with underarmor white socks. >> free socks. >> "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ after 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, i can say with confidence and gratitude that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility, and together we are going to win on november 6. [ cheers and applause ] >> good morning. it's 6:00 here on the east coast. >> oh, come on. let me do it. >> no, no. >> come on. let me do it. >> i began that introduction from the hallway. >> let me read it. let me do it. >> once. this is an audition. >> good morning. it's wednesday, april 25. with us onset, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. oh, that's me.

>> dial it down a little bit. like conversational. like you're talking to a viewer at home. >> msnbc "time" magazine editor mark halperin is here as well as jon heilman. and former senior adviser to the mccain campaign, gop strategist -- is it gop? >> fail, fail, fail. >> gop strategist and msnbc contributor steve schmidt. how did i do? >> terribly, terribly. thank god this is just rehearsal. >> when do we go on? >> first and last. >> mike, you're the best. thanks for being with us. steve schmidt, let's start with you. last night, we know he's got the nomination, but he started to talk like the nominee really last night. what were your impressions of his speech? >> i thought by 100 miles it was the best speech he has given on any of these nights. he framed an economic argument that can have appeal in the

middle of the electorate. you saw the guy with the superior campaign skills in the slow jam, out on the college campuses yesterday. but the ferocity that he made that economic argument, framing it, talking about it, talking about how to create prosperity in country, i think it's a really good argument and it's what he needs to do to win. >> let's listen to a little bit of what mitt romney said last night after winning five republican primaries. >> i have a simple message. hold on a little longer. a better america begins tonight. [ cheers and applause ] >> the last three years have been the best that barack obama can do, but it's not the best america can do. tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the obama years. [ cheers and applause ] >> and it's the start of a new and better chapter that we will write together.

four years ago, barack obama dazzled us in front of greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. but after we came down to earth, after all the celebration and the parades, what do we have to show for 3 1/2 years of president obama? because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions and distractions and distortions. that kind of campaign may have worked in another place, and in a different time. but not here. and not now. it's still about the economy. and we're not stupid. >> see, they are going back to the greek columns line. pulling that one out from denver. >> absolutely. they are as enduring as the real thing, it turns out. >> romney also spoke about stopping, quote, unfairness throughout america. here's what he said. >> this america is fundamentally fair. we will stop the unfairness of

urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice. [ cheers and applause ] >> we will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friend's businesses. we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the very taxpayers they serve. [ cheers and applause ] >> and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next. >> mark halperin, i thought the fairness message belonged to the president. a little co-opting there by mitt romney? >> always want to co-opt. and rick perry did it in his announcement speech and never did it again. a lot of republicans are intrigued by the case that the economy -- the obama economy has been worse for minorities, for african-americans, for

hispanics. it doesn't mean he's going to dominate that vote, but it does try to outflank the president a little bit on the left. i thought there was tons in there that the republicans could be encouraged by. the performance was good. there was a lot of optimism in the speech as well. he brought up a couple of grandkids at the end. and a lot of republicans are going to like that performance because that performance, i'm not saying romney will win, he is an underdog and will be all the way through probably. but he could win if he can maintain that level of performance. and that will hearten a lot of republicans. >> grade that performance. >> performance? >> yes. >> a minus. i just think, you know, with one of the questions is -- one of the fundamental questions about politics always is whether you're, you know, the performances you give, the speeches you give, how well you can -- how well they jibe with where you actually are on issues. and part of the problem -- i get the jujitsu thing on trying to

talk about fireness. i think the president will -- as people will go back and point to some of the policies that romney has to had to embrace, those policies are pretty far out of step with where the middle of the eelectorate is. the rhetorical pivots are necessary and important, but there's only so far you can pivot away from the positions you have taken. and he's taken a lot of position that i think the president and his team think they can hang around his neck pretty effectively with their communication skills and the money they have over the course of the next six months. it will be hard for him to run away from those actual positions of substance. >> the fairness argument he was making last night, and i haven't read the text of the speech, perhaps he got to this point in the speech, but how do you make a fairness argument without referencing the tax code of the united states? >> well, look, i think that fairness is subjective. and it's really important politically if you're on the republican side not to cede of area of fairness to the president on this. and the area he was getting into

yesterday is that the most compassionate government policy you can have is a pro growth economic policy, which doesn't mean growing the size of government, doesn't mean that government divides up a pie, decides who's -- you know, under the name of fairness gets what piece of that ever-shrinking, ever-diminishing pie. and i think he started to lay out that argument yesterday. look, the tax code is a mess. it should be fundamentally reformed. but, you know, i don't think the key to prosperity is necessarily in, you know, a debate over the top rate should be 39% or it ought to be 35%. it's a mess. it's uncompetitive. and i think that mitt romney is going to have to lay out some big themes, big ideas, big reforms over the course of this campaign. but that speech last night, he began to lay out the architecture of an economic argument that i think can sell in the middle of the electorate. both guys have a base of about 47%. you'll see about 6% will decide the electorate. that's why the debates will be so key in the fall. >> steve, you sat in this

position four years ago as the possibili opponent, in fact. get inside the romney campaign. how optimistic are you? how big a climb is it? mark halperin suggests he will be an underdog all the way through. but what would be your outlook for this race? >> you know, four years ago, we were always worried that the conditions were so bad, it was such a bad climate for the republican party, that it was such an uphill climb. looking at the race this time, you see all the conditions necessary to defeat an incumbent president of the united states. i think they recognize the fact they are the underdogs, it will be a tough climb. you watched the president yesterday. his campaign skills, his political skills, his oratorical skills are like from another planet, he is so good. when you watch that, i think they have massive respect for him, political skills. but there's a fundamental structural weakness to the obama

candidacy, and it's this. if he had been able to accomplish the things he said he was going to accomplish, he wouldn't be running a campaign that is leading with criticism of mitt romney. he would be leading a campaign that's fundamentally about the turn-around in the country. and he's unable to do that. >> you say he is an underdog, but what could change between now and november. >> it's all in the elect oral college. the president would have to lose a lot of states he won handily last time. i think he'll have to find a breakthrough either with hispanic and western voters, or he's going to have to show some pretty good strength in florida, ohio, virginia, to put together 270. he does not today have much of a margin of error. i'll say, though, there are a lot of audiences for that speech last night. one is really, really rich republicans who want to beat the president. and that performance i think will open some checkbooks.

as long as he looks strong enough to bet on, he'll get multimillion dollar contributions to people supporting his candidacy, and he can have much more of a level playing field than senator mccain had against barack obama where he was so underfunded. >> you can see the president's concern about this financial thing just every day. it's like they are practically coming to my house and asking me to take part in this george clooney fundraiser thing. i got an email about it from somebody almost every day. they are -- there's a little bit of fear in the eyes on the democratic side financially now. this notion that we all -- most people have operated under that the president would raise $1 billion, and the republican would be maybe at parity, but certainly not have the financial advantage. that has i think over the course of the last couple of months has changed. now you see a bit on the democratic side concern that they are actually going to be at a disadvantage financially, and that is one thing that allows romney to play. to mark's point, he has very little margin for error. but after everything that mitt romney has been through, the

fact that he is within either a little bit behind or only a little bit behind, maybe four, five, six points behind, if i were romney's people i would be thrilled given the meat grinder over the last six months. >> we talked about this a bit yesterday. and it is the feeling toward romney among the other candidates. which is a level of antip athy which is palpable. and santorum yesterday refused to say, you know, i endorse this guy. god only knows what newt gingrich is doing today. but what does romney -- >> probably at a zoo. >> yeah. but what does romney do about this, if anything? >> well, i think this is, you know, as we are talking about this, you look at a state like new hampshire, where you had a very close race a couple of months ago. the president has a nine-point lead. that's a function of how the suburbs are reacting to these republican primaries.

and mitt romney is not going to do himself any favors if he puts himself in a negotiation for rick santorum's support in the context now of the argument he is trying to have in the general election. so i think he's got to be very close to the line to tell rick santorum to go pound sand and to call his bluff and to say, you can stay somewhere in georgia for the convention, and you're not speaking, and, you know, santorum, you've jumped the shark here, because if he gets into a public pandering, trying to get gingrich's support, trying to get santorum's support, it's going to totally derail his ability to deliver that message that he delivered last night, which he has to deliver. so i think santorum is like a guy at the blackjack table who doesn't know when to push the chair away and take his chips out. and i think his total lack of class and grace in handling the defeat, you know, says a lot about, a, rick santorum but it also gives i think an important political decision for romney to make, which is that, hey, i'm not going to get into a pander fest with these guys.

>> let's watch the clip last night. it's painful to watch. on cnn, the host trying to drag an endorsement out of rick santorum, one that apparently wasn't coming. >> do you believe that mitt romney is the right guy? >> i believe he's better -- obviously, i believed i was the better choice. but i'm not in this race anymore. >> but he's won the race. >> he's won the race. >> is he therefore the right guy? >> absolutely. he is the person that is going to go up against barack obama. it's pretty clear. and we need to win this race. >> well, that's an endorsement, isn't it? unless i'm mishearing things. you just endorsed mitt romney. >> if that's what you want to call it. >> am i wrong? >> look, i believe -- >> karen, you know your husband. has he just endorsed mitt romney? >> not at this point. no. >> it's very clear that he's going to be the republican nominee. and i'm going to be for the republican nominee. and we're going to do everything we can to defeat barack obama. >> i don't even mean this rhetorically. what is he waiting for? why can't he just say it? >> i have no idea. look, it's totally -- you need

to be classy in defeat. you know, he's lost the election. he ran as a republican candidate. you have to support the republican nominee. maybe in his head he has visions he'll go to boston, enter into a grand negotiation and he's going to bargain for support with the romney campaign. but there's no earthly reason why the romney campaign needs to do that. they should ignore the guy. if he wants to endorse, that's great. if he doesn't, that's fine too. >> can i make the case for rick santorum here? >> yes. >> let's say there's some personal ambition involved and some feelings but i think he also feels he represents a lot of conservatives in the party who continue to have doubts about whether mitt romney is going to be conservative as a candidate, and if he wins as a president. and part of the discussion he says he wants to have not about the platform but what about what mitt romney will be about if he wins, what fight on conservative principles he'll take to the president and to the country if he's sworn in. >> what does he want to hear from him that he hasn't heard

yet? >> i have no idea. i feel like his influence is a wasting asset at this point. there was maybe a moment right before he dropped out and right after he dropped out where he might have been able to have that kind of influence over romney. but as every day, it diminishes. and it seems to me as you were watching your chip pile just dwindle and dwindle to the point where you have one last $2 chip, i don't know how you'll get anything out of mitt romney. it seems to me every single day he loses leverage. >> and the romney campaign understands that they are carrying 90% of the republican voter base out there. they don't need him. the party, they may not have been enthusiastic about it, but mitt romney has locked it up. he will carry the entirety of the republican base, as will the president with the democratic base. he doesn't need him. and santorum ought to adjust his attitude in a hurry if he's going to have any relevance, you know, in this campaign. >> santorum did say last night he was planning to talk to the romney campaign. we'll see what happens in that

conversation. president obama is on a bit of a college tour this week. yesterday, he was at the university of north carolina in chapel hill where he made a special appearance on "late night with jimmy fallon." fallon asked the president about his personal relationship with mitt romney. >> if mitt romney was in the room with you right now, what would you say to him? >> i'd say, hey, mitt. >> good. that's pretty good. >> yeah. >> do you know mitt romney? >> i've met him. but we're not friends. [ laughter ] >> but, you know, he seems like somebody who cares deeply about his family, and his wife is lovely. >> eventually, in a couple of months, he's going to put out attack ads and then it gets personal. >> it's not like the best introduction to somebody. >> not the greatest way to get to know somebody. >> if you want to get to know somebody, there are better ways to do it.

>> classic political faint praise. he seems like he has a nice family. i don't know about the man himself. >> the political skills i just think are incredible. and i am reminded to the degree to which so many republicans the way they approach the president is a caricature. he is a highly likeable guy. he is really good. you saw all of these skills on display yesterday. and, you know, i think the choice, if it comes down to a likability contest, if the attacks from the republican side get too over the top on him, and they are going to back fire and badly. >> just quickly. the president wants to win. he is a really competitive guys and very skilled. his heart is in it. no democrat doubts that the president will bring everything he can to win this thing. i think that mitt romney still has to prove he can be a warrior and play at the level of the president. >> to the likability point, we heard that in the campaign message from mitt romney. look, he is a nice guy. i'm sure he say great guy, but he is not working for the country. >> yes. and that's obviously true. but the president just -- when

he gets that light touch, you know, there's almost a little bit of johnny carson in him. light and just right on, his tone. i think, you know, there are big still variables out there that can help mitt romney. to this argument, if he gets lucky, from romney's point of view, gas prices spike, the economy hits the skids in the third quarter. there's a lot of people who think there are significant prospects of downside surprises in the actual world out there. and given where romney is right now, he's close enough that if he makes that sale, and the world helps him, obviously, bad for the rest of us but good for him politically, you know, he could still pull this off. >> am i the only one here who is -- and i was struck and am continually struck in fact in my mind that the president looks much more at ease in campaign settings, like with jimmy fallon or on the stump, than he does talking about congress and legislation and coming together on capitol hill.

>> one is easy for him. one's harder. >> yeah. >> there you go. >> it's interesting. >> absolutely. >> political analyst. mike barnicle, thank you. up next, mike allen will look at the top stories in the playbook. also ahead, garry marshall will be here. also, chuck todd. gillian tett. and jonathan capehart. first, bill karins has a look at the forecast. good morning, everyone. temperatures are continuing to be very, very chilly up there in the northeast. and especially up in the great lakes. another cool start to the day. and the weather extremes just continue. we all know what happened to winter. there really wasn't one. this spring has been extremely warm, and all the heat that was on the east coast in march has moved to the middle of the country in the rockies. it was almost 90 degrees yesterday in salt lake city, utah. three days in a row of record highs. this morning, bring the umbrella.

minneapolis to milwaukee. chicago, st. louis, you'll have a chance of showers and storms later today. if we're going to get any bad weather, damaging winds, hail, maybe tornadoes, watch out in central illinois later this afternoon into this evening. those storms will head towards indianapolis, louisville, and lexington after dark tonight with damaging winds. otherwise, it's a really quiet day out there. d.c. should have a beautiful afternoon at 70 degrees. slight chance of a shower in new england. southeast looks great. texas, no problems. anyone traveling or living on the west coast, though, two storms are moving onshore. even areas of southern california are going to have rain as we go throughout our morning commute, and you know what that means. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in.

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he made it. that was kris humphries. >> i thought they were going to show like a brick. or k-hump as we call him. he is a sensitive guy, chris christie. morning papers. the new orleans times, the first arrest from the bp oil spill. kurt mix accused of deleting hundreds of text messages that showed bp knew the well was spewing far more crude than what they admitted at the time. the "wall street journal." so much for an iphone slowdown. apple blew away expectation yesterday showing its quarterly profit is nearly doubled from a year ago. the company sold 35 million iphones in the quarter. that's 385,000 iphones sold per day. a big part of that due to

surging demand in china. >> another big part is mark halperin. he just buys every apple product he can find. "the new york post," a photo shows cardinal timothy dolan posing with jeremy lin last night here in new york. and i heard some other people were weird stalking jeremy lin, trying to get him to talk to him, taking their own photographs with him, strange. >> sad, sad person. >> by the way, we were too hard on mike barnicle in the first segment. it was a good point he made. we mocked him. >> it's ok. i'll let you guys fly at 40,000 feet and i'll stay on the sidewalk. talk above people all you want. >> when bill karins comes in for the kill, you know you've gone too far. with us now, mike allen with a look at the playbook. good morning. >> good morning, guys. >> you guys got your hands on the new marco rubio book. think the one he is putting out but "the washington post" book. six weeks before its release.

what's the big news in there? >> that's right. we're going to have competing marco rubio books coming out on june 19, his own autobiography, "an american son." we have our hands on is a much more critical book by "the washington post," coming out from simon and schuster, "the rise of marco rubio," and it describes the immigration hell that marco rubio's maternal grandfather, pedro victor garcia, went through as he tried to return to the u.s. from cuba. now, senator rubio's grandfather's story has been an important part of him telling his american story. but what manuel discovered, including finding some old recordings of an immigration hearing, was that when his -- when the senator's grandfather tried to come back after working briefly in cuba, he didn't have a visa. he had a u.s. alien registration card.

he had a cuban passport. and he was pulled out of line, put in an immigration hearing, and ordered deported. he didn't go. in those days, the book explains they didn't just shove you on the plane and he hung around miami, and eventually apparently got refugee status. but the point the book makes is this illuminates the struggles of people from central america, mexico, who try to get in the u.s., get caught up in a bureaucratic hell like this, and it puts a new light on marco rubio's own immigration policies as he tries to go out there as a more moderate torch bearer on that issue for the republican party. >> we got pieces of this story a couple of months ago, and there was some criticism laid out about the story that marco rubio had told about his family. but at the end of the day, are the american people when they are deciding whether or not he ought to be a vice president or perhaps some day a president, will they really care about an immigration hearing 50 years ago? >> no. that's a great point.

and what the author says in the book is that people are going to look at the shifting story and whether marco rubio from the beginning has told the full story. the book gives senator rubio his due. it talks about his 2010 speech to the conservative political action conference as being his equivalent of the famous 2004 speech that then -- at the time that barack obama gave to the democratic convention. so giving him credit as a rising star in american politics. it also rehashes what the rubio folks will consider an unpleasant episode, and that is the fact that marco rubio when they were in nevada was baptized mormon, a little known fact. he later helped move his family to the catholic church. but it's another part of the marco rubio story that will be dissected in the next couple of months. >> steve, there's been a lot of attention to this vice presidential choice this time around, given what your campaign

did last time. as you look at this field, does one make more sense than the other? i mean, if you get marco florru maybe you get florida. or jeb bush. does one make more sense than the other? >> i don't know who governor romney is going to pick. i do believe that he's going to pick that someone that the media, the republicans and democrats will all agree that the person is prepared to be president of the united states from day one. i think that's the lesson from 2008. i think one of the things that people don't know about rob portman is that he played john edwards in the debate prep against dick cheney in 2004, and he played barack obama against john mccain in 2008. and a lot of the coverage of this guy is that, you know, he's breyers vanilla ice cream. he is a very, very gifted politician. he is a great communicator. this is going to be such a close race. these debates are going to be so important. and he is someone who can absolutely play at that level.

and he's very popular in the state of ohio. and, you know, if you want to assign front-runner status, i think that you place it squarely on rob portman. >> and why not jeb bush? because jeb bush doesn't want to do it? >> i think he is ambivalent about doing it. who knows what's going on in the romney campaign as they go through it. but, you know, you saw marco rubio last week. his answer about the vice president changed, you know, very much. to me, that says i'm getting vetted. once you start going through that, going through the process, you stop talking about the process. so people who aren't getting vetted are going to say, well, i'm not being vetted. i'm not going to do it. people who are going to be vetted say, well, i want to respect the process and i won't talk about that. but his answer to me clearly, you know, said that, yeah, he is starting to turn over records and documents. >> mike allen, conventional wisdom has been rob portman. do you see any reason why it might be somebody else at this point? >> he is at the top of the list because he is not controversial.

there won't be months of stories about him like there would be about marco rubio. for the same reason, at the top of the list, you'll put tim pawlenty. indiana governor mitch daniels. and jeb bush of florida. all vetted, all fit those criteria that steve just talked about. >> all right. mike allen with a look inside the politico playbook. mike, thanks so much. coming up, nba hands out punishment for the elbow hammer thrown by meta world peace. was the penalty tough enough? >> no. >> boom. >> that story. and the night in baseball ahead in sports. plus, more of the president's visit with jimmy fallon yesterday. he takes a moment to slow jam the news when we come back. ♪

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i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service.

welcome back to "morning joe." time for a little sports. metta world peace. we're going to call him ron artest. his flagrant elbow to the head of oklahoma city's james harden has earned him a seven-game suspension without pay that will extend into the playoffs. the league handed out the punishment yesterday. david stern saying, artest's

long history of erratic and sometimes violent behavior on the court factored into the length of that ban. the suspension also will cost him almost $350,000 in salary. the lakers have one regular season game remaining, so the additional six games will be served through the playoffs or next season if the lakers are bounced in the first round. but they'll get to the second round, which means he'll be back for the second round of the playoffs. in a statement on his website, world peace remained remorse will saying, i hope james harden is ok. i apologize to the thunder fans and the organization. i look forward to getting back on the floor. it's not enough, right, mike? >> no. he should have been suspended for the rest of his year. given his track record, see you in september. >> repeat offender. to baseball now. this kid yu darvish, last night facing off against the yankees in texas. seventh time a couple of japanese pitchers have matched up.

expectations for darvish have been huge since the rangers won a bidding war for him in december, and he was shutting down the yankees lineup. looking to remain unbeaten this season. leading off the first, the rangers, ian kinsler. cranks a solo home run. gives the rangers an early 1-0 lead. in the seventh, rangers up by a couple. darvish cruising gets ibanez swinging. next batter, eric chavez. same thing for him. two batters later, darvish gets derek jeter to reach. strike three. darvish goes 8 1/3 scoreless innings. in the ninth, 10 strikeouts. gets the win. rangers shut out the yanks 2-0. nationals on the road in san diego. orlando hudson at the plate. gonzales gets him swinging at a breaking ball to end the inning. nats offense comes alive in the seventh. chad tracy, singles up the middle. n nationals win 3-1. they have 13 wins.

gonzalez's second win. he has gone 20 straight without giving up a run. the nats might be for real. >> might be? they are for real. great pitching. they have straussberg, gonzales, zimmerman. jose reyes back here last night. he designed a big contract with miami. his first time back. all love from the faithful in flushing. mets fans give reyes a standing o before his first at-bat. he flashes the smile. he then takes santana deep to left. but look at the catch. nice catch against the wall. tied in the eighth until this shot. that is your game-winner. and that spoiled reyes' return. also, the boston red sox winning 11-2, but you say it's never safe to go to bed. >> killing me. i stay up until the last hour.

they were up 10 runs and i still stay up because of what happened last saturday. they are killing me. >> you can't trust that bullpen after the 9-0 comeback. hockey tonight. the devils trying to stave off elimination against the florida panthers. overtime, tied at 2-2. travis zajac sneaks one past for the game-winner. and that will force a decisive game seven, setting up a great couple of days in the nhl. three game sevens in the next two days. caps and bruins face off tonight. on thursday, senators and the rangers at the garden. and the devils head back to florida to wrap up their series with the panthers. coming up next on "morning joe," "gq" is calling him mitt romney's dark knight. we'll take a closer look at the man behind the etch a sketch comment. keep it on "morning joe."

(spoken in mandarin)

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is there a concern that the pressure from santorum and gingrich might force the governor to tax so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the re-election? >> well, i think he hit a reset button for the fall campaign. everything changes. it's almost like an etch a sketch. you can shake it up and we can start over again. >> it feels like two years ago. that was march 21. that was eric fern strom, and his now famous etch a sketch comment from last month. joining us now "gq's" jason. the title says it all.

the dark knight. why is he is the dark night? >> i think the ones who are very good, they bring something to the candidate that the candidate himself lacks. people talked about how karl rove was bush's brain. i think he gives him a toughness that he wouldn't have on his own. and that's something he has provided for him for 10 years. he started working for him in 2002 and stayed by his side this whole time. and he gives him the capacity that the candidate wouldn't have for himself. >> if you think he is too golly gee to survive, his answer, eric fern strom. the guy he turns to when someone's leg needs breaks. if rove was bush's brain, then fehrnstrom gives romney a backbone. what does he bring that mitt romney needs and what's it like working with the guy from inside

of the media? >> this is a very tight-knit group and they have conflict internally, but it rarely spills out publicly. he is one of three longtime boston-based aides along with beth myers who is running the veep search operation and doing a lot of other things and peter flaherty. they are very loyal and they know him well. you have seen other people run. senator mccain had outside and inside people, but there was a fair amount of conflict in that campaign. [ laughter ] >> and this operation doesn't have much. and eric fehrnstrom is a big part of that. he has been a more remote figure than i thought he would be. he has done tons of interviews, including the etch a sketch one, but he has not been that high of a profile in being a voice for mitt romney. it's a problem they still need to solve. they still don't have the kind of flooding the airwaves with loyalists both on the campaign staff and surrogates that the

president's team has. and that in the age in which we live in which you need to be in a lot of places is something i think he has to be a part of solving. >> jason, having known eric for a while, not well, but i always get the sense that while he has a function as a loyalist, obviously, as a disciplinarian within the campaign, here's what romney is about, punching back, stuff like that, i never get the picture of him as a big thinking guy. can you address that? >> i think that's changed. i think his role has grown over the years. in the 2008 presidential campaign, he was purely a press guy. i think he was the national press secretary. he has more of a strategic role in this campaign. he is part of the brain trust. but he really has his fingers in a lot of different pots. he is not a 30,000 foot strategist, i don't think. but he's been given more of that responsibility this time. he has developed that with other candidates. he is also scott brown's top strategist. it's interesting that in this race, you know, he has two of probably the biggest campaigns in the country this year, and

also two candidates whose interests will conflict at this point. that will be an interesting test of his strategic smarts. >> steve, is eric fernston the same as you were to the mccain campaign! i think all campaigns are figured slightly differently. you know, long careers in republican politics. but look, this is a brutal, brutal process. and the candidates want people around them, you know, who have been with them for a real long time. and i think that's what probably eric fehrnstrom brings to mitt romney. his closeness and familiarity. >> there's not a lot of panicers in that operation. they are very, very cold blooded. and eric is like that, in a positive way. they don't look at the daily flow of the news cycle. matt rhodes and stewart are the same way.

they are just very calm about the ups and downs of a presidential campaign. and that's very comforting for a candidate to have people around him. because governor romney is like that as well. they are not big overreactors. >> another excerpt, we talked about the etch a sketch moment. you write, jason, this gift for the dirty work of politics has endeared fehrnstrom to romney, and has saved him when his own neck could have been the one on the chopping block. mitt romney, extraordinarily loyal, including through the etch a sketch so-called scandal. >> i don't think romney has the reputation of always being loyal to staff. but with eric, he has stuck by him through all sorts of episodes. early on, he got involved in an actual physical scuffle with a massachusetts politician, and there were a lot of calls by people in the press and people in politics in boston to fire him, and romney refused to do that. he didn't discipline him at all. and just episodes throughout his

career, where he's, you know, made gaffs like the etch a sketch comment, some twitter issues during this campaign where he had a fake account that he was running on behalf of scott brown, and he has managed to survive. he's not going to go anywhere, i don't think. >> how much have they tried to change from the inside mitt romney, in terms of loosening him up, making him more appealing to the voting public? >> i think it's a work in progress. but i think at a certain level, you have guys like eric who have been with romney all this time, know him better than anyone. or maybe they are somewhat baffled that the public and the media don't see the romney they see. they like him so much. and i think that breeds a lot of frustration and resentment on their part. i mean, they can't understand what we as either reporters or as voters don't get that they see. and i think in a certain extent, they maybe feel that, you know, they have done as much as they can do with romney and it's our problem, not theirs. >> it's a real good piece in "g "gq." appreciate it.

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please tell me it's time. >> jonathan capehart making a cameo this morning on "morning joe." audio appearance. he'll be on the show later. time for "news you can't use." president obama waded into some uncharted waters on "late night with jimmy fallon," becoming the first commander in chief we believe to slow jam the news. >> now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. [ applause ] >> oh, yeah. you should listen to the president. or as i like to call him, the presi of the united stasi. >> there are some who disagree. they say keeping the interest rate low isn't the way to help our students. they say we should be doing everything we can to pay down the national debt. well, so long as it didn't include taxing billionaires.

but their position is that students just have to make this rate increase work. frankly, i don't buy it. >> mmm, mmm, mmm. the barackness monster ain't buying it. >> the reason it's so important to keep down costs is so we keep college affordable. >> and the president knows his stuff, y'all. that's why they call him the potus. which means person on top -- what is it? >> jimmy, potus stands for president of the united states. >> he is the potus with the mostus! >> pretty solid slow jamming the news. it wasn't quite as fun-filled yesterday in colorado, however, for a poor, poor young woman. >> oh, here it comes. >> you hate to see it. this is a moment for a lifetime. >> it will live in infamy.

>> you get about five seconds with the president of the united states in your life if you're lucky, and what do you do with that five seconds? what's the story you'll tell your children and your grandchildren? for one young woman in colorado outside of a bar called the sink in boulder, she spilled her frozen yogurt right on the president. just dumped it on him as he went to shake her hand. he wiped himself off with a towel. the woman said she was incredibly embarrassed, but the president assured her getting yogurt on the president, that's a good story. >> i was shaking hands with folks outside, and a young woman, she got very excited, and spilled yogurt on me. [ laughter ] >> more hazardously, she spilled yogurt on the secret service, which you just -- the agent just stood there, just looking at her. >> we're not going to disclose the woman's name. it's just too much. it's too hefty.

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it's a smart way to go. ♪ mitt romney is not doing well with latino voters. mitt romney. and that's kind of a stunning

revelation, isn't it? not doing well with latino voters, and doing everything he can now to change that trend. as a matter of fact, the romney campaign released this announcement about that problem. take a look. >> in an effort to appeal to latino voters, mitt romney has softened his stance on illegal immigration. he will continue to meet with hispanic community leaders and he will also be taking lessons from this guy. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> mitt romney. que? >> he tried. i thought the mayor did a nice job during the hurricane. 7:00 a.m. here on the east coast. picture of the white house. mike barnicle is with us. along with steve schmidt. john miheilemann at the childres table. and host of "the daily rundown"

chuck todd. and the u.s. managing editor for "the financial times" gillian tett. good morning. >> good morning. >> i want to start with you. apple's profits up 94% year-to-year. the stock up 7% yesterday. something like $600 a share. what's behind this? >> well, it's interesting. i mean, what's behind it in the short-term is the fact that ipads and apple's products are continuing to sell. and that's good news for apple itself because there was a lot of discussion after steve jobs' death about whether the new management would be able to carry on the momentum we have seen in recent years. but what's perhaps more interesting is two big questions of the american economy right now. very important with the presidential race. firstly, it shows that there are some companies in america today which are still doing incredibly well. and yesterday we had manufacturing earnings from companies like 3m, very important bellwether, which shows that the heart of the american manufacturing economy there is still strength.

the big question, though, is whether it's feeding into jobs. and there's a very interesting debate in the apple report which is that there's now $110 billion of spare cash sitting on apple's balance sheet, which it isn't really know what it's going to do with. and what people are going to be watching is whether it will spend that money on creating jobs in america or whether it's going to carry on expanding its operations overseas. >> is there any reason to believe they would hire here in america? if you look into this report, a lot of the profits are coming from china. and they have only just begun in china. do you have any reason to believe this will help america? >> the ipads are have are very important symbolic indication about where things are going right now. because at the moment, much of the ipad production is carried on outside of america, even though it's an iconic american device. and yet the research and development, the kind of ains of the operation, if you like, are still inside silicon valley. and so you're creating high-end

jobs, well-paid engineers, but you're not creating the kind of middle class manufacturing jobs that people so desperately want right now. >> well, that's it, isn't it? $110 billion in cash reserves. you're going to spend that to create jobs much the component price of the iphones and ipads are in china and places like that. >> but that's a very big important battle about what that money is actually going to do. much of that is overseas, not just in apple but many of the high-tech companies. some of the executives say we need a tax break to bring it back into america. if we bring it back, we'll get taxed very heavily. and other people saying, why should we give big tax breaks to companies like apple which are doing incredibly well? they should be bringing it back anyway. if you want to be optimistic, it means there's a lot of spare firepower amongst american companies which means if they have confidence in the future that could be deployed to create

jobs and invest. the question is what is going to create that confidence. >> up 94%, year-to-year, the profits. incredible. now let's turn to politics. decisive wins last night as expected in five states for mitt romney. pretty much officially putting the primary process behind him now. openly declaring what's been clear for weeks, he is the republican nominee for president. he swept the vote by double digits in connecticut, delaware, and new york. pennsylvania and rhode island. he racked up another 133 delegates last night, putting him 320 shy of the 1144 he will need to officially become the nominee. he is not expected to hit that mark until next month. romney wasting no time rolling out the general election message. >> i have a simple message. hold on a little longer. a better america begins tonight. [ applause ] >> the last few years have been the best that barack obama can do. but it's not the best america can do.

tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the obama years. and it's the start of a new and better chapter that we will write together. four years ago, barack obama dazzled us in front of greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. but after we came down to earth, after all the celebration and the parades, what do we have to show for 3 1/2 years of president obama? because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions and distractions and distortions. that kind of campaign may have worked in another place and in a different time. but not here and not now. it's still about the economy. and we're not stupid.

this america is fundamentally fair. we will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice. we will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friend's businesses. we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the very taxpayers they serve. and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next. [ applause ] >> chuck, a lot to get through in that speech last night. what was your big take away when you watched him? >> first of all, i think it was a very good speech, best he's given to date. he's laid out the why not president obama. and it's funny. thinking about it this morning,

after did i guestigesting it ov what's missing is why him. he has made the case that 59% of the country in the last poll believes the country is headed in the wrong direction. he's done the easy part, the case of why not. the question is can he do the why him. and i think that's going to be the greater challenge. but i thought it was a very concise speech. steven and i were talking about this last night. it was the best written speech that romney's campaign has put together. and he delivered it fairly well. look, he is still getting used to the teleprompter back and forth. you know, one funny line, he didn't deliver it. you know, the line, we're not stupid. he's got to learn how to deliver some of these lines a little better. but i think it was a well written speech. >> off of what chuck just said, between now and labor day, what do you do if you're running the romney campaign? >> i think you make the case why

not barack obama, and you start to foreshadow the why mitt romney case. i think clock management is an underappreciated value in politics. we have an extraordinary amount of time. and one the jobs of the campaign is to provide constantly new content. so he's going to need to go into the convention with new things to say. he wants to start communicating the case about why mitt romney when voters are starting to pay maximum attention. particularly 6% of the electorate that will decide the outcome in key states. so i think the why mitt romney question gets answered at the convention. i think it gets answered at the debates. i think it gets answered in the fall campaign. and i think that you will see some foreshadowing, some rolling out of policies that allow him to have an architecture to his campaign, you know, that are oppositional to the obama campaign. but i think you will see him very aggressive over the course of the spring making the case why not obama. because one of the problems he's

had in this race is a belief, a pessimism in the republican side, that the president has this locked up. that's not true. this is going to be a close, very competitive election. all the way through. and i think that speech last night heartened a lot of republicans. a lot of republican donors across the country are saying, hey, this guy can win if he can stay on that message. >> you know, there's a point where in all of these -- when nominees start to fill the suit. i thought last night was the case where he started to fill the suit. >> i'm shifting away from focusing on the personality to the issue of competence and track record and the economy. the president is certainly going to help him a lot in terms of trying to get there. >> john heilemann, what's the message if you're trying to shape the message? what is the answer to the question why mitt romney? we know now from the campaign why not barack obama. why mitt romney? what's the positive message? >> i think we'll end up coming back to the kind of message he

tried to put forward throughout most of 2011 before things took kind of a wrong turn for him coming out of new hampshire, which is that he has the private sector experience, he understands how to manage the economy in a way that barack obama doesn't. you know, steve is a great source to talk about this. i think this race looks a lot like 2004, where you have an incumbent who is trying to turn this into a choice election. barack obama's team going to try to make this all about do you really want mitt romney or do you want barack obama. it can't be a referendum election. and of course that's what the romney campaign wants to make it. they want to make it a are you better off than four years ago, they want to make it all about barack obama's success or lack of success over the course of the last four years. usually, when an incumbent runs for re-election, it sis a revereferendum election. but it can be made into a choice election. the interesting thing that's happened in the last week, i think, is the way in which the obama campaign has shifted away from the consistent argument that they have made over the

course of the last year really about mitt romney, which is that he is a flip flopping phony, away from that argument to the argument he is a right-wing nut. with david plouffe saying he is the most radical conservative since barry goldwater, you can't have it both ways. barry goldwater was not a flip flopping phony. if you're going to say that romney is a flip flopping phony, you can't say he is a right wing nut. they think romney might be able to get to the middle, and they want to keep him over there on the far right. that was almost a way of trying to prebutt the speech that romney did last night >> did you this to kerry in '04. you were able to call him a flip flopping phony and the most liberal senator. you were able to both define him both ways. so you can do both. >> we had an ongoing debate in the campaign for the entirety of

2004, you know, which one is the most potent and do they contradict each other. and i do think when you look at mitt romney, he doesn't scream radical conservative, extremist. and i just don't think there's going to be a lot of gold in those hills, you know, as the campaign goes forward. he doesn't project extremism. he doesn't project conservatism. the entire country has been socialized over the course of the republican primary debates by a bunch of conservatives that he is not a real conservative. everybody knows that he's been attacked by rush limbaugh. he's been attacked by all of these people. so i think that that -- he is in a good place with this coming into the general election. i think it's going to be very tough to make an ideological case against him. >> on that score, could you see the beginnings of a campaign being framed up in his comments last night, where they are edging a bit away from ideology towards the competence argument, where the president of the united states is a nice guy, but he hasn't done the job for you,

i can. >> i think when he stepped over the joke line and delivered it harshly, he is not a natural politician in the way that you saw the president, you know, as he was slow jamming the news. he's not going to be able to do that. he was a businessman making a business case yesterday. may as well have had a power point up there with him, you know, with economic slides. if he can make the business case, the one thread that runs through mitt romney's career, you know, whether it's at the olympics, whether it's at bain, whether it was when he was governor, is achievement and excellence and competence. that's the romney brand. and to the extent he is able to run on it and able to stay in that space, i think that good things can happen for him. >> he's fundamentally a technocrat. he hasn't got the vision thing. and it's interesting to ask whether americans want the vision thing or the technocrat. if you look at europe right now, there are signs that people are increasingly going for techno crates, people who are competent

and can run economies well. maybe that won't cut it here in america. but the vision thing is certainly lacking right now. >> john, you mentioned this. what was the calculation or what is the calculation inside the obama campaign about going right wing nut job? as steve says, this a guy that the white house itself says laid the ground work for the obama care. how nutty could he be? >> it's a good question. and i think the calculation is something we talked about in the first hour of the show, which is that the white house and the re-election committee look at what's happened to romney over the course of the primaries. he came out of the primaries with serious deficits with certain voter groups because of positions he had to take in order to win the republican nomination fight. that is, deficits with women, deficits with hispanics. not lesser deficit but some deficit for a while with independents. the white house does not want to let people forget those positions he took because they recognize that he can rhetorically make the shift back toward the center. they want to say forget about what you're listening to him say

right now. forget about what he looks like on the stump. remember the positions he took that in the course of this primary that put him outside the mainstream for the kind of voters in the middle of the electorate that are going to decide the election. >> it's simply that they want to remind, they want to make romney own the negatives of the republican party. that's really -- >> yeah. >> i thought it was inartful the way plouffe did it with romney, because you can't credibly say mitt romney is this. but the argument they want to say is that he represents a republican party that's this, a republican party that has shifted too far to the right. by the way, do you want the republican party to run it all? and i think that there is that -- that is in an odd way i think you're going to see in the fall the president make more of that case. wait a minute. do you want to hand the republican party the keys to the entire government? are you sure? and make romney sort of own and represent that. >> and i think to a degree, we're going to see a campaign that plays out at a place that none of us are going to see it, which is on spanish language

media over the course of the campaign. if the republican vote share continues to decline on the trajectory that it's declined from 2004 to 2008, and i think it's declined, you know, because of the congressional brand, not necessarily because of the presidential candidates. and you look where romney had to go on these immigration issues. there's going to be a mighty struggle to fight for the hispanic vote. if republicans can't get that vote share up, this all is an academic argument. it's not possible to win the election. it's going to have to be a fierce contest, you know, where republicans are in that community campaigning to a degree which we have not done at anywhere close to the level we're going to need to do it. >> the gap is between 40% and 50%, depending on which poll you look at. >> it's massive. >> steve, great to have you with us this morning. do you miss being in the middle of it this time around? >> no. very happy to be here. playing a bit of golf which you don't get to do in a campaign. watching some baseball games.

absolutely. >> i was with you too. it was heilman. >> is that who it was? >> yeah. you've earned your cycle off. steve schmidt, thanks so much. just ahead, garry marshall will be ahead talking about his memoir working with some of the biggest names in the business. and up next, robert draper breaks down what's really happening behind closed doors on capitol hill. first, though, bill karins with a look at the forecast. wild weather around this country this spring. mostly temperaturewise. we haven't had a ton of tornadoes lately, and that's good. buffalo new york, only 44 yesterday. we doubled that in denver. the northeast still holding on to a little taste of early spring. feels like sumner the middle of the country. buffalo, boston, still on the cool side. d.c., nice day. showers in new england. the only troublesome weather today, watch out in illinois where they could have some big thunderstorms later on, maybe

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>> i would say there's a 2-3 chance that we win control of the house again. but there's a 1-3 chance that we could lose. and i'm being myself, frank. we have a big challenge. and we've got work to do. >> that was house speaker john boehner offering an assessment of the republican chances in this fall's election. joining us, robert drake, author of the new book "do not ask what good we do." this body has become a punch line. 8% approval rating. what did you find embedded first of all for a full year -- >> that's right.

>> what did you find? >> by the way, congressman john dingell said when i mentioned the low approval rating, he said, i think pedophiles would probably do better. you know, you guys were talking about presidential politics before the break. and i have little doubt that president obama's campaign will try to frame this as the do nothing congress. it's not that they were a do nothing congress. they did a lot. it's just that what they did was so far to the right of what the democratically controlled senate and president obama would sign into law that it invited a kind of paralysis. and all of this is largely the fruit of the 87 republican freshman who came into town really believes they were on a mission, on a wave of the tea party movement. there were votes and more than anything else their influence dragged the republican party further to the right than would have been possible to fashion any kind of agreement ultimately. >> were you impressed? did your impression change of these guys? a tlot of them have become cartoon characters on tv. >> i was impressed to the degree that you can't say these -- you

know, some people can say they are misguided or hypocritical or whatever. you can't say they don't believe anything. now, a lot of these 87, about 1/3 of them, had no political experience of any kind. had never held elective office. so they had a lot of learning to do. but also at the same time they approached congress with very fresh eyes and were very skeptical, not just of democrats but of their own members, fellow republicans in congress. and so a lot of the book talks about the clash between, say, veteran appropriators and these freshmen who thought these guys were all in on the take. >> i was talking with a couple of members of congress last week, both democrats, and both were saying that john boehner, speaker boehner, pretty good guy. you can get a deal done with him. but you can't get a deal done with him or anyone else in the leadership because of the aforementioned, many of them, the newly elected republicans. >> we can't feel too sorry for john boehner because he couldn't be speaker but for the fact

these guys came into town. he has an expression, boehner does, and that's if you say follow me and start walking and no one is following you, you're not leading. you're just walking. he's had to calibrate his leadership positions tailored to the fact that a lot of these guys are rebels. there's a moment in the book where the big guys on the appropriations committee chew out boehner and say, you're not punishing these guys for voting the wrong way. you should strip them of their committee assignments, take them off congressional delegation list, and boehner says i can't do that. it would make martyrs out of them. and that is the reality now that there are no more ear marks and right wing blogospheres to monitor everything. >> robert, it strikes me that boehner does understand how to defensively deal with these guys. >> right. >> but he has not yet figured out how to corral them. is that right? >> i think that's fair.

he is temperamentally suited for this better than anybody else. i think anybody else would wake up screaming trying to figure out how to herd the cats. and he comes up to ralph hall and says, now we can't herd the cats anymore. and you do feel like from time to time when the freshmen and for that matter a lot of the senior conservatives have voted against so many of the republican sponsored legislation, that there's more that speaker boehner could do. but it's just not his way. he is kind of a laidback ceo. and he has no tom delays on his side. kevin mccarthy, majority whip, very affable but he ain't delay. >> is mccarthy an ally of boehner or not? >> that's a good question. i think the answer is yes. he's not a foe of his, but he is very close to the freshmen and he has often come to boehner and said, look, we don't have the votes for that. so he's not someone, again, to

do a spanish inquisition on the freshmen. >> what i would love to know is having tracked these 87 people so closely, which is fascinating, do you see any sign that they are shifting their ground, that they have become more willing to compromise off of their time in washington or are their positions actually hardening? >> well, that's a good question too. on the one hand, you can see some of them seasoning into legislators. on the other hand, they come home, and they are lambasted by members of the tea party movement. those are the people that show up to town halls. when i would go over when congress was in recess to follow some of the members, the people at the town hall meetings were always the conservative activists. and one freshman congressman from corpus christi, texas, we were attending a town hall where he talked about the need to compromise in a divided government and somebody stood up and yelled, we did not send you to washington to compromise. >> are you more optimistic about

the chance of gridlock lessening? >> no, no, especially this year. nothing is going to get done. it's all election year posturing. maybe in a lame duck session, we shall see. but i think that it will probably take, you know, a real crisis economically or otherwise for a lot of these members to come to jesus and realize they are actually sent there to govern. >> robert, people are getting ready for work in the morning. they would like a good laugh. tell us about congressman allen west. >> allen west is definitely a character, and an equal opportunity offender. when he first showed up to town, in fact, i met allen west on the set of "meet the press." and west had said during that show that he would be willing to cut funds in the defense department. immediately, the guy who is the chairman of the armed services committee, buck mckeon, called him and said, what are you talking about? you want to be on armed services and you're talking about cutting defense? as soon as he showed up to town, he criticized majority leader eric cantor's calendar. but at the same time, he said to

me that debbie washerman schultz was inciting a riot. he said that barney frank should be fitted with a punk jump suit. he is prone to outrageous statements and not big on self censorship. >> how is he coming with those pinko hearings he wants to hold? by the way, i short changed congress, 17% approval. i said 8%. >> it's been improving. >> yeah. at this rate, we should be up to 20% or something. >> boehner decided to scream fire with those comments. >> yeah. >> i think they have not gotten enough. and i think part of it was a fundraising appeal. they are desperate for cash, no doubt. what he's doing. but he's not wrong either. there is a 1-3 chance. >> absolutely. >> robert draper, it's a great book. you've done it again. "do not ask what good we do," inside the u.s. house of representatives. thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure.

rupert murdoch facing tough questioning right now. a live report from london when "morning joe" comes back. everyone in america depends on the postal service.

i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions.

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questions, this time focusing on how much influence his empire held over british media. stephanie goss is following it for us. >> the questions today go well beyond just phone hacking at the defunct newspaper "news of the world." the scandal has turned into a critique of how the media in this country operates and a deep look at the influence it's had on the upper echelons of government. rupert murdoch is facing a public grilling for the second time. >> that abuses go further than the issue of phone hacking. or are they limited to the issue of phone hacking? >> i think they go further. >> the last time murdoch faced questions was before parliament. supported by his son james and famously protected by his wife. this time he sits alone. >> the shareholders will be

looking at what kind of performance he puts up. >> james murdock was in the hot seat tuesday, blaming his subordinates for not telling him about widespread hacking at "news of the world" soon enough. >> their assurances to me consistently were as i've said, which is that the newspaper had been investigated thoroughly, that no evidence was found. >> reporter: but evidence was found. it suggested multiple reporters at "news of the world" hacked into the voicemails of celebrities, the royal family, and a murdered young girl. the newspaper was shut down. newscorp was forced to back off of a multibillion tv deal, and there were high profile resignations and arrests. and now the inquiry started by prime minister david cameron is scrutinizing how much influence newscorp has had over the british government itself. critics allege that murdocha paper "the sun" endorsed cameron

during the election in return of full control of broadcaster b sky b. >> there is absolutely not a quid pro quo for that support. >> reporter: today, it's his father's turn to defend the world's second largest media company, and with it his own reputation. the questioning began today by focusing on political influence going back as far as prime minister margaret thatcher. murdoch says he did not ask thatcher for help in acquiring british newspapers in the early '80s. he then went on to say that he has never asked a prime minister for anything, willie. >> live in london. amazing. thanks so much. gillian, you have been following this closely. this goes deeper as stephanie said than hacking phones. now we are talking about influence on the government, all the way to 10 downing street. >> absolutely. it's been a very dramatic couple of days. thus far, rupert murdoch has escaped having any more pie thrown at him. but what happened yesterday was very important, because

essentially his son, james, turned the tables on the british government and said, well, here you are questioning us about what we've done. in recent years we have had a lot of dealings with the british government, with the administration around david cameron. in particular, people are watching what happened when the murdoch group was bidding for b sky b. and it turns out that although the british government at the time was saying we are being totally neutral about this, hands off, in fact, they were communicating through back channels. and some of those emails are incredibly incriminating. >> do we have any sense of what is happening to that company internally, in terms of line of succession? >> there is a very intense debate going on right now, and obviously shareholders are watching very carefully. there are a number of key questions that people need to watch right now. first up, whether this actually comes back to america. thus far, the focus has very much been in the u.k. and to a lesser extent in places like australia.

but if we see american shareholders and american people start to sue the company as well, that could be very important. and right now, there are lawyers combing through those hacking records to see whether there's any evidence that americans were actually hacked in america. that's much more serious. and then of course there's a bigger strategic question about whether the murdoch group is going to hang onto its newspapers, to the other parts of the operation, and where it goes going forward. >> we'll be waiting to see what else rupert murdoch says as he continues his testimony today. happening right now. gillian tett, great to see you. >> thank you. up next iss, the former hea the tsa has a new book. that's just ahead on "morning joe." back in a moment. ♪

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welcome back to "morning joe." beautiful morning here in new york city. here with us now, former tsa administrator kip hawley, author of "permanent emergency." let's start with some good news with the tsa. you guys were talking about precheck. if you fly enough, you can check right there's. >> apple pie, mom, baseball, taylor swift, and precheck. >> taylor swift again? second appearance of the week. >> it's fantastic. i want more of it. >> kip, your argument is -- >> we've got to do it for everybody. >> why don't we? >> we have old rules that are still stuck that were put in place after 9/11 that worked then and are no longer needed. i would say we could get rid of 90% of the prohibited items. >> like what? >> like knives.

any knife. keep your knife. keep your tools. whatever -- they have hand tools you can't bring on. sporting equipment. there's a long list. a huge list. and officers spend most of their time looking through bags for this stuff, fishing them out. and what that would -- what my proposal would do would make the officers able to focus on explosives or toxins, really things that are threats now. and it would speed up the process. and it would just make the security better because the whole process would be calmer, passengers would come back. and i think that's a huge security problem now, and that is that the public is not on the same payabge as the tsa. and that needs to be brought together. >> what's the difference between now and 10 years ago? why is it ok to bring a knife on a plane now that it wasn't 10 years ago?

>> locked cockpit doors. air marshals. passengers who will rip your head off if you try to do something. there are thousands, many thousands of armed pilots. there are thousands of armed federal officers. >> the pipilots themselves are in the cockpit? >> yeah. >> on their own initiative? >> they apply to the tsa under the air marshal's program. and they have the world's smallest law enforcement jurisdiction. their cockpit. >> these are commercial airline pilots packing heat up in the cockpit? >> yes, yes. and you have fbi agents, other agencies that have officers traveling. they travel with their weapons. >> let's set all of that aside. how do we make these lines more expeditious at big airports? >> take away the easter egg hunting that occurs at the checkpoint. if you say, if you have liquids, go over there. you don't need to worry about prohibited items except don't bring a gun or a bomb component.

>> that's pretty simple. >> it's pretty simple. and then if you spread the thing out, and the reason that this new precheck works is because tsa gets the traveller information 72 hours in advance of the flight. and can use that time to put together a security program that really could be customized to you and encrypted on your boarding pass. and this is a brand-new capability they have had in the last year. but i think the real underlying factor is that the intelligence community, the cia, nsa, all of that activity, is so well now coordinated with the tsa background so that now when tsa is evaluating what risks are, they are doing it on the basis of what the cia, nsa are telling them realtime. and that integration with intelligence has enabled this policy. >> i think for a lot of people, the part where you take off your shoes is illustrative of the reactive nature of tsa.

one guy, richard reid, tried to light his shoes on fire and now for 10 years after we all have to take our shoes off. is it time now to leave the shoes on as we go through security? >> it actually -- the reason you gave is not the actual reason. the actual reason was that in 2006, 2007, 2008, there were vastly improved shoe bombs that were in the system, and that we knew that the better bomb makers had made with electronic detonators that were undetectable. so that is why. >> it was not about richard reid? >> it originally was about richard reid. but what really happened is after richard reid, they did a thing where they checked your boot. if you had a heightened boot, you took it off. if you didn't, you got to keep it on. keep yours on. you know, so that went for a couple of years. but it wasn't until 2006 that everybody take your shoes off. and that was based on the intel of live shoe bombs that were in the system. and in fact, in 2007, they had a

teenager carrying detonators to the big german hydrogen peroxide plot. so it's out there. everybody hates it. and one day there will be a scanner. but unfortunately, i think the intel tells us that if they get the opportunity, they will use a shoe bomb. >> so that stays in place for now. ok. a lot of these sound like great proposals. why haven't they happened? why won't they happen? >> because the person looking at it says, you're going to allow knives on a plane? do you realize that you could -- and then you set up the scenario and it makes it very difficult to do. it took changing an act of congress to allow lighters back on planes. we had one in three bags were being opened to fish out lighters. and all the officers were just spending their time pulling out lighters, and as i said, electronic detonators work 100% of the time. al qaeda wasn't using lighters. it took an act of congress to fix that. >> what's the dumbest thing that

we have to endure as passengers? >> i think it's the -- when you're barked at, when you go to a checkpoint and it's take your shoes off, everybody now, get your laptop. you know, that is dumb. and tsa, i believe, is trained to try to calm the checkpoint and have their behavior people walking around and, you know, making it a respectful, calm process. a calm process is an organized process. it moves smoothly. and the behavior people can pick out who they are looking for. >> how much of this do you think is -- to your point a second ago about why we couldn't reinstate knives, one of the criticisms of all of this stuff has been that it's become -- it's mostly security theater. it's about making people feel secure rather than actually be secure. you hear a lot of people talk about airline security and say, if the plot -- if there a plot, by the time you get to the

airport, it's too late. 99% of these things have to be stopped before anybody ever gets to the airport. how much is about actual security versus making people feel secure? >> that's why i wrote the book. because when i left my job, i thought, you know, for the last four years, i have been on a dead sprint spending most of my time with nsa, cia, fbi, the intel community working on actual plots. at the same time, in the public, none of this is seen. so when we do things like look out for remote control toy vehicles, that's based on specific intel that al qaeda didie guys are working on bringing that in. so the disconnect, i believe, is that the disconnect, i believe,s that the public has no clue for security reasons, perhaps, that they have this much activity going on below. and what i do is i outline the plots -- the shoe plots, we get

into light eers, we get into scissors. in fact, the first story in the book really is about when the public knows that i tried to get rid of scissors and had all sorts of fights with congress about it, what the book reveals is about two weeks before i made that decision, i've been briefed on an al qaeda plot that to this point has never been released publicly. and so it really shows intelligent security. now we have to show the public. >> my big takeaway, we're taking ofl our shoes for the foreseeable future. the book is "permanent emergency" written bay man who knows what he's speaking of. up next, we told you about it a little bit earlier in the show. she is the young woman who spilled the yogurt on the president. we're going to ask her what happened when we come back. [ female announcer ] the best way to predict the future... is to create it. [ female announcer ] now create a new future for your skin. only aveeno positively radiant has total soy,

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welcome back to "morning joe." we have a setting of the record -- >> set it straight. >> -- to do right now. we told you the story earlier in the show about the young woman, the freshman student university of colorado at boulder who reportedly spilled yogurt on the president of the united states yesterday. she said she didn't spill any yogurt on the president of the united states. she joins us now from colorado. thanks for being with us. so what happened yesterday? >> well, basically me and two of

my sorority sisters were going to this place to get -- it's kind of like blended truitt, dwra know la, like a parfait. and we see the secret service and police lining the street on the hill, a place we normally hang out. normally it's somewhere college kids just go. and it was really crazy to see that the president showed up there. and so they crossed off a lot of the street by placing caution tape everywhere, and so the secret service brought a select few, about five to seven people up closer to pretty much be as close as you could possibly get to the president without being in the restaurant. and so we were just standing there waiting for the president to exit the restaurant. weigh saw him go in and we got to see him come out and then he came to our group of all the people we were standing with to greet them, shake hands, talk a little bit. and so we were standing there and he starts coming closer down the line and he starts getting

closer to us. and previously, before this, the secret certificaservice had ask who was drinking anything or eating anything to place it on the ground or they confiscated it from them so that nothing would get thrown from the president or any situation like that. and so i had placed it on the ground and as he came towards us to shake our hands, paparazzi came up from behind me and kicked the cup and it got onto the president. >> so it was the photographers. it wasn't you. it was the photographers. >> yeah. >> you've been falsely accused in the yogurting of the president of the united states. >> mm-hmm. and all the articles and everything, it was what i was eating, so i do take fault for that, but technically it was not my fault. >> no, it wasn't your fault at all. we're going to set the record straight here. we apologize. >> thank you. >> did that the spill your

parfait. >> exactly. >> it could have been a yogurt parfait. those two things are not inconsistent. >> freshman at the university of colorado, you have been vindicated. thank you for being with us. innocent. thanks for being with us this morning. >> thank you. up next, mitt romney sweeps up five more primaries telling americans afterwards help is on the way, about six months from now. i love cash back. with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. no annual fee. that's 1% back on... wow! 2% on my homemade lasagna. 3% back on [ friends ] road trip!!!!!!!!!!!! [ male announcer ] get 1-2-3 percent cash back. apply online or at a bank of america near you. ♪ the world needs more energy.

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after 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, i can say with confidence and gratitude that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility and together we are going to win on november 6. good morning. it's 8:00 in the morning on the east coast as you take a live look at new york city. mike barnicle, steve schmidt, let's start with you. last night we know he has the nomination but he started talking like the nominee really last night. what were your impressions of his speech? >> i it was the best speech he gave on any of these nights. he framed an economic argument. that's the argument he has to make in order to win this election. you saw the guy with the superior campaign skills in the slow jam, out on the college campuses yesterday.

but the ferocity with which he made that economic argument, framing it, talk iing about howo create prosperity in this country, i think it's a really good argument and it's what he needs to do 0 to win. >> let's listen to what mitt romney said last night after winning five republican primaries. >> i have a simple message. hold on a little longer. a better america begins tonight. the last few years have been the best that barack obama can do, but it's not the best america can do. tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the obama years. and it's the start of a new and better chapter that we will ride together. four years ago barack obama dazzled us in front of greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change.

but after we came down-to-earth, after all the celebration and the parades, what do we have to show for 3 1/2 years of president obama? because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions and distractions and distortions. that kind of campaign may have worked in another place and in a different time, but not here and not now. it's still about the economy and we are not stupid. >> going back to the greek columns line. >> they are as enduring as the real thing, it turns out. romney also spoke about stopping, quote, unfairness throughout america. here is what he said. >> this america is fundamentally fair. we will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of

their choice. we will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends' businesses. we will stop the up fairness of government workers getting b better pay and benefits than the very taxpayers they serve. and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next. >> mark, i thought the fairness message belonged to the president. a little co-opting there by mitt romney? >> always want to try to co-opt. one of the things in that sequence, rick perry actually did it in his announcement speech and never again is making the case that the economy -- the obama economy has been worse for minorities, for african-americans. he's going to dominate that vote. it does add to the president on the left. i thought there were tons

republicans could be encouraged by. the performance was very good but it showed he could be a can cutting critique of the president but a lot of optimism in the speech as well. he brought up a couple of grandkids at the end and, again, a lot of republicans will like that performance because that performance -- i'm not saying romney will win. he's an underdog and he will be all the way through probably, but he could win if if he can maintain that level of performance and that will hea y hearten a lot. >> a-minus. i think one of the questions, one of the fundamental questions is always whether the performances you give, the speeches you give, how well they jive with where you actually are on 0 issues. and i think part of the problem it i get the jujitsu thing on talking fairness. i think the president and his family will go and point to some of the policies romney has had to endorse.

they will remind him where he is substantively. there's only so far you can pivot away from the positions you've taken and he's taken a lot of positions the president and his team think they can hang around his neck effectively with their communications skills and the money they have over the course of the next six is months. it will be hard to run away from those actual positions of substance. >> the fairness argument he was making last night, and i haven't read the text of the speech. perhaps he got to this point, how do you make a fairness argument without referencing the tax code of the united states? >> i think that fairness is subjective. and it's really important politically if you're on the republican side not to see the area of tearness to the president on this. and, you know, i think the area he was getting into yesterday is that the most compassionate government policy that you can have is a pro-growth economic policy which doesn't mean growing the size of government,

doesn't mean that government divides up a pie, decides under the name of fairness gets what piece of that ever shrinking, ever diminishing pie. i think he started to lay out that argument yesterday. look, the tax code is a mess. it should be fundamentally reformed, but i don't think the key to prosperity is necessarily a debate over the top rate, should be 39% or it ought to be 35%. it's a mess. it's uncompetitive. i think that mitt romney will have to lay out some big themes, big ideas, big reforms over the course of this campaign, but that speech last night, he began to lay out the architecture of an economic argument that i think can sell in the middle of the electorate. both these guys have a base of about 47%. you're going to see about 6%. they will decide the electorate. that's why the debates will be so key in the fall. >> you sat in this position against this opponent, in fact. as the republican nominee, as you sit here with six months and change until election day, get inside the romney campaign.

how optimistic are you? how big a climb is it? mark halperin suggests he will be an underdog all the way through. everything else that's going on in this big picture, what would be your outlook for the race? >> four years ago we were always worried the conditions were so bad. it was such a bad climate for the republican party. it was such an uphill climb. you're looking at the race this time, you see all the conditions necessary. i think they recognize the fact that they are the underdogs, that it's going to be a tough climb. you watch the president yesterday. his campaign skills, his political skills, his oratorical skills are like another planet. he's so good. so when you watch that, they have massive respect for him, political skills, but there's a fundamental structural weakness to the obama canndidacy and it' this. if he had been able to accomplish the things he said he was going to accomplish, he wouldn't be running a campaign

that is leading with criticism of mitt romney. he would be leading a campaign that's fundamentally about to turn around the country. he's unable to do that. >> mark, where are the windows of opportunity for mitt romney? you say he's an underdog but what could change between now and november? >> it's all the electoral college and that's where he has the biggest deficit right now. the president would have to lose a lot of states he won handily last time to give a path to 270. it's going to have to be with hispanic and western voters. or he's going to have to show some pretty good strength in florida, ohio, virginia, to put together 270. he does not today have much of a margin of error. i'll say, though, there are a lot of audiences for that speech last night. one is really, really rich republicans who want to beat the president, and that performance, i think, will open some check books. as long as he's looking strong enough to bet on, he's going to get multimillion dollar contributions to people supporting his candidacy and

that's a big way he can have a much more level playing field than senator mccain had against barack obama where he was so underfunded. >> and you can see the president's concern about this financial thing just every day. it's like they're practically coming to my house and asking me to take part in this george clo clooney fund-raiser thing. i get an e-mail about it from somebody almost every day. there's a little bit of fear in the eyes on the democratic side financially now, this notion that we all, most people, have operated under the president would raise a billion dollars and the republican would mott have the financial advantage. that has over the course of the last couple of months changed, and now you see there's a little bit on the democratic side of concern that they are going to be at a disadvantage financially and that's one thing that allows romney to play. i also think to mark's point he got very little margin for error but, man, after everything mitt romney has been through the last four months, the fact that he's within, according to whatever poll you pick, either a little bit ahead or only a little bit behind, maybe four, five, six points behind, if i were

romney's people, i'd be thrilled given the meat grinder they've been through. >> you see, we talked about this a bit yesterday and it is the feeling toward romney among the other candidates which is a level of antipathy that is palpable when you're with the people in those campaigns. and santorum yesterday refused to say, you know, i endorse this guy. god only knows what newt gingrich is doing today. but what does romney -- >> probably at a zoo. >> what does romney do about this, if anything? >> i think as we're talking about this, you look at a state like new hampshire where you had a very close race a couple months ago, the president has a nine-point lead. that's a function of how the suburbs are reacting to these republ republican primaries. and mitt romney's not going to do himself any favors if he puts himself is in a negotiation for rick santorum support in the context now of the argument he's

trying to have in the general election. so i think he has to be very close to the line to tell rick santorum to go pound sand and to call his bluff and say you can stay somewhere in georgia for the convention and you're not speaking and, you know, santorum, you've jumped the shark here. if he gets into a public pandering trying to get gingrich's support, trying to get santorum support, it's going to totally derail his ability to deliver that message he delivered last night which he has to deliver. i think santorum is like a guy at the blackjack table who doesn't know when to push the chair away and take his chips out and, you know, i think his total lack of class and grace in handling the defeat says a lot about, "a," rick santorum, but gives an important political decision for romney to make which is, hey, i'm not going to get into a panned earp fespande fest. >> on cnn the host trying to drag an endorsement out of rick

santorum, one that apparently wasn't coming. >> do you believe that mitt romney is the right guy? >> well, i believe -- obviously i believed i was the better choice but i'm not in the race anymore. >> he's won the race. is he therefore the right guy? >> absolutely. he's the person that is going to go up against barack obama. it's pretty clear. and we need to win this race. >> am i mishearing things? you've just endorsed mitt romney. >> you can call it whatever you want. >> am i wrong? >> look, i believe -- >> you know your husband. has he just endorsed mitt romney? >> not at this point. no. >> it's very clear that he's going to be the republican nominee and i'm going to be for the republican nominee and we're going to do everything we can to defeat barack obama. >> i don't even mean this rhetorically, what is he wait ing for? why can't he stay it? >> i have no idea. look, it's totally you need to be classy in defeat. he's lost the election. he ran as a republican candidate. you have to support the

republican nominee. maybe in his head he has visions that he's going to go to boston, he's going to enter into a grand negotiation and bargain a for support with the romney campaign. there's no reason the romney campaign needs to do that. they should ignore the guy. if he wants to endorse, that's great. if he doesn't want to endorse, that's fine, too. >> can i make the case for rick santorum? >> yes. >> let's say there's personal ambition involved and some feeling but he feels he represents a loft conservatives in the party right now who at this point to have fundamental doubts about whether mitt romney is going to be a conservative as a candidate and if he wins as a president and part of the conversation he wants to have is not the about the platform but what mitt romney will be about if he wins, what fight on conservative principles he'll take to the president and he'll take to the country if he's sworn in. >> when does he want to hear that he hasn't heard yet? >> i have no idea. i feel his influence is a wasting asset at this point. there was maybe a moment right before he dropped out, after he dropped out where he might have

been able to have that kind of influence over romney but as every day it diminishes and it seems as you were watching your chick pile just dwindle and dwindle to where you're holding that lost $2 chip, i don't know how you're going to get anything out of mitt romney as a strategic matter. every single day he loses leverage. >> in the romney campaign understands that they're carrying 90% of the republican voter base out there. they don't need him. the party, they may not have been enthusiastic about it, but mitt romney's locked it up. he will carry the entirety of the republican base as will the president with the democratic base. so he doesn't need him. santorum ought to adjust his attitude in a hurry if he's going to have any relevance in in campaign. >> santorum did say last night he was going to talk to the romney campaign. we'll see what happens in that conversation. president obama is on a bit after college tour this week. at the university of iowa today, the last stop on a three-state tour through swing state college campuses.

yesterday he was at the university of north carolina in chapel hill where he made a special appearance on "late night with jimmy fallon." he asked the president about his personal relationship with mitt romney. >> if mitt romney was in the room with you right now, what would you say to him? >> i'd say, hey, mitt. >> good. that was good. that's pretty good. >> yeah. >> do you know mitt romney? >> i've met him. but we're not friends. he seems like somebody who cares deeply with about his family and his wife is lovely. >> eventually, within a couple months, going to put out attack ads and then it gets personal. >> it's not like the best introduction to somebody. >> it's not the greatest way to get to know somebody. >> if you want to get to know somebody, there are better ways to do it. >> classic. he sounds like he has a nice family, his wife seems nice. i don't know about the man himself. >> the political skills are incredible. i just always reminded to the

degree so many republicans, the way they approach the president is as a caricature. he's a highly likeable guy. he's really good. you saw all of these skills on display yesterday, and, you know, i think the choice, if it comes down to a likability contest, if the attacks get too over the top on him, they're going to backfire and they're going to backfire badly. >> our next guest has worked on some of the most iconic movies and sitcoms. fi film and tv director gary marshall here to talk about his remarkable career in hollywood. that's next. first, the legendary bill karins to check on the forecast. good morning, everyone. west coast, it's not normal we talk about umbrella weather in the west, but that's the case today from vegas all the way down to san diego, los angeles, everyone is going to get a taste of some rain. so just be prepared for are that. we're already seeing a little bit of wet weather there. also it's raining in the pacific northwest. that's not so rare. a little break around l.a. right

now. i think mid morning or so is when the best chance of rain will happen, get through your morning commute. forecast wise, the rest of the country looking nice actually. record heat continues near kansas city today. dallas on the hot side. denver, too, in the 80s. we will see some showers and storms, though, late today. minneapolis to chicago, watch out. especially central illinois. we could see some storms and those storms and wet with weather will push to the east coast. so if you have your choice of travel in new england or the mid-atlantic either today or thursday, you're going to want to do it today. it's dry and beautiful. thursday will be rainy and definitely cooler. airport delays. not so bad today. no tornado outbreaks in sight either.

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♪ sunday, monday happy days tuesday, wednesday happy days ♪ >> i've got to tell you, i've got to tell you, i'm very sorry i'm late. hey, look at this. asparagus. all right. corn, huh? i tell you something, i love being well balanced, hey. why is everybody staring? did i do something is wrong? is there a hair out of place? >> the fonz. that was a scene from "happy days" one of the many iconic hit

shows produced by gary marshall. gary is now out with a book called "my happy days in hollywood." gary joins us now. also the pulitzer prize winning writer from "the washington post" jonathan capehart. thank you for joining us as well. gary, this is a bit of a homecoming for you, you were explaining. you used to work in this very building. >> yes, i did "the tonight show with jack par" a long time ago. jack hired me and the talent coordinator was dick tabbott and i left to go to hollywood, dick took over my writing job. >> cradle of greatness. so that was in the 1960s, then you strike gold with "the odd couple" in 1970. how did that come about? >> at the point years. ten years to strike gold. well, we had tried movies and two movies didn't do so well. we came back to television, and

we were lucky. neil simon played the odd couple. i did another show that was not a hit. >> i glossed over that. >> you heard the applause. nobody. >> i jumped right to the hit to help you out. >> we can skip "me and the chimp," also. >> do you have a philosophy, garry? we'll get to the other shows, too, when you're putting a show together, directing? there is a similar feeling to a lot of the shows you did. >> well, so many shows underneath are based on friendship or family dynamic, and i always make it -- which sometimes is fantasy, that everybody gets along and that friends after some conflict make up. but that's what we do underneath. fonzi and richie have a

friendship. people in the world are lonely so friendship is a good thing. >> what really struck me as funny and realistic, when in trouble, call a member of your family, to have them come in and help you out. >> well, yeah. members of your family don't call their agents, you know. i did a show, a movie called "overboa "overboard" with goldie hawn, need add guy on the edge of a coast guard ship, you know, at the bow or something. so i looked around. garry has put me there. i should get stunt pay, blah, blah, blah. you get your own family. >> you really did that with "laverne and shirley." your sister penny was in the show. there was a whole other layer of family involved in this project. >> well, "laverne and shirley" finally everybody showed up. my father and i must say "laverne and shirley" was one of my toughest shows because penny

was one of the stars with cindy williams. penny is a perfectionist, as you can see from her movies that she directed, and so i'd say, all right, the day is over, i'm going home. and she'd follow me home and, you know, come in my house. you can't tell your sister to go home. but she would sit at the dinner table, let's fix the second act, garry. but we got through it all. it's still very close. >> shows like "modern family" today, pretty good show. >> yes. that lady, she's pretty funny. >> sophia. >> does anything strike you as being different between the sitcoms much of the '70s and early '80s and what's on today? >> well, technically we always tried so hard to get the end of a scene, get the finish, the joke that ended the scene. now they don't end the scene, they cut to two people talking. i think it's easier and maybe

better because it moves faster. kids today have minds, they do this with this their thumbs all day long and then when they look up they want to see it right away, so it's a little faster, i think, these shows today. funny is still funny. >> speaking of kids today, and you directed lindsay lohan in a movie. >> "georgia rule." you see what a big hit it is. you can't even remember. it's all right. >> back to the question, back to the question at hand, she kept calling in sick. this much i know. >> yes, she did. >> and so instead of yelling at her and screaming, you went out clubbing with her? >> well, i said i see on tv and the papers you're out at night. and she said, you're going to yell at me. i said, no, we're not yelling. i want to come with you. so she took me out. she first said not dressed like that because i'm dressed nice -- she bought me a hat and a shirt and took me out. we were pretty hip there for a minute. >> and what was that like? what does clubbing with lindsay

lohan entail? >> it's kids. it's rich kids. they do the same as poor kids. they talk about boys only they can buy things while they're talking about them. i thought i was hip for a minute. she pointed out, lindsay, that i had velcro shoes and they don't do that. so 0 she asked me to keep my feet under the table. but it was an experience. >> not totally obvious but you're from brooklyn, right? >> well, you think i have an accent? it's from the bronx. >> why so many people out of the bronx, out of new york city of your generation had so much success? >> well, it was a little hostile in those days. in my neighborhood you either had to dress well, calvin klein, ralph lauren came from my neighborhood, or you had to play more well or punch somebody well and the last thing was you could

be funny. so many of us who didn't punch well, me, decided to be funny. >> so how did you get from the bronx to the heart of manhattan to the jack parr show? what happened in the interim there? >> my father noticed i had an accent, and i was at northwestern university school of journalism, which i was with four pulitzer prize winners were in my class, students. one became head of nbc news. all in my class. i noticed they were better than me. so i start ed to -- but i had funny stories so they always read my stories out laugh to get a good laugh. the facts weren't right. but they were funny. i was sports he heditor of the northwestern paper, a team that was not killing people but i did come back here and i was going

to work. and then uncle sam said, please, go to korea. i went to korea for two years, and there i met -- people said, when do you get connections? i made connections. in fox holes. it's odd. i wouldn't suggest anybody make connections, and then i worked for joey bishop. i worked for nightclubs, actually. i was a drummer and i would give them jokes and they would say, get out of the way, kid. but eventually if if you keep doing it, which is my mantra, you have to keep going, they bought my jokes and first they paid me in food, then in sweaters, and finally i got a dollar. and i did "the tonight show" here for joey bishop substituting and jack parr hired me. that's what was a big break to get me started. and i was so happy here and i had an ambitious partner, fred freeman, who said we're going to hollywood.

>> it worked out well, i would say. >> not bad. >> what did you say to your parents? northwestern and all of that stuff and now i'm going to write jokes for $1.50? >> they said what kind of job is that? and, you know, on "the tonight show" they only ran the credits once a week on friday. i watched it. i didn't see his name. wait until friday, my parents would say. you'll see it. they were not thrilled. but i remember the turning point was danny thomas hired he me. i wrote for danny thomas. again, people don't like to pay money. he paid us with a television set. a color set. i sent it to my parents and that made them, look, we got a tv. >> i'm curious, what is the man who created "laverne and shirley" and "happy days" find

funny today? what tv shows do you watch and say, these guys get it? this is good. >> a lot of them. i try -- that's why i'm still working, to say why don't you go fishing, garry. but i like the new people and i'm doing a show and i'm going to be on the show. pretty funny. i'm going to play a character. i always play a boss because i have a tie. but the -- and i like sophia. i worked with her and seth myers i worked with and he's funny. "saturday night live" is funny. they always said you can't do "saturday night live" humor at 8:00. i said, you can, and i was determined to do that kind of stuff. >> we left out "mornik and mind" the resume. >> it's too long. >> the term jumping the shark. >> yes. >> i don't even think a lot of young people know where that's come from. here is the actual scene, young

people, where it comes from. garry marshall, at that moment did you feel your show jumping the shark? >> no. but this was not the finest moment. we tried hard. it was my idea, take all the blame. he has to jump something. what? we were supposed to go to hawaii. i was really upset -- >> the budget. >> promised hawaii and said, no, go to malibu. and so i thought it would be nice if he jumped over it and it looked pretty for a minute and it was fast and it didn't cost a lot of money but it was not good. the show ran four more years. i would say it's a great phrase. they don't know what it means,

the young people. boom, it doesn't mean a position tiff thought. that's what they've come to understand. doom. >> garry marshall, the book is "my happy days in hollywood" co-written with your daughter. >> i stay with the family. my mother taught us sense of humor and my father taught us how to be boss so they were very influential. >> can you stay the rest of the week? i could talk to you all day. >> oh, thank you very much. >> a man who never jumps the shark, garry marshall. you can wret read an excerpt on w website. [ jennifer garner ] there's a lot of beautiful makeup out there.

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help raise our flag, add your stitch at teamusa.org. lyndon johnson shocked reporters by lifting his beagle by the ears. george w. bush horrified children by dropping barney on his head. and jimmy carter once addressed the nation while sitting on his dog. >> i will use my presidential authority -- welcome back to "morning joe." here with us now the president of the humane society of the united states, author of the book "the bond: our kinship with

animals, our call to defend them." wayne, good to see you again. here with a big announcement. >> yes. a lot of people think of the humane society and think dogs and cats and it's the birthright of the organization, but we're much broader. we're about protecting all animals and having people exhibit responsibility in all the ways we deal with animals. the biggest category at risk are animals in the food production system and agriculture has changed so much in the past 50 years. animals use d to have access to pasture, sun light on their back, soil beneath their feet. they were going to be slaughtered but would have a good life. so many moved into warehouses and within warehouses they jam them into cages and crates and deny the animals the ability to move and some of the most difficult and inhumane systems are the confinement crates for the pigs which are called gestation crates and here on "morning joe" we're announcing at burger king, which we've been having an excellent dialogue with for years, today we're

announcing -- and burger king is announcing -- that they are going to remove pork from their supply chain thatment systems is. they're making an announcement on eggs and want to get rid of the small cages that the hens are housed in. each bird has 67 square inches. the laying hen in the confinement cage has this much space. so burger king is saying no to this and we're working with the egg industry on a bigger federal legislative plan to ban these extreme confinement. >> this has been a big year, that's great news about burger king. you had mcdonald's onboard and wendy's earlier this year as well. what cost does this pose to the fast food restaurants? what's the down side for them? >> well, i think what i talk about in my book, willie, is that when you're good to animals, there are often good outcomes the rest of the way. when you give animals more

space, you don't have to pump them full of antibiotics and have altima into your, management problems quite so intense as in these extreme confinement systems. so there's a small, incremental additional cost in the short run in production by fwifg the animals more space but it's better for us, it's better for the environment, and it's what consumers want. people are going to -- most people are going it to continue to eat meat, but they want to see the animals decently treated, and we're so disconnected from our food supply. we have our pets in our lives and we have wildlife in our backyard. we may go to national parks. we appreciate and love animals and we have standards in our society against animal cruelty. every state has an anti-cruelty statute. but how we apply these principles in the real world is something that we deal with every day at the humane society and we're disconnected from our food supply. >> that's it, mike. we don't see it. >> no. you don't want to see it. you don't even want to think about it. what was the reaction when you approached burger king and mcdonald's about this thing? what was the corporate reaction?

>>bu burger king has been a rea leader on these issues, and they were very open. there were a couple of guys on the staff who said, hey listen, we really care about these issues. we care about profit but we care about animal welfare. it's been a long discussion with them. some other within the food industry just don't want to deal with it. they consider it just kind of a nuisance sort of issue. when we got mcdonald's to take a step in january on the pigs with 38,000 restaurants saying they would phase out the confinement cages for the pigs, that got everyone's attention. when you have burger king, wendy's, and mcdonald's, why can't the other retail eers do ? >> absolutely. the big news this morning, burger king going to change the way it buys eggs and pork because of the work you've done. congratulations to you, wayne. appreciate what you're doing out there. >> yeah, thank you so much. >> wayne pacelle. "the bond: our kinship with

animals and how to defend them. "so much for the apple slow down.

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playing a little rush coming in. i think you know what that means. it can only mean one thing. cnbc's ryan sullivan live at cnbc headquarters. >> ryan. >> exit the warrior. ryan sullivan. ryan, good morning, sir. >> my mind is not for rent. >> there it is. >> it is completely. just make an offer. i'm beginning to think you guys might like me. >> we do, we do. what's up with andle? >> a mean game of dungeons and dragons last night. apple unbelievable. i heard you wanted to break so much for the slowdown, you're right. the numbers blew everybody away. sales were pretty strong. ipads maybe not as much.

iphone, though, is what apple is today. they sold 35 million iphones in the quarter and using my math skills, aka calculator, i came up with this stat. apple is on average selling nearly 400,000 iphones every single day. many of those now around the world, international markets accounting for a huge jump in revenue, fiscal second quarter profit nearly doubled, the stoke rose $40 a share after hours, back above $600. their cash award -- what they have in cash, and are you sitting down? >> yes. >> they have $110 billion in had cash which could buy a few states, but it could also buy all of facebook when facebook comes public. they could buy mcdonald's. it's unbelievable how much actually just cash they've got. >> and that's just their walking around money, heilemann. >> what does that portend? >> they're not going to let this

one guy. portend, you said it once like two weeks ago. >> no more scrabble awards on "morning joe." >> don't dumb it down. don't do that. >> be true to yourself. brian, talk to me what's behind this, we hear about china and really the truth is if you read into it they've only just begun going to china, apple, there's so much potential there. >> there's a lot of potential around the world. apple had been seen as a domestic story, right? let's be honest, the products are not inexpensive so we're talking about the growth of a global middle class. just as an anecdote, i was in singapore a month ago there for a conference, doing some panels, and i wanted to ride the vaunted singapore subway system because it's spotless, right, unlike new york's. and every single person on the singapore subway had had the white ear buds. and i'm looking around thinking, this is one subway car on a random day in singapore and everybody is rocking an apple product. and i think that hit home it to me.

it's fed day. 12:30, 2:00, ben bernanke press conference, tune in cnbc to catch the press conference. >> we'll be there and maybe some rush, too. we hope so. brian sullivan, thanks so much. up next, president obama slow jams the news with jimmy fallon. [ male announcer ] when a major hospital wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ] who love movies. let me show you something new. come on. walmart can now convert your favorite dvds from disc to digital. so you can watch them on your laptop, tablet, phone... anytime, anywhere. cool, huh? yea! yea!

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now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh, yeah. you should listen to the president. or, as i like to call him, the presi of the united statesy. >> some disagree and say keeping the interest rates low isn't the way to help our students. they say we should be doing everything we can to pay down the national debt. well, so long as it doesn't include taxing billionaires. [ applause ] but their position is that students just have to make this rate increase work. frankly, i don't buy it.

>> mm-mm-mm. the barackness monster ain't buying it. >> the reason it's so important to keep down costs is so we keep college affordable. >> and the president knows his stuff, you-all. that's why they call him potus. which means person of -- what's it mean? >> president of the united states. ♪ he's the person with the potus ♪ ♪ yeah, yeah oh, baby ♪

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♪ [ camera clicks ] ♪ it's hard to resist the craveable nature of a nature valley sweet & salty nut bar. i bathed it in miracles. director: [ sighs ] cut! sorry to interrupt. when's the show? well, if we don't find an audience, all we'll ever do is rehearse.

maybe you should try every door direct mail. just select the zip codes where you want your message to be seen. print it yourself or find a local partner. and you find the customers that matter most. brilliant! clifton, show us overjoyed. no! too much! jennessa? ahh! a round of applause! [ applause ] [ male announcer ] go online to reach every home, every address, every time with every door direct mail. welcome back to the police lineup here at 30 rock. chuck todd, who did it? i'll tell you what we learned today. >> i learned that nbc is making a strong play to overtake book call. it's all books. >> a full library today. >> i learned that i enjoyed very much actor garry marshall. it's been so long since someone has been on this show who called

me kid. >> how great is garry marshall? >> he's great. >> jonathan capehart? >> i learned that garry marshall came from one really amazing class of northwestern university. four pulitzer prize winners and a whole bunch of other folks who went on to day do great things. >> anytime "morning joe" has a clip that features arthur fonzarelli is a good morning. >> and he likes jumping the shark. i learned the young woman, the freshman in colorado, the 19-year-old, was framed. falsely accused. she's been portrayed in the press as someone who dumped yogurt on the president of the united states. not true, she says. she put it on the ground and a photographer kicked it over. falsely accused. >> and it's a parfait. not even yogurt. it was a par it fait. >> we'll see you back here. stick around for chuck. after a five state