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and right now on "andrea mitchell reports," our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows that president obama's public support is at an all-time low, dragged down in part by widespread doubts about his health care plan. 42% say that the president's plan is a bad idea. that's up ten points in just a month. is that a summer slump, or a sign of what's to come? new clashes erupt today in iran, sparked by anger over reports that political prisoners

are being tortured. riot police fired tear gas and beat protesters today. today is also a symbolically important day of shiite remembrance, marking 40 days since the martyrdom of a young woman. and today's beer summit at the white house. the president meets with the harvard professor and the cambridge police sergeant. what does it all mean for race relations? we'll talk about that with mark w whitaker. new details this hour on wall street bonuses. you'll be shocked. but we begin first with breaking news. a judge has now ordered the release of one of the youngest detainees being held at the guantanamo bay prison. pete williams joins us now from the newsroom. pete, why is this so significant? >> a couple of reasons, andrea. first, this is the first time that a federal judge has ordered the release of someone from guantanamo bay, who had been charged with an offense and actually brought before a military commission.

this is mohammad juwad. his lawyers think he was 14 when he was first accused of throwing a grenade. he was brought to guantanamo bay in 2003, held there ever since. but everything started to go wrong this case for the government. military judges determined that the guts of the case against him was his own confessions, but the military judge said they were obtained by coercion. there were threats against his family. he was abused and tortured, his lawyers say. and today hear in washington, a federal judge ordered him released to afghanistan. now, one other point here, andrea, the judge said he has to be sent back there by mid- to late august, but there's a new federal law that has kicked in recently that says the government can't take anybody out of the u.s. without telling congress first. the question here is, whether the justice department will try to prosecute him before he gets back to afghanistan. his lawyers say that would be folly. >> the first of several big cases also pending on this subject. thank you, pete williams.

>> you bet. >> thanks very much. and senate republicans now could delay yet another key vote on health care, this time in the finance committee. that warning comes as the new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows that 58% of americans are worried that congress will not be able to overhaul the system. democratic senator benjamin cardin of maryland joins us now. senator, there is a lot of bad news in this poll for the president and for your party, and for congress as a whole. now, the congressional favorable rating is down to 24%, down from 29%. these are numbers below what george w. bush was having at the end of his teller. what does congress do, going into this august recess, with such extraordinarily unpopularity? >> well, andrea, we're in the middle of the discussions on health care reform. we don't even have a specific bill. i think once the people of this nation understand what health care reform is about and how it affects them, what it will do

with someone who currently has health insurance, will their insurance plans be protected, not only today, but into the future? what will it cost the average taxpayer with regard to health care reform? i think these are questions that need to be answered. and until congress has a specific bill that answers these questions, we're going to still see these polls that are just hard to completely understand. but i'll tell you this -- >> but senator, what we've seen is that the president has lost altitude on this. as the more he goes out, the more negative are the returns. what's wrong with the messaging by both congressional leaders and the white house? why is it so hard to explain? >> well, we don't have a bill yet. i'm hoping by the time the senate goes out next week, we're going to have some specifics that we'll be able to tell our constituents. look, if we don't do anything, it's going to be, i think, bad news for everyone, including those who are trying to afford our health care system. so i think we're going to be able to get our message across. we're going to be able to get health care reform done in the fall. the extra time, i think, will

actually help the president and help congress get it right and we hope it's bipartisan at the end of the day. >> one of the things that's just also now come out from the attorney general in new york state, andrew cuomo is new bonuses, $9 billion for at least two of the companies that still have not repaid their t.a.r.p. funds. and when you look at these kind of losses and bonuses, do you think this is something that congress will want to take a closer look at? >> absolutely. we've already seen action in the house where they're empowering the stockholders to be able to do more in individual companies, concerning the management's bonuses. i think this is somewhat -- this is obscene. and i think congress is going to want to empower the owners of companies to do more to reinin these types of outrageous bonuses. >> when you look at citi and merrill here, this just broke

within the hour, we talk to cuomo's offices, put calls into these companies, but i expect they would say, we need to pay these bonuses to be competitive, to turn these companies around. is that useful argument? is that a compelling argument or persuasive argument with y'all? >> no, not at all. look, people are entitled to fair compensation. but when you're dealing with these multimillion dollar bonuses, particularly with companies that have had to come to the government to ask for some help, it's very difficult to understand how you can't get the talent you need at a much more reasonable and understandable compensation package. >> okay. ben cardin, thank you so much, senator. thanks for joining us. so now let's bring in ron brownstein, political director for atlantic media. we've got so many poll numbers out there, "the new york times"/cbs poll, all these other polls, mirror the nbc/"wall street journal" returns, and we have 53% favorability for this president. people like him. peter hart, half of our polling

team, says that in a survey he did in a focus group he did last night, people genuinely like barack obama. they call him by his first name, they feel a connection to him, yet they think that six months is too short a time period to even produce a meaningful health care plan. >> well, there is a flood of new polling out in the last couple of days, and the message across all of them is very consistent. and that is for president obama, the tide is receding. if you look at the polling earlier this year, his support kind of swelled beyond the boundaries of where he was in november of 2008 and he was drawing very strong marks, not only among groups that supported him last year, but among groups that initially were skeptical, like seniors, noncollege white men, college-educated white men. across the board, he was doing well. i think with a consistent note in this polling, something we saw very clearly in our own poll, that obama is still strong among the core groups that elected him last fall. young people, hispanics, african-american,

college-educated white women. but he has rolled back and lost ground among groups that preferred mccain last year, but were kind of kicking the tires in the first month of this presidency. and the big reason, i think, if you look at this polling, and certainly as it relates to health care is questions about the amount of money he's spending, the programs, whether the stimulus money is effective. >> and one of the things that comes up in the nbc/"wall street journal" poll is that 47% of people with their own private insurance thinks that health care is a bad idea. and the president does have to sell this to 90% of the people that do have some kind of health insurance. they're afraid to give up what they've got. >> from the beginning, there have been annals that correctly pointed out that the key variable to watch in this is whether people who are insured, about 85% of the population, according to the census bureau believe that health care will improve their own situation.

but there's a fascinating development that shows how the white house is losing the battle. when you ask, is it a good idea or a bad idea, 46/42, good idea/bad idea. in the pew poll, he still has majority support on the specifics, and that suggests that the supporters are doing a better job. >> good idea or bad idea, bottom line, for them to go home without specifics, without a plan? >> i think they would rather go home with more, but i think, also, that they are -- they have been able to move things forward somewhat, substantial in the house, with this deal they have this week. the question of how long max baucus negotiates with senate republicans really is the big one that is hanging out there, and one that looms over all the other calculations on capitol hill. >> waiting for senator baucus. ron brownstein, thank you very much. and later ahead, president obama turns to beer diplomacy to

extinguish the firestorm surrounding his comments about the arrest of harvard professor henry gates. but will three guys, three beers, and a picnic table do the trick. and as house democrats push ahead, house republicans are unveiling their own plan. majority whip eric cantor joins us next on "andrea mitchell reports." in the history of professional tennis. so i've come to this court to challenge his speed. ...on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't. so i can book travel plans faster, check my account balances faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm faster than andy roddick. (announcer) "switch to the nations fastest 3g network" "and get the at&t laptopconnect card for free". ♪ is tget as far away from it all as possible.

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the new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows that president obama's job approval rating has dropped back to 53%. that's the exact popular vote percentage that he won in november. nbc news political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd is here to go through the numbers. really clear from the poll, isn't it, that health care is the big problem. >> it is. but there's two 30,000 foot

2 x 4s hits in the head i got from our poll. the economy, the economy, the economy. the jobs numbers went up. >> which is why he changed his numbers yesterday. >> so here as he spent three weeks talking about health care, it's as if voters are saying, hey, not only are we confused about what you're doing and all this stuff, but you've taken your eye off the ball. >> i'm worried about my job. >> correct. and by the way, the thing we're going to judge you on, do we have a job and is our income going to go up. >> health care was ranked third. >> it went down. and the number -- of importance. and it went down a little bit. part of that, the more they're hearing the details, the more confused they are. and frankly, we don't know the details yet. this is going to be another -- everybody's going to monday morning quarterback the president and the white house and axelrod on what they decided toot with health care. some people are going to say, hey, you should have gone

incremental. this health insurance reform idea that they're going after now, when they're making it, this is about health insurance, health insurance, health insurance and making the insurance companies the bad guys, that seems good politics now. why didn't they do that before? there's going to be a lot of monday morning quarterbacking on that, but the biggest thing is, why did you put them out there with no details to sell. >> if he put them out with details, he would have had a big bull's-eye on it -- >> that's true also. but health care's always lose/lose, so at the end of the day, bite off one little tiny bit at a time. so go here, then you can go here, then you can go here. the fact is, it's easy to monday morning quarterback now. they're down this road, they're going tooing and get something. the question is, do liberals think it's watered down were or does this end up being a pretty big reform, at least of what the insurance industry -- at least of the insurance industry. >> but only 14% think it's their top priority? >> that's because of the economy. it doesn't mean they don't think health care -- the white house

gets and others get this. the economy and health care are linked. people worry about health care, less, sometimes about medical care, and more about are they going to have it. you know, and it's sort of like this, because they might lose their job, because it's so connected with their job. >> how much momentum, if any, did he lose because of the one word, "stupidity," or "stupidly," or however he phrased that work, that one distraction which they hope is going to be resolved with a beer summit at the picnic table, three guys and three brews. >> i don't think you can look at these numbers and say that that somehow had any effect on him. health care, he spent the last three weeks on it. it's the health care numbers that stick out. and the joke around some at the white house is, thanks goodness for this gates mess, because it's stepped on some really bad sausage news every day when it came to health care. the white house is saying two things about all of this polling. they're acknowledging the problems, but they're saying, hey, any time -- we've had

summer slumps before and everybody's predicted doom and gloom and we've come back, one. two, any time the spotlight is on congress and what they're doing, which is what we've been doing the past three weeks, it puts a pox on everybody in washington. >> briefly, i wanted to take you to the focus group last night. some of the responses about people, hillary, good, smart, intelligence, relentless, great, energetic, good marks for hillary. palin, not so much. i'm glad she resigned, average, idiot, nutty, go away, you know, good speaking voice. okay, that's a good thing. obama, pretty good. brilliant, idealistic, afraid, busy, straightforward, but also some people are a little worried about him. >> they are. it's almost a combination of the anxiety people have about the economy -- so that has transferred to him. i think we saw this in our last poll and we're seeing more of it now. one other thing i want to point out from our poll that should be

a worrisome sign for democrats. nancy pelosi's numbers are bad. you brought up the focus group -- >> pushy, strong willed, self-centered. >> and forget the words a minute. they know who she is, and her numbers are two to one negative. >> two to one negative? >> two to one negative in our poll. it's a potential problem for democrats running all over the country. >> you didn't know this, but i'm now leading into eric cantor and it looks as though we've set inthat way, but we haven't. president obama got a significant boost yesterday, at least, after conservative democrats, those blue dogs, agreed to a health care deal inside the energy and commerce committee. republican minority whip and virginia congressman eric cantor join us now. good news, bad news, they don't like pelosi, but you guys are going to be outvoted in committee and outvoted on the floor, i suspect, with health care. >> well, andrea, good to be with you. listen, i think right now where we are is, this attempt to try to pull the bill towards where the blue dogs are has now caused many more on the other side in terms of the philosophical

spectrum, those on the far left, to now say they will oppose the bill. and i might even venture to say, there are more people against this plan in congress now than there were yesterday. which speaks to the matter of the public. you know, as you were mentioning the polls, andrea, i think the polls reflect a lot of uncertainty about what this plan's really going to do for people's health care. and that's why we're here as republicans say, look, we've got a plan, we want to engage, we want to be a part of the solution. but we cannot embrace this incredible grab here in trying to inject government more into the health care decision making. >> i'm told by ken strickland, our producer up there on the hill that you met today with the republicans on the senate finance committee. there aren't that many meetings across from house to senate. so what are you and senators enzi and grassley talking about? are you trying to slow them down on the senate side? >> no, what we're trying to do,

andrea, is tell them where house republicans are. house republicans have a plan. we believe that you ought to be saving tax free for health care. we believe that you ought to have flexibility in the insurance laws so you don't lose your coverage when you lose your job. we believe that small businesses and individuals that have the same benefit and discount that the larger folks have in terms of purchasing health care. we believe there ought to be a robust market for individuals to purchase health care, just as they've purchased a lot of other type of insurance -- >> are they willing to incorporate any of your house ideas into your senate negotiations, since you're not getting much of a hearing on the house side? >> that's exactly why we wanted to meet with them. to tell them, look, house republicans remain united around the principle that we reject the status quo. we understand there needs to be health care reform, was the route being taken -- undertaken by speaker pelosi and henry waxman right now is not where america needs to go. we don't need a government takeover of our health care system. >> you heard me give some of the

sort of negative responses from that focus group outside of baltimore last night to peter hart about nancy pelosi, but there are some pretty negative ones about sarah palin and john mccain didn't do that great either. people said, "over the hill, disappointing, strong-willed," that, i guess, is more of a positive. where do you look in the republican party for new leadership? is it sarah palin? >> listen, andrea. where our party is going is towards the pursuit of good ideas. what we would like to see over the next month for sure is a robust discussion around the consequences of what we're trying to attempt to do here in washington. and that is, are we going to be able to, number one, bring jobs back to this cub. and number two, are we going to be able to accomplish health care reform in a way that doesn't harm our goal of providing more jobs. so, andrea, i think that when you ask about where we turn our leadership, our leadership, our party is premised on how we can make the future better for this

country. >> is it constructive, though, to have so many members of the republican house caucus expressing doubts about the president's nationality, whether he's really a natural-born america, raising questions about birth certificates. isn't that a distraction that raises all of those questions all over again about how inclusive the republican party is? >> again, i don't see -- i mean, maybe you're seeing something different than i am. i don't see so many house republicans even saying any of that at all, andrea. so i think that where people are concerned and are focused here in the house is on the matters of the day, right now, which is what this health care means to their families, how do we get this economy going, how do we create an environment where there are more jobs for americans. >> okay. we'll leave it there. thank you very much, congressman kantor. up next, fresh violence on the streets of iran. police clashing with thousands of anti-government protesters

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call now! there are reports today that iranian police used tear gas to break up a gathering at a cemetery outside tehran. the ceremony was meant to commemorate protesters that were killed in the protest last month. a number of reasons, it's 40 days since neda's death. neda agha soltan, who became such an important symbol, the martyr of the movement. are they now looking for any pretech to create a symbolic moment on the streets? >> well, that's exactly it, andrea. and shiite, islam, you have commemoration ceremonies on the third day, seventh day, and the 40th day of someone's death. and so many people have been killed over the last six weeks that the protesters are looking

for opportunities to come out and continue to voice their sense of injustice and their sense of anger. >> what do we know about what is happening inside the prisons? we hear horrific stories about the torturing and the abuse and the murder of prisoners, political prisoners. >> well, european embassies i'm in touch with in tehran say that the official numbers, which the iranian regime has released on the amount of people in prison are vastly underestimated. whereas the regime claims that tens of individuals have been killed and hundreds imprisoned. what we hear unofficially is that thousands are in prison and hundreds have been killed and there have been brutal allegations of torture, images of torture. >> and what about the release, some 100 plus prisoners released in the last 24 hours. is this a sign that the regime is concerned about the reaction on the streets, the reaction politically that they've gone too far? >> to an extent, but i think

this latest gesture was simply cosmetic. they're trying to protect a more magnanimous image, but again i think thousands remain in prison, and actually, there's a u.s. citizen in the iranian prison. a columbian university educated urban planner, is in an iranian prison right now. >> and what we are seeing on the streets today, is that -- how do you assess the ability of the protesters to either create changes, political changes, real regime change is probably too much to expect, but is there a crack that you see in both the clerical leadership and ahmadinejad's support? >> the problem the opposition faces right now is that there's this tremendous popular outrage, but they haven't really been able to tap into that. because the bulk of the opposition is either imprison under house arrest or unable to freely communicate. so the people are looking for

leadership, but the opposition hasn't really been able to provide that so far. and i think the cracks which we should keep an eye out on is not necessarily amongst the clerical elite. we've already seen deep phys e fissures. >> and the united states, with of course, and the british are all afraid to say too much, because they're afraid it will backfire and only make matter worse for the protesters. >> that's right. and what i would suggest to the obama administration, immediately after the elections, the united states was reluctant to directly intervene, because we didn't want to hurt the cause of those whom we wanted to champion. i think we should keep with that same philosophy and not immediately rush to engagement, because we could implicitly endorse the election results and tip the balance in favor of the hardliners in tehran. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. >> good to see you. and straight ahead,

democratic senator, jay rockefeller. would he be willing to support a health care plan without a public option? plus, "time" magazine's karen tumulty on what president obama told her about the most difficult test for him so far in public life. and for the first time, we will be broadcasting life from africa next week as secretary of state hillary clinton embarks on her seven-nation trip. tylenol.. a day on the days that you have arthritis pain, you could end up taking 4 times the number... of pills compared to aleve. choose aleve and you could start taking fewer pills. just 2 aleve have the strength... to relieve arthris pain all day.

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the white house is watching three key republican lawmakers who are trying to hammer out a bipartisan health care deal inside the senate finance committee. but at least two of these republicans are very skeptical that a deal can be reached before the august recess. of course, democratic senator jay rockefeller of west virginia joins us now. senator, i just saw a release put out by your office that you are concerned about the co-op, which are the substitutes in the latest version from the senate

finance committee for the public option. what are your concerns about this co-op idea? >> i'm profoundly concerned, and in order to sort of follow up my worries, i called the national cooperative association, which has -- represents all co-ops in this country. and they said they didn't know of anymore 20 health care co-ops that exist today. they said they are unlicensed, for the most part, they say they are unregulated by the states or anybody else, they say that nobody's ever really done anything research that they're aware of as to what their effect is. and they say that -- they told me that they wouldn't try to bet the farm on co-ops if they were writing a national health insurance policy. so here we have an enormous piece of the health reform package and people are going to something which is untried,

unproven, very dubious, and is unregulated and has really no experience on anything but in minneapolis and the puget sound. those are the only two places where they're really working. >> well, what some of your colleagues would suggest to you is that you can add the regulations, you can fix that piece of it as part of the way you write the legislation, no? >> no, no, no. it doesn't work that way. it's like trying to regulate a insurance company. you can do all you want, they're going to avoid it. these are entities that don't exist and they want the federal government to put out $6 billion to have entrepreneurs flood in and all these different states and start up co-ops. they're not going to do it. andrea, they're not going to do it. i just sent some letters to this group that i talk about, the national association that represents all co-ops, the government accountability office, and the department of

agriculture, which does have a list of co-ops, to so if they can help us in any way. all i'm saying is i'm not condemning the idea completely, but it's a perfect example of why we have to know what we're doing. i'm chairman of the health care subcommittee. i ought to know about co-ops and they've never crossed my table, because they basically don't exist. now they do -- >> well, what is your bottom line? would you rather have no bill if it doesn't include the public option, which you think is one of the key elements that has to be there? >> i think that's also wrong thinking, with all do respect, andrea. >> no, it's okay, you're the expert on it. >> no, but, why do we have to say it has to be either this or that? this is what i'm afraid of, that we're walking into the pressure of making a decision when even the experts on co-ops are saying

they really couldn't recommend this as a way to go. and i want to find out much more about it. that's why i've written these three letters. i just sent them out this morning. i expect answers. it's a, i think, a fairly shocking development in the finance committee's approach. >> do you want to slow everything down until you can get more answers? would you rather see -- come back from the august recess, get more answers, keep working on it? >> i have never been somebody who felt that the special interest groups were going to take advantage of august and try to bring the whole thing down. they've been trying to do that since the beginning of this year, spending about $1.5 million a day, just the health insurance industry, to try to bring this bill down. so i don't think august is the problem. i want our people in west virginia and across this country to have a really good health care reform bill, and i do not want to take a chance on something which is, appears to

be, highly unproven, highly unreliable, and evidently, totally unregulated. >> and on a completely happier, wonderful note, congratulations to you. i understand you just became a grandfather again, that your daughter, valerie, has just had another baby, a baby boy. so congratulations to you and to the whole family. >> you're very kind. you're very kind. thank you. we're a happy family. >> i know you are. well, great to you and to grandmom sharon. thank you very much, senator jay rockefeller. karen tumulty, national political correspondent for "time" magazine has the cover story and the interview with the president today and joins us now to talk more about health care. and i've got the cover right here. "paging dr. obama," great cover, great interview. >> thank you. >> what were his biggest concerns, as you sat down with him, and the frustrations he was expressing. >> it was really interesting. senator rockefeller talks about august. the president is actually -- i've never had a politician before admit to me that he's actually sitting there reading the polls, but the president

acknowledged that he's not only reading the polls, he's getting very concerned over the mounting anxiety that americans seem to have about this health care plan. the more he talks about it, the more anxious people are getting about it. so he -- here's this man with such a great gift with words, saying, i'm really worried about my own ability to frame this message in a way that americans can understand. >> it's almost as though he ought to pack up, go on vacation himself, and maybe the polls would improve. it's such a contradiction. >> well, i think it's because, as he said, it's such a complex problem. there's so many moving parts of it, that it's really hard in this kind of deeply divided political culture and in this kind of environment to get a complicated message across. >> any second-guessing as to whether they should have come out with a specific plan, maybe not doing everything, but done more, you know, to present something to congress, rather than letting congress go back

and forth and have this sausage making exposed to public view? >> well, i pressed the president on that, and he says, he thought he was plenty specific. and he says, if you look at all the bill ous out there, they pry much agree so far on 80% of what he has proposed. it's all in the bill. the problem is that last 20%. >> that's always been the problem. and he had these comparisons to lbj, and it's no accident that this hasn't been done since 1965 with medicare. his analysis is that it was a different congress, that lbj could sit down with willburne mills and maybe it wasn't a beer and a picnic table, it was probably some whisky upstairs in the yellow oval room, that they could hash it all out with some leaders. they didn't have a fragmented congress. >> they had a stronger democratic majority. but these days, it's so polarized between the parties. the republicans are all very much on the conservative end of the spectrum, the democrats are more liberal than they used to

be. and there's really a lot more distance between the two parties than there used to be. >> because of the way our elections have made the wings of each party much more powerful, in terms of the way congressional districts have shaped up. >> although he says there are some things that are very much the same as they were in lbj's day. and one of those things is the need for the president to be just relentless and to keep the pressure on these guys, even behind the scenes, to just keep moving. >> well, you're someone who keeps moving. karen tumulty, another exclusive interview with the president. thank you very much for sharing. >> thank you. up next, the state of race in america. how far have we come as a post-racial nation? the answers may be disturbed. president obama has tried to diffuse the controversy and he will again today by sharing b r beers at the white house. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. i never thought it could happen to me...

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washington shortly for what may be the most anticipated beer in presidential history. new video, new pictures just into msnbc. professor gates there at the airport on martha's vineyard, leaving to catch the flight to boston and then on to washington, d.c. that incident has really thrust race back into the political conversation. spokesman, white house spokesman robert gibbs said today that the president does not plan to, quote, mediate apologies. with me now, nbc news washington bureau chief, mark whitaker. mark, we have to take a pause for a moment and sort of ask ourselves, why is this incident, why has it sparked such fury, perhaps signifying nothing, and is it because we're perhaps changing as a society and there's a lot of anxiety out there? >> i agree with that. we often tend to, when these stories crop up, analyze them in terms of the racial past. how far have we come, what for vestiges that are still there? but i think this story and a lot of other stories that we are talking about in our politics

right now are also about our future. at least that's the backdrop. this is a country where within 35 years, white americans are going to be in an absolute minority. hispanics, blacks, and asians are going to overtake them as being the new majority in this country. and i think some people applaud that. other people are deeply threatened by it. other people are anxious about it. but i think that the idea that just electing barack obama, the first black or the first mixed race president was going to alleviate all of those strong educational emotions, was a little naive. and you see that in not only this story, but in the story of sonia sotomayor, in the controversy over barack obama's birth certificate, on a lot of fronts. >> there is a lot of undercurrents. rush limbaugh played a report we did on "nightly news" last night, pointing out that there were a lot of right wing attacks on barack obama over this race question. and he accused me of playing the race card by showing what he

said to greta, by showing really notably what glenn beck had said about president obama being quote, a racist. this is what rush had to say about it this morning after he played our piece. >> this is exactly what i knew was going to happen. and let's not forget the incident that has ignited this. it was obama, and i said the day it happened, he's the one that struck the match, and it's so unfortunate. he's the one doing the beer summit today to try to make this go away. he's the one doing the beer summit, bringing these two combatants in there, trying to make peace. >> but what he said going into this is that we were playing the race card because the president has bad polls. we've spent this entire program talking about the president's bad polls. the white house cannot be very happy with these poll numbers or the way we've covered them, but these issues really cut across whether the president is popular or unpopular on health care. this is really the first african-american president becoming either an icon for

some, a symbol for others, or a real threat, raising these questions that you -- >> it's interesting. it's almost as if we have two divides in this country now. we not only have a political/ideological divide between democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives, but we have a divide over the parts of america that are comfortable with these changes, the new multiracial america and the part that isn't. but also, these issues are very volatile, frankly, because they play into the media. and everybody can have an opinion and it helps ratings for all sorts of people and so forth. that's why, i think, everybody has the responsibility, starting with the president, to be very careful about how they choose their words, he choose his words poorly in that first press conference, and also in their symbolism. we'll see whether this so-called beer summit today actually, symbolically turns out to be a good thing or not a good thing. i certainly get a sense from the

white house, from talking to some of the people who are going to be involved that everybody feels overwhelmed by what a circumstances this has become. >> indeed. and perhaps what colin powell said the other night to larry king is that everyone here was not at their best. the professor, the sergeant, the police department, the white house, and perhaps at the time, not just to drink a beer, but to take a deep breath. a time out. thank you, mark whitaker. >> any time. >> always. and coming up next, is the right wing using race as a political tool? well, i don't know, you decide. and if you missed something on the show, just check out our website, andrea.msnbc.com. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ tires ] [ female announcer ] sometimes, you can get so much out of so little. the same is true with bath tissue too. introducing new charmin ultra soft. its new ultra soft design is softer than before. and it has so much absorbency, you can use 7 sheets vs. 28 of the leading value brand.

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all right. we should talk about what the big story will be in the next 24 hours. this story will happen in the next few hours. in the back-yard of the white house, a race around the white house with a picnic table, perhaps. here's republican strategist terry holt. is this the right way for the president to try to get himself out of a sticky situation? >> it is stupid. to use one of barack obama's words from last week, i feel like, yes, we have all agreed all these people might have acted better under certain circumstances, but, you know, we have heard from barack obama the last two days say health care is the most pressing concern, yet we are all going to turn our attention to this ridiculous story that there's a keg gar on the lawn of the white house.

i think as the distraction from the big issues that are, frankly, much more important in this country. i don't know that solving henrygates' problem or trying to call this cop down on the carpet is going to get at true race relation issues in the country. it is all about pr, i'm afraid. >> i'm not sure the president is trying to call the police sergeant down on the carpet. >> but if you look at the situation, andrea, the first thing he did was blame the cop. and for everybody who is in uniform in this country protecting the homeland or protecting average citizens every day, you have to wonder how the president is going to support the next time there's a tough call here. you know, they have to wonder it as well because wasn't it surprising that just in a few days ago we saw a billion dollars go to the cops program? talk about buying off -- >> you know how long it takes for -- >> of course, we are going to pay off the cops.

it is true. >> ted, jump in on that one. >> first of all, let me say, number one, i don't think it is stupid at all. i think it is courageous of the president. >> it is courageous to try to take a negative and turn it into a positive. >> terry, the issue of race the central issue in american politics and has been for a long time. >> it certainly is and what is a harvard professor and a small town cop going to do at the white house to solve underlying racial issues in this country? >> terry, what about the point that the president -- clearly -- terry, time-out a second. the president was reacting and he acknowledged, not the smartest way to react, but he was reacting the same way that others, eric holder, collin powell, other african-americans have acknowledged that this is a major issue of color, particularly men when dealing with law enforcement. it is something that needs to be acknowledged. it was acknowledged by the president. he hoped as a teaching moment.

clearly, he said something, tad, that was not in the playbook. >> the president is trying to deal with a serious issue in a responsible way. listen, this is here. this is a reality. people know when barack obama got elected president that race was part of the history and not part of the present. it still exists. i think for him to recognize that and to deal with it in a responsible way is a testament to his leadership. by the way, in the primary process when the reverend wright thing happened, they said it is terrible and the end of barack obama, he turned it around with a powerful speech on race and he has the potential to do it again today. >> he certainly proved in philadelphia that he has the ability to do this. uniquely, so. terry, we are out of time. ted devine, thank you. contessa brewer picks up our coverage next with the economy. hi, there. what do you have coming up? good to see you. the fed says the economy is showing signs of stabilizing.

we have a huge read on gdp out tomorrow. we'll get you ready for that. also, the market right now soaring on the day. we'll tell you why. and new trouble facing porn star danielle. she was seriously considering a run for the senate, but her arrest may get in the way. we'll explain it all still ahead. stick around. 90s slacker hip-h. ♪ singer: buckle up, everybody 'cause we're taking a ride ♪ ♪ tt can strain your relationships and hurt your pride ♪ ♪ it's the credit roller coaster ♪ ♪ and as you can see it kinda bites! ♪ ♪ so sing the lyrics with me: ♪ when your debt goes up your score goes down ♪ ♪ when you pay a little off it goes the other way 'round ♪ ♪ it's just theame for everybody, every boy and girl ♪ ♪ the credit roller coaster makes you wanna hurl ♪ ♪ so throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em around ♪ ♪ like a wanna-be frat boy trying to get down ♪

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