have addressed at least one of the following things by now. limits on executive powers, nope. torture prosecutions, nope. looking at this list i see two big accomplishments. i have a few accomplishments. the cash for clunkers program stimulated the economy. unfortunately it was the economy of japan. >> "snl" going after it. >> welcome to "morning joe." he's a socialist. he's a nazi. he's going to destroy america. there are a lot of people saying he hasn't done anything yet. my god. welcome to "morning joe." joe scarborough here. this is crazy. i had this surgery. it was horrible. i thought i was on this

medication that made my head loopy. i had this dream, this crazy dream. it was almost like dallas. i don't really understand it. i was in front of my tv set. i think it was on friday. i was fading in and out. i had sweats and everything. i woke up and i swear to god i thought americans -- i got to be wrong. i'm embarrassed to say it. it's such a crazy dream. >> we're not on the air yet. go ahead. >> i think americans were cheering against the united states getting the olympics. my wife came and said it's just a dream. >> that couldn't happen. >> it was a dream though. have you ever had one of those dreams and you wake up in your pajamas. can you believe i had that dream that americans were actually clearing for the united states to lose the olympics. >> you dreamed it and it came true. there's video of it.

>> how do you cleheer against chicago for goodness sake? who would do this? >> blago is from chicago. >> no shame. >> is this something -- i understand it wasn't a dream. is this something that happens in the united kingdom. a lot of times you have british cheering against great britain getting the olympics. >> i don't think you have it too much. my first reaction was different. i was thinking poor london squeezed between beijing and rio. we'll have a tough time competing with that beach party, aren't we? >> i guess so. >> we're not as controlled and

magnificent as that ceremony in beijing and we're not as sexy as rio. i wasn't cheering against london. i felt sorry for them last week. >> you have history. put the queen on the trampoline and everyone will cheer. it will be great. >> a couple dancers will be fine. >> all right. that's a dream. mika is on assignment. serio seriously, at this point i say to my conservatives, do you realize how stupid you look? hate obama in your closet if you want. you're doing dumb things that swing voters aren't going to like. they don't listen. that's their problem. >> you were for the president? >> of course. who is not for the olympics being in the united states of america? >> some people apparently.

>> it's worse than stupid. >> it is worse than stupid. it's potentially lethal at some level politically. >> i think this one was stupid. we've had lethal comments made. this was just dumb. we have a lot to talk about. we'll get to it in a minute. mik will talk about afghanistan. willie will have the news. taliban is now claiming responsibility for a brazen daylight attack in afghanistan over the weekend that killed eight american soldiers and wounded several more. hundreds of insurgents stormed two united states outposts in deadliest day for u.s. forces there in more than a year coming as the white house continues to weigh its strategy for the war. jim jones, national security adviser, pushed back against the military and stanley mcchrystal's calls for additional forces. >> the end is more complex than

just about adding x number of troops. it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command and i think that general mcchrystal and the others in the chain of command will present the president with not just one option which does in fact tend to have a function but a range of options that the president can consider. >> nbc's chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski live with the latest. >> reporter: good morning. you know that attack over the weekend was one of the most fierce and deadliest battles for american forces in this entire afghanistan war. as you mentioned, those at least 100 or so foreign fighters and led by taliban it's believed, attacked this base with rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire. they held the high ground over

that base probably installed their weapons over a three to four-week period so this was a very well planned attack. in the end, as you said, eight americans died and the americans claim that as many as 50 taliban and other militants also died in that attack. the big question here is why did they launch this attack? over the past several weeks the american forces in that region have been informing the elders, the tribal elders, that they were getting ready to lead. u.s. was in the process of packing up from that outpost and going leave tomorrow. it offered no strategic or tactical military advantage for those militants and taliban to attack and the american military is believing that this was purely for political and propaganda purpose to make it appear they drove americans from that base and at the same time raised the fears of americans back home that this war in

afghanistan is just not winnable. >> we had jim jones on the sunday shows yesterday suggesting that we may not need more troops. that may not be the totality of the tragedy any way. what does this attack over the weekend tell us about that assessment? >> reporter: well, clearly american military officials here are concerned that it will weigh even heavier on public opinion back home. in some of the latest polls more than half for the first time since the war began, more than half of the americans polled said, look, the fight here is just not worth it. i think that stan mcchrystal and american military commanders here in afghanistan might push back a little on general jones because the number of troops is not the only part of the mcchrystal strategy. it's much wider than that. debatable that it still could succeed but it's not only about troops alone. >> all right. nbc's jim miklaszewski reporting live from kabul, afghanistan, this morning. thank you so much.

according to this morning's "the washington post" the white house is delaying a meeting between president obama and the dalai lama in an effort to curry favor with the chinese. >> that will help. >> part of a broader strategy to reinforce ties with beijing. >> and why would anybody want to criticize china's human rights record? i saw the statue of liberty while i was away. another dream. they had colors to celebrate -- empire state building. >> what did i say? >> statue of liberty. >> i'm not with you. they're celebrating 60 years. the chinese -- he killed 60 million of his own people. if you think about it, there's been a genocide on average every year. that's 1 million people that you have slaughtered of your own people per year. that's ten times the number of

people who died in the holocaust. that's more than stallen killed in russia. why doesn't the president turn a blind eye to it and not see the dalai lama. working under a state of emergency this morning, hundreds of firefighters battling a wildfire east of los angeles. a mandatory evacuation order forced thousands from their homes. so far cooler weather is aiding the fight but officials warn the fire could still pick up. >> does california ever stop burning? >> that's all it does. prosecutors say the man attempting to extort $2 million from david letterman could face 15 years in prison if convicted. this is him in court on friday. letterman acknowledged the plot on thursday admitting his past sexual relationships with cbs employees. he's back on the air tonight. his first taping since scandal made headlines. it comes as the report is the host has a secret love nest

complete with a pullout couch. >> he has an office. he's sleepy. it's not over until 12:30 at night, right? right? >> no. >> it's like 12:30. i'm always tired. >> he's getting hammered in new york tabloids. >> the poor girl. the first one that -- what was her name? stephanie. my wife and i and kids went up to eat and the photographers are just waiting outside of her apartment. this poor woman because of a sleazebag of a guy decides to rip out her diary. she can't leave her apartment on a sunday afternoon because -- it's just horrible. >> dave used to bring her out on the show.

she was funny. >> you know who else had a bad sunday? mark sanchez. >> i thought you were going say bill ca bill. >> what about tony romo. >> what's going on -- you can tell mika's not here because we can talk football. >> atlanta is probably the trouble spot -- >> kaddy is in washington d.c. >> let's talk about atlanta being the only trouble spot big airport wise. light rain this morning. maybe there in charlotte early morning airport delays and that will clear out during the day. this is a closer look at the wet weather through georgia and south carolina. forecast for the rest of the

country, new orleans thunderstorms today. we have a snowstorm in billings, montana. 6 to 12 inches by the end of today. way too early for that. west coast with fires we're watching. temperatures are cooler. firefighters are hopefully going to be okay. looks like beautiful fall monday from boston to d.c. and don't worry, one more week of grand jury duty for me. enjoy the vacation. >> how did chicago and president obama lose so badly? and why are some americans actually happy about it? we'll talk about both sides of that story. we'll have editor of "the nation" with us. not sure which side she'll come down on like tucker and jim cramer. we're almost at 10% unemployment. we'll talk about what the white house needs to turn that tide. and new developments in the new big prizes.

are democrats sleeping in virginia? we'll get answers from mike allen and also in washington we're going to talk about what the hell happened to liverpool. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. (mom) revlon makes my lips sooooo smooth. yep. real smooth. with unbeatable prices on revlon super lustrous lipstick, beauty costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart.

denise! you've lost weight! it's just all these giant things make me look small. i eat this fiber one yogurt. (mr. mehta) it has five grams of fiber, zero fat, and fifty calories. please, this is too creamy and delicious.

for the olympic committee it came down to one simple question. where do you want to go for vacation? >> bill maher, we love but layoff chicago, my man. the greatest american city. >> it might be actually. >> here with us now, the chief political correspondent for politico, mike allen. let's talk governor races and we'll start here up by us in new jersey. governor is closing the gap.

>> people think they may get a split decision in only two big national contests. they think that democratic -- mike. there you go. >> not your fault. go ahead. >> i thought i was wrong about something. >> no. >> the democrat in new jersey looking much stronger. a state where president obama helps him. they think of sending the first lady, michelle obama, up there and making the difference. a very strong third-party candidate who is drawing 10% of the vote in one poll. the republican had to attack the independent that shows it is really hurting. >> ouch, that hurts. >> do we know how close the polls are? we had the governor in a couple months ago over the summer and it was about ten. >> it's close. within the margin of error. closed the gap considerably. also in virginia the democrat there is moving up. democrats much less hopeful

about that race. democratic national chairman is from virginia so they will keep pouring money in there. democrats putting $6 million into virginia. the rnc put $7 million. that's because these races are clearly going to be a report card on obama. >> people might ask why do we care about these two races. obviously in '93 swept everything. democrats have done the same. this year wouldn't you agree with me if republicans win new jersey and virginia, you can look forward to a big republican sweep. if we split here, let's say democrats get new jersey, which i think they will. new jersey is always -- it's just fool's gold for republicans every four years. >> they chase it and it never works. >> they never win it. virginia, this mcdonald guy i saw commercials in d.c. looks

like a sharp guy at least in 30-second clips. if he wins in virginia and wins significantly, all that talk about realignment with barack obama last year, virginia, you can sort of throw that out the window, can't you? >> great point. >> these are two camps going back naturally to where the two camps usually are. >> normalization of politics. that's a great point. the obama environment is hurting. the obama magic works in places like new jersey but in places like virginia which is much more purple, republicans will never be able to count on it the way they used to but it's also certainly not an obama state either. >> something we're excited about here. we understand vice president joe biden getting out on the trail. white house picks its spots to use him. why are they using him here? >> joe-joe is the congressional candidates sugar daddy. he's spending a lot of time especially with house candidates especially with ones who may be

in danger sending the message to them that if they take tough votes for the white house, that the administration will be there to help them. so he's been out on the road a lot. he's going to continue to do more events partly this preserves the president's political capital but also he's been very popular in these events having the vp there draws a lot of publicity, good will and so he's done a lot and will do a bunch more. >> he's great out on the stump. >> everyone likes him. >> we love him. we love him. he's our guy. thank you. >> joe biden for people that haven't hung out for joe biden, he's a very, very likable guy. i would think he would be custom built for this time of event. go shake hands with congressmen. backyard barbecue and raise half a million. >> mr. obama is mr. cool.

you walk into a room and he pours ice over the room. biden touches everyone. he's super friendly. it's interesting when you see the two of them together. i was over at the white house and bumped into the two of them in the west wing. total opposite in the way they relate to people. it's an interesting pairing that you have obama who is kind of aloof, holds himself back, physically very upright. doesn't engage very much with people on that touchy-feely way and then biden is so natural and so warm of it. my sense is biden is -- the risk is he makes mistake about things but the obama people appreciate the warmth he has and what an asset they have in him and that regular folks really like him. >> we do. we love that guy. it is fire and ice. >> i just love that katty just

bumps into them. >> i'm still thinking about the queen on a trampoline. >> one hell of an opening ceremony. >> you could never have said that. i could never have done that. it took an american. >> i like that one. >> shoot her through the flaming rage. >> joe, stop. enough. enough. enough. >> an update on a story we've been talking about. we haven't talked about it for a month. the erin andrews situation. she was filmed through a people hole. the guy accused of doing that scheduled to appear in court in illinois. rehema ellis has the story on the suspect accused of filming erin andrews through the altered

peep holes in hotel rooms. >> reporter: for months popular espn reporter erin andrews hoped authorities would find a suspect and now they have. 47-year-old michael barrett is expected back before a chicago judge who will decide if barrett will be free on bail to face charges in los angeles or if he'll be taken there in federal custody. arrested friday night, the insurance executive is accused of interstate stalking. a charge his attorney and friends call surprising. >> i don't think mike ever had a parking ticket before in his life. >> reporter: the criminal complaint against barrett tells a different story. he's accused of secretly videotaping andrews while she was alone and nude in at least two hotel rooms. one in milwaukee and this hotel in nashville. the criminal complaint says barrett traveled to cities where andrews was working and called hotels to find out where she was staying and when he made his

reservations, barrett asked specifically for a room next to andrews identified in the complaint as individual a. authorities allege barrett rigged the peep hole on andrews' hotel room door to record secret cell phone videos of her. >> many times someone will do something like this just for the excitement. >> reporter: authorities also say barrett posted the videos on the internet after trying to sell them to california based celebrity website tmz via e-mail messages. those e-mails according to court documents were vital links in a cyber manhunt connecting hotel records and cell phone logs. the videos viewed millions of times humiliated andrews who told oprah how shocked she was. >> i felt my heart pounding. i knew it was me. >> reporter: barrett could face

up to five years in prison. rehema ellis, nbc news, new york. >> you have to wonder why hotels were given out the information. >> you follow her from city to city and rig peep holes. >> the defense will introduce as evidence is willie staying in the hotel in nashville. >> i have stayed at that hotel. >> we need to bring a woman in on this. so when you had this problem last year, did you cut it off by calling the authorities or just calling mike barnicle's wife? >> it's when willie called hotels asking if he could have the room next to the brit. it's okay. we got over it. we dealt with it in a nice, mature friendly way. >> all right. still ahead, big story in "the new york times" this sunday. iran has the information to make

an atomic bomb. coming up we'll talk to a reporter who broke the story and what happened if iran gets a bomb? we have "newsweek's" editor that explores worst case scenarios and a story in "newsweek" that's interesting. much more straight ahead on "morning joe." - ( funk music playing ) - let's put a few thousand kilowatts in a vise.

squeeze some savings back into our budget. into our attics and walls. let's locate the original energy source called you and turn that machine up full-blast. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. come get 50% more savings on insulation with the new lower price of just $9.37 per roll. 100 years of engineering excellence is right on time. it's gmc truck month. shop sierra 1500 slt with the 403 horsepower 6.2 liter v8. it's the most powerful half ton v8 in its class.

step up to the best. it's gmc truck month. get 0% apr for 60 months on 2009 gmc sierra or get $6,000 total cash back on select 09 sierra 1500 extended and crew cabs in stock. see your gmc dealer today.

welcome back to "morning joe." a beautiful shot in new york city. mika is on assignment this morning. that means i'll be attempting to do the news for you. today's top stories, this morning international forces are staging a new assault on the taliban near the area where eight united states soldiers were killed over the weekend. at least 16 u.s. troops have been killed in afghanistan already this month. matching the american death toll for all of october last year. in neighboring pakistan, at least three people are dead this morning after a suicide bomber attacked the u.n. food agency in islamabad after the leader of the taliban in pakistan vowed to avenge united states missile strikes in the northwest part of the country. >> they're attacking food? >> attacking the food bank.

>> that will help you win the hearts and minds of the people. >> a pair of new government studies show 1 in 100 children have autism disorders. much higher than previous estimates. the new research would mean about 673,000 american children have autism. a condition that affects communication and social interaction. >> you know, i want to talk about that in a little bit. andrew has -- kids are getting autism for whatever reason. we all knew kids in our classes that had kids excelling in school and in many other ways but just could not connect socially. haven't identified it yet. once do you identify it, that's

the great news. you can get in the kids' faces and they do well. >> the awareness factor is night and day from just ten years ago. >> it made a huge difference. andrew got through high school well. he's in college now. very happy. things are going well. kids back in our day just sat there and suffered. great progress. good news in those numbers means that we're figuring out what's going on. deadly attacks by militants. >> "los angles times" afghan assault point out u.s. vulnerabilities showing crews battling that popular resort area. >> a long wait to get new flu vaccines. delivery of some 250 million doses is expected to begin next week. this week another question this article asks is how many people are going to want the vaccine

amid concerns that it was rushed to market. >> "the washington times" say ben bernanke and hank paulson misled the public about the financial strength that received bailout money. government officials claimed publicly the institutions were on safe grounds despite knowing that several were on edge. >> "usa today" heating aid could fall short of needs this winter as there's a record number of applicants. a rough weekend for president obama snubbed by the olympics and "snl" poured it on saturday night. it's all ahead. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ moos ] [ man announcing ] if you think about it, this is what makes theladders different from other job search sites. we only want the big jobs.

welcome to theladders. a premium job site for only $100k+ jobs and only $100k+ talent.

now, that's progressive. call or click today. >> when you look at my record, it's very clear what i've done so far. and that is nothing. on my first day in office i said i'll close guantanamo bay. is it closed yet?

nope. i said we would be out of iraq. are we? not the last time i checked. i said i would make improvement in the war in afghanistan. is it better? no. i think it is actually worse. how about health care reform? hell no. >> oh, boy. with us now editor and publisher and also in washington, d.c. is katty kay. there was some joke if you call in or something -- with every new u.s. car you buy, we'll give you this. he held up a chicago 2016 olympic t-shirt. there is some truth there. it's so interesting. you have conservatives saying

that barack obama -- this is his point. the point is they say i'm a nazi. i'm a socialist. i'm destroying america. i haven't done anything yet. he's getting it from both sides. >> i love "saturday night live." i don't want to date myself here but i've been watching myself ever since it started. there's a role for humor. come on. you can disagree with some of obama's specific policies but he's in the tradition of great reform presidents. will he be one? we don't know. every reform president in modern history going back to roosevelt and maybe before has met with opposition. roosevelt led the war against fascism was called a socialist. i thought paul krugman was interesting on the failure of the olympics. we were talking about half of chicagoans opposed bringing the olympic games -- >> let's talk about that. let's take it, mike, from the strategic standpoint.

was the president let down? everybody except dick knew that when they were going over there to copenhagen that this was a president getting the job done. let's listen to mike murphy and get your response. >> all right. >> i think last week it was pretty clear that valerie jarrett is running the white house. this is amateur staff work. you never send the president of the united states around the world when you don't know the outcome. >> valerie jarrett says the information we had was that it was very close and well worth our efforts. the message was that a personal appeal from the president would make a huge difference. make, i disagree with mike murphy that valley jarrett is running the white house but the white house got played. they were told you bring the president to copenhagen, you get the olympics. >> you have to separate from everyone i've spoken to that

knows anything about this selection process, you have to separate the chicago political people from the u.s. olympic committee. one of the truly incompetent organizations in the world. >> that's the first part of the question. did the white house not know that the u.s. olympic committee, which is horrible as everyone said they are -- >> clearly no. there was poor staff work. they bought into the u.s. olympic committee's line that it is close. get him over here. they don't even make the cut to the first three. >> chief of staffs have been taken to the wood shed for far less than that. how would rahm emanuel supposedly the tough chicago political street fighter, the vote counter, how could rahm let his president fly across the atlantic ocean and then be embarrassed in front of the world? how did he not know that? >> the only excuse that you can

think of is that they felt that if he didn't go and chicago didn't get it, then it would have looked even worse. i don't think so. i think not getting it and obama not going, you would have got over that quicker. you know, it was odd. there was a lot of hype beforehand. everyone talked about chicago. people were slightly buying into this idea that chicago is going to get it. i was reading press reports from other countries around the world and nobody thought chicago would get it. all they had to do was look at the press from europe and the press from latin america and realize that it was rio. it was time for rio to have it. >> we all know that today. the question is why -- >> you could have -- >> why didn't the white house know that before they put the president and the first lady on a plane and have them fly over across the ocean? >> you do have to wonder. the other bigger issue here is the president has so much political capital.

these are critical times in terms of big issues, right? >> my god. >> michelle obama in my view would have been perfect. let's not forget, katty was reading european and international press. just read the chicago press. half of chicago was opposed to it. if obama had gotten the olympics and united states received the olympics, every scandal, every overrun and in the olympics, they have become games defined by overrun in cities with corruption and it would have stuck to obama. >> it would have been the obama olympics. >> conservative reaction -- i don't want to call him conservati conservative. the extremist reaction, krugman defined the iraq as having the emotional maturity of a bratty 13 year old. when games went to tow rio, brazil, great power.

let's congratulate brazil. >> willie and i are thinking about going down in february. >> i can see the scandal. >> let's go through a couple of these. i wrote something this weekend just asking a very simple question. what would have happened if liberals had cheered against the united states getting the olympics? let's run through a few of these. a weekly standard tweet. chicago loses. chicago loses. the bbc reports chicago eliminated in the first round of the ioc meeting. and then here's rush limbaugh's response. >> the world has rejected obama. chicago, the least number of votes. first elimination in the round of voting for the olympics in 2016, barack obama.

barack obama has been running around the world for nine months telling everybody how much our country sucks. why would anybody award the olympics to such a crappy place as the united states of america? >> i would like rush limbaugh to tell me, mike barnicle, who is he helping there other than rush limbaugh? middle americans are smarter than that. middle americans that swing elections see that and think, my god, republicans have gone off the deep end. >> not only that, joe, but if he replay that tape again for people who have never heard him on friday do that, the level of anger in his voice, they have such a deep fear of this guy. what's the fear based on?

the anger in his voice is really troubling. >> katty kay, i was disheartened over the last eight years. if i was paul krugman i probably wouldn't cast stones but over the last eight years democrats hated everything that bush did. bush was called nazi socialist, etc. now it's turned and now it's barack obama. we republicans did it to bill clinton for eight years. it always seemed that one side feels the need to delegitimize the other side. cannot be helpful for our political process. >> i don't think it is. listening to that rush limbaugh clip again, and i don't want to hear it again, it's barack hussein obama, something insidious going on in repetition

of his middle name. you look at the numbers of people calling themselves conservatives and liberals in america hasn't grown very much on either end. it's just the tone of the debate and the noise that they're making that is swamping out the middle. it's important for people in the middle of this country to make sure that their voices are heard just as much as rush limbaugh's voice is heard. >> could i just come back on that quickly? >> after the break. we have to go to break. you know what's so interesting? katty makes a great point, 40% of americans call themselves conservatives. this isn't like the old split in the republican party where you had moderate republicans against conservative republicans. this has nothing to do with ideology. this has to do with a harshness of rhetoric. this is disgusting. almay makeup changes to match my skin tone. cool! that works.

with walmart's unbeatable prices on almay smart shade smart balance, beauty costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart. when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance travelers. insurance for auto, home and business.

it's not the new lexus. it's not the new bmw. it's not the new audi. what it is... is impossible to resist. the new twenty-ten lacrosse from buick. it's the new class of world class.

how much do you pay when you buy a stock? does the rate change depending on how often you trade or how much you have in your account?

at td ameritrade, there's only one price for online stock trades--$9.99. now matter how often you trade. no matter how much money you have in your account. straightforward pricing from td ameritrade. independence is the spirit that drives america's most successful investors. we have a ton of football highlights. we want to tell you that tigers and twins both won yesterday. they play tomorrow. one game playoff for the right to play the new york yankees. >> tigers will win. >> you have red sox and angels. red sox/yankees. >> let's watch football highlights. tough day for mark sanchez in new york. saints unbeaten. this one a 99-yard interception

return. sharper takes it the distance. >> he's going all the way! >> saints win 24-10. they stay undefeated. first time for four games since 1993. baltimore ravens had to play the patriots. tom brady here floats one up for randy moss. first touchdown of the season for moss. pats win 27-21. >> patriots will be good this year. >> anything with tom brady quarterbacking has a chance. giants look to improve at kansas city. watch tackling on this. this is a rookie. would someone please bring this man down. bye-bye. 54-yard touchdown. first touchdown of his career. giants win 27-16. eli manning hurt his heel. they'll check him out. hopefully he plays this sunday. >> how do you hurt your heel? >> check out this run.

cowboys and denver tied late in the game. watch this. marshall across the field. i'll go back through four cowboys. go around the outside. wow. 17-10 denver. here's tony romo. one second left to tie the game. incomplete. broncos win 17-10. broncos off to a nice 4-0 start. in case you missed it last night late on nbc, steelers and san diego. we call this trickeration. steelers win 38-27. >> who is the best team in the nfl right now? >> you could make the case for the new york giants. the colts look good. the manning boys. >> i go with the giants. i think they're the best team in the nfl right now. >> tough defense. >> katrina? >> i watch basketball. >> nick?

>> that's my family's passion. >> fair enough. >> how about soccer? >> look at that. english premiere football league. rough weekend. >> we'll talk about that later. much, much later. cameras are off. >>. >> news you can't use. did you see this last night? "seinfeld" reunion. we'll show it to you. we'll be right back. - ( funk music playing ) - let's put a few thousand kilowatts in a vise. squeeze some savings back into our budget. into our attics and walls. let's locate the original energy source called you and turn that machine up full-blast. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot.

come get 50% more savings on insulation with the new lower price of just $9.37 per roll. two of nature's sweetest wonders growing together under the same sun. and now for the first time, in new sun crystals ® . the only 100% natural sweetener made with pure cane sugar and stevia. finally, all the sweetness of nature and just 5 calories a packet. nature gave us the recipe; we just gave it a name. new sun crystals ® all natural sweetener. two natural wonders. one sweet taste™.

time for news you can't use. if you have it tivo'd from last night, we'll show a bit. a big episode. larry david got the crew from "seinfeld" back together. you have everybody there. everybody there. it's sort of a reunion with a reunion. they are pretending they're bringing the gang back together. here's a little scene. the old magic of "seinfeld." >> he doesn't want to coordinate the tip. >> why should i? why do i need to coordinate? >> we tip in concert. there's no concert. >> two different people. two different tips. a tip is a solo. >> no, it's not. >> thank you. >> solo. >> tip is a solo. >> what's the big secret? >> you're digging in -- you want

to know what my taxes are and what i pay for my house. >> there's no right or wrong to it. you're wrong. i'm right. >> remember that. a tip is a solo. >> you know, i was thinking about this. larry davis is such an extraordinary talent that believe it or not, i almost -- because i loved last season so much and first two episodes of this season, i almost didn't want the "seinfeld" people to come back. i wanted them to stay out of the way of larry david who is at the height of his creative skill. >> they said it was the most fun they had. there was no script. they just started with the cameras on. watch that episode if you didn't watch it. something that caught my eye over the weekend. "saturday night live." do you know who lady gaga is? she's a huge superstar.

a big sex symbol. doing her number on stage in some sort of fitness machine. an orbiting deal where she's doing her performance. the big thing that everyone is talking about is madonna made a cameo as lady gaga as a new sex symbol. they got into a cat fight on the stage. >> what's wrong madonna. can't get into the groove. this. >> no. no. no. >> what is the disco? >> that's madonna and lady gaga. her album is number one.

>> really? >> why is madonna doing it? >> she's brilliant. she's grasping on to each new entertainer. 52 young. >> kind of like cher. >> when is the nation cover on lady gaga coming? >> we're doing a youth issue. we have people who follow lady gaga. we go low. popular culture -- seriously, for a whole generation comes to their politics through popular culture. i think it is wise for all of us at this table to critically embrace the popular culture of

our time. >> i do. >> i do. i watch -- you don't even want to know. i watch "true blood" and my reality tv shows. people at the nation know what's going on. >> i'm limited. >> "30 rock." >> that's good. >> you hate "on tentourage." i think it's overrated. >> ted danson is brilliant. jason is good. >> it follows "curb." i am so laughed out. >> i turn to -- >> speaking of ted danson. does this mean ted danson can't do "curb" or can he do that and "bored to death."

>> there should be antitrust in other areas but not in popular culture. >> i want ted danson on "curb." "newsweek," you guys play for the young 18 to 34. that guy is on the cutting edge. he's written a heck of an article saying let's stop exaggerating about iran. >> i'm actually for exaggerating the threat. >> i am too. >> slight disagreement here. >> all right. let's do some news. >> enough about ted danson. mika is interviewing laura bush. the taliban claiming responsibility for brazen attack in afghanistan over the weekend that killed eight american soldiers and wounded several more. hundreds of insurgents stormed

two u.s. outposts in the deadliest day in u.s. forces in afghanistan in more than a year. jim jones appears to be pushing back against the military's call and those of general stanley mcchrystal for additional forces. >> i think the end is more complex than just about adding x number of troops. it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command and i think that general mcchrystal and the others in the chain of command will present the president with not just one option, which does in fact tend to have a forcing function but a range of options that the president can consider. >> according to this morning's "the washington post," the white house is delaying a meeting between president obama and the dalai lama in an effort to curry favor with the chinese seen as a broader u.s. strategy to improve ties with beijing reflected through financial policy and tamped down criticism of china's

human rights records. >> that's courageous. how many people have been killed over the past 60 years? >> millions every year. >> 60 million. 60 until in 60 years. this may be ten times the amount of people killed in the holocaust but i don't know. >> you know, republicans and democrats alike don't like criticizing the chinese. nothing to see here. move along. move along. don't see the dalai lama. >> working under a state of emergency, hundreds of firefighters battling a wildfire east of los angeles. a mandatory evacuation order forces thousands from their homes. officials warn the fire could still pick up. prosecutors say the man accused of attempting to extort $2 million from david letterman could face 15 years in prison if convicted. letterman acknowledged the plot on thursday admitting his past sexual relationships with cbs employees. he's back on the air tonight. the first taping since the

scandal made headlines. we'll watch to see if he addresses it again. this comes after the daily news reports the host has a secret office with what they're calling a love nest equipped with a pullout coach. >> john has a pullout coach in his office. what does it mean? is that a smoking gun? >> the guy works long hours. >> he works long hours. and as we said before, what time does he go home? 12:30. he's got to be exhausted. they pretape those things at 5:00. no one knows the level that sets in. >> sometimes you need to crash on the couch. i'm just going to sit here until it passes. >> we'll talk to david sanger. david broke the story for "the new york times" about a conclusion that senior staff members of u.n. nuclear agency have made about iran's inside

knowledge to design and produce a workable atom bomb. thank you for being with us. you are on the air. i want you to know. your hair looks magnificent. your hair is perfect. >> joe, i want you to know that those of us who work in newsrooms, we don't have couches in the newsroom period. >> of course not. it's editors and late-night comics that do. david, you have good reporting on just -- not this editor of course. let's talk about your reporting. you uncovered some disturbing things about iran's program there to make the bomb. tell us about it. >> what we reported on was a report that is circulating within the international atomic energy agency and it was written by staff members of the agency. these are sort of the down in

the weeds experts including some they brought in who are experts on weapons design and they were sensing the totality of the evidence they have gotten. that means intelligence from the u.s., britain and france and germany and other intel services and israel as well and then their own investigations. when they put all of this together, what they concluded was that iran has the knowledge now, all of the different pieces together, to actually design and build a weapon in part because they got some of that from overseas. that doesn't mean they're actually doing it. we were talk before about exaggerating the threat and difference between knowledge and activity is different here. >> there's a disconnect between what we heard in the national intelligence estimate about a year and a half ago where we heard that iranians had given up their program. now we find out a year and a half later that that in fact was dead wrong.

how does our intel committee get it wrong so many times on this issue? >> joe, this is a fascinating one. at the time that the national intelligence estimate came out in late 2007, its conclusion was they were enriching uranium but stopped doing design work on a weapon. the israelis didn't believe it. they say it are restarted in 2004 or 2005. the germans didn't believe it. franks didn't believe it. and now the british don't believe it either. we're in the exact opposite of where we were in iraq. everything is flipped. u.s. is taking the more cautious view and the european allies taking a more aggressive view. >> that's fascinating. "newsweek" is all over this story this week. it seems the take away is that belief is by some at "newsweek," iran will get the bomb. get used to it. >> let's talk about after they get it.

partly based on david's great story. >> and by the way, that image on the cover, i'm glad you don't like exaggerating the threat. >> we don't. we don't. my view of this is you can't really exaggerate this. if you think about the history of nuclear proliferation and who doesn't at this hour of the morning, what you have is every decade or so -- don't laugh at me. 1.5 nations get the bomb. six decades. nine nations. only one has given it up. south africa. oppenheimer, einstein and others at the beginning of the nuclear age before we knew what would happen in '45 said once this happens, it will spread. you cannot contain this knowledge. >> let's go back. i remember i was in congress waking up the morning where i read the news that china had

passed important nuclear secrets over to pakistan. everyone made a huge deal out of it. as you read the paper in 1995 and '96, you don't realize this could end up getting the bomb to one of our enemies, a terror group that wants to blow up manhattan. in this case if iran gets the bomb, moderate arab states will start chasing the bomb, right? >> precisely. the case is made which is typically brilliant and reason ultimately we should not huff and puff about this because it exaggerates iran and the doctrine of deterrence has worked since 1995 and only one nation detonated nuclear weapons and that's united states of america. all of it is true and eloquent. deterrence depends on rationale

actors and the more people who have access to these weapons raises the chances that irrationality enters the equation. >> soviets with nuclear weapons -- a lot of americans would flinch when you said soviets who are a conservative country with their use of force where you deal with soviets with nuclear weapons you know it's more of a rationale game and you can talk about mutually assured destruction. we're entering into a different world with iran getting a bomb. >> what jon said is true. we've seen the breakdown of the nuclear proliferation regime. the frame work. we need to rebuild that. some will say we need military strikes. in my view that's irrational. it is not simply eloquent but realistic to begin a process and president obama in prague spoke radically about a nuclear free

world but radical now means henry kissinger, george shultz, william perry, others understand that the alternative is to build down and rebuild the nuclear proliferation frame work and i think containment though the nation's cover this week is about engaging tehran and remember that the opposition in iran, the very courageous opposition, is also in agreement with building iran, whito build the peaceful nuclear energy. i think the alternative is engagement and if we had containment with russia we proceed with that until we find a way to build a nuclear-free world or nuclear-free middle east. let's not forget, israel has nuclear weapons too. >> david, all of this talk about -- i heard the word game mentioned twice in the past two

minutes. the nuclear game that goes on he here. october 25th inspections in tehran of one facility. why do i sit here with an impression that it's like telling one of your teenage kids this saturday i'm coming into inspect your room. it better be cleaned up. >> that doesn't work at home with my teenagers even if the inspection message is short. you can imagine how this would work here. look, by the time they get into the facility that was revealed last month, there's not going to be a lot in there. in fact we don't even believe they had gotten to the point of putting the main equipment in there at the time that its existence was revealed. the important point is that facility is now basically useless to them. the big question is what other facilities did they build that might be feeding it? i'm not the historian at the table. i wouldn't want to intrude on

john's territory here. i wanted to pick up on one point that he made about containment. he's absolutely right. we went through the debate in the early 1960s when kennedy and johnson wondered if there should be preemptive strikes on the chinese. the difficult with iran as is the difficult with north korea is not that they will lob a missile at our troops or at israel or at south korea or you name your target because anything that's got a return address on it, one can respond to. the big issue is what happens if they spread nuclear material and nuclear expertise to terror groups or others. >> all right. david, thank you so much. we appreciate it. stay with us, jon , if you will. after sobering unemployment

numbers, a failed olympic bid and a president slammed on "snl" the white house had a weekend they would like to forget. how they plan to move forward coming up with savannah guthrie and latest on the stalking report of erin andrews and an arrest that led to boston. first, a quick check of the weather with bill karins. >> good monday morning. still some rain down there atlanta through georgia. good news. so far so good. the airport at hartsfield is showing no delays. miami, fine. same with new york. forecast for today, we're just fine around the i-95 big cities. the problem cities today new orleans, atlanta, minneapolis, and our friends in billings, montana dealing with snow. snow on a monday morning. your forecast is a lot better than that. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. they make little hearts happy...

...and big hearts happy too. because as part of a heart healthy diet,... ...those delicious oats in cheerios can help naturally lower cholesterol. (cheerios spilling) how can something so little... ...help you do something so big.

[screeching] [dejectedly] oh. [screeching] [barks] (man) if you think about it, this is what makes the ladders different from other job-search sites. [screeching] we only work with the big talent. [all coughing] welcome to the ladders-- a premium job site for only $100k-plus jobs how far can you see? at pnc, taking the long view is how we help you take the right path. even to change it when conditions demand. keeping you on the road to achieving your goals. it's something we've been doing for over 150 years.

let our strength and stability be the basis for yours. pnc. leading the way.

on friday we found out even if you have this, people prefer this to this. although many in chicago are disappointed with the decision of the international olympic committee, cubs fans took the news best as they're used to hearing the phrase chicago has been eliminated. >> a dismal weekend for president obama. chicago loses its bid for the 2016 olympic games. and somebody -- who was it that said -- a baseball fan said chicago always does terribly in october. along with the olympic loss, grim unemployment numbers were released. fierce fighting in afghanistan left eight u.s. soldiers dead. here with us now, nbc news white house correspondent savannah

guthrie. a rough weekend. this white house, what's the attitude there this morning? >> i think they want to move ahead. they'll do a little rally with doctors here at the white house on health care reform. we haven't really seen the president talking a lot about health care reform in the last few weeks. seems like foreign policy has been center stage. so they're going to try to move forward from what frankly was a humiliating defeat last week in copenhagen. they are trying to move forward in the true spirit of the olympics putting defeat behind them and living another day. >> what happened when the president jumped on the plane and went over to copenhagen almost everybody in chattering classes said this means he'll go over there and he'll get it done. it will be a done deal. and then we're hearing today, of course, everybody knew all along there was no way in hell america

was ever going to get the olympics. what went wrong and who in the white house is taking the hit? >> first of all, the president was under enormous pressure from hometown folks in chicago to go. that's number one. number two, the perception here was that there was a very tight race between rio and chicago. i think -- >> who pushed him inside the white house to go? >> i don't know who pushed him. i know the first lady was very interested in going. valley jarrett was instrumental. i don't know that they would accept the premise he was pushed. they say he wanted to go. >> who didn't protect him then? >> that's an interesting question. >> you always have people around you to protect you saying, mr. president, listen, we have health care. we have afghanistan. we have things going on. you lost ten points over the last couple months. we don't need you flying across the atlantic and being embarrassed, mr. president. >> you wonder where that voice

was. it was clearly lacking here. no question. unforced error. the other issue is communication strategy. even if you're going to have the president go, you could on background quietly tell reporters, look, we're going in there. backs are up against the wall. the president wants to go there and put the best foot forward. we were hearing the president is not going to lose. he doesn't want to have second place. the first lady briefed some of us reporters and was very competitive in saying take no prisoners. we want to win. you could fault the decision in the first place to go in retrospect. and also just the communication strategy. there probably was a better way to downplay expectations so that the loss wouldn't seem to stunning and such a reflection on the president himself. >> let me ask you. last week the day before the president went to copenhagen, general mcchrystal in a public forum in london stood up and

said, look, the only way afghanistan is going to be saved is if we introduce more troops into the equation and anybody who says differently is wrong. did the white house know he was going to say that or words to that effect and were they surprised that he did? >> i can tell you the pentagon knew. military officials apparently knew about his speech. what's interesting is the president while in copenhagen had mckrchrystal fly out for a one-on-one meeting. it's unclear whether the white house knew what mcchrystal was going to say. there is some frustration with the fact that he's out so publicly and military is out so publicly pitching its strategy when obviously the white house is asking some tough questions here and really agonizing over what to do. i think it's not a debate they want to have in public. they're not happy that the mcchrystal assessment was leaked in the first place and many folks felt that came straight

from the pentagon. they would rather not have this debate in public. >> how about general jim jones saying this weekend, let me tell you how we'll do it with this white house. it will come up through the regular chain of command. jim jones sent a message to mcchrystal and the pentagon this weekend which is play it straight. you won't win that way. >> he did. to be fair to the military it seems clear one would think that the white house leaked seven days ago the biden position that we should draw back and only do an anti-terrorist message as opposed to counterinsurgency. to some extent despite the president's noble goal of introducing a post-partisan nonleak white house, we're in the midst of that. i was struck by mcchrystal's speech in london whatever you think about the strategy. it was a fairly explicit thing

to say when everyone was being so clear that this is decision. >> the clear voice of bush's pentagon has become harder to hear. general petraeus and barack obama may be butting heads here. >> there are several larger points here, joe. one is what's key is we have a president who is undertaking a reassessment of what the strategy is in afghanistan. there is no strategy. i think that's very important that they are using -- they will have five meetings. what mcchrystal did in some ways crossed the line. i think he should read the constitution article ii where the president is the commander in chief. what's key is that we have a strategy. >> mcchrystal also called out his secretary of defense on "60 minutes." >> i think there's a real danger -- i think there's a danger there. the larger point is let us hope

that president obama knows that war can kill reform and that if he wants to be a great domestic reform president, he should remember the lessons of lbj in vietnam and find a different strategy in afghanistan which is to deescalate. >> jon, were you going say something? >> if a general came out and said it's wrong to send more troops, it is morally wrong would you cite article ii? >> this is the question. a general was praised by many saying that bush went into war in iraq without sufficient troops. he was asked that at a congressional hearing. we need a broader debate in this country about civilian control of the military. that's been eroded. >> i will tell you, when i was on armed services committee in the '90s i was disappointed how many times generals and admirals were pitting the white house

position. we saw it under clinton and under bush. obviously civilians run things. at the same time, generals and admirals are looking for that next star. >> there's some wise generals. civilian control. >> savannah, when you lose "snl" and you're a democratic president, oh boy. >> that was a devastating skit this weekend. what was interesting about it was what are the right complaining about? the left has the real beef. and not helpful. piling on after the olympic defeat and now "snl." what's next? >> you want to know what's next? i'll be wearing that same exact jacket tomorrow morning on "morning joe." >> you will look good. >> thank you for being with us. >> your color. >> coming up -- i don't know what that means. jim cramer talks fallout from

the horrible unemployment numbers. the first-ever hs hybrid. only from lexus. the first-ever hs hybrid. it's not always easy living with copd, but i try not to let it hold me back... whether i'm at the batting cages... down by the lake or... fishing at the shore. i'm breathing better... with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day. it keeps my airways open... to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announcer: spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, or have vision changes or eye pain. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate, as these may worsen with spiriva. also discuss the medicines you take, even eye drops. side effects may include dry mouth, constipation

and trouble passing urine. my doctor said i could be doing more to breathe better and now i am. announcer: ask your doctor about lifestyle changes and once-daily spiriva. 90s slacker hip-hop. ♪ that can strain your relationships and hurt yourody 'cause we'pride ♪ng a ride ♪ ♪ it's the credit roller coaster ♪ ♪ and as you can see it kinda bites! ♪ ♪ so sing the lyrics with me: ♪ when your debt goes up your score goes down ♪ ♪ when you pay a little off it goes the other way 'round ♪ ♪ it's just the same for everybody, every boy and girl ♪ ♪ the credit roller coaster makes you wanna hurl ♪ ♪ so throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em around ♪

♪ like a wanna-be frat boy trying to get down ♪ ♪ then bring 'em right back to where your laptop's at... ♪ ♪ log on to free credit report dot com - stat! ♪ vo: free credit score and report with enrollment in triple advantage. squeeze some savings back into our budget. into our attics and walls. let's locate the original energy source called you and turn that machine up full-blast.

more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. come get 50% more savings on insulation with the new lower price of just $9.37 per roll. someday, the driver will get to choose how efficient or powerful their car will be. the first ever hs hybrid. only from lexus. the most fuel-efficient of all luxury vehicles. welcome back. authorities are holding a suspect accused of secretly recording a nude video of erin andrews. john yang is in chicago with details. >> reporter: the chicago man is due back here in federal court this afternoon after being arrested on federal interstate stalking charges. >> it's no picnic. >> reporter: erin andrews is used to being on camera at big

sporting events and not in the privacy of a hotel room but 47-year-old barrett allegedly used a cell phone to make peeping tom videos of andrews at a hotel room and perhaps in a hotel room in milwaukee when she was covering a major league baseball game. the 33-page criminal complaint says barrett posted the videos on the internet after celebrity website tmz.com rejected his attempt to sell them. the fbi tracked barrett using his e-mails to tmz. barrett's attorney spoke exclusively with nbc news sunday night. >> it's a tough time for his parents and relatives and as it would be for anybody. >> reporter: the fbi alleges that barrett tampered with the peep hole in andrew's hotel room door shortening the length of the eye piece so he could quickly and quietly unscrew it

from the outside using a cell phone to shoot nude videos. he asked specifically for room next to andrews whose identified as individual a. >> this was childish and immature and vicious and criminal. >> andrews says it was a nightmare. she talked about it last month with oprah winfrey. >> having to call my parents and they thought i was physically injured how bad i was screaming. i kept screaming. i'm done. my career is over. i'm done. get it off. get it off the internet. >> reporter: barrett has been ordered to california where the stalking charges were filed. this afternoon a federal judge will decide if barrett goes as a free man on bond or is a prisoner in custody of federal marshals. back to you. >> john yang, thank you so much. time to check in under a different name. that's for sure. "mad money's" jim cramer makes

his return to "morning joe." buckle up. we'll be right back. imagine a whole new life for your hair. aveeno introduces nourish +. a transformation in hair care that harnesses... the power of active naturals wheat complex. we've identified a way to process wheat protein... in formulas that target and repair the weakest parts of hair. a clinical study showed it helps repair damage... in just 3 washes. visit aveeno.com for a free sample. for stronger, shinier... hair with life. aveeno nourish +. that's the beauty of nature and science. because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. choosing your own car? now that's a good call. go national. go like a pro. now that's a good call. when we spend a billion dollars a day buying foreign oil... we don't just waste our money... we put our economy in the hands of hostile nations. we let big oil make record profits...

while we struggle. and we lose new energy jobs, that go overseas. but we can take charge of our economy... by passing strong clean energy legislation. 1.7 million new american jobs. less carbon pollution. and a cleaner america for our children. it's time for clean american energy.

>> one, only 40% has been in place and there's a considerable debate going on in the economics profession about how effective this stimulus package is. and so mainly because of the fact that as broad as it is and effective as it will turn out to be, it's still about 60% left to go so in my judgment it's far better to wait and see how this momentum that's already begun to develop in the economy carries forward. >> we'll talk about alan

greenspan's comments. jim cramer is here. your new book comes out next week. i can't wait. say you greenspan this weekend. this is the guy that has been using cheap money to help us get out of recessions in the past and yet you look at what bernanke is doing, he is doing exactly what greenspan was doing and bernanke is getting praised like greenspan got praised. >> greenspan launched his 1% interest rate during a period when the economy turned out to be quite strong and it was totally unnecessary. bernanke is taking a page from 1936 -- >> you say it was unnecessary. we had one crisis after another

crises after another on wall street and he responded by lowering interest rates. after 9/11 he lowered interest rates. we praised him then. what i'm saying is we have the same economic system now. instead of private debt, we have public debt. but we've got debt and cheap money. how is it different? >> the big difference is that bernanke was faced with a complete meltdown of the world and we're no longer a great power when it comes to finance like we were under greenspan. we depend on chinese. i think that greenspan didn't need to do what he did and got praised incorrectly. bernanke being so forceful doing the right thing trying to resurrect the housing industry after greenspan created a bubble, i cannot be critical of bernanke. i can't be. he's doing a great job. >> a bubble that alan greenspan warned us. how close to a depression?

>> it's a smart column about how close did it come to depression 2.0. >> if we go back to 1931 or '32, we had a bank holiday. we came very close to a permanent bank holiday in november and december of last year. i think that bernanke saved us. it was not paulson that saved us. we did not have a good system intact in the last days of bush. i think that bernanke needs a lot of praise. >> give me $23 trillion to play with which is what congress congressional research with guarantees and give me $23 trillion in guarantees -- >> i can't. your atm machine is going to stop. there was no cash in the system. >> what i'm saying is bernanke was given $23 trillion in guarantees to play around with. and free money. who can't save an economy under those circumstances?

>> it's better to save it than to go down to where we were in '33. you know the truth. the truth is there was no cash in the system. we were faced with a total breakdown. goldman and morgan were about to go under if the federal reserve didn't give them protection. what kind of world is that? there was no one left. >> william wrote the book on the federal reserve writes about alan greenspan that he was blind to the bubbles. there's a piece in the next issue of "the nation" which is a blueprint for the new financial crisis 21st century commission needs to look at. the causes, the speculative bubbles, the deregulatory frenzy that brought us to this crisis. yeah, money was thrown at banks.

the national emergency we face today and this is where alan greenspan is wrong where we don't need a second stimulus, which is unemployment in this country. this is a national emergency. we need to spend more. >> we have to have jobs. >> top five richest families. it was the commission report for -- >> hold on. we need to spend more, joe. in the right way -- >> we have no money. >> we do have money. we're a huge economy. >> we got no money. >> businesses aren't investing. exports aren't working. government is the last resort. when the economy begins to recover, we draw down the debt. until then we need to rebuild this country and we need a 21st works program and -- >> good lord.

>> we have a national emergency in this country. >> we do. >> let me deliver bad news to you. >> are you going praise chinese now? >> i'll deliver bad news to you. we have no money. >> yes, we do. we have money. do you want me to do numbers with you? come on. >> look at the western industrialized world. in most countries the debt to gdp ratio is higher and we can afford it. when we begin to recover, we can draw down the debt. >> you're dreaming. looking at the situation we're in now. look at the demographic bubble that's coming and baby boomers collapsing. in ten years medicare bankrupt. social security bankrupt. the debt that we have to face over the next 10, 20, 30 years is staggering. even the chinese at this point

say no. >> not a good moment. >> we're going to have to borrow this money for the second whatever -- let's let jon speak. go ahead. >> that was 25% unemployment. that was a different era. so even i think -- this is very rare for me to say this. even i think the analogy is in precise. >> that's wrong. the unemployment in this country and underemployment, you're talking about one out of six americans and in parts of this country it's a great depression not a great recession. what do we do? we can't sit here -- you know the danger of politics of resentment and unemployment can lead -- >> the problem is this.

then i'll throw to you, mike. the problem is we're exactly where we were before this crash except we're using public debt instead of private debt. we're using cheap money. we're still not building things. we have got to build things in this country and export things. that's radical but we have to do it. >> it helped a little but not enough. it was too small because president obama wanted too many republicans on. he got seven. we should have done more. >> mike barnicle? >> look. you know what helped? the wpa, that helped a little. there was no sense of community until december 7th, 1941. >> we can't depend on wars. we need other ways out. >> you won't get it for congress. they won't vote you anymore money. >> we need more courage in this country in congress and our political system. >> that's why barnicle is here. . a heart attack caused by a clot,

one that could be fatal. plavix, taken with other heart medicines goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots. ask your doctor about plavix, protection that helps save lives. (female announcer) if you have stomach ulcer or other condition that causes bleeding, you should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines including aspirin, tell your doctor before planning surgery or taking aspirin or other medicines with plavix, especially if you've had a stroke. some medicines that are used to treat heartburn may affect how plavix works, so tell your doctor if you are taking other medicines. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. a rare but potentially life-threatening condition reported sometimes less than two weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. (male announcer) if you take plavix with other heart medicines continuing to do so will help

increase protection against a future heart attack or stroke. feeling better doesn't mean not at risk. stay with plavix. this is a honda pilot. and this is the chevy traverse. it has more cargo space than pilot. and traverse beats honda on highway gas mileage too. more fuel efficient and 30% more room. maybe traverse can carry that stuff too. the chevy traverse americas best crossover. introducing the 60-day satisfaction guarantee. buy a new chevy and if you don't love it, we'll take it back.

(announcer) thanks to our every day low prices halloween costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart.

welcome back to "morning joe." it could be interesting for late night as nbc's peter is outside the sullivan theater. are they expected to hear david address this again today? >> reporter: he said he did not expect to talk about it any more.

one of the employees here at late night has described today as a strange day. the admissions series up a question of unanswered questions, like how many women were involved and did any of the women feel pressured by their boss's advances or were they consensual. >> i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> reporter: it was no joke, david letterman's stunning confession last thursday revealing a story of sex, crime and money. now out on bail, the veteran news producer tried to extort money from letterman. the 51-year-old prosecutors say

he delivered a package to letterman's car last month. he warned the comedian his world is about to collapse around him. >> there is another side. it's not the open and shut case you just heard about. >> reporter: prosecutored say hahe was in debt and desperate. his live-in girlfriend until recently was one of letterman's assistants and a familiar face in late night skitsz. >> this is stephanie doing an impression of her old boyfriend dancing. >> reporter: burke called letterman the greatest boss i could ever have. and letterman did not name any

co-workers last week? >> would it be embarrassing if it were made public? perhaps it would. perhaps it would. especially for the women. >> reporter: now many that were involved with letterman are coming forward. >> now that he admitted to the world that he was having sex with employees they may feel comfortable coming forward now saying we felton comfortable all along. >> reporter: for now, letterman has become the punch line for the other kings of comedy? >> i was shocked he was having affairs. i had no idea he was running for office. >> if you came to have sex you came to the wrong studio! >> reporter: they accuse to the

act as stupid. >> we heard about other former interns and the secret apartment there at the ed sullivan theater. we'll watch that closely. we want to show one clip. hypocrisy. david letterman, here he is. >> she is really upset about it, so she encouraged him to start dating again. >> yeah, clinton has been a punch line for everybody. >> yeah, and a lot, and lately he is still going after bill clinton. you think bill clinton might be smiling at all of this? >> the old axeam, it's funny until it's about you.

>> and also, the old axeam judge not and ye be not judged. [ birds squawking ]

[ moos ] [ man announcing ] if you think about it, this is what makes theladders different from other job search sites. we only want the big jobs. welcome to theladders. a premium job site for only $100k+ jobs and only $100k+ talent.

welcome back to morningjoes. coming up on the top of the hour, we start the great journey across the country. there is las vegas. it's about 5:00 in the morning there. just getting started. and here is the director's choice, houston, texas.

t.j., that's great. a lovely skyline there. that's a beautiful shot, st. louis, missouri. >> the gateway to the west. >> yeah, that's a good word. >> washington, d.c., take it back to the east coast. the president of the united states had a rough weekend, and they are regrouping there. and new york city, looking from across the river in new jersey. i call it the garden state, john. >> do you? welcome back to "morning joe." a lot to talk about. over the weekend the president taking abuse over the loss of the olympics. he went over to get the olympics in chicago, his hometown, and it did not turn out well. we are talking about unemployment numbers released on friday, and obviously going to have impact on elections this year and next. and we have jim cramer with us

from cnbc. and we have john beacham from "newsweek" with us. and then mike barnicle talking about the erin andrews case, talking about stalkers, and it just never gets old. i'm sorry. and then mike, also, i want to talk about how the white house, i think, didn't do the president any favors by letting him get on the plane, and also how talk radio people are not doing conservatives a favor by openly cheering against the united states. >> not a good thing. not a good thing. i don't know whether we will play the clip again, the anger in rush limbaugh's voice, combined with glee.

>> i don't know, but chuck schumer is with us. mika is on assignment, so here is willie with the news. some international forces are staging a new assault on the taliban near the area where eight united states soldiers were killed over the weekend. 16 troops have been killed in afghanistan this month already, matching the death toll for all of last year. and we have jim live. >> reporter: there is good reason for the assault, because they have evidence now that the taliban is behind the deadly attack that killed the eight american soldiers. they say new intelligence indicates that more than one top

taliban commander was killed in the fight. the deadly battle came in the mountainous terrain. it's only 20 miles from the pakistan border. 80 fighters launched a vision attack with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, and fighting so intense med evacuate helicopters could not land to rescue the wounded for several hours. and in the end eight americans were killed, and u.s. military officials claim as 50 enemy dead. >> there was bravery out there and they fought a hard fight and fought it well. >> reporter: top commander told nbc news they had the early advantage because they held the high ground and dug into the

mountainside? >> they had terrain with trees around it and hard to see people. the enemy can use about using that as protection. >> the u.s. military are shutting down from the out post, because the risks already outweigh the positives. mcchrystal is expected to ask the white house for 40,000 additional u.s. forces for his new counter insurgency plan. >> this is going to be a challenge. there is no question. fighting on the frontiers is an easier military task than embedding in the population. >> reporter: an additional tragedy is that those soldiers attacked and killed over the weekend were already made plans and set to close down from the

base and with draw from the valley entirely as of tomorrow. in fact, the tribal elders know that. u.s. military officials are convinced the taliban wanted to launch the attack anyway, and opposition of the war there in the united states has been growing. willie? >> jim, thank you very much. now, we have the author of "the inkraument." he visited pakistan recently. he writes this about his findings.

>> david, last week somebody in the intel community told me good news, we are actually doing better in pakistan. afghanistan not going so well, but all of the horror stories about pakistan that we used to hear, well, we may not hear them so much in the future. did you find the same thing, that we are actually making progress in pakistan against the taliban and al qaeda? >> amazingly enough i did find we were making progress. i had the sense of a country coming apart in april. it was like being in moscow in

1916 on the eve of the revolution. that feeling is really gone. i was up in the swat valley, as you said, and i was just east across the border from where jim's report was set, and i was able to see what a determined army conducting a serious counter insurgency campaign with enough troops can do. in other words, the conditions that general mcchrystal was describing that he would like to see in afghanistan, and finally after botching it over and over and applied in the swat valley, they put in ten times as many troops there has they had in recent months. this offensive came in the summer. by the time i got there, a kind of order that you could see with your own eyes was returning to the parts of the swat valley that you could see. the thing you quoted in the beginning of my piece over the weekend about the young boys and what they are going to show when they go back home, i went to a

facility where young boys who had been taken by the taliban were being rehabilitated by the pakistanie army. and there was a kid, just 15, he came up and took my hand and shook it, and the general next to me, as this boy walked away, he said this boy was being trained to be a suicide bomber. now he is being put back together as a person. he will go home. that's what it looks like. the question that i leave all of you with is, can the united states do that? the pakistanis can do that in their country, and that's not our country. i am worried the tools mcchrystal talks about are not possible for us. >> let me ask you about that situation. because is it not the case also that the pakistanis never really

cared for these arab fighters, if you are talking about al qaeda and others. they would welcome them in and protect them, and if you read larry writes' "glooming tower," you will see a sense of fatigue setting in. and people are saying take your war and get the hell out of our community? >> well, the tribes in the tribal areas of pakistan ended up making deals with osama bin laden as they were pushed out of afghanistan. and they were corrupt deals. and they were blessed by the pakistani government which said that you guys do what you want to the tribal areas. and that's what finally broke down. the pakistani people and the pakistani army this spring as the taliban was spreading and becoming more and more dangerous did say enough is enough.

this is our problem. we have to get serious about it. they fought them in the swat valley over the summer. and talk about a wild and woolly place. and i saw the pakistanis getting ready to go after the tribes that gave safe haven to al qaeda. but the question is how can the u.s. align itself, and more important, our afghanistan allies. it's afghanistan's fight, and not americans. how can those pieces be put together so the region begins to move more in the right direction. >> david, your piece yesterday was about the emergence of the pakistani army. and those of a certain age are handcuffed to history, and i understand that. but i remember years ago a young

marine captain telling me about a particularly difficult few weeks in vietnam that we had to understand the vietnamese did not invite that, we just arrived. i want you to comment on that. were you surprised at last week's comments by general mcchrystal in the public forum when he said we need more troops and anybody that doesn't think so is wrong? >> i think the analogy haunts everybody. we have a weak client in afghanistan, and we have an increasing strong client in pakistan, so people can be encouraged. on the question of mcchrystal, i feel i have been out of the country and i have been watching this from afar in afghanistan, and i feel like he is getting hammered for doing exactly what he was asked to do. they sacked the general there.

he was a veteran general, and there was one problem, he was not aggressive enough. we need more generals like general petraeus. so mcchrystal he does this big review and then tries to do what petraeus taught the generation of offices of what to do, and he tries to make his case as he was asked to, and he gets hammered for it. i think the white house is going both ways on this, and if i have criticism this week it's less for mcchrystal and more for the policy makers in the white house who i think are delaying this and exposing mcchrystal and making mcchrystal the fall guy if i read the last few days' headlines right, and that doesn't sit well with me. >> and whether you want to talk about the stimulus package or health care or going back to the

state legislature, let things come to him and then he tries to sort them out. he may not have that luxury in afghanistan? >> no, he doesn't. and i think as david is saying, i think the review signals that. i interviewed obama in may and i asked him what has been the hardest mow maments so far. and he said without any hesitation and with passion he said 17,000 troops in afghanistan, and went into a long answer about that. you know, nothing -- you talk to anybody that has been president or anybody that has been around presidents, and they say the hardest thing you can do is put somebody else's kid' life in danger. we use the word war when actually we mean counter insurgency. i want to ask david if i could,

is there any lesson from iraq that we can apply at this point to afghanistan. and the surge in iraq did well so therefore surge in afghanistan. and i think people lost track of the progress in iraq, and it's just fallen off the popular radar screen. >> it's a good question, john. i think there are two clear lessons to me. the first is, i think the surge was crucial as much psychologically as in the number of troops. people in iraq became convinced the united states was going to bail out. they were making arrangements to fight the civil war and beat each other up over who was going to control the country, and president bush said we are not out and we are sending new troops. and that had an affect second to

sending the troops. and then what petraeus was good at was working with the tribes and understanding the structure of strib you will ptribal power both issues are really important now for afghanistan. there is a growing feeling in that part of the world that we are on the way out. somehow i think that has got to be stemmed or, in fact, if we are going to pull the plug, let's get it done. that's the first thing. the second thing is learning to work with the tribes is the second thing mcchrystal is arguing. do we have the resources and the capital to do it? i really don't know. >> all right. david ignatius, thank you very much. and coming up, we are going to have jim cramer and ask him

about the unemployment numbers, and how the financial editor will be here. plus a check on business before the bell from mark haines. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ (announcer) thanks to our every day low prices halloween costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart. ok ! ok. whoooa, heyyy ! see, the terms require that you keep the bike within this pre-determined space. if you want to take the bike out, i'm going to have to charge you a penalty. i can't really ride in this little space. you can't ride very far.

even kids know an offer shouldn't come ha, ha, ha... withidiculous conditions. why don't banks ? at ally bank our 9-month no penalty cd gives you a great rate with no fees for early withdrawal. it's just the right thing to do. indulge in endless choices of your favorite shrimp. including new wood-grilled shrimp with a teriyaki glaze. it's endless shrimp -- our best value of the year. now at red lobster. it's endless shrimp -- our best value of the year. boss: ah! thank gecko: what's going on, sir? boss: we're slammed. tons of people interested in all the money they could be saving by switching to geico.. gecko: yeah, 'course. boss: boy, did we miss you last week. that temp wasn't working out at all. exec: took me all morning but i got those quarterly figures for ... you. (hissing noise, gulping) gecko: aw, he ate all my mints. anncr: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

squeeze some savings back into our budget. into our attics and walls. let's locate the original energy source called you and turn that machine up full-blast. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. come get 50% more savings on insulation

we knew employment is the last thing to come back after a recession. we were losing an average of 700,000 jobs each month.

but yesterday's report on job losses is a reminder. >> how can the obama administration turn the tide with chuck schumer talking about the most important things, which is baseball. would you rather beat the angels or red sox? >> i would rather beat the red sox but would rather play the angels. >> they have come together this year? >> yeah, they are a team. for the first time in five or six years, they are not a bunch of rich guys playing together. i give credit to teixeira. >> yeah, and the reason why he can do it, he is playing for the minimum. he did not get paid to come and play for the yankees.

he is the one rich guy that keeps the other rich guys together? >> he is acting like a team player. they are a team like they were when they had o'neal and all of the team guys. jeter always was. >> they are having fun together. >> yeah, they are. >> and democrats are debating on health care, that's what that reminds me of. >> yeah, and we are going to win the series. >> you are having fun debating the public option? >> i think so. here is how you have to look at it. the overwhelming majority of the democrats in the senate are for it. whether we get it or not, there are a number of xcompromises. if you have a conference committee where the house has it strongly, almost rock solid in their bill, and the senate, we could have it in the bill, and then it's done. if we don't have it in the bill, there are 54 and 55, 56

democrats for it. >> the 13-10 vote that you lost. weren't you surprise? >> no. i said you guys don't read the newspapers. i said the day before we are not going to win it, and this is the toughest terrain of all of them. in fact, i was happy because we got the two moderates that we were sure we wouldn't get. bill nelson. max baucus to his credit said i am waiting 60 votes to support it, and he is for it. and blanche lincoln, she has a couple changes and ideas on this. so inside we were all happy. senator rockefeller and myself and the people who were out there, senator kerry had the public option. >> and yeah, that was decidedly in your favor.

people thought they were going to win. demonization of those will work at this point, won't it, senator? >> it's not so much demonization. it's so highly concentrated, no competition. you can't just say we hope and pray the government will stop them from the things they are doing, and that's not how it works. >> are any senators afraid of the white house? fear is a great motivator? >> i would put it the other way. everybody wants to help the white house. here is what we realize in 2010, like it or not, and most people like it, we are tied to obama. if his numbers are poor, we are going to do poorly, and if he does well, we are going to do well. it's not a question of fear. i had my arguments of rahm emanuel, at least as politely as

i can be with the president. and the bottom line is we know that we are tied together. you could go to the democratic senators and i am sure everybody, myself included, we might do it a little differently this way or that way. and united we stand and divided we fall. it's not a question of fear but it's a question of pulling together for the good of the team. >> you are both experts in politics. i am an economic illiterate. i heard senator grassley saying the public option would ruin health care in america because so many people would be attracted to it and private companies would collapse. i am thinking in my mind if so many people would go to the public option, wouldn't that be a good thing and doesn't that mean it works? >> yeah, and doesn't it mean the insurance industry is messing up if nobody likes what they have.

and the study by the luwin group. the health care. they mention that that group is owned by an insurance company. >> a lot of conservatives have the concern, and i certainly have the concern, if you can get more -- if you can get better prices through the federal government, than you can get in the federal market, have you the government doing something that -- they cannot be taking care of the private marketplace, and therefore you have the government making the public option more competitive, and people go into that. >> give me a minute here. this is important. there are some on the left that say medicare for all. the medicare industry would be out of business.

medicare costs are going up, it would be so huge we would be broke. we can't do that. what i propose is a level playing field public option, a competitor, but not somebody with undue advantage. it has to have every criteria for the insurance company. a federal infusion of money at first and then it's on its own. >> we are going to set you up, and not going to bail you out. >> yeah, if you fail, you fail. if you do a better job, like barnicle says, you will get a lot of customers. >> that's what is going to end up in the final bill? >> yeah, with some tweaks. and it's a different model. it doesn't have to make a profit or have to market. >> just like a lot of hospitals. let me ask you this question, too. i think the most that i have learned in this debate, i heard it from robert gibbs, and first time the light bulb went off

over my head. conservatives would say there are 1,300 private health care insurance companies. why don't we, in this bill, tear down all of these barriers, from state to state. so we can have -- if you want a public option, you get your public option, but we get companies that can compete for our business. >> we should do that, but it's not enough. there is an antitrust exemption for insurance. we should get rid of it. that doesn't go through finance committee. and senator leahy introduced a bill possible. and even with an antitrust exemption, do we have a whole lot of oil companies competing, and do we have any big industry, food companies competing. >> yeah, senator, we have more than one. >> fair enough. >> even if we go from having one

in alabama to 10 in alabama, they have to compete for my business, and that means and i both know that prices will -- >> well, one thing we have to agree on is we have to get the costs down. it's going up, up, up, up. why? very simple. because we are not paying for it. my doctor says to me you need an mri triple something or other, and then i am not paying for it and neither is he. we need to limit the cost and try many things to do that without hurting the patients. competition is the way to go. public option is the best in my opinion, but there are other ways, too. we should do all of them. try them all. there is 94% of the insurance markets are called by the justice department highly concentrated. >> not good. >> tigers or twins? >> i would go for the twins.

>> my sentiment is with detroit. >> we just need a public option, i think. >> what is that? >> we need a public option, i think? >> you are just editorial-like. >> the cyankees are the public option! >> oh, the wild card will take care of that. >> i had to have two people explain the whole wild card thing to me. >> senator chu, thank you very .

welcome back to "morning joe." mika is on assignment this morning, so i will take you through some of the top stories. international forces are staging a new assault on the taliban near the area where eight u.s. soldiers were killed over the weekend. 16 united states troops have been killed in afghanistan already this month already, matching the death toll for all of last october. and then the suicide bomber attacked the u.n. agency in was

laum baud. pray vaccines will be available in some states today. there are confirmed swine flu cases in all 50 states. coming up next, the political round table with our financial advisor, she will join us here at the table. and then the republican candidate and former congressman, pat tumey. we'll be right back on "morning joe." it's gmc truck month. shop sierra 1500 slt with the 403 horsepower 6.2 liter v8. it's the most powerful half ton v8 in its class. step up to the best. it's gmc truck month. get 0% apr for 60 months on 2009 gmc sierra

or get $6,000 total cash back on select 09 sierra 1500 extended and crew cabs in stock. see your gmc dealer today. really bad. then we learned that a flu shot can reduce the risk of getting the flu by up to 70%. we got our flu shots at cvs pharmacy. best thing we ever did. yes, indeed. [ laughs ] come in to get a flu shot today and get a $100 coupon book just for stopping by. go to cvs.com to find a flu shot location near you. cvs pharmacy. ♪ [ female announcer ] arthritis targets your body where it's weak. where it's vulnerable. ♪ tylenol arthritis works with your body to block the pain, without interfering with certain high blood pressure medicines like aleve sometimes can. ♪ so you don't just feel better,

you feel better knowing doctors recommend tylenol more than any other brand of pain reliever.

how do you think the left feel? they are the ones that should be mad. i am sure they thought i would have addressed at least one of the things by now.

torture prosecutions? nope. so looking at the list, i am seeing two big accomplishments. jack and squat. i have a few accomplishments. the cash for clunkers program really stimulated the economy. unfortunately, it was the economy of japan. time for the political round table. and pay toomey, the candidate for the united states senate running in the pennsylvania republican primary. a new book "a road to prosperity, how to grow the economy and revive the american dream." the president cannot win for loosing. >> it's hard to be a socialist and fashist all at once. >> he is apparently doing it.

read the blogs. >> he is basically in the right place on a lot of issues. i sort of admire, and maybe it's going to turn out to be wrong, but i admire his apparent ability to stay a step away from the cycle. >> do you really? >> did andrew jackson have that skill? >> no, he would try to kill people, as you know. >> what great president has ever succeeded? >> ronald wilson reagan. >> that's not true. i am talking about, if you elect me, i will cut your taxes -- >> i am not talking about doing nothing. i am talking about he thinks that he can manage this. i think that he is doing a moderately good job. >> by saying doing nothing, i don't mean doing nothing, but sitting back and letting congress shape my agenda.

ronald reagan did not do that. and the big thing is how people out of work are going to be -- unemployment is up to 9.8%. this economy is not turning around, is it? >> no, not at all. in the papers today, years and years before jobs come back. we are looking at decades until people have the ability to get back to where we were in 2006 in the beginning of 2007. and people are voting their pocket books. >> we are not going to get back there. we are pushing the reset button. we have an economy fueled by consumism in the future? >> no, absolutely not. consumers learned the lesson they have to have money saved. and whether or not the government goes out to tell them whatever stimulus dollars or tax refunds they are happening to get, they are not listening any more. and to which to them i say, by

the way, good for them. the question is, where are the jobs going to come from. >> and that's a question, pay toomey, my question to you is, when you go border to border in pennsylvania in a huge state, at some point during the course you have to pass mills and plants and factories that are ghost towns. what do you tell people about the next two or three years? >> well, i think part of the problem that we got into is too much borrowing and spending. the idea the federal government will get out of it by massive increases by borrowing and spending. all kinds of new taxes, there are no way that could work. we make our companies more competitive is what could work. we have one of the highest corporate tax systems in the world. and we tolerate litigation on a level almost nobody else does. the stimulus bill, and instead of the government spending, we

cut payroll taxes for workers and companies. every employer finds it less expensive to hire the next worker. that would be a more constructive policy. >> john, i quoted you in a book i wrote this last summer. one of the gate ironies of barack obama's plan is he is responded to a crisis brought on by too much borrowing and spending by even more borrowing and spending. we had a discussion this morning about a second stimulus package, spending more. do we have the money to do this? >> no, we don't. >> okay! >> that's fairly straightforward. no, i don't think so. i think that -- and we have two men that have been in the arena. if you take one step back, what -- if you are behind that desk on day one, when you had the crisis that began in the middle of september, cascading towards january, and you come in

as president of the united states, do you all not think that he made or has made a series of decisions that while you can disagree on the merits, are basically in keeping with his personality? >> let me answer that, first of all, and then we will let the guests answer. no. i talked about ronald reagan again. just like you can talk about lvj. it's the big idea. barack obama came out, and he should have been like fdr, we are going to shore up the banks and protect the deposits, and get everybody back to work. what has he done? he has been distracted by cap and trade. and getting in the health care debate. mike barnicle said this when obama was at 70%. he should focus on three issues. jobs, jobs, jobs. he has been so distracted.

pay toomey, the big idea, get america back to work. now, you tell me what is pay toomey going to do? what is the republican plan to get america back to work? >> first of all, a lot of the proposals have not been enacted yet. the stimulus has been approved but the money is not out the door. and i think we should have a payroll tax holiday for an extended period of time. cut the capital gains tax and encourage more investment and mor mo more entrepreneurial activity. >> and then all the regulations, i would worry it would take the latter. >> well, i agree with you as far as small businesses are concerned. if you look at where the goods

have come over the past decades is small business, and small business, and they can't get the money. we have to do something to foster additional growth? >> there is no credit out there from what i hear. >> not for small businesses. they are having a heck of a time. >> all right. pay toomey, are you going to win, by the way? >> i am. it looks great. >> is arlen specter going to win the democratic primary? >> i would be surprised if he does not. >> it's looking strong. >> thank you for having me. great to be here. up next, the washington correspondent takes us inside the walls of the white house at the height of the economic crisis. boy, it was ugly in there. we will tell you about that when "morning joe" returns. (announcer) what the world needs now is energy.

the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges

like climate change. what if that energy, came from an energy company. every day, chevron invests $62 million in people. in ideas. seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world, to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron.

this is humiliating. stand still so we can get an accurate reading. okay...um...eighteen pounds and a smidge. a smidge? y'know, there's really no need to weigh packages under 70 pounds. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. cool. you know this scale is off by a good 7, 8 pounds. maybe five. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. [screeching] [dejectedly] oh. [screeching]

[barks] (man) if you think about it, this is what makes the ladders different from other job-search sites. [screeching] we only work with the big talent. [all coughing] welcome to the ladders-- a premium job site for only $100k-plus jobs and only $100k-plus talent. with us now from washington, d.c., washington correspondent, ryan speech's story inside the crisis. and larry summers could be read. with unemployment around 10%. the administration is left arguing that not that jobs are being created, but without obama's policies it would be worse. it's not a pithy slogan.

they laid the ground work for the political backlash against obama that was unleashed this last august. and obama and his team have pulled the economy back from the abyss, but they will get credit only when it has been rebuilt. ryan, thank you for being with us. take us inside the white house at some of the darkest moments during this economic crisis when larry summers and others believed we could be falling off a clip? >> yeah, before the break -- first of all, thank you for having me on. you said it was ugly. i don't know if i think it was ugly. if it was ugly, i did not know if it was -- >> we were talking about larry summers eating habits. >> that's not very nice. what i tried to do with the piece is point out the three big decisions this president had to make during the transition and in the early spring, and that's

what to do about the banks and about the car companies, and how big to make this stimulus to jump-start the economy. the piece takes you through some of the decision making on the three decisions and focuses on larry summers, and to the lesser extent the head of the council advisers, and tim geithner over at treasury. and, look, i think that if you look at the criticism on those three big decisions, one of the stimulus -- it wasn't big enough. on the banks, a lot of people thought they should nationalize the banks and they were not bold enough when they did that. and on the out auto industry, they thought it would harm the capitalism. i don't think anything that was said from the harshest critics

have said would happen. >> the question of the second stimulus has come up. where do you think we are headed on that? >> well, look, i don't think the white house is ever going to come out and say we are proposing a second stimulus and here are the items in the second stimulus. the word stimulus is poison now politically in washington. so what you are going to see, you are going to see unemployment benefits extended. you are going to see different parts of the original stimulus bumped up. when something looks like it's affective, and able to get through congress, they will champion it. one example is the cash for clunkers program. that was a stimulus program. it turned out to be wildly popular, and the administration decided to extend that. so i think in those areas, they will continue a stimulus program without using the phrase?

>> mike barnicle? >> as usual, great reporting. you have larry summers, and he is sitting at a table and desperate for caffeine, looking for a soft drink and the governor there and then it gets to the question, and first fr all, larry gets the drink, and then the question comes up with the shelf life for larry summers? how is his abrasiveness working in the white house mou? >> summers' story is fascinating, to the extent this is a guy that left washington in 2000, and 2001, and he goes to harvard and really, you know, i think to be charitable, he does not succeed at harvard, and he has to reinvent himself. a few years later this guy is back at the white house and the

most important economic advisor to the president. so the story gets into how that happens, that sort of great narrative. look, i think the white house was clear-eyed about his strengths and weaknesses. he has a long record, and it was easy for obama to know what he wanted out of larry and what he didn't want out of him. i think they set up a bureaucracy to make sure they were getting the best out of him and not the worse. somebody said what obama wanted from larry summers was his brain. but over the years, he has had some slips when it comes to managerial issues. >> you went so deep inside. where did you find the greatest tension? what two people or two

departments are really at odds? >> what i think obama has done is set up some sort of power centers on the economic team so that no one person dominates the team. have you a fairly empowered council of economic advisers. and so christy romer, she steps up and they are doing math and economics, and she is important. geithner and summers go at it over the stress test. and geithner, it took him a lot of work to convince the white house that he was on the right track with the plan. on the stimulus, it was a very important debate between summers at the nec over how big to go. in the end they decided not to go as large as some wanted him

to? >> was it summers urging restraints? >> i think the political advisers thought there was no way to get anything bitter than what they got. there was an argument about the deficit. >> brian, thank you so much for your piece. a great, great story. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today. good monday morning. i am meteorologist, bill karins. we have some story weather out there today but also some nice weather. from boston, i-95 to philly and washington, d.c., it should be a nice day. and showers, very cool in atlanta. right through south carolina, and the west is looking great.

to help you get the best price. how do you do that? with a touch of this button. can i try that? [ chuckles ] wow! good luck getting your remote back. it's all right -- i love this channel. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. choosing your own car? now that's a good call. go national. go like a pro. now that's a good call. i ard about him from all the other girls. we were working at the same company. and she was something else. announcer: take care of each other, and your health. with nature made cholestoff. cholestoff helps lower ldl cholesterol, the bad kind, naturally, by using the same types of phytonutrients found in nuts, grains, fruits, and vegetables. he makes me laugh. he still does, but it's nice. announcer: learn how to lower your cholesterol, naturally, at cholestoff.com.

welcome back. i don't care if you would not pulitzer prize or not, okay, when you are in our classroom, you will play by our rules, okay. >> i am sorry. i didn't know. >> by the way, if i could just say, senator schumer owes us an apology. he said we don't read newspapers. i read the sports page every day. >> yeah, page six every day. >> and i got a editorial about the baseball, and lady gaga. >> i learned that the governor of michigan almost died as larry summers tried to get a soft drink away from him. >> i learned there is a lady gaga coming. >> what have you learned? >> i learned even, economists,

not just women, reinvent themselves. >> i learned gene is writing a book on economics. can i say it -- >> yeah. >> it's for kids. it will not only help my kids, but it will help everybody. willie, if it's way too early -- look who is over there. >> by the way, i also learned joe, it's good to have you back. it's "morning joe," but right now it's time for the "morning meeting" with dylan ratigan. on the agenda this morning, an ambush in afghanistan killing eight american soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks in more than a year. all of this after the debate rages at home on what to do with the afghan war. from yes we can to no he can't.