washington, d.c., political editor and white house correspondent for "the huffington post" sam stein. we have nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" andrea mitchell. we have the executive editor of politi politico jim vandehei and willie geist in new york with that disgusting story. >> willie, today, of course we are as usual, we are -- you say cornucopia of news, we take people across the globe, talking about shocking new "new york times"/cbs poll everybody is focused on, going to be taking americans of the millions and millions of americans that watch the show every morning and listen on the armed forces radio, the news out of bulgaria, big news out of syria but we are looking at one story the further decline of the united states of america, it started as dr. sacks said in 1973, average wages declining and leads us down this long and winding road to grim,

grim news, coming out of the far east this morning. >> it is. >> the sun continues to set on the american empire. here it is again, singapore, dateline, singapore, the 7-eleven in singapores, not in america, singapore only, you've heard of the slurpee machine in singapore the mashed potato and gravy machine. you put a little cup under, hit a button, mixes hot water with a powder, spits out mashed potatoes and pours chicken gravy you can take on the go. >> coming soon to singapore, obesity. >> where were we? john kennedy why england slept. i'm going to why america slept. >> thanks. >> that puts -- >> that's disgusting. you would love that. i could see you eating that. >> i want that. sad day. >> front page of "usa today" melissa my mayer, the talk of the town. at a conference with the national journal with valerie jarrett talking about it because she's pregnant and she's going to be the ceo and she says, i'd

like to stay in the rhythm of things. my maternity leave will be a few weeks long and i'll work throughout it making a lot of people respond. >> when you had emilia your maternity leave was three hours. >> i was on the air that night. >> that night they brought the cameras in. >> it's a little different. >> have the baby -- >> i'm no ceo. >> deliver the news. >> where's my lip stick. >> and she was on that night. >> no. >> couple weeks, three hours. >> it's generating a lot of response and yesterday, we talked about it a lot. the audience was so interested in sort of whether it's okay and it's so okay. we're here. so -- anyhow. i love that story. >> the fact that she's such a star, a super star, that was not an issue. >> even an issue. >> not only for her but the board. >> those who chose her. it's exciting. >> you know, what's not exciting. >> yeah. >> vandehei. >> i know. i see him.

trying to pretend he's not here. >> don't make eye contact. >> i'm not looking. >> the potato thing. if you go to fuds ruckers, for real americans -- >> it's a morning show. please -- seven-second delay. >> gets as much cheese as you want. just like willie's machine. no different. it's not campaign. they have them all over virginia. fuddruckers. >> we did -- >> joe is real america. that's all they have in florida. >> what the heck is that? >> do they have them in nantucket? >> i doubt it. >> let's go to the new "new york times"/cbs general election poll coming up with surprising numbers that have nothing to do with nantucket. >> they're on president obama's job performance in the white house. 44% now approve of president obama's overall job in office. 46 % sdis approve. president obama's favoribility 36%, 48% view him as unfavorable. >> jim vandehei, favoribility,

that is stunning for a sitting president running for re-election. almost one in three americans approve of the job he's doing. one in three. >> it's lower than any other poll we've seen. if that's true and it's not a glitch he loses. >> you can't win with 36% favorable ratings as an incumbent. >> now you know why they went on the offensive. clearly why they decided they had to characterize and characterize -- >> got to destroy mitt romney. so the president's upside down, what, 13 points, between his favorable and unfavorable. mitt romney is also upside down in favoribility. >> his ratings four points lower than the president's in this poll. 32% favorable few of the former massachusetts governor as favorable, 36% unfavorable. >> of course, jim, there you only have the 4 percentage point difference between favorable and unfavorable because americans are trying to figure out who mitt romney is.

the obama people, if you have to be very concerned if these -- if other polls follow this trend. as james carville said on our show last week it's the obama team spending all the money right now. the romney team raising all the money right now. >> i think that's a brilliant point. nobody is paying attention to that. everyone is saying mitt romney's strategy is terrible, why isn't he responding forcibly? do they understand how much money he's sitting on and the outside group and when everybody tunes in he's going to be outspending with his allies the president two to one in the final months of the campaign. you don't think he can redefine himself. >> restrictive in some respects before spending it before becoming the republican knowledgeny. they'll be sitting on a trove of money and will unleash advertising that will drown out anything obama does part of the reason they're trying to define mitt romney right now. there's a window to do it. >> willie geist, if they were able to define mitt romney by spending all of this money right now, it certainly made a lot of

sense, define a guy like michael dukakis before americans know who he is, if it moves numbers that would be one thing. if he spends this much money and effort on this bain capital attack and out-of-touch rich guy, needs to release all of his taxes, what this suggests is, they've blown a lot of money, plus they've blown this issue in july. if the numbers -- if these numbers don't move anymore than they have in the cbs/"new york times" poll. >> we were talking about that yesterday morning, john heilemann and harold ford discussing whether this will look, let's see the first poll after this attack. our first poll conducted from july 11th, one week ago today, to july 16th, two days ago. that's five days that's in the heart of the tax returns and the bain attacks. and actually, mitt romney inched up a little bit over the last poll. so you can draw your own conclusions from that, but it hasn't taken the piece out of

mitt romney's high that they expected it would. >> people at the end of the day, people don't care, not to keep going back to carville, but people don't care about what happened in 1999 or 2000. they want to know what's going to happen over the next four years. and this president is constantly talking about the past. he's talking about defending the past four years of his record. going after mitt romney in the past. but neither one of these candidates seem to be looking forward saying this is how i'm going to turn this economy around. this is how i'm going to get you back into work. >> yeah. i think president obama is xwilxwi guilty of that but so is mitt romney. i'm not sure we've heard articulated what his plan is going forward either. maybe it's time to get down to serious details in this campaign. >> the other day, sam nun here with the bipartisan group on the budget and he said, why not take simpson-bowles as the default position if instead of the sequester and then deal with

post-election. you know, pretty smart idea. but nobody else is talking, nobody running for office is talking about anything specific. neither side. i think people are smart enough, the american public is smart enough to know that this is all a distraction. >> mika, what -- what do these numbers tied to for the most part? >> probably the handling of the economy. we have new numbers here, the president's drop in favoribility, obviously may be tied to the economy. the same poll shows 39% approve of the president's handling of the economy, down 5 points from last month. 355% say they -- 55% disapprove of the work on the economy. the polls head-to-head matchup has the president and romney in a statistical dead heat. romney is at 47%, and obama at 46%. >> it's the economy, stupid. >> not to be a polling geek, nobody's up or down, nobody has been up or down for the last month and a half. everything within the margin of error and the polls will not change until three weeks before

the election. that's the one thing obama and romney agree on. it's going to be a neck and neck race. the persuadables haven't started to pay attention. we're sort of talking to each other no talking about bain and wealth and other numbers from the polls. 60% of respondents said bain didn't matter, 73% said romney's wealth didn't matter to their vote. these are issues that are sort of side issues. that said, one caveat, these might matter in certain states than others. this is a national poll and some states do matter more than others. for instance, in ohio or virginia, bain could play a lot differently than nationally. there's that one caveat to consider. >> andrea, front page story on all the major newspapers today. "the new york times" talks about the suicide attack in syria. killed assad's brother-in-law. and some leaders. the front of the "washington post" also has that as the headline, the same thing with

"the wall street journal," talking about the rebel bombings and this is -- i'm telling you, this is some big news. >> this is really big news. >> richard engel and i were talking about this yesterday in new york, and the bottom line is this could be, could be the tipping point. we could look back months from now and say that this was the moment where assad lost the grip on power for a couple reasons. talking to intelligence people, they're not yet persuaded, they're a little more cautious about it, but the white house is leaning this way, that assad now knows they could bomb the national security headquarters in the middle of damascus. they knew there was meeting going on. clearly an inside job and they got the three top defense officials including his brother-in-law, so we don't know whether or not he was at that meeting or in that building, but the bottom line is they got to the heart of the regime and overnight, since then, the rebels seem completely energized and they are going after major targets in the last 24 hours. >> you and i remember, i don't think anybody else around this

table remembers because they were too young -- >> thanks a lot, i think. >> assad's father, obviously, had an uprising from an islamist town and reduced it to rubble. the rest of syria followed meekly behind. assad may have learned the wrong lesson from the father. assad's days in office are numbered. >> i think they are numbered. the president called putin yesterday because the u.n. had to postpone a key vote yesterday because they can't get anywhere with russia's opposition and the president didn't get far with putin, but the message is you're backing the wrong horse. the hope is the people around assad realize that. if he doesn't realize it himself they're going to start abandoning in droves. >> they got a national security building in damascus, three top officials including the syria defense minister and assad's brother-in-law. rebel commanders calling it an inside job.

say those who planted the bomb are still safe. then the call between president obama and vladimir putin say they agreed it has to stop but don't know how. this has been going on weeks and weeks but a stalemate between obama and putin on this. >> as "the new york times" reports even while the suicide attacks are going on, fighting continues to rage in damascus. it's intensifying and right now, assad better figure out where he's going to escape to, because he doesn't have much longer there. >> i think that that's the case, even though he's got heavy weaponry, you know, he's got a real army unlike gadhafi and real air power. but at the same time, people are -- the people around him have to see the handwriting on the wall. the conundrum is russia and the u.n. mandate for the monitors expires on friday and they have to vote to either extend it or do something else. >> what does israel do?

there's been talks about concern assad might use chemical weapons and talks about whether to take them out. what role does israel play in this? two talks they don't touch it. >> they don't touch it because right now israel is completely focused on the other major development yesterday, which was the attack on teenagers. >> yeah. >> a teenage tourist coming from israel to bulgaria to a popular spot, bombed as they were getting off the plane and on the bus and that has led netanyahu to say iran is responsible, he immediately said iran is responsible, the u.s. view is we don't have the evidence yet, we don't have all the signs that point to iran, but we want to see the evidence, don't use this as a pretext to go after iran. the president calling netanyahu and say we'll help you with forensic and intelligence and get these guys, but the last thing that the white house wants to see right now is israel attacking iran. >> isn't mitt romney heading towards the middle east now? this is complicating everything. >> he'll be there next week.

>> wow. >> the end of next week. >> complicating everything. blaming all this on romney? >> no. >> it's a complicated situation -- >> making it worse. >> you know -- >> come on. unbelievable. >> no. that wasn't my intention. in an ideal circumstance he could go to israel and line himself with netanyahu. the israeli government is having its own issues. he's stepping into -- >> you're blaming him for bulgaria as well. >> netanyahu and romney worked together as boston partners in the '70s. they are very close. >> we're talking about offshore accounts. >> at least the first time a discussion, maybe the only time in the campaign, a discussion about foreign policy when romney does his trip overseas. this last week, daniel jones who runs our website had a phrase for like what the campaign theme should be for both candidates, it's the stupidity, stupid. if you watch these ads, if you watch the tone, it's so divorced from everything else that's

happening in the world. >> the thing about world issues they can arise when you least expect them. >> change the entire course of the election. >> like willie's mashed potato slurpee machine. >> singapore is the place. >> which candidate will jump on that one. >> i don't know. >> this remains as you said, the "seinfeld" campaign, the campaign about nothing. the campaign about nothing. >> it's really -- >> that's the good thing the country is in such great shape. >> exactly. >> i look forward to the conversation getting real. we should get to the "chicago tribune" story. are you telling me we don't have time? >> i am but we'll do it in the next block. >> very meekly. >> what's this? oh, wait a second, hold on. oh, it's about mitt romney and offshore money. i watched you guys yesterday. >> yeah. >> if you could make sure to wear the young patches next time to clearly identify yourself around the table that would help all of us watching ap at home.

>> i thought you were on vacation. >> that was the most liberal shows of five years of liberal shows. >> i had a good time. i thought wit a great show. >> i know you did. unbelievable. >> made a lot of good points. >> you did, for -- not even democrats. democrats wouldn't even say what you were saying. >> that's not true. >> barack obama -- >> republicans were saying what i'm saying. >> oh. >> your problem -- >> barack obama says like if you build a business you didn't do that on your own. >> oh come on. and then you're really -- >> everybody around the table -- i'm saying, the young socialist plea. >> don't. it's best you were off. stay that way. >> no. i -- i talked to a lot of people -- >> you don't want to start that fight. it won't go well. >> at fudsrukers. >> at that restaurant, which i will not say, because i'm afraid we'll have to enact a seven-second delay. don't even go there. she's an elitist. >> what is fuddruckers and who would say that word? what is that? >> burgers. >> you talk about it that early

in the morning, bad things happen. coming up next, we've got senate majority whip dick durbin going to be with us, with congressman barney frank, "the washington post" david ignatius will come by as will "the new york times" tom friedman and up next, we've got papers and the politico playbook. first here's the great bill karins with a check on the forecast. how's it going, bill? >> not like yesterday, joe. what a day yesterday was. 104 in baltimore, 104 in newark, and then the thunderstorms rolled in. knocking power out to thousands. they aren't the typical storms we get in new england in the mid-atlantic. they had hail with them and gusty winds, almost like we lived in the central plains for one day. this morning a lot calmer. here's a look at the map and how impressive was that. hartford was 100 down to d.c. today this region is going to be cooler. we will see a chance of showers and storms, but this is more typical summer-like day. 80s and 90s with afternoon storms. and how happy are we for northern indiana, finally some

heavy rainfall, first rainfall for two months for some of these regions, flash flood warnings around fort wayne. we don't want flooding or devastation but we're happy to get rain and even indianapolis will have a chance of rain later today. the heat wave not over, 103 in kansas city. new york city, your heat wave is over with. looking at a nice period of weather coming up over the weekend. your forecast coming up later for the weekend. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ cellphone rings ] the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good.

[ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering.

the global ready one ? yeah, but you won't need... ♪ hajimemashite. hajimemashe. hajimemashite. you guys like football ? thank you so much. i'm stoked. you stoked ? totally. ... and he says, "under the mattress." souse le matelas. ( laughter ) why's the new guy sending me emails from paris ? paris, france ? verizon's 4g lte devices are global-ready. plus, global data for just $25. only from verizon. time to take a look at the morning papers. at 23 past the hour. a "washington post" poll shows 54% of d.c. residents think mayor vincent gray should resign. only 37% said he should stay. it comes amid a federal

investigation into funding for gray's 2010 election campaign. so far three campaign associates have pleaded guilty to felonies. federal prosecutors accused campaign workers of accepting a giant secret infusion of cash. though attorneys have not accused gray of having any knowledge of the scheme. >> so looks like that story is blowing up. and the washington residents want this newly-elected mayor out. >> it's extraordinary there isn't more attention on the alleged corruption and proved corruption in the city. >> yeah. >> mississippi's biloxi sun herald, even though congressional leaders like nancy pelosi and harry reid have criticized mitt romney for mot disclosing more tax returns neither they or hundreds of members of congress will turn over their tax returns either. >> that's a little hypocritical. >> according to the report, 17 out of 535 members of congress released their most recent tax forms or provided similar documentation of the tax

liabilities. >> i think we should know. >> from our parade of papers, "rich month times dispatch" capital one will pay $210 million to settle federal charges that the company tricked customers to buying extras like payment protection and credit monitoring on credit cards. that is, yeah, this is good this has happened. phone sales operators accused of targeting people with poor credit. 2.5 million customers will get payout under the deal. the first settlement of its kind under the consumer financial protection bureau set up a few years ago. thank you, elizabeth warren. >> all the cute commercials with the viking. >> not so cute anymore because seriously, that's exactly the -- >> shout out to richard on that. >> shout out to core dri for following through on this. we need this bureau. thank you, elizabeth. >> a drought will send the price of dairy products up affecting everything from the cost of a

gallon of milk to cost of -- this makes vandehei and you very sad -- cheese. piece of pizza. cows produce less milk in the heat and the cost of feed is going up with the dry conditions. prices could increase as soon as august. and keep going up through christmas. it is a bleak bleak -- >> air conditioner for my cows. >> bleak har vets. >> central air. >> nice and fatty. >> that could affect the price of butter. >> vandehei went to a fudsrukers which he's been educating me about recently, who was there? two people. >> me and my kids after a soccer game, rnc chairman previs and his kids. i don't know what you people eat. >> we're all -- >> never heard of this restaurant before. >> i have now, that's for sure. all right. time for the politico playbook. >> i told you she was an elitist, south of france and all this stuff. nobody believes me. >> out of fudsrukers belie erer

sense. >> he's going to be in philadelphia today -- >> in the mail -- >> let's look at this new quinn pack poll just out on virginiand at poll show shows president obama is deadlocked with mitt romney at 44%. in june, obama led romney 47 to 42%. so these are fresh numbers. >> it goes to sam's point, i think, the idea you can't look at this campaign through the national lens. you have to look at it in the 12 states that matter. virginia, one until this poll looked pretty darn good for president obama. largely because the economy is pretty strong and he spends a lot of time in virginia. the fact that this is tightening up and if you look inside the numbers, basically the bases are locked in, 92% supporting republicans supporting romney, 92% supporting obama, the independents moving a little bit. >> where was the president over the weekend? in virginia. they saw the same numbers. they saw this coming. >> imagine if mitt romney was in more likable figure, more agile

candidate. i feel like he could be putting obama away with the economic numbers. he hasn't been able to connect yet and so he's -- i think he's got more -- >> more money. he's not -- they're not in high gear yet, sam. >> i understand. >> they've made a strategic decision, they're going to wait until after the convention, define him and explode. that's what's shocking about these polls going the wrong direction for barack obama. jirnl jim, the obama team is leaning forward, spending their money, 30-second ads all over the place and they're losing ground at the same time. >> the thing for romney, what does romney give you to like? you don't hear anything from him. there's no specificity, there's no hey, big changes coming to town and change is defined by these five things. >> right. >> it doesn't exist. so until he does that, then that's when we'll decide. what they're saying, that will happen later. >> he has more room to go up is my theory and he's just got to figure out the formula to get there. maybe part of it will be spending money on ads in october

and november. but maybe he's got to figure out another pitch. >> the surprising thing is one ad that's biographical, only one soft and fuzzy fill in the gaps this is who mitt romney is ad. they haven't done more of that. trying to portray him before the -- >> it's hard. he's like a super rich dude who like none of us would relate. >> incredible family and incredible wife. i think there's a lot to work with there. >> a great story, a great family. great father. great experiences in his life. i'm sure we're going to hear an awful lot about it. >> philanthropy. >> if you are sitting in the romney campaign right now, and you just seen that barack obama's not approval but the favoribility numbers are now down to almost one in three americans and just broke even in virginia and you're doing absolutely nothing, and other

side is spending all the money, yeah, this is looking good for us. >> could it be a lot of voters, a portion of voters liked obama because she seemed to be the post-partisan figure from 2008 and as soon as he starts attacking by this they get worn off by this. >> barack obama's numbers exploded after he did the deal with the 2010 wipeout. the obama people don't understand, they don't understand, what matters most is getting a deal with republicans, looking bipartisan, and looking like you're changing the known washington. since everyone things everything that's gone on over the past three years, the republicans fault, everyone thinks that, they could not have anticipated one bit in the culture of washington over the past three and a half years that they have absolutely no responsibility, and they feel absolutely no responsibility because most of the people in the media tell them, you have no responsibility in this. this is all the tea party. on this issue, everybody's been told it's the tea partiers fault. it's the tea partiers fault.

because of that, they don't feel the need to strike the deals, to bend over backwards to yank people in and make the deals. even today, people will say, you can't make a deal with those crazy republicans. jim, that's how these numbers go up. >> i agree. >> to look like the barack obama of 2008, post-partisan, even if you have mitch mcconnell trying to kill you political, john boehner -- >> the system is not on level, that's what the white house says. the system is not on level. of course it's not on level. but you don't go a year without talking to mitch mcconnell. >> it wasn't on the level for bill clinton in 1995 and 1996. i will ar' guarantee republicans loathed clinton more in '95 and '96 than republicans loathe obama now and guess what, welfare reform, balanced budgets. we got a lot of things done even if we didn't like each other. bill clinton knew how to do it in election years with a republican party that wanted to kill him. so when the obama white house just says we can't do anything because the republicans are just

too mean, come on, give me a break. go talk to bill clinton about how he tied us up in circles in '95 to '96. >> they are mean, though. >> they're terrible. >> it's horrible. it's just horrible. >> seriously, who's against -- >> they need to strike deals, pass legislation. >> i'm just wondering. >> if they want their numbers to go up. >> jim vandehei stay with us. willie, what's coming up next. >> guess who's winning the british open right now? >> who? >> tiger wood, six holes, three birdies on top of the leaderboard. >> just what i was wondering. >> also up next, the chicago cubs invite will ferrell and zach galifianakis to throw out the first pitch, but first stopped for a little chicago deep dish on the mound. that clips, sports is next. the medicare debate continues in washington...

...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org.

all right. time for sports. the british open is under way this morning at royal life in saint ann's in england. the latest leader board, tiger woods, maybe you heard of him, 4 under par leading the tournament through seven holes. he has four birdies on the first seven holes. second place, masters champ bubba watson three under through

eight holes. very early. tiger going for this 15th major. hasn't won a major since the u.s. open in 2008. phil mickelson tees off later at 9:43 a.m. eastern time. the fallout over the depar turf jeremy lin from the knicks has escalated thanks to lin's comments he never wanted to leave new york in the first place. he told "sports illustrated" yesterday, quote, honestly i preferred new york. he went to houston as you know. my main goal in free agency was to go to a team that had plans for me and wanted me. i wanted to have fun playing basketball. end quote from jeremy lin. speculation continues as to whether knicks chairman james dolan let lin walk because of financial concerns associated with lin's backloaded contract offer from the rockets, financial concerns he's never had in the history of his tenure in new york or felt lin was being disloyal putting himself on the open market. it's worth noting he had a

signing in jerome james, jared jeffrey, steve franchise, stefan marbury, everybody else. >> i don't understand the knicks guys. the guys are they sniffing glue? here, you've got a young guy that not costing you too much, just like phil jackson deal. they never -- they never even picked up the phone to call phil jackson and make a deal that he couldn't refuse. these new york knicks owners just seem well, clueless would be too nice. >> they haven't won an nba title since '73, haven't been exciting since '94, had a fluke run in '99. they had a moment in new york at madison square garden for a couple moments this year where there was electricity, excitement about the team, selling merchandise, everything going well, and they handed all that away over money which as i said has never been a concern. get to the first two years of his deal were fine, third year

they would eat a lot of money on luxury tax but weigh that against what it would have meant to the franchise, financially, even, it seems to me it would have been a good idea. all the speculation that dolan was insulted lin even went and looked for the deal. he's a free agent on the open market. depressing for the knicks fans. feels like the latest in a long line of gut punches. >> maybe the knicks can get will ferrell to do a tip-off. >> if they could get him at every game it would change him. cubs hosted the marlins at the friendly confines of wrigley yesterday. will ferrell and zach galifianakis there to throw out the first pitch. they orderd a deep dish chicago pizza to the mound. had it delivered to the mound. will ferrell a little outside in the first pitch there. we've heard ferrell do announcing at an nba game this year they asked him and gal fin knack cuss for the cubs. >> batting fifth playing right field, he loves playing banjo

and doing tricks with his pet dog chachi, number 6, brian lahair. >> batting sixth, and playing catcher, in his spare time he's an accountant at a styrofoam cooler company, number 18, giovanni soto. >> batting seventh and playing second base, he likes taking long walks on the beach, completely naked, number 15 darwin barney. >> batting eighth and playing third base, he likes to walk on the beach with darwin, lewis valbuena. >> nude strolls on the beach. they're out promoting this movie "the campaign" which joe and mika, remember we shot that thing about a month ago here? >> yeah. >> for the movie. we made the final cut. >> no way! >> yeah. we've just gotten word yesterday. >> what did we do again?

>> i don't know. >> the three of us are in the will ferrell/galifianakis movie. >> get out. >> that's huge. >> oh. that will be funny. >> that's great. >> we have arrived. that's all that matters. >> very cool. >> all right. >> all right. >> coming up next, does it pay literally to be bipartisan. "the new york times" mark leibovich joins us to talk about his piece on the financial benefits of reaching across the aisles. more "morning joe" in a moment.

down here, folks measure commitment by what's getting done. the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through.

[ man ] "the odyssey," by homer. book one. tell me, o muse... famous town of troy... book three. book 12. poseidon... book 17. book 20. thunderbolts. book 24. the end. [ ryan ] alright, what's next. [ man ] chapter one. call me ishmael. some years ago... [ male announcer ] at&t. the nation's largest 4g network. rethink possible. the nation's largest 4g network. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com.

somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to the pool daddy promised! look at me, i'm swimming! somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. [ male announcer ] we believe small things can make a big difference. like how a little oil from here can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. purina one discovered that by blending enhanced botanical oils into our food, we can help brighten an old dog's mind so he's up to his old tricks. with this kind of thinking going into our food, imagine all the goodness that can come out of it. just one way we're making the world a better place... one pet at a time. vibrant maturity. from purina one smartblend.

we're making cars and shipping them to denmark. it took governor barbour and myself working together. this wasn't a political issue. i have invested hundreds of millions in this company, he is a governor and he wanted jobs and i wanted a great work environment and incentives to make money. >> governor barbour is it true you went along with this mcauliffe deal to get him to stop talking? >> i wasn't successful. >> that was former democratic national committee chairman terry mcauliffe and former republican governor haley barbour on "morning joe" last week about their working together to open a factory in mississippi for his electric car company. willie geist, it's -- he didn't really let haley talk a whole lot and never got to the point that it's fueled actually by tequila. >> yes. >> that's the alternative energy. >> came back from puerto rico with rum after that primary and

pounded it on set. >> we made a bet. >> barnicle always asked a key question, did you do it to get him to shut up. >> when we did that interview we bet, i said if you run for governor you have to come and drink a bottle on the set. that's our bet for -- >> which he did before. >> yeah. >> he was drinking shots at 6:30. >> i will win that bet. you know he will. >> with us now we have mark leibovich with us. his article is for this sunday's "new york times" magazine, dissects the relationship between mcauliffe and barbour explaining how sometimes it pays to be bipartisan. >> and mark writes in part, greentech's story is in part a monument to the power of a politically connected company. gre greentech has raised more than $100 million in capital much of it no doubt derisking from mcauliffe's wide political contacts. this idea if you're in one political party you have to somehow hate the people on the other side as mcauliffe put it to me it's destructive to the

country. the washington middle class, represents a vast and self-perpetuating friendships and expeedent associations that transcend even the fiercest ideological differences. one quaint maximof the political class is there is no such thing as democrats and republicans in washington, only the green party, green as in money, not greentech or anything having to do with clean energy. mark, good to have you. >> great to have you here. that is the reality of washington for the most part. everybody knows everybody. everybody's kids go to school with other kids. i it is -- people not fiercely -- >> including media people. >> absolutely including the media people. if jim were still here, three of us at this table were at the same wedding two weeks ago. we run into each other a lot. what i tried to raise with the story is that it goes deeper, to financial dealings in many cases, you see democrats and republicans on tv yelling at each other, sometimes you see them yelling at each other on

the congressional floor, and then all of a sudden everyone is good friends in the green room, do business deals together, sometimes they go on a paid lecture circuit where they yell at each other, do a dog and pony show, and then all of a sudden -- >> and then the best of friends. it's showbiz. >> in a lot of ways there is a winking -- partisanship is real, the beliefs that underpin this are real but there is a winking performance art to a lot of this that i think is part of one thing that enriches so many people here and also something that makes voters and people outside of washington cynical about what the motives are about people who come here. >> when you talk about enriching people in washington, d.c., we've read stories in "the times" and "time" magazine had a piece a few weeks back talking about how much wealth has accumulated in this area over the past decade. this is not the washington of the 1990s i knew when serving

here. >> not even close. as the rest of the economy has gone completely south in the last five years, the local economy is barely hiccupped. you have a boom in political consulting, in lobbying, in corporate interests, in washington. look, no one leaves. i mean very, very few people leave. haley barbour is a rare example of someone who went home, he was elected governor, now back here running his lobbying firm. haley in some ways never left. so yeah, i mean it's -- we are all connected in many ways and i think it would be a lot easier for me as a reporter to write about this as a foreign correspondent, someone who could swoop in and out -- >> didn't go to all the weddings. >> and didn't see -- it's a fair point. look, this who is i am, this is the life i've chosen and this is a profession i've chosen, but at the same time you need a critic critical distance to some degree to realize a lot from the outside see this as a racket and some ways there are less than

pure motives behind it. >> andrea? >> let me say, full disclosure i'm mentioned in the piece as a card carrying member. the fact is i think you're right, these relationships exist and to a certain extent, you know, you see through this facade. a lot of people would argue there should be more connections among people as there used to be, sam nun and dick lugar working on nonproliferation, stuff like that. the lobbying and the -- that nexus, my only objection if i may be blunt and you and i know each other and all that. >> yeah. >> i think you took a sort of snarky -- made snarky references to someone who was a pioneer in her profession, maria bartiromo for knowing all these people and when she first went out on the trading floor no woman had ever done that and i don't think you and maybe your readers realize

how tough that was. >> the nickname they give her. having said that the access that media people have, sam, andrea, you, joe and me, when we come to washington and go to the parties and, you know, interact with people, it's complicated. it's not as easy as being able to chopper in or it's not as easy as being -- >> we're way to close to it. >> how well by the way do you have access to the nuances. you've just got to have, quite frankly, the bravery to report on it. >> as a grizzly veteran -- >> talk about his work. you have to do this. >> there were some stories when i just started doing political reporting i pursued because i didn't know these people as friends and able to pursue them because i didn't feel an emotional attachment to the subjects i was covering. i'm nervous about feeling this way as i keep getting to know these people my incompli nags to pursue stories has softened. that's a problem that a lot of people in journalism has, strictly by being in washington, d.c. a very -- d.c. is a smaller city to begin with, but there's

quarters of the city and a lot of the people live in one quarter of the city and they all go to the same restaurants and know the same people and same parties and that's what ends up happening you start to take off the gloves a little bit because you know these people and have to fight against that -- >> that's one of the things that i never get with politicians. like the bush white house, they got mad at me because i started staying things about them in 2005 and completely turned me off and kept attacking me and whenever they would see me they would huff and puff. this is making my job easier. >> yeah. >> i can tell the truth about everything you do and you guys don't talk to me, then i don't get your side of the story. if you won't return my phone calls, and if you want a little war that's fine. it doesn't hurt me. it hurts you. you're right. you talk, you engage as a politician and you work it and that's how you soften the news stories. >> i think we have to check ourselves every time. we have to think about it. for example, this year, and last year, we chose not to go to the white house correspondents

dinner, the congressional dinner -- the last one that was just really over the top. >> i was -- i was drunk and passed out in the office. and that was part of the reason why. you had noble -- >> no, we both did. >> [ inaudible ]. >> seriously, it is. >> it feeds into what we're talking about. >> the white house correspondents dinner is a perfect example of this. it is so over the top. >> i would agree. i would also say, i mean, i work for a news organization that's not allowed to go to the correspondents dinner. aren't we high and mighty. the party is where you can get a lot of work done. >> you can get a lot of work done. you see these people and it does help you do your job. you need the critical -- >> there's also free booze. >> you need that party to get your job done? >> yeah. >> get drunk at the party. >> he had a lamp shaped on his head. >> that needs to be rethought the correspondents dinner. >> that's terrible. >> by the way, we're in a recession. hello. it's bad on a number of levels.

>> thank you so much, mark stein. >> thank you so much. you can read mark's latest piece in "new york times" sunday magazine. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." [ male announcer ] if you want play in the same sandbox as luxury s.u.v.s, it helps to have an interior full of hand-selected wood trim and soft premium leather... and it doesn't hurt to have a selec-terrain dial that truly performs. ♪ i wish my patients could see what i see.

♪ that over time, having high cholesterol plus diabetes... or family history of early heart disease... can put them at increased risk for plaque buildup. and they'd see that it's more important to get their cholesterol where their doctor wants. and why for these patients, when diet and exercise alone aren't enough, i prescribe crestor. adding crestor lowers bad cholesterol by up to 52%. and is also proven to slow plaque buildup. [ female announcer ] crestor is not right for everyone. like people with liver disease... or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. is your cholesterol where your doctor wants? ask your doctor if crestor is right for you. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, welcome to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh?

as the hotel experts, finding you the perfect place is all we do. this summer, save up to 30%, plus get up to $100 on us. welcome to hotels.com. [romney singing]: oh beautiful, for spacious skies, i'm barack obama and i approve this message. for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain, america, america, god shed his grace on thee, and crowned thy good, with brotherhood...

so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, nobody keeps you on the road like progressive commercial auto. [ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. up next "the new york times" thomas friedman and "washington post" david ignatius. we're back in just a moment. t d.

every bite goes above and beyond the call of deliciousness. that's a big 10-4 kosher. with no fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog. to your kids' wet skin. neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®.

i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.

the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. magazine. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering.

welcome back to "morning joe." we're here in the nbc news washington bureau. look at the sun over the potomac here in washington. andrea mitchell is still with us and joining the table columnist for "the new york times" thomas friedman and columnist for "the washington post" david ignatius. perfect panel to have for our top story this morning. new clashes erupted overnight in syria following a brazen bomb attack that infiltrated president bashar al assad's inner circle and struck at the

heart of his regime. the explosion happened yesterday inside the national security building in damascus killing three top officials including syria defense minister and as d assad's brother-in-law. the syrian government won't say whether assad was also in the room during the attack. rebel commanders describe it as an inside job. meanwhile, president obama and russian president vladimir putin spoke over the phone after the bombing and agreed on the need to stop the violence, but apparently disagreed on how to move forward. >> tom friedman, for assad this is not your father's opposition. they're not going to let you level their town and then meekly go away. looks like the opposition is there to stay and assad won't say his days are numbered but it's hard to see how he gets out of this. >> one of the ways i would like to look at this story, i'm just a -- to study iraq. we don't have to talk about iraq for obvious reasons but such

it's the mirror twin in many ways. one of the big lessons i take away from iraq, one you have one of these days, tribes with flags, they all root for the same soccer team but that's about it, held together by an iron fist, minority regime, sunni minority regime in iraq, there's two ways to make a stable transition. one is you -- if you have a midwife and the other is if you have a mandela. you have a local leader to pull ought these forces together or you have an external power in the case of iraq the united states of america, that basically holds the country together while it goes through this transition. syria we have neither a mandell or a midwife. at least right now. it's hard to see how this ends in a stable way. >> david ignatius, t"new york

times" shows the militants that were killed. what's the significance of yesterday's attack? >> right in the heart of damascus, in a neighborhood that tom and i know, where these leaders were meeting, to plot the next stage to try to destroy this opposition movement, a bomb was placed, devastating force, it killed the defense minister, named raja who was probably the most prominent christian in the regime and it kilz the brother-in-law of assad, married to his sister, stormy marriage, said the family hated the marriage so much they shot him. this was a tough family. >> there you go. >> think about the assad threat, which corley yoen am i talking about. so the opposition managed to get into their sanctuary and kill two of them. and so the symbolism for a country that just hanging on the edge and a lot of this is a question of belief, you know, as

tom said, these -- countries that hold together well, but the emotions people will be feeling today that this regime is vulnerable, that it's really hanging now by a thread, only by russia's support it's very powerful and syria and throughout the region. russia is in danger of making a generation of enemies. much as you could argue the united states did in iraq by its behavior. i also like it think -- say one more thing. suppose the u.s. had kept on backing mubarak in egypt. we would be in a position with the russians in syria trying to hang on to an unpopular dictator. >> andrea mitchell, barack obama yesterday called putin. did not go too well. >> he was fly fishing without his shirt and knotting sides. >> may be making a generational mistake. >> u.n. had to postpone a vote

because she could not figure out how to water down the resolution enough to get putin on board and not losing the united states and everybody else. to you guys, david, and tom, is this the beginning of the end? do they look at the situation and say if the rebels could hit the heart of damascus, we better change sides or do they dig in and say let's go down with the ship? we've got to escalate. the rebels in the last 24 hours are empowered and emboldened by this. >> if history is any guide they will dig in and retreat to their traditional homeland area, in the mountains and coastal region. it just -- andrea, one is struck by the contrast between the u.n., we're calling for u.n. resolution, waiting for this, and the wild earth. >> totally, a waste of time. >> the passions on the earth are losing and i go back to iraq. i'm not advocating this.

i'm telling it, you want to affect the situation on the ground there you have to be there. okay. with tens of thousands of troops. and even when we were there in iraq, what happened? it's instructive to study this. we replaced the minority jeem sunnis in iraq with shiites, a majority regime. that triggered a violent civil war, where each side tested the other, what you got, baby, let's see that. it burned -- eventually burned itself out. there was ethnic cleansing so the country then redivided itself to some degree, and then we came in with a constitution and new social contract that has bought us a one in ten chance of some kind of decent outcome there. that took eight years, took thousands of lives, american and the iraqi, it took a trillion dollars. that's what it takes to take a

tribes with flags state and turn it into a chance for some kind of decent democracy. >> that's not something we're in a position to do. >> no. >> and -- >> the u.s. has learned a lesson from iraq. i'm a little less convinced than tom that these are complete nonstates, tribes with flags. what i'm struck by over the last decade the way the states have held together, despite enormous stresses. you still got iraq and still have a lebanon and syria. what our forces, in particular what our cia officers are doing right now, is to try to figure out the order of battle. who are these people? how strong is al qaeda in iraq in the syrian fighting? that's really been their most important job the last few weeks, is to get to know these people, get to understand their connections with each other. they could be dangerous. if they're the ones doing the fighting and getting the credit they're going to get stronger

and stronger. we're told that our officers have found the are some hundreds of al qaeda in iraq and related forces fighting in syria. and it's in the next period, we have asked our friends in the opposition, not these people, to go after al qaeda and they said, only after assad is gone. so, you know, it's that -- it's a dangerous situation with our worst enemies, al qaeda, as part of the story. >> mika, from foreign policy to domestic politics and the splitsing new poll out. >> we've got a "new york times"/cbs general election poll that has new numbers on president obama's job performance in the white house. 44% now approve of president obama's overall job in office. 46% disapprove. and president obama's favoribility is now at 36%. 48% view him as unfavorable. >> we were talking, tom, last

week to james carville, and been talking for some time about the problems with this campaign. the campaign about nothing. whether it's mitt romney's campaign or whether it's barack obama's campaign, everybody is looking back, everybody is talking about what mitt romney did in 1999 and 2000 and what's happened over the past four years. nobody seems to be looking forward. and the president's favoribility rating at 36%, that's -- one in three americans. congress's approval rating at an all-time low, mitt romney's favoribility rating at 33%. it looks like voters are telling everybody, we just don't like you. >> these numbers, joe, are telling us that basically this kind of campaign that obama has been running against romney is not working. that is what you -- >> no doubt about it. >> you know, i'm not surprised. and basically i felt from the very beginning that what voters want are basically three things from the next president -- one

is they want a plan, to fix the economy at the scale of the problem. please don't tell me obama, you know, or romney -- it's on their website this plan. >> it's just not. >> it's not. so they want a plan at the scale of the problem. which has got to be some short-term stimulus seems to me and simpson-bowles in some combination. number two, they want to be fair. they want to know the rich will pay, wealthy will pay more. they've had a great two decades. everyone will pay something. they want a plan that's fair. a plan that's aspirational. isn't about just balancing the budget. a plan about making america great again, reviving, renewing and refreshing this country. i've felt from the beginning the candidate that offers that combination is the candidate who can win or will deserve to win and might actually have a mandate to govern not just to win by 50.1% of the vote. the campaign they're both running, two guys with a billion dollars, got to tear each other apart. on the morning after at he lex we need more national unity to

deal with this fiscal problem than we needed on december 8th, 1941, basically, after pearl harbor given the level of compromise that's going to be required. and so, you know, one can only fear for the country if this kind of campaign continues. >> just give you a sense of the scope of the challenge, t"the nw york times" about foreclosures for people over 50 years old, it's a rapidly expanding demographic. older americans who have lost their homes to the great recession, 1.5 million americans over the age of 50 who lost their homes to foreclosures between 2007 and 2011, the highest foreclosure rate was for homeowners over 75 and this isn't foreclosures due to subprime loans. rather than subprime loans. this is looking at the information from the federal reserve bank of new york. these older americans are losing their homes because of pension cuts, rising medical costs, shrinking stock portfolios, and falling property values and look at this from a number of levels

including the aarp. >> when you talk about the scale of the problem that tom brought up at first, the thing you have to understand, guys like me that have been obsessed with the national debt. since i came to washington in 1994. we'll talk debt, debt, debt. then on the other side you have others talking about the need to revive the economy, to grow the economy. >> how do you fix this? >> the problem is we have to two things going at the same time we have to fix. we've had median wages declining since 1973. since 1973. this is a part of a 35-year slide. and it continues to collapse as factories become more productive. we don't lose jobs to china and india so much as we lose jobs to our own productivity. that's a realty of it happening at the same time we're strapped with massive debt. you're right, if we're going to turn this around and david let me bring it to you, we need a political system that's agile enough that allows us to take care of the long-term debt, to make the tough choices on

medicare, make the tough choices on social security, make the tough choices on national defense spending. and at the same time, revive the economy. do what ike did in the 1950s, invest in science, invest in math, engineering after sputnik and build roads. >> it's a daunting challenge. a lot of people hope barack obama can be the kind of president that would bring the country together. it's been a disappointment i think for everybody, republicans even as well as democrats, that he hasn't. the truth is that a growing economy has a way of dealing with these problems, that poor family losing its house, you know, more money coming in the neighborhood and they're getting a little bit of it. one of the most encouraging statistics i'm seeing now, joe, is about the way in which manufacturing businesses are relocating in the united states because we're going to have lower energy costs, productivity is high, political risk relative

to a crazy china is less and if that begins to happen and accelerate and a lot of economists tell you that's really a key trend now, this picture will look a little -- it's going to take a while but will look better in five -- >> but the bigger problem right now, we have a washington, a political class in washington, d.c., that just doesn't seem up to the task of taking on these issues to scale. >> and you have people who are speaking in slogans and demonizing foreign companies or foreign investment which any farm family can tell you is part of the normal cycle of export and import. for us to grow our own country. and nobody is talking about or the people who are elected and running for office are not talking about the very problems that you just cited of medicare and medicaid and how to deal with the housing industry is beginning to sputter back but still hasn't moved enough. we now are in this window of low

interest rates how long will that last, nobody knows. and we have real hope on the energy front which david you were just referring to. but still, that involves dislocation. when you have, you know, low wage or nonunion states where, you know, factories are moving, people are not always able to move with the jobs and the jobs, there are fewer jobs because of productivity. so we have to figure out a way to reengineer ourselves and the leadership is lacking. >> tom for years, people have been asking if i believe there was going to be [ inaudible ] a president, i always said no, i have' started saying yes in the last two to three years and yet americans elect and other efforts to bridge the partisan divide failed miserably this year. >> i fought that battle and still have scars to show for it because i really felt that the campaign would be elevated. i think one of the things that happened and this isn't the only thing is that the public space is so toxic, that the kind of person you would want to run as

an independent candidate looked at it and said, i just don't want to be out there. i'm sure there are other things as well. but to pick up with your point, you know, outsourcing i wrote a book about this back in 2004, outsourcing is so '90s. you have to understand what's really going on in the business world. there is no out anymore and no in. okay. if you're a business leader today, multinational, there's just a world. and you have a project and you look for the best team to build, design and imagine that product wherever it is in the world. by the way f you don't do that, andrea will. that's the world we live in now. so it seems to me that the kind of president we should want is one who says look, you know, i want america to be to the world what cape canaveral was to america in the 1960s. what was cape canaveral, the place we launched, our launching pad for one national moon shot. we're not going to have one big

national moon shot. we want america to be the place where everyone in the world wants to come to launch their moon shot. to start something. the days when ford is -- >> they get educated here and leave. >> we have the best education, best rules, best infrastructure. >> that's what i mean. >> the days when ford motor is going to come to your town with a factory of 25,000 people is over. that factory is now 3,000 or 5,000 people. the old, the joke that today's factory is just a man and the dog. the man there to feed the dog and the dog there to keep the man away from the machines. that's what's going on out there in the general direction. we need everybody starting something. the vast majority of new jobs come from start-ups and we need now 2,000 people starting for 5 people, 1,000 starting jobs for 20 people. we're not going to stimulate or tax cut out of this. there's only one thing we can do, invent our way out of this. unless we have a politics making that easier and enhancing everyone's ability to do that, to be educated to do that, we're

in trouble. >> david, i -- you talk about the moon shot and cape canaveral, i love how things built -- i brought up ike before after sputnik, decides in 1957 he's going to invest in science, going to invest in creating a new generation of mathematicians, of engineers. john kennedy decides in the early '60s we're going to go to the moon by the end of the '60s and so in houston, when armstrong walks on the moon in july of 1969, the average age of the engineer in there, what, i think 28 years old. and as joe biden said, when we were talking about this, biden said, go back and look at jfk's speech on going to the moon. there was nothing in it about the benefits of going to the moon. >> it was just pure national audacity. >> right. >> it was a challenge, you know, really to our adversaries the

soviets and we were going to get there first and the way in which the country responded and how quickly, how quickly government was a thing that we think can't do anything, mobilized this effort. you know, we still have incredibly invented people. tom and i were last week at a conference where we heard some of the smartest business people talk about, you know, the things they're doing, the products they're creating at the end of this conference, warren buffett, who tom, i always listen to, said in history, you've always, always gone wrong if you bet against america. none of us can say how that bet is going to work out to be the right one this time and sometimes it doesn't look right, you think there's so many problems, but i -- history does tell us that's always been -- >> guys, in our lifetime, we can go back, little before my time, but i was playing t-ball, 1968, it looked like america was coming apart at the seams and everybody was writing about it.

'74/ '75 after opec and wat watergate and vietnam, the downfall of america, in '79. my teachers were telling me '75, the roman empire, four years later in '79, the iranian hostage crisis. >> and then '89, really quickly, it was the japanese that were going to turn us into -- we were going to be japan's gainery. this is always nonsense. ask the chinese students themselves what they sdis like about their education the most. it's that their teachers can't teach them to think like us. >> and they can't -- >> think about the audacity of the moon shot. he was talking about a project that would have outlived his presidency if he lived to see it through. it was so big he rallied the country bigger than my two years, my four years, eight years. one thing about japan, that is different today, japan threatened two american industries and one american town. town was detroit and the

industries consumer electronics and cars. globalization, challenges every american town and every american industry. so it requires a broader comprehensive response about infrastructure, education, government funded research, the right rules for investing. those are the great public side of our public/private partnership. >> right. >> if you don't think there's uncertainty out there, talk to anyone who has money to invest, they look at what's going on in washington, and yes, if they see an opportunity here or wherever, if somebody comes along with the next ipad they'll do it, but there's a lot of people sitting on the sidelines today looking at this and saying, you know, holy mackerel. >> all right. david ignatius, by the way, thank you very much for being on with us. tom friedman, you're sticking around. >> about your dad -- you were nice, weren't you? >> i wrote an essay about mika's dad all about his views on the middle east and how he had most

things right 30 years ago, still does. >> thank you very much. >> he would -- he was very intelligently written, david. coming up -- >> not stunningly super. >> can military spending cuts be made without threatening national security? >> let me answer that, yes. >> reaching across the aisles to find a way. democratic congressman barney frank and republican congressman mike mulvaney join us next on "morning joe." daddy, come in the water!

somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to the pool daddy promised! look at me, i'm swimming! somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone.

free streaming quotes, all your investments, positions, and even your trade ticket are all on one customizable page. see the 360 investing dashboard at e-trade.

in short, sequestration constitutes blunt force trauma. it's likely to tear the fabric of our industry, adversely affect our national security and impair our domestic agencies. sequestration has been described many times to me as a doom's day

device, as a threat that was designed never to happen. but the effects of sequestration are being felt right now throughout our industry. respectfully i urge you to take action to stop the sequestration process and ask that you do so soon. >> all right. this friday the house is scheduled to vote on the 2013 defense appropriations bill and defense industry executives like lockheed martin's ceo bob stevens are urging capitol hill to about come up with a plan to avoid $500 million in automatic defense cuts. according to a report by the aerospace industry's association those cuts could result in the loss of up to 2 million jobs. joining us now, democratic representative from mas chet congressman barney frank and republican representative from south carolina congressman mick mulvaney. they are offering a bipartisan solution with an amendment to the defense appropriations bill. good morning, thanks for being here.

>> good morning. >> last segment tom and i were talking about taking care of long-term debt, challenges of medicare, medicaid, social security provide, but defense spending. the united states spends more on national defense than, what, the next 16, 17 countries behind it. and yet, you try to cut defense and we hear -- sounds like it's 1964 all over again. >> right. when you talk about those countries behind us, china obviously is potentially hostile power, most of the next highest spending countries are friends of ours. we don't really have to outspend to offset britain and germany although in fairness they don't spend nearly as they might since they can count on us to pick up their tab. >> isn't that what's been happening since 1945, a lot of western powers, we're carrying them on our shoulders. >> harry truman, great man, 1949, poor and weak and world war ii devastated nations of western and central europe, vicious aggressive joe stalin, we step in. now that was 65 years ago. there's no more stalin, the

countries of western europe and central europe are now wealthy, the only thing that hasn't changed is we're still there protecting them from nonthreat. the answer is what congressman mulvaney and i are doing we don't like sequestration, that's a mindless way do it, but that does not mean you don't cut intelligently. the other thing i have to note from what you quoted about the loss of jobs, and i am interested in some of my conservative friends arguing for a long time that government spending destroys jobs, cannot create jobs, kaine was wrong, when weapons are concerned become the most militant canesy yans, government spending all of a sudden, not when it's highways or teachers, i think there's an inconsistency here and that's why i'm glad that mick mulvaney and are working together to put everything on the table. >> what do you put on the table and how do we move forward? again, understanding we have to balance our national security

concerns with our greatest national security challenge and that is this growing debt. >> what we put on the table this year was a freeze. last year, i did a freeze by myself, got i think 75 republicans, 65 dems. barney a little later put up almost the exact same amendment got more democrats than republicans and we looked at each other and said this was almost the same amendment, a lot of same people didn't vote for both of them, they should have, so why don't we try to get together and offer this amendment together. >> you're conscious of this, obviously as well, joe lived through it, my amendment got more democrats and fewer republicans, mick's got more republicans and fewer democrats. when anybody logically should have voted either for or against both of them. we decided let's go together. i did say given the atmosphere today we're in the minority, mick and i talked about it, you know, whose name went first because that name goes on the board and i deferred because i think it's probably easier in the current climate it's easier for me to get my people to vote

with mick than mic to get his people to vote with me. >> i think you may be right. >> so mick, explain the republican party to americans that want to understand it. the 1990s. >> help he understand. >> 1990s we were doing what colin powell said, that is we take people into combat, as a last possible option and when we go, we win with overwhelming force and then we come home. he had a general's view like ike in his farewell speech warned about a growing military industrial complex. we were weary about big government abroad and home in the 1990s, a lot of republicans and guy, a senator from your state, lindsey graham, that seems to want to see more military spending. talk about the divide in the party. >> explain the republican party in two minutes or less? >> 45 seconds. >> o god. >> go. >> what we -- >> i think the fairest thing to say it's not monolithic. there are -- is a a growing

group of us within the party that says look, we don't think that maybe what's happening in afghanistan is right. we think maybe it is time to look at coming home. there was a couple of resolutions that almost passed or did pass over the course of the last couple years, earlier this year, a resolution passed to look at closing some of the overseas bases with republican support. there is a growing group of us who recognize the fact that there's a war warness. one othe things ron paul tapped into on his campaign. and another group that look and say how can we possibly have a credible discussion about the importance of the debt and the deficit and not include defense. how do you sit there and say, we need to cut the fbi by 20%, cut the department of education by x percent but want to plus up the defense budget. it undermines the severity -- >> want to plus up the defense budget and also want to continue f you listen, the foreign policy where the united states is engaged as george w. bush said in 2005, in the second inaugural address, all four corners of the

globe, quote, to end tyranny. it's just not going to happen and we're going to bankrupt ourself, tom friedman, trying. >> couple things. one, i personally believe and felt we have four choices in afghanistan. lose early, lose late, lose big or lose small. i would like to lose early and small and -- because there's no win that's going to happen there, number one number two, we're going from an era where for 50 years this is an exaggeration, but generally speaking to be a president, college president, mayor or governor was unbalanced to give things away to people. entering an era to be a president, college president, mayor governor is going to be take things away from people. as the congressman says, you can grow without a plan, but you better not cut without a plan. if i want to lose weight i can lose weight quickly cutting off both thumbs. might have a little trouble getting my next computing job. how we cut now, i think is one of the most important things we do. i was talking to some chinese

diplomats and saying what is this from obama's foreign policy going from the middle east and shifting to china and asia. you don't understand. your problem is not that we're taking the marines from the middle east to china or to asia, it's we're going to take them from the middle east to san diego. it's going to be your job okay to now police, you know, a lot of these oil lanes and what not because you're the ones that need it. >> barney, you talk about harry truman, this is in effect what we have right now. we have a foreign policy and truman did extraordinary things from '47 to '52, as far as foreign policy goes, but our military structure is based on what happened what was set up in 1947. >> two things. first of all, if you go back to nato, be great historic achievement and should still have cooperation in europe but we haven't changed the structure. if you project back in time from nato, as much as we are before it, you're in the first administration of grover cleveland. i think very few things that

were set up under the cleveland administration, first cleveland administration, really sustain themselves. i think there's one reason why many of us who have been challenging this military work so well with some of the conservatives who want to rethink things there's an overreach what is possible for the american society to do, particularly overseas. we have a superb military. wonderful young people, well equipped as we have to do if we're going to send them into danger and good at what a military can do. stopping bad things from happening. but they're not supposed to make good things happen. the best armed and trained 30-year-old americans can't bring democracy to iraq or reconcile the shia and sunni. >> you sound like a conservative from the 1990s. that's exactly -- they can go over there and you're exactly right. >> you can try to help where people are ready to helps themselves try to help, do some economic development, and the other thing is the overreach i read in "the new york times" how is hillary clinton going to bring the muslim brotherhood and marshall together? >> she's not.

>> one, it's not our responsibility. i don't want them to violate the treaty with israel. we need to put pressure on that. for us to try to resolve that internally all we do is make people angry when we try and waste our money. >> congressman mick, this growing group that is questioning afghanistan and bases, are you still allowed to be in the republican party and i'm serious? i'm not joking. how is that working? i don't hear those voices loudly. i hear them certainly behind the scenes. >> sure. it's possibly part of the republican party to have that conversation. we're going to fight just like any group does. i don't think the democrats are wholly united on their position, for example, to sequestration. you heard barney say he's against it. it hollows out the military. on those areas we might be united within the party. we will have debates within the party from time to time. i will say that sort of the powers that be are challenging this particular amendment, sake that look you're cutting too much when you're not. we haven't cut spending. se quest will be the first time

if it happens we cut spending. all we're trying to do is freeze and slow future growth. >> here's the problem. high-ranking military guy told a friend of mine, tell frank he's right. you talked about '47 we would still have the triad to defeat the soviet union in the thermal nuclear war. we build up for a military threat and once that threat has diminished or maybe been defeated it doesn't go away. it's like a geological thing, layers and layers of very expensive ways to meet a threat that made sense at one time and you never cut them out as you just add them. >> congressman barney frank, congressman mick mulvaney, thank you very much. >> thank you, guys. >> still ahead. >> good luck and congratulations. >> thank you. >> dick durbin the looming fiscal cliff and his party's plan for the expiring tax cuts. keep it here on "morning joe."

according to ford, the works fuel saver package could literally pay for itself. jim twitchel is this true? yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate. only at your ford dealer. so, to sum up, you take care of that, you take care of these, you save a bunch of this. that works. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists.

that's chilly. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on.

i want to thank the national journal, national judicial as well as market carlson for having me and valerie jarrett, we did an event, women's event, on women in the economy and

looking and exploring ways women can step up. it was a fantastic event thanks so much for having me. thomas friedman, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. still ahead, what did president abraham lincoln survived his assassination attempt at ford theater. author and yale professor stephen carter rewrites the history books and joins us with his novel. an exclusive first look at this week's "time" magazine. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really.

i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering.

welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now "time" magazine's international editor jim frederick here to reveal the latest issue of "time" magazine. we don't just have one cover to reveal this time. tell us what you got. >> this is our special double

issue for the olympics previews and domestically we have three covers, i think they're all, you know, really beautiful photographs and worldwide we have five covers total. >> beautiful photographs. we'll let you talk about the first one, gabby douglas, we're talking about the age of some of these athletes, 16 years old and expected to do big things in gymnastics. >> that's right. known as the flying squirrel. yeah. she's lived away from home, lived with her coach or actually associates of her coach for the past year and a half. went from being the little sister in her home to being the big sister, so big things are expected from her. pretty excited. >> got a lot of pressure on her. chris jansen will have a piece about gabby on "rock center" check that out. another beautiful photograph loo has a great back story. >> lolo jones is a fascinating

story. in 2008 she fell on the last hurdle, she was supposed to hit the gold and now she's been living inside her head for the past four years. >> that's the thing. we were talking about that the psychology, she builds her whole life, whole career, to ten seconds. >> i know. >> hits a hurdle or comes in second, her whole life's work is deemed a failure. >> i think the story is great because it gets at the psychology of high pressure sports. it's really an amazing thing. >> ryan lochte, all the talk of the swimming world, it's been michael phelps but he's a legitimate challenger to phelps. >> absolutely. fascinating thing about that story is that michael phelps and ryan lochte are really great, they're adversaries and friends. they're not best friends but phelps has made lochte better over the year to the point where lochte is an a credible challenger in many of the events that they compete in. >> as you say in the magazine, you know, hard to miss him. he's been shirtless on the cover of "vogue," doing ralph lauren,

a guy putting himself out there. >> he's a handsome guy too. he's very charismatic. wei yeah, we tried to hit the stars of the show. lolo jones, been much remarked upon she's a very attractive woman, which accounts for a lot of her popularity. not just her back story, but yeah, lochte also is a fantastic, fantastic athlete. >> and then the dream team, which has all that pressure on it because the world is kind of caught up, london how are they feeling about the games? we'll be over there. we always hear about some grousing, which is traditional this time. >> londoners love to complain, so there's a lot of grumbling about the transportation. there have been some screwups when it comes to security. security apparatus. they have to call in the military because the primary security vendor they contracted isn't going to be ready in time. there's discussion about, obviously, the weather. as katherine mayer, our london

bureau chief in london put it, london is as ready as it's ever going to be. it's going to be fine. >> and the opening ceremony is a week from tomorrow, july 27th. >> right. >> jim, thanks so much for bringing these in again. beautiful photographs and a great way to get ready for the olymp olympics. new cover of "time" magazine, special preview of the olympics, pick it up now. coming up the romney five. peter alexander sits down with the five young men who could become america's first sons. he'll tell us about them when we come back. [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪

ha ha! ♪ this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt.

last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. the last time i went to the gas station must have been about three months ago. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. ♪ not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy,

the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.

back in here on new york city on a quick break from the campaign trail, our good friend peter alexander with a look at the five men who could become the first sons. good morning. >> half a dozen beers now and make it happen next time in town. this is a rare opportunity to visit with all five of the guys. you have seen them. they look pretty similar except for the one who's blond, mind you. they're smart, disciplined. this is their first sit down

television news interview of the campaign. and if their dad wins, they'll be america's first sons. mitt romney's five sons range in age from 31 to 42. craig's the youngest and then ben, josh, matt and the oldest is tag. their homes are scattered across the country but when they get together, they clearly have fun. the mama's boy in the group? >> josh. >> thanks, guys. good to hear. >> reporter: for a candidate who's been called aloof, even awkward -- >> you know, the trees are the right height. >> reporter: -- the romney boys highlight the human side. >> he's a little goofy and part of the charm, i think. >> reporter: we were with him recently. >> i'd lost it. i was completely gafined. >> reporter: he was with you saying i love them like they're my own sons and they are. >> it's the same corny jokes we

grew up with. it's part of his personality. >> reporter: they share stories of their father's love for their mom, ann diagnosed with multiple sclerosis before their dad was recruited to run the winter olympics. >> my dad had an opportunity to nominate one person to run a leg of the torch and chose my mom who had been battling with ms and she was able to actually take the torch abe run the quarter mile or so. it was just a really neat bonding moment for us and a really neat experience to see her participate in something so meaningful to all of us. >> reporter: the brothers are all married with families of their own. mitt romney now has 18 grandchildren. if he wins, he'll have more grand kids than any sitting president in u.s. history. the newest arrivals? tag's twin boys, conceived in sur ro ga sy. the twins were born recently.

>> six weeks old. >> reporter: con garage ligss. >> thank you. >> reporter: they were born by surrogate. you tweeted about it. walk us through that choice. >> we tried for a long time to have another child and weren't able to do it. we found someone to do it for us. she became very close to the family an she offered to do it and we took her up on it. >> reporter: did you consult your parents about it? >> not really. a personal choice between my wife and me. and something that we felt good about and, you know, we wanted to add to the family and decided to do it. >> to be very clear, these guys are out there on behalf of their dad. surrogates for their dad. one thing that's interesting is four of them didn't want their dad to run again. matt said, you gave your best shot in 2008. we're good with it. now they're all on board. >> they're out front and going on a world tour, olympics, i understand. where else? >> playing london. going to easy real and then

europe, i believe, as well. >> good luck. come back and see us soon. peter's full interview on "rock center." we'll see you. still ahead, a daring rewrite of history. what if lincoln had survived the assassination attempt? that's the idea behind a new book. now you can apply sunblock

to your kids' wet skin. neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported.

signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbaa.lt dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer.

go to cymbalta.com according to ford, the works fuel saver package could literally pay for itself. jim twitchel is this true? yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate. only at your ford dealer. so, to sum up, you take care of that, you take care of these, you save a bunch of this. that works.

good morning. 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. time to wake up, everybody. as you take a live look at washington, d.c. back with us on set we have sam stein, andrea mitchell and jim van dehy with willie geist in new york. >> today we are as usual a cornucopia of news. we take people across the globe. talking obviously about a shocking new "the new york times"/cbs poll that everybody's focused on. >> yes. >> we are taking americans of the millions and millions of americans watching this show and listen on armed forces radio, the news of bulgaria. big news of syria. willie, we are looking at a story, the further decline of the united states of america. it started as dr. sax said in 1973. average wages decaylee anthonying and leads us down the

long and winding road to grim, grim news coming out of the far east this morning. take it. >> the sun continues to set on the american empire. here it is again. singapore, dateline singapore. 7/eleven and not the 7/lynnes in america. you have heard of the slurpee machine? in singapore they have the mashed potato and gravy machine. mixing water with a powder. pours on gravy to take with you on the go. >> okay. coming soon to singapore, obesity. >> seriously. where were we? >> here's the story i was looking at. >> john kennedy wrote -- >> i could so see you eating that. >> sad day. >> front page of "usa today" and melissa meyer, she is the talk of the town. we were talking about it

yesterday because she's pregnant and she is going to be the ceo and she says i'd alike to stay in the rhythm of things. my leave will be a few weeks long and i'll work throughout it. making a lot of people respond. >> you can relate because your maternity leave was three hours. no. it was. >> i was on the air that night. >> that night. they brought the cameras in. >> it's a little different. i'm not a ceo. >> deliver the news. >> where's my lipstick. >> she was on that night. >> a little different. a little different. >> three weeks, three hours. >> yesterday we talked about it a lot. the audience was interested in if it's okay and it's so okay. we're herement i love that story. >> the fact that she's such a star, a superstar, that that was not an issue. >> even an issue. right. >> not only for her but for the board. >> for those that chose her. it is exciting. >> you know what's not exciting?

>> i know. i see him. trying to pretend he's not here. >> don't make eye contact. >> you know the potato thing -- >> oh my god. >> we have these massive -- >> i'm sorry, where? it's a morning show. >> fuddrucker's. it's a cheese machine. not a campaign. they have them all over virginia. >> you eat there? >> we did lose. >> joe's real america. that's all they have in florida. >> what the heck is that? >> do they have them in nantucket? >> i doubt it. let's go to the new "the new york times"/cbs general election poll. some surprising numbers. nothing to do with nantucket. >> they're on president obama's job performance in the white house. 44% now approve of president obama's overall job in office. 46% disapprove. the favorability is now at 36%. 48% view him as unfavorable.

>> jim, favorability, that is just stunning for a sitting president running for re-electi re-election. one in three, almost one in three americans approve of the job he's doing. one in three. >> it's much lower than any other poll we have seen. if that's true, he loses. you can't win with 36 -- >> effects of the jobs numbers. >> as an incumbent. crazy. >> you now you know why they went on the offensive. as if we didn't know. that's very clearly why they decided they had to characterize and -- >> got to destroy mitt romney. so the president's upside down, what? 13 points. between his favorable and unfavorable. mitt romney's also upside down in favorability. >> the ratings four points lower than the president's in this poll. 32% favorable view of the former massachusetts governor. 36% unfavorable. >> and of course, jim, there you only have a four percentage point of favorable and unfavorable. because americans are trying to

figure out who mitt romney is. the obama people, if you have to be very concerned if these -- if other polls follow this trend because as james carville said on our show last week, it's the obama team spending the money. it's romney team raising the money right now. >> i think that's a brilliant point. everyone's saying mitt romney's strategy is terrible. why isn't he responding more forcefully? do people understand how much money they're sitting on? and when everybody tunes in, he is outspending with the allies, the president maybe by two to one in those final months of the campaign. no one's paying attention. >> he's somewhat restricted because he's the actual nominee. they're sitting on a trove of money and they basically will unleash a torrent of advertising to drown out anything obama does and part of the reason to define mitt romney right now because there's a window to do it. >> you know, willie geist, if they were able to define mitt romney spending all of this

money right now, and it certainly made a lot of sense to find michael dukakis before americans know who he is, if it actually moved numbers that would be one thing but if you spend this much money and effort on this bain capital attack and out of touch rich guy, needs to release the taxes, well, what this suggests is they have blown a the lot of money, plus they have blown this issue in july if the numbers -- if these numbers don't move anymore than they have in the cbs/"the new york times" poll. >> we were talking about this yesterday. they said discussing whether or not to work, let's see the first poll after this attack. well, we have the first poll. conducted from july 11th. one week ago today. to july 16th, two days ago. that's five days it's in the heart of the tax returns and the bain attacks and actually mitt romney inched up a little bit over the last poll. so, you can draw your own

conclusions from that but not taken a piece of mitt romney's hide they probably expected it would. >> willie, how often do we say people don't care and not to keep going back to carville, but people don't care about what happened in 1999 or 2000. they want to know what will happen over the next four years, and this president is constantly talking about the past. he's talking about defending the past four years of his record. going after mitt romney in the past. but either one of the candidates seem to be looking forward saying this is how i'm going to turn this economy around and this is how i'm going to get you back in to work. >> yeah. i think president obama is guilty of that. but so's mitt romney. >> right. >> i'm not sure we've heard his plan going forward either so maybe it's time to get down to serious details in this campaign. >> andrea? >> just the other day sam nunn was here with the bipartisan group on the budget and said why

not take the simpson-bowles position and then deal with postelection? pretty smart idea. nobody else is talking. nobody running for office is talking about anything specific. neither side. i think people are smart enough, the american public is smart enough to know that this is all a distraction. >> and what do these numbers tied to? >> obviously, probably the handling of the economy. we have new numbers here. the president's drop in favorability obviously may be tied to the economy. the same poll shows 39% approve of the president's handling of the economy. down five points from last month. 55% say they disapprove of his work on the economy. the poll's head to head matchup had the president and romney in a dead heat. romney at 47% and obama at 46%. >> it's the economy, stupid. >> not to be a polling geek, nobody's up or down. nobody's up for down for a month and a half. everything's within the margin of errors and the polls, it will

not change until three weeks before the election. that's one thing they agree on. it's totally neck and neck race because the persuadables haven't started to pay attention and sort of talking to each other. >> talking about wealth and numbers. 60% of respondents said bain didn't matter to their vote. i mean, these are issues sort of side issues. there's a caveat. they might matter in certain states than others. this is a national poll and we have to remember in some states matter more than others and in ohio and virginia bain could play differently than it does nationally. >> andrea, front page story on all the major newspapers today. "the new york times" talks about the suicide attack in syria. it killed assad's brother-in-law and some leaders in there. the front of "washington post,"

also, has that as a headline. same thing with "the wall street journal" talking about the rebel bombings. this is -- i'm telling you, this is some big news. >> this is really big news. richard engel and i were talking about this yesterday in new york and the bottom line is this could be -- could be the tipping point. we could look back months from now and say this was the moment where assad lost the grip on power for a couple of reasons. talking to intelligence people, they're not yet persuaded. but the white house certainly does -- leaning this way, that assad now knows they could bomb the national security headquarters in the middle of damascus. clearly an inside job and got the three top defense officials including his brother-in-law. so we don't know whether or not he was at that meeting or in that building. but the bottom line is they got to the heart of the regime and overnight since then the rebels seem completely energized and they're going after major targets in the last 24 hours.

>> nobody else around the table remembers this but assad's father -- >> thanks a lot, i think. >> assad's father had an upri uprising and basically reduced it to rubble. the rest of syria followed meekly behind. the son may have learned the wrong lesson of the father. the rebels won't give up. assad's days in office are numbered. >> i think they are numbered. the president called putin yesterday because the u.n. had to postpone a key vote yesterday because they can't get anywhere with russia's opposition. and the president didn't get very far with putin and still disagreed but the message is you're backing the wrong horse and the hope is people around assad realize and that they'll abandon him in droves. >> j u.s. to go through it, they got a national security building in damascus, three top officials including assad's brother-in-law. rebel commanders calling it an inside job. say those that planted the bomb

are still safe and then the call between president obama and russian president vladimir putin. they agree that it needs to stop but they have no idea how. this is going on for weeks and weeks and weeks. and yet, somewhat of a stalemate between obama and putin on -- >> "the new york times" reports even while the suicide attacks are going on, fighting continues to rage in the capital. in damascus. >> intensifying. >> the rebels are not backing down. it's intensifying and right now assad better figure out where he's going to escape to because he doesn't have much longer there. >> i think that's the case. even though he's got heavy weaponry. you know? he's got a real army unlike gadhafi and the people around him have to see the handwriting on the wall. the conundrum is rush why and the u.n. mandate expires on friday and they have to vote to

extend it or do something else. >> what does israel do? there's talk of assad using chemical weapons and that there's talks with israelis of what to do, to take them out. what role does israel play in this? >> they don't touch it because right now israel is completely focused on the major development yesterday, the attack on teenagers, a teenage tourists coming from israel to bulgaria to a popular spot, bombed getting off the plane and getting on the bus and that has led maybe netanyahu to say, you know, iran is responsible. he immediately said iran is responsible. the u.s. view is we don't have the evidence yet, you know, all the signs point to iran an we want to see the evidence. don't use this as a pretext to go after iran. the president called netanyahu and said, we'll help you. we'll help you with forensics, intelligence, but the last thing that the white house wants to see right now is israel attacking iran. >> isn't mitt romney heading towards the middle east? this is complicating everything.

>> he'll be there next week. >> wow. >> the end of next week. >> complicating everything? you blame this on romney? >> no, no, in. >> no. >> it's a complicated situation. >> making it worse? >> you know -- >> come on. unbelievable. >> it wasn't my intention. what i'm saying is ideal circumstance go to israel and align himself with netanyahu. they're having issues. the attack and now syria. stepping in to a -- >> blaming him for what happened -- >> pretty much. >> huffington post. >> they work together at boston partners in the '70s. they're very close. >> talking about offshore accounts. >> give us the first time discussion and the only time of a discussion of foreign policy will be when romney does his trip overseas. i think this last week, like, daniel jones that runs our website had a great phrase for the cam pane theme for both candidates, stupidity, stupid. if you watch, like, if you watch the ads, if you watch the tone,

so divorced from every single thing that's happening. >> foreign issues can arise when you least expect them. >> exactly. >> and can change the entire course of the elections. >> like willie's mashed potato slurpee machine. we'll ask dick durbin of a potential strategy to side step the republican anti-tax pledge. plus, what if president lincoln survived the assassination attempt? it's premise of a new novel by steven carter. he is fantastic. this will be good. he'll join us shortly. but first -- i'm so mean to him. >> you should apologize. way too mean for way too long. the american people expect an apology. >> i'm sorry, bill. >> i'm sorry for her. >> doobl that? >> for her actions, as well, bill. >> forecast looks okay. not sure if mika meant that. very warm conditions in the country but the big story yesterday was the heat and the thunderstorms. and this picture's going around.

it was on the front page of new york newspapers. not a tornado. this is a photograph that was taken about 10,000 feet in the air from a new jersey -- i think a giants line backer. and it's a big rain shaft. kind of looks suspect and using an iphone app to give it an aged look to it. in other words, very -- almost like a faucet turned on over one spot. one of the heaviest rain shafts i have seen. so believe it if you want. here's what we're looking at as far as the forecast sees. seeing heavy rains in areas we need it. how happy in northern indiana? driest areas in the country. also some of the rain heading to northern portions of ohio and great. forecast for today, not as hot today but still a chance of showers around d.c.. we're much cooler in new york and the great lakes. but lock at kansas city. yesterday 106. today 103. the heat wave continues in the middle of the country and tomorrow near 100 in kansas

city. all of a sudden very dry in areas like dallas and oklahoma city. if you want the know where the cool air is, look at the forecast in seattle tomorrow. mostly cloudy and 69. that's like the middle of winter in the rest of the country. you are watching "morning joe," we're brewed by starbucks. [ cellphone rings ] the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees?

it's the one you store in the freezer. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. that's chilly. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on.

if you have been successful, you didn't get there on your own. you didn't get there on your own. i'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because i was just so smart. there are a lot of smart people out there.

it must be because i worked harder than everybody else. let me tell you something. if you have a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> my father's hands didn't build this company? my hands didn't build this company? my son's hands didn't build out this company? did somebody else take out the loan to finance the equipment? did somebody else make payroll? >> that's part of the romney campaign web ad out this morning hitting the president's comments last week on businesses. >> let's -- let's stop right there. >> let's not. >> no. this is where i think a really important point. i saw you guys respond yesterday -- >> to romney taking it out of context. >> to romney talking about this and you listened to it. other people listened to it and sort of laughed that romney's taking it out of context.

many friends and i listen to barack obama saying basically mocking the idea that the harder you work in america the more successful you are, and also saying, yeah, you didn't build that business by yourself. and then talking about these public works projects. that sounds like sheer -- when i first heard him say that, i was in the car listening to the news with a friend and we broke out laughing. and so, there's a real divide here. >> sure. >> two groups of people hear that and i've got say to me that -- to me, and i will guarantee you to the democratic business men and women saying -- been saying for four years barack obama doesn't get it, those comments right there explain more than any comments that he said over the past three and a half years that he just didn't get how entrepreneurs think. >> the phrasing of it was maybe inartful or poorly worded but

the point is business men travel every day on the road. the road is paid for by the people. the business people use the internet, paid for by the government to -- >> right, right. >> the foundation. the point is accurate and maybe politically inartful. right? >> hi. i put myself on a different side of this divide. i sometimes feel that we in the media sit around. we threat guys say the same thing over and over and over and over again. and then we wait for the day when they say it wrong and we say this is the day when we learn what they really think. the day when he missed a clause in the middle that made it not clear referring to roads and bridges. that sounds bad. anybody listening to that who doesn't think it sounds bad is wrong. we can see the many times he made the same point, much more clear on what he was saying and saying that's what he meant

opposed to the others and happens to mitt romney all the time. i want -- i like to fire people. being a great example making a really fair point about health care insurance and how to structure a market there so it's a part of me feels like it's worth it to amp down the level of intense feeding frenzy every time they make the wrong comment because we get more robotic candidates more afraid and not -- >> unless those misstatements, those gaffes reveal a larger truth and many people believe mitt romney talking about liking to fire people or says things he's disconnected, that reinforces it. here, for me, it wasn't the -- because i did get the connection with the you can't build that by yourself. i got the idea, the infrav infrastructure. it was the mocking tone of people think -- because they work harder than everybody else? come on. yes, yes. in america, you work longer

hours, over decades, that pays off. >> yeah. >> it does. it sounded like -- a bit dismissive. but again, that's my opinion. and i'm certainly the minority of the 30 people that have been on over the past couple of days. >> okay. >> all i'm saying as one person who said this past two days on this set, i'm telling you there's a large chunk of people hearing that, whether in the proper context or not and business people who will say -- you had three hours yesterday to mock mitt romney on this point. let me finish and then we'll give everybody all the time they need. this is an important point. if you want to know what's going to ring true and ring not true. when he says things like this and he says it that way, he reinforces the idea among business people, small business people and ceos on wall street, that he does not get how to create jobs. that he doesn't have people

around him that understand how to run a business. and that's been the knock as you know for three and a half years. >> can i ask you a question, please? >> not if you're going to be mocking. >> i'm not mocking. >> after you had your -- >> i have no comments to what you just said but i would like to ask you if mitt romney took the president's words and lied about them or at the very least way out of context. >> no. >> he responded to the president's speech and mocked it. did you see what he said? because i'll get the bite for you if you would like. >> i didn't see the response. >> that's what i was upset about. >> sure. but that happens all the time in campaigns and ezra's point is we live in this -- you know, if you're a campaign reporter, you watch the same speech every single day, multiple times a day and wait for a deviation from the remarks. occasionally, very rarely, a new campaign prescription or a gaffe.

part of what the presidential campaign details is people on the other side taking advantage of the gaffes. that's what the romney campaign doing and what the obama campaign did with the i want the fire people remark. >> joining us from capitol hill, democratic senator of illinois and senate majority whip dick durbin. >> a man who supports hard work, the american flag and small business owners across the state of illinois. >> and apple pie. >> i wanted to ask you really quickly about the newnew news/"the new york times" poll but to figure this out, favorability rating's at 36%. unfavorability at 48%. senator, what's going on there? is this -- is it all anchored in some poor economic reports? >> i think that has a lot to do with it. i think that you could take a look at polls that show that the president is favored by most

people when it comes to a comparison with mitt romney. you also find the trust and likability quotient is high for the president and we know are major elements in a campaign. over the next three and a half months there's a half dozen issues emerge we can't identify today and they make the difference for the 3% or 4% to decide the election. >> so the headlines out yesterday, democrat s proposinga plan to help them side step an anti-tax plan. what are you doing? >> let me tell you what it boils down to is this. we know the cliff of december 31st, the impact, we have to be honest about it. if we step back from the cliff on a bipartisan basis, we have to agree on a few things. i think they're pretty obvious. if we extend this for six months for a bigger plan, we have to buy it. reduce the deficit in that period of time. secondly, we have to decide how much revenue and tax review is

part of this. we can come up with a reasonable number based on simpson-bowles. what's the target? how much of our debt will we reduce over ten years? these are things which senators of goodwill in both parties can come to agreement on and avoid this cliff. >> ezra? >> good morning, senator. i guess i'd ask why do you say senators of goodwill of both parties can come to agreement on this? when i look back, what we have seen is snorls of goodwill in both parties not coming to agreement on this and leading to the fiscal cliff. you are part of the gang of six aen a small number of senators came to agreement and didn't end up going that much further so makes you optimistic that we'll be able to get a big deal opposed to a small one and what happens if we come up near the cliff's edge and not at a deal yet? what options are there for not crashing the economy in to a recession? >> when you turn off thelights and microphones and senators from both parties sit down in a

room together, we can all see the writing on the wall. we know what we have to do. as difficult as it may be for democrats and republicans, we know what this nation needs. and i think if there's encouragement from the outside, business, labor, community, ordinary people, that we do this and do it honestly and fairly we can get it done. not before the election. be honest about it. but immediately after the election in the lame duck period, let us agree on an interim plan. let us by six months in the next year to get the overall long-term plan done pay for it with deficit reduction, that six-month period, and decide what to achieve. we can do this. i'm confident we can do it as long as people of goodwill ignore the cameras and the lobbyists and focus on the american people. >> sam? >> very optimistic. i kind of share ezra's optimism. i want to talk about senator patty murray outlined the plan with respect to the bush tax

cuts saying the democratic party would let them all expire and then introduce a tax cut plan for the income below $250,000. is that the uniform democratic party position now? secondly, what makes you think there's not some in the party to buckle under the pressure that they'll allow a huge tax increase occur under their watch? >> we don't want to see a huge tax increase on working families, people making less than $250,000 a year. let's protect them. we tugt agree on that on a bipartisan basis but what senator murray was pointing to, having gone through a super committee despite her best efforts, she was pointing to the cliff, the deadline is really forcing us to be honest about deficit reduction an doing in it a timely fashion. i don't want to use that kick the can analogy anymore. i'm so sick of it. but it is a reality in this town. people always look for excuses.

december 31st, no excuses. do something or pay the price. >> senator dick durbin, thank you so much. it's great to see you. >> thank you. >> we greatly appreciate it. >> ezra klein, stay with us. >> he loves small puppies. >> he does. he does. >> apple pies. >> that's what they want to know. >> not as american. an alternative history. what if president lincoln had survived? we'll talk to professor steven carter about his new novel ahead on "morning joe." the medicare debate continues in washington...

...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org.

you'll inevitably find yourself on a desolate highway in your jeep grand cherokee. and when you do, you'll be grateful for the adaptive cruise control that automatically adjusts your speed when approaching slower traffic. and for the blind spot monitoring that helps remind you that the highway might not be as desolate... ...as you thought. ♪

welcome back to "morning joe." 37 past the hour. live look at washington, d.c. joining us from new york, yale law professor, stephen carter, author of "the impeachment of abraham lincoln," a novel of what could have happened if the president survived being shot in 1865. he writes in part, he had been shot on good friday. on easter sunday, he rose. by the middle of the week, the president was sitting up with meeting with his staff once again in charge of the affairs

of the nation. across the country people cheered. those who felt otherwise kept their disappointment to themselves, content to bide their time. >> fascinating. we were talking about this, sam stein. you look at a great book on -- >> what ifs. >> kennedy survives his assassination. what if fdr assassinated. stephen king had "time traveler" and then if the boston red sox did not pay that much for carl crawford. boggles the imagination. >> it's gd. >> what's with the trend first of all? why do we -- we love reading this stuff. why do we love reading it so much? and what's the biggest takeaway from your book on how things would have been different if -- if lincoln remained the president instead of andrew johnson taking his place? >> i think the fact that alternative history is popular is a healthy sign.

we despite the political battles, we maintain a real kour yosty of who we are as a country. who is america? how did we get here? does the matter if the great events happen in the way they did? in the case of lincoln as i would say our greatest president, that doesn't mean he didn't do things that his enemies could have used against him had he lived. >> let's talk about reconstruction. there's -- would reconstruction have been different because lincoln kept talking about with malice towards none, he didn't really have the strong hand that say andrew johnson, he would have had the strong hand that andrew johnson obviously did not as a guy from tennessee who was impeached. how would that have been different? >> well, part of the premise of my story, it is easy to forget that president lincoln had a lot of enemies in his own party and radical republicans many thought he wasn't radical enough,

anti-slavery enough, didn't prosecute the war they way would have and looked down the noses at him thinking that he was not as well educated and they were smarter than he was and their view is that the president should get out of the way and let congress decide how to do reconstruction. how much would lincoln are resisted that and negotiated with them? in my story at least, it's just fiction but the enemies gang up on him. >> so, stephen, i'm looking forward to this very much. i'm a big alternative history fan from way back. i like the -- >> not surprised. i'm not. >> i think alternative history fans should unite. but my question, interesting thing about the books is how do you keep out structural and local factors? how do you decide what would have happened anyway? i don't want you to give away the end of the book on the air, how would things be different today in the world of your book? what would look different in america in 2012 opposed to 50

years after lincoln? >> one of the really hard things about doing history is trying to figure out how much of history is great people an how much of history is great historical forces. i think, really, we live in a world of balance between the two. the great forces dominate, great people also matter. in the long and short run, a relatively little probably is different. and so, for me, i'm just writing a courtroom drama. a bit of a murder mystery. not trying to make claims of the sweep of american history. the point isn't such a message but fun to read. >> sam stein? >> well, again, i'm with ezra. i love alternative history. >> oh my god. >> i know. the dork factors over here. >> one thing to be an alternative rock fan. now to say i'm such a huge -- go ahead. >> i like alternative rock, too. >> people who are public figures, whether in politics, pop culture, sports, people who die young in their life and at the top of their game tend to

have amazing legacies and people remember them in a better light perhaps than those who live out and expose the lives later in life. >> like kennedy. >> i think truman quoted johnson. i believe he was famously quoted as saying, heroes know when to die. >> exactly. you get john lennon, sports figures. would lincoln be as revered as a president has he lived? i get that being shot gives you a rev raerencreverence. would we feel the same way about him? >> it's a hard one to answer. what we can say is this, that the american economy was in the shambles after the war. there were a lot of problems. lincoln lifted great burdens for the nation and burdens would have been greater surviving. >> interesting. well -- >> yeah. >> i guess it pays in some respects to die. >> i don't want to put -- mott

pressing that far. just saying that i think i agree with your comment. >> "impeachment of abraham lincoln." thank you. come back soon. >> love having you on. >> thank you. up next, new jobless numbers with cnbc's brian sullivan. keep it right here on "morning joe." this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge.

well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com.

according to ford, the works fuel saver package could literally pay for itself. jim twitchel is this true? yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate. only at your ford dealer. so, to sum up, you take care of that, you take care of these, you save a bunch of this. that works. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped.

man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. that's all. >> stop it. happy birthday -- >> hey! the newest jobless numbers are out this morning on a very special day. >> it's big day. >> it is a huge, huge day. big day for big boy. brian sullivan. has his birthday. turns a spritely 29 today. >> ah.

that's nice. >> brian, congratulations. life at cnbc global headquarters -- >> celebrating with us. >> what kind of jobs numbers are coming out on your birthday? >> well, thanks for the kind words, guys. my friends lost the bet. they said i wouldn't make it to 41. i'm still here. anyway, 386,000, little higher than expected, guys. but the market indicating a higher open. we have kind of gotten used to the range of 350 and 400. we won't see major policy change for a few months ahead of the election and the market's shrugging it out. the s&p's kind of quietly at the highest point since may despite the problems, guys. a lot of capitals. we have talked about it for a year. a lot of capital from the world is coming back because we look like though the shirt is dirty, we are the least dirty shirt in a pretty ugly bag of laundry globally. >> speaking of ugly, pretty ugly for capital one right now. what's going on? >> important settlement. >> it is for the new consumer protection bureau.

this is the first action against a major corporation and came out a big winner and the public should, too. they'll pay $150 million back to customers. 60 million in a civil penalty fund. basically over deceptive marketing for payment protection, they kind of said that capital one tricked the customers to buying the stuff and if you're a capital one customer, look in the mail. they'll refund the moneys you might have spent on the products over the past couple of years, as well. so, you know, a hit to capital one. not allowed to market the stuff anymore until they get approval. other companies still do. for the viewers, check the receipts. watch out. this is a big win for the new cfpb in the first action so right now, joe, a baseball fan. batting a thousand. i heard your lincoln interview and a side note. i love to read a lot of history. manhunt by james swanson about six years ago, probably the best

book about john wilkes booth and lincoln and reads like an action novel. >> have you guys -- i'm telling you, ezra, both of you. >> for you two alternative history -- >> he makes a lot of stuff up here, too, on the show. you need to read "manhunt." john mccain actually -- handing it out to everybody. it is one of the best books. >> it is and i'll recommend one more summer reading, guys. lost in shangra-la. trapped in the jungles of new guinea and the way they got out, you talk about suffering. lost in shangra-la. i found it to be a fantastic book. >> brian sullivan, happy birthday. >> thank you. >> we got you a present. >> what's that? >> no. i'm not going to say it. coming up, newt meets snooki. >> really? >> yes. the historic exchange next on "morning joe." [ female announcer ] the power of green coffee extract

is now in our new starbucks refreshers™ -- a breakthrough in natural energy. made with real fruit, starbucks refreshers™ are delicious low calorie drinks you can feel good about. ♪ rethink how you re-energize. ♪ get a boost of natural energy with a new starbucks refreshers™, in three ways. natural energy from green coffee extract, only from starbucks.

newt, snooki, snooki, newt. >> i am. what up? >> congratulations on "the new york times" best sellers. >> trying to be like you. >> no. >> now, how about a big bachelor party? >> oh, yeah.

>> strippers and things like that? >> yes. >> yes? >> i feel like the guys should have strippers. going to be married to the same girl your whole life so enjoy it. >> wow. >> i trust him. >> newt, was that -- >> did you have strippers? >> no. >> no? >> no? >> can you drink, newt, by the way? >> sometimes. >> good for you. >> when was the last time you just -- when's the last time you just got wasted? was there a time -- >> thinking about coming on this show. >> thinking about coming on this show? that was the last time? ♪

♪ don't our dogs deserve to eat fresher less processed foods introducing freshpet recipes so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido the wife. hey, babe. got the jetta. i wiped the floor with the guy! not really. i would've been fine with 0% for 36 months, but i demanded 60. no...i didn't do that. it was like taking candy from a baby. you're a grown man. alright, see you at home. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen autobahn for all event. we good? we're good. [ male announcer ] at 0% apr for 60 months, no one needs to know how easy it was to get your new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering. to get your new volkswagen. would you mind if to be i go ahead of you?omer. instead we had someone go ahead of him and win fifty thousand dollars.

congratulations you are our one millionth customer. people don't like to miss out on money that should have been theirs. that's why at ally we have the raise your rate 2-year cd. you can get a one-time rate increase if our two-year rate goes up. if your bank makes you miss out, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. bush made some news yesterday in the interview when he praised mitt romney and i was shocked by how quickly they made the romney endorsement in to a campaign ad. this was fast. take a look. >> you know, i'm interested in politics. i'm, you know, i'm a supporter of mitt romney. i hope he does well. >> i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> come on. seriously. so sometimes what we learned today, what i learned is just

how short you are without heels. you are so -- >> where are you? >> look that the. >> a giant. >> she is so short. i am sort of -- >> need to get the six-inch heels become. >> it is bet they are way. for me at least. >> would you like to ask these guys? >> i learned if halpern is nominated for three emmys a couple of minutes ago. the game change movie. woodley harrelson all nominated. >> good lord! coke parties in new york for a month. >> ezra, what did you learn? >> i need to read "manhunt." and then going from shangra-la. >> i learned that brian sullivan can read a book and not remember the author's name. >> sad day for america. we lost the mashed potato dispenser. >> willie -- >> did i tell you what? >> did you learn?

>> thank national journal and margaret rossen for helping me. fantastic women yesterday. thank you very much. >> valerie, also thanks you for the talking points. and willie, also, a very special person's last day at "morning joe." >> it is, our great producer, core, does the week in review. everything on this show touched in some way by her. this is her last day. ashley, you are the greatest. >> we'll miss her. >> we will miss you. what time is it? >> "morning joe." stay tuned for chuck with luke. sunshine state of play. president obama heads to florida for two days of taking mitt romney to task over taxes. making medicare part of the pitch to swing seniors his way. five for fighting. the romney sons open up about their dad, the pledge for the when you say and what they plan to do to win. why one of them calls him goofy.

"jersey shore" meets georgia pine. newt gingrich and snooki together at last. good morning from washington, d.c. thursday, july 19th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." let's get to the first reads of the morning. president obama's sunshine state swing comes today as three new polls show the race is razor tight and declining confidence in the economy remains a president's biggest challenge. new polls of "the new york times" and cbs news and fox news and npr show it's margin of error race. 47% to 46%. 47% to 45%. the president's job rating underwater in two of the polls and the npr poll that shows him doing better than the other two still has him under 50%. why is obama facing such a tough environment? voters feeling the sluggish economy and "the