have to move. we have to move. >> you should vote for mr. romney. >> it's hot in here, and i apologize for that. >> our greatness is past, america is in decline. >> come on, man. i'm serious. i'm serious. >> i think that's funny. good morning, everybody. it is friday, july 27th. welcome to "morning joe." joe, you like that ad? >> that's just negative, man. i mean that's like malaise squared. what's wrong with these guys? it's not that bad. >> tiny bit out of context. i'm thinking. okay. so we're here along with msnbc contributor mike barnicle, msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele and former governor of vermont and chairman of the democratic national committee, howard dean. willie geist is in london with our lead story. joe, a couple things coming up, i'm really conflicted.

>> about what? >> about mayor bloomberg. i was just about to just completely fall in with his third term and now he's doing something that is pulling me back a little bit. not that he cares. >> i think what he's doing is, he's proving he loves america, inviting scott brown to his house and he's going to raise money for scott brown. >> why would he do that? >> i bet our good friend steve rattner will be there as well. >> i can't believe rattner. >> that's interesting. >> what do you mean? he loves america too. >> they're wrong. >> if he can't believe -- if you can't believe somebody, can't believe that mitt romney would go to london and decide to start criticizing how they're run the olympic games, i mean what's he going to do in israel? look around and go, you know what -- >> i'm a tad bit worried about the trip to israel. >> i think the palestinians probably should have all of jerusalem. i mean then what's he going to do in poland, hitler was right? you don't do this!

>> polish jokes. >> what's he doing? polish jokes and -- in poland. what a stumble yesterday. >> that was a big stumble. that's our lead story this morning. obviously it has an olympic connection so we'll go to willie geist in london for that. willie? >> mika, i have to show you a couple papers this morning. the covers are about the opening ceremony but inside "the daily mail" who invited party-pooper romney. that's the headline there. >> it's a little over the top. >> the other newspapers "the london times" nowhere man, romney loses his way with gaffe about the games. they're taking this personally over here. outraged over the comment mitt romney made to brian williams in an interview a couple nights ago. "the daily mail" headline, romney's terrible, horrible no good very bad day in lun done. the guardian's website, mitt romney's olympic blunder stuns number 10 and hands gift to obama. the headlines coming in response this comment about london's

readiness for the games. >> in the short time you've been here in london do they look ready to your experienced eye? >> you know, it's hard to know just how well, it will turn out. there are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging, because in the games, there are three parts to make games successful. snm number one are the athletes. number two are the volunteers and they'll have great volunteers, but number three, are the people of the country. do they come together and celebrate the olympic moment and that's something which we will find out once the games actually begin. >> so prime minister david cameron caught wind of that remark and shot back during a news conference here in olympic park yesterday. >> i think we'll show the whole world not just that we come together as a united kingdom, but also we're extremely good at welcoming people from across the world. i would obviously make those

points to mitt romney. we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiest, most active bustling cities anywhere in the world and, of course, it's easier if you hold an olympic games in the middle of nowhere. >> so that's a little shot, obviously, at salt lake city. the mayor's office in salt lake city was listening issuing a statement of its own. quote, david cameron can stop by any time. we'd love to have him, happy to send a map so he doesn't run into any trouble locating the middle of nowhere. that's from the mayor of salt lake city. with the olympic torch arriving in hyde park yesterday, to a gathering of about 60,000 people, some said it was 75,000, 80,000, london's mayor boris johnson used romney's comment to fire up the crowd. >> some people coming from around the world who don't get it about all the preparations we've done to get london ready in the last seven years. i hear there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether

we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes, we are! >> then things really got awkward because romney still had a meeting with prime minister cameron on the schedule. so he spent the rest of the day walking back his original comment to brian, hoping to smooth things over. >> governor, did you intend to criticize the way london has prepared for these games? >> i'm very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful olympic games. what i've seen shows the imagination and forethought and a lot of organization and expect the games to be highly successful. >> of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character, and determination by the athletes. >> you know, willie, we have a rule here, you don't -- you never compare anybody to like hitler or nazi, but i mean, you know, jesse owens had hitler to

run against in 1936 and now it looks like these london poticians have mitt romney to run against. can you believe boris gets -- the mayor gets in front of this huge crowd and is using mitt romney as the red meat to throw out. unbelievable. >> you and i have met boris johnson so yes, i can believe he did that. he's quite a character. >> he's great. there are a lot of politicians sitting around the table right there, seems to me, that's a pretty easy question to answer when you're seated in london on the eve of the games. what a wonderful city, i'm sure they're going to be ready, it's great games. a little context to it, he said well, you can never be prepared for what happens. some things might come up. they've had some problems. there is some context there, but i would take the easy out on that question, i think, in that situation. >> welcome to london. the white house didn't waste a moment. press secretary jay carney started his briefing pointing out that president obama has the

utmost confidence in the uk's ability to manage -- >> how nice. >> the olympic games. joe, i don't -- i mean this is -- i'm not sure how fair this is. mitt romney did run the olympics. >> listen, he ran the olympics and i'm sure he thought that he was giving a legitimate analysis to brian williams and talking about what he needed to look for. that said, obviously when you're overseas you have to be extra, extra careful. this is actually -- i'm not going to say damaging, but it is such a missed opportunity for mitt romney because great britain has felt over the past four years that barack obama has not understood this special relationship between america and britain. i felt that way, a lot of people have felt that way. mitt romney's even discussed it. and yet, now, he has managed in a day to make barack obama seem like the favorite son of london. it was just -- it was a dumb, dumb thing to do. will it be damaging in the long term? no. but it adds to the idea that

this guy is just chunky and he is not nimble on his feet. >> that's a good way of putting it. let's get an analysis from the table. michael steele? >> this is a great lesson -- >> can he do anything right? >> this is a great lesson in how to win friends and influence people and i think the reality of it is, as i said to the governor a little bit earlier, i sat there and watched this whole thing unfold and i kept having flashbacks as i'm listening to a crowd of 60,000 boo mitt romney, to 250,000 cheering barack obama and his european tour in 2008 and that's the contrast that you don't want replayed here in america, number one. number two, i don't care if you ran the olympics, i don't care if you invented the olympics, when you're running for president of the united states you're on foreign soil to joe's point where you know that there are already tensions at the diplomatic level, if you will, between the u.s. and britain on various issues for whoevatever reason, that's your opportunity

to shine and be above of it all and not be the analyst of the olympics. >> willie geist? >> yeah. i just wanted to show you one of the op-eds in "the daily mail" on the day of the opening ceremonies. one about the olympics and the other is this giant one, obama should be on the rocks, so why is his millionaire jet skiing rival struggling to stay afloat. they're taking this very hard, this mitt romney moment. it's spurred a bunch of opinion pieces in these papers about romney. >> i feel like i'm outnumbered here but this is a little unfair to romney. >> no. this is a problem of his own making. believe me, i had a few of these problems of my own making. >> tell me. you speak from experience. >> yeah. here's what the problem is. the problem is this is his opportunity, why you do these trips to look presidential and he certainly isn't going to look presidential. >> what should he have said? >> i don't care what he does in israel and poland. this is the thing people will remember. >> i want to ask joe the same question. >> here's the problem, this is not what you want to spend july talking about when getting ready for september. do i think this is going to have

a big effect on the place no. it is a major mised opportunity. he went abroad, didn't look presidential. >> could have moved the meeter in a different direction. >> and he looks as you said chunky. >> what should he have said, joe? joe? did we lose? oh. we lost his shot. >> has he ever been invited into someone's home? >> who? joe? >> no. mitt romney. you go into someone's home for dinner and there's a yellow couch you're looking at. >> yeah. >> and you say, geez what, a beautiful couch. you're in someone else's country. i mean come on. the guy is -- first of all the guy can't remember or doesn't -- >> okay. >> wow. >> his wife's event is being held. >> he didn't remember ed millvand's name, that was bad. >> the opposition leader. >> that was bad. that could have an effect down the road. >> who is john boehner. >> do we have that, alex? here's -- it's from the independent. but he forget his name.

there was also -- >> he'll pay a price should he win the presidency he'll pay a price for that at some point. they'll gloss it over but that does have an effect on relationship. >> jet lag? you say it is unfair. it is unfair to a certain degree. politics is inherently unfair. >> weren't there some security -- >> there were and i understand the point that you're making, but again, this is not about you're running the olympics. and even if you ran the olympics you should at least know not to go and criticize someone else's handling of those olympics. >> joe, we have the shot. what should he have said? >> listen, this is a no-brainer. just like mike says, when you go, you see the yellow couch and go what do you think of my yellow couch? i go man, i'll tell you what, that is special. i've been to thousands of homes and never seen anything like that. you should really be proud. >> that's what you said about mike's couch. do you not like it? what are you saying?

i don't want a liar in my house. seriously? i mean -- but i just -- what? he was asked about the analysis, he was asked to analyze. >> you punt. >> that's the first thing -- that's 101a in politics. do not answer the question you were asked by the reporter. answer the one you would like to answer. do not do that. he fell right into it. i couldn't believe it. >> i couldn't believe the job the british people have done. this looks great. can't wait for the games to start. next question. >> yeah, right. >> right. >> exactly. >> next. >> because he's responding, mika, to -- as he said pur pordsedly, supposedly, he's not sure of the facts of the readiness and preparedness. take the high road and move off of it. it's not a question for him to really answer. >> i'm speculating, i'm guessing he's feeling really comfortable because he did the olympics himself and all of a sudden he falls into this analysis stuff. you can't do that. >> joe, can you hear me? >> i'm with you. can you hear me? >> jump in. wasn't sure if the shot was

good. >> no. i don't know. you know, we're having some problems here, but really quickly, though, to follow up on what mike said, you were polite to people and also, this is a no-brainer. wherever you go, whether you're going to london or whether you're going to a town meeting in the middle of nowhere, you compliment the people. >> [ inaudible ]. >> i wouldn't say that's the middle of nowhere, but it's very -- you don't sit around and speculate on how the games could go wrong. when you're on a foreign policy trip. why does this matter? this matters because this is a guy that's going to be representing us across the globe, if he's elected president of the united states. i know you said this is an insignificant blunder. it's not really an insignificant blunder because when he's president of the united states, imagine when he's not nimble enough to make the right comments when he's overseas. >> yeah. >> imagine how -- what now is fodder for headlines and editorial pages, suddenly becomes a diplomatic incident.

it's concerning to me. >> okay. well, let me add this, to me seems more of a headline, but i'm definitely outnumbered this morning. romney's secret meeting with the head of mi 6, britain's intelligence agency. that meeting was to discuss unrest in syria. the meeting wasn't much of a secret because romney told reporters about it. take a listen. >> i appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of mi 6. >> mi 6 -- >> the british didn't admit mi 6 existed until about 15 years ago. >> so -- >> yes. it was supposed to be a secret. >> that, to me, feels a little more problematic. >> it is. but this is a disastrous trip from one end to the other. no way -- do i think he'll recover? probably. this is probably the worst trip that any presidential candidate has taken -- >> well now.

>> really. candidate. not president. >> presidential candidate. >> i mean i wouldn't put up there as the worst, but it clearly is a lesson in what not to do. >> think of a worse one. i can't think of a candidate, not president. >> i hear what you're saying. >> seriously. listen -- wait. i -- i do think it's too early to judge how bad this trip is going to be, we have to see what polish jokes he's going to make. >> poland is a success story. >> it is a success story. >> whether he's going to go to israel -- he'll miss that and whether he'll go to israel and start talking about those poor palestinians needing all of jerusalem, that it just doesn't seem fair to him. i mean, let's see how the rest of the trip goes. this is a bad start. and i think, again, what we see here in mitt romney is a man who's a successful dad, a great dad, a great husband, a great business man, a great organizer of the olympics, a savior of the

olympics but a man who is just not comfortable as a politician. he is doing this, i think, because -- i don't know -- i'm not going to be a psychiatrist, but he's not doing this because he loves politics. he's just not comfortable with it at all. you can sense that. that becomes very troublesome for the campaign staff. i'm sure they're all horrified right now. >> one more story before we go to break. new york city mayor michael bloomberg says he's endorsing -- >> my main man. >> endorsing republican incumbent scott brown in the hotly contested massachusetts race. bloomberg has agreed to host a fund-raiser for senator brown at his upper east side townhouse. the mayor and unspoken defender of wall street, said the endorsement has nothing to do with elizabeth warren's stance against the financial industry. instead, it was senator brown's vote on a specific gun control measure that won him over. brown voted against a bill backed by the national rifle

association that would have allowed gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines. elizabeth warren's campaign says she would extend the federal assault weapons ban and would support tougher background checks and get rid of restrictions on sharing gun tracing information. scott brown is going after president obama and elizabeth warren, in a new web video for comments they made about business. >> a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise. >> i'm so proud of our system of government, of our free enterprise, where our incentive system and our men who head our big industries are willing to get up at daylight to work to midnight to offer employment and create new business. >> small business is the gateway to opportunity for those who want a piece of the american dream. wouldn't it be nice to hear more about the forgotten heros of america, those who create most

of our new jobs, like the owners of stores down the street. >> if you've 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 because i was just so smart. if you got a business, that -- you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. nobody. you built a factory out there, good for you. but i want to be clear, you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. >> okay. so, see, i think elizabeth warren's candidacy stands for what the middle class in this country are looking for. >> yeah. >> but -- >> i just think that's -- >> rattner, bloomberg. >> awesome commercial. i think that's an awesome commercial. >> you like it when things are taken out of context. >> i love scott brown.

things aren't taken out of context. it's a world view. it really is a world view. >> it sure is. >> and when you hear what -- you know, see the jfk words, hear what lbj said, what reagan said, there are those of us who believe that the united states is great because of what individuals do, and what they're able to build and -- >> those few individuals are doing quite well. >> this is actually a really -- >> talk to a lot of small business owners and they will tell you that they didn't get what they got because of government. a lot of times they got what they got and got successful and built business despite obstacles government was throwing in front of them. i think this is an effective ad. >> this is interesting. i think it's an interesting theme. i think it's out of context as we know, but this is a fundamental divide and i respect joe's point of view. i disagree with him.

taxpayers paid for roads so small business people could get their products to market. we live in a system that enables people like me to make money. >> our system is supposed to be -- >> the point obama was trying to make taken out of context, taxpayers pay for public schools, taxpayers help on the g.i. bill help people go to college. mitt romney got big -- bought companies that were having big government subsidies in them. tax laws make it easier to do these things. we're in this together and that's the point obama is trying to make, which is grossly taken out of context in these ads. i think the bloomberg ad will blow up -- bloomberg supporters will blow up. i'm a fan, but the fact of the matter is, he's a wall street guy and elizabeth warren is going to make mince meat out of him. >> i am a conflicted fan. joe? >> yeah. i was just going to say, howard dean, what is so fascinating about this -- they'll agree with me, there's been an ongoing battle between conservatives and progressives for such a long time about the power of the

individual and the rights of the individual on the conservative side versus the egal tarry -- >> egalitarian -- >> egalitarian concept that, you know, we're all equal, we're all part of one thing and the overriding goal is to make sure that conservatives say we have equal results. and we believe you should have equal opportunities. and so when you hear this play out and when i hear barack obama saying, you didn't do that on your own, you didn't -- you know, you didn't get rich or stuck sesful because you're smart or worked hard, that strikes right at the middle of that debate. >> didn't exactly say that, joe. he didn't say that. he said you didn't -- he didn't ayou're not smart and didn't work hard. there are other people behind you helping with infrastructure and all these other things. that is true. we are a nation of 310 million people, not a nation of individuals. >> right. but if you listen to the comments, he said they think

they got it because they're smarter, because they worked harder. and i think even the white house, howard, understands that this clip was a mistake. and i don't think this clip is going to decide the election. i just think it's so fascinating that really is the great divide and it has been for some time between conservatives and progressives and heck, you could go all the way back as i said to george washington's first cabinet meeting between thomas jefferson on one side and alexander hamilton on the other. >> i can't wait to see this race. i think it will be fascinating on so many levels, the massachusetts senate race. the star of the new film "the campaign" will ferrell will join us on set. also ahead, eugene robinson, chuck todd and cnbc's david faber. up next the morning papers and the politico playbook. but first bill karins with a check on the weekend forecast. bill? >> thankfully we're not going to deal with thunderstorms like we

saw yesterday over the weekend. that complex gave us severe storms interest kentucky to ohio to new york, lot of people cleaning up today from the downed tree limbs. in all almost 300 reports of severe weather and wind damage with those storms. today, we're starting off pretty dry. a lot of clouds around, just some light showers around albany, southern vermont and new hampshire. the morning hours will be dry, but this afternoon once again in this region we will see hit and miss summertime storms. unlike yesterday's storms that were very strong and dangerous, these will be your typical garden variety storms that could produce gusty winds and heavy rain but not ruin say your trees or lawn. as far as the rest of your forecast for the weekend, the east coast, even on saturday, we're going to have a chance of storms throughout. middle of the country looks dry and very hot even as we go through your sunday. the drought continues to get worse in the middle of the country while we're dodging thunderstorms each afternoon on the east. it's a dry morning at least in new york city. what an amazing light show that was last night.

you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. 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. from the price every communications he trip provider is different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company. ♪ we link people and fortune 500 companies nationwide and around the world. and we will continue to free you to do more and focus on what matters.

. 29 past the hour. let's take a look at the morning papers. we'll start with "the wall street journal." facebook is struggling to live up to wall street expectations as the company's stock dropped to an all-time low yesterday in afterhours trading. we're waiting for this news. the social media company saw revenue grow by 32% in the second quarter from a year ago but those gains were outweighed by nearly $2 billion in expenses. ouch. >> "denver post" more than 4300 fans lined up to get their first look at peyton manning in a denver broncos uniform yesterday. thursday's practice another step in the road to recovery for manning who missed the entire 2011 season because of a spinal injury. "the new york times" strip clubs are among the many businesses looking to cash in.

>> oh, yeah. >> when the republican national convention kicks off a month from today. >> oh, yeah. >> what's going on here? according to one strip club official, tampa clubs expect to do better than ones in charlotte where the democrats will be held. who's looking at this stuff? and why? the head of an industry trade group says republicans outspend democrats when it comes to adult entertainment by three to one. seriously? what? like need i say more. >> who keeps track of things like that. that's -- >> thank you, "new york times." >> anyway, in this week's "parade" magazine how we experience the world, the science behind our senses. >> that's going to be cool. before we go to politico, joe, do you want to chime in on not the strip clubs, facebook news? >> well, i think mike barnicle -- i think mike barnicle has chimed in enough on the strip clubs by going oh, yeah. oh, yeah.

that was like really, really disturbing this early in the morning. thank you, mike barnicle, for doing that. i think we need to call ann once again and tell her to hose him down he when he gets home in boston. but, you know, facebook, can you imagine the precip does drop this has taken. it's down to about 24. i remember when it came out, willie geist and i, well, we were over at the holiday inn predicted onur call, investors always call us when there's a new ipo, this thing should probably have started at 26 or 27. it's down to 24. they have lost just billions and billions of dollars thus far. and it's still falling. at some point -- look at this. it starts at $38 a share, it's down to $24 a share. and my guess is, this is sort of like a penn state warning when we warned them a year ago, you

have to take swift and decisive action, shut down the program for a year so ncaa doesn't quill kill you, the bottom line is, mark zuckerberg, for all the things he is, is not a world-class ceo. he was a great guy at starting this tech company up, but they're going to have to bring somebody in that understands business, the complexities of a massive, multibillion dollar business to run it. and mark zuckerberg is not that guy and the question is, is that stock going to have to go down to 15, is it going to have to go down to 10 before they figure that out? >> joe, i think you're generally right about entrepreneurs who start big businesses but to be fair, the earnings were up 24%. so some of this is wall street hype and disappointment in the hype. when your earnings are up 24% this is not a disaster. >> well, do you think mark zuckerberg is up to the task of running -- >> maybe not. >> one of the largest courses.

>> maybe not. i don't know mark zuckerberg. it's true entrepreneurs have a hard time making a switch to corporate ceos. this drop in the stock is more to do with wall street expectations and hype than mark zuckerberg. 24% increase in earnings really hard to complain about that. >> all right. let's go to politico now. joining us, now with the politico playbook, executive editor jim vandehei. how is he going to look today? looks good. >> looking good. >> your lead story this morning, jim, president obama secret weapon in this year's election, hillary clinton. tell us about it. >> i was thinking about howard dean on the set, i covered his race when he ran for president, and if you would have said when howard dean was running you're going to have a time when you ve an active war, another country where you have tens of thousands of u.s. troops, you have drones shooting and killing terrorists in three or four countries at any given time and that democrats would hold an advantage on foreign policy like barack obama does and still

might not win a presidential election shows how much the world has changed and how much barack obama has changed the perception of the democratic party on foreign policy. a reason, hillary clinton. she's more popular than barack obama. she's the one going into a lot of these countries and pafrpg up relationships. she can speak with authority when she went into jerusalem and talked to the israelis before mitt romney went in. that's one of the reasons that barack obama has had so much success in changing the perception among voters of democrats when it comes to foreign policy. >> joe, i can't imagine you disagree that she would be extremely valuable if she so chooses to be helpful. >> you know, i thought she would be extremely valuable as a democratic nominee, i thought she would make a great president if she got elected, but then again, i'm not a democrat. i don't vote in democratic primaries. i think the question, howard dean, is, how is a democratic party going to respond to a

woman who really is more hawkish than, say, even a lot of republicans like george will, ann coulter, myself, whether it's afghanistan, whether it's a drone attacks? if they rejected her for a vote four years ago on the iraq war, how is the base -- i'm not talking about the rest of us, how is the democratic base going to treat a woman who is the hawk's hawk. i mean she is the neo con's neocon right now and a lot of americans love her because of it. >> talking about a perspective campaign in 2016 or right now? she can't go out on the campaign trail right now because she's the secretary of state. >> i'm not talking about -- there's a lot of talk, people very close to hillary clinton, that a year ago would say she would never run who now are saying, that she's going to run in 2016. i just wonder whether she, once again, gets hit for being so aggressive on foreign policy if she does run again. >> she's such a huge icon. she is the elephant in the room. she would -- i mean i can't

imagine how any other candidate could beat her running for the primary. she's got such stature and it is true, you'll pick apart the various votes and the vote for the iraq war and all that kind of stuff, but she has such enormous stature if she wanted the nomination in 2016 there wouldn't be much serious opposition. >> jim vandehei, thank you. >> take care. have a good weekend. >> you have a great weekend. willie geist, what do we have coming up next? >> yes, mika, the huge international spectacle of the oepg ceremony takes place tonight. let's get to what's really important. kate middleton was doing judo bare foot yesterday, trying out olympic sports. we're going to watch when we come back.

with the fidelity stock screener,

you can try strategies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. [ 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.

welcome back to "morning joe." i'm live in london where it's 11:40, live picture of olympic stadium where in a few hours the opening ceremonies will get under way. less than nine hours away. they got the bid seven years ago this month and now the day is here. we're told it's not going to rain during the ceremony. it's gray here, been drizzling a little bit this morning.

but most of the people who know weather including jim canner to at the weather channel say it's going to hold off for the ser honeny itself. britain's famous couple prince william and the duchess of cambridge watched yesterday along with prince harry the olympic flame passed from one to another outside buckingham palace. no sign of pippa i'm sorry to report. prince harry showing off basketball skills later at the court awaycon's college while prince william got ready for the games running through drills, taking unsuccessful shots on goal. he'll be there when great britain's football team takes the field at wembley stadium. his wife of just over a year, going less traditional in her sampling of olympic sports bare foot for judo and hitting the ping-pong table. scheduled to be at swimming, soccer and saming over the next two weeks.

plenty of controversy surrounding the uniforms for the usa olympic athletes. they were manufactured in china and then the issue of the berets. what they will look like on olympicens and not just on models. nba super stars kevin durant and carmelo anthony modelling their opening ceremony uniforms. looking good, fellas. a quick viewers guide for this weekend. first big event you don't want to miss, starts right away tomorrow. oh look the animation is back. let's get rid of that now, t.j. chapter one in the michael phelps/ryan lochte battle. lochte said this is his time in london. phelps may have other ideas. the 400 im takes place tomorrow. watch phelps and lochte go at it in nbc's prime time tomorrow night. beach volleyball including the american two-time gold medalist misty may-treanor and kerri walsh jennings tomorrow on the nbc sports network.

look on your dial where that is. that is by the way where i will spend the next two and a half weeks hosting. also on the nbc sports network the latest dream team plays tony parker's french squad, that is on sunday morning. just a few of the things you can watch this weekend. watch all 5,355 hours of coverage on-line at nbcolympics.com. they're streaming every single event for the first time in olympic history. don't have to miss a single second. up next, when we send it back to new york, mika's must-read opinion pages. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. my volt is the best vehicle i've ever driven.

i bought the car because of its efficiency. i bought the car because i could eliminate gas from my budget. i don't spend money on gasoline. it's been 4,000 miles since my last trip to the gas station. it's pretty great. i get a bunch of kids waving at me... giving me the thumbs up. it's always a gratifying experience. it makes me feel good about my car. i absolutely love my chevy volt. ♪ last season was the gulf's best i abtourism season in years.olt. in florida we had more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf.

this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spot on the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. 46 past the hour.

live look at capitol hill in washington, d.c., on a summer morning. kimberly straussle in the "wall street journal" writes this, four little words, you didn't build that, is swelling to such heights that it has the president somewhere unprecedented, on defense. mr. obama has felt compelled for the first time in this campaign to cut an ad in which he directly responds to the criticisms of his now infamous speech, complaining his opponents took his words out of context. they did. the obama campaign has elevated poll testing and focus grouping to near clinical heights, and the results drive the president's every action. his policiepolicies, his campai venues, his target demographics, his messaging, that mr. obama felt required teeth gritted to address the "you didn't build that" meme means his vaunted focus groups are sounding alarms. >> probably is true. i don't -- again, this is a summer type, but it's probably true. although the morn damaging thing

you're going to see more of which is ultimately going to see it fall is the bain capital stuff, that's focus group tested. the republicans saying this isn't going to make a difference. it makes a big difference. >> i think howard is right about the bain piece which is why the romney team pivoted and got this gift handed by the president on "you didn't build that". >> they're taking it out of context. >> doesn't matter. i got into this with folks recently. everybody wants to be pure nist politics when trying to make and score their point. the reality is, the folks don't know whether it's taken out of context or not. they hear the words and have a visceral reaction to it, which is why the president is out there cutting the commercials as you saw the romney team and i'll give the obama team credit, at least they responded quickly to get back in front. it took almost three weeks before the romney team responded to the bain and tax, you know -- >> the tax stuff is a problem. he will have to give up those tax returns eventually.

>> that still is sort of the thing that gets them a little bit. both of them are on equal footing in my view in terms of what it looks like going into the fall. >> joe, do you agree with the must read in terms of those four little words and the fact that michael steele thinks they were taken out of context doesn't matter. >> i think that's true too. >> i think it does matter. >> you guys may think it was taken out of context, i don't think you can take the tone out of context, the tone by which the president talked about how these people think that they're smarter than everybody else because they're successful. they think they're richer than everybody else because they work harder. there are a lot of people in america, my parents included who weren't rich who believed the harder you worked and the smarter you worked, and the longer you worked, the more of a chance of success that you had in america. and i don't think his comments were taken out of context.

but that will be a debate that's going to be open in the fall we'll see it in 30-second ads like we'll see mitt romney saying things like i like firing people and you know, he had a series of those gaffes as well, they'll come back. but mike barnicle, one of the things that kimberly straussle hit on, we talked about it yesterday, what's depressing if the president does respond to something like this or mitt romney does respond to something like this, it's because everything they do is so market tested, so poll tested, so focus group driven, that this is, like i said yesterday, a soulless campaign. >> yeah. i mean, and the negativity and the cynicism on both sides will be so overwhelming i fear it's going to drive turnout down, not up. people will be so turned off by this campaign, october 1st, i think too many people will say, you know, i'm not voting for either guy here. but clearly, clearly the

president of the united states cutting an ad to respond to that, it shows -- had to have shown up in focus groups that it cut against him. >> it had to. provie ining that mike barniclee not better than everybody else, [ inaudible ] focus group check out our shirts the night before ands that there's no doubt that on this friday, pink shirts much like the type mike is wearing and i'm wearing, focus group very well. >> we get that information last night, what time, about midnight last night, joe, when we had the contents call. >> how come steele and i weren't in on that conference call. >> let me guess you have nike tube socks on? >> i do. >> oh, my god. >> that poll tests very well too. >> mike and i -- >> ratings went down 25%. >> producer in my ear, stop that, stop that. >> seriously.

did i get it right? they're the same ones you were wearing yesterday. >> they're not. i change my socks. >> i don't think so. >> same underwear, but i change my socks. >> wait a minute. >> can we go back to strip clubs here, barnicle? >> look at that pink shirt. don't joe and i look nice? >> you all look very handsome. >> all right. >> oh, man. still ahead, will ferrell, great. joins us here in the studio. that will add. eugene robinson, chuck todd and david faber, keep it here on "morning joe." with the spark cash card from capital one,

sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice.

♪ 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

obama or romney? >> obama or romney for what? >> for president. >> yes. >> obama. >> i'm going to go write in. i'm going to write in. i think there's a real move afoot for the way to lite kid. >> can i change? >> yeah. >> since i still have the bumper stickers on my subaru, dukakis. >> will ferrell and zach galifianakis speaking with louis

bergdorf speaking at their comedy "the campaign. "will ferrell will be on set along with the film's director jay roach. when we come back, "the washington post's" eugene robinson says he's finally written a column praising george w. bush. that is straight ahead on "morning joe." building pass, corporate card, verizon 4g lte phone. the global ready one ? yeah, but you won't need... ♪ hajimemashite. hajimemashite. 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.

mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover. ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. let's take a paint project from "that looks hard" to "that didn't take long". let's break out behr ultra... ...the number one selling paint and primer in one,

now with stain blocker. each coat works three times harder, priming, covering, and blocking stains. let's go where no paint has gone before, and end up some place beautiful. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. behr ultra. now with advanced stain blocking, only at the home depot, and only $31.98 a gallon. we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world and it's

easier if you hold an olympic games in the middle of nowhere. >> hey, buddy. utah is not in the middle of nowhere. it's in the northwest corner of nowhere. get your geography straight, doctor who. you know what, you know what, you stay strong, mitt. remember, your next stop is israel, keep up the charm offensive. i say, you open your speech to the ka knesset with america will always stand behind you and so will jesus christ. now where can a boy get some baby back ribs in palestine? >> welcome back to "morning joe." oh, god. mike barnicle, michael steele and howard dean are with us. joining us from washington, pulitzer-prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" and political analyst eugene robinson. good to have you on board with us this hour. >> always great to be here.

>> we've been talking about joe with us, members of the british press are very outraged at mitt romney. i'm still not with you all on this but it's a comment he made to brian williams about the london games. "the daily mail" headline, romney's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in london. and from "the guardian" website, mitt romney's olympics blunder stuns number ten and hands gift to obama. those headlines come in response to a comment romney made about london's readiness for the games. >> in the short time you've been here in london do they look ready to your experienced eye? >> you know, it's hard to know how well, it will turn out. there are few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not encouraging because in the games, there are three parts that make games successful. number one, of course, are the

athletes. that's what overwhelmingly the games are about. number two are the volunteers. they'll have great volunteers here. number three are the people of the country, do they come together and celebrate the olympic moment. that's something which we only find out once the games actually begin. >> prime minister david cameron shot back during a news conference at olympic park. >> i think we'll show the whole world not just that we come together as a united kingdom, but also we're extremely good at welcoming people from across the world. i would obviously make those points to mitt romney. we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiest, most active bustling cities anywhere in the world and, of course, it's easier if you hold an olympic game in the middle of nowhere. >> the mayor's office in salt lake city was listening to that, and issued this statement. david cameron can stop by any time we'd love to have him and are happy to send a map so he doesn't run into any trouble locating the middle of nowhere.

but the diplomatic tension didn't end there. with the olympic torch arriving in hyde park yesterday evening to a gathering of 60,000 people, london's mayor boris johnson used romney's comments to fire up the crowd. >> there's some people who are coming from around the world who don't yet know about all the preparations we've done to get london ready in the last seven years. i hear there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready! are we ready! yes, we are. >> romney, after meeting and shaking hands with prime minister cameron spent the rest of the day walking back those comments, hoping to smooth things over. >> governor, did you intend to criticize the way london is prepared for these games? >> i'm very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful olympic games. what i've seen shows imagination

and forethought and a lot of organization and expect the games to be highly successful. >> of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character, and determination by the athletes. >> the white house didn't waste a moment. press secretary jay carney started his briefing pointing out that president obama has the utmost confidence in the uk's ability to manage the olympic games. gene robinson, you lived in london, right? >> yes, i did. i did. i actually knew boris johnson a little bit. and this is right in his wheelhouse. he wasn't going to let that pass. you know, one of the british papers referred to mitt romney as the nowhere man this morning, which i thought was kind of humorous. since the war of 1812, it's been really tough to screw up the

u.s./great britain relationship. it's really difficult to kind of put a monkey wrench into that, but he seems to have done it in record time. it's kind ofamusing. >> okay. it seems to me he was trying to be honest, but it wasn't just romney's comments about the olympics that got the british press riled up. many speculated that romney forget the name of britain's opposition leader ed miliband during a meeting between the two men and then there was romney's secret meeting, this to me seems like it should be the headline, secret meeting with the head of mi 6, the mi 6 britain's intelligence agency, to discuss the unrest in syria. only problem is that the meeting wasn't much of a secret because he told reporters about it. take a listen. >> i appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of mi 6. >> gene, is that -- that might

be a problem. >> well, it's not done. the schedule and meetings of mi 6 are not publicly discussed and it's not talked about and supposed to be not known. so, that was a little gaffe. i mean, it's kind of misstep after misstep after misstep that seems to have really sort trickled the brits and he provides a convenient foil for them as they get ready to somewhat nervously frankly open the olympics. but it was not a good day. it was an awful day for mitt romney. and now he's going to israel, you know. >> great. >> good luck with that. >> i'm hoping for better days ahead here for him, on this -- at least just on the international plane that he keeps here. mitt romney also spoke to cnn's pierce morgan yesterday and

accused the president of trying to divide the country. >> there are people who are trying to attack success and are trying to attack our success. that's not going to be successful. when you attack success you have less of it and that's what we've seen in our economy over the last three years. dividing america based on who has money and who hasn't, who is successful and who is less successful that is not the american way. we're an achievement, celebrating oriented nation. that's what's lifted us. it will continue to do so. the attacks that come by people trying to knock down my business career or olympic experience or our success those attacks will not be successful. people want more success. they don't want less success. >> um, okay. let me just -- howard dean, people want more success, i think what they also want is to feel like they can be successful and they don't right now. >> here's what the republicans are trying to do. they got a business guy with a lot of money and engaged in some

business practices harmful to ordinary people which what is wall street does sometimes. they want to talk about the successes and people do like success and they would like to be rich some day, but the problem is, they also have to talk about his tax returns, cayman island bank account investment account, swiss bank account -- >> his special success. >> people like success and they admire success and romney scores well on that, what they don't like is people who take advantage of that to do things that no ordinary people can't do. it doesn't look like he got there by playing by the rules. he didn't do anything illegal. he did not do anything illegal it looks like. he probably -- my guess he probably didn't pay taxes some of the years he filed. that's not illegal but it reminds people of what's wrong with the system. >> and, i think the problem is, and michael steele help me, help him, how does he do this, how does he do this? how does he tell people you can be successful like me, because i don't think he can. i think the rules he would argue

should be changed and that people should play by more similar rules, so therefore, down the road, given the state of ur economy, and given the fact that certain rules need to be revised so people don't play by different ones, people can't be successful like mitt romney. >> yes, they can. >> tell me how he says it. >> the fact of the matter is no one woke up this morning and said, all i want to be today is poor. people aspire to wealth. >> how can they be rich like mitt romney? >> rich -- >> tell me how, michael. >> you go out -- how does anyone -- how did mitt romney's dad -- >> i don't know i haven't seen his tax returns. >> it has nothing to do with his tax returns. it has everything to do with what his father did. >> his father's success. >> his father built the success and mitt is now part of that legacy and carrying it on and expanded that success. that's the entrepreneurial spirit this country. nothing do with what you put on

your paper. >> what can mitt romney do to connect with people to say you can be successfully like me. >> very distinctly look, there are flaws in the system that we all know about and have been exploited in the past by others, for good, for bad or whatever. part of what i want to be and do as president is fix that. i'm not going to denigrate success. i'm not going to demonize your profit, say you're a bad person because you make money. >> if you fix that can be you successful like him? >> yes, you can. >> not as much. >> i disagree. i think you can. you're tying everything because you have an offshore account, the law allows you to have if that's what you want to have. nothing wrong with putting your money some place else. >> there's nothing illegal about putting your money some place else but that's not available to normal ordinary middle-class people. >> ordinary middle-class people aspire to wealth and opportunity for their families. >> they don't aspire to a cayman islands bank account and swiss bank account. >> i'm not in everyone's

household. you define that for yourself what you want to do with your wealth once you create it. the government, mitt romney, mika, you don't get to make those determinations. individuals do. >> running for president of the united states people get to make those determinations -- >> running for president of the united states you don't tell me what i do with my money once i earn it. >> the voters tell you if you're rich and running for president of the united states you should have paid taxes and you should not have -- >> wait a minute. >> bank account in the cayman islands. >> why are you going to penalize someone tore taking advantage of the loopholes and whatever else that elected officials in washington put in place for him to take advantage of. >> because you're -- >> as president he can go back and say that's the problem that i want to fix. >> that would be nice if he had said that. instead he's concealing his tax returns so he can't tell if people take advantage -- >> it's more important for you to put that stuff out there to have that conversation and put this behind you and move the country forward to talk about the fact that this administration is has not created the jobs, stifled the

growth in this economy, has done a, b or c or not done a, b, and c, that's what the focus needs to be not your tax returns. >> this i think is the conversation. i understand the olympic kerfuffle and his gaffes or whatever, but i think that's silly. this is it right here. this morning, obama for america released this ad highlighting the president's vision for economic growth. >> we're a nation of workers and doers and dreamers. we work hard for what we get and all we ask for is that our hard work pays off. i believe that the way you grow the economy is from the middle out. i believe in fighting for the middle class because if they're prospering all of us will prosper. that's the idea of america and that's why america's the greatest nation on earth. i'm barack obama. i approve this message. >> so how does mitt romney, michael steele, inspire people to feel like they can prosper like he did? i'll ask you one more time.

because you look at that interview and he's like he's very upset success is being attacked. >> it is. it is being attacked. >> only very few people -- >> great commercial. the president has nice floury words. we're looking at family members and friends dealing and struggling in this economy. what have you done to lift people out of that. look at the policies. look at how you have, through spending, debt creation, and those types of weights and barriers have been placed on people how do you move the country forward when it's obvious you have it. that's what mitt romney needs to talk about, how his policies will be different -- >> is there something about his policies that would help people feel hope again they could achieve success? >> sure. >> perhaps success like -- what? >> freeing up the entrepreneurial spirit, trusting the entrepreneur to build us out of this economy. >> really? >> than looking to the government as the key solution at every turn at every moment. >> you gene? >> write another check out of the people's pocketbook when

they don't have the money to write that check. >> like wall street and -- >> you know -- >> big bonuses handed out to everybody and sandy weill who says mistakes were made. >> i'm going to make the world safe for the very rich, that doesn't sound like the best way to approach his campaign because i think the most people, the world looks like a pretty safe and cushy place for the rich. and so -- that's kind of the tone and really the substance of that romney interview we just saw and i just don't think that's going to take hims a far as he wants to go. i really don't. the middle class and to be able to communicate with those voters, is the most important thing, is going to decide this election and frankly don't think that what he was saying in that interview and the way he was saying it communicates with them well. >> what did he say in that made you walk away saying that he wants to protect and make this

economy or this country better for the very rich? what was your takeaway? where did you get that from? >> i got it from the defensive sounding tone of the interview. we've talked about president obama's tone and, in fact, i thought mitt romney's tone there was very sort of almost embattled and defensive about his success. and, you know, yes, i'm here at the opening ceremonies of the olympics to watch my dressage horse perform. >> oh, my god. >> and yes, i'm, you know, i'm not going to show you my tax returns because you might think they're unflattering, but, you know, you have no right to -- >> this is -- we criticize the guy who -- you think he's for the rich because he has a horse? >> that's how i define success and if you question that you're anti-success. >> here's the problem, for the

country, for us, as voters, as citizens. both candidates, more specifically romney more than the president, is they don't get a couple of the dynamics i think that exists in this country. one is, we are relatively envy-free in this country. i don't think a huge number of people walk around thinking all day about how much they envy romney's wealth or obama's wealth or anyone else's wealth. when it comes to money, the most important aspect of money, to the average person, i think, certainly to me, it's the absence of money. not how much you make or have, it's the absence of money. it's when your mortgage payment is $1250 a month and you have $900. it's the absence of money. so, the campaign that -- both candidates have to run, have to address the anxiety that surrounds the absence of money in people's lives. it's that simple. success, you can talk about success, resentment of success all day long. people are going to just tune out.

they want to know where are you going to take us. wheat what's your plan? give us your plan. >> the problem the spirit of entrepreneurship while it's great doesn't cut it. most people in this country are not entrepreneurs. they work for a living and get paid a wage. that's about the most succinct way of putting it i've heard in 20 months. that's fantastic. you're right. that's what the stakes are and why the tax return stuff is killing romney. people suspect fairly or not he didn't play by the rules, not by the legal rules but ordinary rules people are worried about their mortgage rules. they can't have cayman island accounts and don't pay taxes. >> people aren't worried about mitt romney's tax returns. >> they sure as hell are. >> i think they're worried about when they have to file their tax returns how much they're going to pay in taxes and more importantly -- >> what they're worried about is they don't want to have somebody as the president of the united states who doesn't care about them because they've never had to go through what they're going through, the stuff that mike

barnicle talked about. >> show whether or not you care about -- >> it sure does care. >> no, it doesn't. >> yes, it does. if you paid no taxes on a bank account in switzerland what do you know about the ordinary middle class person. >> are you really concerned about barack obama's tax returns as an indication of how much he's concerned about you? >> yes. >> and your ability to get a job? >> i want to know -- >> you have a problem if you're basing your success on someone else's tax return. >> i want to know that barack obama pays the same kind of taxes i do. but he's not. he's at a different point. >> he's paying an enormous percent of his income in taxes and mitt romney may have paid zero for ten years. >> that's income already taxed. it does make a difference. >> people need to know that mitt romney understands them and he doesn't. >> barnicle. >> here's another question from the slow lane. that's me. >> the smart lane. >> how is it when we talk about this briefly yesterday, that a guy, a very good guy, be mitt romney, has clearly been planning to run for president at least a decade.

>> i agree with that. >> how is it that perhaps he didn't pay any taxes in a couple of those years and why isn't it -- why hasn't he dumped those tax returns like on christmas eve to get rid of it? why is he saddled with this? such a great planner, such a great executive, what's up with this? >> yeah. >> i know that it could be the candidate at some point that you can't blame the campaign, honestly if i were a top campaign strategist working for a candidate who wouldn't do that, i would say you release those now or i'm not going to work with you. and we're all leaving. i mean you at some point have to know that your candidate's going to do the right thing. >> what about this -- >> make him do the right thing. >> when h&r block are preparing his tax returns -- >> don't think it's h&r block. >> they say, you know, you don't owe any money in taxes this year. i'm going to run for president three or four years from now i have to pay something. i don't want to get caught paying nothing. no one will understand that, montana or vermont. they're going to resent that.

>> equal amount to charity. it wasn't thought out. >> i give you that. >> the issue which we have to work on here. eugene, you write a piece in "the washington post" about george w. bush's legacy and something extremely positive in that legacy. >> yes. >> tell us about it. >> it was bound to happen at some point. write a column that praises george w. bush. very narrowly and specifically. but, you know, the big international aids conference has been held in washington all week and it -- and the tone is much more positive and optimistic than in previous conferences about finally getting, you know, some day ending this epidemic. and one person who will have played a big part in that is george w. bush, who decided in 2003, under no pressure to do so, to spend billions and billions of dollars providing

anti-retroviral drugs to africa, to victims in countries in africa that could not afford the sort of treatment when he started this program, it's called president's emergency plan for aids relief, only 50,000 people in -- on the continent of africa, epicenter of the aids epidemic, 50,000 were receiving these life saving drugs, and right now, the total is something like 8 million with 4 million people being directly provided drugs through this u.s. program that george wfrmts bush started. it is, i think, in my opinion, the best thing he did as president. it showed that the united states can be both great and good and has saved millions of lives. it's an amazing accomplishment. >> gene, real quick, i want to thank you, man, for acknowledging something that has been one of the most important legacies of george bush and his

commitment goes beyond the pale here, and what always stuns me about the bush team, they never talked about this jewel, diamond in the rough of the work that they did, when i would do business in africa, when i was lieutenant governor and traveled there on missions, the first thing african leaders would say to me was, thank you, george bush, tell george bush thank you, his commitment to the continent has not been forgotten and it's going to be a very powerful legacy long into the future. >> eugene, thank you for writing about that. we'll, of course, everyone should read your column in today's "washington post." coming up later, if only real politics could be more like "the campaign". >> for some reason i thought they were. >> will ferrell will be here on set to discuss his new political comedy. good economic news here and overseas. stocks soaring yesterday. business headlines with cnbc's david faber. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ donovan ] i hit a wall.

and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. [ 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. ♪

26 past the hour. look at that cool shot of new york city. joining us now the co-host of cnbc's "squawk on the street" david faber. hello. >> good morning. >> let's get -- there's big business stories. facebook, wall street is a little worried here or disappoint sthds. >> goes. although it's funny, the company's growth met the -- at least the anticipation of a lot of the people who follow it, but there's just continued concern about its ability to grow, ability to manage this transition to mobile devices. i'm embarrassed to hold up my blackberry. >> you have a blackberry, how is that possible? >> i like to stay in 1997/ '98 technology. a lot of people don't. they are accessing facebook on their mobile device also an iphone or something along those lines and the question is how do you deliver ads in that environment, can you do it successfully? that's a key question for the company. it's spending money to figure a lot of things out and so there's just concern overall.

>> your lead line in your analysis was about facebook's ability to manage this issue and joe was bringing up whether mark zuckerberg is up to the task now that it is what it is does it need perhaps new leadership or how do you manage the situation is. >> i think a lot of people would argue they have fairly good management. cheryl sandberger, the most senior other person there and she is in many ways seen as running the day-to-day let's call it business. zuckerberg seen as running the bigger picture in terms of technology and vision and strategy. i don't know that that's the case. i think the question simply is where is this company in its growth curve? has an enormous amount of use every day but can it grow at a rate investors anticipate it will? >> how much can be pinned on wall street? the initial, you know, stock offering when they peg it at 36 or 38? >> 38. almost $100 billion market

value. >> was that too high? >> yes. well i mean clearly in retrospect it may have been too high given the stock is trading around 24 this morning. and there were a lot of questions about that initial public offering at the time you recall, because it broke right through that so-called syndicate bid where it came public and went down quickly and a lot of investors were unhappy with that. some would argue maybe facebook should have come public sooner when its growth curve was more dramatic instead of where it is right now. >> the company itself and the users of facebook is so massive, are we just overestimating, are we implying damage when there is no damage? >> maybe. it may go back to this idea it's value ed about $60 billion in t market. there's no doubt this is an incredibly successful company that has grown enormously that has enormous power and potentially has an incredible ability to continue to generate a lot of cash and a lot of earnings, but there are

questions as there are with every company. >> other questions at the table but let's go to europe. the central bank vowing to preserve the euro on stock reaction to that and full analysis. >> yesterday we had ecb president mario draggy say things in retrospect many say you have to say as a central bank president to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro but the market reacted positively. europe goes back and forth being the central issue for the investors. today probably won't be. the u.s. gdp for the second quarter today. it's backward looking but still if it comes in lower than anticipated, we all know growth has been slowing here, the question is how much. we may be focused on domestic concerns. yesterday the market focused on europe. it's an ongoing crisis going on for years now. no end in sight. but every time you get a statement of that type, muscular in the sense that it was, at least you get a positive

reaction. angela merkel who runs germany is the key here and really germany's willingness to support a more united fiscal and spending a lot more money to bail out a lot of these other countries remains the key. so we could see an opposite reaction one day based on comments from her. >> how long can our economy, you know, teeter back and forth with what they're doing about spain, what germany will put in or won't put in? how long can we tolerate in our economy? >> we've seen companies report their earnings, in so-called earnings season on wall street and we've seen the damage, whether it be a dow chemical which has a lot of business or ups in europe or a ford and so that's had an impact, there's no doubt. when you come back to the u.s. i think it's as much about things that you talk about at this desk an awful lot, the fiscal cliff, where we are in our economy, what that's going to mean. you hate to hear it, we argue sometimes as ceos, you do

sometimes, uncertainty, is it really about uncertainty but it does have an impact on people's willingness to spend, people making those decisions running the country. >> about europe, i don't know anybody who disagrees with the idea at minimum if they don't have a political union they have to have a unified banking system. if they don't do it this isn't going to work. this is just one patch after another. they have to have a unified banking system run from some tren trol place. >> they have the ecb. to the extent they're going to fiscally integrate the economies it's 17 different countries. >> right. >> and you wonder, what we did during our crisis, paulson was able to accomplish and bernanke, people say was very difficult, but we're one country. when you think about a crisis of this magnitude and think about having to coordinate 17 countries with 17 different cultures and constitutions and everything else, it's an order of magnitude far greater than

what we faced. >> can they get there? >> everybody wonders that. the strategy seems to be that you just keep hoping you get growth. the real problem is europe is not growing. spain is in contraction. italy is not growing. germany's the only really economy. uk is not growing even though it's not part of the 17 nation europe. that's the question, because austerity is not bringing growth and then you look at what's going on and everybody says, how are you going to get out of this if you can't grow. maybe they keep pushing the ball down the road. ball down the road. you know what i mean. >> mike. >> i'm tired of these analogies. >> here in this country, sandy weill, former head of citi, architect really for all these big banks the other day said maybe it's time to go before a time before glass steegle commercial loans and investment banks has that had any ripple effect on wall street. >> it got a lot of coverage, i know that. it's unclear whether it will have impact beyond that. a lot of things have tape taken

place after the financial crisis in the form of dodd/frank and new capital rules forcing banks to have more capital on their books than recently, not taking nearly as much risk. whether we would go back to cleaving banking from investment banking it's not clear that's where the road is right now. and it's not clear that that's necessarily where all the risk is being taken as well. very interesting weill chose to go there, he's the man who did it, who was the man leading the charge. >> david faber, thanks so much. catch david faber on cnbc's "squawk on the street" week days from 9:00 a.m. to noon. thanks very much once again. ahead this morning, being called the modern day shakespearen story, story that hits a major wall in the economic crisis. the director of "the queen of ver sails" joins us ahead. this happy couple used capital one venture miles

for their "destination wedding." double miles you can "actually" use. but with those single mile travel cards... [ bridesmaid ] blacked out... but i'm a bridesmaid. oh! "x" marks the spot she'll never sit. but i bought a dress! a toast... ...to the capital one venture card. fly any airline, any flight, anytime. double miles you can actually use. what a coincidence? what's in your wallet? [ all screaming ] watch the elbows ladies. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course.

nature can surprise you sometimes... next time, you drive. next time, signal your turn. ...that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you.

every communications provider is different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company. ♪ we link people and fortune 500 companies nationwide and around the world. and we will continue to free you to do more and focus on what matters.

. 39 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." seemed like a good idea at the

time. we let lewis do a piece, the "morning joe" correspondent, he worked with megan mccain and took a look at her "new york times" best-selling book about americans and politics. >> i'm here with "new york times" best-selling author megan mccain who authored a new book called "america you sexy," a love letter to freedom. why did you write this book? >> i wrote this book because i thought it would be interesting to go on the road with a liberal comedian and show him america through my eyes. >> you stopped at many cities on your road trip but failed to stop at the sexiest one, new york. we're going to continue the road trip and fints out what the new york -- find out what the new york voter has to say about america and politics. >> that's a great idea. let's go ♪ american girl >> what do you love about america? >> the first word that comes to mind would be ingenuity. >> coming and going as i please. >> if you a dream you can make it come true. >> i can wear a banana suit in

the middle of times square and everybody is walking by like nothing is happening. >> [ inaudible ]. >> love america. love love love america. >> because in america dreams come true. >> i love america because i can travel freely when i have my two weeks vacation from my plumbing uni union. >> so much opportunity. >> only thing i don't like about it is you have to renew your fishing license and truck license, wedding license lasts forever. >> do you think america's best days are ahead of us. >> i think they're behind us. >> far too much emphasis on status and fashion. why fashion week? why not politics every week. ♪ born in the usa ♪ i was born in the usa >> what i love about america is the diversity of people. >> [ inaudible ]. >>. ♪ born in the usa >> we have a good strong military that i trust.

>> i love the spirit of america. it's one that is a can-do spirit. >> one of the most moving things is when you get on the ferry from staten island and see the lady standing there. as long as we can keep that in focus and be emotionally moved by that, we're going to see the better days yet. ♪ america sweet america ♪ you know god done shed his grace on thee ♪ >> that was nice. i'm going to have to take a look at that book. quite a title. >> love the title. >> we were talking in the break, she is the future of the republican party. >> there you go. >> get rid of the hate stuff. >> you just scared a whole heck of a lot of people out there but you're absolutely right. >> she could cream us among young people. imagine her running for something. >> joe is here. >> she's a conservative. jump in joe. >> she's a conservative. >> she is. >> yeah. >> what do you think?

megan mccain in 2016. >> joe biden would say this is your father's republican party. 2016 maybe we have mccain/bergdorf. >> a fusion ticket. >> yeah. >> people running together. >> i think megan can do better. up next, rags to riches story, or riches to rags actually. a new documentary tells the story of a billionaire couple, their mission to build the largest house in america, and how the financial crisis brought it all crumbling down. we'll talk to the director of the sun dance award winning film next on "morning joe." if there was a pill

to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. now, that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. 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. from the price to the room to the trip ♪ 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

i remember you said why am i building that large home and i think i said, because i can. lot of things have changed in the last two years. this is kind of like a reverse of a rags to riches story. this is almost like a riches to rags story. >> that was former tie koon david segal from the award winning new documentary "the queen of versailles" about a real estate billionaire on the brink of losing it all. joining us now the film's director and producer lauren greenfield. good to have you on the show this morning. this is getting a lot of play this story, in a nutshell encapsulate what happens. >> the billionaire that tried to build the biggest house in america and what happens in the economic crisis. when i met jackie and david, they were building a 90,000 square foot house inspired by the palace of versailles and i met them through my photography

work. i had been foefg a story about wealth and consumerism and the american dream and when jackie told me she was building the biggest house in america i was hooked. this connection between the american dream and home ownership and how that hom had gotten bigger and an expression of one's self. they started building and her husband time share king had a bigger dream. he wanted to build the tallest time share ever, 52-story, tower on the las vegas strip at a price of over $600 million. that building proved to be the overreach after the crash affected the time share business and it near -- it jeopardized their entire fortune and the company. and when those buildings went into default and they faced the prospect of foreclosure, their story really became an allah gory about the overreaching of america and the story we had seen in so many other places and i had photographed in my work and foreclosure cities in

california to the crash in dubai, to the real estate in ireland. >> so explain what you mean by overreach? because a lot of people -- i mean knew it would, perhaps, they were thinking too big from the get-go and a lot of americans did that. and that's our responsibility. >> and i think in the film, that's exactly what it's about, is taking responsibility and i think david is in such an interesting position in the film because in the time share business he's banker and borrower. he's hit on both sides. he's selling mortgages to people who are buying time shares and he's borrowing. the overreach came about for good reason in a sense, their business had been growing for 30 years. he never expected it not to grow. >> how much was this palace, the french palace of versailles, the 90,000 square foot home how much did it cost them? >> he said -- jackie said they put $50 million in plus the land an when they had to put it up for sale in may of 2010 they put

it up at $75 million unfinished $100 million unfinished. it's been on the market since then and down $10 million. >> the film won the sundance film festival this past year. it's received great, rave reviews. and yet, you know, looking at the outline of what the seegals tried to do, building a home, 2022 bathrooms, 20 car garage, wine cellar holding 20,000 bottles, ten kitchens, how are they at all a sympathetic couple? >> yeah. >> i think that's the real surprise of the movie and what audiences have been kind of telling me. sundance you go in thinking you're never going to relate to these people, they're the 1%, outsized dream, they live in a fantasy world. in some ways maybe a fantasy -- >> can i take it further? i haven't seen it. but you're thinking it's gluttony. it's hedonism, materialism

that's absolutely they've made the same mistakes so many of us have from taking out too much money on their credit cards to using our homes as bpiggy banks. they're both self-made people. they went too far in a way they -- their virtues and flaws i think allow us to see their own and that's the power in the story. >> why do you need all that? >> jackie said her husband deserved it as kind of a sign of his success and david said he built it because he could. the interesting thing about david is, you realize that he doesn't even care that much about living in the house. he just wants to have built it. that that's the accomplishment for him. >> are they good people? >> you know what, they are good

people. i think that's one of the things that drew me to the story of jackie, has a very good heart. you see in the arc in the beginning we weren't sure what their values were. you weren't sure if jackie loved her husband for love or money. by the end, it grounds them and you see that she really loves her husband, that her core values really come out, she's caring more for other people. and that she is more content with what she has. >> the queen of versailles. >> they're not in a homeless shelter, are they? >> they're not. >> it's a morality tale, they give up this building, this las vegas building, and their business can continue to go on. the house is still for sale. it's up for $65 million. >> if anyone is looking. michael steele? i am not going to attack your success if you buy that house. the queen of versailles is currently showing in select theaters in new york and las vegas. thank you very much.

congratulations. from the new movie "the campaign" will ferrell will be here. "morning joe" straight ahead. [ 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!

....

♪ . still ahead, will ferrell will be here on set. plus, you know, this guy is kind

of a big deal. chuck todd joins us the conversation and up next, mitt romney riles up the british press by questioning whether or not london is really ready for the olympic games. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪ [ 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. with the spark cash card from capital one,

olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? ♪

we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiest, most active bustling cities anywhere in the world and, of course, it's easier if you hold an olympic games in the middle of nowhere. >> hey. buddy. utah is not in the middle of nowhere. it's in the northwest corner of nowhere. get your geography straight, doctor who. you know what, you know what, you stay strong, mitt. remember, your next stop is israel, keep up the charm offensive. i say you open your speech to the knuset with america will always stand behind you and so will jesus christ. now where can a boy get some baby back ribs in palestine? >> good morning. it's 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 new york city. back with us on set, mike barnicle, michael steele, howard

dean, along with willie geist in london for the olympics. >> if you can't believe somebody, can't believe that mitt romney would go to london and decide to start criticizing how they're running the olympic games, i should have all of of jerusalem chlt what's he going to do. >> that's a big stumble. obviously it has an olympic connection so we will go to the guys in london for that. >> we have to show you a couple of papers about the opening ceremony. inside the daily mail, who invited party popper romney? that's the headline there.

another of the newspapers, the london times said nowhere, man. romney loses his way with gaffe about the games. they are taking this awfully personally. they are taking it partially the comments he made to brian williams. romney's terrible horrible no good very bad day. the guardian's website. mitt romney's olympics blunder stuns number ten and hands gift to obama. about london's readiness for the games. >> the short time you have been here does it look ready to your experienced eye? >> it's hard to know how well it will turn out. a few things were disconcerting and the stories about the private security firm not having enough people. the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something that is encouraging. in the games, there are three parts. number one are the athletes.

that's what the games are about. number two are the volunteers. number three are the people of the country. do they come and celebrate the olympic moment? that's something we only find out when the games begin. >> david cameron shot back during a news conference here in olympic park yesterday. >> we will show the whole world not just that we have come together as a united kingdom, but we are good at welcoming people from across the world. not only make those points, but we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiyest, most active bussing cities anywhere in the world. it's easier if you hold them in the middle of nowhere. >> that's a little shot. the mayor's office in salt lake city issued a statement. david cameron can stop by any time. we would love to have him and

happy to send a map so he doesn't run into any trouble locating the middle of nowhere. with the olympic torch arriving in hyde park yesterday to a gathering of 60,000 people, some said it was 75 or 80,000 people. they used romney's comment to fire up the crowd. >> some people coming from around the world who don't know about all the preparations we have done to get london ready. here's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we are ready. he wants to know whether we are ready. are we ready? yes, we are. >> then things got awkward because romney had a meeting with the prime minister on the schedule. he spent the rest of the day walking back his original comment to brian, hoping to smooth things over. >> governor, did you intend to criticize the way london prepared for the games? >> this is a highly successful

olympic games. this shows the imagination and fore thought and a lot of organization and expect the games to be highly successful. >> of course there will be errors from time to time, but they are overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character, and determination by the athletes. >> willie, we have a rule here. you never compare anybody to hitler or nazis. jesse owen his hitler to run against in 1936 and it looks like all these london politicians have mitt romney. can you believe boris the mayor gees in front of this huge crowd and is using mitt romney size the red meat to throw out? unbelievable. >> you and i have met him. he's quite a character.

there a lot of politicians sitting around the table and that's an easy question to answer when you are seated in london. what a wonderful city and i'm sure they will be ready. there was context to it. you can never be prepared for what happens. some things come up and they have had problems. there is context, but i would take the easy out on the question. >> welcome to london. the white house didn't waste a moment. jay started his briefing pointing out that president obama has the utmost confidence in the uk's ability to manage the olympic games. i'm not sure how fair this is. mitt romney did run the olympics. >> he ran the olympics and i'm sure he thought he was giving a legitimate analysis in talking about what he needed to look for. that said, when you are overseas, you have to be extra extra careful. this is actually -- i'm not going to say damaging, but it's

a missed opportunity for mitt romney. great britain felt over the past four years that barack obama has not understood the special relationship between america and britain. i felt that way. a lot of people felt that way. mitt romney discussed it and now he has managed in a day to make barack obama seem like the favorite son of london. it was a dumb, dumb thing to do. will it be damaging in the long-term, no, but he is not nimble on his feet. >> let's get analysis from the table here. can he do anything right? >> this is a great lesson in how to win friends and influence people. the reality is as i said to the governor earlier, i sat there and i watched this thing unfold and kept having flash backs listening to a crowd of 60,000

boo mitt romney to 250,000 cheering barack obama on his european tour in 2008. that's the contrast that you don't want replayed here in america number one. number two, i don't care if he ran the olympics or invented the olympics. if you are running for president of the united states, you know there tensions at the diplomatic level for various issues. that's your opportunity to shine and be above it all and not to be the analyst of the olympics. >> willie gift? >> this was on the day of the opening ceremonies. one about the olympics and the other is this giant wochb. obama should be on the rocks so why is his millionaire jetski rival struggling to stay afloat? that spurred a bunch of opinion pieces.

>> i feel outnumbered, but this is a little unfair to romney? >> no. i had a few of these problems. >> you speak from experience. >> here's what the problem is. this is his opportunity and why do you these trips. to look presidential. he doesn't look presidential. i don't care what he does, this is what people remember. >> here's the problem. this is not what you want to spend july talking about when you are getting ready for november. it is a major missed opportunity. he went abroad and didn't look presidential. he could have moved the meter and looks clunky. >> have you been invited into someone's home and you go in and there is a yellow couch that you are looking at. you say geez, what a beautiful couch. you necessary someone's home. the guy can't remember when his wife's event is being held.

>> he didn't remember ed's name. that's not a good thing. that was bad. that could have an effect down the road. >> do we have that? this is from the independent, but he forgot his name. >> he will pay a price for that at some point. they will gloss it over, but that does have an effect on relationships. >> was it jet lag? it is unfair, but politics is inherently unfair. >> weren't there security -- >> there were, but i understand the point that you are making. again, this is not about running the olympics. even if the ran the olympics, you should know not to handle someone else's handling of the olympics. >> he was asked about the analysis. he was asked to analyze. >> you punt. that's 101a in politics. do not answer the question you

were asked by the reporter. answer the one you would like. he fell right into it. >> i can't believe the british people have done and can't wait for the games to start. next question. >> exactly. next. >> he is responding to reportedly, supposedly. he is not sure of the facts of the readiness and preparedness. take the high road and move on. it's not the question for him to answer. >> i am guessing he is feeling comfortable because he did the olympics himself and it falls into this analysis. you can't do that. >> this is a no brainer. wherever you go whether you go to london or a town meeting in the middle of nowhere, you compliment people. i wouldn't say that's the middle of nowhere, but you don't sit around and speculate on how the games can go wrong. you are on a foreign policy

trip. this matters because this is a guy who is going to be representing us across the globe if he is elected president of the united states. i know you said this is an insignificant blunder. it's not really. when he is president of the united states, imagine when he is not nimble enough to make the right comments when he is overseas. who is fodder for headlines suddenly becomes a diplomatic incident is concerning to me. >> let me add this that seems more of a headline but i'm definitely outnumbered. romney's secret meeting with the head of mi 6, britain's intelligence agency. they discussed the unrest in syria, but it wasn't much of a secret because romney told reporters about it. >> i appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leadership and opposition as

well as the head of mi 6. >> mi 6, the british did not admit it existed until about 15 years ago. >> that to me feels a little bit more problematic. >> it is. this is a disastrous trip from one end to the other. do i think he will recover? probable, but this is the worst trip any presidential candidate has taken in memory. >> i wouldn't put up as the worst, but clearly a lesson in what not to do. >> think of a worst one. i am talking candidate. >> put this in perspective. >> i do think it's too early for us to judge how bad the trip is going to be. you have to see the polish jokes he is going to get. >> where there is a success story. >> whether he will go to israel.

he will miss that. whether he will go to israel and start talking about the palestinians needing all of jerusalem. it doesn't seem fair. let's see how the rest of the trip goes. this was a bad start. i think again what we see here in mitt romney is a man who is a successful dad, a great dad and a great husband and great businessman, a great organizer of the olympics and a savior of the olympics and a man who is just not comfortable as a politician. he is doing this, i think, because -- i don't know. i'm not going to be a psychiatrist, but he is not doing this because he loves politics. he is not comfortable with it. you can sense that. that becomes very troublesome for the campaign staff. i'm sure they are horrified right now. >> from the new movie, the campaign, will ferrell will be here on set and jay roach. up next, nbc news political

director. here's bill with a check on the forecast. >> the big thunderstorms that rolled through last night, we will see more storms today, but won't have the temperatures and the humidity we had yesterday. the coverage won't be as great, but we could have an afternoon storm anywhere through the i-95 corridor and through pennsylvania. the forever cast for the rest of the country, the drought gets worse and not quite as hot, but still in the mid 90s and some areas near 100. look at saturday. 102. if you are in new england, in the hudson valley area, you have strong thunderstorms saturday afternoon. finally your sunday forecast is looking better in new england and we try to get you wet weather there in the drought areas of colorado and the northern plains. not a lot. hit and miss storms. doesn't look like much relief with the heat in the middle of

the country coming any time soon. you are watching "morning joe." have a great weekend. we are brewed by starbucks. ovidt but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you.

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. ♪

♪ [ male announcer ] everyone likes a bit of order in their life. virtual wallet helps you get it. keep track of spending, move money with a slide, and use the calendar. all to see your money how you want. ♪

. it looks to me like london is ready and it is hard with games in a major metropolitan area. they took the venues and put them right in the city. you being a good politician. are you backing off? if you look at the papers here

in london, they are everywhere and they are saying things about this comment. >> i knowledge absolutely convinced that the people are ready for the games and all the things politicians say because of the athletes. >> welcome back to "morning joe." a live look at the white house. that was mitt romney speaking with matt lauer on nbc's today. the chief white house correspondent and host of the daily run down. i talked -- it almost is worse now. why can't he just stand by it. what am i missing? why is this a big deal? >> it's a big deal because the british tabloids got patriotic. let's remember this. role reverse. can you imagine a foreign leader or prospective leader coming to our country and questioning

something we did? you would see the same rallying around press and politicians and the same thing. >> he said he was a little concerned. >> it's good cheap local politics at home. let's remember that. that's what makes this blunder by romney. it was done sort of -- this was not part of a gotcha question or anything like that. this was self-inflicted. it is one of the this is what happens to first time diplomatic trips. it is very easy to insult a host country on anything. they will parch ever word. normally diplomatic language is frustratingly neutered. you always hear everything is always so carefully orchestrated. it is so easy for a host country on anything to get insulted. he went right there.

>> i tell you the one thing i think it does is criticize or undermines mitt romney's criticism of how the president presents himself to the world and weak and all that. this president has strangely strong on foreign policy compared to other democratic presidents. but it just seems to me that now walking back the comment feeds into everything we talk about every day about mitt romney which is he sort of responds to his advice and focus groups and campaigns the moment as opposed to who he really is and really feels. >> it goes into that and you talked about this earlier, he is just not nimble. i go back to what he did which was a faux pas insulting to the american press corps. no one will care, but he was standing about with the labor leader, milliband, he took

questions, but refused to call on members of the american press corps. again, that is a diplomatic faux pas. it's an insult to ed and he went ahead and took questions and he was expecting his international cowner part to do the same so he could get an opportunity to answer questions from the american press corps and he didn't get that opportunity. it's insuling the american press corps, but a diplomatic faux pas. you have got to wonder, did they bring on and find bush white house people to help them with this? it's my understanding for instance that when obama did this as candidate obama, they signed on some protocol from clinton days to make sure that they didn't mess these things up. if so and so said he was going to do this, what does two and

two mean? you don't know what that means with the international press corps. you wonder if they had bush folks from the bush white house days come with them on this to help them out. >> chuck, let me ask you a broader question. let's set aside the gaffes or whatever you want to call it. he doesn't know when his wife's horse is running and let's set those aside. i want to ask you what you think the result of all of this is on the architecture and the myth and the reality of the campaign that it's a well-run, well organized machine that reflects the candidate's experience and his ability to make quick decisions and good decisions based on gathering statistics that will allow a company or individual or nation to prosper. that is the theme of the campaign and yet here they are,

still saddled with what to do about his income tax returns and now saddled with these things that appear to be set apart from any well-plan and well-disciplined organization. what does that do to the architecture of the campaign if anything? >> i would say this. i looked at this and we were writing this morning in first read. we are at halftime in the general election. romney got this nomination pretty much locked up in april. you knew it was going to be divide up into romney rallying the republican party when was the first quarter of the game and the second quarter was the summer months and the defining of mitt romney and the third quarter will be the vp collection and the conventions and then the debates. we are at halftime. when you look at the fundamentals of the campaign, romney should be ahead. he shouldn't be even or behind.

he is even or behind because tactically the obama campaign won the second quarter more than anything. they are doing more to control romney's biography than mitt romney. mitt romney has not done anything to fix the biography issues either to get out in front of bain and the tax returns and the wealth issue. he has not done it. when you look at the larger ark of the campaign, that is -- the olympics have been when we will pause and head to the vp. that is sort of where i see it. they should be ahead and they are behind because they are losing tactical. >> real quick, on the dove tail on mike's point on the tax returns and bain issue. the vp issue comes shortly after

the olympics. what do you think if he has not addressed the issue of taxes and bain. is that another issue to deal with? once that selection is made, all of that is put to the side? >> it's interesting. i wonder now if they are taking a look to see how many candidates have already released five, six, seven years of tax returns in their political career. i know that one of the things we are working on is double checking that. how many years of tax returns has rob portman and ditto paul ryan and tim pawlenty. that could be uncomfortable. it could mean why tim pawlenty could be up front. here's a guy who is not nearly as wealthy as romney or a portman or something like that where that won't even become much of an issue. >> quick question. third base or shortstop? >> hanley ramirez has been

grumpy at third base. i say shortstop. i'm a d gordon fan. i put him at short and keep him happy. i think we get three months of hanley hitting over .300 and overtake the giants. we probably lose to the nationals at the nlcs. >> there you go. >> thank you very much and see you in the daily run down after "morning joe." coming up from the new comedy the campaign, will ferrell and director jay roach will join us on set here on "morning joe." these fellas used capital one venture miles

for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use... but mr. single miles can't join his friends because he's getting hit with blackouts. shame on you. now he's stuck in a miniature nightmare. oh, thank you. but, with the capital one venture card... you can fly any airline, any flight, any time. double miles you can actually use. what's in your wallet? alec jr? it was a gift.

. you are not nervous, are you? >>y in. >> you are doing a good job. >> yes. ♪

♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

. as a christian it would be easy for you to recite the lord's prayer. >> sorry that what we are resorting to? >> i would like to hear him say it. would you like to hear it? >> i'm happy to. our father, art, who is up in heaven hallow there be thy name. the thigh. thigh singdom, the magic kingdom as it is on earth in a helicopter. >> this was going to be good. that was from the campaign. joining us now, costar of the film, will ferrell and the director. great to have you on the show. >> great to have you. going nowhere fast. our greatest american actionor. >> i think it might be. that would be you. >> yeah, thank you.

>> where would you get the material for this movie? i don't get it. i'm confused. >> there is not a lot out there. can i start by saying i think the olympics are going to run perfectly. the facilities and world class. i think it's going to be the greatest games of all time. >> you agree with governor romney. >> yeah. >> he was natural. when he said that. >> you are not going to walk back your statements? >> no, i stand by my statements. >> this must have been so much fun. >> yeah. it was a blast. we came welling to and yeah. >> what are exactly are you making fun of? >> everybody. it's become a crazy process. it wasn't -- we were shooting in the primaries and we would go we have to to step it up.

we tried to keep it interesting for you guys. >> you can't tell us who these two candidates on-can i use the word candidates or idiots? >> now that you put it that way, it's easy. >> these are our movies. >> we had a lot to go from and talked about how will's hair was john edwards-inspired and it's strong hair and strong hair is important. >> one of the interesting side bars is i believe uncle nick who ran against jesse and narrowly lost. how do you go through a day alongside zack, how do you go through a day where it's a yuck tsunami. it was a total yuck tsunami. >> i want to get a t-shirt about

the jokes. >> it's really fun and you have to have a lot of cameras and soak it up. we had a 3 1/2 hour cut when we started. it's 90 minutes. we got two extra hours of incredible stuff. >> how much do you ad lib? >> anywhere between 32 and 34%. >> can you be more precise? >> it's the same process that obviously we have a script that we work hard on and shape and mold, but on the day if you are working with a good comedy director like jay, they let you kind of go off and make up your own stuff. >> how quickly do you tune out on lame premovie interviews? your eyes glaze over and you have tape to keep your eyelids

open? >> my politician skills are excellent. >> i have seen you do interviews like letterman and he takes his clothes off. >> not on the interviews. >> you don't? >> no, that's just in times square. >> okay. joe scarborough is with us. you have to explain the educational process that you put me through to prepare for the interview with will ferrell. go ahead. >> you are the only person on the face of the earth and i think everybody around our show talks about every show you have been in. we brought up wedding crashers and i talked about when you came down the shares and my wife got up and walked out of the theater. that was not a funny movie. i walked out halfway thru. what do you call bradley cooper's a team? a squad or something like that.

anyway, this is a-list. that's right. this was a great movie. we had a lot of fun and i want you to talk about your partner and screen writer who has been with you through the other guys and of course a lot of other great movies you guys have done. >> adam mckay, we were hired at the same time as "saturday night live" in 1995. just kind of really enjoyed writing sketches together and shared the same sensibility and when you left the show, you said let's cover the movies. foolish enough to think someone would pay us to write screen plays. he's kind of -- we are kind of this match in a way that -- >> it's amazing. >> we were lovers for two years too. yeah. >> you can tell that. because you mesh together. as lovers it had to be more

exciting to be able to work together in a compressed time frame. you filmed this pretty quickly, right? >> it was right on schedule, right? >> and adam is partly his idea. all the writers were always around. the overlap between the improv and the writing is going on. they are improving in the room and the writers show up on set. it's all blending together. >> i will be the to admit that he forced me to watch anchorman and i loved it. >> you don't have to say that. >> and i wouldn't, trust me. i had people come on the set and i absolute hated your movie. it was horrible. it was the stupidest thing. i loved bradley and didn't like the movie. everyone else did. i loved anchorman. i'm just being honest. breadly is fine.

>> he's doing elephant man. i'm looking at anchorman and can't wait to see this and i wonder if it draws upon the same human emotions. you seem to be good at framing them. that is how unbelievable unself-aware some people can be. >> probably because cam brady who is this character, the four-time incumbent who always ran unopposed is pretty unself-aware. he is a goy who never had to campaign and for the first time he has to kind of actually do something. >> it's like how do you get to the truth in american politics of what happened in the primary. >> i have an idea of how to get to the truth.

let's get will ferrell and let him go. let's take the choke chain off and let him go. that is more of the truth than you get. >> comedy is a great vehicle to kind of get into all that. >> it's kind of like a documentary about the process and the way this movie turned out. >> joe, jump in. >> kind of like a documentary about any campaign except for the fact that you don't have one candidate seducing another's wife and making a take and turning it into a 30-second ad and have the approval ratings go up and the other candidate goes out and shoots somebody in the leg. not yet. that said, we have what was so funny for us watching the other night is when cam brady talked about when he would bring jobs to north carolincarolina, he sa nothing and it sounded just as

great as everything mitt romney and barack obama are saying. he said nothing, but it brought everybody to their feet. that really was a great parody of what was going on. >> it's very fun to play that kind of character who can sit here and no matter what the question is asked of him, say first of all, i want to thank all of you for having me on the show today. i'm a huge fan. i always watch the show. i love it. thank you for taking the time, i know you are all very busy. i appreciate the job you do for all the viewers out there of informing us -- what was the question? >> on that point, certainly as a former elected official and running a national party, you are dealing with the grooming of yourself as a candidate and all the things you try to avoid as

well as trying to train the next generation and what's exciting about what you have done, every politician needs to see it. don't take this stuff too seriously. in other words, be yourself. we talk about this and when you are looking at the candidates or anyone, they are not themselves. they are prepackage and scripted conversation. when they have that moment where they say what they think about american businesses or the way you prepared the olympics, it stars to resonate. all of a sudden say negative when in fact people would be more comfortable with that honesty than you are now trying to clean it up. >> the truth of it is, 99% of the campaigns, there is always a candidate who wears the clown suit. this one, both candidates are

wearing clown suits. that's why it's great from the get go. >> something americans recognize and that's why people identify with this and really enjoy watching it. because it is the other side of the campaign they see every day on the news that they wish they could see. >> exactly. good stuff. >> if i can just say before you say all these nice things about the film, you probably need to watch it. these guys were so over the top. jay ain't going to be doing any biopicks about real political campaigns that look like this. it's outrageous. >> and you don't think it matches what's been going on. during the prime easier, we were thinking we are not pushed enough. we have to amp it up. we watch the campaign ads and

the demon sheep ad. we have to turn the ads up too. some of it is stretched. i love that herman cain is the campaign manager. >> and the cigarette. >> that's an example of what i'm talking about. an honest moment. even if you take it to the extremes of comedy, people do appreciate it because -- i don't know if they did that one. that was crazy. >> fun crazy. let me tell you. >> what are candidates or politicians or leaders that you got the most material from? >> i don't know if there was any one in particular. it seems like all of them are driven these days by huge money to go at each other in a striving negative way. i read something in the "new york times" two days ago that if some 4,000 ads were in virginia, not one of them positive.

wouldn't you kind of like to hear more about issues and all that? we wanted to make fun of pretty much the system more than anyone. it's a bipartisan skewering. >> it is ludicrous because we are in serious times. >> yeah. >> what are people talking about? you sat dun on the set and said what did mitt romney say? what was it? it's almost like the media world in london and they are exploding over it. >> before you go, can you talk about your relationship with baseball? i have seen you on the mound at fenway park and seen you on tv reading the cubs lineup. what's your relationship with baseball? are you a baseball guy like i am? >> i love baseball. i love all sports. when they ask to you come -- >> you did a great job. >> especially the demonstration

sports like the olympics, i want to be inclusive to all. what i love doing is when they ask to you throw out the first pitches. i love to put a twist on it. what was great about fenway, if i'm going to do it, i want to be dressed in an imaginal 1975 red sox uniform and i want to be able to run from the bull pen all the way out to the field. those are experiences -- i got to meet with louie before i threw the pitch and he said how he did the twist and turn. those are kind of ways for me to have fun with those things. >> have you ever had a more painful time than this morning? you kidding me? this is fantastic. i feel very good. the things in the news, have you heard about kristin stewart?

>> something about somebody's wife? is that her? >> that's her. it's awful. rob patterson moved out. >> no! >> yes. >> oh, my. >> he moved out. >> is that important? >> this is important. i don't care what's going on in syria. this is happening here. she made out with the director. the director is married. >> that's a sin. >> that's enough. that's a sin. >> she is 22. >> she is only 22. anyway. >> i'm glad you came. >> great segment, everyone. we nailed it. >> the campaign hits theaters nationwide friday august 10th. will farrell and jay roach. more "morning joe" in a moment. [ 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.

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. ovider is different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you.

with the fidelity stock screener, you can try strategies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. 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. to experience the largest,

most efficient line of luxury hybrids on the road, including the all-new esh. ♪ while many automakers are just beginning to dabble with the idea of hybrid technology... ♪ ...it's already ingrained in our dna. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection.

time now to talk about what we learned today. i learned that i will never know if you like that couch. you will not tell me the truth. >> it's a beautiful couch, mika. it's gorgeous. i learned that mitt romney can learn a thing or two about complimenting the longd on

olympics with the bland comp limits he had for us. he did a lot better at politicking than mitt romney. >> let's end with a bland compliment. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe" and thank you all so much for being with us. you are our favorite fans in the world. stay tuned to perhaps the greatest guy in the world. >> he's a really big deal. >> . >> wrestling, boxing, jumping, shooting. the games have not starred yet. it's mitt romney's olympic sized battle with london and the leaders. can the candidate avoid wounds on this do no harm trip abroad. capitol hill gears up for the august recess. it's anything but quiet. we have major senate primaries in days and weeks.

they will decide who is going to control the senate. we know how bad things can get in congress. the fighting and theatrics, but is the political polarization causing the public and voters to be each more divided? good morning from washington. it's friday, july 27th, 2012. we have the big new gdp numbers. stagnation, stagnant growth. those could be an olympic-sized problem for the president. let's get to the first read of the morning. just one line. one response to a question about the olympics. at the start of the brian williams interview that derailed the trip before it got started. >> in the short time we were here in london, do they look ready? >> hard to know how well it will turn out. there were disconcerting stories about the private security