i'm operating on lunestia and cheap whiskey. >> "morning joe" starts right now. >> he says we need, quote, crippling sanctions. apparently unaware that through president obama's leadership, we have produced just that. crippling sanctions. the only step we could take that we aren't already taking is to launch a war against iran. that's what governor romney means by a very different policy, he should tell the american people. he should say so. otherwise, the governor's tough talk about military action is just that, talk. president obama has said, and i quote, now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in and to sustain the broad international coalition we have built. now is the time to heed the timeless advice from teddy roosevelt, speak softly and

carry a big stick. end of quote. i promise you, the president has a big stick. i promise you. >> all righty then. what a way to start a friday morning. it's friday, april 27. and welcome to "morning joe." thank you, joe biden. thank you for that. >> he always delivers. >> he does. >> always. >> he has a way to go right to the line. and then pull back. with us on set, we have the chairman of deutsch incorporated. i walk up here and it's just donny. i almost got in the car and went home. >> aka mr. big stick. >> oh, no, no, no. at 6:01? >> come on, come on. stick ball bats. i used to go to the opposite field. hi, how are you? >> and from washington, we have political director and white

house correspondent sam stein. hi, sam. >> hi. >> it's nice to have you here. it's all very awkward. i'm just going to let it breathe. >> is sam in his home library? >> where are you, sam? >> i'm in high home library. i just finished the last book. i read them all now. >> and national affairs editor for "new york" magazine and msnbc political analyst jonathan heilman. say nothing, ok? do me a favor. for once, just say nothing. >> wow, we're starting this early. >> yeah, we are. >> nice to see you. hi. i'm going to just move on to something else, because i have a feeling this group can't handle vice president biden's comments. >> i'll like to hear john heilemann's comments on it. he has such interesting perspective on anything. i want him to really tear apart the big stick thing. >> donny, i think you have already taken us into a zone. i'm with mika on this.

you have already taken us into a puerile zone on this. i'm going to let it go, as mika did, and just thank our lucky stars for joe biden. he is always there to provide. >> let's try another angle. how about the substance of the speech? john heilemann, a lot of people saying it was a strong foreign policy speech, laying out the case for president obama and going after mitt romney at the same time. >> i think that's right. the president is on very strong ground when it comes to foreign policy, for all the obvious reasons. you know, having killed osama bin laden, having pursued a basically conservative foreign policy that was not that different from george w. bush's, not that different in its kind of realism from george herbert walker bush's. it's going to be very hard for mitt romney and his team to get a lot of traction on foreign policy. and i think as a matter of substance, the point that joe biden was making, which was that mitt romney's criticism with respect to how the

administration is handling iran is just factually correct. the sanctions that the united states got put in place through the united nations are the toughest set of sanctions that any country is laboring under anywhere in the world, and there is really not that much more. if mitt romney is for tough sanctions, he is for the obama policy. and joe biden is making the opposite point, which is that the only thing the administration could do more right now is get militarily involved in iran. i don't think that mitt romney wants to make that argument, and i don't think the administration wants to go there nor do the american people. >> i want to hear from joe, his take on this, but first let's hear more of it beyond the big stick. in a foreign policy campaign speech that happened yesterday at new york university, vice president joe biden tried to tie romney to the politics of the bush administration, calling the former massachusetts governor, quote, out of touch and fundamentally wrong. >> governor romney, i think, is counting on collective amnesia of the american people.

americans know, americans know that we can't go back to the future. back to a foreign policy that would have america go it alone, shout to the world you're either with us or against us. lash out first and ask the hard questions later. , if they get asked at all. i said before, thanks to president obama, been laden is dead and general motors is alive. you have to ask yourself, had governor romney been president, could you have used the same slogan in reverse? >> the vice president also went after mitt romney's business background, arguing that with a lack of international experience, the presumptive republican nominee can only be judged by his rhetoric. >> in the face of the challenges that we now understand are ahead of us, what would governor romney do?

well, the truth is, we don't know for certain. he starts with a profound, a profound misunderstanding of the responsibilities of a president and the commander in chief. here's what he said, and i want to quote him exactly. and i quote, if we want someone who has a lot of experience in foreign policy, we can simply go to the state department. he went on to say, and i quote, but that's not how we choose a president. a president is not a foreign policy expert. end of quote. in my view, the last thing we need is a president who believes that he can subcontract our foreign policy to experts at the state department, and for that matter, any other department or agency. that kind of thinking may work for a ceo but i assure you it will not and cannot work for a president. and it will not work for a commander in chief.

>> what do you think? >> i mean, we like joe, right? >> we like joe. >> that's a tough sell. you've got barack obama, a glorified state senator, elected president after -- >> kind of a record now. >> well, no, i'm talking about at the time. >> all right, fine. >> he's trying to say that a guy with mitt romney's experience is going to have to sub it out to the state department? it's really a tough sell. and in fact, i think you talk about silly season, the fact is mitt romney's being, i think, silly trying to sell barack obama as weak on national security. that's just like the white house trying to sell romney as this right-wing conservative. these people are trying to paint their opponents into corners that they are just not going to be cornered. americans don't -- listen, americans aren't going to be oh, well, look at mitt romney. boy, that's a dangerous guy to have running the country's foreign policy, when they let a state senator do it four years ago.

and by the way, a lot of americans think the state senator has done a pretty damn good job over three years on foreign policy, killing osama bin laden, launching drone attacks, and 78, 79 countries now. he's been in my estimation at times a bit too hawkish. >> yeah. as john said, adopting a lot of the bush administration's foreign policy. but if you listen to that speech and imagine you're sitting in 2008, it just sounds absurd the idea that the president can't defer in any way to the state department or department of defense as a young senator barack obama at the time certainly would have to do and has done as president. >> yeah. donny, we've been talking in the past couple of days about, and this is what you do, how they are trying to not only market their candidate but how they are trying to market the other guy. >> yeah. >> the obama people are trying to paint mitt romney as this wild-eyed radical. he's not. he's just not. and they're trying to -- now

you're getting mitt romney trying to -- >> i think his name. that's as easy as it gets. >> now the obama team is trying to paint romney as an inexperienced neophyte. it seems they are both missing their target. >> i think what's happened as far as the romney branding of both him potentially himself and obama is starting to work in his favor. the new ad that just came out, the kind of celebrity ad, the obama celebrity ad, that basically if you kind of say, they're going to paint him here, and particularly going forward romney takes portman, and we are the competency. vanilla is the new black. i mean, boring is good. when you hire turn-around experts, if i showed you the profile of every turn-around expert of every company, they are the most vanilla, boring, safe. so i found that latest rove ad a very, very compelling ad, you know, which would show the fallon rap and all of the celebrity. and now you take what was a

perceived weakness of romney, his blandness, his boringness, even more boring running mate. >> is that not the key, seriously? >> it is. >> as the two little guys said back in the 1980s that were selling real estate late at night. you have the clip of the two short people. >> i think they are the rice brothers. >> where are you going with this? >> i turn a disadvantage into an advantage, right? do you remember that? and they sold all these -- they i guess -- lenny dykstra went in, sold a lot of homes and got really rich. >> where is lenny dykstra by the way? i think he's going to jail. but i think that table is set. and i have been the first to continue to say obama is not going to lose, but it's a really compelling strategy. it really is. >> and i do wonder whether you just won, and i'm dead serious here, whether you just run full steam ahead into that bland vanilla goo that would be romney/portman.

>> you say i am boring. >> oh, come on. >> it's the icloud of bland. >> you say guilty as accused. you actually say, i am. >> i'm really boring. >> really, really -- and of course the genius of it, it allows you to take the other guy's strength and turn it into a weakness. have we run that ad? >> welletlet's show you it righ. that mccain ad that showed him as a celebrity, people said, oh, that's stupid. but it did well. >> let's show. >> oh, yeah. >> the presi of the united stasi. ♪ i'm so in love with you >> oh, yeah. >> nice.

>> oh, yeah. >> that is a strong advertisement. >> even though those pieces of data have a lot to do with what happened before he became president. but, hey -- >> as i said, boring is the new black. vanilla is the new black. and i think that's the tone going forward. >> john heilemann, what do you think? obviously, you can draw a direct line from that ad back four years ago with the biggest celebrity in the world, the schmidt ad. but i guess there's a lot more punch to it now, isn't there? because you've got four years of data to put on the president. >> yeah. joe, i think that ad does two things. well, three things really well. the first is, that as donny is saying, republicans are really good at taking the strength of an opponent and running directly at that strength and trying to

turn it into a weakness. that's one of the thing this ad tries to do, tries to take his likability and his cool and turn it against him. the second thing is, it runs at his weakness, which is on the economy. and the president's people know that is the reason why mitt romney is running so close with him right now. even though the president has so many more personal attributes that -- where he has a lead over romney, the fact that the polls are so close, it's all about the economy. so this ad turns a strength of obama's into a weakness, and runs at a weakness of obama's and tries to exacerbate that, and does it with humor. it's an ad that makes you sort of smile, even if you're a fan of the president's. it's pretty well executed and done with a nice tongue firmly planted in the cheek. those are good qualities. >> thank you, john. it's a well executed ad. it's pretty. sam stein, can you debunk some of the things put out in the ad? >> sure, i guess. i mean, the whole point of the ad is to blame basically all of the economic malaise on obama without touching any of the bush

years. but i think the ad -- i don't know what donny says vanilla is the new black. >> sam, we're 3 1/2 years into the obama administration. >> yeah. no, no. but i'm saying -- >> this is how elections are run. >> yeah. no. i'm saying, well, mika invited me to try to debunk some of this stuff so i'm trying, please. >> let him, please. don't interrupt. you don't want to hear it. >> you're desperate. >> i'm not desperate. it's not hard. >> i wanted to make a point, if i can, which is that -- >> ok, son. go ahead. >> he wants to talk. let him talk. >> so cute when he tries to. >> go ahead, sweetheart. what do you want to say? >> vanilla is the new black? is that it? the point i was trying to make, this ad is basically to me screams that obama is this cool guy, he is above us, the guy in high school who didn't even want to talk to you in the hall, and we're this, you know, the bigger mass of dorks of bland people who are never that cool but we deserve to number charge. >> sam, i think you're projecting now. >> honey, it's not about you.

>> it's not about you, sweetie. >> that's how it interpreted to me. >> did you get locked in a locker? >> he did get locked in the locker. ok. so when i saw, willie geist, barack obama going on jimmy fallon, i said, isn't that nice? a guy can just -- you know what? i know a lot of people are going to say it lowers the dignity of the office, et cetera, et cetera, but isn't that nice? the guy can go out there and sort of poke fun at himself. but we see in one 30-second ad why you just can't do that as president of the united states, because i'm sitting here thinking, oh, that's fun, and that's -- he's sort of playing along with this gag that we've all come to know. but then you show that, and the singing and everything else, and then, boom, you start showing all of those miserable statistics and it makes it look like he's playing while americans are suffering.

>> but do you believe that the american people don't allow the president those moments? we'll see it again this weekend at the white house correspondents' dinner. he is great in those settings. president obama will be funny on saturday night. he was funny on jimmy fallon. you don't think the american people give him that break every once in a while? >> i think they do. >> until someone else's packaging. that's the difference. i don't think anybody watching that was going oh, wow. and everybody watching that is already an obama person. jimmy fallon, 12:30 at night. every person is already on the team. having said that, no. but when you rap it that way, no. >> didn't romney go on leno? let's not exclude romney for these. he goes on these late-night shows as well. he tries to be culturally significant as well. he just doesn't pull it off as well as obama. >> guys, it's not the issue of doing these things. it's the issue of this guy, who does have this star power, the republicans wrapping and kind of punching at it and going, yeah, he's cool, but maybe we need something different now.

so i don't think anybody in its own in each incident on its owned go, what is he doing? but that is the beauty or the sadness of what you can do with 30 seconds. >> is it safer to do this when the economy is doing well? i know we are picking it, apart and i know it drives some intelligent people out there crazy, but as you know, john, 30-second ads like this move voters, swift vets moved voters in '04. the dukakis tank ad moved voters in '88. these ads work. >> look, they are aimed at a very small -- now we are getting into real general election advertising. this is the kind of ad aimed at a very narrow slice of the electorate. i like obama on jimmy fallon,

but there is a downside risk to it. and i think donny is right. >> and i agree with you guys. i like the fact that he went on and had a good time. i always go back and channel my dad, who when he was unemployed for 18 months driving all around the south looking for a job, he saw somebody, a president, doing that, he wouldn't look up and go, oh, i can't believe it. but he would look up, you know, from his spreadsheet on a friday night trying to figure out how to get us through the next week and look up at the tv set and go -- and would look back down and start, you know, sweating the numbers again, going, maybe that guy should be focused a little more on getting us back to work. i mean, you put yourself in the position -- again, it's easy for me. i want to be very careful here. it's easy for me to look at that and go, oh, that's so cool. and says i'm comfortable, right? we're all very comfortable. and we are laughing, you know, oh, you know, he's so cool and so hip and everything.

i'm just saying, if you put yourself in the position of somebody that's out of work, i think that's how we have to figure out whether this ad is going to work or not. and maybe they're like, i'm glad my president wants to do that publicly. >> yeah. because if you look at the entire picture, he's been traveling the country talking about issues that affect exactly what you're talking about, including student loans, which the republicans are now accusing him of campaigning. >> but mika, hold on a second, though, americans aren't watching the president at these speeches going across america. but those 30-second ads are coming into their homes every night. and they will. and, again, please don't get me wrong. i'm not judging the president for going on fallon. i thought it was hilarious. we are just trying to figure out whether this will work, and i think it may. >> ok. i also think we ought to talk about the other things he's been doing this week in order to give equal time and importance to the

things that matter instead of spending 10 minutes on this ad -- >> the whole show is a three-hour ad for the president. jeez, come on. >> sam, be quiet. coming up former governor buddy roemer will be here. also, we'll talk to the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. "the washington post's" eugene robinson, and former "snl" cast member rachel dratch. i can't wait. it turns out nut ela -- i always knew this, i couldn't believe these stupid commercials. give it to your kid for breakfast, now you're a good mom. >> i don't just do it for breakfast. my children have this for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then i give them a nice -- i wake them up and if they are not awake i just rub it on their lips.

it's a superfood. >> my husband tells me it was hideous. >> you have spinach. blueberries. and nutella. that's it. >> i had a bad experience with nutela. it's a bad product. don't buy it. first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> i just let my 2-year-old dip his lollipops in the stuff now. good morning, everyone. let's take you through your weekend forecast. it's not going to be nice everywhere, but nothing too dramatic. no big tornado outbreaks or snowstorms. but all the rain in the northern plains from colorado northwards through the dakotas will slide to the east this weekend. today, we're dry in new england. but it's a chilly day out there. feels like early spring instead of late spring. temperatures struggling into the 50s in some spots. and it will be windy. the rain today, areas of kansas, nebraska, up through colorado into the dakotas. then we take that rain on saturday. it's going to be a rainy, gloomy day around chicago.

indianapolis, into ohio, late in the day on saturday. that rain moves into philadelphia, washington, d.c., and the mid-atlantic. then by sunday, this rain is gone. so at least in the d.c. area, you should have a decent sunday. still chilly in new england. the worst weather on sunday will be in the afternoon hours, oklahoma city to kansas city. overall, not a bad weekend but some spots still feeling a little chilly. we're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. ♪ hey, dad, you think i could drive? i'll tell you what -- when we stop to fill it up. ♪ ♪ [ son ] you realize, it's gotta run out sometime.

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whoa! no one said "cheese." progressive mobile -- insurance has never been easier. get a free quote today. time now to -- >> i wish i'd been here yesterday. >> yes, it was fascinating. >> jon gruden. >> i love jon gruden. he is great. >> he is mysterious and disturbed.

>> i love that guy. >> yeah. you should have seen him. he was just like all right here with his answers. like feeling it. >> did you ask him why he's not coaching anymore? >> he said i got a great job over at espn. >> i understand that. >> who was the gentleman with him? >> espn, monday night football. >> he is nice too. he was nice to alex. i like that. >> monday night football. great. >> 26 past the hour. time now -- >> look at ascot man. >> what the heck are you doing with my scarf? >> donnie, hold on a second. >> there's been a lot of chatter that people want to see me in an ascot. you were not using your scarf. so we made a group decision -- >> i don't think that's what i had in mind. >> i haven't heard that anything. >> it's the leading thing on aol. donny in an ascot. next week is a dickie. carry a big stick. >> what's wrong with you? you see, this is why i think

kathy ireland -- >> honestly, alex, what are you getting on the control room on this? >> nothing i can read on air. rupert murdoch is pointing the finger at two former employees in what he. >> caller:s -- what he called a cover-up. he would have closed the paper a lot sooner had he known what was going on. >> "the news of the world" quite honestly was an aberration and it's my fault. all i can do is apologize to a lot of people, including all the innocent people at "the news of the world" who lost their jobs. i'm guilty of not having paid enough attention to "the news of the world" probably throughout all of the time that we've owned it. >> let's go now to "the new york daily news." >> by the way, he's like 81 years old. and he's completely -- he's

still on top of his game at 81. >> yeah. >> we lived in the same building for a while. he was renting while they were doing the apartment. what's so funny? >> nothing. keep going. >> throughout the show, we're going to be -- >> just go ahead. >> i tell you what i love about the guy. the guy would be up in the morning at 7:00, in his gym shorts, walking his dog, no security, and sharp as a tack. >> he's tough. >> i like that guy a lot. >> what's so funny? >> nothing is so funny. >> "the new york daily news," it turns out nutella -- >> it's not just creamy and chocolate and hazelnut. i hear it's good for you. >> no, it does not qualify -- >> my kids, i put them to sleep, i rub it on their lips so they can lick it all night. >> it does not qualify as a health food. >> what? >> nutella has settled a lawsuit, and get ready, other countries that make foods you want to pander as healthy when they are full of fat and

ultimately poisonous. the ad portrayed it as a healthy breakfast for kids. take a look. >> breakfast in this house? in the morning i can use all the help i can get. that's why i love nutella, a delicious hazelnut spread that's perfect on multigrain toast. it's a great and easy way to give my family a breakfast they'll want to eat. and nutella is made with simple quality ingredients like hazelnut, skim milk, and a hint of cocoa. they love the taste, and i feel good that they're ready to tackle the day. nutella, breakfast never tasted this good. >> oh, god. >> by telling them it's healthy, just like what mcdonald's used to do. >> that's an "snl" ad. >> how much, alex? $3 million they have to pay? >> to consumers who were fooled by the ads. >> it's a jar of chocolate. and the mom on the move has got to get the kids to school. just spooning chocolate for them.

>> whaacky madison avenue guys. little engine just plugging away like the red sox. and here are you guys -- >> it's not helpful. >> you know whoever like made the formula up, chocolate, sugar, and goo, you know they are going, like where they -- >> and oil. >> fats and oils, which is sort of at the top of my food pyramid. say they the ad and they are going, it's good for you? >> because it's hazelnuts. >> they got away with it for a while, and it only cost them $3 million. >> i have seen nutella sold in gallon jugs. you know, they should be ashamed of themselves. >> do you know what you call that? dinner at the scarborough house. thanksgiving dinner. >> so not true. you guys eat very healthy. >> we put nutella over everything. >> you guys are good. >> i've got two dogs. we spread nutella on top of them, and they just lick it off

each others' backs. go ahead. >> mike has a look at the play book. sorry about all of this. go ahead. >> good morning, guys. >> you have a very interesting piece this morning about the democrats' worst nightmare, which you say is -- >> jeb bush. john ellis belush, the former florida governor. you talk to democrats about who would give mitt romney the biggest lift, how could he change the equation of this election, and they talk about jeb bush, who helps with florida, helps with hispanics, more moderate. he's been sticking out education as an issue. they could run as two reformers. republicans also lick their chops at that idea. but jonathan martin talked with a dozen people close to jeb bush, and he's said that for family reasons, he's not going to do it, that if he were willing to undergo the national spotlight, that he would have run for president himself. so he thinks it's just not his time, and it puts mitt romney a little bit in a box because he

would love to have jeb bush. when i interviewed romney back in new hampshire, he told me that jeb bush is such a powerful candidate that if jeb bush had run, he wouldn't have. >> wow. >> there you go. >> you still see a little window there for jeb. >> i sure do. >> when the call comes in the middle of the convention and romney says we need you because if we don't get you we lose the supreme court for a generation, we could lose the house, we could lose the senate, i think jeb's father picks up the phone and calls him and his closest friends call him and say, you know what? it may not be a good time for you, but it's the best time for the country. and i think jeb has to say yes. >> mike allen with a look at the playbook. thanks, mike. >> have a good weekend. up next, mike florio to walk us through the big moments of last night's draft, including the selection of that man, roll tide, clint richardson. the browns move up to get their man. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now, the founder of the sports blog profootballtalk.com. our old friend mike florio. >> he is a terrible person. goes to a baseball game, little crying -- >> oh, was that you? >> that was him. >> oh, my god. you're a horrible person. >> did not give the kid a person. >> alibi. i hate baseball. i don't go to baseball. >> you hate baseball? that's un-american. >> you didn't help yourself right there. >> let's go back to your sweet spot. the wheelhouse. the draft last night, no surprise, andrew luck won. robert griffin iii. things got interesting after that. the browns move up to get joe's favorite player in the draft, richardson of alabama. >> and richardson a lot of people thought was the best player in the draft. >> donny, his name is rg3. >> oh, i forgot. >> who went two. so if you can just wear your little -- >> luck, griffin, and three was

richardson. >> i thought you said griffin was three. sorry. >> he's the third, and sometimes you say three. why don't you go back to your girl scarf and let willie carry the load, ok? >> now it's a man's accessory. >> trent richardson. a lot of people thought he was the best player in the draft regardless of position. and at a time when more and more teams are passing and passing this guy will be on the field every down and they'll give him the ball every down. and the best way to keep them from scoring, is to keep him off the field. and the browns have reason for hope. it's been a long time. >> they traded with minnesota because there were a lot of other people who had an eye on trent richardson. >> well, the buccaneers were looking to get to trent richardson. so the vikings squeezed the browns into just doing a flip flop of three and four. >> why do do they do that? the vikings weren't going to take richardson. >> but somebody else was going to trade up and get the third

pick. >> and the vikings were so desperate, they were trying so hard, all week long, all month long to try and make that trade and they finally pulled it off. >> miami dolphins draft a quarterback in the first round for the first time since they drafted a guy named dan marino. maybe they should have done this 20 years ago. >> that's stunning. >> they got the kid from a&m. do you like him? >> he was a wide receiver and converted to quarterback by his head coach there. 19 starts. a lot of people think he may have to sit a year or two. and this day and age, you spend a top 10 pick on a quarterback, you have to get him on the field sooner rather than later. people are happy in miami. they are sliding behind teams like the florida panthers down there in terms of relevance. so they needed something to prop up that offense. >> it was four alabama players in the first round and nine s.e.c. players out of 32 in the

first round. >> just confirming that is the football factory for the nfl. and there's still one alabama player hanging out in the green room, courtney up-shaw, that people thought would be drafted yesterday. they had five guys here at radio city music hall. >> and the reason that saban can draft so well, if you want your kid to play pros, nobody -- i mean, alabama has turned into a football factory for the nfl. >> it's the case calapari makes to kids, your kid will play in the nba if he comes to ken. biggest surprise for you in the draft. anything you didn't expect last night? >> there's a guy from my home state of west virginia that went 15th overall, bruce irvin. and i heard some buzz that a lot of people had him in the top 15, but some people were shocked. but everybody is throwing the football. one way to keep that from happening is knocking down the quarterback. >> were people concerned with the character or something? >> he has a rough background. he had an arrest a couple of weeks ago in morgantown. but they vet all of that out.

turn over every rock. and ultimately you take a chance, because talent overcomes things like that. >> we have to go. alex is yelling in my ear. but would you have taken andrew luck before rg3? >> i hate to say this because luck is a west virginia guy too, but there is something about rg3 that seems extra special. >> i think it was a colossal mistake by indianapolis. i may eat those words next year. but rg3, that's who you build a franchise around. >> i can't wait to watch him play. >> but now dan snyder has touched it, so it may go bad. >> brandon wheaton, the 28-year-old to the browns. do you leak him? >> i like him because he's not colt mccoy. and he is a nice kid, but he is not where they need to be from the quarterback standpoint. >> mike florio, thanks so much. a lot more picking going on today at radio city music hall. just ahead, the week in review. we'll be right back.

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

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joe, you asked for the story and now you got if. we have an update on the foul ball story. >> have these people been put in jail yet? they are horrible people. >> if you didn't see our comp e complete team coverage yesterday, this was wednesday night at the rangers-yankees game in arlington. this is the voice of michael kay of the yankees television network. >> oh, my god. they can't give it to the kid? that's awful. wow. they are actually like rubbing it in the kids' face. >> all right. so that was michael kay. >> michael kay is so great,

isn't he? >> yes. does all the yankee games. play-by-play man. >> i cannot believe this couple. >> that's sean leonard and his fiance, they are actually getting married on saturday. >> arrest them. you know where they are going to be on saturday. arrest them. >> this story so blew up -- >> i hope they are very happy. >> they did a sitdown interview with wfaa in ft. worth. >> it's very hurtful especially when you know you wouldn't hurt somebody's feelings on purpose, especially a toddler. he seemed to be maybe 2 or 3 years old. very small. >> the irony of situation, had we seen that he was upset, had we even known for an instant, and there's not a person that knows us that wouldn't agree that we would have given the ball to the child. >> why don't they just say they would give him the ball now and they still don't do it? >> the rangers players, the team saw this happening and threw a

ball up to the kid. he left the stadium with a ball. the couple says now, get this, they want an apology from michael kay. >> oh, stop it. >> michael kay the yankee tv announcer, they believe he stoked the fire here. >> oh, come on. we did. >> well, yeah. he never checked or validated the fact. and they want an apology from michael kay. >> he pretty much called it as he saw it. wow. that was -- >> were they so entranced with each other and their impending wedding they didn't notice a screaming 3-year-old next to them who wanted the ball? >> the kid got a ball. >> i hate to be fair here, but they never made eye contact with the kid. if i were the dad and it were my 3-year-old kid, i would take the ball. >> if i were the mother, i would lunge at her neck and say, give my kid the ball. >> teachable moment. >> she is sitting next to a

little kid at the ballgame, give him the ball. >> they is just horrible. horrible. >> the kid is looking right at her. >> oh, taunting. it's horrible. bazinet, president of creative digital imaging of bangor, maine. we have customers all over the united states. we rely on the postal service for everything that we do. the eastern maine processing facility is vital to our operation and our success. if we lose this processing facility we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. we would have to consider layoffs as a result of that. closure of this plant will affect all of us. ♪ monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above,

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governor chris christie. >> i'm not going to the nets game. my message to the nets is goodbye. >> don't let the door hit you. >> goodbye. see you. >> after 35 years issue the new jersey nets this week played their final game in the garden state before they move on to brooklyn. governor chris christie, who had lobbied to keep the team in jersey, was not feeling sentimental. >> there will be no tears shed on my part tonight. >> governor christie giving the former hometown team what can only be called the gail treatment. >> what's her name? guys, real quick. because the governor is talking. what is it? gail. talk to gail. >> gail, first off, it's none of your business. >> at number two, look out. a teenaged girl strolling down a sidewalk in china disappeared this week into an unmarked sink hole. 20 feet down she went. a taxi driver rushed in after her. she was ok, but left to wonder, can a sister get some caution tape, maybe a traffic cone?

and the number one story of the week -- >> i promise you, the president has a big stick. i promise you. >> president obama spent much of the week with the microwaveable burrito eating call of duty playing tube pulling focus of america, as he visited college campuses across the country, pausing at one to slow jam the news with jimmy fallon. >> that's why they call him the potus, which means person of top -- what is it? >> jimmy, potus stands for president of the united states. >> he's potus with the mostus! >> there was a bunch of stuff about student loans, but the story that rocked the nation to its foundation was that of a colorado freshman accused of spilling yogurt on the president of the united states. the 19-year-old went national the next morning to fight the rush to judgment, declaring that she had been falsely accused in

yogurtgate. >> the paparazzi came up from behind me, and kicked the cup. it was what i was eating, so i do take fault for that. but technically, it was not my fault. >> mitt romney meanwhile settled into the role of republican nominee after winning five more primaries. >> a better america begins tonight. [ applause ] >> romney accepted the ringing endorsements of several big republicans. >> this reminds me of going to a surgeon. i didn't go to the nicest doctor, i went to the best doctor. the guy could have a great personality and tell great jokes and put a knife in it. >> has he just endorsed mitt romney? >> not at this point, no. >> mitt's old pal, herman cain, did not endorse this week. he was too busy telling "the daily show" audience just how he would calm the nerves of the country were he president during an alien attack. >> citizens of earth, it was the

spirit of humanity that built this planet. it is that same spirit of humanity that will allow us to destroy the aliens. and then there's newt. the former speaker and animal lover indicated this week that he's come to terms with the reality that his campaign lived a good life, but it's finally time to put it down. >> you're going to be the nominee? >> i'm going to be the nominee. >> i got bit by a penguin. we will have the first prominent base on the moon. >> are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. >> she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. >> did you owe half a million dollars to a jewelry company at some point? >> we had a revolving fund. >> what does that mean? >> it means we had a revolving

fund. >> you're an embarrassment to our party. >> i'm sorry you feel that way. >> why don't you get out before you make a bigger fool of yourself? ♪ my heart will go on and on >> it's been a hell of a ride. >> a i had a little tear. >> coming up next, adviser to the romney campaign jeffrey sachs. >> this will be like popping popcorn with the top off. >> that sounds delicious. keep it on "morning joe." ♪

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on tuesday, in a blatant pander to the youth vote, obama went on the jimmy fallon giggle time news hour to talk about his student loan policy. well, it was a pathetically successful ploy to be appealing. if obama must go on these shows, he should do it with dignity, like romney did on "letterman." >> number nine -- >> what's up, gangsters? it's the mi double tizzle. >> now, that's the kind of gravitas we want in the leader of the free whizle. because clearly listen to him. mitt is down with the homeys.

he has to be. he has so many homesies. >> top of the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." look at that beautiful shot of washington, d.c., as the sun comes up over the nation's capital. donny deutsch is still with us. another look. >> well, you know, i don't think that's what they wanted. >> the people just tuning in, this started out as your scarf, and there was a lot of demand -- >> i'll have to have this steam cleaned now. >> for the audience to see a lot of looks throughout the show. >> there was no demand. you're making that up yourself. we have john heilemann. and now we have economist jeffrey sachs. and, oh, boy, here we go, in chicago, former foreign policy adviser to the bush administration and current adviser to the romney campaign.

>> we have one conservative, including you wearing a women's scarf, and you call poor dan seymour a zealot? >> i like him because he is eager and makes a case for a very difficult candidate. >> ok. so let me -- >> wow. >> jeffrey sachs, i think -- this is fascinating. for economists like yourself, for numbers nerds like miyself that have obsessed over budgets our entire lives and deficits and growth, this is an amazing time we are living in where you've got every government in western civilization trying to figure out the delicate balance between taking care of the debt, which we have talked about an awful lot, and taking care of growth, trying to revive the economy. great britain just went into a double dip recession. and now the shadow chancellor

over there is demanding that cameron and osborn apologize. but this battle is being waged in the netherlands, in england, in spain, in germany, in france. and on the editorial pages of "the new york times" and the "wall street journal." >> and in the united states and right here, and that's exactly right, that this is u.s., europe, it's all of the high income world. japan, same issues. basically, globalization has changed everything. you have the rich world growing slowly. you have the emerging economies growing fast. everything has been turned upside down. there is a story in the "wall street journal" today that america's big companies have created a lot of jobs. but overseas, rather than in the u.s. so the world economy is shifting. and for the rich world, that's created financial crisis, that's created budget deficits, and created a lot of choice. and i think what is really striking is exactly what you say. the same debate we're having

here is being had in each country around europe. >> you can pick up "the times" of london every morning, and they are having the same debate over there. now, do you see -- and i'll go to dan seymour next for what i suspect will be the other side. do you see great britain's and cameron's experiment with austerity being the reason why great britain is suffering through a double dip recession? >> i don't. although that although that is actually a pretty common view. i think the markets really got out of line, and when the crisis hit, actually the fed was pretty aggressive in cutting interest rates to zero or $2 trillion of funding liquidity. the european central bank under the german vision was much tighter. all of europe suffers more of a financial crisis. england is more -- or great britain is more part of that

actually. >> right. >> so the difficult part of this that makes it confusing is that there is issues of taxes, spending, banking policy, monetary policy. they are all wrapped up. >> right. >> and where i think europe's biggest weakness actually is in banking and finance. >> so you think that the germans have been too restrictive? >> i think the way that -- well, basically, german banks did what wall street did, which was that they linked every word to real estate bubbles and so forth. >> but over the past two years. >> over the past two years, europe hasn't cleaned up its banks, and the central bank has kept -- up until the replacement of the head of the central bank, they really kind of engineered a recessionary policy for all of europe. and this double dip, which the uk is going through, is a european double dip. if it gets severe, it's going to hit us for sure right in the middle of the election campaign. >> right.

>> and, you know, it's interesting. dan, jeffrey's right. western governments have been slowing down. you've had countries like china experiencing near double dip -- i mean, double digit growth. and yet that even appears to be slowing down. which causes a drag in europe, which causes a drag here. we may have a real slowdown of the economy. and let's say your guy, mitt romney, wins. what happens if we're in another recession? does mitt romney and the republican house and the republican senate then go to america and say, now is the time to engage in deficit cutting austerity measures in the middle of a double dip recession? >> well, part of the problem that jeffrey is speaking to, one of the key causes, is the forces of globalization, that american companies and companies around the world today have access to labor markets and access to goods and services that they have never had access before, at

least 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago. so it creates downward pressure on everything. >> so what's the answer, then? what does mitt romney do to change that? >> you need a pro growth agenda. >> and what's a pro growth agenda? >> let me finish. you need a president who is going to wake up every day and say, how can we make capital in the most welcome in the united states? how can we make it so that every person in the united states, around the planet who has capital to deploy, wants to come here? >> what's the plan? >> for one thing, governor romney has talked about a pretty competitive pro growth tax reform program. make america extremely attractive to people who want to put capital to work. that's how you have to start. there are things on the regulatory front he has talked about, reforming the regulatory regime, make it easier for businesses to do what they need to do. but most importantly, as you have said previously, there's close to about $2 trillion of cash sitting on the balance sheets of corporations in

america. how do you create ways for corporations to get the cash off the balance sheets and get to work? >> let's have a conversation here, dan. so i voted to end the death tax when i was in congress. i voted to cut capital gains taxes. you couldn't cut taxes enough as far as i was concerned. i cheered the two bush tax cuts. but i will tell you if i'm a corporation that has $1 billion and i want to throw into the economy, if i see a guy running for president say, you know what i'm going to do? i'm going to keep cutting taxes like george bush did, and that's going to cause the debt to go up, and that's going to cause eventually interest rates to explode, i'm not any more willing to put my money in that economy than i'm willing to put my money in the economy where nancy pelosi won't face the realities of entitlement reform. right? we're in a different world today than we were 10 years ago. >> sure. but if you look at the surveys of a number of leaders of

businesses in america today, the business roundtable did a survey about a year and a half ago. you look at these surveys, they speak -- when they are asked these questions about why they are keeping cash on the sidelines, why they are not actually engaging with the economy, they speak to very specific things, joe. they talk about apprehension of the implementation of obama care and what that can mean near their businesses. they talk about dodd frank and how much they are going to have to spend. >> i want to draw this out from you, ok? whether we're talking to jamie diamond or whether we're talking to leaders of the biggest corporations on the planet, none of them say, you know what concerns me? tax policy. i'm afraid i may have to pay as much in taxes as i did back in the 1990s. it's all regulatory reform. you led with tax cuts. republicans lead with tax cuts. these ceos that are running the biggest corporations in the world don't care about tax cuts. they want the federal government off their back on the regulatory side. >> joe, look, i think it is true. that the largest companies like the ones you just cited are

probably more concerned with the regulatory regime, regulatory reform agenda, than they are with the tax reform. i would argue that smaller businesses are more concerned with -- or as concerned about tax reform and reducing the tax burden on themselves. but the bottom line is, it's comprehensive. there's a totality to this. the regulatory reform agenda is important. having the tax is important. the totality of the things is key here, and all of them are important. >> how does this conversation play into the political race? are we hearing this at all? this conversation. >> well, we're not yet, mika. but i think we're going to be hearing a lot of it. we have seen some stories about this notion of taxagetton. all of the things that are about the end of this year when the bush tax cuts are about to expire, when all of the things that didn't get dealt with last year in terms of the grand bargain, when all of that stuff comes to a head at the very end of 2012, it's a huge, huge moment for the american economy.

and both candidates, obama and romney, know it. and i think we're going to spend a lot of the next six months, a lot of this presidential campaign, is going to be not just about broad visions for the future, but it's going to be specifically the two candidates having to address what are we going to do in december of 2012 and january of 2013. that's going to be i think front and center. and both campaigns have not yet fully engaged on that issue. but i really do think we're going to spend a lot of this summer and into the fall having a discussion about that, because it really does in the context that joe was talking about earlier, are we going to have a contractionary fiscal policy in the face of what could be something on the verge of a double dip recession? if we have a bad q3, this is -- we're going to be right on the precipice of heading into a downturn again. and the vision of these candidates matter a lot for how to deal with that problem. >> and the irony, of course, is at the time where you probably need to inject some capital into the market, or at least maybe do some government spending,

there's going to be literally no political capital to make that happen primarily because of the election. and john is right too. i think we're all going to hold our breaths until after people go and vote and we have the next president, whether it's obama or romney, before we decide what type of tax reform we actually pursue. and you talk to the folks on the hill, and you get a sense that there is a chance you can do some sort of corporate tax reform, whether it's lowering the rates or closing the loopholes, that that will be the easier thing to tackle before you get to the personal income tax reform and the bush tax cuts. there are a bunch of different things out there. taxmageddon is real. whether it's the debt ceiling, the bush tax cuts, the sequesters and defense cuts, that all have to be dealt with. and we're all going to be dealing with them in about a month to a month and a half window. it's quite frightening actually. >> jeffrey, you and i have been talking about our concerns that we have a government spending money in an unfocused way,

recreating another bubble. they have desperately been trying to recreate another bubble. they haven't been successful to do that. what gives us hope that when we have this big moment, this big fiscal moment at the end of the year, that washington is going to get it right this time? >> nothing. nothing gives us hope that they are going to get it right. but what i think is very interesting is that the clarity of this debate is increasing. people now see this is about the u.s. in the global economy. this is about global forces that are beyond what's happening internally. and what i think is interesting is that there are two visions of growth. we're going to actually see a choice in this campaign which is pretty interesting. the romney vision of growth is cut taxes, cut government spending, create space for the corporate expansion. the obama vision of growth is keep students in -- let them

have training, let them make sure they can finish school. get a trained labor market, and that costs more for the government to do. so even if both sides were to agree that we need to close the deficit, which you and i agree should be done, there are two ways to do it. one is to cut both sides of the ledger. the spending and the taxes. the other is to keep spending, focused on investment, and to keep the taxes higher as a result in order to fund that investment. these really are two visions. and i think it's a valid debate, and i hope it gets clarified because i think we really will have a choice this time. >> and while we have dan senor here, something we talked about last hour, a speech from new york university where vice president joe biden laid down the obama campaign's foreign policy case, attacking, dan, your candidate, mitt romney's position, on how to handle iran's nuclear ambitions. take a listen. >> he says we need, quote, crippling sanctions.

apparently unaware that through president obama's leadership, we have produced just that, crippling sanctions. the only step we could take that we aren't already taking is to launch a war against iran. if that's what governor romney means by a very different policy, he should tell the american people. he should say so. otherwise, the governor's tough talk about military action is just that, talk. president obama has said, and i quote, now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in, and to sustain the broad international coalition we have built. now is the time to heed the timeless advice from teddy roosevelt, speak softly and carry a big stick, end of quote. i promise you, the president has a big stick. i promise you.

>> dan senor? >> yeah, dan. >> it's all yours. >> can you comment on mitt romney's foreign policy? >> well, sure. look, this notion about the sanctions is just a small point but important point. these are not president obama's sanctions. president obama has been dragged kicking and screaming to get these -- to deal with these sanctions. he did not want to implement them. don't take mitt romney's word for it. take democratic senators and congressmen. senator menendez dragged them to the hill and put them in a hearing and raked them over the coals for the administration's holding up of these important sanctions, including the central bank of iran sanctions. he came to this lately. it came to it reluctantly. and then saying this is sort of his contribution to any sort of successful policy. point one. point two, joe, is syria. here we are staring at a blood letting in syria the likes of which we have not seen really one could argue since the

balkans. and this is not just any country. this is a blood letting in a country led by iran's most important ally in the region, iran's only arab ally, their only access point to arming and funding hezbollah. and you can only imagine how much this emboldens the moolas in tehran to watch us look just passively, just -- >> dan -- >> over a year since the uprising began in syria. and the administration has no strategy for it. >> guys, here is the thing about foreign policy. i'm take myself out of this as intellects can talk all we want. as far as the american public, he killed osama bin laden, check. he won on foreign policy. mitt romney needs to make the debate about the economy, which is what we all know people vote on. so we can talk all we want about foreign policy. obama, unless the world changes, has won at this point. >> dan, he has tripled the number of troops in afghanistan, even though i didn't support it. you can't call him weak. tripled the number of troops in afghanistan. osama bin laden is dead.

you have now drones -- you now have the rules of engagement for drones weakened even more. we're launching attacks in countries where we don't even have a declared war. >> i don't think biden was -- >> joe, joe, look -- >> you can't call him weak. >> particularly the initial surge in afghanistan. this is what is so -- i was on your show defending his initial surge in afghanistan when he announced it in 2009. so some of those steps he took were important. but the reality is, we're actually extremely isolated today. you look at the dissident movement in iran, which we didn't stand by. you look at the movement in syria which we didn't stand by. there are governments in central and eastern europe whose reaction to telling president obama medvedev, don't worry, in a second term i'll have more flexibility. the message that sends to a lot of countries and dissident

movements around the world is that we are with you. and i would say we are more isolated. >> dan, don't you think that's a losing argument, that barack obama is weak? because any time -- on foreign policy. don't you think that's a losing argument for mitt romney and he should just focus the economy? >> first of all, i think there's a connection between the economy and our foreign policy. one thing that vice president biden didn't focus on -- >> we're deeper in debt, yet. >> our capacity to lead around the world, our capacity to be strong around the world in every way, our diplomacy and military projection and everything, is dependent on our balance sheet at home. there is not a leader around the world that believes our balance sheet is sufficiently intact to maintain the leadership position in the world that we need to do. >> we'll go to sam stein. sam, i know you leave after this block. the fact of the matter is, we are deeper in debt because in part we are spending $2 billion a week in afghanistan, sam stein. >> yeah. you know, i don't know what --

to what degree of involvement dan believes the president should be in. but if we follow his words, that will involve syria, iran, egypt, libya, iraq, and afghanistan that the u.s. would have to be involved in. and i don't think that's actually sustainable if we are talking, a, about troops -- >> that's not what i'm saying. i'll be very specific. sam, you're asking a very specific question let me respond in a specific way. the united states right now should be working with our allies in the region like saudi arabia and turkey that want to arm and train the syrian opposition. there a bona fide opposition on the streets today. almost 10,000 of them have been slaughtered. the least we could do is give them the resources -- the russians are funding and arming -- the syrian army that is crushing the syrian opposition. so the least we could do is help these people on the streets take on -- >> there is a potential downside. >> and we are not actually offering any leadership to these people risking their lives every day.

>> i just want to say there is a legitimate criticism out there that overinvolvement in the middle east is not good for our bottom line, first of all, but also for our perception in the arab world. i think it's worth discussing that as well. >> how do you think we are perceived in the arab world today, sam? look at the studies. we are more isolated than we have ever been before. >> dan senor, thank you so much. we appreciate you coming on the show. >> a zealot. i told you. a zealot. >> it's one conservative against 27 liberals. i think he's done pretty well. >> thank you, joe. >> sam stein, thank you as well. we are turning into "realtime" right here. >> dr. sachs, stay with us. still ahead, independent presidential candidate buddy roemer will join us onset. up next, the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. and "the washington post's" eugene robinson. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪

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♪ oh, yeah. >> the presi of the united stasi. ♪ i'm so in love with you >> oh, yeah. >> nice. >> oh, yeah. all right. that ad, of course, by american cross roads. donny deutsch, before we go to our next guest, you are the ad guy, the marketing guy. what's going on there? >> that is a fantastic ad. >> whether it's right or wrong?

>> well, whether it's right or wrong. what it does is it takes obama's perceived strength and turns it into a negative. shows that his actual celebrity makes him out of touch and sets up romney to be just the fix it, competent, vanilla -- i made a statement earlier, vanilla is the new black. and it is compelling. it's so much more compelling than the first time around when mccain tried to do it, because they just said, all right, he say celebrity. now you are turning what celebrity means is he is not connected to you and i think it sets up an apples and oranges scenario that is going to be very compelling. >> let's go to our next guest. joining us from washington, the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory, and pulitzer prize winning author and msnbc analyst eugene robinson. david, i'll start with you. can't the obama supporters answer that ad with any of mitt romney's sound bites that make him out of touch and part of the 1%, i like to fire people, corporations are people too? >> is there a question in there? >> it just seems to me there is

so much red meat for the other side. >> let me try this. david, what do you think of the ad? ask a question. you're making a political statement. >> it seems to me that the same can be done effectively on the other side, david. >> mika, trust me, it will. i don't think there's any question that we are going to see so much negativity coursing through the battle ground states that the candidates are not even directly paying for with these super pac ads. i agree with donny it's effective. i do think the 2008 ad was a hit, which was a hit on obama that he had no experience at that time. there's no longer an operative argument, and it didn't work so well then either. but this question is twofold. who's out of touch, who's in touch, in a time of great economic distress? and, you know, being culturally connected as the president is, the bottom line is results. mitt romney and anybody supporting mitt romney is going

to say 25 different ways that you aren't better off than you were four years ago. >> it makes sense. eugene robinson, do you agree? >> i do agree. and i think -- i actually -- you know, donny, i think, analyzed that ad perfectly. i do think that the -- if it's going to be a competition on who is more out of touch, i'm not sure i want to get into that knife fight on those terms, if i'm mitt romney. >> hold on. while you were talking about who's out of touch, we just had a double shot of you and donny deutsch with his ascot. so here is donny deutsch talking about who is out of touch -- >> that's my scarf. >> gene, i'm sorry. i didn't mean to interrupt. >> no. i think donny is rocking the ascot at the moment. >> see? that's a pulitzer prize winner, by the way. >> i'm going to have to burn that scarf now.

>> it's better than the arafat shawl he had on earlier. >> jeffrey sachs, obviously, the fight is over -- is going to be over the economy for the most part. how does that ad play in battle ground states? >> look, it's a great ad. but i don't think that it's going to do what it wants to do politically, which is to shift young people to the romney camp. because obama's basically saying, we're going to support you, we're going to help you through school. >> that doesn't try and shift it. that's like basically saying, you got the young people. the grownups want to come in now. >> that may be true. but if this is for the grownups, that grownup camp isn't go -- it's going to be amused by that ad because it's actually clever, but it's not going to shift ideas. >> it does get you thinking. and i hate to like what those guys do, and i was like, hmm, because on the flip side, it lets romney's weaknesses turn into strengths. his boringness and all that.

it's very interesting. >> you know, john heilemann, talking about whether the ad is for the kids or the grownups, i saw that 85% of students are moving back in with their parents. the first time i saw it i thought the message was to the kids. the second time i saw it, i knew it was to the adults. it's a frightening economy. a lot of student loans. >> yeah. it is. and look, joe, i said before, we are now in the general election. you look at the polling. 90% of republicans supporting mitt romney. 90% of democrats supporting barack obama. you think about the battleground states. you're talking about five, six, seven states in a very narrow slice of the electorate. those people who have not made up their mind and are sitting around in a fragile economy trying to figure out if they can trust barack obama for another four years as president. this ad, the cross roads guys are smart, that's the people targeted in this ad. this is not an ad that's targeted at either base. this is an ad targeted at people

who are on the fence and probably won't decide until the last week. is it going to be an ad that will move those voters and change their minds? no. this ad is part of a broader picture, and as donny says, it's all about running -- trying to do what republicans do so well, running at the strength of their opponent, and trying to turn it into a weakness. >> david gregory? >> a couple of points. one, the cross roads votes and the romney campaign i'm sure is thrilled that we're dissecting the ad as we'll continue to do as the race goes on. i think how much negativity we'll see in this race has the potential to back fire in a way we haven't seen before. there is so much agtntagonism right now with government, i think that's a factor. two, this race is a question. like the defense lawyer, does romney decide to say, hey, president obama didn't prove the case. is that the argument that he takes to the american people on the economy? or does he do that and then

pivot and say, i'm a guy with big ideas who can take on the big challenges in a way that your president and that democrats and that washington have failed to do. that might be a riskier route, but i think it's still a fundamental question he faces. >> that disdain for washington is at an all-time high. both sides can capitalize on that and tear down the other. how can they use it productively and still win? >> i don't see it exactly this way, because when you take the debate of the weak, which is the student loans, when the president said, we have to keep the interest rates low, immediately romney said, i agree, and so did the house republicans, because the fact of the matter is, those grim statistics shown at the end of that ad, the kids are having a hard time now, is not going to turn into a vote for slashing spending -- slashing student loans and slashing help for young people. which is what i think that the

romney government is really saying. so i think a disconnect there that is not going to work in the romney camp. that's why i think substantively, the bottom line message really is this debate. do we cut government sharply now, and when you say that people are hurting, i think the reaction is going to be maybe we shouldn't cut government so sharply on student loans and so on. when you look at what happened this week, the republicans immediately came into line with the president because they don't want to be on the side of slashing student loans right now. so i think that the president is on the politically winning side of that particular issue. >> he may be. gene robinson, they are also accusing the president of campaigning on the job and saying he should pay for these trips. >> oh, boy. incumbent presidents campaigning on the job. i'm shocked. shocked. this has only happened in every single presidential election since an incumbent standing. one thing, mitt romney does have

to make an afifirmative case. i think the burden is on him to make that affirmative case this time around. so to the extent that the race becomes entirely negative, you know, the other guy is not going to get it done for you, that in the end i think favors obama simply because he's got the job, and romney is trying to earn it. >> guys, i want to bring up one thing. david, you mentioned people react negatively to negative ads. i agree with that. the brilliance of that ad is what we call in the business the tone and manner. the tone was not negative. so there's a very effectiveness. the second thing, we could talk about issues all we want. i believe voters vote for what i'll call overall personas. right now, next to that, mitt romney starts to run a campaign and says, i'm mitt romney, i am boring. i really am. guilty as charged. but i'm a turn-around guy. and you know what? i'm going to be awkward. and that's who i am. but i'm a balance sheet guy. and i got my green visor on, and i'll get the job done.

>> not here to slow jam. >> perceive negative into a positive, very effective. >> david gregory, who do you have on sunday on "meet the press"? >> we are going to go inside the campaigns. ed gillespie, the new senior adviser to mitt romney, and your old friend robert gibbs will join me. and also, hilary rosen is back after taking on ann romney. she'll join the roundtable and discuss gender politics and the way forward. >> all right, david gregory. i look forward to that. >> i love david gregory and gene robinson. and i think together, there's just -- i think there's a variety show. i think there's a lot of potential with those two guys. >> really? >> yeah. >> you know, a little dance. >> the smothers brothers maybe. >> with a little higher intellectual capital. just something i'm throwing out to you, if steve burke is listening. >> david gregory, thank you. eugene robinson, thank you as well. we apologize for donny. >> we love donny. >> and gene's column is on immigration, and it's a really

good read atwashingtonpost.com. >> still ahead, holly petraeus. also, the very funny rachel dratch will stop by. "morning joe" is back in a moment. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. omnipotent of opportunity. you know how to mix business...

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all right. welcome back to "morning joe." with us now, assistant director of service member affairs at the consumer financial protection bureau, holly petraeus, also the wife of retired general david petraeus. she is here to discuss a new executive order to be signed today by the president aimed at protecting veterans' education benefits. holly, welcome to the show. tell us how this executive order ultimately will pan out. how's it going to work? >> well, it's designed, i think, to make it easier frankly to make one of the biggest consumer decisions you'll ever make, which is where you go to college and where you spend your college money. there have been some concerns recently about g.i. bill, military tuition assistance. and how people are making decisions how to spend that. and the marketing that's being done to this. this is really about

accountability and helping people as we say at my bureau know before they owe. >> and give us a sense -- i know that the president and the first lady will be making an announcement today at fort stewart about their plans to make sure that students enroll in the right school as well. this has many different branches to it. >> yes. it's really a broad effort, and it's going to involve a number of government agencies, the department of defense, department of veterans affairs, justice, department of education, and also consulting with the consumer financial protection bureau where i work. >> and how will the consumer financial protection bureau be a part of this? i was sort of thinking it was an interesting mix. >> well, as i said, it's a big consumer decision. we're interested in people having the information they need to choose a school. we have done some initiatives already. we have a financial aid shopping sheet on our website at consumer finance.gov that people can take a look at that has a military benefits calculator on it. and, again, we have this know before you owe initiative that we hope people will use as a

model in this program to have colleges provide information in an easily accessible way so people know what they're getting. >> all right. we love what you're doing. holly petraeus, thank you very much for joining us on "morning joe." take care and good luck with the initiative. >> thank you very much. >> that's great. so before we went to break, someone has a problem with your analysis of the obama ad. >> a punk. >> he called me. >> you call him a punk? >> yeah. >> i don't know but he say punk. >> totally debunked everything you said in like a nutshell. >> let's go to the phone and see who this, quote, punk is that donny deutsch is talking about, a great man, a man i have often called america's abraham lincoln, the abraham lincoln of the 21st century, and a man that, man, his ties -- have you ever worn one of donald's ties? . i couldn't pull it off. >> let's bring in donald trump. donald trump, going after donny deutsch, saying that the pitchman has it all wrong. >> bring it, big guy.

>> you know, the fact is the building he was talking about where he and rupert lived is my building. [ laughter ] >> and he didn't give me a free plug. i was very upset. >> he's right. that's why i love that man. >> and then i heard him talking -- joe, i heard him talking favorably about the ad that was put out essentially by the republicans. and i thought it was a terrible ad. it made obama bigger than life. it made him to be the super celebrity, which i don't happen to think he is. i think that it was a terrible ad by the republicans. i think actually if anything -- when i first saw it, i thought the democrats put it out. >> you're projecting yourself. because to you, that is the dream -- i really mean this. to you, that's the most amazing thing in the world. but to the average guy who is out of work, or pissed off, they start to go, wait a second. what's he doing? yeah, he's cool and everything, but i don't want cool now. i want meat and potatoes so i

actually -- i could not -- look, i have always been so respectful of you but you couldn't be more wrong here. absolutely you couldn't be more wrong. >> donald, respond into donny deutsch. >> well, it's easy to respond to donny. they are making obama look great. they are making him look like that's the man we want to be president. i looked at that clip very closely, and actually i couldn't believe it. i thought it was one of the worst commercials in terms of what they were trying to do that i've ever seen. >> donald, could i ask you a question? >> yes. >> it's a bit of a personal question. i know you don't like to talk about business and people that live in your buildings. >> no, i don't like to bring it up. or the ties i sell at macy's. >> but the ties that do sell at macy's are incredible. but what sort of umbrella insurance policy do you have to get when, say, somebody like donny deutsch moves into one of your buildings? the liability from -- well, i'll

just say -- >> about the bathtub. >> don't uceven talk about the bathtub. obviously, that's a great burden for you as a landlord. >> when me moved in, my rates doubled. the water rates went way up. >> who moved into my apartment? it's worse. >> well, we got a great one. you know all the people as soon as you moved out, a tish moved in. >> steve tish. that's even more dangerous. donald, before we go -- >> this is not the 1% talking. this is the .00001% talking. >> i have to ask donald one thing. >> hurry. >> we have your old friend rosie on the professionals on "the today show." i heard you're scared to come on. you have to come on. they want you. and i heard you just wouldn't do it. rosie was on this week. this is an invitation. you're coming on, right? >> well, you know, i certainly would come on, but you should never bring up the subject of rosie. rosie wishes she never mentioned the name donald trump, believe me.

>> i love this man. >> donald trump. the 21st century's abraham lincoln. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you very much. great show. >> we had lunch with your friend jordan roth the other day. >> he is great, and he does great on your show. you should have him on all the time. >> we're going to. >> we love him. >> and other than today's big mistake by donny, he is great on your show. >> you are wrong, my friend. >> you're right. you're not on great on our show. >> i think donny is very needy and self aware. >> for everybody in the other 99.9999%, we apologize for this past segment. it went terribly off course. we shall return. ♪

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this story changing minute by minute. texas rangers game two nights ago. little cameron, 3 years old, all he wants is a baseball. so the couple next to him, we learned today that they're getting married on saturday. they say they didn't even see little cameron there and they feel terrible they didn't give him the ball. >> this is one of those moments. it remind me what moynihan said after jfk was assassinated. he was asked will we ever laugh again? no. we'll never be young again. >> we have some very special guests with us. 3-year-old cameron. hey, cameron. >> there he is. >> yeah, baby!

>> he's got a future on "morning joe." >> what a cool guy. >> mom and dad, let's get the real story. what happened at the ballpark two nights ago? >> big picture -- the new york channel i think showed only certain parts. the couple was actually very, very nice to cameron. >> no, don't tell us that. stop it. we don't want to hear that. the camera doesn't lie. >> we are vilifying them and hoping a mob will come to their home. we want to thank you all for being with us. we don't want to hear this nonsense. >> so let's hear the story. what happened? >> he's very expressive with his facial expressions and things. so little bit of overreaction on his part, for sure.

>> now you're teaming up against him. >> let's finish -- >> what's come ron trying to say? >> he wants to watch something on my ipad. >> now mom moi, not only do we have these two terrible people that stole the ball from your young child's clutches, now your husband is teaming up against your son blaming him for overreacting. will you show a mother's unconditional love and support your child? >> he's 3. so right now we're trying to work with him to not throw a fit when he doesn't get his way. he was definitely upset that he didn't get the ball. but i think that's just -- >> what did the couple actually do if it was edited up? >> when they caught the ball --

i don't think. they tried maliciously to taunt him or anything. i don't think they were trying to -- >> i've got a 3-year-old. >> i'm not a psychologist but i think there's a lot of emotional scarring there. >> go get gabba, gabba on the ipad. >> hey, cameron, go see "jake and the neverland pirates." >> that boy is so cute. i love him. [ female announcer ] if you care for someone with mild to moderate alzheimer's,

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stream your favorite movies and full seasons of shows instantly on any screen. find out more online. president obama has said, and i quote, now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in and to sustain the broad international coalition we built. now is the time to heed the timeless advice from teddy roosevelt -- speak softly and carry a big stick. end of quote. i promise you, the president has a big stick. i prom you. >> good friday morning. it's 8:00 a.m. on the east coast as you wake your kids up to the

smell of friday morning. and donny deutsch. sam stein and john heilemann rejoin us from the nation's capital. >> in a foreign policy campaign speech that happened yesterday at new york university, vice president joe biden tried to tie romney to the politics of the bush administration, calling the former massachusetts governor, "out of touch" and "fundamentally wrong." >> governor romney i think is counting on collective amnesia of the american people. americans know, americans know that we can't go back to the future, back to a foreign policy that would have america go it alone. shout to the world you're either with us or against us. lash out first and ask the hard questions later if they get asked at all. i said before, thanks to president obama, bin laden is dead and general motors is

alive. you have to ask yourself -- had governor romney been president, could he have used the same slogan in reverse? >> the vice president also went after mitt romney's business background arguing that with a lack of international experience the presumptive republican nominee can only be judged by his rhetoric. >> in the face of the challenges we now understand are ahead of us, what would governor romney do? well, the truth is, we don't know for certain. he starts with a profound -- a promou profound misunderstanding of the responsibilities of a president and commander in chief. i want to quote him exactly, and i quote, "if we want someone who has a lot of experience in foreign policy, we can simply go to the state department." he went on to say, and i quote, "but that's not how we choose a

president. a president is not a foreign policy expert." end of quote. in my view, the last thing we need is a president who believes that he can subcontract our foreign policy to experts at the state department, for that matter any other department or agency. that kind of thinking may work for a ceo but i assure you, it will not, and cannot, work for a president and it will not work for a commander in chief. >> what do you think? >> i mean we like joe. right? >> we like joe a lot. >> that's a tough sell. >> that's a tough sell. you got barack obama, a glorified state senator, elected president -- i'm talking about at the time. and a guy with mitt romney's experience is going to have to sub it out to the state department? it is a really tough sell. you talk about silly season, the

fact is mitt romney obeing i think silly trying to sell barack obama as weak on national security. that's just like the white house trying to sell romney as this right wing conservative. these people are trying to paint their opponents into corners that they're just not going to be cornered. americans don't -- listen. americans aren't going to be, oh, well, look at mitt romney. boy, that's a dangerous guy to have running the country's foreign policy when they let a state senator do it four years ago. and by the way, a lot of americans think the state senator's done a pretty dam good job on three years of foreign policy killing osama bin laden and launching drone attacks. what are we up to? 78, 79 countries now. he's been, in my estimation, at times a bit too hawkish. >> as john said, adopting a lot of the bush administration's foreign policy. but if you listen to that speech and imagine you are are sitting

in 2008, it just sound absurd, the idea that the president can't confer in any way to the state department or department of defense, as a young senator barack obama at the time would have to do and has done as president. >> donny, we've been talking the past couple days of this is what you do, how they're trying to not only o market their candidate but how they're trying to market the other guy. the obama people are trying to paint mitt romney as this wild-eyed radical. he's just not. and they're trying -- >> i think they could paint him as lame. >> now obama's team is trying to paint mitt romney as some inexperienced neophyte. it seems like they're point meshing their targets. >> i actually think what's happened the last day as far as the romney branding of both him potentially himself and obama, is starting to work in his favor. the new ad that just came out,

the kind of celebrity ad that basically if you kind of say they're going to paint him here and particularly going forward romney takes portman and we are the confidence -- vanilla is the new black. if i showed you the profile of every turnaround expert that's ever been hired for any company they are the most vanilla, boring, safe. so i found that latest rove ad a very, very compelling ad which shows the fallon rap and all the celebrity. now you take what was a perceived weakness of romney, his blandness, his boringness, looks like -- >> is that not the key, seriously? as the two little guys said back in the 1980s that were selling real estate late at night -- do you have that clip of the two short people? >> i think they're the wrrice brothers? >> where you going with this? >> and they sold all these -- i

guess lenny dykstra went in, they all sold a lot of homes. >> where's lenny dykstra? >> where are the two short people? >> i think that table is set. i've been the first to continually say obama is not going to lose but it is a compelling strategy. >> i wonder whether you just run. i'm dead serious here on this point, whether you just run full steam ahead into that bland vanilla goo that would be romney port. it's the icloud of bland. >> you say guilty as accused. you actually come out and say, i am. >> really boring. >> really, really -- of course the genius of it, it allows you to point the other guy's strength and turn that into a weakness. have we run that ad? >> let's run it right now. i will tell you four years ago when steve schmidt and the mccain people did the biggest

celebrity in the world deal, everybody's oh, that's ridiculous? that's old. and the numbers -- roll it. >>. ♪ >> obama! obama! obama! >> that is a strong advertisement. >> even though those pieces of data have a lot to do with what happened before he became president. but hey. >> but have nail la is the new plaque.

i think that's the tone going forward. >> hey, john heilemann, what do you think? do you think -- you can obviously draw a direct line from that ad back four years ago with the biggest celebrity in the world but i guess there is a lot more punch to it now, isn't there? you've got four years of data to put on the president. >> yeah. i think that ad does two things -- well three things really well. the first is that as donny's saying, republicans are really good at taking the strength of an opponent and running directly at that strength and try to turn it into a weakness. this ad tries to take obama's likability and his cool and turn it against him. the second thing is it runs at his weakness which is on the economy and the president's people know that is the reason why mitt romney's running so close with him right now. even though the president has so many more personal attributes where he has a lead over romney been the fact that the polls are so close is all about the economy. this ad turns the strength of

obama's into a weakness. it also runs at a weakness of obama's and tries to exacerbate that and third it does it all with humor. it is an ad that makes you sort of smile. even if you're a fan of the president's, it's pretty well executed and done with a nice done firmly planted in the cheek. those are good qualities. >> thank you. it is a well executed ad. it is pretty. sam stein, can you debunk some of the things put out in the ad? >> sure, i guess. the whole point of the ad is to blame all the economic malaise on obama without touching any of the bush years. i don't know what -- donny says vanilla is the new black -- >> sam, we're 3 1/2 years into the obama administration. this is how elections are run. >> yeah. no, i'm saying -- well, mika invited me to try to debunk zbl >> you don't want it hear it. >> i wanted to make a point, if i can.

>> okay, son, go ahead. >> he wrants wants to talk. >> come on, sweetheart. >> vanilla is the new black? is that it? the point i was trying to make is that this ad is basically -- to me it screams that obama is this cool guy, he's above us, he's the guy in high school who didn't even want to talk to you walking down the hall and we're the bigger mass of dorks of bland people who were never that cool but we dee deserve to be in charge. >> sam, i think you're projecting now. >> that's how it is interpreted to me. >> did you get locked in a locker? >> he did get locked in a locker. okay, so when i saw, willie geist, barack obama going on jimmy fallon, i said, isn't that nice? you know what? i know a lot of people are going to say it lowers the dignity of

the office, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but isn't that nice, the guy can go out there and sort of poke fun at himself. but we see in one 30-second ad why you can't do that as president of the united states. i'm sitting there thinking that's fun and he's sort of playing along with this gag that we've all come to know. but then you show that, and the singing and everything else, then boom, you start showing all those miserable statistics and it makes it look like he's playing while americans are suffering. >> but do you believe that the american people don't allow the president those moments? we'll see it again this weekend at the white house correspondents dinner. he's grat if those settings. president obama will be funny on saturday night. he was funny on jimmy fallon. you don't think the american people give them that break every once in a while? >> everybody watching that is already an obama person. jimmy fallon, 12:30 at night.

having said that, when you wrap it this way, it does backfire. >> didn't romney recently go on leno? let's not exclude romney from this. he goes on those late night shows as well. he tries to be culturally significant as well. he just doesn't pull it off as well as obama. >> guys, it is not the issue of doing these things. it is the issue of this guy who does have this star power, the republicans wrapping it and kind of punching at it and go wait a second, we're all suffering, yeah, he's cool but maybe we need something different now. i don't think anybody in each incident on its own will go what is he doing but that's the beauty or sadness of what you can do with 30 seconds. >> john heilemann, is it a matter of maybe it is safer to do this when the economy is doing well? i know we are picking it apart and i know it drives some people crazy who are actually intelligent out there, as you know, john, 30-second ads like

this move voters, swift vets moved voters in '04. the dukakis tank ad moved voters in '88. these ads work. >> look, they're aimed at a very small -- now we are getting into real general election advertising. this is the kind of ad aimed at a very narrow slice of the electorate. that's where they feel like the economy is still wobbly. they're still trying to make up their minds about what they think about barack obama's stewardship of the economy. i'm with willie. i like the idea that obama can go on leno and have a good time. he pulls it off incredibly well but there is a downside risk to it. i think donny's right. up next, buddy roemer joins us on set. also, raich the dratch will be here to talk about her new book. plus, willie's week in review. but first, bill karins with the weekend forecast. >> good morning, everyone. we are watching a pretty decent

weekend coming your way. a little bit of rain to deal with in a few spots. let me pinpoint that so you can make your weekend plans. a windy forecast up through new england. winds are gusting to 40 miles per hour in albany, hartford and interior new england. you definitely have more of a fall day than spring. all of the nasty weather today will be in kansas. woe coo see a minitornado outbreak late today. that storm tomorrow will rain out some people's saturday plans from chicago to indianapolis, all through the ohio valley. it arrives in washington, d.c. and philadelphia late in the day on saturday. we'll continue overnight. but sunday that storm exits the east coast. still some thunderstorms left over in the midwest but notice many areas of the country look like a pretty nice weekend. our friends in miami of all people will probably see rain on both days. beautiful friday morning washington, d.c. have a great weekend, everyone. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

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this week obama and romney tried out a new batch of slogans. they're really trying to come up with a good one. i have to say, they're getting mixed results. >> i laid out a blueprint for an economy that is built to last. >> we believe in ourselves. our greatest days are ahead. >> the family that's struggling to get by is having to do more because i'm doing less. >> guess what? i made a lot of money. >> i'll declare a total bumbling

idiot. >> guess who's going to pay that? not me, i'm gone. >> it's every american for themselves. >> i believe that america is just another place on the map with a flag. >> anybody here can afford to pay an extra $1,000 right now? >> i don't think i have any comments on qualifications for individuals to serve in various positions in government at this stage. >> here with us now, independent presidential candidate former republican governor of louisiana, buddy roemer. donny deutsch is still at the table, unfortunately, along with john heilemann in washington. hello, john. buddy, it is good to have you back on the show. how's everything going? >> good. all i need is money, a stage and a chance to be elected president. i mean i've been shut out of every debate and i am clawing my way college campus by college campus to some credibility.

here's my belief. we won't get america where it ought to be if we keep playing democrat versus republican. i want a president free to lead, put the country first. it can be done. >> you think it can be done. >> i think it can be done. it won't be done by these guys. they're trained. they're very good. the president is the best at political spin and romney is scrambling hard to try to be his equal. but here's where america is. 30% romney, 30% obama, and 40% really don't give a damn or are undecided. and that's the danger in this country. >> donny, it seems to me you're a marketing guy. the government is fallen out of favor more than any time in modern polling. congress has an 8% approval rating and you've got the president who's actually deciding he's going to go left by using the class warfare bit. you've got romney going right. there's a huge opening for somebody like buddy, isn't

there? >> yes. i actually believe -- i'm not given hyperbole here -- this is the last election that's going to be dominated by two parties. if it was a different moment in time, different candidates -- it's over. it doesn't -- it is a business model that's not built. >> we're showing right now the f favorable/unfavorableable. 62% unfavorable. that's the lowest this two decades. >> it is not constitutionally embedded a two-party system. we've gotten into that habit overtime. president lincoln was a wig for god's sake before he change parties. i think we are coming to more issue oriented, less party oriented politics. now there are dangers there but i think that's a much better chance to solve our problem. >> we've said for a long time, governor, that you've got the message for the time and it is just a matter of getting it out there and amplifying it a little

bit. what is it -- to speak to that 40% that's right there in the middle, what would you like to say to them about not just what's wrong with the country but what you can do to change it or what someone can do to change it? >> i think we are a nation in trouble. great possibilities, but in trouble. for example. if we would take all federal spending that's not interest rate or entitlements, it is not as big as the deficit this year alone. let me say it another way. if we were to cut the marine corps, the army, the navy, all federal agencies, the department of energy, department of education -- if we were to cut all that we wouldn't balance the budget. we are a nation in trouble. we're borrowing money we don't have to spend it on people who in all cases would like to sacrifice for america but no one asks them to. i can see a five-year budget. i can see a reduction of gdp by 1% a year. that's $150 billion. i can see raising the entitlement age for social

security by one month a year for 24 years. i can see the same for medicare. i can see eliminating all corporate loopholes. i can see a single rate of 17%. a man makes $100,000, he'd pay 8.5%. first $150,000 is federal tax free. support your family. i can see all of these things but not under the current system. under the current system it is more important to put your opponent down than it is to build your nation. that's wrong. >> john heilemann. >> governor, you're right now the leading vote getter in the americans elect process among declared candidates. you're the number two vote getter overall. ron paul is a draft candidate. he's got more votes than you. i'd like to ask you about two things. how you going to beat ron paul in that competition, that's the first question. numb per two, you've been after joe lieberman as your vice presidential running mate. do you have any indication

senator lieberman is interested in joining you in this endeavor? >> yes. he said that he wouldn't join me. i want to make that clear, that was done months ago. he's a long-time friend. we are looking now at -- i'll give you the number -- 23 different people to have as running mate under the rules of americans elect, it is a unity ticket. so me as a republican independent, i would have to pick a democrat independent as my running mate and there are many possibilities out there. but i won't make that announcement until i win or lose this round of americans elect. those are the rules. >> i was wondering, how is americans elect going? are they going to be on all 50 balance lots? >> yes. there are about 30-something now. there's another 10 or 15 that are yet to be determined by their own course. they'll be on all 50 pal lobala

lots. it will be romney, obama and the americans elect candidate. >> so even the future, there will be a private -- unfortunately, i think buddy is a little ahead of his time. i think in the future there will be a private sector candidate with the right wallet and the right background that will change the system. >> yeah. i agree with that. ross perot, 20 years ahead? yeah. i think we're open to that now. and the reason, joe -- you've been in congress -- it's dysfunctional. there's no budget analysis. there's no tax reform. i mean i beat it to death on this program. i believe in america. but i believe we need to come together to build a nation and i don't know how to do it in the party system finally. 23 nationally televised debates in the republican primaries. i was not asked to be on a single one and i was the only guy running who's been elected a congressman and a governor and in addition built a bank of $750

million that didn't foreclosure on a single mortgage, made money every year and didn't take a dime of federal money. >> wow. pretty darn good resume. john heilemann, let's talk about americans elect for a second. i like the idea very much. very, very much. >> the concept is amazing. >> there is skepticism. the skepticism has been growing of late. what are septics saying about americans elect and what is your take? >> they have not generated a lot of grassroots enthusiasm necessary to make this really work. governor roemer is the leading candidate right now. if you go online and look at the website, he's number one among declared candidates but he's got 4,000 votes. ron paul is the leading candidate in the draft category. he's got 8,000 votes. are you talking about very small numbers of people that have actually decided to participate in this process so far. think that's a little diss he t disheartening fr for the

americans elect people. they thought they'd get some bigger names, all due respect to governor roemer, i think they thought they'd get big-name ceos involved in this process. i think they thought there would be a candidate pool that would have more superstars in it than what they currently have. i think they are disappointed with the overall pool. again no disrespect to governor roemer, i think they look at the overall pool and they had hoped to have some more outside-the-box names that they'd be able to elevate and really game changing potential kind of third party candidates. >> governor, as you know following politics as long as you have, we're still in preseason. the respect just finished their fight. i always told anybody that came to me talking about what do they do, i say raise a lot of money and spend it the last ten days. this is a going out of business sale and it is from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. one day and one day only you build to that. i think it is too early to judge

americans elect. i think it is too early to judge buddy roemer. i think it is too early to judge ron paul and the other candidates. because if it is that focus -- you, barack obama, mitt romney? >> a hell of a debate. >> suddenly -- as we've said before, you've got the message for 2012 better than anybody else. that would be a hell of a debate. what happened in great britain with nick kleg would happen here in america. >> i've been running for 17 months. i've raised more money than any independent candidate, over $1 million. average gift about $20. i had 100,000 people give me $3 each. i'm telling you, there is an interesting campaign out there. the problem is i can't get on the stage. you and mika and donny and crew are my biggest gift. >> willie's your biggest gift. willie's the gift that keeps on giving. >> every time i'm on here -- i hate to say this.

every time on here i raise $5,000 to $50,000. you are the best tv show i'm on throughout the year. i don't know where this goes in your ratings -- i'm a fan. you get no percentage, joe. let me make this clear. >> oh, okay! what about me, buddy? >> if -- we have a good time but we relly respect your message. >> thanks, mika. >> it is a great message. governor, thank you so much for being with us and good luck. i'll tell you what, if you keep on going, i think it is going to get fascinating. >> i have paid all my bills. i have money in the bank. no other candidate can say that and not borrowed a dime. >> and we in april are still in preseason. >> you are right. when we come back, rachel dratch of "snl" fame is standing

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excuse me, miss lemon. i'm not usually this formal or this bold but i figure time is on neither one of our side.

could you excuse us for a second? >> i'd kind of like him to stay. >> very well. miss lemon, liz, i'd like to carry your child if i might. i have a small ferret farm 60 miles north of the city. it's not much but it is self-sufficient. i can get cable if you want because i know how much you like tv. sometimes i watch you watching it. think about it. >> at 36 past the hour. that was comedian rachel dratch mavging an appearance on "30 rock." joining us now, author of the new book "girl walks into a bar," comedy, calamities, date disasters and a mid life miracle. rachel dratch, thanks so much for being on the show. >> we know what the calamity is because you actually once went on donny deutsch's show "the big idea." >> do you remember that and how

inappropriate i was? honestly, i apologiapologize. >> hush. don't say it. i'm not going to say what you said. it is horrific. let's start with the happy ending here because at the end is the mid life miracle which sort of the title draws upon. talk about it. >> yes. well, my mid life miracle, i sort of was like letting go of the idea of having kids because i didn't want to do it on my own. i was 40, 41, 42. i was sort of letting it go -- then a surprise -- got pregnant at almost age 44. it was a big life surprise, life change and super fun. >> that is a big life change. >> the first shock is that you were ever 44. you look very young. >> thank you 37. >> but now you have an almost 2-year-old boy. >> yeah! it's been super fun. i feel like i kind of won the lottery or something. >> tell us about the book and how that story relates, if it

does. >> well, the book -- i kind of started writing because the acting jobs are kind of slowing down. i still had these blank slate days, wake up, like what am i going to do? then if a funny thing happened i'd start writing it up as a story. then the stories kind of sat around for a while. then when the pregnancy happened, i was like, oh, now this book kind of has a whole place to go sort of. in terms of arc. >> you guys have such a cool fraternity of women in comedy with you and tina and amy and kristin wig and all these people who have sprung up out of "snl." can you give us a little bit of your history, where it started? >> i was at second city in chicago with tina and amy was there, too. then we all ended up on "snl." we sort of have this common history together. a lot of the women write together on the show. that's just sort of -- we all kind of have the same sense of humor or something.

so yeah. but the whole cast was a big ensemble feeling and it was a really fun time. you guys remain tight. tina will call you and bring you on the show. you guys all pop up in each other's work. >> we hang together and we wok together if we can make it happen. yeah. it is a sisterhood for life. >> what year did you graduate? >> i was '88. >> are you a single mom? >> well, that's all in the book. but it sort of happened -- the whole story is -- girl walked into a bar -- no. i was dating baby daddy before he was baby daddy, i was dating this guy for about like six months long distance. then like i said, thought i was beyond the motherhood possibility. then we had this surprise. he ended up moving to new york and he's very involved. so yeah. >> that's really a fulfillment of a dream of yours to be a mom. >> yeah. like i said, something i always imagined for myself, then it

wasn't happening. it was the biggest surprise of my life probable. >> a great surprise. unlike my mom who cried for the first ten months at her surprise. >> i want to be serious for a second. i'm a single dad. >> oh, stop it. >> i'm being -- please tell me say there. there are so many single women in their late 30s who want a kid -- have a kid. it's like you have your family. it's like it is such a shame. like i really mean that. don't wait for the guy. >> that's what i should have learned actually. because i was too scared to even think about doing it on my own. like i didn't consider -- but now that i'm on the other side, i'm sort of of with you. i'm like i wish i had considered it more for other women out there that are like late 30s, early 40s. >> back in 1988 when you were graduating from dartmouth. i spent so much time on that campus because i dated a boy there and my brother went there. >> it sent me into comedy world

because i didn't really feel like i fit in there. i was on the improv comedy group there. >> you weren't on the dartmouth review, huh? >> no. >> are you sure? did you ever meet any of those people? >> no. but i see them on tv sometimes. >> they still scare you. >> i know we have to go but there's news in the book. you were supposed to be jenna on "30 rock." >> that's kind of how the book starts. that's all in the book. >> don't give it away, willie. >> they just decided to change it up. >> but "they," being your good friend tina fey. >> good friend! zblifts's the w . >> it's once you've been in the business as long as you have -- when i talk about in the book is that actually didn't really throw me. it was like all of the attention it got later. it just wouldn't die. that was sort of the hard part. >> you're fantastic.

>> you are phenomenal. let's ask really was talking about all the "snl" bits. your ferret that she did? >> the world famous debbie downer. not just that character. lohan, jimmy fallon was in it. >> that was great. >> will ferrell and goat femeat. >> girl walked into a bar. raich the dratch. ♪

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sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. hey, let's get a quick check on business before the bell with cnbc's brian sullivan. brian, we've heard a lot of economists say the economy will

not turn around until housing turns around. not great news on that front today, is there? >> no, there's not great news but i will give you some good news in the not so great news which is this -- gdp came in if the first quarter 2.2%. that's lower than the 3% number and lower than estimates. when you look at the headline, you say that's bad news. the good news is that consumer spending continues to pick up. like it or not, we're consumer driven economy. 73% of the total output of america is just us going on and spending so the fact that that number grew is a good sign for the future. the bad sign for all the men out there, just to be a little man session like this morning, men's wages are not recovering as fast as women's. women's wages now are about the same as they were prerecession. men are still stuck largely because to your point about housing, construction. >> the man session continues. brian, thank you.

willie's week in review coming up straight ahead. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. guys. come here, come here. [ telephone ringing ] i'm calling my old dealership. [ man ] may ford. hi, yeah. do you guys have any crossovers that offer better highway fuel economy than the chevy equinox? no, sorry, sir. we don't. oh, well, that's too bad. [ man ] kyle, is that you? [ laughs ] [ man ] still here, kyle. [ male announcer ] visit your local chevy dealer today.

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it's that time of the day. it's that time of the week. it is the week in review. >> i'm not going to the nets game tonight. my message to the nets is good-bye. >> at number three -- don't let the door hit you. after 35 years, the nba's new

jersey nets this week played their final game in the garden state before they move on to palestinian. governor chris christie, who had lobbied to keep the team in jersey was not feeling sentimental. >> there will be no tears shed on my part tonight. are governor christie giving the former hometown team what can only be called the gale treatment. >> gale, first off, it is none of your business. i don't ask you where you send your kids to school. don't bother me about where i send mine. >> at number two -- look out. a teenage girl strolling down a sidewalk in china disappeared this week into an unmarked sinkhole. that feet down see went. a taxi driver rushed in after her. she was okay but left to wonder, can a sister get some calling tape? maybe a traffic cone? and the number one story of the week -- >> i promise you the president has a big stick. i promise you. >> president obama spent much of

the week with the microwaveable burrito eating call of duty playing tube pulling future of america as he visited college campuses across the country, pausing at one to slow-jam the news with jimmy fallon. >> 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. >> there was a bunch of stuff about student loans but the story that rocked a nation to its foundation was that of a university of colorado freshman accused of spilling yogurt on the president of the united states. the 19-year-old went national the next morning to fight the rush to judgment, declaring that she had been falsely accused in yogurtgate. >> paparazzi came up from behind me and kicked the cup. it was what i was eating so i do take fault for that, but it

technically was not my fault. >> mitt romney, meanwhile, settled into the role of republican nominee after winning five more primaries. >> a better america begins tonight. >> romney accepted the ringing endorsements of several big name republicans. >> this remind me of going to surgery. i didn't go to the nicest doctor. i went to the best. guy can have a great personality and tell great jokes but put the knife in the wrong way. >> you just endorsed mitt romney. >> if that's what you want to call it. >> herman cain did not endorse romney. he was business telling the "daily show" how he would calm citizens nerves -- >> citizens of earth, it is that seem spirit of humanity that will allow us to deskri ttroy t aliens. >> and then there's newt. the former speaker and animal

lover indicated this week that he's come to terms with the reality that his campaign lived a good life but it's finally time to put it down. you're going to be the nominee. >> i'm going to be the nominee. >> i got bit by a penguin. >> the first permanent base on the moon. >> are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. >> you owe a half million dollars to a jewelry company at one point? sl we had a resolving fund. >> you're an embarrassment to our party. >> i'm sorry you feel that way. >> why don't you get out before you make a bigger fool of yourself? >> you know in your heart you're going to miss him just a little bit. coming up next, what, if anything, did we learn today. ♪ hey, dad, you think i could drive? i'll tell you what -- when we stop to fill it up. ♪

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[ male announcer ] want your weeds to hit the road? hit 'em, with roundup extended control. one application kills weeds, and stops new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control. there's been a lot of chatter that people want to see me in an ascot. alex, what are you getting in the control room on this? >> nothing i can read back on air. >> what's so funny? >> nothing. keep going. >> tlhroughout the show -- >> donny deutsch is still with us with another look. >> i actually think donny is rock being the ascot at the moment. >> see? that's a pulitzer prize winner. >> willie geist, a man and his women. >> only one guy in the show can pull that off, donny deutsch. >> we're going to bring the

ascot back. big sea change today. >> is that what you learned today? >> that's what i learned. >> i've learned you destroyed the jay mclaughlin name. wrap it up, willie. >> i learned that you don't get between a 3-year-old and his morning -- there's 3-year-old cameron and the parents, by the way, say that the couple has been falsely accused, they they are very nice people. >> wow. have a good weekend. >> you, too, brother. >> it is friday, right? all right. have a great weekend. if it is way too early, what time is it? it is "morning joe." stick around right mao for chuck. speaker boehner jabs president obama using talking points that seem scripted by the romney campaign. just a coincidence or are the