this is very typical in a situation like this. there are a couple things going on. one, the exact facts about what happened are not fully known. although, there was a briefing earlier today over at the department of defense. in addition to that, obviously the president wants to make sure that any family members who are involved have been notified and that nothing is said that might jeopardize that. as far as we know, those final notifications have not been made. having said that, it has raised some questions because some time ago when there were far more of these kinds of attacks, more protocols were put into place that were aimed at stemming the tide. josh earnest, the press secretary, was asked today about wether or not there would be a review of those protocols. here's what he said. >> we'll, of course, review this incident to see if any changes to those protocols should be made as a result of this.

but it's far too early for me to say anything about that at this point while we're still learning information about what exactly happened. >> and we are still learning about exactly what happened, but the other fact of the matter is that we're just months away from turning over control of security in afghanistan to those afghan forces. i don't think anybody was under the illusion throughout this period when the decision was made to withdraw most of the u.s. troops that it would not be fraught, that there would not be problems along the way, but without a doubt what happened today will raise some concerns. there is an ongoing investigation, and they will take a look at those protocols and see if there's any way to improve them to reduce the risk of this happening again, krystal. >> all right, chris jansing. thank you so much for that update. and more breaking news now on the ebola emergency. the second american ebola patient is now being treated at emory university hospital in atlanta. nancy writebol arrived at emory just about three hours ago. she's in serious but stable

condition after the flight from liberia. fellow patient dr. kent brantly is also being treated there. emory's special isolation unit is designed to filter and contain the air. lab tests are done right there on the scene, and any contaminated materials are cleaned of the virus and then they are incinerated. the cdc is now testing a woman in columbus, ohio, for possible ebola while here in new york health officials say a man being tested for ebola is unlikely to have that deadly virus. but they are still pushing ahead with an abundance of caution. doctors are also testing a possible patient in saudi arabia. another is under watch in the u.k. all four patients were recently in these west african nations. the cdc says those tests take about two days for conclusive results. more than 1600 are now infected in four countries. the latest are in nigeria, which now has eight suspected cases, two confirmed. they all were in contact with

liberian-american patrick sawyer, who died from ebola just last month. he flied from liberia to nigeria, showing his first symptoms on the flight, exposing a possible 30,000 people en route. british airways has suspended all flights to and from liberia and sierra leone until the end of the month. those two nations are the outbreak epicenter. hundreds of troops there are trying to quarantine entire communities to try to stop the spread. reports show that those quarantines have been extremely lax with people coming and going freely. the african development bank and world bank are sending $260 million in aid to try to help out. and now usa i.d. is deploying a disaster assistance response team to coordinate u.s. response there in west africa as well as $7 million in assistance. nbc's sarah dallof is back again for us outside atlanta's emory university hospital. what's the latest?

>> well, good afternoon, krystal. nancy writebol arrived here just after 1:00. unlike dr. kent brantly, she was wheeled inside on a stretcher. she reportedly is very weak, but she is showing some positive signs. on the ground in africa, she was able to walk from her transportation on to that airplane with assistance. we're also told that her appetite is returning. she had some yogurt before takeoff. now, her husband who has been with her in africa, is reportedly going to follow in her footsteps in just a few days. her sons are in the u.s., and they are awaiting eagerly a reunion with her. the family spoke to the aid organization s.i.m., the organization writebol is associated with, about this roller coaster of emotion they've been on. >> a week ago, he said, we were thinking about a possible funeral arrangement. yet, we kept our faith.

now we have a real reason to be hopeful. >> on to the other patient, that first patient, dr. kent brantly, his wife releases a statement today saying he shows continued improvement and thanks the staff here for their continued excellent medical care. the writebol and brantly families met last night for the first time. the writebols thanking the brantlys for their continued prayers that nancy would arrive here safely. prayers that today were answered. >> thank you so much for that report. let's bring in the deputy director of the cdc's national center for emerging and infe infectious diseases. thank you for being with us. yesterday we spoke about what we were calling an experimental serum that both dr. brantly and nancy writebol received and

showed some improvement. we know today that's called zmapp. could you tell us more about this drug and if it really is the hope that scientists think that it may be? >> i must say what i know about zmapp is what i've been able to read in the published scientific literature. so any recent developments on the product would have to have come directly from the company. but it is a mixture of antibodies directed against the ebola virus that have shown promise in animal studies in limiting the spread of the virus in animals. unfortunately, it hasn't been tested yet in human clinical trials. so it's not yet licensed by the food and drug administration. >> doctor, how long does that process normally take? >> with -- i really can't comment on this. i mean, that's something that the fda addresses. but part of the problem is the low number of cases that would be target for treatment. >> you know, as we watch this

all play out, it's all too reminiscent of a movie. i remember watching "outbreak" when i was like 10 years old and thought, there's no way this could ever actually happen. or the movie "contagion," which i was too afraid to see. the writer of that movie said the pandemic isn't the ebola itself, it's the fear behind it. he wrote, on the heels of 9/11, five deadly cases of anthrax shut down the government, yet when 200,000 died from last year's influenza, less than 37% of the population opted for a flu shot. so doctor, why do we do this to ourselves? why do we make it worse by instilling fear in ourselves? >> well, you're right. just the word ebola does strike fear in people because of some of the movies, the way it's been portrayed. to be frank, it is a serious disease with mortality rates that vary between 60% and 80%. so it is a serious infection.

but the reality is, as was pointed out, that transmission of this virus is only through direct contact, either with an infected person or with their body fluids. blood, urine secretions. so just casual contact or passing through an airport or passing through even an emergency department where a patient is, is not sufficient to cause infection. >> or even on a plane for a number of hours. it still can't pass any other way than fluids. >> that's right. if a person doesn't have direct contact with the person or with their body fluids, there's essentially no risk of infection. >> right. doctor, that direct transmission is what you're talking about. yet, some of the precautions have gone further. in africa, they've got several proposals and policies of trying to quarantine this. "the new york times" reporting today that while the policies are right, the enforcement is lax. what can you tell us about that? >> we know how to control these

outbreaks of ebola. that's active case identification. that's finding the people who are infected, getting them into one of these isolation and treatment facilities so they can be cared for, and then importantly identifying all of their contacts. that is, people who did have direct contact with the person or with their body fluids during the time they were potentially infectious so we can monitor them for 21 days to see if they develop symptoms so we can get them into isolation if they also develop symptoms. quarantined can be use to restrict the movement of people, but it's not really the most effective way to prevent the chain of transmission. >> doctor, you talk about we know how to control this thing, but in this situation, folks are saying that the difference was not some different strain of the virus. it was that the international community did not react quickly enough, did not react in the proper way. some folks are saying the reaction that we had was like trying to change a tire in a hurricane. that's how slow we were and behind the ball we were.

what should we have done differently since we know how to control the ebola virus? >> so the analogy i like to use is a forest fire. when the initial event where the virus is transmitted from an animal to a human would be like the lightning strike in the forest. that might start a relatively small fire. in this case, that small fire went undetected for a long period of time because it wasn't expected. it had never been seen in this part of africa. it had only been seen in central africa. even though few initial cases where people were dying and there was serious illness, recognizing this occurred in a relatively remote location in guinea, it was unrecognized that this was ebola. that let the fire start to spread from person to person and develop into a larger fire. and then the initial efforts to contain that fire, we thought we had done a pretty good job of containing it, but there were a few of these villages where people were reluctant to come forward with patients.

so it's like a few burning embers that were left behind that were able to reignite the fire for that first round of control. >> all right. doctor, thank you so much. >> you're quite welcome. up next, a fragile cease-fire takes effect in the mideast. will this one hold? plus, the tech boom campaign is taking advantage of new technology to target you. how it could have a big impact on november's midterms as "the cycle" rolls on for tuesday, august 5th. uto insurance premium every month on the dot. you're like the poster child for paying on time. and then one day you tap the bumper of a station wagon. no big deal... until your insurance company jacks up your rates. you freak out. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? hey insurance companies, news flash. nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

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mideast crisis is holding for now. but in the hours leading up to the three-day truce, there was heavy fighting. israel now claims to have rooted out all those hamas tunnels they were seeking to destroy. nbc's jim maceda has the latest from tel aviv. >> hello there. well, we're nearly at the end of day one of this 72-hour unconditional cease-fire, and it's still holding. there was one incident near jerusalem today. a nonlethal stabbing of a security guard outside a major jewish settlement there. otherwise, it has remained quiet. the israeli forces have pulled their troops out of gaza. many of them assuming defensive positions in case things flare up again. hamas, meanwhile, says it still has more than 3,000 rockets in its possession and it will use them if provoked. but there are reasons to believe this cease-fire will hold. the palestinians were much more involved in the process this time than three weeks ago when

they rejeked a similar egyptian-brokered deal outright. almost 1900 palestinians have been killed since then. so much destruction that the palestinians have much at stake to see it succeed. but all will depend on what happens at the talks in cairo. the israeli delegation is leaving either tonight or tomorrow morning to negotiate, it hopes, with the palestinian militants through the services of the egyptian intermediaries. but the sides are still miles apart when it comes to key demands. hamas, for instance, wants to see the lifting of that 2007 israeli-egyptian blockade, as well as the opening of all the border crossings. israel, on the other hand, demands that first hamas and other militant groups give up their weapons, give up the rocks and the tunnels and basically demilitarize gaza, which is a red line for the militants. so people on both sides,

israelis and palestinians, are hopeful, but they know the road ahead is fraught with uncertainty. i'm jim maceda, nbc news reporting from tel aviv. now back to you. >> thank you, jim. joining us now, friend of the show, former white house middle east adviser and ambassador to morocco, ambassador mark ginsburg. ambassador, as jim just said, egyptian intermediaries are making a huge difference at this moment. they were not able to make a huge difference before recent memory. how is it that egypt has been able to become so helpful in foemting peace here? >> there's three principle reasons. first of all, john kerry, secretary of state, has finally stepped back and let the egyptians and saudis basically work their will with the palestinian authority. number two, the israelis have placed far more trust in what the egyptians are prepared to serve as intermediaries and to negotiate in effect the cease-fire on their behalf,

believe it or not. because last time secretary kerry tried to do this in paris t fell apart. number three, hamas realizes at this point in time that the egyptians are going to have to play an instrumental role in the border crossings that jim maceda just mentioned. after all, part of gaza's border lies with egypt. it's to egypt much of these supplies will need to come from in order to rebuild the devastation we've seen in gaza. >> ambassador, how likely is it to hold this time around? the longest a cease-fire has lasted in this conflict so far is just one day. as we just heard, they both, israel and hamas, have the means to fire back if they want to. what's different this tomb around? what's going to make it so they don't fire back? >> abby, that's the $64,000 question. let's understand, this is really just a 72-hour cease-fire. the clock is ticking as to whether or not these egyptian

negotiations are going to result in prolonging the cease-fire beyond 72 hours. the main reason why this probably was at least agreed to were the following. one, the israelis at least have been able to destroy the terror tunnels that were lying on the border between gaza and israel. number two, israel is relatively confident that it substantially degraded the missile capacity hamas has, even though perhaps many as 3,000 missiles are left. and number three, the israelis have no particular desire to penetrate further and to leave an israel defense force inside gaza. and probably, just to add one more, the pictures coming out of gaza have probably placed the israelis in such an untenable position that they needed to be able to regroup right now and to let some humanitarian aid get through and hamas to do the same. >> ambassador, on the u.s.'s relationship with israel, you reference the fact that

secretary of state john kerry was not able to ultimately get a cease-fire in place when he tried in paris. there have also been some pretty sharp words of criticism coming from the u.s., in particular about israel's targeting of u.n. facilities. there was a quote in the "new york times" from a former ambassador to israel saying, this is the most sustained period of antagonism in that relationship. i don't know how the relationship recovers as long as you have this president and this prime minister. do you think that sustained damage has been done to the u.s.-israeli relationship here? >> i always like to put this into a perspective because despite all of this acrimony between the personalities of prime minister netanyahu and john kerry and barack obama, the one thing that i always give this administration credit for is it has continued to provide the military and intelligence assistance israel has asked for. that has been unique among

previous administrations. so all of this talk about personalities and difficulties, yes, they're there. >> ambassador, i'm going to interrupt you because we have breaking news. we're going right to the president right now, who's about to speak. let's listen. >> -- not only for the kind introduction but to bloomberg philanthropies as our co-host, and for the great work you're doing across africa to promote jobs and entrepreneurship. i want to thank our other co-hosts. my great friend and tireless commerce secretary, penny pritzker. [ applause ] i want to welcome all of our partners who are joining us from across africa. heads of state and government. and let me welcome the delegations from sierra leone,

liberia, and guinea with whom we're working so urgently to control the ebola outbreak and whose citizens are in our thoughts and prayers today. i also want to welcome madam chairperson of the african union commission, president of the african development back, as well as the president of the world bank, dr. jim kim. please give them all a round of applause. [ applause ] and i want to acknowledge members of congress who are here and who are such great champions of africa's engagement with -- america's engagement with africa. in a city that does not always agree on much these days, there is broad bipartisan agreement that a secure, prosperous, and self-reliant africa is in the national interest of the united states. and most of all, i want to thank all of you, the business leaders, the entrepreneurs, both from the united states and from

across africa, who are creating jobs and opportunity for our people every single day. i want to acknowledge my leaders from across my administration who like penny are your partners, including our u.s. trade representative michael froman, usa i.d. administrator, and our new head of the millennial challenge corporat n corporation. president of the export/import bank. director of the u.s. trade and development industry and our president and ceo of opec, elizabeth littlefield. so we are here, of course, as part of the u.s.-africa leaders' summit. the largest gathering any american president has ever hosted with african heads of state and government. this summit reflects a perspective that has guided my approach to africa as president. even as africa continues to face enormous challenges, even as too

many africans still endure poverty and conflict, hunger and disease, even as we work together to meet those challenges, we cannot lose sight of the new africa that's emerging. we all know what makes africa such an extraordinary opportunity. some of the fastest growing economies in the world. a growing middle class, expanding sectors like manufacturing and retail. one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world. more governments are reforming, attracting a record level of foreign investment. it is the youngest and fastest growing continent with young people that are full of dreams and ambition. you know, last year in south africa, i held a town hall with young men and women from across the continent, including some who joined us by video from

uganda. one young ugandan woman spoke for many africans when she said to me, we're looking to the world for equal business partners and commitments and not necessarily aid. we want to do business at home and be the ones to own our own markets. that's a sentiment we hear over and over again. when i was traveling throughout africa last year, what i heard was, the desire of africans not just for aid but for trade and development that actually helps nations grow and empowers africans for the long term. as president, i made it clear that the united states is determined to be a partner in africa's success, a good partner, an equal partner, and a partner for the long term. we don't look to africa simply -- [ applause ] we don't look to africa simply

for its natural resources. we recognize africa for its greatest resource, which is its people, their talents and potential. we don't simply want to extract minerals from the ground for our growth. we want to build genuine partnerships that create jobs and opportunity for all our peoples and that unleash the next era of african growth. that's the kind of partnership america offers. since i took office, we've stepped up our efforts across the board. more investments in africa, more trade missions like the one penny led this year, and more support for u.s. exports. and i'm proud. i'm proud that american exports to africa have grown to record levels, supporting jobs in africa and the united states, including a quarter of a million good american jobs. >> we've been listening to president obama there addressing

the u.s.-africa forum today. ambassador mark ginsburg is still with us. the president obviously has a lot on his foreign policy plate. proactively there's been a lot of talk about trade ties with africa. we just heard the president extolling that. a lot on the president's plate. we heard a brief reference at the top to the killing in afghanistan. what do you think of the white house's balance here between trying to continue to do its affirmative foreign policy agenda while responding to all of those hot conflicts? >> it's sort of like walking down a pathway filled with hot coals hoping that you make it to the other side, ari, without burning your feet too badly. in africa, as the president is speaking, all i can think of is the enormous counterterrorism challenges that the united states faces throughout north africa, notwithstanding all of the talk about trade and development.

we have a vested interest. look what's happening in libya. look what's happening in the subsaharan africa area. we don't hear any talk about nigerian schoolgirls. there's a lot the administration is trying to put, shall we say, the best face forward on. but boy, oh, boy, are the hot coals right underneath his feat. >> ambassador, thank you as always. up next, rand paul in iowa what sure looks a lot like presidential campaigning. but what caused him to make a quick exit? and still ahead, from john lennon and paul mccartney to trey parker and matt stone, turns out two heads may be better than one. (birds chirping softly in background.) (loud engine sounds!) what! how's it going? heard you need a ride to school. i know just the thing to help you get going. power up with new cheerios protein.

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they want. just ask iowa republican congressman steve king, who got into what we'll call an awkward exchange with two undock yumed immigrants who were brought here as children. take a look. >> stop a minute. you're very good at english. you know what i was saying. >> i was raised in the united states. >> you understand the english language. don't act like you -- >> i'm not acting like i don't know. >> you're saying something that's not true. >> what? >> i spoke of drug smugglers. you're not going to tell me you're one of them, are you? >> do i look like a drug smuggler to you? >> you can tell me. >> i'm not a drug smuggler. of course not. i graduated from arizona state university. >> you're not here to tell me you're one of them. >> oh, boy. frankly no big surprise from steve king there, but the most telling part of this video might be rand paul's reaction. he was there with steve king when the two approached the congressman. look at it. paul got the heck out of there. he was probably predicting

exactly what was about to come from his colleague congressman steve king. with more on that and all things politics, let's bring in democratic strategist erica knudy, who's the senior director at purple strategies. also, mana raju. erica, i got to start with that video. rand paul, if he's going to be a serious presidential contender, how smart is it for him to be hanging out with folks like steve king? >> well, unfortunately, that's who his options are. he's obviously spending a lot of time in iowa for the fact that the iowa caucuses are so influential. and steve king's one of the guys in iowa. so that's kind of who he's got. now, i don't think he looked particularly presidential, backing out and running away. and actually, i think this is one thing that rand paul has been doing pretty well, is that standing up in his caucus, trying to reach out to different constituencies other than the old, white male voters that they're used to. this wasn't exactly his time to shine, so to speak. >> manu, four house republicans

like steve king who have basically made it their mission to block immigration reform, and most recently this border bill, they've now headed home. how are they being received by the voters? is it, you know, a sense of praise? are they treated like heroes, or is there a sense of embarrassment? >> no, i think in these conservative districts, they think they've done what those voters wanted. in fact, in a lot of those races when i was talking to a republican congressman last week, the feeling was that they didn't really want to give obama much of anything because they believe this is his mess at the border. i think for the immigration issue in 2014, this is a bigger issue for the party nationally. the republicans feel they need to do something to take back the white house. but to win in the midterms, they don't feel like they need to pass a sweeping immigration reform bill. in fact, they think it'll hurt them and depress turnout in a lot of conservative states and districts. >> erica, we see some of how immigration will be used.

a new ad that is running in arkansas against pryor, let's take a look. >> mark pryor voted for amnesty, citizenship for illegals. pryor voted against a border fence three times. and now pryor ignores the crisis. >> we have a much more secure border today than we did ten years ago. >> seriously, senator? >> we have a much more secure border today than we did ten years ago. >> it's time to retire pryor. >> i mean, here's the bizarre world of campaign politics in a nutshell. he's absolutely right. we used to catch about 1.5 million people crossing the border every year. now we catch about 300,000. the border is a lot more secure than it used to be. we have quintupled the number of border security folks we have down there. he's absolutely right. but this is how immigration will have an impact on what we're going to do with the midterms. >> well, this is actually -- i'm really glad you showed this ad. it speaks to the bigger problem here. the reason immigration reform is

having such a hard time passing is because of redistricting, particularly in the house, and where the concentration of hispanic voters are. in eight of the nine competitive states this year, eight of the nen, so basically only colorado stands out, the hispanic population and the voting percentage is something like 5% or less. so there really aren't a lot of those folks with skin in the game here that have hispanic constituents that have a population of people that desperately need immigration reform. they don't really exist in this cycle. in the house only -- excuse me. half of all hispanic voters are in only 65 districts. that's 65 out of 435. so you can see that the concentration doesn't give a lot of these republican members districts where immigration is something that they have to be held accountable for. that's where you get these ads like from tom cotton that can go out and kind of make these wild claims, stoke fears about border safety and security. >> manu, we said that congress

is on recess and that's certainly true, but there's still a big fight going on between senator feinstein and the cia, building on trying to get the actual facts out of this long-running torture report, which is what led to all that fighting about the cia spying on the senate. the president speak to some of this on friday, something that didn't get as much attention because there's so many other things, port things going on. i thought it was a low point of the obama presidency. take a listen. >> in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. we did a whole lot of things that were right. but we tortured some folks. we did some things that were contrary to our values. it's important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job those folks had. >> it's a statement that totally lacks respect for the rule of

law to say that we shouldn't judge in retrospect crimes if they were crimes, which the president is saying directly to the american public, we tortured some folks, but we shouldn't judge in retrospect. all crimes are only judged in the past tense, not the future. i thought it was incredibly depressing. tell us about how this is playing out in washington, where senator feinstein is trying to get this torture report out and there seems to be a tremendous pushback here, and the president is standing behind john brennan, even after he had to withdraw everything he previously said in his inaccurate denials of spying on the senate. >> yeah, there's a big push by the cia and others in the administration to redact key portions of that senate report because this will be -- cast the cia in a very unflattering light. there's already an aggressive effort to undermine that report before it comes out. i mean, wait until this report does come out. it eventually will. it won't be as strongly worded as perhaps the senate democrats would like, but there's going to

be a very aggressive campaign by former cia officials, people to try to discredit this report because what they feel like is democrats in washington taking a tough line, taking too tough a line against the cia. and it will be interesting to see how the white house deals with it, how they deal with this pushback from the republicans. will they side mostly with republicans, or will they side with the diane feinsteins of the world? we'll have to see. >> erica and manu, thank you both. up next, new technology that could fundamentally change this year's midterms.

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to tap into shocking amounts of information about you. what you do online, your family's political favorites, and even your tv and eating habits. ari, watch out. much of this without you even knowing about it. "the national journal" digs deep into this in a recent cover story. joining us now, editor for "the national journal." lot of interesting stuff going on here. it's one thing to gather all of this information. it's another thing to get people out to vote for you. so how are both parties getting people out to vote for them? how in particular is the republican party getting back in the game on this? c >> right. there's no doubt the republicans feel like they have fallen behind on this. they're putting a lot of event into getting back into the game, trying to catch up to democrats. one of the interesting questions on the right is who is actually doing the catching up. is it the republican party itself or outside groups that maybe have a slightly different agenda than the republican party? >> which could be a little problematic. >> yeah, it changes the outcome in terms of who actually holds

the ultimate power as to who are the purveyors of this technology that are successful at it. we look at one group called i-360 that's linked to the coch brother's network. >> and richard, did you find that there was a lot of sort of posturism in these places? you can come in if you're technologically savvy. you can make a lot of promises. it can be hard to back it up. >> absolutely. we quote someone directly in the piece saying, there's a lot of snake oil salesmen out there. >> i like that. >> look, there's certain things that political technology is better at than others. it's good at turnout. if i need to find 10,000 voters that meet a certain demographic profile in a particular corner of michigan and i want to find voters more likely to vote left or right and bring them out to the polls, i can find them. but the art of persuasion is still very much more an art than

a science. advertising is still advertising. campaigns still have to have good messages. so trying to get people to switch sides or trying to get people who are in the center to come off the fence to your side is still something that's a little bit more beyond the reach of political technology. maybe that's a good thing. >> in the article, you talk to some strategists who feel the obsession with the target has constrained mare messaging. you talked to jim ferguson, who made a famous ad. let's look at that. >> the taste you love is also a good source of things you need. like iron, zinc, protein, and some b vitamins. beef, it's what's for dinner tonight. >> you know, richard, it is what's for dinner. that's why that's such a memorable ad. romney hired jim to do some work for him and try to make romney what's for dinner, depending on the analogy you want. what he said, though, was the campaign grew so reoccupied with targeting narrow slivers of the electorate that it never proj t

projected a broader brand, making ads for base voters and motivating the faithful without changing enough minds to win the election. targeting kept him from making good ads like that. >> i have to say, i found his comments refreshing. the idea that we can just win elections by targeting narrower and narrower slices of the electorate, people who already agree with us, that's kind of disspiriting. you like the idea that democracy involves persuading and arguments and winning over people who didn't previously agree with you. i kind of liked his comments and the honesty. >> it's a great piece. it is definitely the future of politics. so richard, thank you so much for being us. >> thank you. up next, the secret to the beatles success that can actually apply to your own life. it's as simple as one plus one. but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. people here know that our operations have an impact locally. we're using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. the trucks are reliable, that's good for business. but they also reduce emissions, and that's good for everyone. it makes me feel very good about the future of our company.

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. you know what is one of your greatest they'res? each generation gets better looking. that is really good observant and original thinking. it's a miracle we ever got any work done because nobody can waste time like you and me. >> perfect example of a partnership one on stage and the others behind the scenes. there is a new collection of research that supports the idea. would the the beatles have been as big as they were? and where would personal computing be without steve jobs working with steve what is knee

being a while they challenged each other and happened plans for apple in a garage. in a new book powers of two finding the essence of innovation, the author argues the lone genius view of history misses the importance of collaboration in pairs. joshua is here. tell us about the larry david and seinfeld version. >> a great story. seinfeld was a winning comic and nbc said we want to put you on tv and he went to the only guy he knew who had written for tv. larry david. they love to wander around talking about whatever. they are both preoccupied by whether rules are written and whether you need to figure out the right thing to do but no one tells you. larry david is a dispeptic, he would yell at the audience and storm off and seinfeld is a

sweet loving guy. and they push it all through that personality and character. and of course put larry david in the george character and that's where seinfeld comes from. >> one of the great creative pairings of all time of course is lennon and mccartney. how did their personalities mesh? >> it's the same basic ingredients which begins with the alignment, they both loved the music, both super ambitious, but the tension comes from john lennon being this associative guy, poetic, always wanting to break things. he would always play to language constantly. and paul mccartney was a perfect mime. he under stoot structustood str. he said when he started writing stonk songs, he wanted to write for sinatra. but together, they made a

beautiful thing. the alignment and the tension. a lot of it was the competition between them. >> you spent a chapter on them coming together and another on why they broke apart. >> well, they broke apart, they stopped working together, although never stopped being in each other's heads. and paul has said recently that he he still has conversations with john in his mind. if we flashback to the '70s when they were broken up, they were trading bashes rbs at one anothd there were a number of fintimes that it seemed like they would get together. part of the plan was that he would write with paul again and make music with the band. >> how common is to actually love each other? like a married couple to make each other better. i think of bill and hillary clinton who are like the ultimate power couple or angelina and brad pitt. or even president obama. i was thinking today who is his pair.

and the first person that comes to mind is michelle obama. >> the creative partners come in a lot of varieties. and it can be loving and warm and you can want to make your life with this other person. and it also can be extremely unpolileasan unpleasant. it might be like plugging yourself into a socket or could be like getting an electric shock, it could be very jarring. someone describe it is as two swords sharpening each other. maybe they don't enjoy each other. pen and teller early ork i think they have gotten more friendly over time, but early on they said that they didn't like each other. but they did great work together and they relied on each other. they thought the other made themselves better. so they stuck with it. >> so how do you know when you found your perfect collaborator?

>> important to start small. don't compare yourself to john and paul. even john and paul weren't john and paul most of the time. they were a couple guys making music and writing many drafts. we don't know the hundreds of hours that go into a single so that. but look for those little moments of that little flash. i'm a little smarter, a little sharper, a little funnier. and it's happening with this other person. and pay attention to that mutual ality. it's not a singular phenomenon. even down to the level of our neuro biology. we're deeply entwined about other people. >> in different ways. >> constantly. >> and you talk about that in the book in terms of also taking pride in collaboration oftentimes we talk about it only in your solo career, solo achievements. neat looking at the stories of people who did so much together. thank you very much. we'll be back with a final word. we never thought we'd be farming wind out here.

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breaking news just into the cycle. we're watching a nasty tour bus accident right in the heart of new york's sometitimes square. two double decker buses collided. no reports 1/2 fof fatalities, crews are working to extract passengers. stay with us for all the latest on that. and one final note as we wrap up here, the white house is prepping for its big dinner with african heads of state and american business leaders tonight. and recently president obama has been serving up a helping of it

tough talk for american ceos. we'll have much more on that in my live streaming show krystle clear live on the web tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m.. head to msnbc and click the red flashing link. it will say watch now. "now" with alex wagner starts now. is drop your hamburger and run the new etch a sketch? it's tuesday, august 5. and this is "now". >> we're smack in the center of rand paul's iowa tour. >> two self identified dreamers began to ask h