to announce she was going to break the surly bonds of "american idol." >> it was one of those moments, joe -- >> she's going to a better place. >> you miss cronkite. >> i'm thinking home shopping network. >> i was having dinner with a party of 20 people. i was entertaining. >> of course. you're a man of the people. >> that tweet came across. in unison everyone was stunned. you remember 1963. >> dallas, "the challenger" and paula abdul. you know what, though, people forget the beatles came to america and brought their joy to america. >> that's true. >> just two months after the assassination of john f. kennedy helped heal a wounded nation. this morning we heal a wounded nation by bringing international

superstar erin. we are not going to let the pain linger. erin. >> it's good to be here. it was way too early this morning. i couldn't get in. >> i noticed, actually, that we gave you the opportunity to sit over here. this is the uncomfortable side of the table. can you explain to people who watch this show, erin burnett, how much space there is for barnicle? he is brokeback barnicle, that's what they call him on the tweet, but -- >> the tweets are rather right, yeah. >> he has ten yards to move. >> there are at least literally four feet between me and barnicle and probably 2 1/2 inches between barnicle and willie. >> it's disturbing. >> ye have little understanding. >> not that there's anything wrong with that. it's okay. express yourself. >> exactly. we have a lot to talk about today. ahmadinejad being sworn in again for the second time in iran.

willie, you're going to be talking about bill clinton returning. and that has been a team effort. a lot more going on. mob scenes across america. the white house striking back not only at the protests and what they call mob scenes but also going after the drug report for showing some old video. first, here's willie geist. he's a diva now with his own tv show. >> i'll do this this hour but not next hour. >> i'll talk to your agent. in just hours journalists euna lee and laura ling will be back on american soil after they were released from a north korean. bill clinton arrived in the north korean capital yesterday to negotiate their release t.o. george lewis live at bob hope national airport in burbank, california, where the president and those two journalists are expected to arrive in a few hours.

good morning, george. >> reporter: good morning, willie. it should be quite a reunion for the two released journalists with their families. euna lee and laura ling. lee has a 4-year-old son. the families will be here in great number welcoming them with open arms as president clinton brings them back to american soil. mr. clinton's visit to north korea lasted about 20 hours including a three-hour meal with the leader of north korea, kim jong-il. wednesday morning, korean time, word came the two women who had been arrested in march, were being pardoned as they were charged with crossing the border into north korea illegally while on assignment for current tv, a channel owned by clinton's former vice president, al gore. they were sentenced in june to 1 12 years of hard labor although it appears that sentence was never carried out. the two women held at a guest house in the capital of pyongyang. after the extensive meetings of

kim jong-il and other north korean leaders welcomed the two women aboard the plane. they made a brief stop in japan and now they're heading back here to the west coast. willie? >> george, there was relative quiet on this story over the last couple of months -- excuse me, the last couple of weeks. we haven't heard much about it. what do we know about what was going on behind the scenes? during the campaign there was a contentious relationship between president clinton and then candidate obama. >> reporter: well, it's interesting. we're being told now, nbc news is being told through various background briefings there was a rather intense period of diplomacy that went on leading up to the clinton visit that both al gore, the two women's employer, and the families of the two women, asked for mr. clinton to go to north korea to be the intermediary. the north koreans welcomed him but before he went they wanted to make sure that the mission would be successful, that he would not return home

empty-handed and it all went off according to plan. >> hey, george, i understand al gore may be showing up out there. is that right? >> reporter: we're hearing that. we haven't had any official confirmation yet from bill clinton's press people. they're expected here on the scene in a few minutes. obviously we'll ask them about the guest list for this big reunion. he's the employer of the two women. it makes sense he would be here. >> a lot to cover on the west coast. i know this morning you have to figure out whether you're going to cover paula abdul or bill clinton. i think, sir, you chose wisely. george lewis reporting live. >> reporter: i did. >> you did. reporting live from california. that's what makes a great reporter. do you break left or right? i would have been distracted and gone to hollywood and tried to find paula abdul. >> joe, one quick question on this. well, two things.

one, is bill clinton going to tell us the health of kim jong-il? i'm just curious. you see the picture, whether he is wasting away. now we've finally see him. >> that's a great point and something i'm sure our intelligence agencies can't even -- couldn't even get it more than bill clinton can. >> maybe that's the reason they decided to tell him. >> a lot of people wondering whether he's still there or not. barnicle calls him crazy every morning but really not only does he provide a great service by getting these two young women back but to be able to sit there and come back and report -- >> a three-hour dinner. that's what i was thinking, he's probably observing everything about him and what goes on at that dinner. >> you know what struck me, your very perceptive analysis -- >> and we're not used to that here. >> what would have happened had we had a former president able to go to tehran before the war in iraq began with saddam hussein for two or three hours

and say this guy is a whack job, he has nothing. what would have happened? >> yeah. >> that's another story. >> no need to get into that here. we have some other stories making news today. this is a terrible story. police try to piece together what exactly compelled a gunman to open fire on a fit neness cl killing four people including himse himself. what do we know this morning? >> reporter: what we know so far is early this morning the superintendent of the allegheny police came out and told us they think they have identified the shooter but they are not going to release that i.d. until it is confirmed by the county coroner. what they did confirm about 8:00 last night an adult male, white

adult male, came to this la fitness center behind me. he went through the main area of the club back to a room where an aerobics class was taking place. there were about 20 women in that room and then authorities say using multiple weapons he went into that room and began to fire. within less than a minute they say he fired more than 50 rounds and he hit nine people who were sent to the hospital who are still in serious to fair condition and killed the other people you spoke of earlier. willie? >> just gut wrenching story. alison, thank you so much. >> you know, again, talking about instability and mental health, i mean from that report clearly he knew exactly what he was doing, knew exactly where was going, walked through the entire length of the health club to a specific room filled with women doing aerobics. there are a lot of crazy people with access to firearms in this country. >> ugly story.

meanwhile, the defense department says a pair of russian nuclear submarines have been patrolling off the u.s. eastern seaboard for several days now. although the attack subs have not entered u.s. waters or provoked american ships the activity signals a more aggressive military stance by moscow. that's an incredible story. >> whale watching. >> i don't -- we don't usually bring up these types of stories. this is a story when i hear about it, i don't -- i actually -- there are some stories that are so heinous i just turn off the tv or turn off the radio because i just can't deal with them and they usually involve young children. a story of a woman in new york who drove the wrong way down the road and she killed her daughter, her nieces, and three innocent men. test results came back and it's an answer nobody wanted. read one of the headlines in new

york today. she was drunk and she was also stoned. >> found a broken vodka bottle inside the van she was driving. >> it's just absolutely unbelievable. >> 1.9%, twice the legal limit. >> driving little kids. >> you see the pictures of the kids on the front of "the post." you can barely look at it. >> really it's awful. anyway. let's move on now to the weather. upstairs to bill karins for the latest forecast. wasn't that early in the morning, like 10:30 or 11:00? >> it was. >> it wasn't like it was late at night. let's talk about the dangerous weather we have this morning. people from member if is to little rock, a line of strong storms are moving through. tornado warnings earlier, reporting damage. all the white dots are active lightning strikes. that's probably the worst of it this morning. also around lincoln, nebraska, a couple storms heading your way.

otherwise it's just a very warm, muggy morning. it's going to be a sticky afternoon and that's going to spark those showers and storms. look at texas. 100 in dallas. 102 in san antonio. each and every day so far this month we've been at least 100 in san antonio. we're going to do it at least three thursday and probably even there on friday. so for everyone in the eastern seaboard, you need your umbrella today. probably a 50/50 shot if you'll need it or not but this summertime storms pop up and fall apart. right now you're dry going to work. later on this afternoon with the high humidity we will get those storms out there but today has a chance of being the warmest day of the summer. it definitely feels the most humid when you walk outside. >> thanks a lot, bill. greatly appreciate it. coming up we've got, well -- have you been seeing the fight between the white house and you have the fight between the white house and these people going to the town hall meetings? mike allen, crazy mike allen,

he's going crazy. he's going to tell us about the story after the break. do you know what he's crazy about, willie? the news. also we have nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell traveling with secretary of state. we're talking to missouri senator claire mccaskill on cash for clunkers. senator owe llympia snowe, i hao idea where she stands on this along with debbie stabenow. the latest from savannah guthrie. mort zuckerman will be here and international superstar erin burnett will be talking about the genocide of camels in australia when we return.

the rising cost of health care as a massive fire breathing debt and deficit dragon. i have a chart here that shows not sir lancelot but sur taxalot. it is lethal to america's job engine. the goose that lays the golden egg sur taxalot is no dragon slayer. >> what the hell happened here? what happened here? so you went out to eat at medieval times and had to figure out a way to expense it as a business meeting? is that what happened? just pay for the dinner. >> oh, my god. >> is that charlie grassley? >> it was grassley. >> he was joking, right? >> no, i'm afraid -- >> that was a joke, right?

like "the daily show," we have this green screen. that's what happened, right? >> is that real? >> that was on the floor of the senate. >> did this guy -- did everybody stop working for this guy yesterday? hey, chuck, go back in your office. >> never mind the three-hour dinner with kim jong-il, clinton ought to have a three-hour dinner with chuck grassley to find out what's going on there. >> that is serious. >> that's insulting actually. >> wow. >> here are some cartoons here. with us now the chief political correspondent for politico, a man who eats at medieval times three times a week, mike allen. he's got a look at the "morning playbook." good morning, mike. >> medieval times a very classy date spot. works every time. part of my secret. >> you love the jousting, i know that.

let's talk about bill clinton. give us the back story. how did this come together? a very interesting choice by the obama administration. >> he was. he was picked by the north koreans which is what's a little bit problematic about this. after the women and president clinton were off cokorean soil, the administration tells us a little bit about what had gone on. though it's been very quiet, this was a very carefully managed white house process. we're learning now that the women in a phone call to their families were the ones that said that the north koreans would accept bill clinton as the intermediary. the reason it's a little worrisome is the north koreans who have been misbehaving about as much as you can between the nuclear tests, grabbing these journalists, they've been about as bad as you could be lately and got essentially a state

visit. we've been seeing those videos on msnbc for the last 24 hours. they got essentially a state dinner. but these women were freed. it was over a couple months they decided that they could safely have president clinton go and do this. one thing that the white house said on the front was that they insisted this be viewed as a private humanitarian mission by president clinton not something that was coming through the government. >> and, you know, also the interesting choice because the families, we're told, i was talking to david gregory this morning on "way too early" -- plug -- and the families saying that -- >> please, stop it. seriously. >> the families of the two journalists were concerned earlier this month or last month when hillary clinton sort of escalated the rhetoric of kim jong-il. >> you know that's "way too early" 5:30 eastern, 2:30 out west. mike allen, let's move on to this fascinating war between the white house and the druj report. a clip was posted from barack

obama where he basically said i'm for single pair. let's get rid of private insurance. why the white house is fighting back. >> okay. >> how do we get the federal government to take care of the system? i have to be single pair universal health care plan. the united states of america, the wealthiest country in the history of the world spending 14% -- 14% of its gross national product on health care. that's what i'm talking about. a single pair universal health care plan. that's what i'd like to see. as you know, we may not get there immediately. first we have to take back the

white house and the senate. >> a little muscle there but the bottom line is he says i happen to be a proponent of the single payer plan. that clip was up on drudge. >> it would be damaging if people came to believe what the president is proposing now is a trojan horse for total government health care. republicans had some fun yesterday with this clip because they're saying how can the president be rebutting his own words? why is the president being attacked by his own work. a lot of things are different from inside that building from capitol hill. that's not what they're proposing now. conservatives will try to push the idea that's what they want down the road, that if you get a government option for health care -- >> but, mike, really quickly, let me interrupt you here, the white house is saying that they're distorting his words. that was a clip in full. i mean, the white house can say he no longer believes what he

believes in 2003 but they can't say drudge is taking his words from its proper context because that was very straight forward. he wants universal health care. he said it twice. >> no, that's why republicans are having fun with the fact the white house is saying the president is being viciously attacked by his own statement. now what the -- >> do you think he's being viciously attacked or do you think clinton is pretty straight forward on what the president supported in 2003? >> well, that's not what's being proposed now. >> i know but is it fair to play a clip of what the president said in 2003? >> of course it is. >> because they're claiming it was improperly edited, that they took his words out of context. do you think that's cherry picking? >> i think he played the full context of that clip there and what we'll be seeing in coming days is similar to the "playbook" when the white house appointed rush limbaugh as the republican chief spokesman. we're going to hear them trying

to make republicans own what's going on or be blamed for what's going on in these town meetings. today the democratic national committee is out with an ad talking about angry mobs and very interesting for the first time the democratic party taking on, including a democratic web video which will surely be a cable ad. they're including that clip we've seen here on "morning joe" of those in the town meeting, an e-mail urging supporters to turn out today for vice president biden in new york, talking about angry mobs. so the idea is to either expose or caricature, depending on where you sit, what's going on in these groups that are fighting back. some of them encouraged by conservative groups, business groups. some of it probably genuine. >> mike, you mentioned the ad. let's watch a piece of that and show people what you're talking about. >> the right wing extremists.

they lost the election. they lost on 0 the recovery act, the budget and children's health care. they've lost the confidence of the america people after eight years of failed policies that ruined our economy and cost millions of jobs. now desperate republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing -- >> a scene there of angry mobs trying to torpedo health care reform. mike allen, thank you so much from politico. we'll be reading much more at politico.com this morning. >> medieval times. >> all right. >> yum-yum. >> erin, could you imagine any aspect at any level of american business conducting business the way congress conducts business? >> absolutely not. especially now that i've seen senator chuck grassley. >> we need to call -- they could go bankrupt. i think he has an office. i don't think anybody else works there or they wouldn't have let him go on the floor.

that's a good effort, though, by the obama team to try to paint these people who are very upset as members of the mob. their problem is they're losing support on the health care, on the deficit and other issues. we'll see if it works or not. >> health care is dropping. what do they say, the more people find out about the specifics, the more upset they get. 23% reported doing no physical activity. none. >> why are you looking at us. >> i don't mean to point fingers but it's pretty amazing in congress that doesn't get talked about, spending more care as opposed to something that would cost nothing but save money in terms of a lifestyle change. >> i'm going to make a lifestyle change soon. >> what are you doing? >> i really want to turn over a new leaf of some sort. i could take up smoking because -- >> you know, it makes you lose weight. >> circulation. >> circulation?

>> they used to say in the '40s. that's the last time i checked. >> i need a hobby. when we come back a look at the morning papers. we'll watch columnist jonathan capehart and if we can encourage him to take up smoking, too. pollen. when i really liked to be outside, i did not like suffering from nasal allergy symptoms like congestion. but nasonex relief may i say... bee-utiful! prescription nasonex is proven to help relieve indoor and outdoor nasal allergy symptoms like congestion, runny and itchy nose and sneezing. (announcer) side effects were generally mild and included headache. viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing. ask your doctor about symptom relief with nasonex. and save up to $15 off your refills. go to nasonex.com for details, terms and conditions.

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welcome back to "morning joe." live pictures of rockefeller

plaza. 6:31 on the east coast. time now for a look at the top stories this morning. two newly freed american journalists are heading back to california following their pardon by north korea. former president bill clinton spent about 20 hours in the country on his mission to negotiate their release including, we hear, a three-hour meal with kim jong-il. >> that's torture. >> they had been convicted of -- >> i read the geneva convention. that is torture. >> illegally entering the country last march. they'll be back on american soil in a couple of hours. >> thank you, president clinton. four people, included a suspected gunman are dead following a shooting spree at a pennsylvania health club. police say the man fired at least 52 shots is on an exercise class wounding another nine people. so far the motive has not been revealed. and in israel, check this out, tourists captured a run-in between a horse and car.

what the -- >> that's not good. >> the driver managed to slow down between impact. both driver and horse reportedly escaped without serious injured. >> you know, speaking of animals in the animal kingdom, i feel it's my duty to talk about the genocide that is happening on the other side of the globe. we're talking about in australia, the slaughtering of camels. and you, erin burnett, international superstar that you are, you say the life of a camel in australia is every bit as important as the life of a human being in the united states of america. shed light on this. what is happening? >> hold on. i have -- is that camel skin? >> no, it is a camel. there you go, joe. so here is the thing. we talked about this interesting, they brought camels in 1840 to australia and they

carried things. they didn't need them anymore. no predators, it's like heaven for camels. >> they love it. >> so they're doubling every ten years. it's like the biggest herd in the world in the outback. they have a million of them. these aerial raids they fly over and shoot down and kill the animals. they're killing 80,000 of them. jim cramer calls it camel-cide. they have long eyelashes and big eyes. >> yesterday when you broke this ne news, i don't think you knew joe is the chairperson of the new york state save the camel. >> i don't brag about it. >> you could adopt a camel. 80,000 americans should. in sydney, australia, they fly over and kill them. >> we do the work in the morning before we come here. >> that's the other thing. he doesn't like us to do this.

he spent most of the summer saving poor children, helping poor children in nantucket, many of them walking around in shorts and no shoes. >> oh, yes. >> can you imagine. >> i get touched. let me tell you something, the kids that hang out -- >> it's amazing. how about a look at the morning papers? >> let's do that now. >> "the new york times," clinton secures two pardons, journalist ordeal ends as ex-president sees kim, diplomatic opening. >> al gore may be showing up at the airport to greet them. >> "washington post," north korea releases u.s. journalists. >> "the washington times," clinton opens door to north korea ties. also "the washington times," a new government report indicates the climate bill would mean fewer jobs and lead to a slight

rise in energy costs. that awful story we told but where the gunman opened fire on an aerobics class killing at least three and then himself. >> cash for clunkers expected to ride on. the senate leader says he has the vote to pass the measure. "the washington post" columnist jonathan capehart and this morning's must-read opinion pages. you're watching "morning joe." at 155 miles per hour, andy roddick has the fastest serve in the history of professional tennis.

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pnc. leading the way. let me tell you the facts. >> no, lies. >> for the last three months housing starts are up in america. the last three months.

jobs -- [ inaudible ] you're lying to me. >> that's right. >> why are you waiting? >> i know a sophisticated lawyer when i see one. >> you tried to stuff a health care bill down our throats in three weeks when it took six months for the president to pick a dog for his kids. >> okay. so do they really think these people are executives in insurance companies they somehow snuck in the door? put this hat on. >> i think we interviewed a few. >> nobody will realize you're the ceo of blue cross. come on. i tell you. everybody says -- somebody who has tried to whip people into a frenzy and tried to get people to go out to town hall meetings, they don't go out unless they're angry. if they're not angry they're staying home eating sup earp at

5:30 and watching "wheel of fortune" at 6:00. they're not going to miss vanna unless they have a reason to get out of their house to go to the town hall meeting. you can't make this stuff up. you can't. because if you could, you know, i would have done it. i tried it. if they're upset, they come. if not, they stay home. and what do they watch? >> "wheel of fortune. ". >> bowling for dollars and now it's "wheel of fortune." >> and yet the white house has suggested that this is phony outrage, that these are plants, mercenaries. >> can we show the last part of that clip to show the insurance executives. these are the suits that are dressing down. they're talking to aetna at night and, boy, that's pretty calculated. i don't see it but, anyway, with us now, "the washington post"

and contributor jonathan capehart. jonathan, do you think there is real outrage out there or do you think it is all concocted by insurance lobbyists like the lobbyists and lawyers we saw there just a couple minutes ago? >> yeah. i don't think it's all concocted by the insurance company. i just wonder if it's so much that you've got people, you know, ambushing elected officials. it's really kind of sad to see these people from capitol hill who are used to deference and used to people running out of their way to be shouted at en masse by lots of people who are concerned about this health care bill. i'm not -- i don't want to diminish any of the concerns but i am a little mystified by what's happening. i don't completely buy this is organized by the insurance

industry but i'd really like to know more about this. >> in 1993, really quickly, the year before i first ran for office, one of the reasons i met most of my contacts when i started having these health care town hall meetings all across america including across northwest california and i would go to these events as a young lawyer and some were angry and outraged for i think different reasons back then but these things do just well up and for some reason you start talking about health care and you get a lot of not rich insurance executives but working class americans that come out. now you can argue that it's disinformation that's out there and maybe the ads are misleading. if you want to argue that, i'm not talking about you, i'm talking anybody. but this stuff is pretty spontaneous at least it was in 1993. >> you know what sort of concerns me the line that guy used in the clip that the president spent six months

trying to pick out a dog and he spent more time picking out the dogs than working on this health care bill and that's a talking point that i have heard for at least the last three months and it's thrown out there whether it's stimulus or something else. >> hold on a second. i haven't heard that one yet. >> you haven't? >> to our must-read opinion pages. no, i'm sure it's a good talking point. i'm going to call you after the show and make sure i get it right. let's go to "wall street journal," they use it on twitter. by thomas frank. in addition to everything else, the blue dogs are champion fund-raisers, individual dogs do far better than democrats when it comes to bringing in folks with business before congress like the insurance industry and the medical industry. according to cq, it is the only to factor republican dogs.

with games of fetch down on "k" street that had me reminiscing about the times tom delay and his pack did their own tricks for industry's table scraps. this is as "the wall street journal" wrote, jonathan, this morning. this is democrat on democrat violence. it seems that democrats are now going aggressively after the blue dogs whether you're talking about in op-eds or on cable tv. >> the blue dogs are the big dogs on capitol hill. look what they did with the health care bill. it's got folks on the left wing of the democratic party and the progressives on capitol hill tearing their hair out. they can't believe these folks are getting in the way and the fact that the leadership is actually compromising with these folks which i think is, you know, if you want a health care

bill, a compromise is going to have to happen. the blue dogs because they're in this powerful position, of course they're going to go play fetch on "k" street. that's where the money is and "k" street knows if they want any kind of influence it's those folks that they have to deal with. >> and, mike barnicle, this happens all the time. we republicans in the house are more conservative than republicans in the senate, we used to tear our hair out because moderate republican senators would block the balanced-budget amendment, would block our version of a balanced budget. we want seven years. they suggest nine. it happens. it happens on both sides. the extremes of the right and left always get grounded down by moderate to the middle. >> both the house and the senate are within hours of both being -- during august recess, and if they truly listen when they go out into their districts and states this august, they're

going to find something truly educational happening out there. they think many, many american families are asking the question that they figure the government doesn't ask and it's the question they ask if you're going to the mountains, the sea shore, the movies. can we afford it. >> and one thing that liberals and progressives don't want to face right now is the fact the president has covered a lot of ground in six months and a lot of americans are exhausted. a lot of americans are nervous. >> this reform is going to happen. the cash for clunkers will happen today but they're so confident they're going to get this. it's actually unclear when you go home and listen to people who say they're happy. >> all this money. >> the majority of americans say they're happy with what they have. >> yes ooflt that's a problem. when we come back we'll keep talk to go jonathan and also kathleen parker has a great op-ed in "the washington post"

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time for some sports. i couldn't stay up late enough. what happened to the red sox game? >> just continue. good morning. what a difference a week makes for the blue jays' roy halladay. last week he was highly touted pitcher in the middle of trade talks around the league. today he's recovering from his second straight loss. halladay making his first start since the trade deadline. and it was a rough one against the yanks. gave up back-to-back home runs. halladay has won one game in his last seven starts. yanks remain in first place in the east with a 5-3 win. red sox tried to keep pace with the yankees, but the braves' longoria had other ideas. hit not one but two home runs. second two-run walk-off in the 13th. rays beat the red sox in dramatic fashion, 4-2. a day after teammate reynolds hit a pair of homers against the mets, roberts did the same thing against the pirates. knocked two off zach duke.

diamondbacks won their third in a row, 6-0 over the pirates. the nba released its schedule for next year. enjoy a cup of egg nothing with kobe, shaq and lebron on christmas day. love will be in the air at the all-star game held on valentine's day. the mets/cards game, johan santana with a foot on the ball, ricocheted to wright who threw the runner out at first. a good play. a kick save and a beauty by santana. better effort by wright to backhand the ball and make a tough out. give that mvp trophy to albert pujols right now. after hitting a solo shot in the eight against the mets, he outdid himself by smashing a grand slam in the 10th. a pair of homers and 5 rbi. the cards beat the mets 12-7 in extra innings. a minor league pitcher convicted for injuring a fan in a brawl. who can forget this video. it happened between the peoria

chiefs and dragons. number 32 threw a ball intended for another player. instead it flew into the stands hitting a fan giving him a concussion igniting a huge brawl. he was booked and charged after the game. yesterday in an ohio courtroom he was found guilty of felonious assault causing serious physical injury. he'll be sentenced on thursday. nfl teams began trading camp this week. the message, super bowl under construction. obviously ready to work but we wanted to know what role peyton manning has on a construction crew. >> janitor. he's the janitor. we need all our bathrooms a-1 and that's what he specialized in. >> janitor. he cleans up in the touchdown category. finally, everybody enjoys a

good tweaking. cromartie of the san diego chargers must pay the price. cromartie doesn't like the food being served at training camp. you eat a lot of food. he dislikes it so much he says the bad food is the reason they haven't reached the super bowl recently. he shared it on twitter. harmless? funny? no, guilty. the chargers found out about it and they weren't laughing, finding him $2,500. if you play for the chargers and you don't like the food, keep your tweets to yourself. that's it for me. >> fined him for complaining about the food? >> speaking of twitter, huge announcement made last night over twitter by paula abdul. brace yourself. gather your loved ones around. we have a major announcement when we come back. ( dog barking )

( sheets buffeting ) ( man ) whoa ! ♪

time for some news you can't use. the moment we suspected was coming but doesn't make it any easier. we've been hearing paula abdul was not happy with her deal with "american idol." everybody else getting the big money. >> i prayed. i prayed. >> last night it became official. she told us over twitter, quote, with sadness in my heart i have decided not to return to "idol." >> the definition of heartache. >> it has been breathtaking especially over the last month. i do without any doubt have the best fans in the world. i love you all. >> how much money did she turn down? ryan sea crest got $45 million?

we don't know what she was being offered. >> $2 million a year and was insulted by it. >> is it true -- is she going to princeton for her doctorate now? >> she's teaching at the school up in cambridge. >> a u.s. ambassador. >> a pharmaceutical -- >> she could. >> home shopping. >> they're hiring. >> a lot of things. >> fare thee well. >> where is the cold hearted snake song? we requested it, willie and i. >> going to break. this didn't stop you from singing the song again. >> that would be great. >> i can't even fight back on that one. >> time for one more story? >> we do. i'm trying trying to figure out 0 the beatles breakout, paula abdul august -- >> where is the fall? >> i don't know. >> we will remember, all of us, where we were when we got the tweet. >> maybe we'll let historians

sort it out. >> the story is too big for all of us this morning. >> it is. very quickly here, good news. nobody was hurt here. the two people you're about to see perfectly fine. >> you know i'm going to love this. >> they're in good health. it's a couple in south florida, here is the deal. they went for a little afternoon delight. >> sex in the afternoon. >> thank you. sex in the afternoon. >> that's them? >> hold on a second. hold on a second. hold on. >> sorry, willie, go. >> going to get after it a little witt. she is smoking a cigarette while it's going on. who doesn't. the mattress catches on fire. they made it out safely. here is the way they describe the event. >> i went out stock naked and she had her underwear on and, like i said, we were ready to make love and just everything happened at the same time. >> it was my cigarette. we were getting ready to do the

nasty, so that's why we didn't have clothes on. >> they were getting ready to do the nasty. a couple getting ready to do the nasty right there. >> it's too early for that. >> oh, no, it's never too early for that, you know. we report crime and punishment and we don't make a policy. everybody was okay. they're going to regroup. find a new place to do the nasty. >> do the nasty. >> give me some good loving. >> you actually shut him off for a second. >> no, he's just sick. >> skyrockets in flight. >> there you have it. >> afternoon delight. welcome to "morning joe." it's the top of the hour. i'm sure the other networks are reporting on something else at the top of the hour. bill clinton arriving back from north korea very soon. al gore is going to be there with him when he comes back with the two americans that were held in captivity in north korea. bill clinton spending a lot of time having dinner with kim

jong-il. "the new york post," i suppose, puts it as only "the new york post" can put it. also the white house fighting drudge and also all those town hall meeting types that are going out angry. the white house is suggesting that they are nothing more than stooges for the insurance company. f photos suggest otherwise. we're going to be talking about that and much more. we have international superstar erin burnett here with us to help erase the pain and agony of the news last night out of los angeles. paula abdul is leaving. >> or the news at the top of the hour. i think that topped it. >> it did top it. you're proud of yourself, aren't you, willie? look at that. in one of the more awkward segues, let's go to willie geist who has serious news now. time for a look at some of today's top stories. for the first time in months merge journalists euna lee and

laura ling will be back on american soil. their pardon follows a whirlwind mission by former president bill clinton who arrived in the north korean capital just yesterday to negotiate their release. let's go now to nbc's george lewis live at bob hope international airport in burbank, california, where that plane is expected to arrive later this morning. good morning, george. >> reporter: good morning to you, willie. it's going to be quite a family reunion to the freed journalists. former vice president al gore, their employer at current tv, will be here to greet them as well. the two journalists were released from north korea following a surprise, dramatic 20-hour visit by former president bill clinton. he met with top north korean leaders including the head of the country, kim jong-il. jong-il and clinton had what's described as a three-hour

dinner. the discussion mainly focused on the release of the two journalists wednesday morning, korean time. word came the two women had been pardoned from charges of crossing into north korea illegally. they were captured last march. they were put on trial and in june sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. although apparently that sentence was never carried out. they were being held at a guest house in pyongyang, the north korean capital. on a diplomatic trip in africa, hillary clinton said she was delighted at the news. she had talked to her husband as they were heading back toward los angeles by plane. that arrival expected to be in about an hour and a half from now. willie? >> george lewis, an amazing 48 hours. we can't wait to see what happens when that plane lands. we'll check back with you later this morning. thanks, george. other store wris making news, police near pittsburgh are trying to piece together what compelled a gunman to open fire on a fitness club last night

killing four people including himself. officials say the suspect calmly entered an exercise class before firing two guns at least 52 times. at least nine other women were injured in the attack. the investigation into his motive is now under way. the defense department says a pair of russian nuclear submarines have been patrolling off the united states eastern seaboard for several days. although the attack subs have not entered u.s. waters or provoked american ships, the activity does signal a more aggressive military stance by moscow. >> i'm telling you, they're just whale watching. that's what it is. new pictures in to msnbc where secretary of state hillary clinton is in kenya on the first leg of her african tour. in a speech earlier today clinton called on leaders to do more to end war and disease and to stamp out corruption. msnbc's andrea mitchell sat down with secretary clinton earlier today. we're expecting her to join us to talk about that interview in just a few minutes. meanwhile iranian president

mahmoud ahmadinejad begins a second term in office today despite continued protest over june's disputed elections. the 52-year-old was sworn in this morning as riot police continued to clash with opposition groups in the streets. and senate majority leader harry reid says he now has the votes needed to pasch the cash for clunkers measure despite worries about the legislation, top republicans also say the incentive will likely be extended. >> back to the north korean story let's read what dowd wrote in "the new york times" this morning. let the big dog run. despite actually i've got -- all right.

i was looking at another part of the op-ed we have numbered as "i." despite decades of bipartisan rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists john bolton wrote it seems the obama administration has chosen not only to negotiate but to send a former president to do so. but, and this is erin's point, bill clinton will bring back valuable information about kim's mental and physical health and she says if we had that information about saddam we would have known he was trying to bluff his neighbors and no need for our shock and awe. >> why do they do it now, to the point maureen made about bill upstaging hillary? i mean, hillary is doing a major african tour, it's the focus of the administration and for her. why not send bill clinton next

week when she's back? >> maybe they had the opportunity now. i don't see this as a negative for anybody, though. i think it's good for hillary. i think it's obviously good for the families. i think it's good for the white house. i'm surprised john bolton would be negative about this. i'm surprised anybody would be negative about bringing these women back. >> we raised earlier, it's a tough issue, but this whole going across borders especially borders of countries that are -- i don't want to use the word enemies or certainly not friends of the united states. when you're told to turn around and you don't turn around, what responsibility do you have? >> you've been told that, correct? >> on the iranian border, yes. and i turned around. >> you kurnd around because if not you put the entire country at risk, which has happened in iran. every time i come back to the united states they tell me to turn around. savannah guthrie, thank you so

much for being with us. >> reporter: hi, joe. >> so -- the leaf blower guy. the leaf blower is there. >> reporter: it's bad today. >> he's now targeted you as well. >> reporter: i sense a conspiracy. >> the white house says they have nothing to do with bill clinton's trip to north korea. it's what they should say. now information they orchestrated this a little more aggressively. they work with president clinton to bring these two young women home. >> reporter: and i think actually the clear sense this effort really originated with the state department. also former vice president al gore working very closely with the families. the talk is this, at some point during their captivity, the north koreans started to allow the two women to call their families. >> hey, savannah, where is the leaf blower right now? where is the leaf blower right now? >> reporter: he's that way. not behind me. he's in front of me. >> good lord. he sounds like he's on top of

you. >> reporter: he does not want this story to be told. but i am going to persist in telling you. >> okay. go ahead. >> reporter: okay. so the back story is at some point the north koreans started allowing the two women to talk to their families and at some point recently, very recently and i think you're right about the opportunity being there and them seizing it, they would be amenable to former president clinton coming and gaining the release of the two women. at that point there ensued all kinds of -- what the administration likes to call due diligence. they wanted to make sure this was a real offer. the former vice president al gore called former president clinton to ask him would you be willing to do this. he wanted to make sure it was the real deal. there was some kind of communications between the u.s. government and the north koreans to make sure it would be successful. >> i wish we could have some kind of communication between nbc news and the leaf blowers over at the white house. >> reporter: i know. >> is he recharging? starting that thing back up? give us an update on the leaf blower. how is he doing now? >> reporter: i guess the camera

is going to show you. this is the tree. this is the shrub and the leaf blower is directly behind that getting his moment in the sun right now. >> yeah, okay. thanks a lot, savannah. good talking to you. >> reporter: is that it? yeah. >> seriously. >> reporter: i don't blame you. >> can you just hang out there and we'll come back to you when mr. weed eater has his fill? >> reporter: it stopped but i can't guarantee that it will stay stopped. >> is the white house going to continue its efforts against the drudge report, against those people that are holding the town hall meetings? it sounds like they're going on the attack. >> reporter: oh, they are. it's like campaign 2008 all over again. they're brushing off all those old techniques. they're going to go to war as much as they feel to correct misinformation. we saw that youtube response for the administration.

a direct retort to what the drudge report put up as video that they say took comments of the president out of context and i think we'll see more of that. they recognize that rather than the old philosophy which is don't dignify this kind of thing, it's small, don't answer it, ignore it. that's not how this administration feels. they feel like if they are faced with misrepresentations, they're going to answer them. i think we're going to see a very aggressive public relations response and, by the way, i should mention the president is traveling today, leaving for indiana. the elkhart, indiana, area. he visited it as a few times as candidate and president to talk about the economy. >> of course where about of americans up there out of business. they make things like rvs. cars. >> they are the largest maker of band equipment in the country. >> if they made leaf blowers.

>> we had the chamber of commerce on yesterday. he was saying some of the package really worked, longer term. they have a lot of projects. >> reporter: it's interesting. in some ways you wonder why are you going to elkhart, indiana, not a lot of good news there. unemployment rate is 16%, worse than in many parts of the country since the president visited in february. on the other hand the president will come bearing gifts, announce some new grants or stimulus money for them and a variety of jurisdictions. i guess electric battery technology, electric cars. so it's supposed to be a green jobs idea. he'll talk up what good news there is in the economy. the jobs thing, there's nothing good to say there. >> mike barnicle? >> savannah, in the white house is there a sense when they go out to elkhart, indiana, that's ground zero for unemployment but out in this great land of ours, the debate over health care and what to do about health care

somehow seems to take a back seat to the issue of jobs, jobs and jobs, employment. does the white house get that? >> reporter: i think they do get it. in fact, you're seeing the fruits of them getting that because they are going back to elkhart and they are talking more about the economy than we have seen in recent months. it seems all summer what we mostly heard about was health care reform. there was that period of a week where every day the president was out talking exclusively. we've seen a change. last week at a health care town hall he spent about half of his prepared remarks talking up the stimulus. that is, of course, because of the stimulus is not polling well. i think they recognize they're getting hurt on the economy and then it also ties into the economy. and i've heard senior aides make the argument that if we can get some credibility on the economy, if we can convince people that our programs are having a positive effect, that credibility can be leveraged to health care. in other words trust us with

what we're doing with the economy and -- there's the leaf blower. there he is. dennis? >> thanks, buddy. he's going after gopher snacks. issavannah guthrie, thank you s much. greatly appreciate it. let's keep it on the leaf blower, he's the one who made the news today. is a van, a thanks so much. jonathan capehart, no leaf blowers in your studio. we'd like to ask you a couple of questions. do you expect that this white house may have learned from the mistakes of the white house administration and when they get attacked they're going to hit back fairly aggressively? >> oh, absolutely. you answered your question in your question. the obama administration is taking a tact from the campaign.

they set up sort of a truth squad or truth website to deal with all the rumors that were out there about the president and so never let a negleative challenge go unanswered. that worked during campaigns and so they're bringing it here to governing and when you're trying to get something passed, the administration's point of view is it's better to hit back and hit back hard to make sure the message gets through from their perspective that what's being said about them or their policy position isn't true. that's what they're trying to do. >> and they seem to be doing it fairly effectively right now. jonathan capehart, thanks for being with us. always great to see you. >> thanks, joe. see you, everybody. still ahead, keeping an eye on california where president clinton is scheduled to arrive. al gore should be showing up there. we'll bring that to you. later claire mccaskill is going to be with us. senator olympia snowe, also, part of the senate finance committee that's currently in

negotiations over 0 health care reform, one of those six or seven senators that really is shaping the future of health care in america. also mort zuckerman is optimistic about the future of print media and why he's putting his money where his mouth is. first, andrea mitchell live from kenya where she's traveling with the secretary of state hillary clinton. undefeated professional boxer floyd "money" mayweather

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oh, andrea, he was so relieved and so happy to be bringing these young women home. i think it's in a way even more personal since we have a daughter approximately the same age and he told me it was very moving experience. i want to be sure people don't confuse what bill did, which was a private humanitarian mission to bring these young women home with our policy which continues to be one that gives choices to

north korea. they can continue on the path they are on or perhaps they will now be willing to start talking with us in the context of the six-party talks. >> all right. with us now live in nairobi, kenya, chief foreign correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports," andrea mitchell following secretary of state hillary clinton on her trip to the east african nation. andrea just talked to hillary clinton, as you saw there, about her husband's successful mission to release journalists from there. what can you tell us about the plan to free the two journalists? >> reporter: there's intensive talks going on for months since these two women were taken in march by getting too close to the border and then chargeded and convicted with illegally crossing the border. the key is they were never put in prison. other signals along the way. hillary clinton was involved. her deputy, jim jones, obviously

the national security adviser, his deputy. this was pretty intense and they do have channels of communication with north korea through the u.n. mission even though they say that they keep things not bilateral but always regional talks. that's the nuclear issue but they have managed to have some communication. then the big message came. laura ling and euna lee got the word from the north koreans, from their captors, they would be turned over if bill clinton personally came. he was the envoy not al gore, not anyone else discussed. once that message was conveyed, the weekend july 27th they sat down, hillary and bill clinton, talked about it, talked about whether it could be clearly defined. president obama interestingly did not talk to bill clinton beforehand. they wanted to keep this on a separate track. he brought with him a doctor, podesta. he is an attorney, also a former chief of staff at the white house and it was john podesta

who went and went to the courtroom and did the legal pleadings necessary to make sure they got this pardon. there actually had to be a courtroom exercise and that was podesta's role as attorney in the case. the doctor was there because euna lee has had some medical issues and offered to check them out. parenthetically i can imagine taking a close look at kim jong-il. bill clinton spent 3:15 with the reclusive leader. joe? >> willie geist? >> andrea, i wanted to ask you about those 3:15. >> reporter: hey, willie. >> i'm sure the cia will be very interested to debrief former president bill clinton about any observations he made about kim jong-il, anything he may have come away with that could help them assess his state and, in fact, the state of the north korean regime at this point. >> reporter: that is certainly the case n. looking at the pictures, the video, and i've

met kim jong-il in 2000 when i went with madeleine albright. i was back with bill richardson. he did not get a meeting with the leader and since then he's had the stroke. he looked very thin but he was ebullient. as critics have suggested this was a propaganda coup for the north koreans as much as they want to make of it but what hillary clinton and the white house is doing is trying to say these are separate issues, that north korea has the opportunity now to take a different route but that does not mean things will get back on track. if you'll recall just before this possible breakthrough, certainly a breakthrough for getting the women out, there were very harsh words exchanged. i have a copy. i wrote down exactly what was said. hillary clinton had a meeting and then an interview and said the north koreans were acting like children, unruly. the ministry of north korea says we cannot regard mrs. clinton as

a funny lady as she likes to utter rhetoric. sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping. i asked her about that today, got a laugh out of her. she said she thought it was a mixed message. >> mike barnicle? >> the former president's mission to north korea has raised speculation among the usual circles in washington, media circles, that with the additions of special envoys like george mitchell for the middle east and dick holbrooke for pakistan and afghanistan and now her husband, the former president, taking the mission to north korea, that the foreign policy gears are being wound by too many people. what do they think of this? what does secretary of state hillary clinton think of this, if anything? >> reporter: she really laughs that off. you know, mike, it was her

choice to have the envoy. she couldn't travel everywhere and do the intensive diplomacy george mitchell has been every other day to the middle east. that kind of work cannot be done by the secretary of state if you're going to deal with everything else going on, so that was her choice. i think that there is an argument that could be made that a lot of the big policy questions are now moving towards the white house. that is natural. it is the president of the united states who makes these decisions. janet ross has moved over there and certainly on iran policy the president is deciding what's going to happen on iran. hillary clinton and joe biden reportedly wanted a much tougher stance after the election than did the president. ultimately he was the one who made that decision with his advisers. i think you're seeing a much more powerful security council now but here in nairobi today hillary clinton really took on the leaders.

there were very tough talks about the corruption, about the fact they're not proceeding with trials, that they didn't agree to go to the international tribunal in the hague about the horrendous violence and the displaced people, 500,000 people, 1,500 killed back in december, january, february 2007/2008 after their elections. they have a coalition government. it's not working. poverty is the overwhelming issue here and corruption feeds into that. she's doing her job as secretary of state and she's in the meetings and clearly on this north korean deal she was one of the big deciders as to whether it was appropriate for her husband to go. >> all right, andrea mitchell, we have international superstar erin burnett here with us from kentucky to the streets of kenya. she has a question. erin? >> andrea, i actually wanted to ask you on that front because recently we were in the democratic republic of the congo, a mining project, the largest taxpayer in the country, and i know you'll be going there and to a lot of other countries.

i wonder what the focus is especially on violence in this country because the congo has had more people killed than any conflict since world war ii and i know that it's heating up significantly. is this something the country will focus on at all or are we going to look the other way again? >> reporter: now this is the focus of her trip. it's trade. it's protectionism and people here at this trade conference say the united states with its agricultural protections does not come with clean hands. it's trying to do 0 something about poverty, aids obviously. a commemoration tomorrow on the anniversary, the 11th anniversary of the embassy bombing here in nairobi and there is a surge of terrorism. we talked about that today. we'll have more of that on our show at 1:00 because the al qaeda and its affiliates have been moving back into the horn of africa. there's great concern, big concern about somalia. the kenyans are concerned about, of course, the cross border

traffic with somalia. somali leaders here tomorrow. so all of these issues are coming up, erin. >> all right. thank you so much, andrea mitchell. we appreciate it. we'll be watching your interview with secretary of state hillary clinton on "andrea mitchell reports" at 1:00 p.m. eastern. now awaiting the arrival of president clint president clinton with those freed journalists. to debbie stabenow. clunkers legislation up for debate. harry reid is confident he has the votes to pass an additional $2 billion for cash for clunkers. do you share his optimism? >> well, we've been working hard and, joe, i never want to jinx anything before the vote but it looks very, very good and, by the way, i have to say because it's such an important story that you've been talking about, everyone here on the hill is celebrating the return of the two journalists. we are thrilled that this has

come to a happy ending. >> help us out here. when we first heard that the first amount of money for the cash for clunkers was spent in four days, a lot of republicans saw that as a failure. a lot of democrats saw that as a succe success. explain why we should spend another $2 billion on this cash for clunkers program. what does it do for the economy not just in michigan but across america? >> well, first, let me say when i introduced the bill with a bipartisan bill with senator brownback it was a total of $4 billion for the program and that's actually what was originally passed as authorization in the house. so we never meant it to be won. it was a $4 billion program. we couldn't initially get the support to do that but it's important because at this point in time we are in extraordinary times as we know. car sales have dropped almost in half in this country. people losing their jobs. dealerships that are hurting

across the country. and this is really a win-win. consumers who participate are going to be putting probably about $1,000 in gas prices into their pockets because they're getting more fuel efficient vehicle and we have small businesses, car dealerships, all over the country that are seeing customers coming back in even if they don't qualify for the program, looking at the great new vehicles and buying new cars and then finally the environmental benefits of this as well. we are seeing a great opportunity to lower the amount of emissions. 61% decrease in emissions because people are turning in clunkers and buying new more fuel efficient vehicles. >> senator, if the last billion only took us through four days, how long do you expect an additional $2 billion to last? >> well, my guess is it won't be more than through august.

some people would say two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. i think what is important about this is that we are giving a stimulus that is real to people, joe. we talked a lot about the recovery bill. this is a real stimulus and i've heard from the steel industry, the aluminum industry who create this, the materials for automobiles, recyclers, certainly the auto manufacturers. this affects everybody involved in manufacturing in this country. so if we're going to give a stimulus we gave $8,000 to buy a home, first-time home buyers, because of the importance of the real estate industry. the next biggest thing that you buy is your car and we're giving a stimulus to folks right now to get people back to work and back into showrooms. >> i just wanted to ask you one thick. clearly everyone agrees a stimulus that has worked in a lot of ways.

ford motor's chief of sales said if the rate of people coming in continued, we'd be running it selling 15 million to 16 million new cars in america this year and just to compare that number compared to the peak of 17.5 million so we're right up there with the peak which everyone agreed was unsustainable just like the housing market was. are you concerned at all that you are trying to inflate, in a sense, a bubble here, getting to a level that we can't sustain, we're going to come off that high again so this is good but a very temporary stimulus. >> well, erin, i really am not concerned because, first of all, it is temporary, that sort of stimulus is all about and, secondly, if this means we have to open up a couple more plants that have been closed in michigan or around the country to be able to make more automobiles, i say amen. i mean, from my standpoint, manufacturing is the backbone of the middle class in this country. advanced manufacturing is a part of our future and making more fuel efficient automobiles is

what we're all about. so i don't see that as a problem it frankly, i think ford has been thrilled because the number one vehicle purchased in the program is the ford focus. >> all right. senator, thanks so much for being with us. we really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> joe? >> yes? >> you could take a ford f-150 and get a new one, take the $1,500 and you're fuel efficient. >> really? >> yes. >> the key issue, though the money runs out in two or three weeks. what happens in november? >> right. no one knows how many people would have -- some of these people wouldn't go in anyway but some of them would in the future. there's some real questions. >> the thing that i can't get past -- and i was on the hill last week and talked to some republicans it asked how they would vote on the extension of it, no, it's a horrible idea. if you like -- if you're a

conservative, i would think, a small government conservative and you believe that we had to stimulate the economy -- >> you'd like this, right? >> this is about as good as it gets because you get the money straight to people. you know, funnel it through bureaucracies. it's like, hey, american people. we're going to give you some money. you spend it the way that you think is best. >> roll it out. use it for washing machines and dryers and ipods. that's what china did. >> much better than creating a bureaucracy for washing machines. this is a critical juncture in '95. i look across the table and we have to get delehunt on. >> let's call delehunt during the break. we need him. >> he's crying. >> have you ever seen him do a one-armed push-up?

straight ahead senator claire mccaskill. she's from missouri. she is a critical vote and just about everything the president wants and everything democrats need. first, executive editor eric bates. pollen. when i really liked to be outside, i did not like suffering from nasal allergy symptoms like congestion. but nasonex relief may i say... bee-utiful! prescription nasonex is proven to help relieve indoor and outdoor nasal allergy symptoms like congestion, runny and itchy nose and sneezing. (announcer) side effects were generally mild and included headache. viral infection,

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today is a very big day for just over 50% of americans and all of kenya. it's president obama's 48th birthday. he celebrated over a working lunch with senate democrats, at least he thought it was a working lunch until they wheeled out the birthday cake. >> okay. with us now executive director of rolling stones eric bates. you sat down, eric, with three people, two progressives and one moderate republican, gergen, krugman and moore. >> you would have thought they would have been closer together but they were pretty much all over the place and had very different concerns as well. gergen gave the president pretty high marks. he was impressed by his

aspirations. the president was about in the middle and moore was getting the benefit of the doubt. if he didn't deliver he would mark him down to a c-minus. >> krugman has been saying for some time unlike most of america we should have spent more on the stimulus package. does he think that barack obama actually hasn't gone far enough? >> certainly the stimulus he feels hasn't gone far enough. more or less acknowledged krugman has won that argument, joe biden helping him out maybe we didn't shoot for enough and krugman is saying it looks like another stimulus will be necessary. >> in the interview with michael moore, how does michael moore square that this president in many respects has continued the policies of dick cheney and george w. bush policies that michael moore basically said were criminal? >> moore seems to think that in his words obama is playing a rope-a-dope strategy.

he's saying a lot of those things to keep the opposition at bay, he doesn't really mean them. in his words he thinks right and goes left. >> but he hasn't shown the pictures from gitmo. he's saying in iraq admiral mullen told him yesterday that we're going to probably need even more troops in afghanistan. there is a straight line from the bush administration including the secretary of defense and petraeus. i'm not exactly sure. >> i questioned him on that. he seems to think those are temporary measures where he has his hands full with the economy, with the health care bill, with the climate bill. he thinks he's doing those things to get the bigger things through and on the other things he'll eventually change his tack. >> now david gergen who has been around a few presidents, republican and democrat alike, has had positive things to say about president obama but he faults him in the way he's run

the administration thus far. >> yeah. >> in what way? >> he said an interesting thing. he said he basically things he needs to appoint a good minister for the package, that the money isn't spent fast enough. he this is that under fdr, fdr had managers more specifically in charge of the stimulus who got more done more quickly. he also questioned the way he's done health care, maybe he's overlearned the mistakes of the clinton administration. they wrote the health care reform, gave it to congress, said it's all on you, pass this. obama took a different approach, okay, you cook it up and then we'll see. anger again thinks too many compromises happened and he got messy. maybe obama should have taken a more direct role in shaping the plan. >> mike barnicle? >> he also had an interesting insight into obama's leadership style. gergen says in the piece he has a different style of leadership, a contemporary president

starting with roosevelt, picked up a banner and said follow me. here is what we're going to do. he, obama, tends to herd people along. >> that's right. he's a community organizizer. krugman made the interesting point maybe obama has been too slow to use the bully pulpit. when health care was heating up, maybe he should have been on the road stumping for health care then. he lost the momentum and republicans got the upper hand in the debate. >> i've been reading the magazine and i still miss at 3 years old. ink would still come off in your hand. with chris connelly said michael jackson was bigger than the beatles have ever been. just curious, do you realize there are conservatives/libertarians that read your magazine? >> indeed. we're very popular in the military actually. >> are you? >> we have a lot of soldiers

reading us, a lot of mail from them. we hear back from a lot of them. >> interesting. once in a while -- you had p.j. o'rourke. a conservative guy. >> i think conservatives like to read us to disagree with us. >> just like with "the new york times." i buy two copies. one to read and one to burn in my backyard after i finish reading it. thank you for being with us. a fascinating look at barack obama thus far. i guess you guys give him a b had been minus overall, is that right? >> we didn't give him an overall grade. we gave him a b-minus on economic recovery. >> 3w6 on health care. a-minus on the environment and "b" on education. much better than my grades in high school. thank you, eric. up next, a tell-all book about men who protect the president, suggesting budget cuts. here's the deal, erin -- when willie geist, who has barnicle sitting on his lap, this is not

something for you to be proud of. >> i know he prefers willie. do you know who is going to be jealous? >> also we have senator olympia snowe, a crucial part of the health care debate, already is, and what other senators do we have on? we just have them coming in. >> we have one of our -- >> claire mccaskill will be here. we love her. we ought to get chuck grassley to figure out what the hell was going through his mind showing those cards. i thought it was a green screen that "the daily show" set up. - hi. - crowd: hi! i hate my phone. what do i do? ( shouting ) this is crazy. you. let's run a free upgrade check. see if you're due for a new smartphone. don't i need to go to my carrier's store for that? no, you don't have to. we sell phones and plans on all the major networks. ok. well, is time travel possible?

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oh! >> the secret service avoided the saempted assassination of dronld reagan. chalt a lot of changes. the author of the new selling book "in the president's secret service," a lot of startling stories in here. start with the headline. that is, you think the secret service is taking shortcuts that could endanger the lives of this president and others? >> not just me but agents themselves and in fact on the record, nicholas trotta, the head of protection, told me that, yes, that's true. we don't do metal screening, magnetometer screening in all cases now. a total change from when -- before homeland security took over the secret service, but when reagan was asasenated they

didn't have metal screening and that's why, i think the assassination attempt occurred. after that they started using magnetometers. for example, when joe biden threw the first pitch, no metal screening whatsoever. terrorist koss have come in with, you know, all kinds of weapons, with grenades and wiped him out. same with obama. >> taken shortcuts, you say agents are equipped with outdated firearms and relaxed physical training and testing now? >> in fact, they will do this phony business with physical training. they'll have the agents score themselves, or write their own scores. and the requalification on weapons has stopped in many cases. it's just an outrage. >> this comes at a time when the threats for president obama you reported has risen -- 400 times the amount of threats as past

presidents? a dangerous time to cut corners? >> now it's up 400%. unbelievable, and -- a risk of assassination. >> do you have a question? >> reading the review, obviously that stuff frightening and serious. you also talked about a agents, the more salacious side of being a president, shall we say? lots of bedroom antics that these people did not have a clue? >> i would argue it is part of selecting a president to know about a person's character and if they're engaging in implicit conduct. that's what we should know. nots that he should be disqualified but it's a clue. on the one thing, jimmy carter being the, pretended to carry his own luggage but the luggage was empty or he would have an aide carry it later. come into the oval office at

5:00 in the morning, 6:00 in the morning and tell the press office to tell the press that he was in there working hard for the american people at 5:00 in the morning, then nod off to sleep on the couch. on the other side you have, you know, endearing characters like george h.w. bush and obama. obama treats the agents with respect, with consideration. michelle is especially considerate. actually invited agents in to dinner. on the other hand, obama is continuing to smoke, despite his claims to have given it up by 95%. >> how did the agents get along during the clinton -- the clintons? >> not very heal. bill had clinton standard time. he'd be an hour or two late. either playing cards or shmooshing with a lady down at a hotel. >> that's what they call it now? >> and hillary, you know, could be nasty when she was running

for the senate she went to a fund-raiser in upstate new york and looked out the window and there were farmers in jeans and cows out there and she started screaming at an aide, why did you arrange this? they don't have any money. so -- that's -- sort of the other side of hillary clinton. >> so secret service -- >> i'm keep those questions on that side of the table. let me just ask you in closing, how does the secret service measure up today, other than that 30 years ago? >> the agents are very good. they're brave, dedicated. they pledge to take a bullet for the president. what kind of person would do that? you have to really be a patriot. on the other hand, there's this corner cutting that extends to cutting the counterassault team and the most shocking thing is not doing the magnetometer screenin ining we all go throug metal screenings when you go to the airport. you take a risk every time do you that. the secret service changed its

culture since homeland security took it over. >> thanks so much. greatly appreciate it. the book is "in the president secret service." greatly appreciate you being here. >> been there, too. >> we didn't even get into that. >> they're there. >> we will let other people worry about the schmoozing that goes on with our president. when we come back, waiting for bill clinton to land, and greeting them will be al gore. keep it on "morning joe" and -- >> i've got to leave. get down to -- he'll be with you at half past the hour. >> back to you. >> at least he's alive. >> still alive. not -- >> unlike some of the other -- >> as they do in illustrating. be right back on "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. beock ♪ singer:wanted to get myself a new cell phone ♪

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hey, welcome back to "morning joe." we're looking at a live picture of where bill clinton is supposed to be arriving soon. very soon, with the two american journalists that have been freed. we've got zuckerman on the air, very happy about something barn iggal just told him. and talking -- talking if claire is planning to have secret service protection when she goes

back to missouri. a long time. >> claire has been a democrat, and can you tell dealt with this thing, because she's been measured, and she understands. you just can't write the check. >> she's senator common sense. that's who she is. >> senator common sense. >> how about that? >> put that on a poker stick, baby. we'll talk about that and much more. first a look at some of the top stories quickly. >> yes, sir. live pictures from burbank, california, where american journalists euna lee and laura ling arrive shortly. a visit by former president bill clinton arrived yesterday to negotiate their release. chris jansing live at bob hope international airport in burbank, california where that plane is expected to arrive later this morch.

good morning, chris. >> reporter: good morning to tu, willie. about a half hour, 45 minutes away from when the plane is expected to land. this is the end of what has surely been 4 1/2 months of a harrowing ordeal for euna lee and laura ling. they were picked up on the north korea/china border when they were doing documentary work for current tv, former vice president al gore's media venture. they were later convicted of that and sentenced to 12 years hard labor in the gulan-like labor camp. it wasn't intensified over the last several weeks. a lot of different names floated, including al gore's, bill richardson's, the governor of new mexico. eventually they wanted bill clinton to give them international acceptance that

has so far eluded him. bill clinton back on the ground 24 hour, three-hour meeting with the north korean dictator and a special pardon was given and the release, they were put on that private plane with the former president, and as we said, they're going to be landing here very soon. now, this visit was not without critics. john bolton said it was essentially rewarding hosta hostagetaking. i talked yesterday to dianne feinstein pushing for an envoy to go to north korea to broker the release of these women, and she said that she felt that kind of criticism was ridiculous. they're american citizens. what would you have them do? what we do know, willie is that president clinton, former president clinton will assurances before he left that he would come back with these two women, and they're expected to be met by their families when they land here a short time from

now. >> and al gore is apparently going to be there as well. chris, we'll check back in as soon as that plane touches down in burbank. thanks. police near pittsburgh are trying to piece together what kpemed a gunman to open fire in a fitness club yesterday killing four people including themselves. the suspect calmly entered an exercise class before firing two guns. at least 52 times. at least nine other women were injurerd in the attack. investigation's motive is now under way. and secretary of state hillary clinton is in kenya this morning on the first leg of her african tour. in a speech earlier today, clinton called on leaders to do more to end war and disease and to stamp out corruption. in an nbc exclusive, andrea mitchell sat down with secretary clinton to talk to her about her trip through africa as well as her husband's trip to north korea. >> well, he was just so relieved, and happy that it's -- it had been successful.

he said it was very emotional and very personally affecting to him. no one should be confused, because that was a humanitarian mission. our relation with north korea is very important to continue on the track of moving, trying to mo moving towards denuclearization. two different -- >> the "new york daily news" and the new yorker page columnist, thanks, guys, for being with us let's talk economy. i hear good news on the tv. the stocks are going up and happy days are here again. we've hit the bottom, but when i talk to people who really know, that have the money on the sidelines waiting for the economy to bottom they seem more panicked today than they were even three months ago.

why? >> i think the pessimism is much wider in the business community than it is in terms of the way people look at just the stock market. the stock market is doing well, because companies are slashing costs. not because revenue is going up. it's not the top line doing well, it's the bottom line and they're slashing costs. that involves letting a lot of people go. that's the way they're improving their -- >> profit margin needs maintained but stocks go up because of that? >> right. now, that's very good for individual companies. it's not necessarily good for the economy as a whole. saving is good for individual families. if you do it for the country as whole -- >> are you pessimistic like a lot of people? very concerned today? >> i remain concerned about the economy. i don't think we're at the bottom of this recession. i think it will go on a long time. unemployment numbers will be tough to live with and one of the things you were eluding to before, the country realized for the first time what debt means. individual families now have a

mortgage that's too big for their home. credit cards that are -- debts too large for their income. insecure about their jobs and suddenly realize, debt means something and it transfers to the economy at large. a lot of people think, we don't want the country to have a lot of debt to our economy. even if we had to delay health care and even the cure for the recession. >> that's certainly the way the polls have broken the last couple months. at the heart of this, a housing crisis that exploded. >> right. >> james, you've written in "the new yorker" this issue, not home yet. the idea is, renegotiating mortgages, foreclosing on the house, lenders nudge, start acting sensibliened you can stop foreclosures at a relatively low cost. unfortunately, is it true? why? >> we have this foreclosure crisis an the obama administration following in the path of the bush administration, trying to deal with it by just giving lenders a little bit of

incentive. so they're paying mortgage services a little bit of money to get them to renegotiate the mortgage. and one of the reasons why the numbers are not very good in terms of actual mortgages getting renegotiated is because if you actually look at study, what you find is that actually foreclosing on a house makes more sense economically a lot of time for the lender. >> the free market, letting them do whatever? >> taking over the house. even if they let it sit and resell it. >> why is that? >> two reasons. >> because we've heard if you foreclose a house it drives down the value and the entire -- >> exactly. two reasons. one is when people get in trouble. sap you miss a payment or two, about 30% of the time those people get back on track on their own. without any modification. so they take on the an extra job, whatever it is, find a way to do it, even if this economy. the other thing that happen, something like 40% or 50% of people, say 45% in this one study, of people who actually get their mortgages modified end up defaulting anyway.

so -- >> bleeding continues. >> exactly. >> this isn't the type of article i expect to read in the "new yorker." i expect to read this in the "wall street journal." >> part of it that made it an article in the "new yorker" my argument, if you actually want to do something in about the foreclosure crisis. do more in terms of direct aid to homeowners. gips that the boston fed came up with, taking on more government debt which would basically have the government make low interest loans to homeowners to tide them over for a couple years. >> doesn't that just continue the bleeding? >> well, the idea is that when you do it to people say for instance on people -- you hope two years downs road, you get a job when the economy recovers. did it as a loan a good case this probably would not cost the government much money. one of the things it would dough, ideally, stop the kind of constant downward pressure on home prices. foreclosures have a huge affect on surrounding property values. >> and purely an economic issue.

i know that when people tune in they think that i actually got a degree from the school of economic, that's not actually the case. >> not to worry, joe. >> but yet we want the economy to turn around quickly, let me ask people who know this more than i, we want the economy to turn around more quickly would we allow it to naturally bottom out fast and then you have all the smart money jump -- just like with the s&l crisis of the early 190s. guys like me won't get rich, but guys like you, mort, you'll be able to buy double more planes. if we wanted quicker turnaround, don't we let the market mechanism play itself out? naturally? it's not humane in the short run, in the long run does that turn the economy around more quickly? you first? >> my view is that the most important thing we can do is to find a way to increase jobs, and the way to do that is to spend money on long-term values for this country which is infrastructure, and that is what we have failed to do in the

stimulus program. it's done way too little. too many special programs of the democratic party that got into it, that seems to me -- >> you want your money there instead -- jay, let me ask you. it's harsh economically, but would that -- turn the economy around quicker? >> i actually think the idea of more infrastructure spending makes "on normous amount of sense. we know as we've seen in the last year and a half that you often times have people, the market will overshoot massively on the down side. i think that's one of the problems. the other problem i think with the housing market is, you really can end up with a kind of vicious cycle where falling prices, more for closures -- >> like a cancer. >> exactly. there is a case for trying to help stabilize the housing market. especially because it is so central to not just the american economy but to the banking system. >> and we have to view this

closer. your wife works at bank of america. you hang out with bankers. what do you think? >> just one. my wife. you know what i mean? not the people you met at the -- >> a lot of your friends go around -- >> we have now injected into the dialogue this rather cold phrase, lagging indicators. lagging indicators means rising unemployment, more people unable to pay mortgages. and one other thing you cited, the boston -- injecting money into this situation directly to families. what does that do to the horrific potential for social catastrophe when i say, you're paying his mortgage but not mine? >> that's one of the big -- the great hurdle. one of the great mystery, why have we spent so much money, given so much to it banks

themselves but hesitant to give money to the homeowners in that form. one of the big reasons, the people i've seen infuriated about the bailout, easier to give money in abstracts than to just kind of the system or blah, blah, blah, rather than that guy down the street you know. we're paying his mortgage. that is a big hurdle. >> let me take your side of the argument for a second and turn to you. instead of paying billions of dollars to car manufacturers, we give it directly to consumers in cash for clunkers, and suddenly, they can't keep cars in their showrooms. maybe a more direct stimulus plan, directly to consumers. like you're suggesting. maybe that makes sense? i. lap to agree with that, by the way. i don't think the $50 billion we give to one company really makes a lot of sense. makes political sense, to be perfectly blunt about it rather than economic sense. i agree initially we vo nhave nt

bailed out the people that got us in trouble, but bailed out the homeowners. longer term mortgages. a lot of the securities, they're the ones that started the whole crisis. you would have saved a lot if the financial system would have benefited indirectly and the homeowners benefited directly. in john mccain had said in the first debate, which is what he said in the third debate, let's give the money to the home onnors not to the bankers, he would have done a lot better in this election. >> james, thanks for beings with you. come back soon. mort, stick around. coming up it a few minutes, senator claire mccaskill will be here one the most influential senators. and definitely one of the most influential senators in washington, senator olympia snow, part of the senate finance committee, negotiating health care reform. we'll ask her what to expect next and waiting for president bill clinton and two american journalists returning from north korea. we'll bring that to you live, when we hear al gore is maybe

there as well. keep it right here on "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. undefeated professional boxer floyd "money" mayweather has the fastest hands boxing has ever seen. so i've come to this ring to see who's faster... on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't. so i can browse the web faster, email business plans faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm faster than floyd mayweather.

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we understand that four years in we're going through comprehensive health care. just because i'm a member of congress doesn't mean others shouldn't have that accepts of security and confidence as well and i'm confident that we democrats and republicans are going to join us and get that job done. >> this is what an enthusiastic you know, comforting, warm, reaffirmation, reconfirmation that health care reform was so necessary for the american people, and with we working

together, we'd accomplish it, get done this year. >> republican senator from maine, member of the senate finance committee, senator olympia snow. thanks for being with us, senator. >> thank you, joe. >> you've kind of been in the thick of it, senator. you're not summering in maine this year. >> no. >> it has been tough sledding. give us an update. where are you right now on the negotiations on the health care plan? >> well, you know, we meet every day, as we have for the last month and a half on a daily basis, and work through the weekends and evening as well. working through each facet of the reform package. you know, from delivery system to employer issue, individual issues. to transforming a system, subsidies and the list goes on and we're working through each and every issue, understanding the pros and cons, the merits of the proposal, the impacts and

implications. basically we're working through every dimension of a comprehensive reform and trying to achieve accessible, affordable health care, but doing what should have been done at the outset of this year, rather than trying to railroad a process into inn an unrealistic time frame. so we're continuing to do that. we will do it through august, and in through september, and hoping we can reach an agreement, but right now we're concentrating on the substantive issue, getting the facts and information from the congressional budget office, making sure we have legislative specifications and language we can commit to the budget office once we agree on every component and have them provide an official scoring, but it is a weighted endeavor, without question. probably why there have been so many failed attempts over the last century. >> but senator, for you and the other moderate republicans and

democrats alike, there are no false deadlines. you will do it all in good time. right? on your own schedule? >> well, that's correct. and that's what i told the president back in june. i indicated to him that you know, this is a very complex issue and we need to work through not only with our colleague, not only with our group and with our colleague, but also with constituents across this country. rightfully, americans are concerned. we don't want to erode their confidence in a way in which we continue the broader reform. it's important to have the confidence in the process that will yield to certain product. do we think everyone will agree with what we do? no. but a good foundation, for broader support and incident for a solution, but i think the president, you know, certainly understands that now. hopefully he does, and let's get

off time tables because, time frames because they don't work and haven't worked and i think that's what has contributed to the problem and it's escalation of the controversy that has littered across america and the landscape. >> mike barn iggal? >> you and others, including the president, used phrase affordable health care. could you flush that word out for me? affordable to whom? what does affordable mean? >> affordable means to enrich -- to depend on the level of income, frankly. you know, whether it's $10,000, $20,000, $40,000, $30,000, access to an affordable plan. yesterday we concentrating on the types of plans that will be available in the exchange and what would be defined as minimum credible coverage so that there is an affordable plan. whether it's a broad plan,

silver, gold or platinum plan. we want choices, because frankly choice and competition is what has driven quality and access in the past. and that's what we have to su stain in this package, so everybody has access to affordable plan. we don't want to raise expectations and not being able to deliver and affordability one way or the other. we don't want to discourage employer-based coverage. we want to build on that foundation. and don't want to interfere with the dr.-patient relationship or run decisions in that regard. we're moving away from all that and providing choice, competition and a platform from which the people can have access to affordable health care and designing those plans. we have to understand and calculate they're premiums, deductibles, co-pays. >> senator zuckerman is with us and has a question. >> morton. >> senator morton. >> the objection that i have repeated over and over again is that this new health care plan

should be revenue neutral that seems to be a flawed objective. the whole problem with the health care program is that it's way too costly. we have to get the cost under control and make even the existing program come in at different numbers. is this going to be a program that is seriously going to attack the issue of the runaway cost of health care? >> you know, absolutely. that's one of the issues overall, that affecting our deliberations and something we need to communicate to the american people. that they may have health care today, but it might not be affordable tomorrow, since families premiums have doubled in the last ten years alone, and the number of uninsured has gone up and the under insured gone up exponentially. we are not only making a budget neutral in the budget window between now and 2019, but sustainable beyond that time, and we're going to provide incentives in the delivery system on prevention, and chronic disease management, and you know, being able to help

people early on with diagnosis so they will not react to a crisis and more costly treatments down the road and providing incentives, like in may oh clinics, or guisen gur, or cleveland clinic. outstanding models how they've lowered costs. increased utilization has not achieved better outcome, just the opposite. that's what we're attempting to do. cbo has said our package thus far, unofficial estimates, will bring down the cost beyond 2019. that's what we're looking for. >> all right. senator, thank you so much for being with us. appreciate it. >> thank you, joe. thank you. it's fascinating listening to her. i'm reminded back when we conservatives took over 95- 96, so frustrated by moderates in the senate. everything that gingrich's congress wanted to do moderates, senate republicans ap democrats alike, round off the sharp

edges. traitor. how can you do that? the same thing is happening from the other side. shows you again the genius of our founding fathers. whether you like it or not, and i didn't like it when they were rounding up the sharp edges on the conservative legislation and liberals don't like it now that it's going the other way, but these types of big bills are always resolved by the olympia snowes of this senate, when i was -- the claire mccaskills. when i was in congress, it was the moderates who in the senate would deliberate and that's exactly what our founding father, exactly how james madison envisioned it. >> let's hope -- let's hope on this one. this is a big one that will affect everything we do, once it gets into place, almost impossible to change. it better be done right. >> we've got to do it right. aagree with the senator, no fault deadlines, no false deadlines. and when we come back, mark haines, following breaking news, bill clinton and the american journalists expected to land any

minute returning from north korea and expecting the journalists to speak. al gore will also be there. so keep it on "morning joe." pollen. when i really liked to be outside, i did not like suffering from nasal allergy symptoms like congestion. but nasonex relief may i say... bee-utiful! prescription nasonex is proven to help relieve indoor and outdoor nasal allergy symptoms like congestion, runny and itchy nose and sneezing. (announcer) side effects were generally mild and included headache. viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing.

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five co-workers are working from the road using a mifi, a mobile hotspot that provides up to five shared wifi connections. two are downloading the final final revised final presentation. - one just got an e-mail. - what?! - huh? - it's being revised again. the co-pilot is on mapquest. - ( rock music playing ) - and tom is streaming meeting psych-up music from meltedmetal.com.

that's happening now with the new mifi from sprint, the mobile hotspot that fits in your pocket. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. a really big july jobs report is due out friday. let's find out what we can from cnbc's mark haines what we can expect. live in the new york stock exchange and before we begin, a

compatriot of yours was here earlier this morning from stoix 8:00, we speak of international super star erin burnett, here to it streets of kentucky and let's also say a very close friend with our own mike barnigal. look at this picture. >> yeah, exactly. >> it's not just willie geist who sits too close. >> exactly. >> mark, we need you on the set soon. when are you coming? >> well, let's get to the news. shall we? >> you know, he's just like carson. i know what's coming, but i can't stop from laughing when it comes. all right. he's so good. >> jobs, jobs. you mentioned jobs, i got job for us. actually i've got jobs news. and it's kind of -- ready for this?

the good news -- now, the bad news -- adt continues to show decline. actually, this is good news. adt, the private company, comes out ahead of the government's jobs report. their jobs report was worse than expected, but not as bad as last month. so they say the job market is improving. not as much as hoped for, but not at bad as last month. okay. so that's kind of good news, but then challenger gray, they are a private company who looks as planned layoffs and things like that. they say planned layoffs, up in july for the first time since january. so -- you know, it's kind of, what's going on out there? >> you know, mark, we keep hearing from certain people we have hit the bottom. i know, talking straight through

you. >> i'm not done. >> talking straight try you. talking before and listening to you, sounds like we don't know if we've hit the bottom or not. when it comes to unemployment, we could be in for a very long, hard -- >> actually, i believe, belief, right? >> faith. >> belief is faith. i believe we've seen the worst in the jobs market. i think things are turning, but it is going to be a very long, slow process. if you'll think back to the early 2000s, we came out of recession and the job growth was what everyone considered to be very anemic, and that was because technology had really taken hold for the first time since we got the last successor and employers were able to get a lot more out of workers through technology and tlmp they don't have as many jobs. that's exactly the kind of recovery we'll see again. >> what are you looking at? what indicators are leading you to the conclusion we probably

seem worse when it comes to unemployment? i. believe i said that was based on faith. >> oh, just faith. sheer faith alone. that's fine. >> the numbers have been getting less bad now for three or four moss, and i'll grant you that's a thin read, but less bad is better than more bad, so -- >> no doubt. >> that's why i'm thinking that way. >> you can see the numbers from the transportation department on the cash for clunkers program. six of the top ten cars being bought after clunkers are traded in are non-detroit brands. however, the top seller is the ford focus. ford is -- you know, think about ford. they've done a great job. they really have. they didn't go into bankruptcy. they didn't take taxpayer money and now are the number one seller of the cash for clunkers program and last month their sales actually went up. looking for good news, ford is a real example of capitalism at

work. they didn't go down the government road. they did it all by themselves. >> mark haines, thank you so much. >> oh, futures -- moderately lower on that jobs report. >> all right. we appreciate it. >> have a good one. >> you, too. you know, this isn't the first time ford has helped jump-start the american economy over the past 30 years. i remember back maybe ' 86-87, tame out with the taurus, a new type of american car. it kickstarted for ford, other detroit manufacturers followed suit and it looks like ford, let's cross our fingers, you never know what can lap tomorrow, but it looks like ford is one company that's done it right. >> i know. very interesting. ford did it right because they got into trouble a lot earlier than the other car companies, when there was no prospect of prol bailout money and began to do it themselves and take the tough decisions. frankly, the other car companies didn't do that and then when they got into trouble, all the

federal bailout money saved them. >> every industry, newspapers, auto industry, affected management's at the top. a big distinction. >> absolutely. no doubt. coming up next, senator claire mccaskill, one of the most important votes in the united states senate when talking about cap and trade, health care or taxes. the senator from common sense will be here next. keep it on "morning joe." racheting up slowly ) ( whooshing, riders cheering )

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hey, welcome back. to "morning joe." an unruly set of characters here talking about news, you can't use and now we're earlier.

and on the hill with me, willie, i mean, mel, she was seriously not able to eat breakfast after seeing the two elderly people in florida without teeth. all of who burn ed the bed with the cigarette and may not make t. the woman's a keeper when she smokes not after the act but during it. take that one home to mom. >> a founder. >> i found her. >> boy. >> okay. >> well, you know, we were actually, as we came in, showing you pictures of a serious scene, a scene where we expects to see bill clinton and -- what are we doing here? oh. doing a white balance there? that doesn't look like the senator to me. let's do a feed.

pete, why don't you do everybody a favor and why don't you communicate with t.j. sitting next to you, whether the senator's there or just holding up a two ply sheet of bounty. white balancing for the event in california -- >> we went to california, ready for you now. >> the microphone. waiting for bill clinton, al gore, and also claire mccaskill. she is there. we have christened you this morning, senator. the senator from common sense. >> i love that. by the way, can i do something personal just for a second? >> yeah. >> today is my mother's 81st birthday. happy birthday, mother, i love! >> oh, mom! mom must be very proud of you. where does she live? >> she lives in st. louis with us. >> fantastic. fantastic. so is she like my mother was, wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning? run out, get the newspaper, come in and see what terrible things are written? >> and then start calling me and wanting to know why i can't do

something about this. >> yeah you see, my mother what she would do, actually call talk shows on a.m. radio, and i would hear about it from my staff and have to call and say, mom, too young to be in congress. do me a favor and keep the phone on the hook. hey, just talking to olympia snowe about health care reform. senator snowe said, you're working through all the issues but there shouldn't be a false deadline. do you agree have should be a deadline on health care reform, you'll get it done this year when you get done? >> we need to get to work when we get back trying to reconcile all these different versions. i'm focused like a laser on insurance reform an cost containment. no one can say there's a serious deficit hog if they're not worried about cost contain tainment in health care. that's the 100-pound gorilla that will handcuff up for

generations if we don't figure it ounchts one of the things looking at bill clinton coming in at an airport in california, one of the things that concerned me about the debate. i loved hearing you say that. i think we talked about the moral side of the issue any of which is the 47 million american whose need health insurance, but we haven't talked about math. haven't talk about cost containment over the next ten years. what do you do when you come back from recess to talk about how we bring down costs in the long run? >> well, there are a lot of things that are being talked about and, frankly, i don't think they're being focused on, and you know, if we can say no. if we just turn back health care again, then the status quo has won again, and we are in big trouble in 20 year, because about hatch of our incomes going to be gobbled up by an ever-inflationary health care cost. so i mean simple thing, joe. should we be buying scooters for people instead of encouraging them to walk with public money? i don't think so. some people may need a scooter.

but right now we turn on cable tv, and they're wanting to give awe scooter courtesy of the government. that's one example that there are hundreds of those examples where we can work on cost containment in a way that will still give people choices. give them quality care, but we're going to not be test driven, we're going to be results driven. >> mike barnigal? >> senator, happy birthday to your mother. god love her. my mother made it to 93. she was healthy right up until the moment that she passed. but when she was 91 she was given the option, because of some health issues, of having bypass surgery, and she said, no. i'm 91. i don't want bypass surgery. at some point in terms of these tough decisions and cutting costs, who is going to make the call on the elderly who sometimes require great care and sometimes don't want that care? >> well i think that's the point. you know, the irony of some of these, you know -- first of all, being loud and rude is not

exactly persuasive, and i think that if people would take a deep breath and realize what we're trying to do is put the patient in the center of the decision-making. we want to make sure people -- frankly, most elderly people will make the right choices in terms of their quality of life. many of them don't want to prolong their life with needless tests. if it's only going to give them a week or two. let the patient decide. don't let the doctors do this, because they're going to get reimbursed for the test. let's make sure that family and the patient, this notion that giving people information about hospice is the government trying to kill them? i mean, come on. this is ridiculous. >> at the same time, senator, and i don't want to sound heartless here, but to follow-up on what mike barnigal is talking about, cost containment may be telling somebody they can't get their third mri of the year because there is a headache and think they have an aneurysm and

can't get eight cat scans on their stomach because they just don't feel right. we have a lot of unnecessary caps that make a lot of people rich, make a lot of people a lot of money up and down the health care food chain, but in the end, like you said, it's drives up costs. so who makes those tough decisions? >> well, first of all, i think that the problem is right now too often insurance companies are making those decisions and not patients. they're not getting good information. they're not learning and understanding what it is in terms of an outcome that they can expect, but rather, i mean, i talk to somebody in the health care profession that had had pneumonia last winter and yet six cat scans in two weeks. that's because they were getting reimbursed for every cat scan. >> exactly. >> i want to make sure we're doing outcome based. based on what the patient wants. that's how you control costs. not by paying for services that they're just going to keep running test, running tests, as long as we're going to keep

reimbursing them. >> senator, we're watching a picture now of bill clinton's plane as it taxis into the runway in california, but, senator, isn't it truth, the hard truth, that we can't always give the patient exactly what they want. they can't always get the test that they want, that sometimes we have to tell patients no, it's not medically necessary and it just doesn't seem like that the test is justified by the facts in front of us. instead of having a system that says, gee, if we run three cat scans we get three times the amount of money, than if we do what's medically necessary? >> your point is a good one, joe, but i think people need to remember that the status quo right now, it's the insurance company that has all the power. and that's what we're trying to shift here. we're trying to reform the insurance industry so they can't tell you, i'm sorry. we won't help you, because you're sick. we've got to reform the

insurance industry, focus on cost containment, and you know, i think public option as long as it's not a huge public option plan, as long as we put restraints on it, is on the table. i think a co-op is on the table, but the goal here has to be insurance reform and cost containment and that's what i'm looking for. >> all right. hey, senator claire mccaskill, thanks for being with us. >> i want to come back another time to explain why i'm a little worried about the cash for clunkers thing i. >> would love that. you're voting against it, i know. >> well, i don't know yet. i don't know. depends on whether or not chrysler and gm has inventory to participate. i'm a little -- wrar, a little worried we invested all this money in those companies and they don't have inventory right now. >> happy birthday to your mom again. >> thank you very much. >> and be safe out there. we hope that democrats and republicans and independents alike show you and the other public officials the respect that they should be afforded. greatly appreciate it. >> thank you very much. whether they disagree or

agree with them or not, you can go out and disagree without being hostile and disagreeable. again, on the left and right. right now looking at bill clinton's airplane taxiing down the runway. he has the two freed journalist from north korea with him right now and they'll come out holding a press conference. al gore is expected to be there as well, but we know for sure that george lewis is there. nbc news george lewis. george, set it up for us. what's going on? >> reporter: we're at site hangar 25, xpevgting the plane with former president clinton with two freed journalists to come up here. the doors will open, the plane will pull in. they'll put a ramp up next to the plane and everybody will come off of it here in front of our camera shot here in a few minutes, as you've said. the plane now taxiing towards the hangar here. we don't know how long exactly that will take, but we expect that to unfold in the next few minutes. we're also being told the mason

reunion with the journalists and their families will take place at home rather than here. that they're going to have a little bit of private time and maybe come out later and talk to the press. so we're expecting to hear from former president al gore. he is actually the employer of the two freed journalists. he formed a company called current tv, a channel they were working for and at the border of north korea doing a story on human trafficking when they got nabbed by the north korean forces back in march, and on june put on trial and now thanks to the intervention of president clinton, they've been freed. we're hearing the jet engines, i think, outside the hangar. we're expecting the doors to open up here very shortly. that is the plane carrying the freed journalists and former president clinton approaches, i can see the flashing lights from the plane's navigational lights just outside the door. so -- >> all right. we're awaiting this any second

now. >> and, george, willie geist is with us. >> the moment we're watching live, dramatic and a culmination of a whirlwind set of events that really only took place over 36 hour. first learned of this monday night. can you walk us through quickly what happened over that time period and how this happened so quickly? >> reporter: actually, there was a lot of groundwork being laid for many days before the 36-hour flight trip by president clinton opinion air for opinion. a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations. ensuring that president clinton would not come back empty handed. they got assurances from north korea this indeed wore work and it has as they land here in burbank, california. >> we're watching the airplane now park with bill clinton and two former hostages from north korea, journalists. mort zuckerman, you had dealings with bill clinton.

you say he remain as engaging a person as ever. just a remarkable, remarkable person to deal with. obviously, his personal skills came into play here, and really was the big draw for the north koreans. >> right. he has a worldwide celebrity and a former president, somebody with enormous prestige around the world. therefore, it is a great public relations coup for north korea as well as for the united states to get these two journalists. the real issue, does it mean anything for the negotiations we'll have with north korea to contain their nuclear weapons program? they are the biggest supplier of nuclear weapons technology and weapons technology to iran, for example. they are a critical player in the dangers that we are all triering to cope with and the question is, will this one lead to the big issue, to the big enchilada. >> and mike barnigal, brought up early e by us and maureen dowd, bill clinton may have gotten valuable information on the

health of the leader? >> clear, kim jong-il is easily flattered, a mission where we sent a person capable of flattering anyone. and former president clinton, in less than 20 hours met him, met the president of north korea, had the three-hour dinner with him. i don't think there's in doubt, joe, he probably picked up valuable information and, again, maureen referenced this in her op-ed piece in the "times" makesy wonder, had we not have access to saddam hussein like this in 2001, 2002, would things have turned out differently? >> and we're looking at images. we expect bill clinton to step off the plane with the two freed journalists shortly. very interesting dynamics between two men, also that we'll be meeting today. president clinton and vice president gore. mort, strained relations to say the least, since the 2000 campaign? >> for sure. there are very strained relations.

whatever you may see publicly. it will be interesting to see how they get along and worth this is an occasion which they can begin to repair the relationship. al gore, i think, ended up being, shall we say, dismayed by the role that he had to deal, when he to deal with bill clinton as the ex-president and former president, or sitting president at that point. >> right. >> often interesting. andrea mitchell reported earlier to us this morning that kim jong-il personally requested that bill clinton be the intermediary here. so after weeks of negotiation, he finally said, bring me bill clinton. this turn into a good moment for kim jong-il and also for president clinton. >> and obviously for the americans, released american journalists, and underscores the point you made, mort, we'd all agree with. bill clinton, the international stage through all of this political ups and political downs has remained a superstar. bigger than life. >> absolutely. >> and beloved across the globe.

>> and when you meet him, even today, he is one of the ploeft compelling and engaging personalities you could minutes here. again, the pictures alone at this point are just -- are more than enough to compel all of us to watch and really think about that bigger conversation, which is, what, why did kim jong-il do this? in other words, beyord pure terrorism rival rousing, was he

trying to get the former president there to initiate some sort of direct communication, in the bizarrest of ways and what is it that those journalist was doing there in the first place? ten different lines of questioning. >> and watching right now, dylan and just seeing the first person disembarking off of this plane. this is the sdwlaet has just arrived back from north korea carrying the former president bill clinton and the two journalists who have been in captivity. remember, their sentence was 12 years hard labor in north korea, and when that sentence was first passed along, there was a lot of speculation about whether they would indeed be forced to serve any of that, whether there would be advances made on behalf of the united states government to go in and try to free these two women, and now we're waiting to see them for the first time, disembarking on american soil after their conviction for crossing illegally into north korea, and, again, the very, very harsh sentence, a sentence

that many said, should they be forced to serve? many don't even survive. let's bring in mike on the phone covering this story along with us. this has got to be seen, mike, don't you think, as a big victory for the statesmanship of bill clinton? >> well, you know, a question all along of what role the official government played and what role bill clinton played as an elder statesman, as an ambassador to the united states. obviously, it's a strong link there and, of course, hillary clinton, his wife, is the secretary of state. this morning she was on the "today" show, let's hear her interpretation of what exactly has happened and transpired over the last couple of days. >> and, mike, once again, i wanted to mention we're watching live pictures out of los angeles. with me now, jonathan capeheart as well. do you think this bodes more, jonathan, a bigger roll foe bill clinton when it comes to sticky, thorny, international issues? >> we've talked about this during the