welcome back to "morning joe." you are listening to the sounds of van halen. you guys got uncomfortable e-mails today. that's all i will say. what did you learn today, teacher? >> i should travel with an extra pair of contact lenses. >> that would be safe. what about you, gene? >> it's possible for me on the program to be to the right of somebody. i am to the right of lawrence this morning. >> and i am to the right of gene. what i learned is that lawrence, this whole health care thing may be in more trouble than i thought. i thought barack obama would get 3/4, and he says he will get nothing. >> lawrence, you went through this before. >> what i learned during the break is that willie has plans with dylan ratigan to, as they put it, go tubing. they are going to go tubing.

what is that? >> that means -- dylan and willie, what is that? >> well, it's a tube run. >> willie, what did you learn today? >> i learned, that the 2004 red sox team -- >> here we go. here we go. >> have a good weekend. >> say hi to alex rodriquez for me the next time you go to yankee stadium. and i learned my 18-year-old has given me big instructions. a three-drink minimum. joking, mom. andrew is playing one of the loafers -- you know what loafers

love to do? >> wink. >> they love to wink. and our favorite goatee'd man, chuck todd there. >> what time is it? >> it's too early, and it's time for my tubing partner, dylan ratigan. >> i am dylan ratigan. it's yet another morning meeting. it's friday. topping the agenda. they came, they met, and yes, they drank. what they did not do, however, is apologize. we are reading the room at the so-called white house beer summit, and did this happy hour have a happy ending? and then a top u.s. advisor telling troops to go home from iraq. why are troops sitting around?

we, meanwhile, breaking down the latest on the late king of pot, with the man that literally closed the book on michael jackson. plus -- >> prepare to release! 1, 2, 3, release! >> the president is planning bonding time with the entire cabinet today. we have suggested activities for members of his cabinet. it's 9:00 a.m. good morning to you. pull up a chair. "the meeting" begins right now. the president said it was just three folks having a beer at the end of the day. not your average happy hour crowd, however, the president, and joe biden, and the press

core, and a black man and a white officer. one of the finest of the bunch, chuck todd has the word on the beat. >> there were no empty beer cans at the white house, after some keggers like that, you will see there is clean up in the morning. nothing like that. they had a butler come over and su serve the beer. and it seems like they had positive conversation. sergeant crowley had a press conference after the meeting. >> i think you had two gentlemen agree to disagree. we spent a lot of time discussing the future. >> what fascinated me about this, it actually -- you know, i know the president said don't call it a beer summit, and it felt like a diplomatic affairs. i have been on the foreign trips already, and you get readouts of

what happened behind the scenes, you hear similar language. and here was the president trying to clamp down on expectations. >> i notice this has been called the beer summit. it's a clever term. this is not a summit, guys, this is three folks having a drink at the end of the day. and hopefully, giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. and that's really all it is. >> reporter: you know, look, the fact is, it did feel like a summit. when you realize at the last minute vice president was there, and you had racial balance at the table. they wanted to defuse the racial situation that happened over the last nine days. and let's look at the big picture. this happened nine days ago, okay? and what was the event the president was holding? a news conference to try and keep -- light a fire under congress to get a health care

bill passed. today, it's the last day the house of representatives is in session before recess. and guess what they are not doing? they are not passing a health care bill today. instead, the president is still playing clean up on this. >> yes. so the least we can do is try -- we are going to talk about race, so we may have a good race conversation, so if there is a silver lining in that context, it forced that. you made a good point, chuck. thank you, chuck. mark whitaker joins the conversation. and also a close family friend of professor gates, jonathan capehart are here. this is the first time you and i have had a chance to talk on this subject, mark, as the heat of the conversation starts to dissipate a little bit for obvious reasons. what do you think, if anything, will be different either in the national psychology, if

anything, or in the police psychology relative to black men, black men relative to the police. is there any opportunity for change in the way people think about the relationships going forward, and do you think it will hold? >> one of the things that you have to remember about most police cases is they are very individual. they are about the individual facts. i think that what we have learned in the last week is that this was a particular incident. yes, we can talk about the larger conversation about racial profiling, but i don't think that this was actually very typical. i spoke with professor gates last night. he was very upbeat. he is trying to turn this in a positive. i suspect he will write about it, and do a documentary. we saw sergeant crowley last night, and we think he might have a political future. these guys will go on and try to turn this into something that is good for their careers. what president obama

accomplished yesterday was to chill this out a little bit, and we are talking about it today, but frankly by the end of the day we will conclude it's boring and we will move on. that's all the white house wanted to accomplish. >> i think howard dean will conclude that in 35 minutes when we start to talk about health care. in the meantime, let's tie this up. jonathan, two questions for you. your thoughts the day after, but what was joe biden doing there? >> well, i think, you know, joe biden being there -- i think with the last-minute edition -- >> i think they wanted another white guy. >> if that was the purpose, then great, fine. it didn't do any harm to have him there. in fact, it brought some balance. it made for a better picture, quite frankly. what was your first question again? >> your thoughts the day after. is there a legacy -- jesse

jackson talked about some of the structural aspects in our society, i should say? >> i am glad to hear from professor gates and sergeant crowley, they will meet over lunch and talk over the weekend and set up another time to get together. i think that's terrific. i thought that sergeant crowley's press conference was unbelievably poised and quite nice to hear him be conciliatory, and upbeat about the meeting. i think the positive to come out of this, you had a very tense, ugly situation, nine or ten days ago, and now it's resolved in terms of tension now. and then i am very hopeful, actually, that going forward we will hear more from these two men, separately and together , about, their role in trying to

bridge the divide. >> mark, i was talking to the show's executive producer before the show, and she was making the point, listen, if this was a couple women that had the interacti interaction, nine days later, they would say i am sorry, i didn't mean it, sorry to put you in those handcuffs, and there was never an apology in this? >> i think it was not about race, and it was about another r word, which is respect. these are two men that are used to personally and in professional roles getting a lot of respect. for whatever reason, each felt disrespected. i think it pushed buttons and caused both to behave irrationally. i think you see it in a lot of situations and other communities as well. >> and shannon got in my ear right now and apologized for

having to rwrap me all the time. contessa, what is going on? >> lawmakers head out to the summer break, but still trying to hammer out a compromise on the health care. on the house side, they are expected to finish up their version today. and the senate finance committee continues closed-door negotiations today. bipartisan negotiators say they need more time to come up with an agreement to come up with the review. former governor howard dean weighs in in the last half hour. apparently, americans had a lot of clunkers they were ready to trade in. the government's cash for clunkers program is already out of money. $1 million, gone! >> economic incentives, as crazy as it sounds, work.

if you look at this, and yet they don't want to create competition for health insurance and break down the regulations in health insurance, and let the mayo clinic complete with everybody else, and that's cr y crazy, why would you do that? but cash for clunkers? >> yeah, that means a quarter of a million people went out and bought new cars. there was a three-pronged goal here. and the white house is looking at ways to extend the program and keep it going. the astronauts shuttle are heading home. we will look for the landing live at 10:48 eastern right here on msnbc. i could not get enough of the video that we saw yesterday. this 7-year-old presen did not want to go to church. >> i feel like it's your

childhood fantasy. >> yeah, i wish i could have did it, run from the police. mommy, daddy, save me. he was on the "today" show talking to meredith vieira. >> i am grounded, no tv or video games. >> do you think that's fair? >> uh-huh. >> you do? do you now understand what you did that maybe it was not the smartest thing? >> uh-huh. >> you know what, grounding? i would have gotten my butt whooped. there would have been severe corporal punishment if i would have stolen a car. >> the shear pleasure of having your own car, would easily have been worth four days without video games. >> that's not even a choice, is it? >> by the way, preston is coming on with his family next hour. we will get to talk to him about it. can you ask him if anything can top it, the 7-year-old.

>> we have a bunch of cars around town. >> your mom is here, too, isn't she, contessa? >> yeah, she can tell you, she would have would have whooped me. ahead, a blunt memo for the troops in iraq, go home! and troops largely sitting around trying not to get injured. how long do they have to stay there to wait to come home? plus, new information on the michael jackson case. the man who wrote the book on the king of pop. i love it when he wears those glasses. we are here back at the meeting after this. your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself.

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a memo from a u.s. army colonel in baghdad saying it's time to go home, and claim victory. he wants troops out by august. hi, jim? >> this came from a colonel, and he is actually working as an advisor to iraqi security forces. it's his take the longer the u.s. military forces stay in iraq to help build-up the iraqi securities, perhaps the worse the situation will get. in the memo, he says this. therefore way

it's a year and a half ahead of the concern the timetable, with the withdrawal of all u.s. forces. here they are trying to play down the memo saying this is one man's opinion. if you look at what he is saying, these are the long-standing concerns the u.s. military has had in iraq for the last five years or so. the iraqi military forces will never be up to speed, just good enough to allow u.s. military forces at some time to leave. that the government in iraq, and the military is still ripe with corruption. and then once they start to leave, the long simmering sectarian rivalries will bubble up to the surface and there will be more violence. u.s. military commanders say the current timetable is the one that they are sticking to, and they need to stick to for nothing else, force protection

as the americans drawdown. >> understood. jim, stay with me for the conversation. jack jacobs joins the conversation. welcome to the meeting. and christian also joining the conversation. the primary complaint is the following, all the troops in iraq, doing nothing, or many feel like they are doing nothing, and they are trained to execute a variety of missions, and they are sitting around smoking cigarettes, playing backgammon, or trying not to get killed. and they are like, why have i left my family to sit around and play backgammon and smoke cigarettes when i want to do what i am here to do or go see my kids? >> well, once you are told -- you don't want to be the last guy there. most of what happens in combat in any case is sitting around for something to happen.

>> i feel like we are beyond that. these american children are sitting there with the primary mission of trying not to get killed, and it's because they are in a place where people are trying to kill them. >> the mission dramatically changed since petraeus got there. the whole idea is withdrawal. as a result, the mission changed from a combat mission to force protection, and to being advisors to the iraqis. >> educate us on the following. what is the difference in terms of if we were to start withdrawal this weekend, withdrawal next summer, august, or withdrawal the summer after that, or withdrawal five years from now? what is the -- >> at some point you get 80% of your mission done, and the last 20% comes at an enormous cost. what the colonel is saying, two things, first, as time goes on, it will be more costly given

what we are trying to accomplish. >> both, economically, and more importantly, in lives. >> yeah, and second, in his evaluations, the iraqis are about as good as we are going to be able to get them. the place is ripe with corruption. >> why wouldn't we pull out sooner? >> i think we are going to pull out sooner. and this thing was leaked a week after secretary gates said, i think we will wind up getting out of there sooner. one other points of political support and liability, an alliance with great britain. and i bring that up because the north american editor for this, what is their sense and what is their support to just get out of there? them and relative to england? >> definitely very strongly in favor of pulling out.

they have been withdrawing quicker than the americans. >> has that hurt us? >> oh, yeah. >> we have stayed. >> yeah, it has. there is a lesson with the way the british withdrew, it became more difficult for the forces left. this is a lesson for us, too. if you are going to do something, to quote shakespeare, do it quickly. if you don't indict quickly at the tail end, life will get difficult. >> at what point should america announced it wants to with draw, it has to with draw fast, because there is a lame duck -- >> well, obama said during the campaign, i am getting out. when he took office, he said i will not get out as fast as i was. and what about the psychology of the troops, away from their families and wives, and getting little compensation, and not

doing anything, feeling like they are trapped in the barics, and trying to pass the time. >> and they know -- >> i have never been a fan of announcing it. now that it has happened, it has an effect on the troops that remain behind. i was one of the last guys -- combat troops to leave vietnam in 1973. and then that announcement was made at the last minute. it's a good thing it was, too, because we were fighting continuously, and had that announcement been made six months in advance, i probably swroon been a happy puppy thinking i had six months ago, and then if i survived, i might get out. >> jonathan, i have to go. what do you -- >> i have a question. >> i don't have time. >> jonathan capehart, we have to

keep him in line. we will take a break here at the "morning meeting." nancy pelosi calling the insurance companies willins. we brought in a corporate trainer to work with each cabinet member on rituals they can perform to improve on some of their weaknesses. how do we make hillary a better follower and less of a leader? end of the conversation, we will sort all that out coming up at the president's cabinet getaway. y on car insurance for over 70 years.

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welcome back. what is going on. >> mark stanford wrote a letter to his spiritual advisor, and he admits if it comes out that public humiliation will follow. he says this. >> how did this come out? why do we know this? why are we able to talk about this? what is wrong with our society that this information is accessible to us that we are now talking about it? >> the associated press got hold of this through a public records

question. this is a letter mark sanford sent to a spiritual advisor. what is next, they will eavesdrop in on the priests -- >> our records are kept on behalf by those who serve in the public. >> one would think, dylan. that is using lodgic. >> logic seems to be out of fashion these days. >> anything else? >> no. >> that was enough. seriously, not from you, you are lovely, of course. we will take a break. we have something on michael jackson, and still, a conversation with howard dean. and christina romer will talk about economy. we still have lots of stuff. we are back after this. my doctor told me something i never knew. as we get older, our bodies become... less able to absorb calcium. he recommended citracal.

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welcome back. we are resetting the agenda at the half hour mark, and we are talking with the man that wrote the book on michael jackson. and he will join us and talk about the autopsy results. house speaker nancy pelosi saying the insurance companies are the villains, and in some cases i may argue they may be

anti-competitive vampires, which is somewhat different. the health care debate. have the democrats found something that will sell with the american people? i suspect they have. did the beer summit bridge the racial divide? and they are raising the question of what brought this thing in the brew. and then from beer to trust circles, to president bringing his cabinet together today for bonding time. we are talking to a corporate retreat expert about what exercises are most suitable to improve the performance of the cabinet. before that, let's get to contessa and the news of the morning. there is no such thing as a free lunch at the white house. there were a charge there. what is up? >> the white house brought four

ceos of the most powerful companies of the world to eat at the white house, and have lunch. and curiously, the white house collected credit card information from the ceos of atat, and coke kmochcoca-cola,t their credit card numbers. >> do other administrations charge guests? would you like to come to the house for the meal, and can you pay for it? >> yeah, we talked to jacqueline kennedy kennedy's representative, and she said, you know, you don't have for $5 for the sandwich if you invite somebody over to lunch. and the white house says they are going over and above in trying to be as ethical and

above board as possible. it was a head-scratcher when i heard this, and i had to check with past white house officials, is this a common thing, and they said no, they have not done this. >> i love the false ethics of the white house, as they don't exact terms from the banking structure, and continue to support antitrust for the banks, and then charge for lunch. >> what you are concerned about is lobbyists buying lunch for the government. >> i don't care who is buying lunch for who, i am concerned about the trillion dollars they took from the tax dollars. >> do you know how much they paid? >> yeno. and i am looking to see who paid for the tab yesterday on the

beer summit. >> and earlier this month, i had lunch with larry summers, and i did pay for my own sandwich and the sandwich my colleague had. i wanted to pay for larry's salad, and they would not do that. but the cookies, they were free. >> could larry explain what about the bailout in aig terms? >> he was not in office then. >> well, did he have any insight? these people around, they may have some insight, right? what else, contessa? >> well, the autopsy results for michael jackson may still be delayed. the coroner says they need more information. we are waiting on toxicology reports, and that may tell us what roll the doctor may have

played. again, we are not expecting autopsy results here anytime soon. we are getting our first look at warrants on dr. conrad murray. the warrants describe jackson as a prescription drug addict. to see it now in legal documents is something. >> i have got it. and welcome back, and nice to see you. what do you have? >> well, first of all, i don't call him an addict. he was in no physical or mental state to survive without western medical science. however, the enablers -- dylan, if you or i were as ill as michael jackson, we would need the same medication. and his enablers took advantage.

>> the financial distress around this doctor suggests that he would have done anything to get the income in order to survive the atrocity of debt that he was living in. >> and you have to look at the people who brought murray into the camp. why was this guy through the gates in the first place. other people, their roles are suspect as well. the police are looking into everybody's role. that's why they delayed the toxicology reports. >> i think the doctor was screwed with debt, and i think the doctor was like, michael jackson is my man, and he wants whatever, pick your name of the drug, i will give it to him, and the drugs killed him, right? >> what i am wondering, to what extent you think this is what michael jackson wanted or if the people around him wanted to pump

him up? >> yeah, there were hundreds of millions of dollars at stake if he went ahead with the concert, and plus they were planning a world tour for him which was in the process of being booked. have you to look at their role. michael's role, he let the people in the house, and there is still no excuse to bring stuff like diprivan. it's still legal. i trust them on their track record. it's been a travesty. i know they are trying to get to the bottom of this. they don't want egg on their face, and they are doing the most thorough investigation -- >> do you think michael jackson will be there attempt for their representational recovery? >> it will have to be. this is developing into the case of all-time. we have not touched the tip of the iceberg here. you will see a grand jury involved in this at some point and a lot of other doors opened

in this case with other clues. >> i will ask you a separate question. of those involved in the michael jackson case, how many will be wearing red glasses like you have on now? can i try them on? >> yeah, absolutely. >> you literally look at the world through rose-colored glasses. are you happier as a result? >> well, right now i am revealing my face to the world. i am in an under cover investigation. what do you think? >> we will do a gdp interview, with howard dean on health care? >> you should be the cover -- >> can you see the next cover for "gq"? >> i have never seen anything that looks more ridiculous in my life. >> i have to buy you a pair of glasses. we will do this until the case

is undercover. >> the financial system killed michael jackson, under water in debt, and drugs are everywhere. if it was not for the problems in the health care system, he would still be with us. >> i like it. >> i got on this case because i thought michael was guilty, and i thought -- we have another o.j. simpson running around. four years later, it's important to point out, i conclude 1,000%, he never molested children. and one boy described michael jackson's private parts, and then >> penises are a valid part of the meeting. >> they found out he was not circumcised.

and i have to say, if it's not clipped, you have to acquit. >> that's right. i love it. >> be careful, because i may start asking you guys about your status there. if it's an open -- >> this is a true sense. as long as it's true, you can speak it. that's the only rule in this room. a pleasure to see you. >> thank you for the use of the glasses. >> a lot more to come at the "morning meeting." nancy pelosi calling the insurance companies immoral villains. and the democrats may have found a way to keep health care reform from coming off the track by asking for more competition in health insurance. why are there state regulations that help us from bidding on better health care plans because we don't live near the mayo clinic. we will talk to howard dean coming up. i never thought it could happen to me...

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into the break room we go as we await a health care conversation with dr. howard dean, and dr. christina still to come on the economy. and let's put that on hold for a second and enjoy ourselves. >> two local police chiefs and a mayor's son are under arrest for breaking into the surrogate's home for sarah jessica parker? >> we have politicians and police officers breaking into sarah jessica parker's surrogate mother's home. and then they turned it around and sold it to the tabloids. they are expected to be arraigned this morning. >> i will steal it and sell it. why would i do that when i could make something of volumalue?

>> remember dance friday, when we showed the bride and the groom coming down the aisle? well, this time we are in divorce court for kevin and jill. they have been married for a month. here it is, divorce court. can we turn off the music? listen for it. what makes you think it's a spoof? you have never seen lawyers -- >> it's broadway. >> professional dancers. i just wanted to play this. the "endeavour" is coming home. we will watch that for live on msnbc. with it comes the underwear worn by a japanese astronaut for one month. he did not take it off. and the scientists are so

excited to examine his underwear. >> what are they looking for? >> to see if they smell. >> we have special space underwear that can you wear for a month straight, and there is no legacy residue activity? >> exactly. all the advances made for space, you will have a bunch of people walking around in the same underwear for a month. >> and people that wear contract lenses, and they are supposed to be for two weeks and they wear them for a month. >> that's disgusting. >> no, they have technology like tang. >> yeah, as soon as you associated those two, we're okay. i am eager to see how you transition from what we are talking about to what you talk

about next? >> watch. in just a moment, we will be joined by howard dean. why do they continue to send money to the politicians so they can not have competition? also, one day after a beer summit at the white house, a checkup retreat. what happens at the retreats? do they help them improve the quality of the cabinet. >> a brilliant transition. >> thank you. ♪ introducing listerine® total care. everything you need to strengthen teeth, help prevent cavities, and kill germs. introducing 6 in 1 listene® total care. the most complete mouthwash.

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all right. joining the meeting is dr. howard dean, former governor of vermont, head of the dnc and author of "howard dean's prescription for real health care reform." our panel remains with us. chris and jonathan and,

governor, welcome back to the program. nice to see you. >> nice to be on. are we talking about one-month-old underwear? >> no, no, that's not fair. how about the beautiful technology of underwear that can last for a month? you got to sell it better, governor. >> how does it do in the swimming pool? can i beat michael phelps if i wear this stuff? >> maybe. i don't know. a lot of these technologies have different things they can do as you know with different pharmaceuticals. we've invend the world's best swimming suit by accident. let's cut the best health care program. how do we keep better care of our patients and create a system that does that. the subject today, insurance. why are they so afraid of a little more competition? why can't we break down state line so that we can get mayo clinic available on the internet? why not create a marketplace for

competitive insurance and bidding and sales and all of us can look at the market and pick the best health insurance plan for us? >> that in and of itself is not sufficient and not enough in order to have the kind of health care we ought to have. >> but i feel like we can't get that by agree with you but we can't create honest competition in health insurance let alone the bigger problems we have to deal with. >> in the book, i argue the only way to create honest competition and health insurance is have a public option so people can sign up. it's universal across the country. it doesn't stop people from getting on the rolls if they are sick. it follows you if you have a job or don't have a job. that would give the insurance companies another competition so they would have to straighten up their act and be a little nicer to physicians and consumers. >> you know better than i do but when i look at insurance regulation and the biggest competitive law that i can see

is that you can't cross state lines in selling health insurance like this and i presume the health insurance lobby is in favor of keeping those laws in place. what can the american people do? what can voters do to encourage their politicians to force health insurance companies to deal with a competitive environment that we cannot deal with, again, this structure any longer? >> well, actually that doesn't quite work that way. the reason for that law is to protect consumers. you know, imagine george bush regulating the insurance industry the way he regulated welfare. >> like aig, it was a pain in the neck for us. >> that's what i'm talking about. >> i know. >> the reason that you can't cross state lines is because some states really do a better job than others regulating insurance companies. the insurance companies would love to get rid of state regulators because some state regulators are pretty tough. >> how do you create that -- the natural competition of a country that claims to be capitalist but, apparently, doesn't like competition all the time? >> well, they never like

competition. >> isn't that capitalism? >> most companies want capitalism in the sense they like the free market but they don't want to have any competition so they do what they can squelch it and the role of government comes in, particularly in health care and why you need a public option. >> is the public option the only way? when you look at ron wyden's idea, look, let's drive the decision who is biting buying the health insurance down the corporation and let them bid in a marketplace that could include a public option, could include a co-op, whoever wants to sell health insurance through the domain of regulation could bid to provide to me or chrystia who is going to have a baby or you and the three of us who have probably different health insurance needs at this point in our lives. >> all due to representative divine is -- the health insurance market is the individual market where individuals make their own choices like that. that's what the companies take most advantage is when they

abuse the patients the most. the best health care market is, in fact, the big corporations because they get better deals. most employees of big corporations like their health insurance. >> i agree with that. it's such a burden on the corporations and then people-- >> that's true. >> so, in other words, i understand the attractiveness to me, as an employee of general electric, because i get this lovely health plan and get to ask people like you questions and hang out with chrystia freeland but it's a burden on ge and a burden on the corporations. it affects our competitiveness and it affects the mobility of our labor force so that if i decide i don't want to work at ge because i'm more efficient to be a car mechanic in tennessee or whatever it is, our ability to move around this country is diminished by the structure of our health insurance and that makes our country less xet i. a which is exactly right. and it's why we need a public option. let people try the public option. it worked well for canada. they are soaking up more of our automobile jobs than ever has because it's cheaper to have good health care in canada than

in the united states. that's why we let people choose. we agree that individuals should be able to choose through an exchange, through bidding. if they want to choose private insurance, that's great but they ought to be able to choose public insurance because private insurance hasn't treated people very well in the last 15 years. >> i agree with that. i wonder whether a government subsidized competitor is unfair, too. . to have health insurers sort of doing what their doing, it's equally unfair to have the government sponsor a health insurer to under cut. natural competition, everybody get in the pool together, let's flatten this place out and see what the right price for this is. >> that's correct. i, as a member of the democratic wing of the democratic party applaud the compromise made with the blue dogs because one of the things that came out of that is that the public option can't be run at medicare prices which would undercut the private sector. it levels it off. i think the house is going to come out with a really good bill

and it looks very well. >> governor dean? >> jonathan, i'm doing this to you again because i'm completely out of time. i'm sorry. i really am. i'm honestly sorry. >> you didn't even let me ask a question and i'm canadian, even! >> what timing is off today? >> no, your timing is impeccable from a comedic standpoint. the journalism is weak but the comedy is high. governor, thank you and enjoy your weekend. jonathan, chrystia, staying for the next hour where we will have more time for you. there is the book. the governor's solutions. i suspect it contains a lot more on what we were discussing and beyond. next up on the agenda here, time to come on and get happy, so to speak. the professor, the policeman and the president think of it as a sitcom in its own bizarre way and sit down for a beer fest at the white house. vice president joe biden joining in. the joke was he was there to show you what stupidly can look like. don't do that, right?

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and let us help you choose the right plan. so call now, 1-800-232-7773/tty and find out about... an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. a personal health insurance advisor is waiting for your call good morning to you. 10:00 a.m. in the east and 7:00 a.m. out west and a variety of times in between. nice to see everybody out there and you, in particular, if you're watching. good morning. i guess i wouldn't see you if you weren't. we're setting the agenda for the second hour of the meeting. the beer summit and reporter who started it all, we're talking with lynn sweet in a second and her question what got obama talking and what does she think of the controversy from begin to end. mixed messages on the economy. we hear the jobs market getting less worse. the housing market stabilizing, but down still from last year. gdp gling but not as fast.

we basically have functioning markets but we do not have functioning job growth yet. when will we? we are joined by christina roamer in a few minutes. what will president obama's cabinet do in its retreat today? we're making our best guess. who is the office bully? who needs to learn to stop talking out of turn? and who needs to learn how to be a better follower? we'll have that conversation. plus the meeting comes down to earth. watching for the landing of that space shuttle "endeavour." touchdown scheduled for 10:48 eastern time and you will see it live on msnbc and what fun it is to watch that bird come home. i look forward to it. it's 10:00 a.m. pull up a chair and join the meeting. all right. beer diplomacy the morning meeting the morning after.

the president playing bartender to soothe racial tensions. did it work? chief white house correspondent or white house chief correspondent, both will probably work in some sense, either way, chuck, what happened yesterday and where are we today? >> well, i think, dylan, the white house feels just what you said. this is the morning after and it's time to focus on other issues. but we did get a little bit of a read-out. pretty much the only person that gave us a read-out of what happened there was sergeant crowley who held a press conference about an hour after the beer summit and here is what he said. >> well, i think what you had today is two gentlemen agreed to disagree on a particular issue. i don't think that we spent too much time dwelling on the past. we spent a lot of time discussing the future. >> and part of that future dylan, is that apparently sergeant crowley and professor henry gates are going to meet again. this time without the president. they are going to get together in massachusetts and figure out how to, as they said, learn from

each other on this. sergeant crowley said he thought he had something to off offer to the base and thought he could learn coming from professor gates. they want to resume the teachable moment. one other thing. cash for clunkers so you know, i just got out of my morning meeting with robert gibbs, a bunch of reporters enhe is guaranteeing this program is going to be in place and working through the weekend and they are actually looking to find additional money to extend the program because it has been -- become very popular. >> i guess we found the market for automobiles, about 25% lower than the current price. >> there you go. >> you can find the market, you just got to drop the price. >> dylan, this is like the simplest way to explain stimulus. >> competition and incentives are bizarrely effective if we try them. chuck, thank you. joining us is the reporter who asked that original question about the gates controversy and sparked a national debate in the process. lynn sweet is a washington

bureau chief for the chicago sun times and also columnist for columnistdaily.com. lynn, what are your thoughts this morning? >> well, it has been remarkable run since that question and i think, actually, it was an interesting outcome where you had disagreed to agree, but move on. i think it was a teachable moment that president obama was looking for. for him personally and politically to get closure on this episode and no better to do it than the two gentlemen involved in it saying we're okay, we're working on building, mr. president, go back to work. >> do you regret asking the question? >> it's interesting you ask me that. i'm a reporter. my job is to ask questions. the news came out of president obama's answer. so i think i was asking, you know, a question about a story that had already been a big story in the news. >> i guess it's more that he probably regrets answering the

question in that sense. jonathan, for all of the conversation we've had, benefit has come out of this tremendously in terms of the dialogue, i would say. >> oh, sure. once again, you know, we had a racial flare-up. we're talking about it now for the second straight week. i'm heartened by the fact that sergeant crowley and professor gates say they're going to meet somewhere in, i ges in cambridge, now they have left the white house gates so that's terrific the conversation has started. you know, i had discussions with some friends when this -- when the president answered lynn's question, wondering, you know, why did he even bother to answer the question? and i posed the question to them, what would have happened to him if he had ducked the question? he could not have ducked that question. not this president. another president maybe, but not this president. so i think had he done -- he could have done everything the way he did it before, subtract, acting stupidly and the response would have been perfectly fine. >> lynn, one thing that occurs

to me -- i want to ask chrystia about it as an observation -- i know you received a lot of negative feedback and a lot of assault from your own community in chicago. very briefly, tell us your experience in the couple of days in between and then we'll talk about it. >> no, no. i have my blog. this was a national response. i think there was a lot of misunderstanding about what the nature of a presidential press conference was. this was a press conference where reporters had no mandate to ask about any particular topic. i think now that i've a little bit of time to think about it, i understand people were confused thinking that reporters went in under some agreement that never was to ask just about health care. this was a presidential press conference like all others where reporters were free to ask about anything, but i understand how people kind of didn't know how -- how things work because so many -- the president's opening statement was about health care and the first questions usually are about topics right off into the news.

i was the last question. two other reporters had asked about topics not dealing with health care. so i went ahead with my gates question. so i think now as i reflect, some of the comments i got were from people who just didn't quite know that there was no mandate about what to ask, reporters could ask anything. >> i feel like the response is not yu to lynn, but the conversation, all of this is just evidence of how much powder is still in the racial keg. >> yeah, i think that's right. >> what we've learned, not that we needed to learn it necessarily, but this shows us that those relationships are riddled with tension, riddled with distrust, riddled with anxiety, riddled with anger and fear still. >> race and where race and class meet. just returning to lynn, i really congratulate you, lynn, for asking that question, because not only were there no mandates at that press conference, but there shouldn't be. and, you know, i don't think reporters should agree to participate in events that are pure drama scripted by the white

house. i say the gates arrest was the big news of the moment and i think it's fantastic that, you know, you had the guts to say, know what? i'm not going to ask a health care story, i'm going to ask about a story in the news. >> how much command is there in relationship in general between the white house press gallery and white house and congress? how much liberty do you and others feel on any given you can get questions asked that you think are the most pertinent to the stories of the day and how much is influenced by the structure or timing and availability of the politicians and the president? >> well, actually, i think i'm pretty well known for asking questions -- >> you are. >> the issue is do you get answers? and that is always a work-in-progress. i have been covering, you know, the people in the obama administration for many years now because some of them, you know, i came to know during the campaign and when he was the united states senator. i think this is just part of a tension that always exists between reporters and the people

they cover where, you know, a reporter always wants more information and more -- and when people who, you know, the obama medium machine has a goal and a strategy and a way that they want to handle information. one quick point about obama and health care is that the week he had that press conference, he sat down with medical reporters, he had sat down, i believe, with dr. nancy, you know, from msnbc, among others. he sat down with anchors at different times. when they want to do a single subject, they make it clear that you could have availability with a particular figure but we kind of want to talk about this. presidential news conference was not that. but they do have ways of controlling the message that way. >> on a scale of 1 to 10, score the accessibility of the bush administration to the press and the obama administration to the press and then i have got to go. >> i never covered the bush administration as extensively as i did obama so i'm not your scorekeeper on that. >> jonathan, do you have a sense

of that? >> well, i could just say i've been to the white house more under president obama than i ever did under president bush but i only have been here for the last year of his administration. >> okay. thank you, lynn. enjoy your weekend. thanks for asking tough questions of the president, whoever the president is at the time. we need it and thank you. ahead on this hour, better than expected news on the economy showing the country, again, more vibrant activity on the one hand and a lot of national debt on the other hand. the balancing act for the country right now. the good news taking the risk out of the economy and moving it into the treasury and the federal reserve. it appears to be working. the bad news is the risk is at the federal reserve and the treasury. dr. christina romer has the conversation on the cost and benefits of resurrecting the u.s. economy. at 155 miles per hour, andy roddick has the fastest serve in the history of professional tennis.

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welcome back. a little more plugging into the political scene. the vice president traveling to chicago this morning. he is the keynote speaker at a national urban league conference and kevin tibbles is in chicago. what is the focus of the speech today, kevin? no, i guess i don't have kevin yet but contessa, do you know the subject of this speech? >> he is going to go and talk to the urban league here and we're waiting to find out some more details, dylan, about what is on the agenda today for the vice president. in the meantime, let's talk about some of the other political stories hitting the blog world today. apparently it looks like the white house may have had a larger role in firing those u.s. attorneys previously thought. karl rove and other high ranking figures in the white house

played a greater role. e-mails showing contacts here between rove, aides in the bush political affairs house and white house lawyers about the dismissal of three of the nine u.s. attorneys that were fired in 2006. now, rove has consistently denied that he was involved in those firings. but we are seeing this new information about political aides. now we have kevin tibbles who is in chicago. kevin, dylan and i were just talking about what is on the vice president's agenda when he goes and talks at this conference. what have you been able to learn? >> well, essentially, this entire conference is looking forward and that is why not too many people here are talking about the beer summit that took place last night. it really is focused on getting more jobs for people who are living in urban areas across this nation and, of course, the fact it's being held here in chicago is also doubly important because there have been so much

violence in this city over this summer already. the number of murders in this city are well above 200 and something has to be done far beyond talking over a couple of beers in the white house garden, that this sort of situation is reaching crisis levels in this city and perhaps other urban cities across this nation and that is going to be the focus of the vice president's speech here today. he is going to be joined by mayor daley here from chicago and joined by magic johnson and the discussion is really going to be getting people in tough times, in tough economic times, a recession, when so many foreclosures out there and getting people back to work and getting cities working again. >> i don't want to bring up chrystia on the biden conversation. we were having it during the one of the commercials but, go ahead. tell the world what you were telling me. >> i think one of the interesting things we observed in the past few months of the obama administration is joe biden emerging as an influential figure.

he is having a real and important voice. his trip to ukraine and georgia was significant and i think probably in the whole russian former soviet space, wide biden has a stronger voice than hillary clinton does. >> misusing him doing a dog and pony around america creating jobs this which they are not able to do when he is effective in the theater you just described? >> no. i think the interesting thing about biden and the reason it's easy to misinterpret him he has two sides. he is actually a very accomplished foreign policy thinker and diplomat but on the other hand, is he ordinary joe. >> like me, how could this goofus be hosting this tv show? >> there you go at maybe a slightly higher level. >> it's like a microcosm. >> he can do both of those things. i think we've seen in the past couple of weeks something impressive that he gives these great speeches abroad and he is the guy who obama wants to be sitting next to him in shirt

sleeves and drink ago nonclick beer. that is the only thing i sort of found a little hard to take. >> a man who doesn't drink beer, i don't know why you would drink a nonalcoholic beer. have a pineapple juice. i don't know. dr. christina romer is here. we'll have the conversation with the doctor here after this. to stand behind all who serve. ♪ to deliver the technologies... vital to freedom. ♪ to help carry hope to those in need. ♪ around the globe, the people of boeing... are working together -- for what matters most. that's why we're here. ♪ could save 'em hundreds on car just telinsurance.e geico it's actually doing it. gecko vo: businessmen say "hard work equals success."

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good friday in the morning. i'm contessa brewer. government figures released just this morning show gross domestic product fell 1% in the second quarter better than the 1.5% than expected and better than than the drof-off from the first quarter this year when the gdp fell 6.4%. how do we characterize this getting worse less quickly? >> think of jumping out of an airplane and pulled the parachute. your rate of decent has to go

slower than stopped. christina romer is at the white house. our panel, jonathan capehart and chrystia freeland is here. i'm delighted to have you here. what is your perspective on the slowing rate of decent. whether in the housing market getting bad as a less fast rate than the economy which is deteriorating at a less worse rate, that we are coming potentially to a point of deceleration, if you will? how do you see it? >> i think you characterized exactly right, that we had -- one of the things that came out of the new gdp numbers, we revised a lot of the numbers going back. one of the things we learned is that this recession is each worse than the original numbers had led us to ble. and so the fact that we have gone from minus 6.4% fallen gdp to minus 1 is, obviously, the right direction but a long way to go.

no doubt there. >> that is the 16 trillion dollar question. you are very familiar what we did as a country to do this and understandably so in pulling a lot of the risk in the financial system and for that matter, other parts of our economy out and assuming it on taxpayers which is why you get the level of frustration and all of the rest of it. what is the cost in your mind of the trillions that were put at the government level in order to basically pull the parachute? >> man, i think it was money incredibly well-spent. i mean, nothing worse for the budget deficit or american taxpayers than an economy in free-fa free-fall. that causes revenues to just plummet. we had to rescue this economy and that was something the president said from the minute he was elected that is what he had to do. now, we're on that road but now we've also got to rebuild it. >> just a rumor. how worried are you about a jobless recovery? >> i mean, it is something, thasks is in all of our minds. it's something we've seen in the

last two recoveries. what really matters for whether you create jobs is how fast you grow. it's not enough to just turn the corner. we've actually got to get good robust gdp growth. that is what we're watching is do we get the 2 1/2, 3% real gdp growth that you need to start to see the unemployment rate coming down. >> if you grow by paying yourself but risking other people's assets, in other words, the create jobs and housing jobs and money flowing in, it's that i can't handle that risk. in other words, how do i get back to growth driven by culture of investors and innovators as opposed to vampires taking money out in the short term it creates job but we're stuck with a pile of blood so to speak. how do we get back to investors and innovators? >> you're very much in line with the president.

he wants to talk about getting away from the old bubble and bust economy to a healthier, more sustained growth. there, i put -- you know, things like having the personal savings rate go up, that's probably a good sign. it means american consumers are getting back to a more balanced kind of consumption pattern. what we need to see is what you exactly describe, good, productive business investments. we think we're on a good track for that because -- so anyway, i think that is really important and figuring out how we stimulate so that we get good steady growth going forward. >> isn't that by -- one of those things that strikes me is the enforcement of the rules of capitalism. in other words, capitalism means as investor you can only make money by delivering money to other businesses large and small. you can't make money by turning it into a casino and sticking the losing lottery tickets with america which feels like what has happened on wall street. >> well, think about what the president has proposed, right? financial regulatory reform is part of the rebuilding process,

precisely because we don't want to go back to a system where people are perhaps taking too much risk, where people were perhaps being cheated. all of that is important to make sure we have a good set of rules of the game. >> jonathan? >> pull out your crystal ball and tell us when you think we might see that 2.5% growth that you were mentioning earlier. >> well, to be clear, i don't have one! >> 2010 -- >> crystal balls are highly unreliable, but go ahead. >> none of us has a crystal ball. i do what you do which i talk to lots of private forecasters and almost all of them are saying we're going to see positive gdp growth some time in the second quarter of this year. you know, i actually do believe when we come to next year, we could absolutely see growth in that, you know, over 2.5%, but that's what we're going to be watching. the forecasts, there are more

vaeble and some are way up in the 3 and almost 4% range but some are pretty low and that is 2,trillion question. >> i think it's 27 trillion dollar question, give or take. >> but we absolutely will be watching this unbelievably closely to make sure that happens because a jobless recovery is not something that we can tolerate. >> dr. romer, you praised the higher savings rate that we've seen among americans. but how do you square that with the need for some sort of engine to have this more robust economic recovery? you know, the engine of the american economy and of the global economy has been the u.s. consumer. who is going to step up if americans are saving more money and spending less? >> that's exactly an important question. that's where i come back to business investment. the natural thing of consumers are saving more. if we get the budget deficit under control, that tends to lower real interest rates and

encourage private investment. that would be a great outcome. i think things like cap and trade, the energy kind of legislation that we're seeing, the given incentives for new kinds of investment. that's something that could also help that sector step in to anything that consumers don't want to be spending. >> a pleasure to have you. thank you for the time. anything you can do to help us get rid of the vampire aspect of capitalism. unfortunate a garlic, wooden stake? anything you need, use it. doctor, we're okay with it. >> we're working 24/7 to get this economy back in a healthy way. >> keep at them. still to come in the next half hour here, obama's cabinet spending a bonding weekend. the president heading out on a retreat with his most trusted advisers. ah! to be a fly on the wall there. the director of a corporate retreat company. who will run these things with tutorials and advice for the obama cabinet? an exercise they might consider to improve their on the job

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congratulations, gentlemen. you all should be very proud of yourselves. each and every one of us has been hand-picked to represent our inaugural pledge class. >> do you trust we provided you with enough slack so your block will add safely on the lawn? >> sir? yes, sir!

>> pledges, prepare to release! 1-2-3! release! [ screaming ] >> oh! >> bonding experience from the movie "old school." that won't be anything like what we see the president cabinet do today. to mark six months in office, he and his top aides are heading to the blair house to spend part of their weekend at work. all 22 cabinet ranking members all get together. they are going to talk how things are going so far and where they head next. tonight meet for dinner and tomorrow, policy meetings. sounds like fun. white house aides point out every administration since icen howser has held a similar gathering. when president clinton's cabinet

met at camp david they were asked to share an experience not on their resume. clinton reportedly told stories how he was teased about his weight as a kid and everyone cries. the tissues get passed around and hugs for everyone. >> we're concerned, obviously, about the quality of the work. we want to get maximum efficiency and maximum yield of everybody there because there's so many important things. >> right. >> to be dealt with. we actually have asked an individual responsible for running these types of policy retreats. her name is rebecca tilly. to walk us through some of the exercises she thinks would be most suited to help our cabinet members deal with some of their weaknesses. we all have, obviously. i want to run through some of the names and perceived weaknesses and you tell me what the exercise you're suggesting for them this weekend is maybe to help them work on this. we'll begin with the secretary of state, tends to be frozen out by others and not a very good

follower and perceived not to be a very good follower. how do you deal with somebody prone to be fairly isolated like hillary clinton in a group like this? >> she may want to spend a little bit of time looking at leadership type reading. she may want to read jim collins' book and find out that leadership is at all levels and really responsibility is much more important than position. >> there's a game you think she should play called "pursuit." what is this? >> "pursuit" involved a lot of problem solving. it has a point person role whereby the role of the leads gets rotated and this keeps more dominant personalities from taking over, something that probably would be on good in the cabinet group. >> somebody loud and obnoxious like myself or hillary clinton? >> exactly. >> both would probably benefit from that. i'll do that myself this weekend. joe biden, at least perceived to suffer most largely from foot

and mouth syndrome, saying things that are later more of a problem than whatever he said was worth saying. how do you deal with people like that? i also suffer from that. >> you and he are probably extrovert and they tend to talk out all of your thoughts. so sometimes you're saying things that you don't really mean as truth along the way a enyou may not be aware of the consequences of talking about every single thing you do. we think that a personality type workship would be good for him so he could use his less preferred side and think about being a little bit more introverted and careful there. >> the game is called the web? how does that game work? >> i'm not sure it's for him. he has to be careful because in the web challenge, you're passing a group of people through a bunch of holes and if joe is just thinking outloud and saying, i should go through that top hole' be the first person through, if he gets passed through because he happened to talk that way and no one is there to catch him on the other side, he's in big trouble.

>> roger simon is joining the conversation by virtue of his expertise to the actual players. he is a chief political columnist at politico. contessa is still here. do you think these will be beneficial, roger, to their tendencies and problems? >> the white house is backing off the whole term retreat because they don't want the public thinking of them falling back into each other's arms and climbing through holes. >> no ropes, stuff like this, no? >> yeah, no. you know, this is a cabinet which rarely meets. the cabinet has become too big and unwieldy. as you said, there are 22 members of them. they're coming back to guess get the messages for the second six months of the obama presidency. they are meeting and didn't know at the time they set up the meeting at the time when the president is reaching all-time low numbers in his personal popularity and they are going to try to come together and decide what their roles are and the

message the next six months. i don't think they will be crawling around on the ground a lot. >> i suspect as much. treasury secretary now, i would like to continue to him. he tends to pri bring his personal life to the office, the tax and housing issue. he has a lot of disorganized personal life that is going to affect his work life. lots of folks have these sort of problems as well. what is the best exercise for somebody with his kind of an issue? >> well, i think he needs to get a little feedback so we're thinking the 360-degree feedback workshop so he can share what his strengths are and help him with his blind spots. the concern if the group were to build a boat activity and if tim were to represent himself as a good engineer or expert in physics and no one gave him any input otherwise, they could end up sinking like that group there. >> yeah. you think tim is prone to that? >> you never know. >> what is interesting is if they're on a message that they're not going to be doing

these retreats but rah beck is a saying how effective is it? we're saying they are games but how serious could this be? maybe this could improve the communication, if they are too big and unwieldy a group they are not having cabinet meetings. perhaps these kind of games would be effective. >> definitely. you va have a way to know each other's styles which, i think, would be helpful but 22 people is too large of a group so they need to divide up into smaller groups and build into relationships. >> one more and wrap this up. rahm emanuel known to be the house bully. at anybody's expense. yelling, screaming. my way! or i'll beat you senseless. i don't care what you think or what you want, just shut up and listen to me. how do you deal with these kinds of characters? >> we think that rahm might be helpful to go through an emotional intelligence workshop. that's where you look at your awareness about other's emotions and managing yours.

things like empathy and optimism and flexibility. we think after that, he takeses his whole group on a sailing excursion. that's an opportunity, even in rough seas, to practice those soft skills. >> all right. a pressure. thank you for playing with us. roger, if you want to take our suggestions back to the cabinet, feel free. i understand they may want to talk policy but maybe they could do some team sailing and maybe -- take geithner to build a boat and sail it with rahm. it would be efficient as well. thank you both for the conversation. contessa, what else is going on? >> the landing of the space shuttle "endeavour." it is expected to land at 10:48 eastern. we will bring it to you live. >> i'm excited about that. very excited. >> yeah. they really accomplished a lot up there. >> i love it. >> already on the decent. descent. the white house is looking for ways to extend the popular program -- >> you keep talking and we'll

watch the space shuttle. >> this billion bucks for cash for clunkers is gone already. took less than a week. >> we find the market for cars. 25% cheaper than they are right now. >> i feel like i missed the boat. i had a clunker to trade in. >> we're going to be looking to see if the white house extends that program here. moving on. >> but keep the space shuttle. >> right. release of michael jackson's autopsy results are being -- normally we say on the left-hand side of your screen you see the space shuttle and on the right-hand side you see me. michael jackson's autopsy results delayed a third time. the coroner says they are not coming out. we will wait for these things indefinitely. we were expecting to figure out from toxicology reports will that tell us how jackson died or what role the doctors played. the decision to keep it under wrap came after a meeting between investigators and the coroner's office. >> i like ian harper. i like his idea, his suggestion

this is lapd's attempt at redemption. they have huge profile investigations over the years and prove they can get it right right now. >> we'll get the glasses for them, too. >> that look is going to live for you. >> i don't think you'll see it again. first look at the warrants served to search the home of jackson's personal doctor. the guy who was with him when he died. conrad murray. the warrants describe jackson as a prescription drug addict and we're seeing that now in legal papers. wait until -- wait. okay. texas woman got kicked -- wait! we're not telling it to you. never mind. that's a pretty good tease. >> for monday. >> texas woman kicked out of a dallas social security office because she was knitting. the guard at the office told rachel evans her knitting needles was a dangerous stabbing tool! they had to go! evans says this is ridiculous!

the building doesn't even have metal detectors and yet they are tossing out her knitting needle? s. >> i always fit that way when i'm around people knitting with those giant needles. >> you're scared of grandma? >> one false knit from a eyeball. >> if that happened, it was your time. it was meant to be. >> can we take a break so we can come back and take a beautiful moment and revel in american technology and revel in american accomplishment and revel in american greatness as we watch that beautiful white bird in the sky return from outer space. live pictures of the space shuttle returning to america. "endeavour" heading home in a couple of minutes. we're back with the live landing of that space shuttle in a minute. cat.

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welcome back. the space shuttle "endeavour" is about to land at kennedy space

center wrapping up a 16-day mission to the international space station. jay barberie is live at the space center as we watch the bird approach. i understand they discovered a new pair of underwear, among other things, while they were up there? >> only you would think that, dylan! hey, listen on the final approach. only 20 seconds out. now, you can see the schultz over the end of the runway. the gear is down. here comes "endeavour." it's making its touchdown at this moment ending 16-day flight. last main construction mission to the international space station. there is the chute out. it's rolling out now. the end of a perfect mission! "endeavour" is home, dylan! boy, did we cut that one a little close. >> a huge welcome home to them. what a thrill it must be. i know this has been around a long time, but you look at this type of imagery and it reminds you of our creative capabilities as a nation at a time when there is a lot of things that can be

disheartening. >> if you think big, look at what you can accomplish. >> and if you think it can be done better as opposed to how do i get more. jay, you mentioned the accomplishments of this particular mission, just to come back to the concreteness of this. in addition to the underwear discovery, what else did they get done in the past 16 days? >> well, what you're talking about, the underwear here, the japanese astronaut returned on this. he has been wearing the same pair of underwear the last 30 days! but these are specially made underwear that they will use on missions to mars that will be odor-free. so, so far, it's working real great. what has been going on here, guys, for the last couple of days, we've had the presidential review board here talking with the people here about where we go in space in the future. i just got off the phone a while ago with our senior senator bill nelson from florida who is talking to our new nasa

administrator charlie boldin who is a former shuttle commander himself and they are waiting for the options that they will have from this committee and then they will take it to the president and say, here's what we can do, if you're ready to pony up to do this. and they're talking about going all the way to mars. they are even talking about the possibility of bypassing the moon and going directly to mars. so a lot of big plans out there now. it's how much can the budget afford. we should be knowing that in about a month. >> jay, thank you. thank you for helping us welcome home our astronaut from a recent mission. a huge welcome to them. we will take a break. we're back with the take-away from this week's meeting and particularly day. what beers would the morning production team drink? >> probably all of them. >> yeah. if we had, you know, a scuffle or two. we're back after this.

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♪ welcome back. end of the week. another week of meetings in the can. how are you doing? >> you did great. a good week. >> tafs good week. >> yeah. >> we had good conversations. we met. we met. which is the point of a meeting. >> we came, we met, we conquered. >> we came, we met, we conversed. the take-away from 250ed today. who says looking at the world through rose-colored glasses is a bad thing? our friend was kind enough to lend me his rose-colored glasses. i think i look better. >> better than what? >> than not having rose-colored glasses on. >> you mean the world looks better? >> oh, yes. beautiful. >> i thought you meant you looked better. >> i do. look at me. >> can you see me there? in a bar?

>> may i? >> imagine sitting next to me at a bar like that? >> i would start looking for the security bar. if you sat down next to me and looked like that, i would say where is the security guard? >> which you would leave me alone at the bar looking for a drink and a few suggestions from our friends at the beer summit. the president, of course, beat us to the drinking punch last night. for the record, he had a but the lied light. he had a bud light. samuel adams. >> not the only one. >> biggest american brewer. >> i'm just here to help. >> you are contessa brewer, so you would know. >> right so let's get it right. >> sergeant crowley, a blue moon. >> i don't think i've ever had that. >> me either. we did a little poll to find out who -- what the "morning meeting" staff would drink. here it is.

>> what kind of movies was derek making with molson xxx? you see the rest of them on there. i would have been maybe a cranberry and soda with a lime. >> can i have milk, please? do you have some milk? >> you dough what i enjoy? a nice glass of pineapple juice. >> i don't know what to say about that. >> that wraps up today's "morning meeting." i am dylan ratigan and contessa is with me here. carlos watson picks it up next. so, too, does tiki barber and one of the more vulnerable republicans in the senate. carlos will have that coming up after this. sandrai went to pick up my prescription and i was told...

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