the people who took us into iraq, who tied us into this blood feud should cease and desist from ever again saying the word iraq. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. stay tuned now for "weekends with alex witt." a call to arms in iraq. new action today as extremists in that country march toward baghdad. now the u.s. might get involved. reaction ahead. the fallout from a shocking week in washington. in the end, which party might benefit from a surprise election result? new developments in the search for malaysia flight 370. one effort to find it involves reward money. it is a moment that stunned movie goers. see how one company delivered a message to a crowded theater. good saturday morning, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt."

i'm frances rivera. here's what's happening this morning. hundreds of shiite men are heading to volunteer centers to join the fight. it is against the radical sunni militants who have covered a large sloth of the country and are advancing on the capital. president obama addressed potential u.s. involvement but also called on iraq's leaders to set aside the sectarian differences that sparked the turmoil. >> we will not be sending u.s. troops back into combat in iraq but i have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support iraq security forces, and i'll be reviewing those options in the days ahead. the united states will do our part but understand that ultimately it's up to the iraqis as a sovereign nation to solve their problems. >> after eight years of war in iraq and nearly 4500 americans killed, the potential for more u.s. involvement met with a mixed reaction from the veterans who served there.

nbc's stephanie gosk looked to several yesterday at fort stewart, georgia. >> keep putting soldiers in harm's way over and over and over again. somewhere it has to stop. >> we have a supporting role, yes, but we don't have a role in front. we should assist them from the back. >> president obama is monitoring the situation from california this morning. the president and first lady arrived in palm springs last night for a long father's day weekend. nbc's kristin welker is in palm springs traveling with the president. kristin, what more is the president saying? >> reporter: well, frances, good morning. president obama is going to deliver the commencement address at uc irvine a little bit later on today, but white house officials say he will spend much of this week end consulting with his national security team and weighing his options in iraq. among the options that he is considering, airstrikes as well as targeted drone strikes. at this point in time it seems

as though the drone strikes might be the more likely option and, again, president obama making it very clear that he's not going to put u.s. boots on the ground. here's a little bit more of what president obama had to say yesterday. take a listen. >> we're not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation in which while we're there we're keeping a lid on things and after enormous sacrifices by us as soon as we're not there suddenly people end up acting in ways that are not conducive to the long-term stability and prosperity of the country. >> now president obama also said the decision is not imminent. some members of congress, republicans like john mccain saying that the president is dragging his feet, that he should take action quickly. white house officials pushing back on that saying that president obama needs to get all of the intelligence and then assess the intelligence before making a final decision, but i

anticipate that there will be some type of decision within a matter of days and not weeks. one more point that i will make according to a senior administration official, the president will likely announce short-term and long-term steps. some of the long-term steps that we might see, beefed up military support of the iraqi government and also an increased presence at the embassy there in iraq. those are some of the options that the president is considering. frances, back to you. >> kristin welker traveling with the president. we thank you this morning. joining me now lynn sweet and congressional reporter for the washington post ed o'keefe. thank you both for being with us this morning. >> good morning. >> lynn, let's start with you. are there any options that everyone, we're talking democrats here, republicans, and the white house can agree upon? >> not right now. this is a war weary congress and, yeah, obama has to worry about his own base of support here. this is the president who was elected with the pledge to end

the iraq war so he has democrats who are very hesitant to get involved and understand there is a problem but are trying to hold back a little bit to see if something obvious happens with the iraqi government that could give them more reason to be very supportive. on the other hand, as we all know, he has republicans who are speaking out criticizing him for not keeping more troops there, who say that if he had -- that at the high point of the surge things were under control. i don't see now how there's one unified plan that everybody will be happy with. at the least drone strikes are the compromise. >> ed, to you your latest article is titled "iraq violence isn't rattling democrats who once backed withdrawal". >> no. it wasn't the withdrawal that

was causing the problems. perhaps going back to the invasion is what led to the problems in the first place. most democrats or many democrats, at least, almost very quickly regretted voting to approve that invasion. i was on the phone yesterday with several different democrats of several different varieties and, you know, to a person it was this is a problem that the maliki government has to address. his shiite dominated government has to figure out a way to work with sunnis and kurds in iraq. we shouldn't even seriously think about assisting them in any kind of way. i think there are some like lynn said who are okay with some limited strikes. you will find democrats and republicans who say, look, if you want to do anything, drone strikes, missile strikes, anything related to military involvement, you've got to come to congress to get authority. remember, it was only last summer that most of congress resisted calls to take military action against neighboring syria. >> all right. we'll see if those could have, would have, should haves will

come about from this. thank you, lynn sweet, ed o'keefe. back to you in a few minutes. >> thank you. joining me now with the latest on the ground is nbc news chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. have the militants gained more ground today? >> reporter: this entire country is in flux. the militants from isis is moving. they are advancing toward baghdad. they haven't tried to assault the city but they are quite close to the border causing a considerable amount of panic in the city. some people are barricading their neighborhoods, setting up checkpoints, community watches to prepare for an invasion that they think could happen. we are now in the city of kirkuk. this is another area that's long been contested. it is the oil rich capital of the north. until a few days ago, iraqi troops were here. they retreated. now kurdish troops are in charge. this entire country is in a

state of collapse as many feel the next battle will be in baghdad. iraq's second biggest city, mosul, is now under islamic law. militants from the al qaeda offshoot isis decreed all women must veil. it outlawed freedom of religion and banned other armed groups from entering the city. mosul was one of the first cities occupied by u.s. troops a decade ago. american officials said democracy would then spread from here, not this. and the men the united states trained to fight the isis assault, they're still surrendering. with no army protection, hundreds of thousands of civilians are leaving mosul. this family, all 12 of them, walked 20 miles to escape mosul. now this tent is their home. omar blames the u.s.-backed shiite prime minister saying he alienated all sunnis in the country, made them feel second

class. volunteers and aid workers are building tents as fast as they can. there has been a massive wave of people fleeing their homes. the fear here is that this is just the beginning. kathy robinson from unhcr says the displaced, hundreds of thousands, need food and shelter. >> it's dusty. it's hot. there's nowhere to stay. there's nowhere to go. >> reporter: but this conflict may have changed. the shiite majority awoke in the holy city of karbula where it was forged in battle 13 centuries ago, volunteers signed up for a new war. shiite clerics called the faithful to arms and promised those who died fighting isis a place in paradise. today a sign of how concerned this situation is all over the world, today iran's president said that iran would consider working with the united states

if the united states was serious about fighting terrorism here in iraq. back to you. >> all right. richard engel for us this morning. thank you. the unrest in iraq is having a global impact on gas and oil prices. more on what to expect coming up in about ten minutes in our three big money headlines. and in the news now, a couple in texas who deliberately burned down their $700,000 home, that house was dangling on a cliff 75 feet above lake whitney and had been crumbling into the lake for weeks. officials said letting it fool gnat lake on its own would be too expensive to clean up. after three days of weighing the option they decided to do this, to burn it. the fire started with bales of hey saturated with diesel fuel and ignited with flares. it burned for more than two hours. the lights were dimmed on broadway in honor of ruby "d." the marquises of several theaters were turned off one by one in her memory. de's career spanned seven decades and included the titles

of actress, play wright and activist. ruby dee was 71. a huge explosion in utah was recorded by a trooper. it sent a piece of metal 1/4 mile away landing near the trooper's patrol car. they say it could have been fatal. >> if my trooper had not moved his car, it's likely he would have been seriously injured or killed. it took out a chunk of asphalt. >> before the explosion the trooper created a roadblock to prevent people from getting too close to the fire. now to weather and the severe storms hitting parts of the country. heavy rain in western new york caused severe flooding washings away a 30 foot section of road in bennington. central texas wednesday you can see a trampoline flying a few yards there right down the street. so what's in store for this weekend? nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer is here with the forecast. good morning. >> good morning, frances.

we had some of the wild storms in the northeast yesterday. that cold front clearing out some humidity and temperatures will be mild and pleasant all through the northwest but in the southwest that's where it's going to be exceptionally warm today. this white line here indicating areas where it will be above 100 degrees. phoenix, western texas, new mexico, western oklahoma and even western kansas where we are going to see some of our hottest temperatures today. we have some of our heaviest downpours to the west of m minneapolis. nothing severe. but we'll see into nebraska and iowa where we could see our strongest storms today. from the storm prediction center, areas in yellow, that's where we could see some stronger storms, isolated hail and damaging wind gusts. in red through eastern nebraska and north central kansas we could see an isolated tornado. it's more the threat of very large hail and damaging wind gusts. we'll have to focus on that area

today. down through texas we'll be in the 90s. any showers and storms are few and far between. father's day, we are looking for temperatures to get back to the '80s in new york. hot in chicago at 87 degrees. it is staying hot up near 100 degrees across parts of the southwest. it is going to be a hot father's day for those dads down there. frances? >> it is summer, dylan. thank you very much. the disappearance of malaysia flight 370 remains as much a mystery today as it did on the day of the disappearance. sunny days ahead. we're not talking about the weather. see the results of a survey that suggests optimism. >> and an epic error. the one real question no one seems to be able to answer in the shocking eric cantor loss. whatever happened to good? good is choosing not to overshoot the moon, but to land right on it. good is maxwell house.

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i have as much sympathy for mr. cantor as he would want me to have for him. why are you laughing? that was a sincere comment. come over here. okay. that he would have for me. >> oh, the chuckles. that's nancy pelosi's reaction to the defeat of eric cantor. the virginia congressman lost his primary election to his tea party opponent, david brat. joining me is lynn sweet and congressional reporter for the washington post, ed o'keefe. guys, let's start back again. we've had a few days to absorb cantor's primary loss there. is there any consensus to what happened there? is there any clarity, ed? >> i think the emerging consensus is that cantor forgot

the most basic premise is to take care of your district. his lines will be drawn in the most recent redistricting process. it made the district more republican. it added counties that he had not had before and there was a concern down there, at least according to the reporting of my colleagues that cover virginia politics that he had sort of neglected parts of the district, that they didn't know who he was, and that by spending $1 million on the tv ad campaign, he elevated brat. he told voters you have an option. if they didn't know and like him, there was another guy that spent only $123 million. >> lynn, we also heard pelosi laughing a little leading into this segment. is cantor's defeat good or where's the bad in that, too? >> you know, yes, democrats revelled in his defeat. he was seen as an obstructionist to the democratic and obama agenda. i would say people, professionals who deal in politics know that the real

warning is is that you cannot take anything for granted in politics. you never can. there's no such thing for the moment as a safe seat when you have an opponent and when you have especially as ed said new turf. so, i think why this is also great encouragement to the tea party movement, i don't know if there's a fundamental realignment here. i don't know if this will change the course of the contested house races necessarily. so i think as ed said, this was pretty much some singular reasons why cantor lost. i know people talked about immigration being a big issue in the race but it was a factor, i think one of several factors. >> all right. you have this baffling mystery here on how cantor's internal polls were so wrong. the congressman, the poll showed him with a 34 point lead. how could the pollsters have gotten this so wrong and be so off? >> you know, i don't think any explanation is going to justify

what happened and what i find kind of stunning is that in talking to all the different people who worked for cantor who consented to interviews, none of them said, you know what, we made a mistake. i'm wrong. i'm sorry. they kept finding blame everywhere else. democrats voted to are it. immigration. you screwed up. just say it. how they got a 34 point edge and then lost by 12 is totally baffling and there probably isn't a good explanation for it. you have to remember, it's nearly impossible to poll in a house race, especially a house primary, because the way polling works is you have to have a big enough sample. you can never find enough people within the congressional district to build a representative sample to get a good sense of what exactly will happen, especially like in virginia where you have an open primary process and you could conceivably have democrats or republicans show up. >> in the little time we have let's turn to mitt romney here. he's holding his annual retreat.

they're characterizing mitt romney as the king maker. does he want to be king maker? does he want the crown for himself? is there a chance he'll run again? >> i don't think there's a chance he'll run again. i likes and relishes the role of elder states man. one of the most important things that's happening at the utah gathering is that romney's top donors are there. i think this is really the race to get some of the big money people behind the hopefuls more than just the kiss of approval from mitt romney. >> ed? is he running? >> i don't know whether he wants to run or not, but the fact that he keeps holding these meetings, we keep talking about them and that's what he's looking for. he's the gop elder statesman that conceivably one day he could be tied to the nominee and he's responsible for putting that person there. rand paul, chris christie showed up this weekend out there in utah to meet with these donors. a good opportunity to possibly woo some big financial supporters. in the case of rand paul, he's not stopping in utah.

he goes onto the idaho convention and tomorrow to the iowa republican convention. it's not only about stopping to see romney's people, it's about cultivating people all across the country as they think ahead. >> jeb bush, marco rubio invited but they were not able to attend. thank you so much for your perspective this morning. as always. >> thank you. they were settling in eating popcorn and watching previews when something came on screen that stunned them all. the story behind what happened in this movie theater. it's one of our three big money headlines. this whole storing and finding things on a "computer" makes no sense to me. every piece of information i'll ever need is right here, in precise alphabetical order. i already found it. night frank. oh yeah, i found it too. oh file it, frank. with express lane from esurance, just one click can auto-fill your driving info and help you get a quote faster than ever. welcome to modern world. esurance.

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but when you look at oil prices you really have to break iraq down into regions. it's the fifth largest oil production area in the world but the south accounts for 90% of that production. so what's now being speculated is about a 5 to 10 cent increase in what you'll see at the pump for unleaded regular gas over the next few days. fairly imminent. that clearly has ramifications. if you commute or the timing, it's almost a perfect storm here. if you're planning on a road trip this summer holiday. >> let's get onto the economic ramifications. folks are in the know, right? >> a lot of things came out this week. gdp is around 3% or projected to hold that way for the rest of the year. unemployment clearly down. jobs being added. what people are looking at are wages because the vast predictor of what you're able to spend is

what you're able to make. in other words, you can't spend what you don't have. so, i don't know, let's hug an engineer because the thinking goes that if you have a stem-like career trajectory, you actually inflate the wages of everyone in your company. imagine this, the guy who knows how to code, he is really in demand. they're afraid to lose him. they need to hire more of him or her. someone says, you know what, i run that project, i did the ads. if they make it, we can't sell it, how about me? so all of the wages go up accordingly. that's good news. that's probably going to start with engineers. >> stick with them. all right. let's get this really interesting car ad on the dangers of texting and driving. really riveting. >> it is totally riveting. i'm so glad you used this word. it's from vw. they're very progressive. a massive automobile manufacturer around the world. texting and driving has now emerged as the single leading cause of youth auto accidents and what a shame.

so here's what they did. 40% of them admit they do this. come on, we know that. at the same time they're not smoking, drinking less, but all of that good. this is the thing. gosh, i just shudder to think this is what's really going to get them. vw created an ad. you go to movie theaters. before they show you previews of other movies you start seeing and i think we have a clip people driving and it's as if you're in the actual driver's seat and then they text you.

>> awfully effective. imagine you're in the seat, you see the big screen and you think, boy, if that's indicative of what can happen when i take my eyes on the screen or the road as the case may be, heaven help us. hopefully it will be as effective as other smoking cessation or ads in the country. nothing like a scare straight tactic to get that message. still to come, there is one thing that bowe bergdahl has not done yet since being released from captivity that might surprise you. also, the world cup with mexico celebrating its win against camaroon. why the u.s. doesn't have a chance to win. >> portugal, reinaldo, germany

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." i'm frances rivera. in iraq they're opposing mosul. they've answered the call to arms from the top shiite cleric and are joining the government's fight against the radical sunni militants. prime minister maliki said they're preparing a major offensive. this morning iranian rouhani said they would consider working with the long-time foe, the united states. stephanie gosk went to fort stewart in georgia where at least at one point all three of fort stewart's brigades were

deployed to iraq at one time. here's what one veteran told her. >> it's an internal problem to them. >> we should have stayed longer? >> we -- we could have stayed longer but the american public didn't want us to stay any longer. our job was there to go liberate the people. we liberated them and you have to let them rule themselves. >> so much analysis. joining me is steve clemons, member at large for the atlantic and retired colonel jack jacobs. thank you, gentlemen, for being with us this morning. >> thank you, frances. >> steve, president obama said isis could pose a threat to american interests. i think that threat to americans in iraq is pretty obvious especially with barricades happening but what about on the u.s. homeland? >> well, i think that any time an extremist group gets levers of government under its control

as we saw with the taliban in afghanistan, they can marshall forces and display them in ways that other groups can't do. obviously it's a big concern. the one thing to point out is isis has been exactly the group that president obama has been worried about in syria and arms falling into the hands of this group. and so for those people who have been advocating, you know, giving more military aid, more military support to various groups inside syria, this is the group that was the beneficiary of much of that, particularly a saudi aid. the white house's concerns were well placed. >> absolutely. certainly with the muscle they have with money as well. colonel, u.s. boots on the ground don't appear to be an option. the president has made that very clear. so what are potential moves in the u.s. playbook here? >> very few. by the way, i wouldn't rule out any u.s. troops on the ground. if we're going to provide air cover, provide airstrikes, i believe we'll probably have some people on the ground in order to

coordinate all of that stuff. i don't think we're going to permit our air power to be used indiscriminately by the iraqis, so we might have a few people on the ground. we have very limited number of options and that mostly includes tactical airstrikes to strike at targets that isis people in assembly areas. that's not going to change the long-term arc of what's happening on the ground in iraq. >> when you're talking about the airstrikes, steven, one of the warnings we've heard is that the united states doesn't have good intelligence on the targets and they can't trust the iraqis to provide a it is welit as well. does the u.s. not have any assets? >> no, we have assets inside of iraq, and quite a bit of intelligence. it's a confused picture. al maliki has been such a horrible leader. one of the reasons why isis has been making so much progress is

because so many sunnis are acquiescing to them and falling to them because they've lost all confidence in maliki. many sunni leaders and tribal leaders inside iraq that are giving way to isis are those that are normal iraqis. so the depiction of this just being this outside group coming in and taking all of this territory is inaccurate. you have a lot of iraqis that support it as a way to get maliki off their back. that's the problem in indiscriminately going after various sunni leaders in this process. >> there's another facet that we needed to touch on. while the united states is weighing its options, iran seems to be positioning itself for the action. the commander was spotted in baghdad with elite troops that have been deployed to some degree. these are the same forces that we are essentially fighting against in syria, the same ones who attacked and killed many americans during that war. how do you feel about being

allied among them? >> you can't make it up. this's nothing that will change life as much as war. there are people who are our allies, the russians, during the second world war. as soon as the armistice occurred, they're our enemies. the same thing might be true here. it's almost impossible to believe that we would be allies with iran in trying to beat back isis, the threat to the maliki government, but that's entirely what might happen. you actually can't make it up. >> yeah, a turn around we may see. steven, let's take a listen to senator john mccain on "morning joe" yesterday. >> the fact is we had the conflict won and we had a stable government and a residual force such as we have left behind, we even have forces in bosnia, korea, germany, japan where we could have but the president wanted out and now we are paying a very heavy price. >> right. so given that did we really have the war won then? >> no. i mean, john mccain is missing

two key pieces of the puzzle. one, iraq refused to give protection to u.s. soldiers stationed inside iraq. this is not imperial rome and weech didn't have the capacity to say iraq, you must accept protections for u.s. forces that are stationed there. they refused to do that. soldiers were in harm's way. we removed them. john mccain would not have wanted that for troops i don't think either. he's an honorable soldier. the other element of this which i think john mccain -- john mccain has often praised prince bandar. he was in fact isis's biggest funder in the syria conflict. when we kind of posture and we see a lot of these politicians posturing over one element of this story, it is very, very complex. bandar, saudi arabia, many sunnis are not on the side of the maliki government and are concerned about an iranian

incursion. this could become a much bigger regional problem than we're presenting. john mccain when he comes out with who should be in charge sometimes doesn't remember the disasters that some of these people have opened for us. >> thank you. we appreciate it. after five years in captivity, sergeant bowe bergdahl is back in the united states. he is now working closically with health professionals at brooke army medical center in texas. >> during his stay here sergeant bergdahl will participate in reintegration, a process that will aim to equip sergeant bergdahl with the necessary tools to regain appropriate levels of physicial and emotionl stability. >> his plane landed friday morning. the 28-year-old has yet to speak with his parents and officials say there is no time line for the final step in his reintegration process. we're joined from fort sam houston there in texas in san

antonio, i should say. sarah, any idea when his family will be joining him? why do you think they haven't already? >> reporter: a very good question, frances. they have released a statement saying they are overjoyed he is back in the united states but they did say they will not be making their travel plans public. we know as of yesterday afternoon they were not here and officials with the military say it is up to the returnee to set the time line for reunion to say who, where, and when he will meet. right now obviously that just hasn't been requested by sergeant bergdahl yet. >> as far as his condition, what's the latest? >> we're told that he is physically stable. they are working on his emotional state. they didn't offer a lot of details whether he's happy, sad, excited to be back. they to say they are beginning to reintroduce the concept of making choices to him. that's something he hasn't been able to do for himself in five years. hasn't been able to decide where to go, what to eat, what to

wear. as they're slowly introducing this concept to him, he's asked for peanut butter. >> good to see him integrating that way. sarah dalloff, thank you so much. families of the missing malaysian airliner victims are missing critically important help. means keeping seven billion ctransactions flowing.g, and when weather hits, it's data mayhem. but airlines running hp end-to-end solutions are always calm during a storm. so if your business deals with the unexpected, hp big data and cloud solutions make sure you always know what's coming - and are ready for it. make it matter.

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two new developments this week in the search for missing malaysia airlines flight 370. it's been over three months since it vanished from kuala lumpur to beijing carrying 239 people. now families of the passengers on board have begun to receive initial compensation payments. they start at $50,000 with relatives eligible to claim up to $175,000. meanwhile, other frustrated relatives have launched an effort to find the lead to the plane's discovery. sarah bay jack is one of them.

her partner is phillip wood. thank you so much for taking the time out to join us. >> we appreciate you covering the story. >> absolutely. first of all, what is your reaction to the payouts and are you eligible for one for your partner, phillip? >> those payouts are given one per passenger and phillip's primary next of kin are his two sons so the payments -- that payment will go to his sons. >> all right. go to him. let's talk about the plane that's been missing without a trace since march 8th. tell us in your thoughts, what do you think happened? >> i'm not sure where the plane is, but i am sure that it was taken intentionally by somebody and that there is information out there that just has not yet come forward, which is why we've created this reward program on indy go go. >> we'll get to that fund in a second. have you heard anything over the past three months that you think is the closest to getting at the

truth of what may have happened to this plane? >> well, there's about a dozen conspiracy theories that filter to the top as being more reasonable than others. i think those that are the most likely are the ones that involve some government interaction. >> government interaction, is that something that you believe? >> it is because no individual group could have pulled this off. it's very clear that the plane has been hidden. whether it's still intact with passengers aboard or if there was wreckage, the wreckage was hidden. there's no way it could go missing like this. >> is this a sentiment that some of the other victims' families believe as well? >> yeah. absolutely. because there's no evidence to the contrary. there's not been a single piece of wreckage for three full months, and in most airline crashes, any of them in water, there's wreckage usually for months and months afterwards. also, there's no explanation for

the plane going right over butterworth million tear ri basis with no notice. those things are not explainable. >> so many questions and so many blanks left to be filled. let's talk about this crowd funding effort that you and other family members have launched and why you think this could be the answer. out of all of the investigations and so many countries taking charge, you believe that this may be the direction that needs to be taken. >> most mysteries end up being solved through human intelligence. somebody comes forward who knows something and it could be that that person has been wanting to come forward but didn't know how to do it. perhaps they were afraid of going to the government. so our program work is not only a confidential avenue for somebody to come forward but somebody can quit the job and disappear if they need to. >> has it been difficult for all of you to organize? is there somebody in particular who's been spearheading it as far as the families out there doing it? is there any conflict as far as

putting this group together? >> well, of our seven government board members, five of us are families and we're all taking a pretty well-spread burden here. some of us do things quietly and others like danica weeks and myself have been public in the media. there's a good amount of support in the families. most of the other families are malaysian or chinese. their two governments have put a fair amount of pressure on them to basically be quiet. >> yeah, i can imagine that may make it difficult for all of you to make a consensus to be involved. has there been any resistance from any of the other families? >> there are some families who do not agree with the effort. either they feel uncomfortable with the crowd funding aspect, it's a very new concept in asia, or they're concerned that it might anger the government, but we have had one of the government officials from malaysia actually make a statement to the press that he

supports our efforts. >> we'll be watching. we appreciate your time sharing with us those efforts. our best of luck to you. >> great. thank you. still to come, sizing uphill ri clinton's book tour. we'll talk to the author of a new book about the former secretary of state. secretary of state. that's next. whatever happened to good? good is choosing not to overshoot the moon, but to land right on it. good is maxwell house. ♪ good to the last drop good is maxwell house. at legalzoom virtually all yourof important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business, protect your family, and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home...

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we certainly don't want to fight their fight because you'd be fighting for a dysfunctional, unrepresentative, authoritarian government. and there's no reason on earth that i know of that we would ever sacrifice a single american life for that. it is -- >> hillary clinton weighing in on the escalating trouble in iraq. the former secretary of state speaking last night before a crowd of 1,500 at george washington university in d.c. it is the most recent stop on the tour around her much-anticipated book "hard choices" that just came out

toils. amy pars joins me now from our d.c. bureau, thanks for beefing with us. you're the co-author of another hillary clinton book "the new york times" best seller "hrc." thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> you laid it all in the recent article on the hill, you called seven takeaways from hillary's book tour. is it going as planned or is it a little bumpier than one might expect? >> there have been a few bumps that's for sure, and it shows you can have a book tour and plan and plan and plan and execute and prep and you'll still hit bumps and she's hit a couple. one was earlier in the week with her houses comment and how she said that she was dead broke, the media jumped on that as we know. she's made another couple of gaffes describing abraham lincoln in the wrong way. and, you know, a couple here and there. so, this is just a little bit of a test to see what's to come in the campaign i think.

>> well, how do you think that's interpreted with the dead broke comment? do you think media people out there are blowing up, like, they are just waiting for her to say something, that's it, that's it, let's go with the dead broke thing? >> one thing's for sure the press is ready, the guns are out right now. this is just -- this is what she can expect i think. she is so used to dealing with the state department press corps. she talked about it last night. they were more interested in policy than politics. though national press corps ob quusly is more interested in the politics behind the clinton family and dynasty, so i think she can expect more of this to come should she run. >> you've got to bring up also hillary clinton when she got testy with npr when talking about her evolution on same-sex marriage. what do you think, too, was that something everybody was waiting to pounce on as well? >> it definitely was a testy exchange. i think people were waiting for her to say, yes, i have evolved

on it. her answer was pretty enlightening actually but she had come around but she just couldn't quite get there. so it caused quite a testy exchange and i think her staff is probably going to have to work with her on expecting more of those to come >> you wrote a book on her. in your thought is this a preview? is she going to run? is this a preview do you think? >> i've always said take it to the bank she's running that's for sure. i think that 100%. i mean, something really significant would have to happen to keep her out of this race. >> all right, significant, all right, and certainly not dead broke as far as significance goes in your view. what about the numbers will count, explain that? >> i think her staff right now is watching how many people are coming out to these events, how many books she's going to sell. these are all sort of straw polls in a way. you know, a little test of what can come. and, sure, she's packed -- she's packing these -- she's jam-packing these events.

so i think that's a good test for her. >> well, we will all be watching as will you. we appreciate your time with us this morning. >> all right, and that wraps up this "weekend with alex witt." straight ahead, "up." it's not the "confused by rotating categories" card. it's the no-category-gaming, no-look-passing, clear-the-lane-i'm- going-up-strong, backboard-breaking, cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every single day. i'll ask again... what's in your wallet? predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out.

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what exactly is on the table for u.s. military intervention in iraq? more than a decade after u.s. forces invaded iraq this week will be remembered as the week when the fragile peace we left behind there almost three years ago completely and rapidly collapsed. iraq is once again at war. it's at civil war. country ripped apart by sectarian violence. in response president obama while not ruling out military action is making it clear that the u.s. will not intervene unless or until the administration supported s