he's not a political cause to them. he's not a prop in a social drama. this is a human being they brought into this world. we should not rob his legacy of who he was if, in fact, we really want justice. to have justice, we must act justly. michael brown deserves more than an outburst. he deserves justice. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. a threat to the civilized world. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm in for chris matthews. let me start with decisions facing president obama following a soberer assessment from the statement that the president

that air strikes won't be enough to slow the insurgents of isis. president faces a two-sided struggle now. you have a terrorist organization so evil that they were outcast by al qaeda then there is the u.s.'s ability to defeat them, but at what cost. today we got a disturbing reminder of the serial killer mind set that drives isis courtesy of an image being circulated online but that's too gruesome to show you. this is secretary of state john kerry talking about it at a press conference with australia's foreign minister julie bishop today. >> this image, perhaps even an iconic photograph that julie has just referred to, is really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed of a 7-year-old child holding a severed head up with pride and

with the support and encouragement of a parent, with brothers there. this is utterly disgraceful. it underscores the degree to which isil is so far beyond the pale with respect to any standard by which we judge even terrorist groups that al qaeda shunted them aside. that's why they represent the threat that they represent. >> chief chuck hagel is calling isis a threat to the civilized world. today more u.s. air strikes bringing the total to at least 17 over the past four days. nbc news is reporting that the u.s. is sending more than 120 additional military advisers into iraq to help address the refugee crisis up north. just how far back down the rabbit hole is the president willing to go? putting it a different way when confronting a group of armed sociopaths how far back down the rabbit hole must you go? retired colonel jack jacobs is with us.

first, marie harp, deputy spokesperson at the state department. marie, let's start with what lieutenant general william mayville told reporters yesterday about the current u.s. strategy. take a listen to that. >> we assess that u.s. air strikes in northern iraq have slowed isil's operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advances toward the province of erbil. however these strikes are unlikely to affect isil's overall capabilities or operations in other areas of iraq and syria. i don't want to suggest we have effectively contained or that we are somehow breaking the momentum of the threat posed by isil. >> that caught a lot of people's attention. a top official at the pentagon saying we haven't even stopped their momentum. none of this will change their basic capabilities here. it raise as simple question to

me. what's the goal for the united states? can you define united states when it comes to the air striex and humanitarian drops, what will make it a successful venture for the united states? >> thanks for having me on today, steve. what he said yesterday is completely in line with the goals the president outlined when he announced the military action last week. first to prevent isil from being able to move on erbil which the air strikes have done. they have succeeded in the mission over the past few days. it was also to prevent a worsening humanitarian catastrophe from turning into a full scale genocide on top of mount sinjar and they have done that in combination with humanitarian air drops and air strikes over the past 36 hours to protect these people. the discrete goals outlined in announcing this action has been met. there is a broader question here which is what you are getting at. how do we fight isil long term in iraq and syria. there is a broader strategy in

place. one that's not fully an american military solution. we have been clear about that. the iraqi military forces working with the kurtds need to regroup, retrain and reequip. we'll help them but that's the long-term strategy here. >> as a long-term goal then is it the goal of the united states to defeat isis? >> clearly we want to see this terrorist group not able to threaten people anymore. >> i know you want to. is that the goal of the united states to defeat it? >> of course the goal is to defeat them operationally, yes. what does that mean when looking at a terrorist group? what does it mean when look at their ideology? if you look specifically at what they have done in iraq, what we want to do is not allow them to take more territory. not allow them to move on erbil. further down towards baghdad and help the iraqis push them back. basically retake territory. we are helping the iraqis do that now. it's a broader question. you are always going to have a

terrorist threat. it's how you contain it and when they try to go after your interests as we have seen them do in syria, in iraq, how we can bring our capabilities to bear to fight that. it's different every place you look. you have to use different tools to fight the threat. >> i guess the reason i'm asking so specifically there is when you hear what secretary kerry was talking about. when you hear chuck hagel. these are top official miss your administration talking about a threat to the civilized world. then i hear you saying ultimately this is not the fight for the united states. this is a fight for the iraqis. it does raise the question, given how you are describing isis. given the very real things people in your administration are pointing to it raises the question, why isn't this the united states's fight? >> well, look. this is a fight we are invested in and we'll continue to be invested in. in terms of iraqi territory specifically at the end of the day, that's a long term fight. the iraqi security forces need

to be able to handle with our support. to be able to handle on their own. we'll work with them as we did with many countries around the world who faced serious terrorist threats to share intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, help them find targets to go after these guys. just because there is no long-term massive american military solution doesn't mean we won't play a role. doesn't mean we are not going to be helping. at the end of the day we can't do it for them. we want to take steps to help them fight this threat on their own. >> in terms of the current operation with air strikes, let's focus for a minute. the president said the other day ultimately now this is an open-ended commitment. he talks about it being a limited commitment. we are now talking about 17 discrete instances of air strikes in the last week. 17 limited -- how far is this going to go? is it a week-long thing, a month-long thing? >> i don't think anybody could tell you at this point exactly how long we'll need to take

these strikes. both around the mountain area in this very urgent and dire humanitarian situation but also around erbil. we have been successful at preventing isil from moving further toward erbil. one of the things we have learned here is things happen fast on the ground. the united states military and the president has to make decisions quickly about how to respond. so we can't say what the threat picture will look like in the next 72 hours, in the next two weeks. we'll make decisions as we go. these discrete, limited goals are what we are operating under right now. we'll keep going after them in any way we can. >> all right. thank you to marie. appreciate that. colonel jack jacobs is with us now. colonel, that's the perspective from the administration thinking about limited scope in terms of what they are trying to accomplish. i'm curious what you make of what you heard from the administration. >> i find it interesting the number of strikes has been as limited as it has. the administration has been

touting this offensive against isil. i have been in gun fights with bad guys in vietnam where we had more than 17 strikes all in one day. this is very, very limited indeed. ultimately what the administration is planning to do, what the pentagon is planning to do is to target isil the same way we have been tar t targeting al qaeda. find targets of opportunity through intelligence overhead and on the ground. send precision guided munitions to specific targets. there is not going to be any long-term american involvement here except insofar as you have reported we are going to send special forces and special operations forces in order to bolster the peshmerga and others on the ground to take and hold terrain. anybody can take terrain. it's holding it that's really important. we are going to focus attention

on the northern part of iraq in assisting peshmerga and iraqi army in seizing and holding terrain up north. >> do you think in terms of the american support taking territory and sustaining it do you think we are doing things to allow that to happen? >> not right now. but the administration is gearing up to do it by sending more people, special forces and special operations forces having more aircraft and precision guided munitions available to hit specific targets. >> obviously when you start talking about sending more advisers people get nervous given the history in general, specifically the history in iraq. how big are you talking here we'll need? >> not very big. i don't think the plan is for it to be big. if it doesn't succeed with what they planned to put in there, i

don't think they will put more. the administration will do what they can to do that. the important thing isn't the south. ultimately peshmerga will be able to hold its own. it will take a while. it will be something of a blood bath in the interim until the kurds can seize and hold control of their own terrain. it's not going to be over for months. >> the u.s. suggests the entire strategy in iraq depends on the success of the iraqi government which has been thrown into crisis. al malaki is refusing to cede power. this is john kerry discussing the critical role the iraqi government is playing particularly when it comes to the u.s. strategy. >> let me tell you in the simplest terms where the discussion begins. there will be no reintroduction of american combat forces into iraq. that's the beginning of the

discussion. this is a fight that iraqis need to join on behalf of iraq. and our hope is and the reason president obama has been so clear about wanting to get the government formation, before beginning to tackle isil and the most significant way accepting the kind of emergency circumstances that have arisen is because if you don't have a government that's inclusive and that works, nothing else will work. plain and simply. >> colonel, this is the key to what you are talking about, to what marie was talking about with the united states playing a support role but this is a fight of the iraqi army. that being an extension of the iraqi government. therefore you need to get the government in place and functioning in iraq properly. my question is there is the universal consensus that al malaki is a failure. given the secular realities of iraq, all the divisions that

exist that have torn the country apart forever, can anybody create a real functioning government in iraq that can do what we need it to do? >> over the short term, no. it's interesting that the history of the middle east and particularly iraq goes something like this. the only way to control the terrain of iraq is if you have a blood thirsty despot. that may be the only thing that will hold iraq together. in the alternative you're going to wind up with a country that dissolves into its three component -- natural component pieces. that's not going to be fun for anybody either. it means you have the danger of the kurds in the north deciding they don't want to be marginally self-governing. they want to be self-governing. there are kurds in six different chr countries up there. it will be dangerous if it happens. in the southern part of iraq you

have two different ethnic groups, religious groups fighting each other for 1300 years. that's not going to change. what it is going to take is an extremely strong leader in baghdad. that isn't going to happen any time soon. even though al malaki decided to back away from the statements he made a couple of days ago. about threatening the stability from inside baghdad, sending tanks into oh the green zone and all the rest of that stuff. expect there will be continued constitutional challenge to permit him to continue to role. that will be a mess and will take time to resolve. >> blood thirsty strong man. that was hussein. >> that's what we had. >> thank you. appreciate the time. coming up, racial turmoil outside of st. louis. how does this most recent shooting of an unarmed black man square with the claim by some lawmakers that we are witnessing a war on whites. plus, president obama reportedly used a two sill billion compound

word beginning with horse about his criticism not to arm rebels before hillary clinton began separating herself from his foreign policy with the interview in "the atlantic". we are still absorbing the news about robin williams. he spent a lot of time on stage poking fun at politicians. >> where did they get sarah palin? where did they find her? wow. did ronald reagan have a kid with posh spice? >> finally, what happens when you have a coronation instead of a campaign. this is "hardball," the place for politics. it was the biggest decision king's hawaiian had faced, since robert taira opened his first bakery in a small hawaiian town. making bread so good, that people bought two loaves one to take home, and one to eat on the way. so good, they grew from here. to here. to here. but to grow again, to the east coast

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so why wouldn't i choose the fastest wifi? i would. switch to comcast business internet and get the fastest wifi included. comcast business. built for business. welcome back. tensions ran high in ferguson, missouri, again last night as armors police officers warded off protesters three days after african-american teenager michael brown was shot and killed by a police officer in the st. louis suburb. killing sparked outrage in the african-american community that quickly turned from demonstrations to rioting after a vigil was held for the late teen sunday night. the circumstances that led to the shooting are in dispute pending further investigation. we do know this. 18-year-old michael brown encountered a police officer on the street on saturday afternoon. that was confirmed by st. louis police chief. we know brown was unarmed but that a confrontation ensued and

the officer fired on brown, killing him. st. louis county police say brown didn't comply with the officer saying there was a struggle over the officer's gun which then prompted the officer to shoot brown. according to dorian johnson, a friend who was with brown at the time of the incident, it was the police who escalated the confrontation. he said brown had his hands up in the surrender position when he was shot by the officer multiple times. president obama issued this statement this afternoon. i know the events of the past few days prompted strong passions but as details unfold i urge everyone in ferguson, missouri, and across the country to remember this young man through reflection and understanding. we should comfort each other and talk in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. joining me now, msnbc political analyst jonathan capehart and an allred from ksdk in st. louis. ann, you're out there. i will start with you for the latest on this. we have the police saying essentially michael brown instigated a confrontation and the shooting apparently, they

are saying came in response to this. you have a friend of michael brown saying he was there, watched it happen. that's not what happened at all. are we any closer now to getting a definitive accounting of what did play out? >> no. i think the lack of details is what continues to kind of insight the issues that we have seen so far over the last two days. 47 arrested. teargas dispersed into crowds. rubber bullets shot into crowds. then right now we have just gotten word that a preliminary autopsy results have been released saying that michael brown did die of gunshots, plural. they didn't say how many. we won't have the final results including the toxicology for four to six weeks. today they were supposed to name the officer involved. the chief of police said i will release it on tuesday. today he said he will not release it because he feels this officer's life is in jeopardy.

serious safety concerns. therefore it is within the law that he can withhold the information. he says unless a judge tells him he's got to release it or the officer is charged he has no plans to. >> we know the justice department is look at this, too. in terms of getting the clarity everybody is looking for now, in terms of getting that clarity, do you have a sense when that would come, how long it would take and are where that will come from? >> no. the fbi launched an investigation yesterday. we have no idea how long it could take. obviously st. louis county police are also investigating. the ferguson police stepped aside. the st. louis county police have taken over the investigation locally. >> jonathan, you wrote about how you identified with michael brown's experience as a black male. you took issue with an assertion mo brooks made last week that there is a so-called war on whites. quoting from your column. what frightens me more than anything is the fact that i might be in their shoes and

might meet their tragic end. the so-called victim of the war on whites have no idea what living under that kind of siege, that kind of very real threat is like. just talk to us about your experience. your experiences you're talking about when you write that. >> congressman brooks was not talking about -- his comments came long before the shooting in ferguson. i want to make that clear. why i found this so-called war on whites offensive is in light of what happened to michael brown or what happened to trayvon martin or what happened to renisha mcbride in detroit or eric garner on staten island. as an african-american man, as i wrote in my piece, i was taught by my mother don't run in public. don't run in public with anything in your hands lest you make someone think you stole something. i was taught to keep a discreet

distance from white women in case you might be accused of, you know, something untoward. one thing i still do to this day is i never leave my home for an errand, even a small one, i never leave my home without my driver's license, insurance card and my washington post business card with my partner's cell phone number on it. you just never know. i have seen -- we have all seen too many incidents where an african-american and particularly an african-american man ends up pulled over by the police and something happens. i want to make sure that i have an insurance policy to at least make sure that if i get into that situation that the police know who i am and who they are dealing with. thankfully, i have not had any incidents with police. as we have seen in various places around the country, over far too many years, there is no telling when that moment might

come. >> the experience jonathan is relaying, i know he's not from st. louis. but the experience, this is a story we have seen. experiences we have heard from around the country. it strikes me in reading about the case now, reading about what's playing out there, you have a tragic shooting. it seems clear that this is tension between the protesters and police is the product of these events and emotions that go back a lot farther. this is a city that's two-thirds black. but the police force is 80 to 90% white. something like that. sounds to me like there is a lot of tension between the community, the african-american community in this town and the police force that goes back a long ways. >> there's been a lot of talk about mistrust between the two. one of the missouri representatives thinks we need a new in-school program to have children and police communicating, building trust. a lot of the young african-american males said to our crews, said to us in the

field we feel a sense of hopelessness like our lives do not matter. there is a palpable anger obviously. this sense that they can't trust the police and they are acting out. they feel as the unrest continues every night. they are telling us we feel the police are too aggressive towards us. we are just out here as a community. we're just trying to talk to each other. people have their cell phones out, posting on social media. that's a big problem, too. there is a lot of misconceptions and rumors fuelling the fire in the last couple of days as well. >> thank you anne allred, jonathan capehart. we'll be right back with sarah palin or tina fey talking about minimum wage workers going on strike. the sideshow is next.

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welcome back to "hardball." time for the sideshow. the ice bucket challenge continues to drench the country in order to raise money for research into a.l.s. or lou gehrig's disease. rachel maddow took the challenge. now the kennedy family is in on it in massachusetts. take a look at this. >> maxwell taylor kennedy here in hyannisport with my family. all of my family is here. my mother, senator robert kennedy, my uncle senator ted kennedy and my uncle president john f. kennedy that in the small diverse acts people commit each day we can create awareness and change. so today i'm nominating my entire family to dump buckets of ice over their heads for a.l.s. [ cheers ] >> oh!

[ screaming ] >> grandma ethel! >> welcome to cape cod. president obama, i nominate you. [ applause ] >> yes. that was they will kennedy at the end of the line of kennedy kids challenging president obama, the widow of senator robert f. kennedy told the cape cod times about the experience. i felt like, there goes the hairdo. the white house responded by saying the president appreciates mrs. kennedy for thinking of him for the challenge though his contribution to the effort will be monetary. the president will be making a donation to an a.l.s. charity this week. finally from clarifying a popular notion to creating flat out confusion leave it to sarah palin to deliver a response that leaves us scratching our heads. former alaska governor responded to a speech delivered by elizabeth warren, senator from massachusetts, in which the democrat voiced support for workers striking over minimum

wage jobs. sarah palin's reaction was less coherent and more of a tangent that went off the rails. listen. >> i thought, fast food joints, huh. don't you guys think they are of the devil or something? liberals, you want to send those evil employees who would dare work at a fast food joint that you just don't believe in. thought you wanted to -- i don't know, send them to purgatory or something. so they all go vegan and wages and picket lines, i don't know. they're not often discussed in purgatory, are they? i don't know. why are you worried about fast food wages. >> remember. she could have been a heartbeat away from the u.s. presidency. up next, president obama's unexpected response to foreign policy critics. this is "hardball," the place for politics. ♪

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i'm richard lui with breaking news out of iraq. there is a new iraqi prime minister desig nate. this coming the same day the u.s. sent more military advisers to iraq to help with the military crisis involving tens of thousands of refugees trapped by isis forces. 240 military advisers are already in the country. actor robin williams committed suicide by hang ing himself. toxicology results are pending. steve balmer is now the official owner of the l.a. clippers. previous owner donald sterling fighting to prevent the sale of the team in court though. he was banned for life by the nba for making racist comments. and the world health organization says patients suffering from ebola in western africa can be offered experimental drugs. there are no approved treatments for the virus as of now. now back to "hardball."

welcome back to "hardball." not that there is much doubt but a sure sign hillary clinton is ready to run for president is her recent distancing of herself from president obama, specifically on his decision not to aid syrian rebels. clinton's comments she made in an interview with the atlantic got enormous attention. they were her biggest break and harshest criticism to date of president obama. today she sought to calm the waters. her spokesman said earlier today the secretary called president obama to make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him, his policies or his leadership. well, maybe. one of the most quoted lines was her assessment of a slogan used in the obama administration to describe the foreign policy approach. they say don't do stupid stuff. clinton said great nations need organizing principles. don't do stupid stuff is not an

organizing principle. former obama adviser david axelrod tweeted just to clarify, don't do stupid stuff means stuff like occupying iraq in the first place which was a tragically bad decision. hillary clinton will begin the process of separating herself from the president she served as secretary of state should she choose to run for president officially. this formal foray into publically drawing disfingss shows how politically delicate it will be. joining me now joan walsh and michael steele of the republican national committee. both are msnbc political analysts. joan, i will start with you. listen, we have a statement today. i think hillary's spokesman saying she plans to hug it out with president obama as the media blows it up. maybe i believe that. then i see the tweet from david axelrod and i say, no, she got under their skin in a real way. >> she did. i would like to be there to see them hug it out. i don't think i'm invited. i wrote a piece that was

critical of secretary clinton. she went too far in a couple of statements substantively. i believe she's more of an interventionist than i would like to see in the democratic candidate. i think it's possible to exaggerate what she did here. there is almost nothing new in the interview. she's on the record in her book and her book tour as saying i wanted to arm the moderate syrian rebels. i wanted more soldiers going to afghanistan for the later surge. i wanted them to stay longer. i was very skeptical of pushing mubarak out of egypt. i didn't see a secular opposition ready to take power. she's really not been shy about this. >> i think you made the point well in your column. it struck me. you know this as well as i do. i have put in an interview request with hillary clinton. i haven't gotten one. i'm sure you have. >> yes. >> she made an intentional

choice here. >> i do say that in the piece. i start with it. i say there are ways i think he exaggerated differences. i respect jeffrey goldberg. nothing bad about him. he's a figure of the center right. his politics on the middle east are not some democrats' policy. she didn't choose you or me. not envious orbit bitter but sh knew what he would do. she probably knew what the reaction would be or most of it. >> i i'm struck by it. i take your point definitely this clearly is the real hillary clinton. at the other time there is strategy here. that brings me to you. it seems to me hillary clinton, part of the bigger picture strategy is maybe hillary clinton thinks people are thinking there is a potential opening in 2016 to pick up support from republicans, from traditionally republican voters on foreign policy grounds.

republicans who look at rand paul, who look at the rand paul version of foreign policy, feeling uncomfortable with that. is there a message here? you see hillary clinton saying, yeah, there is room on my bandwagon for you. >> not so much a message to conservatives, neo cons and foreign policy, for example. i just love watching the left try to figure out what the hell to do with her. she is the biggest thing on the political planet now. when she makes a common sense statement and it's in her wook book, printed elsewhere. people are hyping out about the separation. if the woman is running for president of the united states at some point she will separate herself from this administration just because she was its secretary of state doesn't mean, as we saw with colin powell and other secretaries of state they are lining up with the president's policy or foreign policy.

that's one. number two -- >> as a republican the position she's doing here, separating herself from the obama administration but also putting herself to the right of the obama administration but to the left of somebody like -- of the neo cons. politically is she putting ners a place that makes you nervous as a republican? >> no. i don't know how far left she would be necessarily to some of the neo cons. i think there is a consistency. she's supportive of the iraq war in the beginning. she was supportive of intervention in syria. i think to your point, your question is, you know, is there a linkage that certain conservatives can latch onto? i'm sure it will be played out in foreign policy which will play a prominent role in the 2016 election than anyone thought up to this point. i think she's staking out that ground as much as she can without in your face to the president but clearly creating distance which a lot of folks on the left will be nervous about. >> speaking of that in general.

i know we are short on time. you wrote about this saying hillary clinton may have to worry about the left or her left flank now, distancing herself from president obama. i wonder when you say that if you're saying she has to worry about a primary challenge in 2016 or is it more in the general election, people on the left if their choice is hillary clinton or rand paul, if the choice is hillary clinton closer to the neo cons and rand paul with noninterventionism are they tempted by rand paul? >> if they are, they are crazy. paul couldn't say what he thinks about the iraq air strikes. he has mixedle feelings. rand paul is now mr. rand paul stand with israel. rand paul is flip-flopping wildly on foreign policy. he's got a problem with his own anti-interventionist republican friends because they don't know if they can trust him. i'm not worried about that. i am concerned that she is looking past the primary and that she is indifferent to the possibility of an

anti-interventionist challenge from her left. i think she's probably safe but not as safe as she thinks. >> thank you, joan walsh and michael steele. up next, the political side of robin williams. we'll look back on his best jabs at politicians. this is "hardball," the place for politics. my hygienist told me that less tartar means less scraping. so i'm going pro. [ male announcer ] new crest tartar protection rinse. the only rinse that helps prevent tartar build-up and cavities. a little swishing. less scraping. yes! [ male announcer ] new crest pro-health tartar protection rinse.

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even before hillary clinton's separation from president obama's foreign policy the president was forced to defend it before critics in congress. he met with congressional leaders from both parties last thursday. according to the daily beast reporter josh rate of growogan criticism. rogan wrote the president defended his administration's actions on syria saying that the notion that many have put forth regarding arming the rebels in syria earlier would have led to better outcomes was horse --

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don't let them stop you. just come at it. don't be afraid. that's it. you've got nothing to lose. the truth shall set you free, number one. number two, the world is waiting for you. i know it's you. it's hard to say when you graduate, even if you're undecided, it's okay. it's out there. it is that something of, it's waiting for you, fogood and bad. i believe you can do. that's the bottom line. i believe you can do it. good luk. kick it. >> we are back. that was actor and comedian robin williams on the "hardball" college tour dispensing advice to students at georgetown university back in 2006. today, the coroner's office in marin county, california, confirmed williams died as a result of asphyxia due to hanging. he was discovered by his personal assistant. he had several cuts on his wrist that may have been self-infli self-inflicted. a pocket knife discovered near his body. williams also had an interest in

politics. before attending juilliard, he studied political science at claremont men's college in california and had a keen eye for the humor in politics. tonight we want to take a look at some of robin williams' more political roles and comedy routine at which williams poke fun at our own political scene. >> good morning, vietnam! hey, this is not a test. this is rock 'n' roll. time to rock it from the delta to the dmv. is that me or sound like an elvis presley movie? viva denying me, went on to get a rope and hang me. is it a little too early for being that loud? oh my god, it's early. speaking of early, how about that? silky smooth sound. make me sound like peggy lee. freddy and the dreamers. >> the wrong speed. we've got it on the wrong speed for those of you recovering from a hangover, that's going to

sound just right. >> take the hat, son. >> one more. >> that's right, you better run, boy! you're going to die! >> thank you. >> not at all. theodore roosevelt, 26th president of these united states of america, at your service. >> okay. i'm larry daley, the new night guard. >> ha, has. pleasure to meet you. stay late. you'll have to excuse me, though. >> meanwhile at the southern borders of our country, 4 million illegal aliens are crossing the border with bedroom sets and night tables. >> he's getting angry. >> this is not your talk show. >> and you're not on your private plane flying to the gulf vacation you took with the three heads of the major oil corporations. how did you get there? >> mr. dobbs, you have to return to your podium. >> i'm sorry. >> mr. dobbs -- >> no smoking in the --

>> did you ever complete school, cecil? >> i didn't go to school. i grew up on the cotton farm. >> i grew up on a farm. >> you have any children? >> yes, i have two sons. >> did they go to an all-color school? >> yes, sir, they do. >> we have to take a moment of silence for a fond farewell to george w. bush. yes, it's the end of the reign of george the ii. the reign of horror is over. what's he going to do after he leaves office? he can't go on a speaking tour. that's a given. >> cheney, inauguration looking like old man putter, good luck with the economy, little african prince. take care, simba. and he's been a -- a type of thing if you want to frighten a

little child, you have to say, if you're not good, the cheneyman will get you. h. when we return, he me finish with what happens when you have a coronation rather than a campaign. you're watching "hardball." the place for politics. padvil pm gives you the healingu at nsleep you need, it. helping you fall asleep and stay asleep so your body can heal as you rest. advil pm. for a healing night's sleep. machines will be sprayed to be made.

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finally, let me finish tonight with what happens when instead of a campaign, you have a corridor. that's what 2016 is shaping up as for hillary clinton, at least when it comes to the democratic

nomination for president. you've seen all the numbers before. she's running 50 or 60 points ahead of her potential opponents. her favorable rating with democratic voters is 90%. 90%. simply put, we've never seen a front-runner like this before in modern presidential politics. what that means is hillary is free it do and say things she wouldn't be free to say and do if she had to worry about winning her party's nomination. think back to 2007, think back to 2008 when she had to deal with barack obama's campaign when he kept reminding democrats that she voted for the war they hated. the iraq war. when she had to keep explaining and reexplaining that vote. when she had to worry every single day about how to convince her party's anti-war base they could trust her. as hillary prepares for 2016 now, that pressure is gone. not only is there no barack obama running against her, prilright now there's no run lining up to run against her. clinton could very well end up

with a free pass which makes it a lot easier for her to do what she's doing now, what we talked about earlier in the show. to twbegin moving away from her own party's president from under who she served and the message she has issues with barack obama's conduct of foreign policy, that hers will be a different, more proactive, more aggressive foreign policy, it will be tougher. that's the message she's trying to send here. this is a message that's aimed at people who aren't democrats. people who don't like what the present administration is doing. it's aimed at hawks. it's aimed at republicans who are getting nervous about the rise of rand and his anti-interventionist views. this is the message of a president who's not worrying -- of a candidate not worrying about the primary, not worrying about her own party but already thinking ahead to the general election. hillary is being crafty as she distances herself from obama's foreign policy, she's leaving wiggle room to point out they afree on a lot, his intellect, thoughtfulness, his seriousness.

she knows better than to start a full-scale fight with the democrat ic base that's shown n interest in fighting her. she's definitely distanting herself. as long as she country have doe worry about primary, that's what she's going to keep doing. "all in with chris hayes" starts ri right now. tonight, we are "all in." a no-fly zone over ferguson, missouri, a day after the media reportedly ordered by police to leave the scene of protest. >> i need justice for my son. >> a community wants answers. including the name of the officer at the center of it all. plus, death on the racetrack. >> tony stewart just hit that guy. >> what's next for one of nascar's biggest stars after he struck and killed a fellow driver. and the world mourns the loss of a brilliant mind. >> he was such a generous soul. >> tonight, we remember actor