than half than predicted and seemed that the economy produced less than one-third of that number in the combined two months. this recovery has run out of steam. we are ina stall. what is the power of this? what will the president do? what are the american people interested in? action. that is what i'm interested in. what action can we expect and what can we hope for? let's go to the people who know the answers. let's welcome robert reich, author, and governor ed rendell. let's start with robert reich, if you were in the president's ear and you had the authority to recommend policy recommendation steps, what would they be? >> well, chris, if the republicans were not going to join me, i would propose that the first $20,000 of income be exempted from payroll taxes effective immediately and shot in the arm for consumers, and

number two, i am going to propose that we as a country, we use the fact that borrowing costs are now unprecedented at a low point because everybody else in the world is pouring their money into dollars and that means we can borrow and we can have a major infrastructure program to fix the crumbling highways and roads and bridges and ports, and i'm going to hire and make sure that all of the -- a large portion of the people, 23 million people who are now unemployed or underemployed, hire as many of them to fix america as possible and then we will have a wpa, a works project administration and civilian conservation corps to go to work on the parks and the play grounlds and to work in schools as the teachers or whatever and not sit back. if the republicans don't want to go along with it and they want to be called the gnnattering na

bombs of negativism, finek but i want the american people to understand that i'm going to move forward from that. >> from your words to god's ears. governor rendell, i don't know how you can beat that, because it sounds like music to me. let's do it and the republicans may oppose it, but the idea that you are talking about for years the word infrastructure, but everybody knows what it means. we are behind the europeans and they have chunnel and the trains that go 300 miles per hour, and we ride that thing called the amtrak which is nice, but it is certainly yesterday. and put a big tunnel through new york to new jersey and tell the g governor to get out of the way and bullet trains in asia and everybody is ahead of us and we are putting along like it is 1953. your thoughts, governor? >> well, secretary reich is absolutely right. it is the time for action, and the president should understand what the american people are looking for in this election is what is next? what are the plans. we know that the economy has

improved, buttal stalled, and what is next? governor romney has suggested to cut taxes, and first of all it has never worked in the last 60 years, and if it were to work, it is two to three years down the road, and bob's plan is a good one in particularly infrastructure, and 25,000 jobs are produced for every $1 billion of infrastructure spending and every expert agrees with that. chris, if we did a $200 billion infrastructure improvement program and not just roads and bridge, but the electrical grid and the broadband and the dams and the levees and we are falling apart. number one, more economically competitive and two, safer, and if you do the math, 5 million good well paying jobs on the job sites and back in american manufacturing factories. >> oh, let's go to the -- today the president told congress -- >> let's go. >> and he said to stop the

limited jobs agenda, and let's hear what he said. >> limited. >> my message to congress is now is not the time to play politics, and now is not the time to sit on your hands, and the american people expect their leaders to work hard no matter what year it is. congress should pass a bill to help states prevent more layoffs to put thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers back on the job. congress should have passed a bill a long time ago to put thousands of construction workers back on the job rebuilding the roads and the bridges and the runways. instead of just talking about job creators, congress should give small business owners a tax break for hiring more workers and paying them higher wages. >> robert reich, get to the politics. why is he -- if if the congress side bain and the rest of them are going to say no to spam, why steak? if they say no, why the chicken and i hate to use the word, but

the ching, and you know, why go for something big, and if they say no, say no to something worthwhile, and what are your thoughts? >> well, chris, that is exactly right. the president has to form a clear contrast in the public's mind for his desire to go forward to create jobs and the republicans want to do which is a basically war on the tax break for the very rich. they are not the job creators and the war of the tax breaks who are sitting on $2 trillion of cash they don't know what to do with it. the reason they are not creating the jobs is because there is not consumer demand and all the republicans want to do is to cut the budget, and that is austerity economics and we saw what that got european s s in ts of making the european situation worse and creating a recession in all of europe because of those budget cuts, so what, you know, what the president needs to do is to say that is what their agenda is, and this is my agenda, and i will get the jobs back and if they want to say no, then make sure i have a senate and a house of representatives that will say yes. >> here they are, and here is

boehner and canton, the joy boys, and what they have to say in action, and this is easy stuff for the opposition. >> these job numbers are pathetic and the american people deserve better. i think that under the right leadership we can do better. >> it is clear that the policies we have seen are not working. i'm not an economist, but all i can say is that they would have taken our advice and worked with us, the economy would be better. >> well, governor, he is not crying there, and i have to tell you that boehner, this is something that is not putting tears in his eyes, but a spring in the step of romney, and i the news and i don't know how many hours, but bill clinton made the news and marching to your tune saying don't go after bain capital or the massachusetts experience of romney and play playing, and in other words, defend your own record and build your own record and don't go negative. are you sticking with that? this is bill clinton speaking for himself and he took an ax to

the whole thing when he was throughout with harry weinstein the other night. watch him. >> i don't think that we ought to get into the position where we say this is bad work. this is good work. no question in terms of getting up to go to the office, and you know basically performing the essential functions of the office a man whos been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold. >> there you go. mr. clinton, i don't know what he is doing, and governor, you know him well, and he is saying don't go down the negative road, and you can't win by bashing this guy on bain capital and you have to win this positively. >> the president is doing two things. number one, exactly what you said, chris. get out there and talk about what we are going to do, and we do have good plans and the plans that bob just outline and the plans of the president, and you are dead right. don't do $50 billion of

infrastructure improvements over the next 18 months, because the cbo says $10 trillion of infrastructure and ten years of 5 million jobs each year and well paying jobs and do something bold. that is what the american people are look g fing for. the second thing that the president is doing is very smart. he is going to be of course in for president obama, but he is building up credibility by saying that mitt romney is a good businessman, et cetera, so when he gives the american people reasons to support president obama, and he is going to say, bill clintone didn't tri try to argh trash the other guy, but he is telling us why president obama is better. it is great politics. >> i would not have agreed with that two or three days ago, mr. reich, but because we are seeing a rising unemployment rate and

lower job creation, and you have to say that the recovery shouldn't be called a recovery anymore. we are not into a second dip technically and not having two quarters of declining gdp, but nothing is happening. so if the president doesn't do anything between now and november, nothing will happen. is that fair? >> well, it is clear that the president has to put forward an affirmative clear concrete message of how to get the jobs back. and paint the republicans as negative, but he also has to go after romney. with all due respect to my former boss, he is dead wrong. bain capital is part of the problem of the economy with the financial entrepreneurs instead of product entrepreneurs and it is why we are having a difficult time to get out of it. >> and you are saying do both?

>> absolutely. >> chris, 75 years ago when they said we will build a bridge, the golden state bridge and people said, no, you can't do it, it is too dangerous or expensive and we did it. we used to do big things. we were a country that noel c e challenge was too big for and we have to get back to it. >> and i offer the golden gate bridge as one case of when mankind has improved on nature, the golden state bridge and it is stunning today every time i go near it. thank you robert reich and ed rendell for joining us. and coming up is john edwards with a comeback and there is a man with optimism, and after a dramatic fall, could he rise again? this is "hardball." its retinol formula visibly reduces wrinkles in one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®.

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well, john edwards may have gone free yesterday, but can he rebuild the political career? three jurors who spoke with matt lauer thismorning said they believed he was guilty of the

crime crimes he was accused of, but didn't have the evidence to convict. >> he had knowledge. i believe he had knowledge of the money and where he was going. >> and he was smart enough to hide it and we did not have enough evidence. >> raise your hands if you think that john edwards was guilty on at least some of the counts against him. okay. raise your hands if you think thatwards is a bad guy? interesting. >> well, they chose wisely there. is edwards planning a comeback or out of touch with public opinion on that? let's ask bob shrum a long time democratic strategist who first met john edwards when he was working on his senate campaign which he won and joan walsh is an msnbc contributor. and now, what is with john edwards? is he all delusion? a guy with so much optimism he does not really connect with reality and like yesterday talking about how god has a plan for me and all that?

what is all that about after basically beating the judge by a few feet? >> well, the people don't have a plan for him. look, he can maybe redeem himself as a person if he does not talk about himself. and that is what is wrong with yesterday, whatever he does, it cannot be about him, and he has to be about quiet and give himself to a cause that genuinely cares about and stay in the valley and no oprah-like interviews and do something good, and not because it is good for the image, but because it is right. and maybe he can never undo the nonjudicial verdict that is rendered on him, but he might ch change some people's lives, but if he looks like he is manipulating this, he will tarnish himself out. there. >> i wondered if he was making a call to the rich contributors there, and you have to wonder about a guy who describes god's plan, and that is strange thing to talk about, because god wants

to make his own plans and doesn't want somebody to basically predict them. >> yes. >> and your thoughts, joan, about the strange egotistical moment when he began to start acting narcissistically. >> it was a terrible moment, chris. i could not believe it. i am someone who support ed him in 2007, and i speak as someone who voted to put him a heart beat away from the presidency in 2004 and i apologize to the american people for that, because we didn't know, but when he starts to speak like bob said yesterday, i literally could not believe it. i knew he was a narcissist, but it was so wrong and so wrong from the minute he started. maybe a thank you to the judge and the jury for standing by him, maybe, but that performance showed a man who is so out of touch with the world, with himself, and he is just so full of himself. i mean, love your children and go out and love your children and be a good father, and go out to help the children and the children of the world, god bless you, do that, but don't tell us about it. >> and what about the girlfriend -- buecause that was

too strange. >> so bizarre. >> i have to say he was speaking in a narcissistic fashion yesterday. >> i don't think that god's through with me. i really believe he thinks that there's still some good things that i can do, and whatever happens with this legal stuff going forward, what i'm hopeful about is all of those kids that i have seen, you know, in the poorest parts of this country, and in some the poorest places in the world that i can help them. in whatever way i'm still capable of helping them. i want to dedicate my life to being the best dad i can be and to helping those kids who i think that deserve help. >> well, the public opinion in this country is not in john edwards' side. in april a cbs news and new york times poll said that only 3% of the country has a favorable view

of hill and 41% negative. and he has not been talking to the poor children of the country, but hanging around in the bars of chapel hill, and it is great, but it is not one of the things that gets you to be one of the 12 apostles. >> well, he is not trying out for the 12 apostles and maybe the lower ranks of heaven. >> i wan to go after you, mr. shrum, because you believed in the guy, and people fell for this guy. it was the cute manner, and that sort of little boy manner, and why did you fall for him? >> when i met for him in 1997, i thought he was a person of extraordinary talent. >> why? >> because he was articulate and smart and nobody thought he could be lock fair cloth in north carolina, and he went out and did it, and then john mccain was impressed with him and ted kennedy and then over time, he never fulfilled the potential. >> did he ever read a book? ever read a newspaper? >> i think he read a newspaper.

>> i don't believe it. i don't believe he reads anything. >> i don't believe he worked very hard at being a senator. i watched nim the 2004 campaign when quite frankly we should have picked dick gephardt as preside president, and i went up for the debate practice and he was not ready, and elizabeth had to make him study. >> and anyway, thank you, bob shrum, and i love when you are sympathetic to the young people of the world. i'm off i know it. but bob rumsfeld is back, and he is wanting the president to get to policy, and i believe that the president has a better foreign policy than rummy, and he is off to the side where he belongs.

back to hardball and the

first sideshow. that proposed ban of sodas larger than 16 ounces is causing a lot of stir. the daily show's jon stewart is perplexed. >> let me get this straight, as a new yorker, i can go on the lunch break to, i don't know, carnegie deli and order 14 pounds of pa strawny garnbished with 15 pounds of beef tongue and go right over from there to ho hooters for a basket of wings tossed in butter and a bowl of cheese to top it off with a little bit of a frozen hot chocolate. this is legal. until it melts. mr. mayor, i know you can be intimidated by these large-sized drinks and you and i are both, let's face it, small, and we might see a jenb rousegenerousl proportioned sugared drink and think it is a drowning hazard,

but it is not fair. it is not fair! >> and actually he marked today as national doughnut day, and officially nyc doughnut day with a proclamation, and there is sugar in there, mr. mayor. and in a pension bill tuesday, representative mike bos took to the floor to argue that it is too soon to bring that bill to the vote. >> total power in one person's hands. not the american way! these damn bills are coming out of here all of the damn time, and i have to figure out how the vote for my people. i am sick of it. every year, we give the power to one person. it was not made that way in the constitution, and he was around when it was written, enough! i feel like somebody is trying to release from egypt, let my people go! >> i think that he had one of those 16 ounce surge drink, but he said he does not normally act that way and i think it may have been a sugar attack. and finally, former

secretary robert gates said that the president made a gutsy call on how to kill osama bin laden and according to charlie rose, the predecessor should have made a fast one and easy one thanks in part to past administrations. >> you have spent millions of dollars and lives try to track down osama bin laden and you have 40% or the 80% or whatever bob said in your confidence. >> 87, yes. >> it seems to me that it is a 15-minute decision and the first 14 are for coffee. could it be wrong? you bet. >> and with enormous consequences, ask jimmy carter. failed mission. >> oh, listen, our special force s in the jimmy carter era were so early in their evolution that the investment that the obama administration benefited from, the capabilities they have were developed during their

predecessors and each administration -- >> and you are referring to the bush administration? >> yes, exactly. >> wasn't that fellow rumsfeld is the sail one who said that osama bin laden had nuclear capabilities. okay. let's remember their track record. coming up next is "your business with j.j. ramberg." hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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