♪ >> i believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the democratic party that are members of the communist party. >> jesus h. khrushchev! for those of you too young to remember communism, let me outline the dangers. thick-waisted women, and a weird backwards r. that's why i have never trusted toys r us. my only problem with congressman west here is that he said he won't name names. which means we will just have though speculate, and i will start. john boehner. hear me out. he may not be a democrat, but he sure looks red. or at least burnt sienna. keep an eye on this guy.

>> hey, guys. >> oh, boy. >> good morning. >> fantastic. >> good morning. >> beautiful day. >> good morning. >> it's friday. >> it's a good morning. >> it's friday the 13th. did you know that? yeah. welcome to "morning joe." >> i need to cancel that flight. >> thank god it's friday at least. >> i'm getting on a plane right after the show. >> cancel that flight. with us onset, and i'm not sure why -- >> yeah, i know. >> donny deutsch is here. chairman of the board. also, chief financer of "morning joe." and editorial writer for "the washington post" and contributor jonathan capehart. and from the nation's capital -- >> oh, thank god. look at him. disco. >> and from the club. >> pr adviser to hilary rosen, michael steele.

we greatly appreciate it, michael. i don't know who she's listening to, but she needs to stop. i tried to help her out yesterday. but everybody jumped in with both feet. it's crazy. before we get started, though, you know, there are moments in your life that you look back. like in "war horse," you know, the big line is there are big days and there are small days. there are also days of edification. >> what are you talking about? >> and there are also days that just turn out to be soul crushing experiences. last saturday, last saturday morning, i wake up. kathy ireland tweets in defense of donny deutsch's -- kathy ireland, supermodel. >> i know who kathy ireland is. >> the billionaire brand. >> incredible businesswoman. >> incredible businesswoman, incredible person. >> yeah. >> and the last person you would think -- >> i know, right? >> because i love kathy ireland. everybody loves kathy ireland. >> a lot of respect for her.

kind of lost it, though. >> she defends donny deutsch's double breasted suit. >> blazer. >> blazer, i mean. >> i'm with her on that. >> from the captain stubing collection. >> who did you call? >> exactly. >> i thought your blazer was fantastic. >> thank you, jonathan. jonathan, by the way, i'm so happy -- what did kathy ireland say, by the way? >> oh, shut up. how much did you pay her? [ laughter ] >> are there exact words to what she said? was it more of a thought? >> "the new york times" person that wrote that, and then somebody else wrote about mika going after barnicle, they don't understand, we're just having fun. >> they think i don't like them. >> we're just having fun. by the wa >> by the way, mr. capehart, he is one of the most well dressed men in washington. you defended me i think when i

wore the pink pants. >> and he is now defending your three-piece suit. >> those who come on with nice bucks -- can we show your bucks under the table? your shoes? >> seriously? >> i mean, don't throw stones. i love bucks, but -- >> it's not too early. >> it is too early for snow no socks, though. >> not if you're from florida. >> be quiet. don't you have some charts on that, steve? >> the people at this table are the most self-absorb -- >> thank god we hate talking about ourselves or having our picture taken. so can you believe what happened? as john meacham said, you look at all of these pictures around here, it looks like saddam hussein's castle. >> can i do the news? >> can you believe what happened yesterday? >> what? >> everybody is talking about hilary rosen. alex, is she even connected to the obama white house? >> no. she has no official role even in

the dnc. >> so she has no role in the dnc. she has no role in the white house. she is a pundit for cnn. she talks on a primetime cable show. >> yeah. >> and suddenly, you've got the white house and the republicans and ann romney and michelle obama immediately -- it's just crazy. >> but it's a motherhood and apple pie thing. it's an easy one for both sides to jump on hilary rosen for. >> joe tends to kind of back into things and vomit, so i'm going to back up and explain what we're talking about, because now the headlines this morning are spotlighted on ann romney. that is the headline from today's "the wall street journal" after democratic strategist hilary rosen's comments that mrs. romney has, quote, never worked a day in her life, continued to draw reaction from both campaigns. now we all know what we're talking about. ann romney herself hit back.

>> hold on a second. do you think that people that watch a show that talks about politics and foreign policy and the international financial affairs spent the last 24 hours eating glue? i think most people that watched this show -- >> i would assume people did spend the last 24 hours eating popcorn and cheetos and watching television but i'm not sure. thank you for educating me. you must be right. >> you're just so conndescendin with our audience. >> did something happen yesterday? it's an extra level of -- you can share. this is an open forum. >> well, ok. so i'll -- we can tell them the truth. >> let's try and work this out. >> it's because you're here. [ laughter ] >> and we know that if we say anything bad about you, you'll either pay off a supermodel or somebody at "the new york times" to disus. >> i can't help it if the liberal leaning media runs to my

aid as i am sabotaged on this far right reaching program. >> you paid her. >> jonathan, you are not a philistine. you are a man of style. >> here is the news. go ahead, meek a. >> ann romney defended her decision to stay at home with her children. >> she should have come to my house when those five boys were causing so much trouble. it wasn't so easy. my career choice was to be a mother. and i think all of us need to know that we need to respect choices that women make. i will tell you that mitt said to me more times than you would imagine, ann, your job is more important than mine. look, i know what it's like to struggle. and if maybe i haven't struggled as much financially as some people have, i can tell you and promise you that i have had struggles in my life. and i would love to have people understand that mitt and i have compassion for people that are struggling. and that's why we're running. >> ok.

>> the white house wasted no time in distancing themselves from hillary's comments. michelle obama immediately took to twitter writing every mother works hard, and every woman deserves to be respected. and the president himself offered this reaction. >> first of all, there is no tougher job than being a mom. i have watched michelle. you know, who for most of her career had to juggle work and family, but there were times when she was on maternity leave and i promise you that's work. so, you know, i think this was an ill advised statement by somebody on television. it's not something that i subscribe to. and moreover, my general rule is you don't talk about the spouses of elected officials. because they've got a really tough job. >> we have an obligation in politics and public life when someone even friends say things

that are inappropriate to say so. in fact, in certain ways when your friends say it, there's more of an obligation to do so. and, you know, i think that's true on both sides. she actually is your employee, not ours. she works for cnn. i think cnn would not allow her to be an operative for our campaign or the dnc. she's not. she never has been. >> that is a great line. she works for you, not us. >> very good. >> but i want to underline also and it goes back to what i was saying yesterday about allen west. david axelrod says, and it gets me in trouble with my republican side a lot of times, but i feel like when your sidesteps out of line, you have more of a responsibility to speak out against them. but anyway, i do think, though, the whole -- the whole deal, it's on the front page of all the papers. >> the "wall street journal." >> i think it speaks to the state of our politics that somebody not even related to the campaign makes a quick statement on a cable news show at night, and suddenly everybody feels the need to respond. let me ask you, though.

let me ask you, though. you work around the clock. >> sure. >> you get about four or five hours of sleep >> i'm talking to mika right now, and then to michael steele. because michael steele goes on cruise lines all the time. but you get four or five hours of sleep, mika. >> yeah. >> you have -- anybody that knows you, knows that you have a grinding schedule, and yet what's the harder job, coming in here and doing this or when you stayed home and you raised infants? >> well, i did that while i worked. but i'll tell you it's much harder to be at home. but that's not the issue. the issue is the attack on ann romney, a woman who made choices, and a lot of times a woman can have a lot of different jobs at once. ann romney took on five boys, and a husband's political career, of which you saw her on the road with him all the time.

and as you can see, here we go talking about it again because for women this is highly personal. these choices are highly personal, and no matter what, they're judged. no matter what, they are judged. >> explain that. >> well, the minute i saw this cross my blood pressure went up because i thought why is hilary rosen doing that? having said that, i understand her point about the luxury of having choices. but you know what? that doesn't make those choices actually a lot easier. you're still judged. >> by the way, most of my partners in business were women. they would come into the office on monday morning and say, wow, i'm so happy to be back at work. it's so much easier than being at home with the kids. i think that's indisputable. what's happening here is two things. it's not only politics, it's the media. the republicans have been wading in the weeds to try and scratch at that 18% gender gap they are having. and secondly, it's a slow news day. >> well, there's that. >> fiery issue.

>> but it's not as interesting. >> there's that. but let's focus on the thing here that hillary was talking about, and i'm going to say full disclosure, hillary is a very good friend. but when you're worth $250 million, you don't -- how can you understand what the average american woman has to deal with in terms of holding the family together, making ends meet, making sure there's food on the table? >> like john kerry and his wife. >> but john kerry is not in this race. >> no, in 2004. you say this about john and theresa heinz kerry in 2004? >> did they make this comment? >> i know i didn't. >> i know i'm coming at this from a male perspective. but when i heard the first clip, she's never worked a day in her life, i thought, whoa. but you have to read the rest of the quote. and that's what's been driving me nuts about this conversation. yes, it provided an easy way for the romney campaign as you just said to scratch at that 18-point

gender gap. >> jonathan, do you realize there are women and there are husbands and wives that have kids who decide to continue living in a trailer park instead of getting a ranch home because the wife says, i'm staying home with my child until he or she turns 5. you do realize that. that is a decision that is made across america. >> no, i understand that's a decision made across america, and people do it all the time. but not everyone has $250 million. so, you know -- >> but you know what? that does not discount her from being a working woman. >> oh, no, absolutely not. i'm not arguing that point. >> to say she hasn't worked a day in her life was completely wrong. >> two separate points here. one is the romney's wealth and whether that allows either of them to be in touch with the average american. >> right. >> and the second is the issue of a woman and whether working at home is just as good and just as important as working at a job. >> which it is. >> which it is. >> and it seems that there is

the subtext of, if you happen to have a lot of money, if you choose to work, it's some sort of weird selfish choice. i would say that ann romney works probably more than a lot of women who have jobs. i've seen her with her husband, on the road with him. i've seen them partnership like this before in my own family, where the husband and the wife help each other with each others' careers and literally work as much as each other, whether one gets money or one does not. so it was clueless, even though she is not a clueless person, and it say hot button issue for women still today. it really is. it's red meat. michael steele, i would say that this probably is a huge opportunity for the romneys to cash in on what looked like kind of a shameless attack. >> it is. it is, mika, for the moment. i think you have actually put the definitive mark on this in your comments, because that's really what it boils down to. women make personal, professional choices every day.

it doesn't matter the wealth or the amount in their pocketbook. you know, to jonathan's point, i have a lot of friends who are very, very wealthy. but their relatives are not. so they don't lose sight of the fact that a cousin or an aunt or an uncle or some other friend or relative is going through tough times. so that is not the point. i think really what it is is how we respond to this emerging and still growing opportunity that women are taking advantage of to be a part of the workplace, to shape an economy and to move the country forward. that's really what the crux of this debate is about. and for the romney people, they want to get back on the right side of making that argument that the policies of this administration have hurt that expansion forward by women, whereas the obama people want to talk about policies that romney is promoting that will stifle that. and that's really the nut of this whole thing. i think this comment by hillary

is as i said to my friend jonathan is rather whack, it's out of step with where the country really sees the role of women today. they don't parse it the way she did. and in about two weeks, we'll be talking about something else. >> well, i think we'll be talking about something else in two hours. >> why? because you're not interested? >> but this is an opportunity, though, for the romney campaign, and hilary rosen helped them out. >> yeah. >> so it happens all the time in politics. i want to go through a couple of quick news items. first of all, the north korean launch failed. i don't know -- i think it was stephen colbert that had the little skit where a soldier jumped up and a toy rocket went three feet in the air. that's actually what happened on the launch. there's a headline in the "wall street journal," steve rattner, 15 seconds or less. we actually are being fairly good stewards.

we always kick ourselves on energy policy. but consumption is down. production is up. and also worldwide, and this has nothing to do with us, oil supply also up right now. market conditions are not bad. and yet oil prices keep going up. >> well, first of all, we have been as you say good stewards but it's really been the markets. government really hasn't done anything. that's the effect of prices that has done that. on the international scene, the saudis have been pumping more oil. the tensions with iran seem to be easing. and the market is just incredibly sensitive to those factors. so right now, it's on the downward drift. >> is there anybody who disagrees with me that john edwards' family has suffered enough, and this is a waste of precious resources by the justice department? they should slap him on the wrist, plea out a deal, and send him home to be with his daughter, his older daughter and two young children who lost a mom.

and anybody want john edwards thrown in jail? anybody? >> it's not something i think about. >> michael steele? >> no, i agree with you, joe. this is an absolute waste of resources right now. the man has gone new a huge public humiliation. let him gather himself, pay whatever fines he needs to pay, and go back to his family and heal. >> let me ask you, jonathan capehart, zimmerman finally charged down in florida. what's your take? >> look, what the family has always wanted, what the lawyer for the family has always wanted, was an arrest. we've gotten the arrest. he's been charged with second degree murder. and now the games begin. and we're going to have another pivot point coming up very soon, which is whether the trial -- whether this case even goes to trial because of florida's stand your ground law. and the law is so -- i don't know if lax or lenient is the right word, but there's a very distinct possibility that zimmerman could not go to trial.

now, if that happens, and the decision is for a judge. and if the judge decides that the case can't go to trial because of stand your ground, trayvon martin's family does have the opportunity to appeal. >> you're right. >> but this is going to be dragged out for a while. >> and i think actually trying him now, charging him with something, certainly moves this entire case and this circus down the polls. this may be an outlier. but interesting result. >> fox news poll showing mitt romney and barack obama in a statistical tie, head-to-head matchup showing romney with 46% compared to president obama's 44% support. >> so donny, i remember a couple of weeks ago, chuck todd, i asked chuck todd about the huge divide between romney and obama. he said, just wait two weeks. they're going to be neck and neck again.

the republicans have had an incredible string of bad luck. and their candidates have been saying stupid things. but chuck told me, it's not a 15-point race. it's not a 10-point race. it's not a five-point race. he said it's a two-point race. and here we are deadlocked again. >> obviously, romney would get a bump because he gets the victor lap. i guess this guy has it going on. he got rid of everybody else. there must be something there. i think we have to be careful with polls going forward and looking back. i keep saying it's people voting for the show. whereas i give less credence to polls now than i ever have in my life. having said that, though, i think we'll be back and forth within three or four points until the election. i think obama will win, but that's what i think. >> mika, i think it's going to be an election that you know very well, 1980. ronald reagan, jimmy carter. i think it's going to go down to the yen. you just don't know. the final weekend is broke for the republican challenger in '80, this time it may break the other way. who knows?

steve, do you agree? >> i agree. it's going to be close. very hard to see the president carrying a lot of the states he carried last time. and it will be ohio, florida, it will be those same battleground states, and we'll all be up late maybe that night. >> going back to the ann romney story, unless the gender gap closes, it ain't going to happen. coming up next, mike allen will join us with the top stories in the politico playbook. also, the "wall street journal's" peggy noonan. a preview of "meet the press" with david gregory. and later, the son of legendary musician bob marley, ziggy marley, will be here. >> who's going to be on "meet the press." >> exactly. a new documentary on his father. plus, new york mayor cory booker channels his inner super hero running into a burning house to help save his neighbor. >> and he did it actually while she was tweeting. >> and delivering diapers. but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. good morning, everyone. this is the day we have been waiting for in new england. finally some beautiful weather right in time for the red sox opening day and also the yankees

at the stadium. both afternoon tilts should be perfect. now big heads up to everyone in tornado alley, mostly oklahoma into kansas. strong storms today, possible tornadoes near oklahoma city. but the real big headline is tomorrow. a tornado outbreak is likely tomorrow afternoon and evening. a high risk of severe weather in that area of white. moderate risk in the red. so from omaha to oklahoma city, have your safety plans in place for your family come tomorrow afternoon. now to the good stuff. beautiful weather in the northeast today. temperatures in the 60s. as we go through the weekend, all of the stormy weather stays in the middle of the country. the east coast actually looks pretty nice saturday and sunday. after getting up near 80 by sunday. that's a look at your national forecast. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar,

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26 past the hour. beautiful shot of capitol hill on this friday morning, friday the 13th. time to take a look at the morning papers. from "the new york times," big money is about to get bigger. aids and leading donors to mitt romney have set a goal of raising $600 million. president obama's fundraising operation is expected to meet the $750 million mark that he generated in 2008. those lofty goals make it virtually certain that neither party's nominee will accept public funding or the spending limits that come with them. >> and that's of course what really hampered john mccain's efforts last time. he couldn't raise the money. he took the public money. so from the new jersey star ledger, newark mayor cory booker was briefly hospitalized and

treated for smoke inhalation and burns to his hands after helping out his next door neighbor escape from a house fire last night. wow. i didn't know that. the mayor said he heard a woman yelling for help, so he ran in and got her. at one point, he was surrounded by flames and smoke and ed jumping from the second floor window. he eventually got out down the stairs. meanwhile, he kept everyone in the loop through twitter, saying thanks to all who are concerned. just suffering smoke inhalation. got the woman out of the house. we are both in the hospital. i will be ok. the woman is in stable condition. that's amazing. the song is also amazing. i love that, by the way. mr. blue sky, blo. >> blo? >> great band. >> you don't even know this song. that's just sad. >> man, come on. >> it's a great song. anyway, with us now the chief correspondent have

politico and the man who says those two words that get your weekend started off right, mike allen. >> happy friday. >> we should mention mike is the newest member of the virginia communications hall of fame. >> big hand. >> a ceremony in richmond last night. that's wonderful. >> that had to be a proud moment. >> well, it was such an honor and treat because you so rarely get the chance to thank the people who helped you get your start. here was a chance for people in the room who took a chance on me when there was no reason to, at the fredericksburg free lance star, the evening paper, that was my first job at the rich mopp mond times dispatch. i was young and dumb, and these people gave me a lot of grace and i got to thank them in person. and inducted at the same time was my professor, ham smith from washington and lee, who got me started, taught me everything. i got to tell last night about

how at the top of the first big story i turned in to him, he wrote in all caps, nuts. and so i got to thank him for that last night. >> so mike allen, i did not know this. are you a w & l man? are you a general? >> absolutely, yes, sir. >> holy cow. i never knew that. >> well, things you didn't know about mike allen. >> good times in big lex. >> lexington, huh. wow. we'll talk about that later. let's talk about your lead story this morning, the draperizing of mitt romney. of what do you speak, mike allen? >> well, this pulls back the curtain on the obama campaign's effort to sort of put mitt romney in a way back machine. to portray him as so retro that both his policies and his life story are totally out of step with contemporary america. jonathan martin and maggie haverman phrased it brilliantly. they say it's kind of a reverse

turner movie classics. they take his colorized life and turn it into black and white. >> wow. what do you think of that strategy? >> well, people have a bs detector. it's kind of silly. it's one thing you want to say he is out of touch. but to just kind of -- as mike's word draperize him is a little silly i think. >> that's a good word. >> but i think trickery doesn't work today. i think go after the guy for what he is, but that kind of media metaphor, i don't know if it holds water. >> exactly. >> we shall see. what else are you guys doing, mike? >> real quick, david axelrod helped to label this the obama top strategist, he qukwiped the other day that mitt romney must watch "mad men" and think it's the evening news. >> oh, boy. >> another story popping up this morning, the debt for the newt gingrich campaign has tripled since the last time they

reported it. part of the reason he went so far into debt, we discovered in talking to people who had worked for him, talking to his vendors, he wanted to keep up the illusion of a big time campaign, so he was spending big on charters, security detail. callista gingrich had her own staff of two that was with her, her own security detail. now the gingrich campaign is in so much trouble, and joe, you'll recognize what a sign this is, they are renting out their campaign mailing list. that's the family jewels for a political organization. and it can just antagonize your only supporters because now it means they are going to be hit up by all kinds of conservative groups that pay $26,000 to get newt's list. >> my goodness. >> that's bad. >> very good. you may have won $10 million, right? >> mike allen, thank you. >> congratulations, mike. >> happy friday. coming up next, steve rattner will be comparing tax

proposals from president obama and mitt romney. he's got charts. you're going to love them. it's going to make your weekend. we'll be right back. on "morning joe." not in this economy.

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the romney rule proposes to give another $250,000 a year tax cut to the average millionaire, on top of maintaining the bush tax cuts. but seriously, that's what he calls for, the romney rule calls for. that's another trillion dollars in tax cuts over the next 10 years going to the top 1% of american taxpayers. i don't blame her for crying. she's going to -- she is going to inherit it. [ applause ] >> she's going to pay for it. that's one smart baby. >> that was vice president biden yesterday in new hampshire continuing the white house's campaign push on the so-called buffett rule. steve rattner is now here with

his charts to break down tax rates and the two sides' different approaches to that. >> now we have the buffett rule and we have the romney rule. that's whattid b biden just tol. let's look back over the last 50 years. you can see that for middle income americans their tax rates have gone up very slightly from 14% to 16%. if you look at the top 1%, their tax rates have actually gone down very slightly, from 27% to 26%. but look at the top 0.1%, which started in 1960 with a 51% tax rate. >> can we define this? are you talking about income tax or all taxes? >> income tax. >> income tax. >> look at the top 0.1%, and they started up above 50%, and now they are down to 26% tax rate. and this is a function of the reagan tax cuts, the bush tax cuts. but this is what is driving -- i would say in fairness this is a white house chart.

so i wouldn't stick with every single number. but directionally, it is definitely consistent with the other data. >> let me ask you, why is it now that almost 50% of americans, one in two americans, don't pay any taxes, income taxes? >> well, that's been a series of tax changes including the earned income tax credit. >> also started with reagan. >> also started with reagan. and it's true, the bottom half of the country pays no income tax, but they pay social security, they pay sales tax, they pay lots of other kinds of taxes. >> but for the actual functions of the government, whether you're talking about education, defense, all of these other things, do you think it's a -- do you think it's good? and this isn't a leading question. do you think it's good we live in a country where soon one out of every two americans will not pay a dime in income taxes for the functioning of their government? >> there is no right or wrong, there's no rule or formula, that says what's the right tax system. >> i'm just asking you what you think. is it a good development? is that something we should be

worried about? >> let me say two things. one, i understand the argument that many people make that everybody should pay something, whether it's $10, $100, they should pay something. i understand that argument. on the other hand, i think we all need to also understand the facts that over the last 50 years, the tax system has gotten much less progressive. that much more of the tax benefits have gone to the wealthy. >> now, let's show that chart one more time, and let me ask you to put this in perspective with other countries. columni conservatives will say, and i know columns, and you've read them, will say that our tax rate is no less progressive than the tax rates and the tax systems in other western countries. fair or not? >> look, it varies from country to country. if you want to talk about things like our top tax rate, it's generally lower than other countries. right now you have a socialist tenet in france who wants a 75% tax rate in france. in britain, it's over 40%. our tax rates are relatively low. but let's look for a second at

the romney versus the obama tax plan. here we have a dramatic difference. romney has proposed a 20% across the board reduction in tax rates which would obviously help most the people at the top end of the income scale in terms of how much their tax rates would go down. obama has proposed preserving the bush tax cuts as they are except on that top small group, and there he would raise them pretty substantially. so as the campaign unfolds, we are going to see very different visions of tax policy, and who should pay more and who should pay less. and then lastly, the buffett rule. because it's gotten so much attention. >> so how many people does the buffet rule affect in america? >> the buffett rule affects people that make over $1 million, so it's probably the top .10 of a percent, something like that. but that's the point. whatever the merits, it's not going to raise a huge amount of revenue. it will raise at the most, and there are estimates that show

less, $260 billion over the next 10 years. and living in a world of trillion dollar deficits, if you just let the bush tax cuts on the rich expire, it's $1 trillion. the buffett rule is symbolic but not -- >> if the bush tax cuts are -- if we get rid of them for everybody, you raise $4.5 trillion over the next decade? >> correct. >> wow. >> which is roughly the same as simpson bowles. so you could do that and not do any simpson bowles and get to the same place. >> joe, let me ask really quickly, what happens if you get rid of the bush tax cuts for everybody over the next decade, and you make changes to medicare and social security? what would that do for the united states of america for the dollar, for our outlook in the international economy, international market,

immediately? >> immediately, it would certainly help the dollar. it would actually be a drag on our economy, of course. if you raise taxes that much, that quickly, change entitlements that quickly, it would affect the recovery. but over the longer period of time -- >> say we do it in two years when the economy is -- >> over a longer period of time, i think we have to do something like that. it's the only way to bring our fiscal situation into balance there. have to be more revenue and you have to deal with dollars. >> the tax cuts by romney, i know you're a little concerned about the debt. aren't you concerned about that? >> i'm as concerned about that as we have entitlements on the other side. but the white house is not going to go for any entitlement cuts and the republicans aren't going to propose any revenue increases, and we have this standoff. >> romney said he would make it revenue neutral by getting rid of tax deductions and other loopholes, but he hasn't specified those. >> thank you, steve.

we'll be right back with the must read opinion pages.

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we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. welcome back to "morning joe." beautiful shot of the white house. >> very nice. >> friday the 13th. >> yes, it is. >> let's go to mika's must-read opinion pages. she picked them out last night at her hotel in the south of france before heading back. >> one in the "wall street journal." and no, i was not in the south of france. let's see. romney's primary lessons by kim strauss el. the romney primary victory was largely one of stolidity. he used his organizational might to knock down each rival but took few risks. it worked in a primary of flawed and underfunded opponents, but

in the general election mr. romney will be the insurgent running against a well funded political pro with a big megaphone. now's the time for the campaign to change gears. and this last year provided no lack of tips for how to do it. >> michael steele, we talked last week about how the campaign brought ed gillespie on. and you see they moved very quickly on going after a cnn pundit and probably have used it to their advantage. i'm guessing they are already looking lighter on their feet. >> yeah, they are. and i think that was a very smart move to bring gillespie on. and i would not be surprised to find out if ed was behind the positioning of the message on this hillary flap recently. so they are taking the right steps. the only other thing i think would be very good right now, just to sort of soothe the savage beasts out there that are still roaming the political landscape for romney, and that

is to bring pundits inside a little bit, have them be a part of shaping the message, have them be a part of getting out there and showing him and them working together to encourage others to come along. and i think that begins to cut down the noise that is still out there, you know, that anybody but romney stuff. you know, because right now, there's no one left but romney. so let's kind of pull all this together and move forward into a general campaign that's going to be both exciting but opportunistic for romney as mika pointed out in that piece. >> i want to go back to that last op-ed. basically what we said he was good at blocking and tackling. when you're outspending your opponents 10-1, he's like the yankees. you're going to get in the playoffs. it doesn't mean you win the world series. it's a different game now. to me, you almost can't lose at being a businessman. if i ran an ad agency and i got to spend 10-1 on employees versus the other agency, i just can't lose. >> well, there are examples of people who have lost. phil graham, other guys with a ton of money.

>> over a period of time. i'm not talking about in one isolated area. tell me one instance -- >> donny, you have it backwards. you should know this as an ad man. you really should. mitt romney was the front-runner. he was the machine. he was the death star running against weaker opponents. >> correct. >> now it's not about his record. it's not about massachusetts. reset, new game. everything is about barack obama. >> that's right. >> but he hasn't shown anything. >> but the point is there's a campaign reset. and as an ad man right now, i guarantee you, you would rather be running the ad campaign against the incumbent than you would for the challenger. i'm just saying gee her klee. >> but i'd still rather be running a campaign against a bunch of fools versus even money head-to-head. >> barack obama outspent mccain 10-1 in so many states. outspent hillary clinton 5-1. couldn't win in ohio or texas. >> mitt romney has not shown me

anything yet because he almost couldn't lose with what he was doing. that's my point. we have a great four months ahead of us. >> do you understand what he's saying? >> of course he could have lost. there's no question he could have lost. >> by the way, unless he was -- >> what's he saying? >> that's what i'm saying. >> what's he saying? >> all that matters is money. >> all he's done at this point is blocking and tackling. he outspent the competition. now he has a real competitor. >> what doesn't make sense about that? >> jonathan? >> i just write. i'm not his translator. >> ok. >> sorry if i'm just up here. and you guys are -- [ laughter ] >> who do we have ahead, mika? we have peggy noonan and we have david gregory and so much more. >> and sports with jonathan capehart. >> we'll be right back. >> that's disturbing. nnouncer ] you are a business pro.

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what makes us number one in motorcycle insurance? we love bikes. we love riders. and most of all, we love to ride. perfect hair every time. leading the pack in motorcycle insurance. now, that's progressive. call or click today. that's yankee stadium that we're looking at from a beautiful view from chopper 4. it's opening day today there. and the weather should be great. >> that just sounds fabulous, jonathan. >> thank you. >> meika, don't hate. >> let's talk about baseball. >> let's do it. >> last night, 49-year-old jamie

moyer of the rockies was trying to become the oldest pitcher ever to win an mlb game. he would have to beat the 22-year-old madison baumgartner to do it. here are the highlights. moyer induces the fly ball and gets out of a bases loaded jam in first inning. in the fourth inning, giants already up one when melky cabrera sneaks the single through the infield to make it 2-0. later, cabrera still not respecting his elders, he doubles off the wall to bring another run home. giants go on to win 4-2, and the old guy would have to wait a few more days for that historic win. >> by the way, that's digger phelps son-in-law. >> that's amazing. >> 49-year-old guy. >> i did not know that. the nationals making their home debut yesterday against the reds. top of the ninth, ryan ludwick hits it hard on the ground, and ryan zimmerman can't come up

with it. that ties the game at 2-2. the nates have a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, but danny espinosa grounds into the double play, so it will go to extra innings. bottom of the 10th, alfredo zimmerman throws the wild pitch, and the nats walk off with the win. >> yesterday, we were out at citi field with fred wilbon, an amazing guy. but straussburg, man, i saw him pitching against the mets. the nats are doing great. who's not doing great, though, the boston red sox. opening day at fenway tonight. over the last 30 days, last 30 games, you go back to september, they are now -- >> do tell. >> the sox are 7-23. theo epstein's team, the team he put together for about $200 million before leaving for chicago, theo epstein's team is 7-23.

>> that said engine that couldn't. >> over the past 30 games. 7-23. thank you, theo. good luck in chicago. don't come back. >> jonathan capehart, curt dowdy would be proud. >> thank you very much. >> very polite sports cast. coming up next, the "wall street journal's" peggy noonan. keep it right here on "morning joe." she takes donny deutsch to task. >> good, good. members of the american postal worker's union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal worker's union. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want

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folks, i don't know if you

have heard, but mitt romney has been hurt by the so-called republican war on women. mitt romney turned that attack against obama using the ancient art of jumitsu. >> the real war on women has been waged by the obama administration's failure on the economy. >> the lady public didn't respond to mitt's reverse takedown of obama until there was a cable news miracle. when democratic campaign strategistilary rosen criticized stay at home mother of five ann romney. >> guess what? his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. >> now, now, play the quote on a loop. just play it on a loop. >> his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. >> now drop a back beat on it. >> his wife has never actually worked a day in her life. his wife has never actually worked a day in her life. ♪ [ cheers and applause ]

>> his wife has never actually worked a day in her life. ♪ >> oh, that is catchy. now, sadly, ms. rosen has since apologized to ann romney profusely. do we have that clip? no? then what do we have? ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." top of the hour. donny deutsch and steve rattner still with us, along with michael steele in washington. and joining the table, columnist for the "wall street journal" peggy noonan, who will be getting the coveted matrix award by the new york women. >> one of my great partners, i gave her the award. it's a very prestigious thing. >> excellent, peggy. very nice.

>> so, peggy, come on. i mean, you've got somebody not even connected with the obama administration, and i know hilary rosen. and we have had some back and forth scraps privately. but she's a friend of mine. a good friend. i've known her for a long time. she's not connected to the obama administration. she's not connected to the dnc. she is a pundit on a cable news show at night. and suddenly, you have the entire political world turned upside down because of an off-handed comment. and forget the context of it. what does it say about our politics in 2012 that a pundit's comment on a cable news show stops the political world in its tracks for 24 hours? >> well, joe, are you completely fairly painting the scene here? i think hilary rosen for all her

fabulousness, and she is a close friend of yours, is associated with the obama administration. >> in what way? >> has she not been in -- didn't jay carney have a little thing yesterday where somebody said, how many times has she been here? and the answer was 35 times. she has met with the president. i think she contracts with the dnc. so is she not a person -- >> she is a deeply partisan democrat. >> of course she is. so what? so let me ask you this question. because we have probably been to the white house 35 times, and we've met privately with the president. i mean, yeah. but we -- but that doesn't mean a whole lot. i'm wondering when are we going to get the apology from mitt romney for allen west, a congressman who compares or says 80 democrats are communists? i'm not carrying the democratic card right now. i'm just saying, this seems a bit overblown.

>> well, look, there's a lot going on here. first -- >> you didn't expect this, did you? >> first of all, you've got the gender wars that have been going on for the past few weeks. and i wouldn't say it is the republicans who started the gender wars, who started the whole trope of the war against women. that's the context. second of all, hilary rosen's comment was unnecessarily denigrating a mother of five, never worked a day of her life. well, that's silly. if you've ever had kids, that's just strange. however, then it devolved into it is a luxury to stay home with your kids. and i've got to tell you, women who stay home with their children in the house, they tend to be lower economic -- there's a lot of lower economic folks in that group. they are not enjoying a luxury. they are making a sacrifice. they are not going out and

getting the extra money that they might get with a job or a part-time job. they are giving that up. they are giving up the approval of the world and the party and the office in order to be home with their kids. >> mika? >> ok, and the same can be said for women who choose to work, who don't necessarily have to, but they are making a different type of sacrifice. there are so many layers to this, which is why the comment was just kind of -- >> there are. but let me finish up this one thing, the difference between a sacrifice and a luxury. america is a hard country to live in without extra money. americans really connect money with status. when you have decided to stay home and say no to the extra money that you need, that is not only a sacrifice, it is sort of -- it is a gesture that deserves nothing but respect. and the hilary rosen thing, it didn't get respect. that's the point that should be

made. as i said last hour, there are women in greenwich that decide to stay home and can afford to do that. there are also women in northwest florida who decide to stay in trailer parks instead of affording a ranch house because they want to stay home and raise their children instead of going and making $18,000, $19,000. it's up and down the scale. >> yes. and we should respect it. just respect. >> let me bring you in, michael steele, and ask you this question as well. and by the way, i will say this about republicans, and i have defended republicans when their words have been retched from the context as well. but in case with hilary rosen, you have the president speaking out against what hilary rosen said. you have the first lady immediately speaking out against what hilary rosen said. you have david axelrod speaking out about what she said. you have jim muhsina speaking out. you have everybody in the white house speaking out against what hilary rosen said. everybody in the dnc speaking out against what hilary rosen said.

i'm wondering why should this attach to barack obama and the white house? >> well, i don't think it does necessarily. that's why you just laid out the distancing that's going on there. they don't want it to attach to the white house directly. >> so what's the issue? why is this on the front page of all the newspapers today? >> because i think it goes to what both mika and others have been saying, is that this really focuses in on the working woman, the professional woman, the decisions that women make. and it seems like, you know, this was an attack. it seems like it was an unnecessary attack on those individuals. and so that's what pushes it to the forefront. >> but you agree this should not connect to barack obama? >> no. i mean, not directly, because i think the president has made it very clear about how he feels about this issue. i thought his comments were dead on yesterday. i think the first lady's comments were dead on. so the distance -- >> so, michael to further

antagonize my republican side, let me ask you the next question. shouldn't mitt romney distance himself from a sitting united states congressman who is connected to the republican party, who is connected to mitt romney, who is connected to the washington establishment, an elected member of congress who said 78 to 81 democrats are communists? >> well, i'll tell you the difference there, joe, is that i bet if you poll 10 people, if two people knew about that comment versus this hilary flap, i'd be surprised. and that's the difference. >> shouldn't mitt romney distance himself from that comment? >> i don't know. i don't think it's a -- >> you don't know? >> i don't know because i don't think it's worth it. >> you don't know if mitt romney should condemn a sitting congressman that says 78 to 81 members of the democratic party in the house of representatives are communists? >> well, i mean, why should he condemn them? do you believe him? >> he is comparing 78 to 81

public servants in the united states house of representatives are being compared to -- are part of a movement that was responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th century. peggy -- >> joe, it doesn't go -- >> look, the ann romney thing, the hilary rosen thing and the allen west thing are two separate things. i think it odd that you are connecting them. having been -- >> why are you connecting the two? >> because -- hold on a second. it's because -- no, no, it's me here. i'm asking a question. and peggy, this is the answer. let me answer. i'm going to answer it first. he asked me a question, and i'm going to answer it, and you can respond. because here we have a cable news pundit that is shut down the political discourse over the past 24 hours. when a sitting united states congressman says something deeply, deeply offensive, and no republican has spoken out against that.

does nobody see there's a little bit of inconsistency here, peggy? do you distance yourself from allen west's comments? >> i don't have to distance myself, joe. you are being mischievous. >> oh, my lord. >> these are two different -- excuse me, please let me respond. these are two different stories. we have already done the rosen-ann romney one. as for the allen west one, i think it absurd, since you have asked me, that anyone, any sitting congressman, would announce there are 78 to 81 communists in the u.s. congress. it struck me as strange. i don't understand. >> might even be stupidity. seriously. >> i don't know if it was stupidity or mischief, but it did harken back to an unfortunate time in our history, when a senator from wisconsin stood up, and i believe there were 200 to 205 communists in the state department. it's silly.

it's way past 50 years ago. do you know what i mean? it is -- >> let me jump in here for one second. joe's point is either we attach the president of the united states any democrat, anywhere, says anything, either that's attached to him or it's not, the same way an idiot says something and it's attached to romney or it's not. >> he is a sitting congressman. >> i'm actually getting angry. there are 300 million people in this country that are not stupid. they can disseminate when a cable pundit says something stupid versus the democratic point of view about women. it is such absurdity that the cable news networks, we, have all gotten so -- >> wait a minute. do not attach -- donny -- >> do you think this changes one voter's opinion about president obama? >> do not attach us to other cable news shows. go ahead. >> ok. the media. the faceless media. do you think one voter has changed their opinion about barack obama or the democrats

because of what some woman said on a cable news show at night? we are so caught up in our own schwartz. >> steve rattner -- >> can i say two things? i happen to agree with you. i do find it odd you have a sitting congressman saying there are 78 communists in the congress and nobody is saying anything about it. it sort of disappeared off the radar. i can't explain that. and on the hilary rosen thing, i don't think people are attaching it to barack obama, even though she is a democratic activist. i think the romney people are using this as a way to close the gender gap. somebody has attacked ann romney. she is remember tcertainly the popular part of the romney campaign. they'll use it as a way to try to close the gender gap, and they should. >> why shouldn't she answer an attack on twitter or facebook or wherever? >> mika is up right now. >> i think in a very measured way, steve rattner just nailed exactly what's going on here. and i would only add that the

hilary rosen comment is kind of very, very emotional issue for women. so i see why it got picked up. >> well, people aren't stupid. >> by the way -- hey, donny, calm down, and let's now go to matrix award winner peggy noonan. >> i forget where we are. look, let me say -- [ laughter ] >> would you like me to help? >> the vibrations on this panel this morning. look, the democrats opened a front. a opened it mischieviously about a month ago. they just got nailed for fighting on part of the front. fine. let it go. ok? >> michael steele. last word to you. >> the democrats, they just got nailed on this. >> yes. >> oh, come on. >> michael steele -- >> guys, when i say michael steele, what i am -- actually, if you can interpret what i'm trying to say is it's michael's time to talk. michael steele. >> thank you.

i think that steve and peggy have really summed this thing up. it is a political opportunity that romney and his team are taking advantage of at the moment. it will be let go of by the american people in the next 24 to 48 hours. and we move on. >> all right. >> i did like the conversation, though, about our role and our value in marriage and things, in society and in the workplace, because it's not all about money. it's not all about who's better. >> and it's not a luxury to stay home. it's a sacrifice. >> peggy noonan, stay with us. up next, nbc's david gregory will join the conversation. he'll give us a preview of "meet the press." but first, bill karins with the weather. bill? >> holy cow, bill. we're sorry. good morning, everyone. we are watching a storm move into california. it's not often i start my weather cast talking about the bad weather in california.

raining pretty good in san francisco and sacramento. people's morning drive in l.a., the rain will move in later today. this storm will move into the middle of the country. so as we go through saturday, the afternoon and evening, on omaha, oklahoma city, wichita falls, under risk of strong tornadoes. unfortunately this is one of these events that could be life threatening. big deal saturday afternoon. your weekend forecast, look at the great weather. just focus on the east coast. we paid our dues this week. boston, new york, d.c., philadelphia, we jump into the mid 70s on saturday. even on sunday, d.c. could be into the low 80s. all the stormy weather will remain in the middle of the country, and guess what today is? opening day. it is for the red sox too. but we mostly care about the yankees here on "morning joe." at least i do. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. all right, let's decide what to do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me...

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the president's been trying

out some new slogans in front of audiences, and he's been getting mixed results. >> the american people understand it's required to win the future. i laid out a blueprint for an economy that is built to last. here in america, we are laying off teachers in droves. the money has to come from someplace. we have better stuff to do. i've got better stuff to do. we've got to settle for a second rate roads and second rate bridges, second rate airplanes. take whatever you can from whomever you can. you know what? it really didn't work. and we almost had a second great depression, and maybe we should try something different. >> welcome back to "morning joe" as you look at the white house on a beautiful friday the 13th. i am holding in my hands a list

of 14 members of the communist party that work for "meet the press." and now we bring in one of them, with us now from washington, d.c., moderator of "meet the press" david gregory. david, a few questions. first, raise your right hand and repeat after me. >> have you no decency, joe scarborough? >> ok. i give up. let's read from peggy noonan's column and change this topic. >> are we going to turn the page? >> i don't know. maybe not. >> it's over. what have we learned? the gop used to be derided by democrats as the john wayne party. it loved shootem ups. actually, john wayne didn't ride into town itching for a fight, and he didn't ride in shooting off his mouth either. he was laconic, observant, he rode in hoping for peace, but if something broke out, he was ready. he had a gun. it was loaded. and he knew how to use it if he had to. but he didn't want to have to.

which was part of his character's power. the gop should go back to being john wayne. >> first, peggy, what are you saying there? >> that was about foreign affairs. that was -- i wrote a column this week in the "wall street journal" that talks about the things we have learned throughout the presidential primary race, and one of the things we learned is that the republican candidates spoke aggressively on foreign affairs. i think you and i actually may agree on this. >> we do agree on this. >> their stance was somewhat aggressive, and they opened themselves to looking like the war party. if they want to do that, it's one thing. but if they are not noticing they're doing it, it's quite another. i think they ought to go back to the old way of be strong, be well armed, but be hoping for peace and try to make peace happen around you. >> they need to follow colin powell's advice. >> well, colin powell does have thoughts on this that i agree

with. >> certainly, we do. hey, david gregory, it seems like the general election has started in earnest. the first shot was fired on cnn in primetime a few nights ago. >> well, it really was. and i think one of the aspects, and i have been listening to whats been a very interesting conversation you've been having at different parts of the morning about the hilary rosen comments and about the gender gap politics, the fight for women voters. is that this is one area of the primary fight that really did hurt mitt romney. in a combination of ways. one, he had rick santorum out there talking about social issues in a very prominent way. you have this debate about contraception and religious liberty that if the polling is to be believed certainly benefited democrats and most notably president obama. and in the course of that, even though romney did not get in the middle of all of it, he still came out for positions like defunding planned parenthood,

defunding title x, which provides family planning funds as part of the hhs. he came out in favor of a more stringent rule that would allow a moral exception for any doctor, not just a religious institution, on that issue of contraception. you put all of that together, he was swept in with the republican party that had some setbacks over this issue. and so that gender gap has widened. and then we see these hilary rosen comments get it to a place where the romney campaign feels like they have an ability to close that gap some. and this is an area they are so keenly focused on. why? because women will decide the election in swing states as they do so often. and this is an area that they don't want to see president obama run away with. build up an advantage that can't be taken down. and after the general -- after the primary fight, it's women, it's latino voters, it's independent voters that the erosion of support for governor

romney ain those areas has been noticeable as a result of this fight. >> david, as you know, other than one or two exceptions, the republicans have always had a gender gap, even when president bush won. he had a gender gap. so right now it's maybe 18 points if you believe most of the polls. where do you think it has to get to for romney to potentially win this election? how much does he have to close that 18 points? >> well, if you look back, you're looking at about 10 to 12 points now of an extension of where president obama has an advantage over romney as compared to where then senator obama had the advantage over senator mccain in 2008. so i think you want to try to bring that within single digits for sure. if you just look at the demographics, romney is likely to do better among men when it comes to the fall. women will be the battleground. and here is an interesting point going through the polling data. right now, president obama is polling well with college educated women. he does less well among noncollege working class women.

if the economy can improve a little bit, the hope is within the white house that these are women who will not feel the economic squeeze as much, and might be freer to vote on cultural issues, culture war issues that at the moment might benefit democrats. although i have been looking at some of the fundraising appeals that the romney campaign has been sending out after the hilary rosen comments, and they are seizing on those and saying, you know, democrats don't believe that staying at home is real work. and remember, you know, look at the cycles we've gone through in this. 20 years ago, hillary clinton made the comments about, you know, i could have stayed home and made cookies and had teas. and i decided not to do that. back in 2004, theresa heinz said of laura bush, she is nothing but a librarian and ultimately had to apologize. and there you had president bush able to close that gender gap even though he was still behind with john kerry. so, you know, these things come back in cycles.

and here we are. >> yeah. jonathan capehart. >> david, do you think the reason why the obama campaign reacted so quickly to hilary rosen's comments, does it have to do with what she said or what people think she said about the stay at home mom versus go to work moms, or is it about protecting the first lady from being attacked during the general campaign? >> well, maybe a little bit of both. the president said he thinks that family members should be off limits. i think both the first lady and also ann romney be prominent figures as all of, you know, our wives are to help humanize us in some way and to describe us from a woman's point of view. i think that was part of it. but i also think just on its face, that's not the discussion that they want to have. i don't think they want to get into what's been described as the mommy wars, an issue that women certainly struggle with. and, again everything i have

learned about feminism from my wife and my sister and from my mother is about respecting the choice. and i think a lot of people feel that way. and i certainly don't think that's an issue that they would like to build a wider gender gap around. i think they want to focus it on health issues and economic issues that women are actually going to vote on, that they really care about. not about the status of their lives. >> yeah. it's also, jonathan, just an issue that is still so conflicting for women. it is so difficult. and i know you keep talking about the sacrifice stay at home moms make. either way, it's a sacrifice and one that still carries a lot of judgment between women. it is just volatile. it was a bomb that was dropped in the middle of all of us. >> you talked about judgment twice now. and i'm sure, peggy, you understand this. that stay at home moms are judged. >> totally. >> women that go out to work are judged. i have seen this not only with

my mom, but with my wife, with business partners. it seems like women can't win. and i think that's why there is such a sort of volatility on this issue, because women who stay at home feel great about being with their children, but feel like they are missing something. a lot of moms do. and women who work feel guilty every day they are in the workplace. it's just a no-win situation for so many women. >> it's true. it's completely true. i always feel particular sympathy for stay at home mothers who a few decades ago, 30, 40 years ago, started saying at the local barbecue, the birthday party, at dinner or lunch, what do you do? i'm a lawyer. what do you? i'm a doctor. what do you? i'm just a housewife. do you know what i mean? they would say that in a way that makes you say, no, no, no, thank you, thank you for doing what you're doing.

it's really wonderful. you're not just an anything. that's one of the little tender things that's been going on. yeah. among women. >> go ahead, david. >> mika, i wanted to add one other point which is to jonathan's point. i think there's also an aspect of this that in a campaign, i don't think the white house wants the specter of largely men talking about something that is as you say is conflicting for women. you know, whether we are talking about women's bodies in the case of contraception or whether women should be at home or be working, i don't think that's the conversation the president wants to see playing out with a lot of men talking about it in the course of the campaign. >> absolutely. who do you have this sunday on "meet the press"? >> we'll talk more about this. hilary rosen and michele bachmann at my roundtable to debate this issue. >> oh, goodie. we'll be watching that. >> throw some kerosene on that fire, baby. >> and, oh, by the way, tim geithner too about the economy.

>> peggy, what's your question? >> i want your opinion as a former political practitioner. all of my life, women in general have skewed democratic and presidential years, even as men in general have skewed republican. why is that? why do women lean this way and men lean this way? do you know pollsters actually don't know the answer to that question and have little disputes and arguments about it? >> no. that's a great question. >> what do you think it is? >> i'm give you the answer right after this. ♪ beth! hi! looking good. you've lost some weight. thanks. you noticed. these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right -- whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multi-grain cheerios -- 5 whole grains, 110 calories.

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all right. >> mika, peggy asked a question, why do democrats get the women vote more than republicans? and i got an answer from denise williams on twitter. answer to noon an's question, because women are smarter. i take it she is a democrat. that's my guess. still ahead, broadway laces up its sneakers as we look at the new play about the rivalry between magic johnson and larry bird, two great friends, two great basketball players. straight ahead on "morning joe." [ heather ] my first car by heather a.

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look at that. >> beautiful, beautiful shot. of the big city. the big bad city. >> on a friday. >> i love it. >> yes, he is here. here with us now, chairman and chief executive officer of mdc partners, miles ni dal. your name is so elegant. >> it is elegant. and danny, you're a big fan of miles. >> he is the best thing that's happened in the industry for the last 20 years. he is getting behind a bunch of creative shops, building them, terrific guy. i have tremendous respect for him. >> i'm following in his footsteps. >> whatever. not quite. >> let me just say, miles, we had great respect for you up until this moment. >> there's more money around this set than i've ever seen in my life. >> don't follow in his footsteps. we're talking about the economy.

there is so much going on. we have got unemployment. the numbers are going down a little bit, but the white house is everybody else disappointed with the jobs numbers. gas prices are up, despite the facts that, well, some of the fundamentals look pretty strong. what is happening with the economy? >> well, i think steve actually earlier on gave some very good statistics and information. i don't think it's because of a policy. it's really more because of demand as a result of the high prices. you know, we have become so myopically focused on minute details and information that come out daily. here is the reality of the world. corporate america is in very good shape, ok? profitability is growing. s&p is going to earn about $105. stock market is about 13 times. corporate profits are growing probably 5% a year. it's mostly growth, though, outside of america. when you see growth, you know, 80% of the fortune 100 companies growth is in the bric companies of brazil, russia, india and

china. >> a lot of americans are hurting. front page of the "wall street journal" said three days ago if you look at the s&p 500 companies, they are making more money now than they made in 2007 before the recession. they are rolling in the cash. tons of cash sitting on the sidelines. >> well, so there's two things. first of all, so they are in very good shape. companies are growing. the unemployment numbers i think are a little bit, you know, misunderstood. because, you know, they showed unemployment going down, but the reality is more people left the work force. >> exactly. >> so the numbers didn't, you know, the reality is i've heard numbers of real unemployment. steve, you would know this better. but probably they are double what the actual numbers are. >> really? wow. >> but you're right. you know, there's 2.5 trillion, 3 trillion excess on the balance sheets of corporate america. i have to believe that the next administration has to deal with how to repatriate that cash in return for creating jobs.

>> michael steele, sounds like opening line of a very famous novel. it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. it is the best of times for corporations right now. it is the worst of times for working class americans. >> i think that repatriation argument point is the best argument right now for really moving us into an important conversation about tax reform. that's something that's been on and off the table again. and i would be very interested to get the thinking going forward. how do ceos and how do the money managers and the folks who are actually trying to push this money back into the economy to create these jobs view things coming out of washington and the rhetoric that touches on their ability to bring dollars back home without pay a heavy price or penalty? how do they respond to that? and what do you think they are going to do with the next administration, whether it's obama or romney, to push them in the right direction? >> look, personally, i think the

repatriation issue is a side show. i'm not saying it's completely irrelevant, but it's really not the point for reasons i can explain. the real problem in this country or the two problems we have to deal with are overleveraging at the household level and overleveraging at the government level. the corporate sector is in very good shape financially. it's the households and the government that are still overleveraged and trying to work their way out of that debt. and the second problem is the continuing downward pressure on wages in this country. what people don't notice in those monthly unemployment numbers is they also announce the weekly earnings figures, and earnings are simply not going up. they haven't recovered in this recovery. and without more earnings, you have no purchasing power. you have no system of recovery. >> miles, the thing is, we are unfortunately as a country and a lot of this has to do with our 24/7 news culture, we want to immediately blame whoever is in office, whether it's a republican or a democrat, for economic trends that have been going on for 30 years. this is a reality not just in america, but in the west.

and that is, corporations are making more money, and the middle class is shrinking in the west. for one reason. productivity is way up. the i.t. revolution hit in the 1990s. if factories were just as productive as 1993, 20 million more people would be working today. this is a long-term trend that one president is not going to be able to fix. be he republican or democrat. >> 100%. but one of the things we have always talked about on this show that i can't stress enough is small business. i still think the best opportunity is to stimulate the small business. there's 20 million small businesses in america. you create one job for every small business. you fix a lot of the employment issues. and i don't think any administration has really dealt with that. they are putting all of the emphasis on big corporation. small business has a lot of capacity to increase employment and stimulate the economy. >> steve, i want to follow up on something you said before.

there is $2 trillion to $3 trillion sitting on the sidelines, and it's sitting on the sidelines in large part because a lot of people don't trust the economy right now. if they felt like there was money to be made in the american economy, you would see that money flowing in there. >> that's a fair point. and actually when you say they don't trust the economy, i would say they don't trust the government. >> exactly. >> they don't trust washington. >> they have no idea what's going to happen in washington, and whether these guys are going to blow up the debt ceiling, raise taxes. they have no idea what's going to happen. >> do you agree with that, miles? >> yes. there is a fair bit of investment being made by american corporations, but it's mostly outside the country. >> why is that? >> because that's where the growth is. you have 9% gdp growth in brazil. you've got, you know, even though growth in china is not what it was, it's still twice the growth of what we have here. >> it's also where there is inexpensive labor that is increasingly productive and competitive with our labor, which is our most fundamental problem. >> you will see, though, more

and more accelerated mna activity. i don't know if you agree with that, steve, because of low cost capital. and one of the opportunities for real growth is going to come from consolidation. >> michael steele? >> i think that that's a very good point on small businesses. and state-by-state, that's always the engine. and i think miles is dead on there. a bigger focus by democrats and republicans on creating those avenues for small businesses to do their thing opens up this economy big time. >> the last agency we just bought two weeks ago is in detroit. they employ 600 people. it's a low labor cost environment. we love the resurgence of detroit. i think there are marketplaces, goldman sachs opened up in like alabama or somewhere. there are places where there is really talented labor forces that are very low cost. >> well -- >> and by the way, mercedes. and i do think there are so many

opportunities over the next five to 10 years. i talk about it all the time. the mercedes plant in tuscaloosa, alabama. they built suvs. last year, they got all the c class. you know why? because they are the most productive plant in the world for mercedes-benz. >> and they don't pay their workers very much. >> hold on. you pay someone $75,000 in alabama, give them health care benefits, bob riley was telling me this. there are a lot of people that flock to those jobs, and in alabama they can live pretty darn well, full benefits, $75,000. >> bmw is making the x 5 in north carolina. >> yeah. all right. >> thank you so much, miles. coming up, magic johnson and larry bird. now playing out on broadway. we'll be right back. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices?

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irvan johnson, 42 minutes, field goals, 9-16, assists, 12. rebounds, 11. larry bird, 44 minutes, 12-18

shoot, 11 assists, 14 rebounds. >> guy's eating me alive. >> a scene from the new broadway play "magic/bird" about the rivalry and eventually the friendship between nba legends magic johnson and larry bird. joining us now, emmy award-winning actor, peter scolari, plays a number of roles in the play and the producer, tony pontura. go back for our news audience who may not know about the relationship between these two guys. where does it begin, tony? it begins with magic doing a all right of the giving, trying to build a friendship and larry bird not quite biting at first. >> starts really in 1979, the ncaa final tournament, michigan state against indiana state. fierce rivalry. indiana state was undefeated. michigan state wins, larry bird never gets over it, really. i don't think he is over it today. you know, they established this rivalry, very competitive. and really at a time went nba,

they both get drafted, was really hard times. >> yeah. >> playoff games were at midnight, tape delayed, everything else. they create this amazing, competitive rivalry. >> they changed all that. they changed everything. they made the nba -- i mean the hottest, you not only had these guys, then jordan played off of them, dr. j and moses malone were in the mix. with the 76ers, it was unbelievable. all centered around these two guys. >> of course, as you can well imagine, these two guys were in the raw material. you had owners, you had bus and auerbach, which co-incidentally, i play both of them. and in our story, you find out that these guys were very aggressive. auerbach going back to the early days of the nba, sort of a founder in a lot of ways, dragging professional players in the early 1950s from ymcas to gyms around the country and

trying to stir up -- barnstorming and trying to get people going. and then 30 years later, '79/'80, the nba with this kind of ratings trouble. also, nbc had a big part in that. >> how about that? >> turning things around and creating this television event. >> you are saying nbc got ratings back then? >> pretty much, yeah. >> mike barnicle, you were in boston during that time. wow. >> has always struck me about larry bird, he is a pretty unique character in the sense that he comes from this village, really, in indiana, french lick, indiana. and he goes on and magic, obviously, magic and larry become the nba, the revitalization of the nba, a lot of people would argue during the '80s. and yet larry, has never really left french lick, indiana. he is still that same guy who was shooting in his backyard, you know, when he was 14, 15 years of age. >> when the celtics won their first national championship, the question was asked, and is asked

in our play as well, does -- i think marv albert says does this sort of redeem you now from having lost the national championship, collegiate championship a short time ago? he says i don't know, i don't know about that. i'm just glad we won and i did this for terre haute. he is in boston, press conference, the folks back in indiana. >> willie, were you a bird or a magic guy? >> you know, i was a michael jordan guy. i was a little younger. i didn't really take a side on that i love to meet -- i love jordan so much. but interesting, tony, you know this from studying, that larry bird didn't buy into the whole chummy relationship at first. he said things like magic johnson always trying to come up and hug me before the games. i don't want to hug you. we are go about to compete. about to go against each other. it wasn't until -- i know you play this in the play, a meal that was sort of a -- you know, like being on the south lawn with the two sides coming together brokered by larry bird's mother at her house. talk about that a little bit.

it is a wonderful scene with georgia bird. first of all, they wanted to do a commercial but larry wasn't going anywhere but staying in french lick but he convinced magic, do this and get the magic shoe to come to french like to do the commercial. bring hollywood. >> my god. amazing. >> and then so wonderful scene where larry has to say to magic, come up to the house? my mother has lunch for us. they sit down around the table and the way i look at it, that's when larry realized there was irvan and not magic, two magic people and saw the core individual. >> the two guys eventually but now fully behind it. i imagine magic had to drag larry into it a little bit to get behind the play. >> my producer partner and were doing "lombardi" at the time, bringing sports to broadway, scratch toot head to some folks but believe there are -- how many great emotional stories in sport that can be great theater, so we flew out to los angeles

and first met with magic and said, okay, we would like to do this play about you and larry, which he said, okay, but let me go check out "lombardi" he, see what you guys run to and then, you know, we talked to larry and i think magic helped us a little bit as well convincing him. >> i read a quote from larry when he was first asked about this i thought it was some kind of joke. i'm not much of a broadway guy. i can't wait to see it, "magic/bird" flag new york city. check it out. guys thank you so much. >> thank you. we really appreciate it. >> more "morning joe" in a moment. ♪ ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing.

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good friday morning to you, it is friday the 13th, 8:00 on the east coast. you take a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." back with us on set, we have donny deutsch and jonathan capehart, steve rattner and michael steele in washington. >> kwu believe what happened yesterday? >> what? >> everyone's talking about hillary -- alex, is she even connected to the obama white house? >> she has no official role even in the dnc. >> so, she has no role in the dnc, she has no role in the white house. she is a pundit for cnn. she talks on a prime time cable show.

>> yeah. >> and suddenly, you got the white house and the republicans and ann romney and michelle obama immediate -- >> okay. it is crazy. it is a motherhood and apple pie thing. it is an easy one for both sides to jump on hillary rosen. >> joe tends to back into things. i'm going to back and explain what i'm talking b now the headlines this morning are spotlight on ann romney, flies the 2012 election plan that is the headline from today's "wall street journal" after democratic strategist hillary rosen's comments that mrs. romney has "never worked a day in her life." ann romney, herself, hit back against rosen's original comments, defending her decision to stay at home with her children. >> she should have come to my house when those five boys were causing so much trouble. it wasn't so easy. my career choice was to be a mother and i think all of us need to know that we need to respect choices that women make.

i will tell you that mitt said to me more times than you would imagine, ann, your job is more important than mine. look, i know what it's like to struggle and if maybe i haven't struggled as much financially as some people have, i can tell you and promise you that i've had struggles in my life and i would love to have understand that mitt and i have compassion for people that are struggling and that's why we're running. >> okay. >> the white house wasted no time in distancing themselves from hillary's comments, hillary rosen's comments. michelle obama immediately took to twitter writing, every mother works hard and every woman deer is was to be respected. the president himself offered this reaction. >> first of all, there is no tougher job than being a mom. i've watched michelle, you know, who -- for most of her career had to juggle work and family but there were times she was on

maternity leave and i promise you, that's work. so you know, i think this was an ill-advised statement by somebody on television. it's not something that i subscribe to. and moreover, my general rule is you don't talk about the spouses of elected officials, because they have got a really tough job. >> we have an obligation in politics and public life, when someone, even friends say things that are inappropriate, to say so in fact, in certain ways, when your friends say it, there is more of an obligation to do so. and i think that's true on both sides. she actually is your employee, not ours. she works for cnn, i think cnn would not allow her to be an operative for our campaign or the dnc. she is not. she never has been. >> that is a great line. she works for you, not us. i want to underline also, goes back to what i'm saying about alan west. david axelrod says, and it gets me in trouble with my republican

side a lot of times, but i feel like when your side steps out of line, you have more of a responsibility to speak out against them. so, but anyway, i do think though the whole -- this whole deal on the front page of all the papers. >> wall stre"wall street journ." >> speaks to the state of our politics, somebody not even related to campaign makes a quick statement on a cable news show at night and suddenly, everybody feel he is the need to respond. let me ask you though, let me ask you though, you work around the clock. get four to five hours of sleep. talking to mika now. talk to michael snee a moment, mika is on cruise lines all the time. anybody knows off grinding schedule. and yet what's the harder job, coming in here and doing this or

when you stayed home and you raised infants? >> um, well, i did that while i worked, but i will tell that you it is much harder to be at hoechblt but that's not the issue. the issue is the attack on ann romney, a woman who made choices and a lot of times, a woman can have many different jobs at once. she raised five boys and mitt's political career. for women this is highly personal, these choices are highly personal and no matter what they are judged, no matter what they are judged -- >> explain that. >> the minute i saw this cross, my blood pressure went up because i just thought why is hillary rosen doing that? having said that i understand her point about the luxury of having choices but you know what, that doesn't make those choices a lot easier. still judged. >> first of all -- most of my

partners in the business were women come into the office on monday morning and say, wow, i'm so happy back at work, so much easier at being home with the kids. i think that is indisputable. two things, politics the media, the republicans have been waiting in the wings, try to scratch at that 18% gender gap that they are up against this is an interesting way to move the swugs discussion about women in another direction and secondly this is a slow news day. >> no. >> there's that. >> fiery issue. >> nuclear missile. >> but there's that. but let's focus on the thing here that hillary was talk about i'm going to be in full disclosure, i know hillary, she is a very good friend, but when you're worth $250 million, you don't -- how can you understand what the average american woman has to deal with in terms of holding the family together, making ends meet, making sure there's food on the table. john kerry is not in this race.

>> in 2004 -- >> say this about john and theresa heinz kerry? >> when i heard the first clip, she has never worked a day in her life, i thought, whoa. you have to read rest of the quote. that's what's been driving me nuts about this conversation. yes, it provide an easy way for the romney campaign as the you said to scratch that the 18-point gender gap. >> jonathan, do you realize that there are women and husbands and wives that have kids who decide to continue living in a trailer park instead of getting a ranch home because the wife says i'm staying home with my child until he or she turns 5. you realize that. that is a decision made across america. >> i understand that is a decision made across america. but not everyone has $250

million. >> you know what, that does not discount her from being a working woman. >> oh, no, absolutely not. i'm not arguing that point. being a mom -- >> a day in her life was completely wrong. >> two separate points here. one is the romneys' wealth and whether that i you a loss either of them to be in touch with the average american and the second is the issue of a woman and working at home is just as good and just as important as a job. >> which it s >> which it s >> and it seems that there is the subtext of if you happen to have a lot of money, if you choose to work it is some sort of weird, selfish choice, i would say that ann romney works probably more than a lot of women who have jobs. i have seen her with her husband on the road with him. i have seen them partnership like this before in my own family, where the husband and the wife help each other with each other's careers and literally work as much as each other, whether one gets money or one does not.

so, it was just clueness, even though she is into the clueless woman, it is a hot-bunt issue. michael steele, i would say this probably is a huge opportunity for the romneys to cash in on what looked like kind of a shameless attack. >> it is. it is, you know exmika, for the moment. i think you have put the definitive mark on this in your comments because that's really what it boils down to. women make personal, professional choices every day. it doesn't matter the wealth or amount in their pocketbook. to jonathan's points, you know, i have a lot of friends who are very, very wealthy but their relatives are not. and so they don't lose sight of the fact that a cousin or an aunt or an uncle or is some other friend or rel stiff going through tough times. so, that is not the point. i think what it is how we respond to this emerge and still growing opportunity that women

are taking advantage of to be part of the workplace. to shape an economy and move the country forward that is the crux of the debate. the romney people want to get back on the right side of making that argument that the policies of this administration. >> the obama people want to talk about policies romney is promoting that he will stifle that. that is the nut of this whole thing. i think this comment by hilary is, aid said to my friend jonathan, rather whack, is out of step with the country sees the role of women today. they don't parse it the way she did. two weeks, they will be talking about something else. >> i want to go through a couple of quick news items, first of all, the north korean launch failed. i don't know -- i think it was stephen colbert had the skit where a soldier jumped up on a toy rocket and went three feet in the air that's actually what

happened on the launch. there is a headline in the "wall street journal," steve rattner, 15 seconds or less, kick ourselves on energy policy but consumption is down, production is up and worldwide you nothing to do with us, oil supply also up right now. market conditions are not bad, yet oil prices keep going up. >> first of all, we have been, as you say, good stewards, it is the affect of prices that has done that and on the international scene, the saud drills did been pumping more oil, tensions with iran seem to be easing. the market incredibly sensitive to those factors it is now on the downward drill. >> anybody that disagrees with me that john edwards' family has suffered enough and this is a waste of precious resource buys the justice department?

slap him on the wrist, plea out a deal and send him home to be with his daughter, older daughter around two young children who lost a mom last year? anybody want john edwards thrown in jape jail? anybody? >> not something i think b. >> michael steele? >> no, no, i agree with you, john this is an absolute waste of resources now. the man has gone through a huge public humiliation, gathered himself, pay whatever fines he needs to pay and go back to his family and heal. >> let me ask you, jonathan capehart, zimmermann finally charged down in florida. what's your take? >> look, what the family has always wanted, the lawyer for the family wanted is an arrest. get an arrest. charged with second-degree murder. the games begin and we will have another pivot point very soon, is whether this case even goes

to trial because of florida stand your ground law and you the slaw so -- i don't know if lax or lenient is the right word but a very distinct possible that zimmermann could not go to trial. if the state can't go to trial because of stand your ground, trayvon martin's family does have the opportunity to appeal. this will be dragged out a while. >> and i think actually trying him now, charging him with something certainly moves this entire case and circus down the track. really quickly, before we go to break, a new poll came out, volatility in the polls, this may be an outlier. >> fox news poll showing mitt romney and barack obama in a statistical high, head-to-head, romney 46 compared to president obama's 44% support.

>> so donny, a couple weeks ago, i asked chuck todd about the huge divide between romney and obama. he said just wait two weeks. they will be neck in neck again. the republicans had an incredible string of bad luck and their candidates have been saying stupid things. chuck told me it is not a 15-point race, a 10-point race, a 5-point tray. is a 2-point race. here we are again. >> romney a bump, he gets the victory lap. he got rid of everybody else, there must be something there we have to be careful with polls going forward and looking back. i keep saying it is people voting for the show, whereas i gave less credence to polls now than i have in my life. having said that i think we will be back here within three to five points. i still think obama is gonna win. >> i really think, mika, an election that you know very well, 1980, ronald reagan, jimmy

carter. i think it is going to go down to the end. you don't know, the final weekend it broke for the republican challenger in '80 this time it may break the other way. who knows. steve, you agree? >> i agree. >> going to be close to the end. >> very hard to see the president carriling a lot of the state ohio, florida, same battleground states, all be up like that. >> when we come back, how much do people earn? "parade" magazine takes a peek at american paycheck he is. i love that issue. which industries are up and which are struggling to keep up. also ahead, the son of ray gay star bob marly, ziggy marley,st join us on set next. >> he actually blade bob marley. >> with rock steady before the wailers. you guys know all about that, don't you? good morning, everyone, we are watching beautiful weather on the east coast this weekend, but the midwest to talk about where all the troublesome weather is going to be.

started this morning in california. actually raining pretty hard right now, many areas of central california, down to the coast. san francisco is dealing with rain, areas like san jose, as far as what we will deal with later today, some will shift down through areas like los angeles. as far as severe weather goes, all rice on saturday. saturday from kansas to oklahoma, all the way into areas of nebraska, high risk of severe storms, this will include the potential for strong tornadoes. this is one of these days you need to pay aten it is. usually we get fatalities from situations and setups like this could have those really big, powerful tornadoes that includes oklahoma city witch up and it kansas city. forecast for today, joint east coast, beautiful conditions out there the rain this morning in san francisco southward, convenience fly l.a. that punches out, the west coast, going to enjoy a beautiful weekend also, the middle of the country, chicago, minneapolis, dealing with storms on saturday, too, but not the tornadoes, as we go into sunday, still have some severe storms to deal with from dallas to shah rear port

back into ohio valley. stormy weekend. east coast is great. west coast is great. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. durn'it, this thing's runnin' slow. bet you think you're pretty quick? yeah, i guess it is pretty quick. jesse?!? jesse? jesse?! much obliged. suddenly, everything else seems old-fashioned. ultrabook. inspired by intel. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line

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>> jesus h. khrushchev. now, for those of you too young to remember communism, let me outline the dangers.

thick-waisted women, standing in line for a single turnip and a weird backwards r. that's why i never trusted toys "r" us. my only problem with congressman west here is that he said he won't name names, which means we will just have to speculate, and i will start. john boehner. hear me out. he may not be a democrat, but he sure looks red. or at least burnt sienna. keep an eye on this guy. >> editor and chief of "parade" magazine, megan murphy, out with what people earn issue then and now. i like it. >> this is fun, fun for the 80-million plus people. >> they love this.

this is the looky loo -- >> this stays in my bathroom a year. >> okay that is not what we wanted. >> 1984 oprah winfrey, making $200,000 as a host. now, she is making $290 million. >> so oprah is a really interesting story. i mean, $200,000 in 1984, pretty good, but she rolls the dice on herself and says i can do more and she figured out, you know, what she wanted to earn and she started her sind kated talk show and the rest is billion dollar history. >> ryan seacrest made $10,800 in 1995. >> as a radio deejay. >> now $15 million. dose everything. >> he does everything. that $15 million does not include that sweet little deal he just signed with a certain network. >> right. >> ah. >> and john hamm, everybody's favorite mad man, sex symbol, was a waiter in the 1990s, made

14,350. now, $2.3 million and beloved by all. >> beloved and also was a struggling actor for most of his career. said to himself at age 30, if i don't get the job i need, i'm gonna throw it all, gonna quit and he got "we were soldiers" when he was 30 and started his career as a "mad man." >> what was your take away for -- i obviously went to stars, but you guys go through the entire range, economic range, what were the takeaways here for you for working americans? >> what was really interesting, 3th is the 30th annual report, we found the hundreds of people to we featured the last years. we saw anyone in the hospitality, food travel, obviously really has taken a hit. restaurant owners really having a tough time. anyone in the travel business. civil servant, very stable over the 30 years.

makes sense though, as one goes forward with municipalities having real budget problems whether that will be the case. people who take risk on themselves, were enknew 50/50 you up a brick and mortar business that will be tough, figure out how to make a living doing something unique, like an artist or dolly parton impersonator. >> i was looking at that. >> and she is, like, making more money today. >> no way. >> yes. look at that. >> you have got some really interesting job descriptions in here, the dolly parton impersonator this one, for one, and body piercers and -- but these are -- >> i missed that one. >> these are jobs -- teacher, lawyer, these jobs stay stable. what is interesting about this list and to go back to joe's question, if you can find something that you love and you're passionate about it and it's unique, you can make a living in america doing this and i think that's real possible,

obvious, optimistic way to look at this. >> the universal theme, every time i would ask bill gates on down to starting entrepreneur what's the key to your success, we they would say i love what i do the money will come. >> one of the nicest stories is john porter, a graphic artist in newspapers in the early part of the decade. and he basie said, you know, i want to be an artist, a fine artist, he basically quit his job and started doing his own fine art and he is making 60,000 a year living in montana, working in his pack jam mas. >> his pack jam mas, i'm jealous. >> mentioning the folks hardest hit, i was looking through here and you know, you see some salaries go up by a lot, you see some sal there is go up by a little bit but then here is a restaurant tour in minneapolis, sue penn harrison, she was $80,000 in 1997 and $36,000 in 2012. >> and that really goes to, you know, where we've pulled back in terms of our own pocketbooks.

we don't go out to eat as much. we don't travel as much during this recession. someone like her is really hard hit. it is a tough time to be in the food category in that sort of, you know exservice category. >> could i point to bobby fly the opposite direction. it does come down to -- >> but, but not everybody -- >> not like every restauranteur has gone back. >> not every restaurant tour is bobby fly. >> is there a category, leave out finance sears and bankers and stuff, is there a category or profession that struck you you wow, that makes a lot of money? >> i thought what was really interesting were the number of people who had gravitated to real art like john porter. the other thing really interesting was how people sort of discovered their own universe. like there's a woman who basically is a bicycle traveler in mohawk so she does bicycle tours. she basically decided this is what i love to do i don't make a lot of money.

she makes about 16,000 a year but she loves doing that. and i really -- >> she sleeps well at night. >> goes back to the passion. you know? >> you talk about -- see a lot of trends here. >> yes. >> not to politicize this too much but you have got a firefighter who made $58,000 five years ago. and now, he is making $93,000, which of course this is what we are hearing governors across the country fight with, how public salaries are exploding. good luck finding many businesses where your salary almost doubles over the past seven years. >> he went from being on the -- being just a firefighter to a fire chief, but i do think that your point, joe, is true, that if you look at the list of civil servants on this, their salaries have been steady, they have had a lot of consistency in their salary and the question what's gonna happen going forward for them? >> you also look at the hardest working towns.

>> hardest working towns. >> i will read the top five, columbia, hartford, norfolk, bloomington and tuscaloosa. >> roll tide, baby. >> yes this is a survey we did in conjunction with total cereal. what was really great about this, these were places where people had high -- low unemployment because they are factory towns, because they are also dual income and because the people there were willing to give up their private time, their seats and sundays to work and that is a real indicator of how americans want to work. if the work is there, he will give up their personal time to do it. >> i'm reading sunday joe. >> what's that? >> from the corner office. >> this one, joe. >> look at this best boss, joe, your best boss was the first one i had in law school, ed moore. >> ed moore. >> best boss. >> ed moore was my first boss out of law school. he didn't raise his voice at me but he demanded excellence.

more often than not, when i turned in an assignment, ed would make corrections and hand it back to me and it got to a point where all i wanted to do was get a pat on the back, good job, joe. and it was just quiet, strong leadership. and my first boss was my best. >> great. >> you guys talk about -- >> of course, phil griffin's phenomenal, too. he is amazing. stratosphere. >> best boss ever. >> what were you saying? >> i was saying you guys talk about what you've learned being bosses now and what you try to do here. and it is really fun. >> very interesting. you know, our backgrounds are different, as i always say, mika's father ran u.s. foreign policy for four years. my dad ran dixie youth baseball teams. so, my family, i always -- i grew up -- my family -- my mom and dad were the employees and so when i became a boss, instead of, you know, would you always hear what your parents would bring home, the tough times at the office, i wanted to be

everybody's friend and i had an open door policy and like not going to be like my mom and dad's bosses and mika, her dad ran foreign policy and had to have more of a close doors, pyramid-type structure. mika said to me five years ago, over here, over here, they don't want to be your friends twhaerngts to be a leader. stop trying to be everybody's friend, keep your head down, work hard, ambassador lead by example. don't you think it is fair to say, mika, we counter balance it had in the middle? >> yes, i think it is a very good team, different points of view coming from t office little bit more like you when i was at cbs and learned. >> being a great boss is understanding what wins are to people that work four. >> people want clarity. they want to know what their job s >> feedback. >> right. >> honesty. i have fired people and they have thanked me, because you have just been honest about what they need to do, where they need to go, yeah. >> they also need to take some

responsibility for where they want to go and what they want to do i think you see lot of people on this list who basically say you know, i was doing this but i wasn't thrilled. i needed to transition and they have to be their own best friend and know their value, as mika would say. >> the then and now pictures are great, because just about everybody looks great now. >> they look great. >> fantastic. >> interesting. >> hair color around a little makeup and everybody looks fabulous. >> style, also. >> look how silly. >> we learned how to -- >> take better care of ourselves. >> l thank you so much. >> thanks, maggie. >> "parade" magazine what people learn. maggie murphy, thank you so much. another great issue of parade magazine. up next, a new documentary takes us to the life and lech gas so i have bob marlism we will talk about it with his son, ziggy marley, next on morning joe. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar,

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♪ >> when imet him, started the routine. my routine was gettinging up in the mornings, train, do a lot of running, exercise, go to the beach. integral part of our lifestyle.

>> the whole rasta thing is base old eternal life and taking care of your body, the temple of the lord. we went up to the water falls and i shot some video up there. ♪ >> that was a clip of "marley," a documentary about ray gay legend, bob marley. here is the executive producer, grammy award-winning musician and bob's son, ziggy marley. great to have you own the show. >> great to have you here. your father's music just continues to grow. i'm sure he would be shocked at how much it has grown since he passed away in 1981. how old were you when he passed away? >> 12. >> off a lot of memories of your dad. >> yeah. >> talk about him and talk about the side of your dad that the

rest of us will see in this documentary. >> in the documentary, we are kind of expose the more personal, human side about him, what he went through in his early years growing up in kingston as a mixed race kid. 'cause a lot of people, including myself, didn't know that there were some issues because his father was white and his mother was black and he was like the only mixed race kid in the neighborhood. so, he had some issues there the documentary takes it through his whole career, but it touches on the emotional side, not just the legend or the musical icon that he is but the human personal emotional side. >> the one thing i -- big music freak and the one thing, i have a blind spot on where your dad's genius came from. obviously, your dad, jimmy cliff, they exploded about this same time, but where did that

come from? that style was so -- and again, it's still with us. people convert to this music every day. >> actually, my father's -- you know, the talent that he has actually comes from my grandmother and her side of the family who were avid christians. took him to church a lot. so, that spiritual aspect of it and they were singers and musicians, you know? all of my family is musicians, my grandmother, my grandfather on both sides, so it kind of is in the genes. >> it is very spiritual and you see this in the deep south, too. people started blues and country and rock 'n' roll, it all started in the church pews. same with your father. you certainly hear that in "one love", the lyrics, very spiritual. >> then once -- once he moved to kingston and started -- started being conscious of the social

situation and the political situation the music started to change jamaica and he put a lot of that consciousness in the music that attracted a worldwide audience because it related to them, too. >> because of the politics. he actually an assassination attempt on his life in '76. >> he got shot in the elbow and my mother got shot in the head. >> oh. >> you lost your dad at 12. give me the one moment you remember about him, music aside but just father/son stuff? >> father/son stuff, that -- the -- a few days before he passed away, we were in the hospital with him and i was -- he was in the intensive care unit. i was looking up through the windows. he called me in and he said to me, you know, what's up young bob? you know, i have a song for you and he said, on your way up to take me up on your way down, don't let me down. that is the last thing i heard from him a few days before he

passed away. >> oh, my goodness. >> so, what was it about your father's music you think not only captured people's adoration and attention back then but still holds them today? >> i think his music speaks to the common struggles of common people. and everywhere i go in the world, people relate to that and relate to him as a person, because avenues very social and open person, very hum bell, like, somebody you want to hang out with. his personality also added to acceptance of his music, his message, which a lot of people especially struggling countries, during the struggles in africa or in the car -- caribbean, has music give them inspiration and motivation to want to continue your lives. >> what is the one moment in this documentary where you're

sit thug and you're look tact and you're like, we got this right?ting there and you're loo tact and you're like, we got this right? >> i was young. when my father informs germany during his illness, we were kind of kept out of that, so when i saw that it was so emotional to me, it really -- that struck me and i said to kevin, i love you that, i love that. so that emotional thing in it, it's sad but brings out emotion. that is a part of the film that i think people relate to that. it's sad but it brings that emotion, that strong emotion. >> yeah, all right. >> "marley" will be out in theaters and video on demand on april 20th. ziggy marley, thank you so much for being on the show. >> thank you. thank you.

thank you. we will be right back with business before the bell. keep it right here on "morning joe."

according to the signs, ford is having some sort of big tire event. i just want to confirm a few things with fiona. how would you describe the event? it's big. no,i mean in terms of savings how would you sum it up? big in your own words, with respect to selection, what would you say? big okay, let's talk rebates mike, they're big they're big get $100 rebate, plus the low price tire guarantee during the big tire event. so, in other words, we can agree that ford's tire event is a good size? big big

hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy.

this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. on this friday the 13th, let's checked markets. let's get a check now on business before the bell with cnbc's tyler mathisen what you got? >> lots of things to talk about today, really four. let's go through them quickly. number one is consumer prices. inflation and inflation came in for the month of march at .3 of 1%. strip out food and energy, as if any of us can strip out food and energy costs, the core rate of inflation was .2%. this is the seventh straight

month in a row that inflation has come down. 2.7% inflation year-over-year. the other thing we will watch, china, economic growth in china slowed more dramatically than people had been expecting. 8.1%. they call that a slowdown. we call that a vertical liftoff in the u.s. the interesting thing here is politically, this means that china is less likely perhaps to let its currency rise as their growth slows and may bring some political tension between china and the u.s. google yesterday, profits strong, up 61% revenues, right in line. the news here is that the company split its stock, 2 for 1. a $600 stock, now a $300 stock that means more people may buy it. they also made these nonvoting shares so it solidifies the control that sergey brin and larry flynn have over it. the blue chip stocks reported profits today, one jpmorgan, the other wells fargo,

both beat estimates and seem to be healthy. also watching ben bernanke, talking in new york city. whenever he talks, we listen. >> tyler it is donny. the google numbers and the jump what does that do to the pending facebook ipo, anything? >> it probably strengthens it is a little bit, those are rivals in many ways with google plus trying to compete for the same marketplace as facebook. the facebook ipo should be coming off in a few months and should be, i think, extraordinarily healthy. >> thank you so much, tyler. still ahead, the best of late night.

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now, folks, i don't know if you have heard, but mitt romney has been hurt by the so-called republican war on women. mitt romney turned that attack against obama using the ancient art of jewmitsu. >> the real war on women has been waged by the obama administration's failure on the economy. >> the lady public didn't respond to mitt's reverse takedown of obama until there was a cable news miracle.

when democratic campaign strategist hilary rosen criticize stayed at home mary mother of five, mitt romney. >> guess what his wife has never actually worked a day in her life. >> plate quote on a loop. >> his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. his wife has never actually -- >> now drop a fat beat on t. >> his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. ♪ >> oh that is catchy. now, sadly, ms. rosen has since apologized to ann romney, profusely. do we have that clip? no? then what do we have? ♪

>> the president's been trying out some slogans in front of audience and he has been getting mixed results. >> the american understand is required to went future. i laid out a blueprint for an dmae is built to last. here in america, we are laying off teachers in droves. that's got to come from some place. we got other stuff to do. i've got better stuff to do you've got to settle for second-rate roads and bridges and airport the. take whatever you can from whomever you can. about 3 to 00 of them. you know what really didn't work and we all have depression and maybe we should try something different.

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from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say. omnipotent of opportunity. you know how to mix business... with business. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i could get used to this. [ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. all right, kids, timeof the show to talk about what we learned today. donny deutsch, here is your chance at a talk what have we learned? >> oh, god, don't do that? >> i learned you and i have more in common than we think. >> don't say that. >> last week, i had a

double-breasted navy blazer and today you have bucks on. those world does come together. >> you are still not getting in the club. >> by the way, i don't want to be in the club. >> don't lie to me. >> more of a hands across the ocean. cats and dogs living together. all of the above. >> mika what have you learned today? >> really, the question what have you guys learned today? all i'm going to say. >> you learned nothing. >> i learned this, i learned this, from a friend in south carolina, he says bmw makes the x 5, the x 3, the xc and soon tonight x 4 in south carolina. bmws. ultimate driving machine. seriously, we have got business coming to america and coming to the right places. >> oh, really? it's matt's last day. >> matt. >> come here, matt. >> we love you, matt. >> where are you going, matt? >> say your last name? >> what is his name? >> where are you going,