we said too much already. time for one e-mail. alex, what are they saying? >> i don't understand how you get up for the show when he could never make an early class at vandy. >> did take finger painting at 4:00 p.m. and got flat bs. "morning joe" starts right now. >> many people feel that you will become chief of staff. if you are offered the j job -- you are laughing -- if you are offered the job, will you take it? >> let's slow down a minute.

what i said at the beginning in terms of what i do, i love my job. i would like to do what i'm doing. it's such a luxury -- >> will you take the job, if offered? >> i'm just saying, i want do what i'm doing. >> welcome to "morning joe." valerie jarrett, of course the newest star of "the view." she will be leaving the white house and sitting next to barbara. that's exciting. possibility of valerie jarrett chief of staff. >> she didn't seem to be completely interested in the job. she said she loves her job. >> she has the president's ear. >> yeah. >> she could work on "the view" and still have the power. who's going to be the next chief of staff? is valerie in line for that? >> valerie will be at our health challenge thursday. >> will she stretch before and after? >> i don't know. she will be on the show. she will exercise democrats and

republicans alike. >> we want to do this because we all have our interests. mika is health. mine is bipartisanship, bringing people together that aren't usually together. >> thank you. >> whatever. >> it's just going to be me. >> cinnamon rolls in one hand, smoking cigarettes in the other and a gavel cart. >> you will not be in a golf cart. >> i appreciate you letting me do this. >> i respect her. i appreciate you wearing a jets jersey even after they humiliated them semifinals. you're wearing jets red, i'm proud of you. >> jets green. >> how long -- i'm telling you -- i like the jets. this is not -- i said this and a lot of people said this, willie geist, no nfl football team has ever set themselves up for a bigger fall than the new york jets. >> a lot of talk about the super bowl, hard knocks, the whole

thing, photo shoots, lay low. >> what are you doing, guys? you're in new york city. >> you should do an interview with mark sanchez. it appears they had the same problem they had last year. they have a good defense but they cannot score any points. >> again, just shut-up and play football. i love the jets. the first super bowl i remember, '69, joe namath. i went around in a jets uniform as a young kid in georgia. i love the jets, always had an emotional attachment to them. right there, see that hit, seriously? everybody is out to do that to the jets, all year, because they've been shooting their mouths off, been playing rock stars on hbo, a huge mistake. i love the coach. >> ray lewis said that before the game, i'm tired of hearing about these guys. he played like it last night. >> he did. everybody will want to do that. you're still wearing your jets green. >> i planned it that way. >> i just hope they shut up and

play football. >> i know. it's true. >> you have no idea what i'm taking about. >> i just heard what you last said and i agree. we have the game change boys. nbc "time" magazine political analyst, mark halpern. guess who's on the show today? >> who? >> former prime minister tony blair. >> that's exciting. >> he has a new book out making waves. >> we will talk to him about football as well. >> yes. >> mark, you didn't answer my question, who is the next chief of staff. >> whatever the result of mid-terms, big changes at the white house if rahm doesn't run for chicago. >> how did that poll come back? do you know the results? >> mixed. >> he has to take a leap. the challenge he would have running for mayor is big enough

no poll however well done, the outcome at the race, to build support and whatever candidates emerge, he will take a risk. >> john, a good word. >> very good word. >> one we should all use today. >> like turning starbucks products into gold. >> or sand. >> i think it is. another great story from the west coast we will be talking about in a little bit. bill clinton, somehow managing to get right smack-dab in the middle of that california gubernatorial campaign. he's not even trying. this guy, jerry brown and bill clinton, these guys just hate each other and impacting that race. >> here's my guess, although bill clinton is now in the middle of that race spiritually, my guess is physically,

corporately, he may not be at jerry brown's side campaigning on his behalf before november 2nd. >> jerry brown, i forgot this, he refused to endorse bill clinton in 1992, after clinton had locked down the nomination. >> it's true. >> jerry brown, the first guy to bring up whitewater. jerry brown, a guy that bill clinton, just to set the back story, remember the '92 debate, where clinton gets read -- how dare you attack my wife? before we get to the news. >> it's primary day -- >> hold on. i got you guys some gifts, really quickly. >> oh. >> tuscaloosa. this is tailgating in tuscaloosa, for willie geist. >> i love it. >> we may not win them all but we've never lost a party. this is for willie geist. >> that's great, actually, i like it. >> then i have this for chris.

since he's in the control room. >> that will wash him out. >> i will give this to halpern. they love this in the upper west side. the alabama crimson tide, collegiate sports. a lot of bass fishing going on in the upper west side. this is for mika, who lies all the time about having a pickup truck and says she doesn't have a pickup truck, i thought i would give her a t-shirt that has a pickup truck. the most reliable things in life, my dogs, my truck, my team, mika will be wearing this around westchester county. >> look at those puppies. >> they're big. >> have a pickup truck. it is not red, it is white. >> whatever. >> a 1993 ford 150. i love it! do you dare me to wear this for the rest of the show. >> so what do you think? >> so, anyway -- >> may i please do the jerry

brown story? >> this week, spoon play last night of montreal's plane. >> friday night. >> i will get you tickets to vampire week. i've already got those. >> can we skip my event this weekend so i can go see vampire weekend? >> i forget what the event is. >> we'll talk about it later. >> mika are you going to see jay-z and eminem tonight at yankees stadium? >> no. >> speaking of the yankees, what's going on, man? >> the yankees are in trouble. >> i will do news now. >> no pitch except the last man. >> they live in like a concrete bowl down there. >> can we talk about eminem. >> this has happened to chris -- >> the entourage the other night, the best cameo ever. >> it was the best cameo ever. >> for people that said entourage, seriously, it was like too fluffy, not this season. i swear, we're going to get to news after this.

i have to say this, though. mad men this season is just stunning. >> off the hook. >> it is. i've been a fan from the first season, from the first show, some amc people sent them over early and this season's mad men, i know you don't watch anything in pop culture. >> i don't have time. it's good you all do. >> is this amazing? the development of don's chats this season is stunning. i have no words for it. i have no words for that and chris said i have no words for the news. let's get to news. >> could you read the first line off the prompter? >> off the hook. >> those first two words. >> i'm sorry. >> there you go. that's what california gubernatorial candidate jerry brown is saying to bill clinton, responding on sunday to a campaign ad his opponent meg

whitman released, one that used bill clinton's words in the 1992 proposal campaign against him. brown attacked clinton nearly as much as he did whitman. >> she stops at nothing. she's even got clinton lying about me. that's right. no. did you see that? where he said i raised taxes, to lie. so the "new york times" -- the "l.a. times." they'll say anything and that's why we have to have our own truth squad to get the word out. okay? i mean, clinton's a nice guy but whoever said he always told the truth? >> you remember, right? there's that whole story there about did he or didn't he? okay. i did, i did not have taxes with this state. so let's be clear about that. thank you very much. >> the camera found quite an inventi invention. credit where due. you know where that first appeared? >> where? >> halpern.

>> at 1:40 a.m., he e-mailed me. i had the ticker tape and suddenly, this thing came flashing. >> brown is now pulling back from that criticism. >> this could be actually the macaca moment. >> and his issue as governor of california which he was when willie was not yet bipartisan maybe. barely. >> whitman will continue to drive that issue as brown is someone that will raise taxes in california. the clinton personality stuff is getting a lot of attention. there's a real issue here. >> here's really interesting thing, if you want to really dig down in there. so bill clinton, when he brought this up in the '92 debate, that jerry brown raised taxes, he said, you don't have to listen to me, listen to cnn, right? listen to cnn. that gave him the credibility. as the "l.a. times" reported, the cnn story that bill clinton

quoted in 1992 was wrong! so jerry brown didn't raise taxes the way cnn said in 1992, he raised tax, the way bill clinton said in 1992, that he raised tax, but here he is 18 years later, still sort of haunted by an inaccurate cnn report. but, again, as we all know, that just doesn't matter at this point. the facts don't matter at this point. >> think it's interesting he's apologizing. this is his quote. bill clinton was an excellent president. >> no, actually -- could i stop for one second? in 1998, he said bill clinton's policies were disastrous. in '98 -- i'm sorry, go ahead. he changed his mind. >> it was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago and i'm sorry. the big issue here is that meg whitman is running an ad featuring president clinton she knows to be false. i've made my share of mistakes

and inappropriate joke about president clinton is one of them. why is it inappropriate? but from me, you'll always get the truth. i think that's interesting, actually, he made a monica lewinsky joke and had to apologize for it. the joke is true. it's an a widely known joke. >> it's ugly. even republicans that were there at the impeachment don't want to talk about that right now. that's an ugly chapterin american history. for jerry brown to bring it up in any circumstances is going to turn off a hell of a lot of independent -- who wants to talk about monica lewinsky. this is going to hurt him. >> it will also hurt running for a lot of democrats, very popular figures in the democratic party. in a year like this, you need to drive democratic turnout. this is basically an interfamily feud here that raises up a lot of the spector of discord in the democratic party, not going to

motivate a lot of democrats to be on jerry brown's side when he needs them the most. >> whether it works or not is one issue. really, was it that bad? >> it's in bad taste. >> okay. i thought it was in bad taste what the president actually did. >> he got him peached for it, okay? that was a long time ago and why bring it up now. >> okay. >> you said when this first came out that mika's a moral skirt. >> no, i'm not. >> you said when this first came out, it's over, let it go. >> okay. >> anyway, you said when this first came out, this tape, if this was like the knock-out punch, over, tko -- >> brown is -- he's governor and been around forever. for a lot of california voters he's not defined meg whitman as tens of thousands dollars the spends in the last 40 plus days, he can't waste a day fighting with the most revered figure in the democratic party. his record, she's defining him

very effectively with this ad. >> to your macaca point, it's amazing how disciplined you have to be in the modern media world, you cannot act impulsively, you cannot say what comes to your mind instantly because there's a camera in the room and it could change the course of your political career. >> jerry brown shows up unannounced at the democratic headquarters, hey, guys, how you doing? you don't realize, this guy's running 24 hours a day, going non-stop, goes in, makes a little joke, somebody has a camera phone in the back and suddenly, this is the defining moment of his campaign. >> on top of that, real quickly, when is meg whitman, the inexperienced candidate going to make a mistake, jerry brown wo has all the experience in the world tripping over his own feet. meg whitman performing quite well. >> let's face it. he looked a little unhinged. it did not seem like he was going to be the governor of california, looks like he was

running for the mayor of oakland. >> okay! >> also, he doesn't like bill clinton. actually, he hates bill clinton and now he's got bill clinton's word from 1992 still chasing him 18 years later in a report that was untrue. i'm sure he's very angry. >> if i may try not to look like a moral skirt here, i have heard countless clinton jokes come out of probably every single one of your mouths. >> not mine. >> oh, pl-ease. that's so hypocritical. >> not mine. >> and suddenly, they're okay, not okay. please. >> i do make roger clinton jokes. maybe it was roger clinton. >> up next, an exclusive first look at the top stories in the political playbook. >> santa claus. >> the santa claus. is that it? >> i saw that movie. >> where vince vaughn had to be

santa claus. >> no. fred clause. >> that was a good christmas movie. >> i don't get it. >> in a few minutes, he's considered washington's political star. we will bring in a mayor who's fighting for his job today and the jets get roughed up in a dramatic game in kansas city that finished just a few minutes ago. first, we're watching two hurricanes in the tropics and here's bill karins with the latest. that was like an f15 flying by. two tropical storms out there, igor and julia. julia won't affect anybody. and the hurricane center has this forecast almost going straight for bermuda over the p upcoming weekend. it's right now category 4 and weakton category 2.

we will see large waves rolling through sunday to tund neesday week. sunny and nice, temperatures upper 70s to low 80s. the rest of the country, nice and simple. unless you're kansas or missouri, you will be drew ay a warm texas to florida.

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♪ there'll be cheers on wall street, that's logistics ♪ ♪ when technology knows ♪ right where everything goes, that's logistics ♪ ♪ bells will ring, ring a ding ♪ ♪ ring a ding, ring a ding, that's logistics ♪ ♪ there will be no more stress ♪ ♪ cause you've called ups, that's logistics ♪ sup finley. look at that. new york city, from the top of the rock. let's look at the morning papers at 21 past the hour.

"los angeles times," netanyahu's embrace of talks keeps israel guessing, whether he will make a deal with the palestinians or just going through the motions to apiece the u.s. d.c. mayor, adrian finley, challenger to vincent gray. he will be on the show today. >> and cuba to lay off state workers in attempt to shift the economy towards a free market system. >> really? do we start building casinos now? >> it's coming. >> all my friends who have been to cuba, let me say a good republican from florida, i'm shocked and stunned anybody would go to cuba but i hear it's great. i hear the beaches are great. >> italians are there. we have catching up to do.

>> i hear the beaches are great. >> the rum flows freely. >> "usa today." >> you want to go to cuba? >> sure. i love traveling. >> not until freedom is once again stamped on that land. but when it is. >> let me do this one. "usa today" -- the earnings gap between men and women has shrunk to a record low, partly because of the recession. men have been losing jobs at a faster rate than women because of troubles in manufacturing and construction and other industries and also becau because -- we make more. >> we're being oppressed. here's news you may not want to hear. >> my lord. >> hand sanitizers, like germ-x. there's new research out that says they will rot the skin off your hands -- no, that's not true. they really don't do anything. >> that's correct. i think they probably end up hurting the situation. that's my gut.

the "new york times" front page photo, mika, you were there, right? >> nadal celebrating. amazing, the last major title that had eluded him. very excited. just for part of it. he was fabulous. are you jealous? >> it's great. >> with us now, the executive editor of "politico," jim. >> how you doing? >> we're doing great. every time we have a political insider come in here, they mention the name mitch daniels, mitch daniels in 2012. watch out for mitch daniels, the indi indiana governor holding high powered secret meetings. what's he up to? >> apparently he has. a number of businessmen donors have been meeting with him privately to talk about a proposal run. he's not saying he will run but wants to talk about his ideology

and what he's doing in indiana and expose himself to people who have money and be a big factor in a campaign. a piece in the last week or so looking at the relationship with daniels and barber. a lot of people think one or the other will probably end up running. a lot of people walk away from daniels saying he's not all that electric of a personality and always impressed with this intellect what he's done in indiana so when the establish. looks for a candidate, they will look at daniels. >> you're writing a book. do you expect mitch daniels to be a character in the book? >> he will be. he and barber will play a big role. they are the big pieces out there, their decisions whether to run or not are the big pending issues. daniels, this strategy is a lot like what bush did in '99 and 2000, have front porch strategy, people interested come to him

rather than him having to go out and court people. he is the candidate of a lot of establishment people including the two bushes and cheney really are all interested having daniels run. >> what mark says may seem odd to viewers. both daniels and barber don't score very high in polls. often in the single digits. if you look at who has access to money and people and who understands politics and understands how to merge all this enthusiasm on the right with the establishment part of the republican party, those two are front and center and why they're both so attractive as po essential candidates or potential king makers in that race. >> that's interesting. >> and jim's democrats head into the mid-terms and support for their idea how to handle tax policy. who's backing them up on that? >> they will get a briefing from sam, a democrat, who says they like where there at pushing the

tax relief plan and democrats opposing the tax cuts for the wealthy. they will make an argument, pelosi will back it and democratic leaders will back it and they should plow ahead with this because voters want to see motion and think it will help them at least with independent voters and looks like they will have a serious move on it at least on taxes and then what they will do when the bush cuts are set to lapse. >> raise taxes. democrats raise taxes. let's see how that works out. >> see you guys later. >> see you. >> go ahead, willie. >> unemployment, 15%. >> raise taxes, go ahead, make my day. >> there's a new connecticut poll out, mcmahon against

blumenthal. >> a lot of numbers to show you on this tuesday. new video comes out of that gas explosion that leveled almost an entire california neighborhood. also monday night football double-header and in kansas city, jets do nothing on offense. we'll try to find offense when we come back.

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you know, that running remind me of your bipartisan health -- >> are you going to run like that? we will do the show live on the national mall, this thursday, the countdown begins on "morning joe"'s bipartisan health challenge. thank you so much for letting me do this. willie, so sweet of you, thank you, boys for coming along. >> she tells us what to do and she says, thank you for letting her do this? >> this is not consensual. >> we will be there with a bullhorn. >> you have to be encouraging. >> i will have a six-pack. >> i will be doing something different that day, i will be

running my mouth. like that never happened. >> running again in santa monica. we'll look at that. this is somebody that run nine miles a day. i haven't like lifted my leg that high since 1984. >> this run is going to be a walk. it's not a race. it's going to be fun, in washington, beautiful morning. a lot of great folks are coming from both sides of the ale. i'll put you in a baby jogger. >> a red wagon. >> will you be there? >> i will be there. >> so exciting. my gosh, thank you. please don't wear shorts, either of you. >> no shorts? >> i have like -- seriously? do you see those basketba basketball -- see those old basketball, like 1972, they wear the gym shorts? i have them up to here and i have tube socks. >> i want to wear a 1920s bathing suit. >> a mental image. well, thank you very much. it looks like a good crowd.

>> robert gibbs is going to be there. >> we'll see how he does. >> the winstons. >> it's great. he's scared to come. >> reggie love? >> yes. he says he couldn't run it. >> i said it's a walk. >> i played basketball at duk >> seriously. >> i know. >> make it about his manhood. >> i challenge you. i have and he still said he didn't think he could do it because it might be too far. >> seriously? >> bring a red wagon for him. >> should i not call him out? >> not sure you should be calling reggie a scardy cat. >> a long distance race? >> don't even try. we have new video out of california showing the deadly pipeline explosion in san bruno that killed four people and left four others missing, still. meanwhile, pg&e, the owner of the pipeline is setting aside a

million for those involved in the disaster. and president obama heads to philadelphia today to deliver a second back to school speech of his presidency. unlike last year, this speech is getting little to no national attention. according to a text released by the white house last night, the president will tell students, quote, your life is what you make of it and nothing, absolutely nothing is beyond your reach. last year, obama gave a similar television pe talk at wakefield high school in arlington but that speech sparked controversy before hand as critics suggested children were being fed propaganda. >> interesting footnote on that story. a guy that covered it for a while, jim greer?

is he is prison or on his way? >> maybe pending. >> i read the st. petersburg times last night, saying he apologized for criticizing this speech yesterday, saying barack obama wanted to indoctrinate america's children and make them socialists. >> last year, when he was the high flying chairman of florida, he was the national figure, demonizing the president's attempts to turn all our school children into readers of mao's little red book. >> he backed off of that. >> and put in the corner with dunce caps. >> he apologized and said -- >> glenn beck backed off calling the president a racist. >> that's a good thing. >> my theory, jim greer is an ally. my theory is the republicans are trying not to make a big deal of it this year because they want to talk about the economy and don't want anything to distract. >> he's not an evil socialist. an evil socialist would be far

more effective, the maneuvers of washington d.c. >> he's an ineffectual friendly socialist. >> he's not a socialist. >> sports. >> sports heals. >> it brings us together. >> willie, for just three hours, we are all one nation. >> the good people of louisiana. >> let's make it about mark sanchez. >> last night, ray lewis, the ravens taking on rex ryan and the jets. rex ryan was the defensive coordinator, loves all those guys. a little action before the game, ellis and lewis in a fight, ellis has the ball thrown at him and picks it up and throws it right back at him. a lot of that defense. ellis with the sack and fumble recovery, just got out to an early 6-0 lead.

ravens up 7-6 in the half. in the fourth, no offense for the jets. sanchez gets sacked here. watch ray lewis on this play. >> boom! >> stop talking. >> shut-up and play football. >> the last chance on fourth down. a chance to get infield goal range. need a first down, the receiver steps out a half yard shy of the first down. >> the hbo camera was on that side of the first down marker, if he went to the other side, he would obstruct the view. >> he was miked up. >> ravens win 10-9. jets, 10 for 21 passing, a number of first downs, tied for the fewest in history. >> and now isn't it time to shut-up, shut the hell up and play football now. shut-up. they're a good team. >> sanchez, not a high qb

rating. >> he has to learn how to throw the ball. >> kass and san diego, they gotten an early touchdown and chargers responded. takes it in twice for a 56 yard touchdown. chargers with a long punt to kansas city's dexter mccluster. he will break some ankles on this play. >> overkicked the coverage. >> let's see how the punter does. he's just competitive. 94-yard return. chiefs up 21-7 at the half. in the fourth, chargers did have a chance to tie the game, down by a touchdown. philip rivers uncharacteristically sailing one. this would have tied the game. chiefs beat the chargers, 21-14. mika, this one is for you. >> all right. >> rained out sunday, u.s. open finals pushed back to mond. rafael nadal looking to complete a grand slam.

djokovic has some anger problems. he slammed his racket. >> on the shoes and now bust one up on the ground here. >> oh, my. >> breaking his racket. nadal frustrates people. >> match serve, against djokovic. nadal becomes the owner of the grand slam and only seven other men in history have done that, he improves to the top nine of all time and now within roger federer's record. >> it was great to be there. he's a good guy. >> i'm told he is. >> roger federer crying all the time, loses once every decade and nadal is all class. rays in first place ahead of

the yankees. they lost 7 of their last 8. >> what's wrong with them? >> they need pitching and hitting. other than that, they're doing great. >> mayor adrian fenty next. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 what if every atm was free? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more $2, $3 fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no more paying to access your own money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it'd be like every atm in the world was your atm. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the schwab bank high yield investor checking(tm) account. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 zero atm fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 a great interest rate. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no minimums.

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so skin can replenish itself. everyone knows a fee is a tax. you raised some taxes during that period, particularly the property tax as well as a lot of fee increases. as you know, there's a big difference between fees and taxes. but...they're the same. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. there's a big difference between fees and taxes. fees and taxes are one in the same. if it comes out of my pocket, it's a tax. now he says it isn't true. we didn't raise taxes. what? still doing the same thing, paying out more money. typical politician. definitely.

it's 44 past the hour. a new quinnipiac poll just released shows richard blumenthal leads linda mcmahon 51% to 45%. >> are you surprised? >> am. this is the first poll since the primary, back in january, mcmahon trailed blumenthal by 31 points in a poll. >> what's happened? >> had dinner in connecticut with a couple of friends and actually, a republican

strategist, who would be surprised by that as well. >> have you guys been following? >> she's run a good campaign. her ads are good, she's spending a lot of money and national republicans don't think this is like a great chance for them to win but they think democrats will have to spend a lot of money in connecticut to save the seat and will take money away from the other competitive races. >> if states like connecticut and california and washington state are in play, by the end of october, it's just horrible for democrats because money will be diverted. it's just going to be -- that's a bad scenario in connecticut for democrats, right? >> ike. yeah. >> so blumenthal, i mean, he's been around for 20 years? >> forever. >> he's always been respected. did he just pick the yong year to stick his head out? >> he's never faced the -- his appearance on this show was

critical for a lot of democrats. he's weak in that. he's never faced that kind of scrutiny and had that controversy about exaggerating over his war record and she has done a great job driving the anti-war message. >> a democratic mayor of washington d.c., mayor adrian fenty, facing a strong challenge in today's primary election there. >> what's going on, major. you got high marks from just about everybody i know that lives in d.c. i talked to. what's going on? >> i think -- good morning. i think it's really about a lot of tough decision making that we've made, that you guys are very familiar with our school reform efforts. when you make an omelet, you will break some eggs. we've done probably more school reform in 3 1/2 years than most jurisdictions have ever done. special interests aren't happy about it. it's the right thing to do.

we made up a lot of ground over the past couple of weeks explaining to people, we can't go back. the days of d.c. when the schools were the worst in the nation or homicide rate was the highest in the country are just not acceptable. we will run this city a lot better, as we have over the past four years, the schools are our main focus. >> mayor, wondering, in terms of the long haul, how committed you are to staying in this race some way somehow, if you lose, would you switch parties? >> well, we're going to win. there's no question, it's been a tougher race than you would expect for a city doing this well. we will win. a lot of people will come out to the polls. you can register for the first time at the polls in washington d.c., if you haven't registered before. we're excited about continuing for another four years. i understand your question but you understand, when you're in a tough campaign, you're running hard, you have 13 hours of

election anotheringanothering anothering -- electioneering to do, i'm excited that we won top dollars from the obama administration. we were the only one of 10 to receive the money, our scores are high and we pay teachers more but they have to do a good job now. we're excited to continue. >> mark halpern, he's done a remarkable job reforming schools, a remarkable job. >> mr. mayor, you have done a lot. as you know, you mentioned special interests against you. a big part of the problem is the african-american community in your city. a lot of white voters are pleased with what you're done but you're not as popular with african-americans. how did that happen? >> we certainly have done a lot in the african-american community. i think -- you know, i'm kind of maybe a newer breed of politician. i focus more on running the

government as a private sector business, go 1,000 miles an hour. when you do that, admittedly, you lever some people behind. we have a lot of connecting to do and healing to do in the african-american community. i think we made up a lot of ground since the last poll by letting people know, while we can focus on results, we can let people know we're including them and listening to them in making decisions. expect a lot of that out of us in the second term also. >> mr. mayor, thank you very much. good luck for what you've done for d.c. children. the courage they've shown in d.c. -- can he run as an independent? >> under law, i think he can but i don't think he will. he's done a lot and he's been a reformer. but he's alienated a lot of people. >> special interests in d.c. and -- hatch not been -- he's

admitted this recently, not been a great politician. a lot of people in d.c. approve of the reforms. at the grassroots, democratic base, they feel he's detached and kind of aloof. he's apologized for that but may be too late for him to go on the apology tour he's undertaken in the last few weeks. coming up, republican strategist, anicolle wallace standing by in the greenroom. great to have her back. >> even by oprah's outrageous standard, she's outdone herself. the first episode of her final season. >> what did she do? >> a big get away for her entire audience. >> you're kidding me? >> get out! >> joe, you can go, too. >> and you and you and you. ♪ ♪ and it was beautiful ♪ ♪ so, look, see the sights ♪ that you learned [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans.

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♪ [ bob ] i didn't know you could play. i didn't either. ♪ yes, please tell me it's time. >> it's time. oprah, she's back, one more season, 25th and final season for oprah. she opened it up yesterday in grand style. you've seen her give away cars. a big deal. >> i loved the cars. >> i knew when she did this is, how do you top that? you can't do it. you've blown it, oprah. >> you can see by the reaction in this video, here, she gave away something big. >> what? >> a trip halfway around the world. >> you're going to australia! we're going to australia!

yes, yes, you are going to australia! >> as you may have gathered there, they're going to australia. >> holy cow. >> but that's not all. >> did you see that plane? >> you can't top that. >> you saw the quantus plane come into the studio. >> yeah. >> i'm sure there's just a nice disciplined run of the mill pilot. >> a bland guy. >> to take you to australia. >> a cargo plane guy. just stay awake. >> he stepped off the plane. let's see who the pilot is going to be. >> all right. >> it's johnny t. >> reporting for duty. >> no way! >> not only going to australia, travolta is flying them. everybody in the studio audience. >> look how adorable he is. >> he is great. >> they're going to do a couple shows down there. the whole studio. >> look at him. >> he's adorable. >> that audience is in rapture.

the reacts are remarkable. >> welcome back. >> what? that's the only thing travolta's ever done that you know. >> "saturday night fever." >> 1976. >> ""grease." >> that airtight race in nancy pelosi's district, she will win by 97 points. >> it will be tough. >> this is the ad put out by her opponent depicting her as the wicked wich eed with -- wicked the west. >> hello my pretty, i will save you from those republicans. and massive debt and wall street bailouts. here are my monkeys to make you pay for it all. >> i'm melting!

>> thank you for saving us. who are you? >> i'm john dennis. >> republican challenger john dennis. if you're going to lose, have a little fun doing it. >> that was the golden gate bridge in the background. >> come on. >> she has grandkids! >> she does. seriously. hey what's going on? doing the shipping. man, it would be a lot easier if we didn't have to weigh 'em all. if those boxes are under 70 lbs. you don't have to weigh 'em. with these priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. no weigh? nope. no way. yeah. no weigh? sure. no way! uh-uh. no way. yes way, no weigh. priority mail flat rate box shipping starts at $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship.

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the republicans are trying to say as little as they can and hiding what they have said. they're scrubbing their websites and hoping everybody goes to sleep. their argument is, you should vote against the democrats for governor because in washington, they had 21 months to fix the mess they made and we're not out of the hole yet so bring us back so we can do it again. >> welcome back to "morning joe." top of the hour. >> look at the face. i love it. >> come on. look at this pretty shot. >> republican strategist and former advisor to george w. bush, nicolle wallace back with us. great to see you. welcome back. >> it's one of my favorite clinton moves. 21 months and -- >> yes.

you do. >> i do not. stop it. >> you do. i'll point it out next time you do it. >> he has a lot of good tics. the tongue in the corner of the cheek. >> you got it. >> saying. we have a lot going on. it's primary day. we'll start with news. >> tony blair. >> it's going to be good. >> you were saying something about tony blair before hand. >> i think he's one of one in our current political -- people we look to. i think in this country revere in a lot more public ways than they do in europe. he has an ability no american politician has, to listen to criticism, digest it, understand it and empathize it and get right back to making the case for his policy argument, without feeling all bruised and battered by the insult or disagreement. >> doesn't take it personally. >> no. >> he's had just crazy, crazy people on the far left following

him around in europe, throwing blood on him. serious. just relax. anyway -- >> it will be interesting to talk to him. >> a great book. >> let's talk about the book. let's get to the top stories, though, primary elections, voters in seven states and district of columbia head to the polls today to finalize ballots for november elections. across the country, there is a common theme playing out with the tea party hoping to cash in on wave of anger against establishment candidates. in a new poll, shows christine o'donnell leading nine time congressman mike castle 27-44% within the margin of error. o'donnell has surged ahead in the past two weeks after netting endorsements from sarah palin and the tea party express. the two are trying to replicate the success they had in alaska's

republican senate primary. establishment republicans are pushing for castle to win since polls suggest and o'donnell victory will make it harder for the gop to claim former vice president biden's seat come november. that's a fascinating race. >> in a matchup with the democrat, chris koones and mike castle, this even a close call. >> are you sure? >> this is a test for the republican party in 2010. do you want to be a national party or do you want to feel good about yourself? mike castle will win joe biden's seat. it is a slam-dunk. what works in alaska does not work in delaware. >> it's a binary thing. if castle is the nominee. republicans will hold the seat. if he's not -- >> they'll pick up the seat. >> democrats will hold it. hard for them to get the senate majority if they don't hold the seat. it's a big deal and the establishment has come down full

force on her and seems like it has only made her grow. two people backed her, sarah palin and senator demint. if they lose this seat, a lot of republicans will be very annoyed at these two. >> this is the same sarah palin, the same woman who actually criticized the republican who took ted kennedy's seat in massachusetts, claiming somehow because scott brown did not vote the way she wanted him to vote on every single bill he didn't understand the constitution of the united states, that people in that state didn't understand the -- seriously, this is a party that needs to grow up. what works in alaska does not work in delaware or massachusetts all the time, does it? >> what works in iowa doesn't work in the northeast. i think that's where her sights are. i think it has a lot less to do with alaska than iowa. i thought for a while she wasn't serious about running for president, but either she is or she-devil wants to be perceived

as such and she has her sights on that iowa primary. >> let's talk about delaware. mike castle is a guy who will win that seat for the republican party. that simple. there are some republican activist, some conservatives, self-proclaimed conservatives, i don't think they're that conservative, but there are some out there that would say, we would rather lose the seat than have mike castle win it. that's giving harry reid another vote. >> here's where it gets a little tricky. i think you can call pundits and politicians fools. i think it's really hard to criticize an entire class of voters. i'm uncomfortable calling the republican primary voters stupid. i want to understand what they're thinking. >> i'm not calling them stupid. >> i think a lot of people have. i'm not suggesting anyone here has. i think a lot of people have and will. if and when this primary result goes the way it might to spite their face, the criticism will

follow of those crazy drunken voters. that's never where the problem lies, that's always a lagging indicator. i wonder if something else is going on. i wonder if the essence of the problems castle is having that the national republican establishment came in to aid him. maybe that should never again happen. maybe these candidates have to stand on their own two feet and on their merits, they will win the primaries facing in november. >> mark, i got elected in '94. from '94 to '98, i was always angry with new england republicans and republicans in the midwest and republicans in the northwest for not being sufficiently conservative. >> accommodationists. >> they're being accommodationists, they're being sell-outs. in 1998, steve asked me to go around and campaign for moderate republicans in new england, the midwest and the northwest. by the end of that trip, going into the districts where these

people were, i went from loathing these people ideologically, to coming up to them on the house floor and hugging them, going -- i can say whatever i want, i can say, i want to abolish the irs, abolish the department of education, i want to abolish the department of agriculture, break down washington, i can do whatever i want because i'm in northwest florida. i can't believe the tightrope you have to walk to get to washington. you would think sarah palin, who ran a national campaign would figure this out. >> after the mid-term results, republicans will do either well or super well. there will be a lot of focus on president obama, how does he deal with this? how does he resurrect his presidency. his biggest story will be what republican leaders step forward and say how do we take the energy of the activists who helped us but turns us towards a party -- >> haley bash bore rbour that

understands, still misses jim jeff forced, still wishes we had a republican liberal in vermont because jeffed f ed fjeffed fof was more conservative than a leading democrat. >> he said president obama is down on his knees praying we're a divided party, we don't have unity between northea earn republicans and southern republicans. barbara is one of the few that can bring the party together. they understood if you want to be a national party, you have to have the majority other than the 20% in the tea party. >> look at who reagan joined up with. one of the most liberal senators. reagan understood a republican in the northeast will look differently than a republican in

my neck of the woods. >> both parties talk big tent. it's a lot more difficult to live big tent. we're in new york, you walk around, i meet people once a week who say, i wish hillary had won. hillary lost because she was the more moderate in the democratic primary. on national security issues, which obama has moved tore ward, she was the more moderate candidate in the democratic primary. it happened on both sides. what is interesting, republicans on the far right and middle right and truly lin the middle could all embrace the cause of reducing our deficit and protecting this country from the threats we still obviously face and do pretty well in all corners of the country. >> we could. >> let's look at other key races in new hampshire, a similar story line. former attorney general there is in a tight battle against a democrat, lamontagne and sarah palin is backing establishment

ayotte and ayotte is ahead, 37-30%. and playing in new york's race for governor, tea party republican, carl paladino, and a political novist, closing in, rick lazio, the choice of republican leaders in the state. i have a couple ideas why that's happening. a new poll showing lazio leading by 1 percentage point, 43-42. are you surprised by that? >> no. >> on the democratic side, five candidates challenging embattled charlie rangel charged with 13 ethics violations and stripped of his position of chair of the ways and means committee. he has raised more campaign funds than all his challengers combined. >> if i was staying with new york, i like rick lazio a lot. i thought the islamic center made him look more desperate and running against a guy with a lot

of money. i like rick personally. i saw that ad all the time, man, come on. we're losing our competitive edge to china, we've got crippling deficits and debts, we have a health care -- speaking as a republican primary voter here, we have a health care reform bill that's an absolute disaster we now have learned in reports is actually driving the cost of health care up even more. don't talk to me about a building three blocks from ground zero that's probably not going to be built in the end. >> evokes images. >> but that's what he decided to do. i liked the guy personally. it looked desperate and so out of touch with where voters are right now. >> i think so much of what we think of politicians has to do with the times we live in. i think for the times we live in, with the economy, especially in this state in dire straits, i

think it was a misplaced role for a candidate. i think that was a legitimate debate. it took place in the wrong place. it was between whatever organizations exist for the 9/11 victims and their families and developers of the mosque. that was certainly appropriate dialogue but the candidates that jumped in have been ill served. >> this newt gingrich comparing islam to naziism backed off that, too, just not a winner. >> they're struggling to find hot buttons in this state, huge state, lots of republicans. we had a republican governor not so long ago. do you see any republicans in this important big state who have the right message, even if they're not on the ballot this year? >> i think that, in either party, in any state, people that can stay connected some way to what's on the voters' minds are going to do best. this state is no exception.

people are talking about the economy, talking about jobs, feeling bad and anxious. every time our leaders at every level, local, state and national, swerve off the road to have a 7-day fight about burning korans, they grow more and more agitated. why aren't people focused on basics. right! ? you said something so painfully obvious, i can hear people going, duh, at home -- >> i get that a lot. >> you said voters reward politicians that talk about things they're focused on. that sounds very obvious, right? obvious. that's not even politics 101. we know that intuitively. >> you can always count on me to hold up the obvious at the table. >> yet, nicolle, democrats are in trouble now because barack

obama didn't cover that basic rule. everything else had to do with jobs, health care, that's about jobs, cap and trade, that's about jobs. no. jobs, creating jobs. >> it's what you were worked up about yesterday. it's an agenda that not only makes the people out of work feel better but makes the people that might actually give out jobs feel confident. i don't know why we haven't had a conversation for two years about the job generators and job creators, not just that the people out of work have felt unsupported and ignored by their federal government, the people who might actually add a few employees have felt agitated by a new health care burden, uncertain tax burden, increased regulations. >> whoever you talk to will tell you business people on both sides -- we don't know what washington will do next so we will not hire new people. the president, interesting is that historians look back, if

republicans make big gains this fall, say why didn't barack obama start his presidency where he ended his first two years, talking about slashing taxes for research and development, something that spurs jobs, about cutting the capital gains tax for certain investments, about letting people write off new equipment? he's done some things over the past month that are very helpful. i would just suggest he probably should have started there. >> actually, we did suggest that everyday for 18 months. i'm glad he's there now. >> a live report from the high profile senate primary in delaware and the battle for joe biden's vacant seat. former prime minister tony blair will be here to discuss his best selling auto-by agrofry. and we have more on the two latest hurricanes in the tropics. bill. >> hurricane julia formed early

this morning. two hurricanes is the bad news. i will track them on the open water. julia will turn like this, not going to be an issue and hurricane igor goes towards bermuda by the weekend, missing the east coast. we will appreciate these by far, maybe saturday, sunday, monday next week. a cool chilly day in new england. all the rain is gone, a sunny beautiful day. temperatures from 74 in boston to 81 in d.c. a great end to the summer. temperatures in florida still looking very hot. and chicago to minneapolis, cooler. host: could switching to geico really

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21 past the hour, primary day in seven states and all eyes on the primary race in delaware. with us, capitol hill correspond, kelly o'donnell and white house correspondent savannah guthrie. >> she's great. >> kelly, get us up to date on the delaware race where republicans decide whether they want to feel good about themselves or whether they want to pick up joe biden's seat. how about that for framing the issue? >> reporter: that this is way some people are framing it. i spent some time with both candidates. on the republican establishment side, you have a man like mike castle, 9-term congressman, formerly two term governor here, well 12 times in this state, never lost.

widely considered popular and will describe himself as a moderate on social issues and now facing probably the toughest chal he has ever had and described to me in the most uncomfortable place because he had to go negative for the first time in his career. he's up against a woman named christine o'donnell, been a candidate three times, not been successful before, much more conservative. she caught fire because sarah palin endorsed her and so did the tea party express pac group out of california. they put a lot of money in this race right after joe miller won that upset in alaska, knocking out lisa murkowski. all of a sudden, this very tiny state has an enormous race. for people who forget, joe biden was re-elected to his senate seat the same time he was vice president. we're talking just the remaining four years of his term. there's been an interim appointed senator.

whoever wins, chris coons, he has no opponent today, that person will be immediately seated in november. this is a hot race. mike castle should have easily been able to win this, now facing a big challenge. >> this is so important because we hear what might happen during the lame duck session. if mike castle wins the nomination today, he will win this race. he'll be seated in november and be able to stop any nonsense, john heilman, in the lame duck session. i wonder if republicans want to do that or feel good about themselves. >> this is so striking. >> is this a close race? >> mark and i were talking about it the other night, one of those rare races the consensus among republican political professionals, if they go one direction, they are guaranteed to lose. if they go the other direction, they are guaranteed to win. you don't see that happen very often. the choice is very stark of most

republican professionals, you're framing it exactly the way they see it, too. >> have yet to talk to any republican pollster or politician in washington d.c. that didn't understand this reality. savannah guthrie, do they have the streamers ready if castle loses tonight at the white house? >> reporter: they won't be crying. i think they look at this race and what happened to senator bennett knocked out in utah for not being conservative enough, what happened in kentucky when rand paul won instead of trey grayson, the establishment pick. look, everybody wants to talk about how bad the fortunes of democrats are but you have to look hard at these republican primaries and over the long term what happens to the republican party should some of these folks get elected to office. is it the far right wing of the party that will ultimately control. >> you bring up three states. it's interesting, in utah, republicans will win in utah

regardless what happens in the primary. in kentucky, rand paul will win. unless he opens his mouth again and says something really stupid, rand paul will win in kentucky, state where barack obama has a 35% approval rating. delaware is not kentucky. delaware is not utah. >> more like nevada. republicans may have nominated someone in nevada -- >> nevada as well. >> and two issues, the short term what will happen in november. sorry. go ahead. >> kelly, go ahead. >>. >> reporter: sorry, savannah. talking to mike castle, he decision is that stark, the only republican that can win and if republicans want a shot at not only closing the gap against democrats in the senate but maybe have that run the table strategy, he believes he's the only one who could win against the democrat. bottom line, it's an absolute.

if he's nominated, republicans will win it. if not, if christine o'donnell is nominated, it's over. he's painting it as that stark. when i spent time with him he was visibly uncomfortable when i asked him about getting out side his comfort zone in this campaign and run very sharp attack ads against her, essentially trying to disqualify her. he said it's not something he ever wanted to do but felt he had to do in this race. i spent time with her, she said she is running a positive campaign and she can relate to the hardships real americans and real citizens of delaware are feeling. she has a lot of energy around her. it's the classic tea party incumbent thing we've seen and delaware is an unusual place for that to play out. >> what is your sense spending time with congressman castle intellectually, what does he feel this means about the state of the republican party and emotional emotionally, how does he feel

about being rejected by voters of his state he served so long. >> reporter: i talked to him about that, saying how did i get there? won 12 elections, been very popular. he said i thought about it and struggled with it. what this is about, an ideology movement that says if you ever worked with the other side and he acknowledged working on some issues, not the fiscal issues, you're out. he feels targeted after a career public service he has been widely praised for, he could lose in this kind of way. there was a weariness in his attitude toward it. he's confident and fighting hard. there was a sense this is not the way he wanted to end his career. delaware only has one house. he's like the third senator for delaware already, a really big

figure and if he is to lose, a stunning turn after his long career of public service. >> thank you very much. we'll be watching this one. >> have you ever seen a race like this, john was just talking about, where just about everybody that knows the game of politics knows, you elect one person, a party wins, picks up a seat. you elect another person, they lose. have you ever seen as stark a contrast? >> very unusual. but i have never seen something like this before the entire establishment with the exception of demint and sarah palin going all out to stop this. if they lose this, not only will they lose the seat but it will show their impotence to stop the tea party picking up seats. >> if you want to move the seats, it's like a chess board and you're trying to like move money around. if republicans put castle in and democrats go into the last week

trying to hold onto delaware, trying to hold onto california, trying to hold on to connecticut, trying to hold on to washington state. republicans crush democrats. if you take delaware off the board, that's just more money democrats can pour in to re-elect barbara boxer in california, patty murray in washington state, dick blumenthal. this is not difficult. >> it's like a domino effect. money that gets spread over our budget, this has a big effect across the board. on deck, tony blair. you can always listen to satellite radio, xm 120. [ engine revving ]

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backing way from a possible comprise with the obama administration over extending tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, one majority leader boehner hinted at and walked back from. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he introduced legislation that will guarantee no one will pay higher income taxes. >> we can't allow this administration to demand small business owners in this country pay for its own fiscal recklessness. that's why i'm introducing legislation today that insures no one in this country will pay higher income taxes next year than they are right now. we can't let the people who've been hit the hardest by this recession and need to create the jobs that will get us out of it foot the bill for the democrats two year adventure in expanded government. >> president obama took on both mcconnell and boehner yesterday

in virginia where he was taking questions on the economy. >> they should definitely get an extension of the tax cuts that were instituted in 2001-2003. we could get that done this week. but we're still in this wrestling match with john boehner and mitch mcconnell about the last 2-3% where on average, weighed be giving them $100,000 for people making a million dollar or more. >> a chief medicare specialist is criticizing the obama's administration's projections on the effects of the health care overhaul predicting it will save less money than supporters have argued. in addition, he says numbers provided on a white house blog last week that indicates spending per insured person will be $1,000 lower in the year 2019 because of the law are in fact not quote meaningful or accurate. and the u.s. government says

it will not pay the prison bail for american higher sarah shourd, who iran says it will release on health grounds in exchange for $500,000. earlier yesterday, shourd's family asked to have the bail reduced, saying they couldn't afford it. we'll follow that. tony blair, next on "morning joe." [ female announcer ] stay once... stay twice... earn a free night! two separate stays at comfort inn or any of these choice hotels can earn you a free night -- only when you book at choicehotels.com. can earn you a free night -- i but i justve my 5 employcan't afford it.ance, i have diabetes.

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because he is devoting his time now to the cause of peace in the middle east, which, if successful, would do more than any other single thing to drain the swamp of hatred in that region. now, it's my great honor to

award the liberty medal to former prime minister and wonderful world citizen, tony blair. >> former british prime minister tony blair, invested the prestigious liberty medal for his global human rights work and ability to find peace in that video last night and with us now, former british prime minister, tony blair. good to have you on to talk about all sorts of things including your new, "a journey, my political life." let me read an excerpt. this is on iraq. i still keep in my desk a letter from an iraqi woman who came to see me before the war began. she told me of the appalling torture and death her family had

experienced, having fallen foul of saddam's son. she begged me to act. after the fall of saddam, she returned to iraq, she was murdered by sectarian as few months later. what would she say to me now? you're asking yourself that question. >> yes, i was, and i do. it's the single thing that's most difficult because it's been really bloody and terrible after the fall of saddam and yet it was really bloody and terrible before saddam fell and under his rule. the question is, is there a way that question can get a better alternative for its future that isn't a choice between being ruled by someone like saddam or ruled -- >> and it hasn't improved a great deal between 2006-2007. is there a hope that we will look back and see that as the start of the transformed middle east? >> we hope. this is what we hope for.

one interesting thing someone was pointing out to me, in 2002, before saddam fell, the child mortality rate because they weren't given the proper medicines was the same as the congo, which meant 130 kids under the age of 5 died. that's come down to a third of what it was and equates to 50 or 60,000 lives every year saved. the difficulty is it has been such a challenge for all of us, for you, for us, for everybody, the iraqis themselves. on the other hand, at least they have the reins of the future in their hands if they want to use it. >> they are a freer country, we were talking about this a few weeks ago, "new york times" op-ed than several countries in the middle east. there are positive developments. i'm just onwondering of your burden explaining to your voters

why iraq was so difficult was made more important because of george bush. george bush had immense simplicity. let them say that of me one day. george had immense simplicity in how he saw the world, right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership. reagan obviously mocked and ridiculed for being a simpleton in the 1980s and george w. bush, a very unpopular figure, yet you stood shoulder to shoulder with him. did he make your job more difficult? >> no. i think the situation made it more difficult, frankly. this was after september the 11th. the thing that came home to me after september 11th, 3,000 people died on the streets of new york. if these people coiled have killed 30,000 or 300,000, they would have. my whole world view changed from that moment. when i say he approached things with a certain simplicity. the truth is we had var binary

choice of what do you do with this phenomenon of extremism. i see this when i'm out in the world the whole time, you see it in pakistan, lebanon, palestine, you see it in somalia -- >> yemen. >> yemen. a global phenomenon. the question is, do you try and manage it? try to bring it around with sanctions. look at iran today. what's the right answer? do you try and manage that situation, say even if they acquire nuclear weapons capability, perhaps we can handle it or do you say, i'm sorry, this is fundamental, we can't allow this to happen and we will stop it. i was a politician, very much looked for the third way, what's the middle way through it. with the security challenge, i'm afraid there's not really a middle way. >> there's not a third way. >> that simplicity, you say, right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership. you don't write whether he was

right or wrong about iraq? >> obviously, i believed he was right and why i shared the same perspective. it's a controversy that still a rages today in my country and your country. people who believe we were wrong take a strong view. >> they throw eggs at people. they break up -- >> i hear you had eggs thrown at you. what is that? >> and at concerts, they're throwing blood on themselves and throwing eggs. >> and shoes. >> shoes. >> that's a reasonably small minority. >> a very small minority. >> the interesting thing about politics -- unfortunately not yet. the interesting thing about politics today sometimes people find it very hard to have a disagreement, right, which is, say, we're reasonable people, we ask disagree. >> right. >> it has to be kind of -- >> ugly. >> i hate you or you're a liar! i think one of the things that's really important in today's

world because all these questions are difficult. i think this is the toughest time to be a decision-maker in recent political history. the truth is the decisions are hard. we disagree. we don't have to dislike each other or disrespect each other. >> you're very fortunate to be here today. because the head of the tony blair fan club is in new york city with us. >> i hate that exact point. >> nicolle, explain to the prime minister. >> i came on and said, i had seen a lot of your interviews last week -- >> she's -- >> a lot on her computer. >> a lot creepier. >> you have a quality that certainly no american leader has. i don't see anybody else. >> that's the english accent. >> that's very sexy, i have to say. >> good god, woman, reel it in! go ahead. >> all right. i'm never going to be invited back. >> yes, you are. >> the ability to understand and

almost absorb a critics argument and not judge it but to actually empathize with the complete opposite argument, and then listen to it, not judge the person for holding a view wholly opposite to your own, and then come back around to making your case for your policy. there is nobody in our politics now who can do that. i wonder what's going to happen in all these vitally important debates and all these ongoing problems without people that can do what you do so effortlessly. >> the thing i tried to do in the book actually is just describe what it's like to be -- from a human point of view, decision-maker. the trouble is these decisions are difficult. it's not a great revelation that but sometimes we understand it but we don't let that enter into our view of politicians and the challenges that they have. you take the economy at the moment, the financial crisis, where you have a raging debate here, we have one back in our country. it's hard. what is the right way to deal with this right now.

if we get a little less partisan with each other and, you know, we learn to disagree reasonably rather than have a detestation that comes into it -- >> you have a threshold for pain nobody has -- you have a threshold take it from the media and people in your own party. >> the bigger point is how do you not take it personally. >> and get drawn in. >> that's the one thing reagan just never -- his biographer, who wrote it, a zany biographer said the amazing thing about reagan was, was reading "valley times" one day and reading horrible stories about reagan when he saw them. he did explode because it was the bottom of the page about o'malley selling the dodgers to murdoch. he didn't care. >> that's an important political quality. >> how do you get there where it's not personal, the attacks against you, you don't take them personally. >> my wife gave me the key to this, she used to say, when i

would come home sometimes at night and have the papers out and, you know, it's quite hard to know circumstances if you are human, not to feel it at all, that's unfair. >> she would say, it's voluntary, you don't want to do it, go do something else. it's a privilege to do it so stop whining and get out there and make your case, which is actually unique. >> in the book about your career and public office and reflecting about your attitudes in life, you and your friend, bill clinton have done a ton since leaving the office and very involved in the middle east peace process. as you talk to leaders in the middle east, president obama no secret has had problems with israel public and leadership. what's his stance is in israel and how does that affect the process that israel can play in trying to bring peace. >> the single most important thing he's done is make this a priority from the beginning. that's the big difference.

whether in israel or palestine, the issue is not whether they like or dislike any single thing he does, the fact is they knowd to deal with him and he's there and determined for peace. that's pushing people together. my attitude to this is probably as president clinton was probably just saying, nothing is as important in order to bring about a different set of relationships out in that region in the wider world and resolving this iz rsrael/palestine issue. >> does he have leverage? >> he does because he's president and because he's got respect. most people understand out there that we're not going to be able to deal with this question of iran, which is something that troubles arabs as much as isr l

as israelis. when president obama reaches out you'll get critics within israel but others recognize it's important that they do this. >> this book -- i heard this from people that actually read books -- >> there are a lot of pictures in it. >> thank god. you are so blunt. this does not read like most political memoirs. i want to read this princess diana quote. you say this of princess diana. we were both in our own ways manipulative people. not a lot of politicians admit to that. they all are. we perceive quickly the emotion of others and play with them. i knew when she reached out to disable and sick in a way no one else could have done and no one else in a position had ever done, it was done with sincerity.

again, this whole book is very blunt. you lay it out there. also some fondness for princess diana. >> she's an amazing person. i wanted to be open in the book. i think the curious thing about politics today is we want to know more about our politicians than we did before. you think of politicians in the past, john f. kennedy or churchill or lloyd george. you wonder what would happen today if they were subject to the same scrutiny -- >> churchill would be in detox. man of the century but -- >> if that's the way it is today, and it is, look at it from the other perspective. that's what i wanted to do. princess diana was every bit as extraordinary to meet as she was to look at and see on the tv. >> with great leaders like lloyd george and winston churchill win in this type of environment? what have we lost with the 24/7

news culture? >> i hope so. you want remarkable people to be able to get those positions of power and there are few people that i have met in my life that are remarkable that also in their own way are different and even with what we would consider flaws. >> prime minister blair -- >> you are head of the fan club. i totally bought into it. you are a remarkable leader. >> thank you very much. >> i recommend a restraining order of at least 30 yards. >> want to let you know that d andrea mitchell reporting that sarah shourd has been released.

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♪ it's obvious that i like you ♪ i'd go anywhere to be near you ♪ ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do... ♪ i can't sleep ♪ do, do, do, do >> can you feel the excitement? we're only 48 hours away from the "morning joe" bipartisan health channel. by "morning joe" we mean mika. joe and i have nothing to do with this. that's even airbrushed. it's worse than that. joe and i are going to smoke cigarettes while mika runs and walks with biggest leaders in the country. is that fair to say? >> thank you so much. >> we'll see you at the finish line. thursday on the national mall.

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>> all right. it's 8:00 on the east coast. >> i love new england. just a little green is left to observe. >> yeah. >> speaking of new england, cape

cod going to be played across the street. >> vampire weekend. friday night. >> that's exciting. >> we've been missing you there. >> montreal saturday night at terminal 5. >> welcome back to "morning joe," everybody. >> we have the co-authors of "game change." and joining you from washington, eugene robinson also an msnbc political analyst. is gingrich unhinged on obama? we'll get to that in a moment. >> let me say two years you love hearing me say the most. >> you have to say it several times today. >> get ready. this is your moment to look at the camera. i'll sit here. >> i'm sorry. >> with a pained look on my face. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry. >> thank you.

that's what california gubernatorial candidate jerry brown is saying to bill clinton and making front page news in san francisco. responding sunday to a campaign ad that his opponent meg whitman released, one that used bill clinton's word from 1992 presidential campaign against him, brown attacked clinton nearly as much as he did whitman.

>> wow. bringing up the ghosts of monica. the ghost of monica rises in the west. >> brown is pulling back from that criticism saying -- >> he's sorry that it appeared in public. >> sorry it made it into the public view. >> bill clinton was an excellent president. it was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago. >> in '98 he said bill clinton was a disaster. >> this is a problem. this apology. >> big problem. >> he shouldn't have apologized. he made a joke. >> you are the one that got this video fed into the blood stream of the 24/7 news cycle and we thank you. >> you are going to see, i predict based on some reporting, you'll see bill clinton be a big man here and help jerry brown. it's going to be a great moment. remember the lieutenant governor

candidate gavin newsom is a good friend of bill clinton's so he's going to try to help all democratic votes rise by coming out. you may even see him side by side and that will be an awesome day for us. >> these two guys have not liked each other for a long time. bill clinton accused jerry brown of having no shame for attacking his wife in a debate. he brought up whitewater. first guy to bring that up. it's been a relationship for a very long time. >> it really has been. jerry brown is a quirky, unusual politician but as you said, there's bad blood between these guys. i want to see if bill clinton is going to be big about this. i want to see the hug. i want to see if there is in fact a hug between jerry brown and bill clinton. jerry brown has run an awful campaign and is in trouble. >> he's run a bad campaign, huh?

>> it's been surprising. i think there's people -- democrats in california have been waiting to see -- they know he's resourceful politician and won statewide in the past and jerry brown has a plan and the plan so far seems to have consisted of waiting for meg whitman to make a mistake. she's not done that. here's jerry brown, the experienced politician, committing the biggest gaffe of the cycle so far. >> is it because you don't insult bill clinton who is so revered in california among items or why is this viewed as such a possible death nail? >> in a normal year you would say democrats going to win government of california because it's a blue state. jerry brown has some image problems. whitman has a lot of money. brown needs hispanic and african-americans and liberals in northern and southern

california to come out in big numbers. that's not helped by being at war with bill clinton. you know, i will tell you, national republican strategists have more faith in and worry about jerry brown as a tenacious political factor force than a lot of democrats do. they think as strong as whitman has been and as well as she's done, brown is in the to be written off or underestimated. >> in 2010 if jerry brown could have picked a worse year to attack bill clinton, i don't know what year that would have been. bill clinton has had a very successful run in 2010 and probably if you privately polled most members of congress and asked whether they wanted bill clinton or barack obama in their district, most would pick bill clinton. >> yeah. he's become kind of the go-to guy in this election. he can help democratic candidates a lot. he could help jerry brown a lot. maybe he will. you know, i agree that jerry

brown is a really resourceful, canny, wily politician who can't be written off. whitman with all her money and with considerable skill has done a really good job of kind of defining herself as more of a centrist figure and she's tough. it will be a great race. >> let's talk about washington d.c. we've made no secret of the fact that we've been fans of what the mayor has done on education reform but it looks like he's going get thrown out by d.c. voters today if the polls are to be believed. why? >> well, you know, all of the polls say -- my first job at "the washington post" was covering marion berry in his first term. strange things do happen in d.c. elections. this would be on the outer edge of that. my sense of the past few days

has been that gray, vincent gray, the challenger, chairman of city council, seems to be gaining strength. people seem to be accepting that he's likely to be the new mayor. and fenty it's a matter of style and personality and attention to -- >> what's he done wrong? >> you know, he gave the impression to a lot of voters particularly african-american voters in a city that is rapidly changing that is majority african-american but not 70% like it used to be. 56%. he gave a lot of people in that side of town the impression that he really wasn't their mayor. he didn't care particularly about them or he didn't care as much about them as he did about

other parts of washington. i think you could argue in a lot of ways it's a bum rap. he grew up in washington. clearly he got elected mayor initially by going around the city and knocking on thousands of doors and doing ultimate retail politics but he's in trouble and in our poll on the race showed this very stark kind of racial divide which is interesting. both candidates are african-american. >> all right. you write today about these comments by newt gingrich which we were talking about yesterday that obama's policies and attitudes being kenyan and anti-colonial.

>> yeah, i think it has. he is lost in the past or lost in his own little world? what's going on there? >> i think two things are going on. one level it was an attempt to throw more mud at the president of the birth variety to play into this expanded birth narrative that there is something exotic and foreign and alien about president obama and hence the kenyan anti-colonial

behavior accusing the president of trying to throw off british oppression. but the other part of it i think is if you look at the pattern of newt's eruptions over the last while, a disturbing number fit into the sort of clash of civilizations narrative. this idea that western civilization is somehow locked in a death struggle now with islamic civilization but is also threatened by chinese civilization in india and so forth. >> i think, gene, it seems to be more specific if you look at newt's comments. a battle between white christian western civilization -- >> there you go. >> of 1963 variety that you speak of and everybody else. mark halperin, while these

comments disturbed us comparing islam to naziism, there is at times a method to newt's madness. in 1993 and 1994, i believe he blamed the drowning of several children in south carolina on democratic policies. >> and woody allen. >> of course. and yet in november of 1994 people woke up and he was speaker of the house. i'm just wondering, does this guy know what he's doing to get the republican nomination? >> his political advisers don't always like the things that he says. >> i can't believe that joe gaylord sits back when he compares islam to naziism. >> he's a lot like sarah palin. they're fox commentators that on occasion say things for the centrist chattering group but they are comments and use of language is powerful and they find a way to say things that

gavelonize the sentiment out there in parts of the country. >> is he fighting, john, right now? is this not a battle against islam or a battle against barack obama but is it instead a battle against sarah palin and mike huckabee for western iowa voters? >> i think for a specific and more nationally. there's a space he wants to occupy. we're fairly convinced that many people who look at republican politics in 2012 race he would run for president and that space is he's trying to get in that tea party space and wants to be the candidate that is the guy who represents that energy and he thinks that sarah palin may or may not run. mike huckabee may or may not run. he's certain he's going to run and is trying to be the guy that

gets that space. if you try to read it no matter where you are in the political ideological spectrum, you will agree with me when you read it and find it incoherent. it's probably one of the most incoherent things i've seen published in major magazine in the last couple years. it's astonishing. >> mika hung out with him up at dartmouth. you're insulting one of her friends. i bet you didn't know that? she hung out with those dartmouth review guys. she's been hanging out with crazy conservatives for a long time. >> they throw the best parties. >> you saying this piece gives

newt's comments some context at least even if it's crazy context? >> it would be easier for people to understand that snippet in the full context. it makes him more crazy. >> we like him, right? he's a good guy. we like everybody. so let's just stop for a second and back up. you are talking about fox and sarah palin, mike huckabee, fox. seriously and i've said it before, i think roger is the most powerful guy in the republican party. there's not a close act. the most powerful man in the republican party. is it possible for a candidate to win the conservative vote in

iowa without an alliance with fox? >> one way to think about the republican nomination field and battle for the party after the mid terms, the three fox people on one side and then romney, daniels and barber on the other side. and how do those two lineups matchup interact for the party. >> let's talk about three fox people. i think they are the ones that occupy the conservative side of the primaries. does gingrich run if palin runs? do they just sit and stare at each other throughout the first half of 2012? >> gingrich is on a faster timetable that she is. he'll have to make a decision before she shows had her cards. >> what about huckabee? >> i think he's in the middle. he doesn't want to raise money. he wants to do this if he runs without having to raise a lot. go as late as possible. >> gene, thank you so much. >> great to be here.

>> quick prediction. who wins the delaware republican primary? >> christine o'donnell, i think. >> i bet you contributed to her, gene. >> gracious. $8,000 max. you want her to win. you want her on that wall. you need her on that wall. >> i'm a journalist. i do not make political contributions. >> but your wife does. thank, gene. politico playbook is next and new york jets punished by the ravens on monday night football but an off the field incident involving a female reporter that is getting all of the attention. this morning she's speaking out about what happened but first, bill karins with a quick check on the forecast. >> two hurricanes. we have igor and julia. with patterns set up in the atlantic, we have three cold fronts out there that will deflect storms into the

atlantic. that's been the saving grace as we have gone throughout this hurricane season. maybe some waves and that will be it. bermuda will have to watch out for the storm. it will head almost right over the top of it by this weekend. slow moving storm. it will take five days to get there. your airports, no problems today. looking at a really nice forecast around the country. temperature 75 to 85 up and down the east coast and middle of the country looking nice also. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪

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>> mika, we want your take on this story. a female reporter from mexico's tv allegedly was harassed by players and coaches by the new york jets while reporting from the locker room a couple days ago. this morning she was on the "today" show here on nbc, a couple other morning shows all it at the exact same time. look at that. 7:35. so this is a historic space time bending morning show feed to happen at 7:35. here's part of what she said on the "today" show. >> i have different type of dress. when i was on the field or when i was covering for an interview and when i am on the set or something so i think it's not if

i am or am not well dressed for that type of job. i've done 215 interviews with the best players in the world and i dress like this and never had something like this. >> she was getting cat calls and being harassed as she waited to interview the jets quarterback. woody johnson made a phone call yesterday to apologize personally according to a complaint filed by the association for women in sports media she was harassed on the field and in the locker room at saturday's practice. some and include some female columnist question whether she should have been dressed the way she was. that doesn't look back to me. she tweeted out this picture. said this is what i was wearing. what's wrong with this. before last night's game reporters caught up with her to ask her about the incident. >> when i arrived to the locker rooms, everybody start to make

jokes and everything about me if the woman does her job in a professional way, she deserved to be treated like a professional not only like a woman that's crossing in front of them. >> there you go. it's been a problem before but not for some time. women in the locker room, athletes walking around nude acting like men. >> it's awkward to be in the locker room personally. and if she's wearing that low cut stuff that we see her in, i think that's kind of a problem. nobody deserves to be harassed. i'm saying there's a line of decor decorum. i'm not sure who was at fault here. i would like to see what her -- is she a good reporter? >> one of the three best reporters there i'm told. >> she's been called the hottest reporter in mexico. >> that doesn't tell me anything.

>> i know. >> yeah. that's useless. >> who called her that? was that you? >> think that was self-appointed. >> i think it actually is. >> speaking of sexy, my gosh -- >> i might have to leave the locker room. it's just too much for me. >> it's the way he's dressed that offend me. >> makes me want to just cat call him. >> jim has a look at the morning playbook. >> i quit dressing provocatively to avoid scenarios like that. do you want me to wear a tank top? >> jim brought sexy back. >> i know. it was getting distracting. glad you cleared this up. let's talk politics to take sexy out of the show. democrats are finding support for their tax policies from an interesting crowd. >> their pollster will come in and talk to house democrats this week and basically deliver the

message that you should push forward with small business tax cuts and continue to oppose the tax cuts for the rich because it's resonating with independent voters and everybody knows that democrats desperately need to pull some of those independent voters back into the fold or there's no way they can continue to have power in the house and so i do think democrats come backfired up for this tax cut fight. it's a real substantive fight and i think it will dominate the period after the election because something has to be done with those bush tax cuts. they won't let them expire for the middle class. >> jim, thank you so much bringing sexy back. >> any time. >> coming up, are we do for a double dip recession? warren buffett has a few thoughts on that. we'll check on business before the bell with erin burnett next. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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live shot of times square in new york city. at least it's not raining today. time at 31 past the hour to get a check on business before the bell with cnbc's erin burnett live at the new york stock exchange. >> good morning. we got news here. retail sales coming out for august. take out cars they were up .6. twice as strong as expected. you can look at gas sales, grocery sales and all in a little bit better than expected on every margin which is good

read of the u.s. economy. you take it where you can get it. i don't want to overstate it. it does show continuing improvement and by the way that fits as you know with what we've been hearing from ceos left, right and center and now from warren buffett himself at the montana business council. maybe he's fly-fishing with tom brokaw or something out there. he's saying he doesn't see a double dip either. just because everybody saying it including the oracle of omaha doesn't mean it won't happen especially when the stimulus goes away at the end of the year and you lose that sort of fill up that's been helping. there's still a big question mark out there. take it where we can get it. all in. it's had helping the market. we'll have a flat open here but around the world we're at a four-month high for global stocks. four-month high. and i just thought this was interesting when we look at retail sales. look at brazil's retail sales up 10.9%. turkey's economy grew 10.3%. same as china. when you look outside the united

states numbers are stunning and strong in a whole lot of places. ours are tepid but not negative. that's still the key. >> we're going in the right direction. >> kind of. kind of. >> rising tide lifts all votes. >> we're going in the right direction. and again you're coming off -- ken has done analysis here and you are coming off a credit crisis so it's a different recession than you usually have. often you get that big pop. we did a bit this spring. after credit induced crises, it takes a long, long time. that's what we're seeing right now. >> international superstar erin burnett. >> have a good day, guys. >> real quickly. the stock market, how much is it going to go up? >> right now there's this whole thing. usually you notice september on average worst month of the year only month on average that's down -- what are you looking at there. here's the thing.

we're having a great september. by the way, what's the best performing dow stock for the month of september, joe? just one guess. it's a stock that matters to you. >> apple. >> no. it matters to you personally. you own shares of it. >> philip morris. >> general electric. >> bp. >> general electric. >> really? i shorted bp but then i dove back in because i figured i'm going get really rich off bp. i don't have bp stock. i'm just joking. >> any way, up 10.5% for the month of september. there's your good news in terms of where the market goes, we're in a tight range between 10,000 and 11,000 and most people don't think we'll break out of that until post-midterm elections. if economic news continues to pick up, we may be able to do it. >> speaking of that, have you met that jeff guy? he's good looking.

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business, meet fun. fun, business. at&t. rethink possible. business, meet fun. fun, business. everyone knows a fee is a tax. you raised some taxes during that period, particularly the property tax as well as a lot of fee increases. as you know, there's a big difference between fees and taxes. but...they're the same. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. there's a big difference between fees and taxes. fees and taxes are one in the same. if it comes out of my pocket, it's a tax. now he says it isn't true. we didn't raise taxes. what? still doing the same thing, paying out more money. typical politician. definitely.

>> we've all heard about the greatest generation and the legacy. what's the legacy of their children? the baby boomers.

the cover story in the atlantic this month. looked into the baby boomer's lack of accomplishment. baby boomers are self-indulged, self-absorbed and self-loathing. >> what would you say, james, as history looks back on the greatest generation winning world war xdii, what would you y the baby boomer generation will be remembered for in the destruction of the united states of america? >> let's stipulate before we start that it is terribly unfair to generalize about any entire generation. it's completely unfair. >> the greatest generation -- hold on. i think one of the greatest generations surviving the great depression and beat hitler. you can generalize there. here you have a generation that's self-absorbed. they are bankrupting us.

and they gave us disco and polyester. >> you can generalize there. >> one of the things the story does that's really interesting is it walks through what is a generation done wrong and what it's done right. in many ways the legacy of debt that we blame the boomers on was really kind of created initially by the greatest generation. they created the programs we're dealing with now. they were handed the most opportunity in u.s. history and they have made the absolute least of it. >> they've given us a political system that's the most divisive that we've seen since people were getting shot on the cliffs of new jersey back in 1800. seriously, you have clinton one side of the baby boom

generation. that starts a political war. bush, the other side of the -- it is so ugly. i just asked a good question. please answer my question. >> sorry. >> i want to assure you before you start that this story is not gibberish and is highly coherent. >> i never expect anything less from you, james, after you weakly tried to walk back your whole story a second ago by saying -- >> i wasn't walking it back. it walks through what the generation has done right, what it's done wrong but ultimate point is makes is where you were which is that these guys are about to pass on a legacy of debt to their own children and grandchildren. they basically bankrupted the country. it's kind of a call to action to do something about that. >> worse than that, they've done it in a togethtally obnoxious w.

>> name names. name names. >> that's a good question. i'm thinking about it. >> stalling. >> it would be hard not to point to george w. bush as having done a lot of damage having created a lot of programs that are costing us a huge amount of money without a lot of regard for what the effects are going to be on the folks that are going to have to pay for those for many years. i'm trying to think of a good cultural figure. would you nominate one? you're better than i am? >> i wonder if george w. bush and bill clinton aren't flip sides of the same coin. i know you were immersed in mika's liberal establishment but -- >> i was trying to think of

somebody outside politics. look at newt gingrich, bill clinton and george w. bush and the kind of politics that they've created for the country. bill clinton you could make an argument -- the focus of this piece is on fiscal responsibility. his administration actually exited with surpluses as far as the eye could see. part of that was a function of the greatest generation president, george h.w. bush who looks increasingly good in the long view of history and did some very, very politically brave things including a tax hike that he paid dearly for but set the country on a path to prosperity really during the clinton years. >> we kicked baby boomers around. they deserve it. give us what is perhaps thus far the greatest accomplishment of this generation. >> there's a bunch of stuff these guys have gotten done. they didn't start the vietnam war but they got the country out of it. they made environmentalism and

feminism and even gay rights, mainstream ideas rather than fringe ideas. they really change the political for the country in addition to doing what we're talking about. >> interesting. >> do you stand moot? >> we have a complicated past. i love him too much. >> my god. that might be what i learned today. >> the feeling is mutual. >> i would like to know about the next generation. what about x and y aren't they closer to being baby boomers in being narcissistic? >> hold on. i'm going to take a picture of myself. let me get my iphone. look at me.

look at me. >> joe, are you narrating? >> it's something that needs to be said for boomers, those other generational labels haven't stuck because there isn't a coherent sense of any of the rest of us. boomers it should be said for them to have a definition as a generation. >> is your story on the web now? >> it is on the world wide web. it should be. they told me it would be. >> quickly, that was great.

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welcome back. candidates on the left and right are becoming more polarized by the kay. was there a time when the choice wasn't so clear? with us now, garland tucker, author of a new book the high tide of american conservatism. welcome to the show. >> 1924. tell us why that was high tide of american conservatism? >> it was the last time both parties nominated a conservative. last time the democrats did and after '24 the democrats veered to the left and republicans stayed on the right and that's what we've lived with since.

>> what was political reality that had this convergence? >> policies of coolidge and his treasury secretary were to reduce taxes and spending and it came on the heels of a tough recession and i think important chapter in american history that didn't get much attention. >> calvin coolidge hasn't always got a lot of attention. we hear he was ronald reagan's favorite president. >> coolidge has come back into favor a little bit certainly among conservatives. i think he still doesn't get nearly as much credit as he deserves. he had a successful presidency and john davis, the democratic nominee has totally dropped off everybody's screen and that's sad because he was a terrific guy. >> what are today's leaders, conservative leaders, lacking compared to ones you write about? >> i think if you look at davis

and coolidge they were in agreement on policies of that day and they were very focused on reducing taxes and reducing government spending. and the result of the 1920s bear looking at. there was a time of economic boom, stable prices and it came out of a very tough recession in 1920. >> obviously a lot of people would say we came out of a tough recession but those policies led to a great depression. what's your response to that? >> well, there's a quote in the book that it's unfair to blame coolidge and hopefully that will help liberals see it's not the right thing to do. there's a growing of discussion among historians about that very point.

particularly historians like paul johnson that have taken the view that that the policies prolonged what was a tough recession and turned it into great depression. >> it's fascinating the last couple years that we've had that debate about people going back to policy saying stimulus spending worked. we had debate in '09. a fierce debate and now it's starting up again. europe has turned its back on economics and it may be happening here. >> you think about it for so long in our politics largely because of how deep the recession was, the name was not something you heard in popular discourse until really the last couple years this question of whether it is validated or whether it is the wrong model. that's an interesting thing. it's not someone you heard talked about in the 1980s and

1990s in the way you have heard in the last couple years. >> interesting how it is even that brand has been converted in discourse because democrats idea that every dollar you spend is reductionism. that's not reality. likewise republicans miss the point that george w. bush talking about recent so-called conservatives i can't think of a more -- that's probably the biggest president since lbj. >> that's the difference. they were very disciplined. we haven't seen that in recent years. >> can we get disciplined on the

spending side? >> i think president obama will put it on the table. i think we talk all of the time about two extremes and how much room there is in the center. there does seem to be room in the center for people to demand that that happen. the question is sacrifice. one of the things that george w. bush has been criticized for is not asking people to sacrifice for the sake of paying for wars and paying for deficit. barack obama talks about sacrificing in the abstract but getting it done will require actual sacrifice. >> thank you so much for coming on the show today. the book is the "high tide of american conservatisconservatis" >> can't wait to read it. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time...

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>> vampire weekend. i like that. we got that music up. t.j. said no. he hated vampire weekend. >> harsh words today.

>> what did you learn today? >> yankee stadium. >> spoon played last night. >> i also learned not to dial back my daily criticism of calvin coolidge after that segment. >> two quick things. i learned more barry manilow lyrics. there's a surprising direct connection between calvin coolidge and mark sanchez that i did not expect. i want to make interviews at both of them. >> okay. what did you learn today? >> baby boomers suck and also that because with bipartisan health challenge coming up on thursday i need to go buy a couple cartons of cigarettes. >> we have that on thursday. be there. it will be fun. i learned that he writes in gibberish. >> cruel. >> i call it as i s