parkinson's disease. he's battled before through battles in and out of the ring and battles all across the world. today he was released from the hospital after a short stay and we all know this greatest of fighters will continue to fight on and to dazzle us all. happy birthday champ. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. the threat of terror in europe and at home. this is "hardball." good evening. i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. let me start with that roundup of suspected islamic extremists in europe today. two dozen have been swept up as authorities crack down on potential threats all across the continent. in belgium, 13 people were

detained some returning fighters from syria. authorities there say they dismantled imminent terrorist attacks on a grand scale. the suspects had police uniforms and radios. they were reportedly planning to kill police officers. this comes after a raid on one location led to a gun battle into the death of two militants. meanwhile, in paris, prosecutors rounded up 12 people who were being questioned about whether they provided edd logistical support to the men who carried out the attacks on "charlie hebdo" and the kosher supermarket last week. and in germany, two turkish nationals were arrested accused of recruiting those to go fight in syria. the country's intelligence service has warned of planned attacks against major train stations in berlin and dresden. also tonight big news out of the supreme court. the justices will take up same-sex marriage and decide once and for all whether kay couples have the right to marry under the constitution. we'll get to that in a moment

but we begin with the terror threat. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel is in istanbul. he has this report. >> reporter: what we're seeing now is europe rounding up the suspects. in belgium, in germany, these were islamic radicals that the government had been tracking, had phone taps on had surveillance on but just decided after paris that it couldn't wait any longer that there was the real risk of an imminent threat. in fact in belgium, police say that there was a threat that could have taken place or a terrorist attack that could have taken place within hours. and when you look at the equipment that was seized from that home in belgium, automatic rifles explosives police uniforms and authorities there believe that these militants would have worn the police uniforms in order to get close to fellow or get close to police officers posing as fellow police officers and carried out a paris-style shooting attack. so this is a dangerous development. europe is clearly on edge about

it. you saw in paris where for several hours people around the world thought, here we go again. turns out that that hostage situation was not terrorist related, according to french authorities. but this is what isis and al qaeda but isis in particular have been calling for. this is what they want. they mobilized their people. they put out calls of action after paris telling europeans in particular but also american supporters not necessarily to try and come and join the caliphate, which was their original message, for the last year they've been saying come and join us come do your islamic duty and join the newly established islamic state under the caliph ab dar al baghdadi. now they say, if you can't come here, stay home get a weapon and carry out an attack. back here in the united states, pb president obama and

the prime minister of great britain david cameron discussed the terror threat today. in a press conference president obama was asked about the crackdown. >> this phenomenon of violent extremism, the ideology the networks, the capacity to recruit young people this has metastasized and it is widespread and it has penetrated communities around the world. i do not consider it an existential threat. this is a problem that causes great heartache and tragedy and destruction, but it is one that ultimately we're going to defeat. >> meanwhile, prime minister cameron warned that combating the problem will take time and patience. >> we do face a very serious islamist extremist terrorist

threat in europe in america, across the world. there is no single simple thing that needs to be done. it means closing down the ungoverned spaces that the terrorist operate in it mean ss this death cult of a narrative that's perverting the religion of islam. it means all of these things and it will be a long, patient and hard struggle. joining me now michael kay, national affairs correspondent and senior british officer and rafael pantugi at the royal united services institute. michael, let me start with you. this seems like a very abrupt and dramatic departure from just a week ago, a few days ago we were talking about one of the stories out of paris of those attacks was these were guys that had been under surveillance. the authorities knew who they were and they operated in plain sight leading up to the attacks. now it seems suddenly a very

proactive, preemptive approach. is this a beginning of a new way of handling this issue? >> look with this preactive and preeminent approach you describe, that requires an amount of financing, manpower and resource to take that. historically you get an incident and the police react to it. people are very risk adverse when it comes to looking at what happened at "charlie hebdo" and having to react to that. but one thing to pick up on here, steve, this isn't anything new. if we go back al qaeda in iraq and al zarqawi and the afghan taliban, they've been spewing this rhetoric for over ten years but the context is difference in terms of globalization and in terms of the ability for people to travel across the world easily and travel through europe through porous borders in terms of social media, the internet access to internet in sort of places which historically haven't had that type of infrastructure to be able to do

that. and this is what the islamists, the radical terrorists are picking up on in their ability to be able to sort of get that rhetoric across. going to the intelligence communities they've been doing this for a long time steve. we just don't hear about it. what we hear about are the raids and the failures. they've been working behind the scenes for a decade and trying to ameliorate the threat. we're seeing it froth to the surface a little bit. in terms of what the intelligence community has been doing, we shouldn't underestimate the work they've been doing up to the "charlie hebdo" event and what you see now is a more proactive posture to events that might happen in the future. >> richard engel mentioned this in that report a minute ago, but he was talking about how isis has been agitating for attacks like the ones that maybe were being planned here. we have this report of the potential attack being foiled where they had police uniforms where you have isis that's calling for militants to go after police to go after military in the west is this a

seeming manifestation of that? >> well it's possible. we don't know the plot yet or the exact nature of whether this was directed or whether this is individuals who sort of saw themselves adhering to the isis ideology and sort of deciding to launch an attack very much under their own steam but in advance of a sort of general message thing they got from the group. we've seen a number of disruptions taking place in other countries where authorities were trying to target civilian targets or target security officials and what seemed to be following isis mode. what we don't know is what we're looking at here yet. what we saw disrupted in belgium is a plot in close to mature form. these individual hs sort of obviously determined that they wanted to do some sort of incident wearing uniforms and they got some heavy weaponry. and they were ready to go which

is why when the authorities walked in heavily armed, they reacted as they did. the bigger point is this is probably a sort of echo in some ways of what we saw happen in paris. every time that you have some successful incident like that security forces will immediately go back and relook at a whole bunch of investigations that maybe they've been watching for some time and maybe reprioritize some people because there's a tendency for people to build on success. when you see one other successful incident, others try to leap on to it. but certainly isis has been calling for these sorts of things for some time and people seem to be picking up on it. >> president obama today pointed to one problem european countries face. many of their muslim citizens feel disconnected from society. contrasted that to the situation here in the united states. >> the united states has one big advantage in this whole process. our big advantage is that our

muslim populations, they -- they feel themselves to be americans, and there is this incredible process of immigration and assimilation that is part of our tradition that is probably our greatest strength. there are parts of europe in which that's not the case. and that's probably the greatest danger that europe faces. >> that idea that muslims are more or less assimilated in the united states, maybe more treated as outcasts in europe, that fosters extremism. do you agree with the president there? >> i'm not sure i completely do. i mean certainly there are individuals i think within european muslim communities who do obviously feel disenfranchised. this is why they're drawn to these radical narratives. there are vast sections of britain's community who are very

british and very european and can feel that and express themselves in that way. what you're dealing with here is a minority that feeds off a narrative of victimization. the reason we're seeing the particular problems recently of radicalization and people being drawn to go fight in syria and iraq it's in part connected to the fact that this conflict is happening on europe's borders. if you're sitting in london and want to go fight in syria and iraq, it's easy to get to turkey and come across the border. if you're trying to do that from the united states it's a long equation and complicated journey and crossing borders that are heavily watched. what we're seeing at the moment and this increased problem within europe is something that could, in fact, be easily explainable as gee ogographygeography. >> on that subject, on the idea of extremism, on the idea of people who actually commit to this cause, muslims who actually

decide that they want to take that call to be militants. do we have an idea of the scope of this. i think it's hundreds that have gone to syria that have been returned to europe. is today what we're seeing in terms of these raids just the tip of the iceberg? do we have a sense of numbers here at all? >> just to give you a sense of the context, steve. if you look at this 330 million people in america and we reckon around 100 jihadists that have managed to get to syria, if you look at france 66 million and we reckon around 1200 jihadists. if you look at belgium, there's 11 million and 300. if you look at the ratios they're pretty scary versus the volume in the united states. i want to pick up on one statement that prime minister cameron made. this is a multifaceted approach we need to take. one is ungoverned spaces that

you rightly hit upon. but we need to create ungoverned ed spaces. there was no post conflict planned. then we went into libya and made a mess out of that. that's now an ungoverned space that al sisi is having to deal with. if you look at syria, that has no political road map. that's an ungoverned space where isis are thriving. so malrequest al shabaab is surviving there because it's ungoverned space. nigeria boko haram. there are large swaths that are ungoverned, mali and north africa. that's absolutely key. so we've got to look at our foreign policy in terms of not only creating these issues but really trying to understand the multifaceted approach across the political, economic and security paradigms when we're trying to deal with these ungoverned spaces. that's key to this as well. >> thanks to both of you. appreciate the i'm. coming up chris christie's taking on the press, scott

walker is attacking hillary clinton and everyone seems to be against mitt romney. the knives are already out for 2016. plus what promises to be a historic ruling the supreme court will decide whether or not same-sex couples have the right to marry. that decision will have huge impact on the race. and president obama got momentum, now he's telling senate democrats behind closed doors that he's going to play offense using his veto power to protect his agenda against republicans in congress. and finally joni ernst has a chance to do something so many before her have failed to do make a good first impression delivering the republican response to president obama's state of the union. they're coming. what do i do? you need to catch the 4:10 huh? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now.

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kerry spoke in both english and french addressing the horror of last week's attack. >> today i just -- i really wanted to come here and share a hug with all of paris and all of france. i wanted to express to you personally the sheer horror and revulsion that all americans felt for the cowardly and despicable act, the assault, on innocent lives and on fundamental values. >> kerry introduced massachusetts native james taylor who sang "you've got a friend" for the people of france. thank you for being a sailor and my daddy. thank you mom, for protecting my future. thank you for being my hero and my dad. military families are thankful for many things.

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what i've told everybody, supporters of mine potential donors of mine staff, is relax. you know no one's voting for another 12 1/2 months.

first voting in iowa in the beginning of february of '16. so everyone just calm down. you know? be relaxed. look at me. look how relaxed i look. >> you look very relaxed tonight. >> welcome back to "hardball." chris christie and everyone else sparring for the nomination for president is shaping up for a heck of a fight. while christie says he's relaxed he's out there fighting with his press corps while popularity continues to decline back home. and scott walker launched a major attack on hillary clinton and everyone is trying to knock out mitt romney. michael steele was the chairman of the republican national committee and with mother jones. during that local radio interview christie ripped into the local press in new jersey for what he saw was unfair and selfish coverage focusing on a media he held with national

media outlets before last tuesday's state of the state address. as the local papers reported local new jersey media was barred without explanation. >> could you find a group of more self-consumed people? that on a day like that they're writing about themselves. do you think the public cares a wit whether they got into a private meeting? and by the way, the other private meetings they've had with me which they've had in the last month, they didn't report on that did they? >> well they were off the record. >> well, you know, they can say when talking about this we had a similar meeting with the governor a month ago, but they didn't, did they? because that would be fair. god knows we wouldn't want to be that. listen, if they want to act like children let them act like children. >> michael steel, i'm in the media, i should take offense and everything, but politically, the politics of this doesn't chris christie have a point here? nobody likes the media, nobody

sympathizes with the media, this is his bread and butter good politics, no? >> i don't think so exactly. yeah, you had a meeting with the press a month ago, but it's not the same as meeting with them the day before your state of the state. that's a very different conversation. and it's a very different impact has a very different impact because it's about the state. so from my perspective, when you go into these types of things you have the ambitions to grow large and do all of that stuff politically beyond your state. it's always helpful to have a press corps at home that's got your back. in other words, is going to tell the narrative of the good stuff you've done even if they come after you on certain thin sgs, they won't be at odds with you. christie has enough of the noise to deal with. >> what do you think the idea was there? he's got the state of the state address. he's trying to make a national

impression. he's talked to local press certainly before. but that does seem unusual for a governor to say i'm only talking to the national people. >> i've got to agree with my pal, michael steele on this. liberals -- excuse me -- they like when they attack the national media, msnbc, whatever it is. they don't care if you're attacking the asbury park press. it's ridiculous to think he can score points that way. plus he has to remember he's still under federal investigation. who covers that story the most? the local press. so it's not just the local press that's going to cover his accomplishments, if there are any, back home they're also going to be covering this investigation. so it's really not wise for him to be alienating them any more than he has to. why did he do this? i don't think it was strategic political calculation, it was

one more example of him showing his true temperament. >> keep in mind the first ever chris christie viral moment that all conservatives went nuts about four or five years ago, whenever it was, it was a new jersey reporter that asked the question that he went off on. so i want to get to romney because it was a brutal week for mitt romney who addresses the republican party later tonight. rupert murdoch called romney a terrible candidate in a scathing editorial, "the wall street journal" wrote, if mitt romney is the answer, what is the question? "washington post" columnist jennifer rubin said that romney's friends need to tell him, quote, we need to find someone who can win and that is not you. vin webber attacked him for getting into the race. >> i think his friends need to be honest with him about that. he's a great man, he would be a great president, but there's not a lot of good precedent for

somebody losing the election and coming back four years and becoming the nominee. governor romney had two increasingly good years after losing the presidency now he's had one pretty bad week. >> michael steele do you think mitt romney is hearing this and do you think this is how he's processing it, the idea that i put this out here and this party at least by these public comments seems very lukewarm at best? do you think he's getting that? >> if he wasn't hearing it at the beginning of the week he was by the time the end of the week rolled around especially as he rolled into california to hear rnc members, these are the leaders of the grassroots activists around the country question his viability, question why he's doing it and really "the wall street journal" i think, you know that opening line from them if he's the answer what's the question was devastating. but the question is one he has to answer quite honestly. and that is so what are you going to do now differently than

what you did four years ago. and that's why you're seeing this tension and people settle on a chris christie scott walker, ted cruz or rand paul. they don't need this replay of four years ago. >> so it seems, david, this is a big moment tonight in san diego. i guess they're doing it on an aircraft carrier. if you're serious about a political speech go on an aircraft carrier. all those questions are out there. he's got to give those answers tonight, doesn't he? >> well he won't do this with one speech. i mean the message he got this week was how can we think of you fondly if you don't go away? i mean that's really what everyone said to him again and again. one speech is not going to change that. remember, the end of the campaign, you had many people who were supporters of his saying the problem with his campaign was not anything but the candidate. so one speech ain't going to change that either or change the

political dynamics. i have a piece out today, steve showing in the last two years he's run a private equity firm with his son that's raised $700 million from dozens of investors and has made probably dozens of investments. will he release and disclose who those investors are and investments are if he runs again? he'll have all the same sort of issues the second time around. a speech tonight is not going to change that. >> michael steele what is the endgame here? because i'm thinking just in terms of his legacy. and he's exposed himself so much now where if he backs out now, it looks like this was a guy who was desperate to win the presidency, his party told him, no, go back to the sidelines, that's humiliating. if you stay in the water, you stuck your toe in this much he could go and win it, but potentially you run a third time and lose that's the legacy. what's the endgame here? >> the endgame is more the latter than the former.

while i'm not in this full-throated race to win the presidency there's been enough signs and the formation by activists and certain supporters to get the momentum going in that direction. so i think this is going to be a -- i think this is as much about that as it is jeb bush. that's why you see mitt romney now moving more aggressively in this direction because of some of the history between the two families and those two in particular. so there are a whole lot of things here for him to play out, but i think the risks are really great because, unlike 2008 and 2012 you have a different set of potential characters on the stage, and they come to play hard. i don't know if he's ready for that. >> steve, i think he's setting himself up for a statement that's going to be one word -- oops. i don't see how he can continue this way without that humiliation that you mentioned. and i'm reminded of a great comment. i think congressman moe udall

made this the only cure for the presidential bug is formaldehyde. it's really hard not to run if you ran in the past. >> it was u dpdall who said the people have spoken the bastards. >> almost overwhelmingly likely that hillary clinton the former secretary of state, is going to be the nominee for the other party. and i think the other big loser on november 4th wasn't just washington and the president, it was hillary rodham clinton. she embodies washington. she lives in washington, she worked in washington. you look at everything people dislike about washington she embodies it. what we need is a contrast to that that says we need a fresh, new perspective that says the answers to the ailments of our nation do not come out our nation's capital. >> on walker so much talk about bush christie romney now, in

that sort of establishment side of the party is there room for walker? >> yes, absolutely there is. you heard the predicate of his potential presidential campaign and that is i governed through tough times. the solution we came up with did not come out of washington. they came out of places like wisconsin, ohio, pennsylvania. that's a very different conversation, one that both mitt romney and jeb bush are going to have difficult times making because they've not been governors during those tough times. >> walker can go to that three elections in four years in blue states. up next iowa senator joni ernst may have landed the toughest job of all delivering the republican response to president obama's state of the union. it's not going so well for republicans. i've been called a control freak... i like to think of myself as more of a control... enthusiast. mmm, a perfect 177-degrees. and that's why this road warrior rents from national. i can bypass the counter and go straight

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back to "hardball." time for the side show the president's state of the union address is tuesday night. this year republicans have chosen joni ernst the newly elected senator from iowa to deliver their response after the prime time speech. the state of the union response has been a tradition since 1966. a chance for the party out of power to introduce their rising stars to the country. back in 1985 then-governor bill clinton gave the official democratic rebuttal. the reviews were brutal but look where he ended up. the responses have been better remembered for what went wrong than for what went right. for instance bobby jindal's speech in 2009 was widely panned for being hokey and ineloquent. just as awkward to watch today as it was six years ago. >> good evening and happy mardi gras. i'm bobby jindal, governor of

louisiana. >> a year later republicans picked the up and coming governor of virginia to make their official response. bob mcdonnell. his star was on the rise. now he's headed to a federal penitentiary for up to two years starting february 9th. there was congresswoman michele bachmann's off-putting tea party rebuttal to the state of the union in 2011. she managed to overshadow the official response because she was look into the wrong camera during her speech. the most cringe worthy moment was marco rubio in 2013. midway through it it became obvious that the senator was parched an then came this. >> in the short time that i've been here in washington nothing has frustrated me more than false choices like the one the president laid out tonight. the choice isn't just between big government or big business. >> the best part of rubio's impromptu water break may have been that he tried to keep eye

contact with the camera while he reached for the bottle. that moment quickly went viral and to some extent still defines him to this day. the challenge for joni ernst is to deliver her address without any side show distractions. after just 15 days on the job that might be a difficult task for someone who as a candidate made a name for herself as a hog cast castrater. >> when i get to washington i'll know how to cut pork. i approved this message because washington's full of big spenders. let's make them squeal. >> she makes good on that promise tuesday night, then we might have a lot to look forward to. up next, a historic move, the supreme court announces it will take up gay marriage.

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here's what's happening. a dramatic video of a spacex rocket missing its target and landing on a barge. it happened off the coast of florida. at the time elon musk tweeted, close but no cigar. scientists say 2014 was the warmest year on record. previous temperature records were set in 2005 and '10 and the cdc says flu is widespread. 19 more children have died bringing the total to 45 since the season began. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." we got big news from the u.s. supreme court. in a historic move the court has agreed to decide on whether the united states constitution allows states to ban same-sex marriage. diving head first into one of the hottest legal battles. the supreme court has decided to act following a tidal wave of

rulings that shot down bans. they are expected to hear the case in april that will come down when the court's term expires in june. 46 states allow gay people to marry. for more on this significant development let's bring in tonight's roundtable. an opinion write wer "the washington post," sabrina with the huffington post and john a strategist. john, let me start with you. this is already a fact on the ground. in 70% of the country, people are living with this in three-quarters of the states just a part of everyday life. now i'm not a court scholar but seems to me the court is not taking this up now unless there's a pretty clear sign that okay the tide of history is finally reached a point where this is okay for the country. >> thing about history here. when loving v. virginia was decided by the court which made it possible for blacks and whites to marry and knocked down

the laws around the country, interracial marriage was legal in, if my numbers are right, 34 state, but 70% of the country opposed interracial marriage. now look at where we are now depending on your count, 35 or 37 states allow marriage equality but about 60% of the cub is in country is in favor of majority equality. the ground is there for the supreme court to make this positive decision. it's not that the court is pushing the country into doing something. it would be that the court is following the country. the country's already there in supporting same-sex marriage. >> let's look at the politics of this then john we don't know what the court will do but let's say the court goes ahead and says gay marriage should be the law of the land across the country. they would be doing that a year

before a major presidential election. we've never seen a major republican candidate for president running and saying to the country, i'm okay with gay marriage. is there a chance that would change in 2016 or is that suicide in the republican primary still? >> i think you've already seen jeb bush try to change the rhetoric on this. it's an issue that divides the republican party and actually the democratic party is united and just get it over with and get on to other issues. but i think that you know you will see if the supreme court does make that decision you'll see some on the right who will continue to say that this is terrible and we've got to overturn it but i think that the more establishment candidates will say let's talk about other things so we can unite the country and try to get the economy back on track or whatever the issue of the day is. >> well, yeah so sabrina, i wonder what you make of this. i'm picturing a scenario like

john's outlining and maybe jeb bush is trying to be the voice of reason and say, let's not make this our fight. at the same time you have ted cruz out there saying no we have to overturn this, we have to repeal this, constitutional amendment. how do you see that playing out in the republican party? >> i agree with john. i i think that republicans for the most part don't want social issues to be front and center of the presidential race in 2016 especially when you looked at the difficulty they faced on issues such as women's reproductive rights and even same-sex marriage and the receipthetoric in 2012. they don't want a repeat scenario where the moderate candidates are forced into saying things to appeal to the hardline conservatives. even if you're ted cruz or rubio or rand paul i think that they are looking more at the polls. they see the increased support for same-sex marriage across the country and that the majority of americans do favor allowing

same-sex marriage. they don't want to be assailing gay marriage either. so i think they're going to try to strike that balance. even if you look at some of the more conservative candidates, i find it hard to believe anyone more than mike huckabee going out there and railing against gay marriage. >> a year ago mike huckabee was threatening to leave the republican party if they ever embraced gay marriage. public opinion has shifted when it comes to marriage equality. when gallup first polled on this two decades ago, only 20% of those surveyed approved of same-sex marriage. last year 55% approval showing a massive change. double in 20 years. jonathan, i'm remembering after the 2012 election after the republicans did their self-autopsy, they talked about gay marriage gay rights as a gateway issue for younger voters.

younger voters flektreflected in the change in the poll numbers there. i'm wondering if we get to a place where this is now legal across the country, it's settled law, no longer a disputed issue, do the democrats lose a bit of an advantage they've had on this issue for the last two years? >> if it goes away in time for the 2016 election sure. that's actually a good thing. during 2012 i wrote a piece talking about how during the debates, there was silence on gay issue ss. they didn't come up at all. that was a change from say, 2004 when gay marriage was the talk. there were ballot initiatives all around the country. now every demographic group and especially younger people the millennials and especially young republicans, conservative republicans, young conservative republican, they don't see what the big deal is. so the country's moving forward,

big chunks of the republican party, these people who will be leaving the party in 10 to 15 years, they're already fine with it. the sooner we get this done the better and that democrats have a whole lot of other things to press their advantage against republicans than just relying on marriage equality. >> the round table's coming back to talk about president obama's game plan telling democrats he's ready to play offense. this is "hardball". the place for politics. ♪ with the incredible fuel efficiency of 38 mpg highway... ♪ ...you can feel like royalty in the nissan altima. ♪ now get great offers on the 38 mpg highway nissan altima. nissan, innovation that excites. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ mom ] with life insurance, we're not just insuring our lives... we're

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president obama's poll numbers are headed up. this week's new pew poll shows his rating has jumped. it puts him on par with ronald reagan. the first time in five years more people say obama's policies have made the economy better rather than worse. that's 38% to 28% on that one. we'll be right back with the president going on offense. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds

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and stay ready for everything that is still to come. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda.

i i am energized. i am excited about the prospects for the next couple years. and i'm not stopping for a minute in the effort to make life better for ordinary americans. my presidency is entering the fourth quarter. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. president obama made clear he would not be a lame duck president at his end of the year press conference. he said i'm not spending the next two years on defense, i'm going to pay offense. he will issue more executive orders and use his veto pen liberally. today, the president amplified that mess an. >> with respect to the veto i said to my democratic caucus colleagues yesterday that i will veto a bill that comes to my

desk. my main message to continue at this point is just hold your fire. >> sabrina, let me start with you, the confrontations that are coming. we talked about the idea that the poll numbers have been going up. let's talk about keystone. what are the politics of him vetoing all of these things they're putting on his desk. some of them might be popular. >> i think the administration is approaching this on a case by case basis. a lot of legislation that he will veto are those that contradict his agenda. and then of course when it comes to the iran sanctions bills, they don't want to see those come undone. having said that i think that he is aware that he can't just

veto every jobs bill that might show up on his desk. every education policy that might end up on his desk and he will look for areas that he can work with republicans. reforming the tax code or on tlad agreements i think the administration feels there is room for common ground and it will be interesting to see how that walk that line, and it doesn't look like he is rejecting republicans in congress. >> where are they most confident -- we talk about the politics in the republican party and they do something like obama care repeal. where are they most thinking we're for this the president will veto this it will make a positive statement about who we are to the country. what stands out there? is there one. >> i think there is several all related to the job's issue. i think they feel if they can get the bill to the desk.

i think there will be tax cut stuff they will get done. you might go through a process there, and i think there will be other kind of issues that come through the pipeline that they want to work with the president, i think trade is one of the big ones. he will take credit for everything, everything that is going well in the economy, and his poll ratings have gone up because the economy is improving. if the economy stalls out, his poll rateings go back down. >> if the economy is heating up here and we're getting signs it maybe is the poll numbers keep rising does that change the politics and put you on the defensive? >> if you're an incumbent, and it is going up you may be in a stronger position. but for republicans in office if the economy improves they feel like they're in a stronger

position too. they can make the case they got in office and the economy is improving. >> what do you make of that? how does that affect the next two years? >> john said something that i think is right when it comes to the economy he is not given credit he has to take credit for this. the good thing about what is happening is that however the economy is, the pop popular the president is that is less of a wait on the president. we're talking about the election of a third possible democratic term or a new republican term. the last time that happened it was reagan reagan bush.

so you know what happened with the president's poll numbers, can and his leaning forward in these last two years, and going on offense, republicans now have the congress they're half -- all of the congress they now have to be an equal partner. the government knows this and they're putting it to the test. >> at the start of that seventh year he was down because of iraq the number went back up. it got that so-called reagan for a third term. appreciate your joins us tonight, and we will be back after this.

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that is "hardball" thank you for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. >> let's not under state the significance of what court may do here. >> history at the supreme court. there will be a definitive ruling on the constitutionality of same sex marriage a full report ahead. plus john kerry and james taylor help make nice in france. >> you see young men wearing osama bin laden t-shirts in a huka shop. >> and the