it's so beautiful. it's the winter olympics. our willie geist is there. he's going to fill us in on the atmosphere. have you taken off another layer of clothing yet? >> thomas, i talked to you about an hour ago. i think it's warming up a bit. it's nice. it's 50 something. obviously with the sun out, it fees like 65 degrees. we're in a coastal town. i have a few things before i go further. i'd like to comment, mika's glasses look great. first i've seen of those. totally sign off on those.

meacham, we know you're smart, intellectual, you don't have to bring fake glasses into the equation. >> middle age, man. >> willie, i'm actually just seeing you for the first time. you're very sweet looking. i haven't been able to see for a few years. >> you're looking good. keep the glasses. thomas, i like the blue kicks, i have the same ones. now we've covered all that ground. so tonight, guys, is the night. just a few hours the opening ceremony in the stadium behind me, fisht stadium. $600 million it cost, $51 billion that went into the olympics from the russian government. it will be a pretty cool show we're told. we don't have a lot of inside information but we'll see the full scope of russian history including hammer and sickle. you'll see all of it through. a cool night. some of the competition got under way yesterday. we had slopestyle snowboarding, new this year, missing shaun

white who with drew from the event. there was some question about the safety of the course. he said he was doing it to focus on another event. team figure skating, which is news. you have pairs, couple of individuals, it happens over two different nights. the americans did not have a good night. jeremy abbott, the male, fell on one of his moves, a quad. it looks like americans will have to fight to get a medal in an event they thought they would get one in. off and running, kicked off in earnest. it's a busy time in sochi. >> willie, it looks absolutely beautiful. have fun. we did discuss your toilet issue, it's all good. >> you're looking okay. looks like a chandelier. >> are you playing 18 later. you have your golf sweater? >> do you have white shoes on. >> i don't have white shoes. putin would put in a golf course

right now if you asked him. that's how he rolls. he could have that done by dinnertime. >> we'll talk again. coming up next, dr. jeffrey sachs from mika's must-read opinion pages. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains...

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♪ if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. >> all right. here with us now director of earth inside substitute at columbia university economist dr. jeffrey sachs. joe, you know our friend at force, the mitt romney guy, he wants his son -- will take all four of his kids to the olive garden with you. >> good.

do you think ed has been to the olive garden? >> i'm going to guess he's never set foot in the olive garden. >> i was just e-mailing with fournier, we were having a debate, just about as heated as that. it was basically olive garden versus applebee's. he's an applebee's man. personally i like the garden. >> what about friday's. >> the olive garden in honor of dr. sachs. >> the tour of italy takes you all over. >> really. can't leave out red lobster. >> ruby tuesday's. >> let me speak up for red lobster. >> please. >> go aheaders gene, red lobster. >> no, red lobster. that says it all. i would go there over olive garden. >> i've got the question for

you, mika. >> yes. >> what restaurant, this is now your host, what restaurant have i eaten in other than mcdonald's or wendy's or crystal's or whataburger. what restaurant have i sat down and even the most meals in my lifetime. >> pf chang's. >> not even close. you know it's true. ruby tuesday's by a country mile. >> ed has been to olive garden. he's been to ruby tuesday's. >> i've been there a thousand times. >> that's gross. >> time to move on. lets talk about making the country a better place. >> ground round. do you guys know that place? "huffington post." how the obama administration congress and keynesians gutted budge. the congressional budget office

outlook for 2014-2024 makes for grim reading. while the budget deficit is temporarily down to around 2% of gdp. this has been achieved by budge cuts that address social environmental needs. there's blame to go around on all sides. yes, the republicans have been intransigent in their opposition to higher revenues. but who was it that campaigned in 2008 to make the bush era tax cuts for all but 2% of households? who was it that signed the fiscal cliff agreement in january of 2013 after an election victory to make the tax cuts permanent for all but the top .5% of households? that was president obama. ouch. okay. joe, you want to take it or dr. sachs? >> yeah, i do. jeffrey, we all know and we're all saying, you and i were saying a couple years ago, all economists were saying a couple years ago that the deficit was

going to go down, start rising again. speaking of ron fournier, wrote about this yesterday, too. it's going to keep rising. the debt is $17.3 trillion. it's going to keep going up. the real challenge comes over the next decade, the time the cbo talks about and our economy is slowing down. that's less revenue coming into the government, the entitlement price is hitting a wall. yet washington, both sides, are doing absolutely nothing. >> i think it is really useful for people if they have a moment to get on the website of the cbo congressional budget office. every six months or so they put out a forecast of what the next 10 years would look like under the current law. it's pretty interesting reading. it's the way to get beyond the hour to hour or day to day news and take a look at where we're really heading. i found this version -- this

issue, which came out just a few days ago pretty sobering. it's kind of the summary of what the last three years of fiscal confrontation has left us with. what it's left us with is low tax collections, high mandatory spending and shrinkage of all the rest of government to a level that will leave america without science, technology, science, skills, education we need for the future. everything is distorted in this picture. it's pretty alarming reading in my view. yes, the deficit rises again later in this decade. the debt ratio begins to rise again. the level of tax collections is basically much lower than was thought, and we end up with

almost no civilian government at all. do people want this? there's no way this is a budget people would want. we've ended up in a mess. >> would you argue historically that the move from the deficits in the '80s to the surpluses in the '90s was more of a function of private sector growth, of the information economy's explosion, obviously slightly higher tax rates, too. to what extent would you attribute the prosperity of the '90s, which we would all like to have again, to public sector work or private sector. >> one thing that's happening slowly step by step, which means the '90s can't be recovered just the way it was. the population is older and health costs are higher. so that portion of the budget that goes to medicare, medicaid, social security, that's rising. our tax collections are less than in the '90s. so you put those two things

together, plus debts will rise in the next few years because of all the debt we've built up. what you've done is squeeze to an amazingly small level all the rest of government. all the rest of government may sound like a footnote. that's education. that's job training. that's environment. that's energy. that's science. that's technology will that's the stuff that makes america able to compete in the future. that's infrastructure, roads, power, ports. >> gene. >> jeff, how does the cbo project economic growth? obviously if you have more growth you've got more leeway there and the whole picture looks better. >> the picture that they paint is of an economy for the next 10 years. pretty slow, nothing spectacular. of course that could change but there's nothing we're really seeing also that makes that change the way you normally get

faster growth is by more investment. we are cutting investment. we went for consumption-led recovery we've been talking about for years in my view is the wrong way to go. there's nothing that makes growth magically appear to fund a more dynamic budget. but they are projecting modest growth basically over the next 10 years. >> i disagree with projections on economic growth, i think we have a great decade ahead. >> i hope you're right. >> i do agree with jeffrey 100%, mika, that we have everything backwards. you look at the cuts that we're making to our budget, accounts for 10, 11, 12% of our budget. whether it's rnd or education or infrastructure, whether it's science, technology, it's investment in the future, that is a really small portion of the budget. i'll tell you what, we need to

invest. we need to double down. we need to double down so we stay out of china, india, brazil, developing nations all across the world. if we take care of the entitlement crisis, enact tough tax reform, we can do all things at once. but as jeffrey said, we've got everything backwards. we're like a corporation saying, you know, we're going to really focus on investing and pouring money into these bloated pension programs that are unsustainable but we're going to slash r&d. i wonder what corporation, what company, what business would survive over the next decade, the next five years, next three years with that approach. that's the approach we've been taking in washington. that's the approach that has to change now. i agree with jeffrey 100%. >> i think politicians who do --

manage to make investments smart are going to succeed. >> all right. dr. sachs, stay with us. coming up more than half top college grads going into six fields and none of them are focused on building businesses. we're going to talk to an author and entrepreneur who has a plan to change that. keep it right here on "morning joe." [ julie ] the wrinkle cream graveyard. if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing. clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it targets fine lines and wrinkles with the fastest retinol formula available. you'll see younger looking skin in just one week. one week? this one's a keeper. rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots rapid tone repair. from neutrogena®.

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>> i think we'll have a much more positive impact on the economy. so for whatever it's worth, that's what i think. i would like to say one other thing -- >> the last thing i'm going to say, i don't think god is through with me. ♪ don't get fooled again ♪ this is crazy here is my number ♪ >> you know it's fun to kind of be the old guy and sit back here and see where the next generation takes this great institution. it really is. it's been a great institution for 60 years.

i'm so glad i got to be a part of it, but it really is time to go, hand it off to the next guy. it really is. in closing, i want to quote johnny carson, who was the greatest guy to ever do this job. he said, i bid you all a heartfe heartfelt. >> welcome back to "morning joe." jim vandehei, john meacham, gene robinson with us. joining us from washington, we have the moderator from "meet the press" david gregory. in chicago senior adviser from institute of politics and msnbc contributor david axelrod all along with joe and me. >> you know -- >> yes. >> lets talk about jay leno for a second. there's a guy who had a lot of negative press through the years. the other late night comics

loved punching that guy all the time, but he went out where he has been for 20 years now, on top, number one, the undisputed champ of late night television. he didn't always get the respect that, say, david letterman and others got. but man, if you want -- johnny carson believed because he was a central time zone guy as well as i think it was dick ebersol that said you win the ratings wars in the central time zone. and you know, that's where leno and carson and a lot of the great late night hosts won it, not in new york or l.a. but middle america.

leno deserves respect. number one with a bullet for years. >> looked like a great show last night. we've got a great group this hour, with the two davids in washington and chicago. start with the "washington post" which forecastses the 2014 midterm elections and the republican's party chance of taking back the senate. there may be a midterm problem for the democrats. some of their best opportunities to gain ground are in west virginia and south dakota where senators jay rockefeller and tim johnson are retiring. in both states republicans have over a 70% chance of winning. things a bit closer in iowa, montana and louisiana and alaska where the gop holds a slight edge to pick up seats apparently just over 50%. overall, the post gives republicans a 54% chance of grabbing the six senate seats needed to hold the majority.

meanwhile senator mark pryor is fighting for re-election in arkansas and breaking on a key issue. he says he's against increasing the federal minimum wage because the hike democrats are seeking is, quote, too much too fast. still minority leader nancy pelosi told reporters yesterday the president is, quote, absolutely not a drag on the democratic ticket this year saying they are very proud of their record working with the white house. joe. >> well, certainly the president is not a drag on the ticket if you have nancy pelosi's district. mark pryor's district, david axelrod, i want to go to you here and put on your cap as not his former obama political adviser and friend but as a commentator for us on this show. there was a number that vim

vandehei brought up last hour, that barack obama in red state america is sitting at about 35, 36% approval rating. it's obviously something democrats running in those states have to worry about. how would you recommend that a democrat wins the nomination in south dakota or west virginia walk that fine line of not being seen as somebody that embraces a guy with 35% approval rating but also not seen as running away from the head of his political party? >> first let me say that to really understand the meaning of the post numbers, consider the fact that there are seven races in states where romney beat obama. seven seats, democratic seats that are up. three of the incumbents have retired. the republicans need six seats. so you can see the dilemma for democrats. in some of those states, there

are large african-american populations, however. in the president can be very helpful. in those areas, how i would use him putting my strategist cap on, i would say i need to get a very high turnout in some of these minority areas. the president could be helpful there. >> what pout in west virginia? what about the two states i talked about, south dakota and west virginia? >> well, look, i think they need to do what west virginia democrats do, south dakota democrats do and burnish their reputations as independents. they will choose issues, selective issues. one added burden is the history is not kind to the party that holds the white house in the sixth year of any presidency. there are a lot of factors at play here. i said yesterday i thought democrats ought to be more focused on '14 than '16 because this is a serious threat.

fundraising on the republican side has been very robust or independent spending. koch brothers spending they better train -- democrats better train attention on these races. >> david gregory, do you agree? >> i do. it's dichotomy between these democrats, moderate democrats who would like to create a distance with the president, even though a lot of them have good reports voting with the president until now. house democrats, not pelosi but house districts, swing districts where they want the president to go on the offense. they want him to try to fight health care to neutral, fight it to a draw and pivot to middle class issues. they want the president out there. they want him kind of leading the charge, whereas a lot of senate candidates want him to keep his distance unless he can be helpful with turnout.

i think this is the difficult issue, how much you try to distinguish yourself from the president when you've got a record pretty close to his. >> jim vandehei. >> gene robinson, question on the president and koch brothers, an important thing they bring up but aren't paying attention to. they not only have a lot of money but spending it in key districts, almost all of it on health care, polling extremely well with republicans. do they get together, coalesce, put enough money in to make appreciable efforts to combat what koch brothers are doing early on. >> they better. have you to fight money with money, do what you can do to mask that kind of spending. if i were running democratic campaigns especially in a state like north carolina, my aim would be to make this 2014

electorate look more like a presidential year electorate than off year electorate. manage to do that in terry mcauliffe's case in west virginia. if they can replicate that in states where there's african-american and hispanic in size and weight they can hold the seats. >> gene, you mentioned north carolina. lets go to racine, political fallout from cbo's report on obamacare. kay hagan some say is vulnerable in 2014 elections is facing a new ad from one of her potential challengers. here it is. >> kay hagan votes with barack obama 96% of the time. what will it take to change her mind? how many families will have to lose good health coverage? how many workers will have to lose their jobs? how many people will have to pay for kay hagan's loyalty to obama? >> dr. sachs, where do you begin

when you have a fight like that on your hands? >> well, the people that are going to get health care are not going to get kicked off, they have to bring them out to vote, obviously, on the democratic side. this is an issue that continues to have political potency, no question about it. but there are a lot of beneficiaries, will they vote, because there are lower income beneficiaries and tends to be low in these midterm elections. >> joe and meacham wants in. joe. >> jon, go to you. historically we see it every four years. off year elections have voters that are older and voters that are whiter and voters that are more conservative. now you have outside money, republicanous money going in there. it's very easy to do a 30-second ad against the affordable care act, against obamacare.

but if democrats want to coalesce as some suggested earlier, to rebut those ads, what's the 30-second ad-in support of a program that even members on capitol hill don't want to defend. >> i know what that is. meacham, you can do that. what's the ad? do it. >> you have someone who does them or used to do them, david is here. seems to me you would say we're the administration that wants to put more money in your paycheck. we want to make sure if you're sick, you can get insurance. we're for you and they are for doing nothing. it is -- however, it is a base election, midterm elections. if you go out to vote, you're probably more motivated by ideology than ordinarily. >> i certainly wouldn't be taken in by that ad? >> you wouldn't?

>> it's just the way you presented it. i would get some people behind it. david axelrod, help me out here. >> lets deal with the reality of this. they are in every one of these states hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries of this law, people with pre-existing conditions who can get coverage, people who have gotten rebates because their insurance company was overcharging, people who get seriously ill and no longer face lifetime caps. there are a whole bunch of young people who get insurance until they are 26. there are a whole bunch of people benefiting. the difference today, in the past because of big data, analytics and tools people have, you can really drill down and communicate on an almost individual basis with people who fit these categories. it helps mobilize. let me say something else on the cbo report. the irony of the cbo thing, what the cbo said was that people may choose because they can get

health care now to work less hours because they won't need to work as many hours to get coverage. that's what the cbo said. everybody is so eager to quote the cbo and republican side on this issue, but at the same time the cbo says immigration reform will boost the economy. not so interested in the cbo when they say something like that. cbo, as dr. sachs knows, can be used very selectively and is distorted ways. we're seeing it in these debates this week. >> joe, you're looking very patient. >> i'm a patient man. when you belong to a political party that has had busted straight four years and you're holding four aces you can be patient. david gregory, the 30 second ad is the president told you if you like your plan, you can keep it. the president said if you like your doctor, you can keep her. show this "wall street journal"

headline that says neither one of those actually are true now. again, we can debate it on and on and on, but if democrats don't drill down deep and find people beneficiaries of this health care plan, they are going to get slaughtered in 30-second ad war. they can't keep up with those messages. >> plus, i talk to democrats facing re-election or organizing those facing re-election, they don't even want to try to win this debate. they want to try to neutralize the debate. they don't think they can flat out win it because it's too hard. the president regrets saying you can keep your plan the way it is because it turned out not to be true. there was a rollout of the health care site. here is the reality, nobody really knows the true impact of health care reform at large. not democrats, not republicans, certainly not the administration. david axelrod is right. there are beneficiaries out there. there are people who are

benefiting under this law. but if democrats are going to be trying to interpret for voters congressional budget office report on what the 2 million affected really mean, you're in a lot of trouble. this is the problem for white house and advocates of reform going back to 2010. people don't get it. they don't understand it. they are trying to understand both what they can do with regard to obamacare and what's happened to existing plan as companies start to adjust. maybe covering prescription drugs, there's a seismic shift in the health care insurance field as a result of obamacare that we really don't understand yet. >> can i get one more story in here before we go to break, that is allowed? or do you want to argue this more? >> no, no, even though we haven't -- no, we haven't debated obamacare enough over the past four years.

lets go ahead and go to another story. >> a top u.s. diplomat has been caught on tape using some salty language over the political situation in ukraine. an english language newspaper in the country first reported the conversation between assistant secretary of state victoria newman and u.s. ambassador to ukraine. the two diplomats were discussing ukraine's political leadership and the country's crisis. that's when nuland made the controversy remarks. >> so that would be great to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and, you know, [ bleep ] the eu. >> no, exactly. i think we have to do something to stick together because you can be pretty sure because if it does begin -- >> u.s. officials did not deny the tape's authenticity. almost immediately u.s. government speculated moscow had

a role in leaking the tape. yesterday a spokeswoman for the state department said, quote, certainly we think this is a new low in russian trade craft in terms of publicizing and posting this. i don't have any other independent details in the origin of the youtube video. nuland reportedly called eu officials and apologized for her remarks. joe, can you imagine -- >> if said everything on the teleprompter. no, i cannot. >> the ruppdown, our guests, no. >> or the weather or coffee. >> technology. >> going through the office the way it does. i'm not really that aware of assistant secretary nuland and her history, but i will tell you this, if i run for president and win i know who is on my short

list to be secretary of state. it's nuland. as montgomery burns would say, i like the cut of her jib. >> it's refreshing in a way. you hear people have to apologize if they work in diplomatic circles but they don't speak english. they say with he have a candid and frank discussion. now you know what they are saying. i thought it was vladimir putin who was being quoted initially. >> i want to hear the apology call. >> that will be posted tomorrow. >> remember bush in 2000 with adam clyburn, said he's a major league you know what. he came on the "today" show the next morning and apologized that you heard me. [ laughter ] >> i think the good news is that

now we're learning something here. joe may have a future in diplomacy. >> this adds to the news that we've learned on this broadcast. i've learned joe is both humble and patient. >> exactly. >> i think that's pretty clear. >> we should have my brother on about ukraine. >> we should. lets get him on. >> should we have him on? is that too much? >> no, it's not too much. >> really? my mom is next. gene, thank you. we'll look for your column online and in the "washington post," dr. sachs, david axelrod, thank you so much. david gregory, what do you have planned for sunday? >> we've got the authors of new book hrc about hillary clinton and schumer and portman. >> i love it. senator harkin joins the table to talk about raising minimum

wage and growing retirement crisis but first lets check in with bill karins on the forecast. bill. >> the weekend looks okay. we've dealt with two major winter storms and our cold outbreak. it continues this morning. it's still bitterly cold from dallas northward. temperatures apolo average in the northern plains. one of the worst winters temperature wise you've seen in many years. a cold day. couple areas of light snow. dallas could see snow showers, memphis area could see snow showers today. let me focus your attention on the west coast. we've been talking about how dry it's been during their rainy season. now we're getting what we call the pineapple express, not a reference to the 2008 movie. this is what we call hawaii all the way to california a big plume of moisture of it's going to rain harder over the weekend than at any point in the last two years. this is exactly what we needed. it's not going to eliminate the drought but step us in the right

direction. san francisco only saw four inches over the last year. l.a. you're not going to get a lot of it. most of the rain will be to the north. california a big drink for you, especially northern california over the next three days. we leave you with a shot, a place that doesn't look cold at all. opening ceremonies in sochi. temperatures are about 60 degrees. get me some of that. you're watching "morning joe." [ male announcer ] at his current pace, bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

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>> you guys are the only guys keeping the barbarians at the gate. this is a concerted, full throat well organized, well financed, well thought out long-term effort, waging a war on labor's house. because they know, they know. not all business but these guys on the right, they know without

you there they call every shot. >> i never thought i'd be back refining after all this time in my career the wave of right to work efforts, the right to pay a lower wage, the right to make sure you don't have a say in your working condition. it's not a right to work, it's a right for them to eliminate your right and to say in your work. >> we understand what he's saying there. that was vice president joe biden speaking with auto workers in washington. here with us now democratic senator from iowa, senator tom harkin. really good to have you on the show this morning. i want to go right to the federal minimum wage. you're co-authoring a bill to raise it to $10.10. you have senator pryor saying it's too fast. i've been educated in school on

this show as to why raising minimum wage would be bad for business and i simply don't understand the economy. could you please educate me why people should be paid a minimum wage or why they shouldn't be? a living wage. >> a moral and economic issue. >> i'm all about the moral issue, what are the economic issues? >> the reason this, why the economy is sluggish, there's lack of demand. people don't have much money. >> right. >> we have too many people making minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. if we increase that minimum wage over the next three years, people at least in that spectrum tend to spend that money. they shop and they buy things. it's been estimated that by giving 28 million americans this kind of a raise that it will stimulate the economy, provide more jobs and have gdp growth. that's the economic reason. >> i'm always told it's more

complicated, they won't hire people, cut hours and it's a bad idea, senator. >> that's nuts. that's just goofy stuff. >> bill gates told me it was very complicated and i didn't understand why people should get paid more than $7.25. >> no, not complicated. how complicate cindy how would you like to make $7.25 and work every day, 2,000 hours a year and make nothing and live in poverty. people shouldn't work every day and make a poverty wage. do you know that right now federal government, all of you, all of us, all your viewers right now are paying about $240 billion a year to subsidize these low wages. food stamps. >> i've been told by those tussling at my opinion on this these are just young people doing these jobs on the side so

they don't need it, people are not living on these jobs. they are not fulltime workers. >> they can say all that but they have no data to back it up. the data backs it up that the vast majority of people are adults. guess what, they are sole breadwinners of society. >> there is a slice of society that is younger, works at a pizza joint, minimum wage. you do hear from those people the number of people they have to hire if minimum wage goes up. are they disingenuous? >> or legitimate concern. >> last time we raised minimum wage. national restaurant association came out absolutely going to cost jobs, all that. that was in 2007, 2008. last year the national restaurant association came out with a statement and said during the recent recession, the one bright spot in our economy where we kept up employment and in

come was the restaurant business. you can have it both ways. okay? >> talk about the nature of your potential support in both houses. >> well, i think when push comes to shove, i think we're going to have a good vote in the senate. look at the polls. all the polls show overwhelmingly american people think we should increase the minimum wage. 70% was the last one i saw in the "washington post," abc polls. even among republicans, they are in favor of raising the minimum wage. they get it. they understand what this is about. to those who say it's too much. look, look, the last time we raised minimum wage we raised it 41% over three years. the time before that we raised it 42%. this time we're raising it 39%. it's in the same area we've done before. why we picked $10.10, because

right now the minimum wage is about 80% of the poverty wage. we wanted to get it above the poverty line and index it from then on. $10.10 gets you just above the poverty line. if we had indexed the minimum wage from the '60s or '70s, it would be $10.71 an hour now. so see, people that are working hard at the minimum wage, they have lost about 30% of their purchasing power in the last 20 years. >> it's impossible to live on it. >> you can't. >> before you go, you did an sfw interview with the quad city times saying if hillary clinton is going to run, she needs to get to iowa. what's behind that comment? did she have some work to do there? what did you mean? >> what's behind that is my esteem and friendship for -- esteem for and friendship with hillary clinton. i think she would do very well in iowa. there's a lot of support there

for her. we'd love to see her in iowa. >> but if she would do very well, can't she just wait a little bit? >> no, no, no. >> talk to me. >> she's got to come out and get around the state a little bit, let people know she's going to work for their votes, if she runs. >> how about this, can i flip it around, don't take iowa for granted. >> that's probably pretty close to the truth. >> senator harkin, thank you very much. coming up, brand-new first of their kind guidelines from the american heart association concerning women and strokes. what every family needs to know. "morning joe" will be right back. it's hip-hop. for cross-country, classical. and for jumps, i need something...special. so i use my citi thankyou visa card for music downloads

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percentages this far out. it depends who the cast of characters are. you have a state here, kentucky, that's very conservative and mitch mcconnell can lose it. it doesn't mean they are going to lose it. every poll shown as tied. his unfavorable ratings make him more unfavorable than obama. here you have the most powerful republican in all of washington who could lose his seat. >> how do you think matt is interpreted in all this, he's primary challenger on the right. doing well in kentucky. it corners mitch mcconnell when it comes to obamacare to be able to talk pout it in a way that's going to win over voters. >> what he's done is given a competitive primary forces him to spend money and forces him far to the right. you have mitch mcconnell the deal maker, mitch mcconnell very

conservative leader of the senate where on immigration he comes out and forcefully says no, not going to get an immigration deal and you have john boehner in the house saying he might. he's handcuffed to the tea party. even after the primary, high turnout to prevail in a race against a well funded democratic candidate, a strong democratic candidate. if outside money comes pouring in, you know where it's going to pour, it's going to pour on him. where else would you put it if you're a democrat? >> there you go. up next, the author of smart people should build things. did you hear that, meacham? >> i'm for that. >> explain why he believes the author, solution to economic problems is as simple as the title of his book. "morning joe" will be right back. that's insane. yep, and you can customize it.

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here with us now, founder and ceo of venture for america andrew yang, the author of "smart people should build things." smart people should build things, how to restore our culture of achievement, build a path for entrepreneurs and create new jobs in america. i think only smart people should build things. let me ask you this, it's so basic what you're saying. why are we making this point? and what are the problems we're seeing so far in terms of where they are going and where they are not in terms of building their futures. >> to use myself as an example, when i graduated from brown in the '90s, i didn't know what to do with myself so i went to law school, which is a default. >> not a bad default. >> a lot of peers made that

choice. it wasn't a good fit for me. while i was at another company, there's an issue, talent, tons of smart people heading to services, financial services, consulting and law and not enough talent heading to businesses that employ those services and are going to grow over time. it's like we're investing in layer after layer of frosting and neglecting to bake the cake. >> okay. that's one way of putting it. you look at sort of the default path for top graduates, you talked about law. we have medicine, finance, consulting, grad school, teach for america. are these the default paths? are they bad defaults? >> they are each obviously very valuable. at this point we have between 50 and 65% of top graduates heading to those paths. none leads to new business formation. the hope is if we get more of our top people heading towards early stage companies, we can

help companies expand and get to a point where they hire for new jobs. >> gen x, mad, want to take risk. great reward can come from great risk. >> but also great failure. >> sure, yeah. >> when i left the law, i left to start a company which did not work out. then i ended up having to learn really alongside a more experienced entrepreneur. what i would recommend to most people if you're not struck with this burning desire to start a company or you adopt have this earth changing idea, then you should try and find a team you can contribute to and develop within and try and get to the point you're going for that way by learning alongside someone more experienced. >> in terms of growth, we're just talking to senator harkin about minimum wage, about folks trying to get into the middle class, part of what you're talking about, your base, folks

there or above, moving up. talk about gateways, ladders for people who are trying to get to the middle class, stay there, and move up even farther. >> so when i ran an education company, most of the people that worked for the company were quite educated, middle class or above. we ended up employing a bunch of time trying to transition into the middle class. studies are showing every tech job that gets created in a community, five people without college educations actually end up with gainful employment as a result. what we're trying to do is get people at the top of the pyramid, who have the capacity to give right to new companies to create jobs, creating opportunities all over the educational spectrum. >> i like looking at your background seeing the first business you jumped into was actually a failure, so it's not just a perfect bow at the end of the story. joe scarborough has a question from you. joe. >> so andrew, i want to put up

the full screen we had a second ago about the harvard post grad degrees. i think it's absolutely fascinating. if you look at these numbers between law, medicine, finance, consulting and grad school over the past few years, you've got around 75% if you just want to round it to a number. three out of four of our best and brightest not building the pie, not growing the economic pie, but deciding how to divide it up, whether it's lawyers deciding how to do that or people in finance or in consulting. i mean, that is the real problem. we need these entrepreneurs, we need these innovators, we need our best and brightest actually creating products that grow the economy, that create exports, create jobs. those numbers are so stark. you've got 75% of our best and brightest deciding to carve up the pie instead of growing it.

>> the great thing, joe, our young people actually do desperately want to learn how to build things. we're not presenting them a genuine choice to do so. i'll use law school as an example. no one has to work too hard to figure out how to apply to law school. if you apply to law school and get in, the government will give you $100,000 to attend essentially, which is exactly what they did for me. if you want to try to join a business, a startup, it's much more obscure, inaccessible, no one waiting there with a bag of money for you typically. the young people really want to head down the path you're describing, they want to build the pie, we're making certain things very easy and obvious and certain things inobvious and inabscess i believe. if we change that, we can transform what they are doing. >> right. either not an either-or, jon meacham. i went to law school, obviously. law school was very, very good to me and gave me a lot of skills i wouldn't have had without it, just like andrew, i'm sure.

but certainly we do make it a lot easier to go to law school than go out and start up a business that can change the world. >> absolutely. as andrew said, you take the lsat, either an accepted path. you don't have to explain what you're doing. >> you have to pass it, too, you know. >> oh, that part. >> yeah. >> i'm curious, too, about andrew, to what extent do you find in entrepreneurialship, how important is the public sector, how important balancing out with the private sector? >> i think most of the entrepreneurs i meet with in cities around the country aren't really motivated by the latest tax policy move. really if you have a good opportunity in mind and you believe you have the capacity to create a business around that, then the best you can hope for is that no one is going to stand in your way really. certainly public sector is crucial towards large scale innovations and research and

development in that sector. most entrepreneurs on the ground are very busy with their very day to day bake needs for the business. >> this is fascinating. >> the decisions, jon, are actually mega decisions made. an entrepreneur will figure out it makes more sense for him or her to move their business to lets say florida or texas than be in rhode island or new york where there's prohibitive tax structures. did i hear it right? did i hear apple is going to be moving some facilities to texas? >> i don't know. itting to your point, the governor of tennessee just made community college free for any resident to try to create a workforce beginning to do -- converting lottery money to doing it, to my mind creating government in a great way to create the conditions for prosperity, conditions for growth, which goes to your point. >> talking about just as important or more important, vocational training, giving

people an opportunity to go out and get the vocational training that the united states has fallen on its face on over the past 25, 30 years. there are a lot of really good jobs out there fit them. >> yeah, no, that is some innovative thinking. >> all right. the book is "smart people should build things." andrew yang, thank you. praise on the back from dan gilbert and jeff, the ceo of linkedin, and also the ceo of warby parker, all kind of bringing a different point of view to the table here. it looks great. thank you so much for being on the show. up next, the american heart association releases important new guidelines on the third-leading cause of death among women. a report you can't miss, next on "morning joe." can you start tomorrow? yes sir. alright. let's share the news tomorrow.

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the american heart association is releasing new stroke prevention guidelines that for the first time are specific to women. women are at a much higher risk of suffering a stroke as they get older. here's nbc's tom co-still low. >> reporter: it happens every 40 seconds. someone in the u.s. suffers a stroke, among the greatest risk factors especially for women, high blood pressure. >> for women who unfortunately

may have high blood pressure during pregnancy is very important to be measuring blood pressure after pregnancy, even well after childbearing. >> reporter: a stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery to the brain or the artery ruptures. 137,000 people die each year, perhaps surprisingly 60% of them are women. >> i ignored my symptoms for six days. you just can't do that. i am so lucky to be here. >> reporter: sharon was only 50 when she suffered a brain stem stroke. had she known what to watch for, she would have recognized she was a prime candidate. she was overweight with very high blood pressure, terrible migraines with blurred vision, and during pregnancy, the dangerous conditionp

pre-emclampsia. >> slurring words. >> reporter: with stroke the third-leading cause of death for women, researchers have compiled risk factors for women, and preclampsia remains at the top. the use of birth control pills and post menopausal hormone therapy. >> it's important to see your doctor regularly to screen for stroke risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes or smoking. >> reporter: having survived, karen is now working to lose weight and get her bp under control. >> i was on the verge of a massive major stroke. >> reporter: lucky to be alive. >> that was nbc's tom costello reporting. coming up, i get a front-row seat for fashion week here in new york city alongside editor-in-chief of "cosmopolitan" magazine joanna coles. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work.

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♪ if i blindfolded someone and took them at 2:00 in the morning into the airport in hong kong and said, where do you think you are? they said, this must be america, it's a modern airport. if you took you and blindfolded you and took you to la guardia, you must think i must be in some third world country. i'm not joking.

>> it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set, we have john mecham. jim vandehei, tom roberts and eugene robinson. and, joe, joe just being blunt. >> he's right. la guardia is an absolute miserable airport. and then, the worst part is, after you escape la guardia, and certainly the delta terminal i go to all the time, they're making upgrades. but once you get on the runway, you're lucky if you're 15th or 20th getting in and out of there. so it is -- the conditions -- >> that's the shuttle. the quick shuttle. >> -- the new york airports are deplorable. absolutely deplorable. >> go to jfk, add in another hour just to walk to your gate. >> i did that yesterday. >> was that unbelievable? >> it was good exercise, but that was it. it was forever. >> you have to literally make an extra hour so if you're flying internationally, make three extra hours.

i don't know. i think biden was absolutely right. shall we get to the news, joe? >> yep, let's do it. >> today's "washington post" forecasts the 2014 midterm elections and the republican party's chance of taking back the senate. some of their best opportunities to gain ground are in west virginia and south dakota, where senators jay rockefeller and tim johnson are retiring, and both states, both republicans have over a 70% chance of winning. things are a bit closer in iowa. montana. louisiana. where the gop holds a slight edge to pick up seats. just over 50%. overall, the "post" gives republicans a 54% chance of grabbing the six senate seats needed to hold a majority. meanwhile, senator mark pryor -- >> how can you come up with a percentage chance of whether someone will win a seat this far out? they're not basing it on polling. they're basing it on, like, old formulas and --

>> old numbers? >> not even old numbers, but a lot of the states are competitive, but if you look at a louisiana, arkansas, montana, those are not slam dunks for the republican party, and given the political party that does favor republicans because of obamacare -- >> you don't think the democrats have a midterm problem? >> they need a massive midterm problem to lose control of the senate. you essentially have to go through and sweep the states for the republicans to have a majority. and other than west virginia and south dakota, none of them are slam dunks, and some of them are quite difficult. mary landrieu in louisiana will be tough to beat. >> joe? >> well, i think we better watch out here, jim vandehei, because you're getting perilously close to me criticizing nate silver in 2012. i mean, you do wake up -- gene, you do wake up and you see the "washington post" says the republicans have a 54% chance of taking over the united states senate a year from now. with so many -- you know, i

think it was harold mcmillan said in politics, a week is a lifetime. you may roll your eyes, but at the same time, as we found out with nate silver last year, certainly, his numbers were pretty solid. and you can actually break it down. gene, south dakota and west virginia, certainly -- all of us are probably bet they go republican. but we don't -- we just -- it is just way too early to make these predictions, aren't they? >> it's way early. there is -- you know, there's a 63% chance that i think it's really, really early to be able to make this sort of precise prediction, because we don't know what's going to happen. we don't know who's running in these states. however, yeah, nate silver's numbers were dead on. but he did know who the candidates were, and i do think that's kind of a prerequisite for making this sort of precise measurement. but i'm not going to diss my newspaper. >> all right. >> and we'll just write down --

>> oh, we love your newspaper. joe? >> well, you know -- yeah, you know, john mecham, let's talk about actually consequences of this, because the democrats have to be worried about it, and certainly it's something -- nobody's better at numbers than the men and women inside the obama white house. they had it played out perfectly in 2008 and 2012. they understand the "post" numbers are accurate, too, that they may be facing an uphill battle in the senate. what's at stake for the obama presidency, for the obama legacy if republicans -- if he spends his last two years in office with mitch mcconnell running the senate and john boehner running the house? >> yeah, i mean, it's been tough enough with split control. and i think he ends up in a place where, you know, the first george bush, for instance, was. where he ends up having to -- very limited domestic agenda, just because -- just because of

the number of congressional opposition that appears to be quite satisfied to be reflexively oppositional to the president. they don't want to reach out if they have the senate, as well. they have no institutional reason to. and one of the things that's happened in just this warped-speed cycle is the '16 race, truly begins the day after the '14 election. so the president trying to gather attention for the issues important is going to be harder. >> one thing we know that will stick is obamacare and the 30-second ads are already out. here's one, especially the cbo's report this week, that drew a lot of controversy. here's one about senator kay hagan of north carolina, who some see as vulnerable in the 2014 elections. an ad from one of her potential challengers. >> announcer: kay hagan votes with barack obama 96% of the

time. what will it take to change her mind? how many families will have to lose good health coverage? how many workers will have to lose their jobs? how many people will have to pay for kay hagan's loyalty to obama? >> jim. >> yeah, jim, we'll see a lot more of that over the next several months. i would guess in states like louisiana, arkansas, and north carolina, actually, those ads will be far more effective than they would be in other states, and those are really the three key states that are going to determine who runs the senate next year. >> yeah, and you brought up a good point earlier, which is what are the consequences for the president? the consequences in the short term, not just after 2014, you're seeing the senatoring back away from the president. kay hagan doesn't want to be seen with the president. you have members of -- you have senators like pryor who are critical of the state of the union speech. and that's what the president has to worry about in the short term, is that these senators now have a political incentive to go

against the president. i think in the most competitive states, his approval rating is around 36% on average. that's not good. >> pryor's breaking from the president on minimum wage. >> yeah. >> just a week ago, republican leadership seemed somewhat optimistic about comprehensive immigration reform, which had stalled during the last session of congress. >> this problem's been around for at least the last 15 years. it's been turned into a political football. i think it's unfair. so i think it's time to deal with it. but how we deal with it is going to be critically important. you know, it's one thing to pass a law. it's another then to have the confidence of the american people behind that law as you're passing it. >> but seven days later, there is reversal of expectations led by speaker john boehner himself. take a look. >> but i never underestimated the difficulty in moving forward this year, and frankly, one of the biggest obstacles we face is

the one of trust. the american people, including many of my members, don't trust that the reform that we're talking about will be implemented as it was intended to be. the president seems to change the health care law on a whim, whenever he likes. listen, there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws, and it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes. >> some democrats have said they're not discouraged by boehner's comments, but senators like mitch mcconnell and jeff sessions have said the divide between the two parties is simply too wide, and senator lindsey graham has also said there's been a chilling effect from the health care law about getting high-profile projects passed. joe? >> yeah, jim, i want to go back to you, just because this really does feed into the health care

law. democrats rightly could roll their eyes at republicans, always pointing to the affordable care act for everything that happens, including, you know, the polar vortex. but in this case, i've heard time and time again from house republicans, why should we pass a comprehensive immigration bill? we want border security first. he wants, they will say, amnesty first. so we pass something comprehensive, and we found with obamacare he enforces what he wants to enforce, and he changes whatever laws he wants to change, when he wants to change them. and that's freezing the house republicans from going all in on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. >> no doubt, and you had speaker boehner, had his leadership team behind the idea of doing immigration reform this year. they went into a retreat and virtually every single member stood up at the retreat said no way, we don't trust the president to implement it correctly, and we don't really like some of the key policies that are being debated by

leadership, put out in talking points before they had this retreat. so there was a small window. the problem is, again, politics affects everything in an election year. you have mitch mcconnell who's so worried about his own status back in kentucky that he came out and basically went way to the right of speaker boehner and said, i don't think this will happen, and boxed boehner in, and now i think the prospects are significantly lower today than they were a couple of weeks ago, and they were pretty darn low back then. >> you know, tom, the interesting thing is that when john boehner and the house republicans come out taking this position on immigration reform, they actually are upsetting a lot of their natural allies, whether it's the u.s. chamber of commerce, whether it's k street, whether it's the "wall street journal," a lot of the conservative allies are really upset with them right now, especially the "wall street journal" this morning. >> well, no, you make a great point. the editorial, we want to read,

washington's growth retreat, saying the u.s. economy has averaged 2.5% growth in four and a half years. but the political class seems intent on fighting over the blame rather than trying to escape the malaise. the latest evidence is john boehner's punt on immigration reform. only days ago, he floated a set of principles that opened the door to a potential compromise, but the response from the anti-reform right was so intense he emerged on thursday to more or less declare that nothing will happen on immigration this year. so great is the house gop fear of a talk radio backlash it won't even pass smaller bills that 75% of republicans agree on, the result of doing nothing will be a de facto amnesty, in which 11 million illegal immigrants will continue to work using fake documents and the gop will look even more unwelcoming to minorities. gene, let me ask you, because we know there was a bipartisan immigration bill that passed out of the senate last year, and everybody thought if it came to the floor of the house, it would

have the votes to get by. but john boehner, or people think that he wanted the hastert rule to use on that, but they didn't have it. >> they didn't have it. they couldn't get a majority of republicans then, but they could have gotten it through at that point. you know, that editorial is right, and this is not in the interest of the republican party. and, you know, these reasons, though, that i'm hearing for them not moving ahead don't make any sense. you know, number one, president obama has said, do it piecemeal. the white house has indicated that if you want to do it in pieces instead of comprehensive, that's okay. they will look at that approach. and i think they would accept that approach. they just want to get something to conference. and i guess that's what republicans are scared of. and number two, this idea, you know what boehner said yesterday, you know, we can't agree, and it's obama's fault. you know, if he stubs his toe in the middle of the night, as he's

going to the bathroom, it's obama's fault. i mean, it's just -- it's laughable. >> all right. >> yeah, mika, my only push-back -- yeah, i was going to say my pushback to the "wall street journal" editorial would be it's not just talk radio republicans, as the "wall street journal" dismissively puts the anti-immigration bill caucus, this is probably fairly widespread. we saw george w. bush in 2006-2007, as president of the united states think that he had immigration reform passed. and there was -- there was a popular uprising the likes of which both sides of the aisle hadn't seen, where you had george w. bush, you had the presumptive republican nominee, john mccain, the liberal line of the senate, ted kennedy, you had the "wall street journal," you had "the new york times," you had the consulting class in washington, the lobbying class

in washington, the chamber of commerce, everybody on the side of the bush immigration bill. and it didn't get passed. so this is -- you know, mika, i'm a humble man, and i rarely say to anybody "i told you so," but i've been saying this for a year now, and people have been saying, oh, well, he'll get immigration reform at the end of the year. he didn't get background checks, but they've been saying all along, and go to the tape, as they say -- >> mm-hmm. >> -- this is the hardest lift in a republican conference, in a house republican conference. i didn't think it would happen a year ago. i don't think it's going to happen now. >> coming up on "morning joe," apple drops $14 billion to buy back its own stock after a disappointing earnings report. what it says the company's prospects are in the coming year. plus, some important new guidelines when it comes to the risk of stroke in women. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the

forecast. bill? >> thanks, mika. the weekend forecast, i couldn't have better news for central and northern california. we're in the midst of just an historic drought being compared to the horrible one in the late '70s. this is what we needed, a big plume of moisture coming from hawaii, the tropical air, all the way into california this weekend. we call it the pineapple express. albeit because the air is coming from hawaii. how much rain are we talking about? the cities will probably get 3 to 4 inches, that's almost as much as san francisco has gotten in the last year. the mountainous areas will do better, some spots 8 to 9 inches through the weekend. it will last through sunday. we should dry out monday and tuesday. just the soaker of a weekend. as far as the rest of the country goes, it's cold -- very cold still in the northern plains to the east coast. we'll have some snow showers here and there. it looks like minneapolis, chicago, and then on sunday, some snow showers on the eastern seaboard. again, nothing that will cause you any travel concerns, and no big snowstorms, at least over the next four to five days east of the rockies. we leave you with a beautiful

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♪ time now to take a look at the morning papers, and now i can finally see them. the "wall street journal," five schools in west virginia are expected to reopen this morning after shutting their doors for two days because of lingering concerning over the water supply. students and staff complained of feeling lightheaded and itchy after smelling a licorice-like

odor. this is -- the smell is similar to the chemical that spilled in an accident last month that contaminated the drinking water for 300,000 residents. joe? >> from our parade of papers, the "washington post," the american heart association just releasing new stroke prevention guidelines for the first time very specific to women. the report says women should monitor their blood pressure before getting pregnant or taking birth control. in addition, the report says women who develop high blood pressure during pregnancy have double the risk for a stroke later in life. stroke is the third-leading killer of women in the united states. "the financial times," apple repurchased $14 billion of its own stock in the two weeks since reporting disappointing first quarter results. ceo tim cook says the move shows the company's confident it will rebound. shares were down 8% in the last quarter in total. apple has bought back $40 billion of its shares over

the last year. and from "the los angeles times," anti-abortion groups and american life association are calling for a national girl scout cookies. the girl scouts are supporting abortion rights by supporting politicians like wendy davis. they say proceeds from cookie sales go toward a partnership with planned parenthood. the girl scouts don't have an official position on birth control. door-to-door cookie sales start tomorrow, and i'm still trying to figure out, mika, exactly how buying a cookie helps wendy davis get elected governor of texas. but i'm sure it has something to do with the fact that she was 21 instead of 19 when she lived in a trailer. >> let's not go there. she lived in a trailer, right? >> yeah, let's not. yeah. by the way -- by the way, can i just say -- >> oh, god. >> no, no! >> what? >> my grandmom lived in a trailer in dalton, georgia, some

of my best summers were spent hanging out with my grandmom in a trailer in dalton, georgia. like people talk about living in a trailer like it's living in a log cabin or something. they're kind of nice. try it sometime. go ahead, mika, you can go ahead. >> i didn't say anything bad about trailers. >> no, i know, but people have been saying, oh, she lived in a trailer when she was 19. or she lived in a trailer -- so what? >> it's not down by the river, come on. >> oh, hey, hey, hey. do not criticize my lifestyle choices or my lifestyle choices, okay? >> -- land down by the river. >> exactly. i was born that way, okay? i was born to live -- >> he says it like this. i lived down by the river. >> this is not a choice. >> where has this gone? >> we feel judged. >> do you? you have your treacherous boots on, so -- >> i do. >> you must know how to suffer. "boston globe," olive garden is offering parents a free kids'

night out by picking up their baby-sitting tab. >> wow. >> well, there you go. the restaurant chain is teaming up -- >> i'm there. >> -- my gym child fitness centers. parents can drop off their children at a participating gym and head to olive garden for a $25 three-course meal. parents just need -- >> this sounds like an advertisement, by the way. >> you can just drop them off. can i borrow your kids? taking kate and jack out to my gym. the promotion is available tonight. we're going to the olive garden. >> i love it. >> there's a really interesting piece in "the times" last week about the pressure on the middle -- the high -- the high-end restaurants are doing very well, and low, sort of lower end, and the middle, the red lobsters, olive gardens were in trouble. >> they're in transition for a lot of reasons, including health. >> mika, can i ask you a question? mika, have you ever actually been to an olive garden before? >> not a literal one but --

>> have you been to -- hold on, hold on, everybody, please, i've got the witness. she's my witness on the stand. >> yeah. >> have you ever been to an olive garden? before? >> no, but would you take me to one? >> well, okay, so don't judge people that go to olive garden. if you do go to olive garden -- >> wait, did i -- >> get the tour -- can i finish? get the tour of italy. it's about 4,000 calories there. but you get the best of everything in the tour of italy. and this weekend's "parade" magazine, a special feature is being featured on the 50th anniversary of the beatles' historic debut on "the ed sullivan show." of course, that is unbelievable. let's go to the video. >> there you go. >> this is the performance that changed the world. >> very cool. >> they're arriving in new york. >> look at the girls. oh, my god. look at them. what? >> change the world. 50 years ago when this were on "ed sullivan," changed american

culture. changed american music. changed everything. >> yes, it sure did. >> what they're saying is changing the culture forever in richmond, mika. >> oh, terry. >> terry mcauliffe. >> yeah. >> not exactly cutting a jeffersonian or madison-like frame there with his 60 nights of parties. >> virginia governor terry mcauliffe opening his own pocket in a new charm offensive aimed at winning over republicans in the state legislature. this is -- well. ahem. at the center of his plan, top shelf booze and craft beer. he's stocking the governor's mansion with better alcohol and opening up the doors to nightly receptions. he's even dubbed it 60 parties in 60 days. i could see the obama white house maybe taking a cue. mcauliffe's wife and kids are in northern virginia for their school year, and since he's home alone -- well, no, no, since he's home alone, he's reportedly telling reporters to simply ring

the doorbell -- for lawmakers to ring the doorbell -- not reporters -- lawmakers, and grab a drink. >> virginia is for lovers and thirsty people. >> that is slightly jeffersonian. every night jefferson was in the white house, he had dinners. and he constantly left his home. >> okay, joe, this is a story just for you. take it away. >> well, you know what i'm going to say? >> what are you going to say? >> please don't make me say it. >> okay. >> why don't you say it instead of me? >> okay. a top u.s. diplomat has been caught on camera -- >> no, no, no, no. no, this is mcauliffe. this is what bill clinton did -- >> oh. >> -- you could impeach him in the morning and he would golf with you in the afternoon, because he knew he needed another bill passed, and this is something that historians will note, like john mecham, that this president has never really gotten. he doesn't understand -- or he

just doesn't think it's worth it to him personally to reach out with people who obviously don't like his politics. and that's what's terry mcauliffe has been doing for 60 days, and it pays off for governors and presidents that do it. it's just the reality of it. >> i think you can do it with kids home. my parents would -- >> i'm going to take the opposite side. terry mcauliffe is a freak of nature. he really makes bill clinton look shy, reserved and lazy. >> remember on the show? >> and the guy has an unbelievable stamina. he loves to party. loves to be around with people. the president has made a decision, he'll be with his kids, which i think is not a bad thing. i think as a father with young kids, spending the time in the evenings with them is not a bad decision. and whereas with joe, there's no time set aside for lawmakers. mcauliffe will take it to the extreme and spend so much time with lawmakers they won't want to spend any more time with terry mcauliffe.

coming up, my full interview with cosmo's joanna. she had me on her treadmill in heels. did you put that in there, louis? including a sneak peek inside her exclusive fashion closet. >> spring lipsticks. mika, come here. >> i'm a pinkie girl. is that bad? >> a pinkie girl is great. >> okay. >> foundations, perfumes, lip glosses. >> being in charge of cosmo has its perks. my afternoon with joanna coles, a very glamorous afternoon straight ahead. ♪

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♪ all right. so we got the first friday of the new month, which means that the january jobs numbers have just come out, and cnbc's brian sullivan joins us with the breakdown on the economic news. if we get meta on it, we see the unemployment rate has dropped. explain where we see the best results. >> the headline number was a big miss. we expected 180,000 jobs to be created in january. unfortunately, the number was lower than expected at 113,000. to your point, the unemployment rate actually coming in at the lowest since, i believe, 2008. it's 6.6%.

there is some good news, though, in this report here, despite the headline miss. and twofold. really, number one, is we saw the labor force participation rate actually tick up a slight bit last month. it was not a lot. but it was not down. there's been a big sort of to-do about how people have been dropping out of the labor force, which is actually sort of artificially depressed the unemployment rate, because you have to be looking for a job to be counted. so people who have just vanished have not been counted. the labor force participation rate creeping up just slightly. the other sort of highlight -- i guess highlight is too strong a word -- to me the average weekly hours worked held steady from december to january. the reason i highlight that is that we have had this fear out there that because of a number of different factors, employers would cut back either full-time workers to part time, or cut back people's hours in general, at least from, thomas, the headline data, we did not see a drop in average weekly hours

worked from december to january. construction, manufacturing, mining saw job gains in january. overall, though, a headline miss, trying to dig out a few of the brighter spots, so it's not 100% negative. certainly not the kind of number wall street will want to see, necessarily. but it does put the federal reserve back into play with the very dovish janet yellen as the fed chair. will this perhaps slow or stall their taper program of the reduction of the stimulus in the economy? we'll have to wait and see. >> yellen being freshly sworn in. let's talk about the participation issue, brian, because everybody likes to talk about that, and how decidedly some people pile on when it comes to people just not looking for work anymore, as opposed to other people who then say, well, there's a certain population that's aging out. so how are people going to look at this as seeing a slight up tick in those that are participating? >> it means more people are looking for a job. and i think if you feel -- listen, there are people out there that we've talked to, we've met around this country, that have basically said, i've been looking for a job for two years.

>> mm-hmm. >> it's basically impossible. the fact that people -- more people are trying to find a job would indicate they feel more optimistic perhaps about being able to find a job. and i'll give you another piece of data, and listen, the long-term unemployment rate, those unemployed for six months, 3.6 million, still obscenely too high. that said, the number did decline by 232,000 -- let me double-check that number. i'm going off the headlines with -- yeah, down by 232,000 from december. so there was a slight drop in the long-term unemployment rate, a slight up tick in the labor force participation rate and average weekly hours held steady at 34.4 from december to january. so a few bright spots, not going to define this as a good jobs number, certainly coming in below the headline number. weather, obviously, will be blamed. weather has been excused by every ceo -- oh, it was too hot, too cold, it was just right. they use it --

>> goldilocks. >> yeah, exactly. nothing is ever perfect. we can all agree that given january and the ridiculously cold weather, i think weather probably does play more of a real role in this number than maybe someone would admit. >> brian, real quickly, prediction for how the markets will roll, because we started off the week so horribly. we closed out yet with a bang. what do you think this will do to activity today? >> i was afraid you'd ask that. futures are down right now. they took a drop when the number came out. that said, for the last couple of years, thomas, we've been in a "there is no bad news market." because every time we get, quote, bad news, well, maybe the federal reserve will step in, buy more bonds, see the taper, so we might see the good news is good news effect today in the economy. it's kind of like tv, right? bad news is good news in some respects. more makeup, please. >> tv, hurry up and wait. brian sullivan, great to see you. >> thank you. >> up next, jay leno's emotional farewell to "the tonight show."

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♪ late-night eyes were glued to "the tonight show" as jay leno bid farewell to the show he's hosted for two decades. nbc's miguel almaguer has the story. >> reporter: the final curtain call. a 22-run as host of "the tonight show" is now over. >> i don't like good-byes. nbc does. i don't care -- >> reporter: leno left off where he started, number one in the ratings. his first guest in 1992 also his last. >> billy crystal! you're moving to 9:00. >> yes, 9:00. i just have to get it straight.

for the tivo. >> reporter: thursday night, there were surprises. a string of stars belting a melodic tribute. carol burnett and oprah winfrey said good-bye. ♪ you'd buy them all a car >> reporter: jay leno leaves a late-night legend. >> i bid you a very heartfelt good night. >> reporter: he took over the reins from johnny carson in '92. for more than two decades, he made america laugh. >> what country was the vietnam war fought? >> korea. >> korea. >> i can't do this anymore. sorry. >> reporter: now at age 63, leno steps aside for 39-year-old jimmy fallon. the show may be over, but leno says he won't stop performing. he'll continue to do stand-up, and he's had offers from other networks. but he says he's done with late night. but first, his good-bye. >> this has been the greatest 22 years of my life. [ applause ] and i got to work with writers

and just all kinds of talented people who make me look a lot smarter than i really am. and in closing, i want to quote johnny carson, who was the greatest guy to ever do this job. and he said, i bid you all a heartfelt good night. >> reporter: a final ovation, but not his last act. >> we thank jay for the laughs. next, we kick off fashion week in new york city. and no one knows fashion better than joanna coles. mika's interview with the "cosmo" editor in chief. wait until you see this. mika on the treadmill in heels? [ male announcer ] are you so stuffed up, you feel like you're underwater?

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♪ if you want to start a fashion trend, there is no better place than new york city, and there's no better week than this one. fashion week is officially under way in the big apple where the biggest names from around the world come to create and show off the latest trends. i spent the day with someone who knows just a little something about trends, the editor in chief of "cosmopolitan" magazine, joanna coles, and after taking me to my first runway event, joanna and i went back to her office to discuss the latest issue of "cosmo" and the business of fashion. ♪ happy fashion week. >> happy fashion week.

>> my first one. did i embarrass you? >> i hope there will be many more. >> i'm going to come. >> obviously, you embarrass me, and i will be going back and telling people that she would not have anything to do with me. >> it was fun. >> it's enormous fun, and it's odd how much business gets done on the front row. you're constantly talking to people, picking up intelligence, and finding out what we're going to wear -- >> and yet bombarded with business. and it is, though, this is part of new york's fingerprint, fashion week. you know, it was exciting to be in there, and to be with you, because you're at the center of it all. i mean, they all came to you, joanna. >> well, it's really fun. and the thing people forget is that fashion is an enormous business, especially for new york. it employs 180,000 people, brings in $9 billion to the bottom line, $1.9 billion in revenue, tax dollars, and we had, what, 55 million tourists last year, all of them are shopping. and it's a huge business.

but it's a really fun business. it's social, it's creative. you've got crazy people at the center of it. and it's very visible. so you can take part in it. you know, you can walk down the street with the big hats on and feel like you're stylish. >> oh, yeah, you can do anything there and you're stylish. the show we were at, bcbg, you immediately said to yourself sochi, right? >> i did. because there was a lot of fur going on. it felt very russia-influenced, a little anna karena, but i thought, they must have had it in the back of their minds. there was a parallel going on. >> now to "cosmo," because at the show we were at, you saw a "cosmo" model. what was it about her that you liked? >> i like the fact she looked strong. she didn't look lien a thin, white-wasted youth, like some of the models. and she looked 25, not 18. those are the models we want in

"cosmo." >> how has the magazine evolved, do you think, under your tutelage, under your leadership? >> we're very focused on the dna of the magazine, which was what helen girly brown, the great editor of the 20th century, was really brilliant at creative, about confidence, and women having voice in all areas of their lives. so in sex and relationships, but especially at work. it's extraordinary in 2014 we still have to talk about equal pay for equal work, that we still have to talk about access to really good health care and contraception. so we really talk about many things in "cosmo," but it's really about women accessing confidence. >> it has evolved into a magazine with some good advice in it, don't you think? >> good, good. i think so. this is very good advice. this is about knowing your own value. listen, you're a fantastic regular contributor and a very good one, because you've been sort of a career's worth of

advice, which our readers love. and one of the things we do is we ask some of america's most successful women for the shortcuts for our readers, so what might have taken you five years to learn, you can give in a paragraph to our reader. >> so the magazine has evolved in lots of ways under you, because i see a change. i like what you're looking for in a model. is that -- >> well, we've also transformed the fashion. we hired actually from amazon their style director. who is very fixated on what people actually want to wear. and there's a big difference between the sort of luxury fantasy fashion and actually a divide to something that will get you out in the morning, helping you live the life that you want to lead, and that's the fashion that's in "cosmo," and we don't pretend that $4,000 for a woman who's 23 is a good investment to spend on a bag. we say take some of that money and spend it on a bag which will last you three years, but also put some money in your savings

or put money towards an apartment. >> i would never spend $4,000 on a bag. >> well, it's interesting to me how the idea of investment fashion has become very current with young people. and it's very important that they understand, i know they have, you know, student debts to pay off, rent is very expensive, especially in all the big city, and it's important that young women have control over their finances, because it's the single-most important then that can give you an independent life. >> watching you work today, your job is crazy. >> my job is crazy, but it's also really fun. you couldn't do it if you didn't have a good time doing it, and i love people, meeting people, and i get energy from people. some people are intro verted, they don't like other people, but there's nothing i like better than going in a crowded room and finding the story. >> you see ideas everywhere. to see you, it's amazing. >> -- find the model, great confidence and power. i don't recognize her, and i

want to hire her -- >> you sort of collect people's ideas, and it's so much fun talking to people, because everybody has a different spin on things, everybody has a different experience. i truly find it energizing, but i also understand that nobody everybody does. >> you mentioned earlier, you said it's like a campaign. you do have -- you were a political reporter, so you know what campaigns are like. i would agree with you. >> yes, the fashion months kick off with new york fashion week, and then the serkous rolls to london, and then milan, then paris. and it really is like a campaign. and what you're looking for is new ideas, things that are surprising, new trends, new designers, new models. >> all the while, people are coming at you, throwing things at you, putting cameras in your case, microphones in your mouth, and what do you think? and you're thinking, well, i want that hat. over there for my march issue. >> yeah, yeah, so there's a lot -- plus you're managing a team, you really are like an army, you know, dissolving across the city looking for things, and then getting the

intelligence that they're bringing back, so it is like a military campaign. >> you are constantly going. you have a treadmill in your office. >> i do have a treadmill in my office. i do. otherwise, i get exercise panic at 4:00, i have to get on it, and just speed up. >> i'm trying to use your treadmill looking like the bcbg models. do i look like that -- >> i thought you'd come straight from the show. >> right, okay. i look ridiculous. let's look at some of the topics you tackle, like, for example, what do you have coming up that you think stands out? >> one of the issues we've already had, i think, 15,000 comments on facebook is about college dating, and we took a girl who graduated top of her class from harvard, who wrote this an wished piece about how difficult it is to date, even somewhere at like harvard, partly because digital technology has made communication sort of less specific than it used to be. >> yeah. >> and secondly, that men in particular are exploring a wider

sexual fluidity. and with the sort of sense that women always experimented at college, now men are doing it more, too, and that's very complicated for girls. >> so let's talk about dating. i'm so frightened for my daughters. match.com, i don't know what else -- >> there are many, many dating sites and wund of the things we're seeing is people have dating a.d.d., so you go out on the date, and if the guy isn't exactly what you want, there's a lot of action going on under the table, match.com, oh, he looks good, wink. so there's a sense in which sea is full and rich, and you might not want to settle for what's across the table. >> i don't want to go back at all, do you? >> no, i think the nice then about getting older, which you never anticipate, is there's hard-fought wisdom along the way which helps you with the ups and downs, the ebbs and flows of life. >> and you share it all in here. >> thank you, joanna coles.

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♪ come back new. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that parker. well, did you know auctioneers make bad grocery store clerks? that'll be $23.50. now .75, 23.75, hold 'em. hey now do i hear 23.75? 24! hey 24 dollar, 24 and a quarter, quarter, now half, 24 and a half and .75! 25! now a quarter, hey 26 and a quarter, do you wanna pay now, you wanna do it, 25 and a quarter - sold to the man in the khaki jacket! geico. fifteen minutes could save you... well, you know. welcome back to "morning joe." thank you so much for being with us this morning, and all this week. it's time to talk about what we learned today. mika, i tell you what, i learned two things. one, the "washington post" says there's a 54% chance republicans are going to take control of the u.s. senate next year. also, the "wall street journal" reporting there's a 55% chance that i will wear thomas roberts' shoes by the end of the month.

they are beautiful. and i need them now. mika, what did you learn? >> we'll move over to mecham's shoes. it's obviously -- >> it's snowing. >> i walked to work in my shoes. >> can we do "my three sons"? >> and, by the way, thank you to joanna coles, had so much fun yesterday. she's crazy in a very good way. joe, what'd you learn? >> hey, hey, t.j., can you get the camera up? my god, what are you doing down there? unbelievable. t.j. i mean -- >> go ahead. >> t.j., so inappropriate, talking about your glasses -- stick around. chuck todd is coming up straight ahead. i hope you guys have a great weekend, and as always, thank you so much. t.j., get off of her! thank you so much for your patience. a weak jobs report for january. the unemployment rate does drop again, but the numbers are