today in our t. t. minus six months left in president obama's first term his list of campaign promises remains of woefully incomplete will grade the president on his performance. and one of the areas the president is struggling in the economy u.s. cities are toppling like dominos and finally for bankruptcy we'll show you what happens when a city takes on more debt than he can ever hope to pay off. and get ready for a food fight of epic proportions. being fried up and served on a silver platter by gay rights groups and now cities like boston and chicago are telling the food chain to stay away the details ahead. it's thursday july twenty sixth seven pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our. old campaign season is in full swing and

president obama now has six months to fulfill his election promises and he made a lot of them let's take a look at some of the big ones and how he scored on his report card. the first thing there by emily and sasha dogg done we gave him an a credit card bill of rights accomplished that also gave minae remove troops from iraq he gets an a minus you know it's the end of the war but military contractors are still there next one reform the health care system we gave him an average grade of c. he tried but didn't get all the bells and whistles he promised get unemployment below four percent we gave him a d. it's more like double that right now symbolize the economy we gave him an incomplete for obvious reasons ten percent of electricity from renewable sources by two thousand and twelve he got a failing grade because that is nowhere close to being a reality and the whole cylindrica bottle didn't help his grade either close

guantanamo go antonymous another promise he made we gave him an ass because not only is this still open but as we've reported the government is investing millions into the secret prison to keep it up and running another promise or verse bush's tax cuts we gave him a failing grade there once again well in this divisive political climate obama's opponents are quick to pounce on him for promises unfulfilled much of it highlighted in the book the amateur which takes an in-depth behind the scenes look at president obama and his administration it soared to the top of the new york times bestseller list and is also generating quite a bit of controversy i was joined by the author of the book edward klein i asked him what grade he would give president obama take a look. and i think you're being generous. why do you say that a lot of people would be less generous than i would give them an ask and flunking out of three. jobs all right you have this new book it's called the amateurs are

referring to president obama why give him that title why call him an amateur. because you know i did two hundred interviews for this book i interviewed people both in and out of the administration i interviewed people who covered the president in the white house white house press corps republicans and democrats in congress and to a person they all said the same thing that this president is temperamentally unsuited for the job he loves to be out in front of large groups ten twenty thirty thousand people when it comes to dealing with congress and dealing with six of the day to day basis he is clueless he doesn't have the executive skills to do the job and that's why i call him the amateur now ok i hear what you're saying but a lot of people point to the climate right now i mean we have one of the most

divisive congress as i mean arguably that is being dubbed one of the most divisive congresses a in u.s. history and president obama is placing the because not shy to place the blame on congress so what do you think about that said don't they play into the bigger picture here. i don't buy into this. mainstream media myth that it's the congress who which has been obstructionist i think for instance of lyndon johnson in one thousand nine hundred sixty four he had a senate that was controlled by southern racist democratic chairman committee chairman and despite that he was able to get the first major civil rights act passed through congress and how did he do it he did it because he was skilled in the use of political. challenge he had the challenge he understood the weak points in the strong points of these people and how to get

them to come along and do what he wants to do president obama doesn't have those talents all right edward i want to play this clap from presidential candidate mitt romney we asked him the same question what grade he would gather president obama here at his or spots. president obama in your view done anything well. sure yes i appreciate for instance the decision he made to go after osama bin laden and to make sure he was it was executed what grade would you give president obama i want to ask the question about that across the board across the board even despite the killing of osama bin laden rove when i look at what's happening in the middle east the arab spring has become the year of winter so that's hardly a success and of course domestically it's hard to call what now thirty to forty months of unemployment above eight percent a success when even he said by now it would be right there in the six percent range

and by now it is not it's over eight. so there he is giving president obama failing grade give him a little bit more credit than you did but you know what president obama is going to tallaght are you know he killed osama bin laden that was a promise that he made he fulfilled that. so what do you think i mean doesn't he have some victories in there that he can kind of tout. well i wish i could point to something less but i can't i mean i agree with mitt romney that if you look at the middle east we have iran moving into iraq where we spent ten years lost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and we've left iraq to the not so tender mercies of iran syria is going down the tubes the iran is getting closer and closer to a nuclear weapon the middle east is the mess and we're not in the middle east using

america's influence and power the way we should but that is true also in eastern europe where we removed our anti-ballistic missiles in the far east where china is resurgent there in foreign affairs certainly this administration has been leading from behind its leading as it were at all domestically i think the recession speaks for itself eight point two percent unemployment millions and millions of people either out of work or can't find a job or it's just dropped out it's really a very sad story and a story that. the president has very hard time trying to do support when he's running for reelection so rather than run on his record he's running by running down to the other candidates but what about the fact that he bubble capture and you know he did tell us all of them lot in something that the

previous administration had vowed to dan was unable to accomplish. and that a victory at least that's why we cannot expect the best definitely a victory and we have to give him credit for that and i do. this. campaign to get osama bin laden was started under george w. bush and continued under president obama and. i think any president in his shoes given the information that he had from the cia about the whereabouts of osama bin laden you know bought a bad just and would have done what he did but that doesn't take away from the fact that it was a successful raid and we did kill the most wanted man in the world and so yes that's a positive but this one ties it of out of hundreds of negatives and what about his promise i he ended the war in iraq well he ended the war in iraq by.

not doing what any see a president would have done which is to keep some of our troops there after we drew in order to maintain a presence and make sure that iran was not going to move in and become the leading foreign influence on iraq which it has since become so i don't think that was a success at all that your book right is coming out at a very convenient time i mean it's kind of the crunch time six months lasted until six months left and the president saying i mean what kind of feedback are you getting i am from the jail pain. i'm assuming it's making them pretty happy right that the book has been number one on the new york times bestseller list for six weeks straight which i guess speaks for how successful it's been i am very gratified that so many people have found the book both informational and

entertaining. obviously the democrats don't like the book as i expected they wouldn't but independents are buying this book the amateur republicans are buying it i've been asked to speak at many places i think it's important to this book is important because it does for iraq obama what the mainstream me you never did which was is to vet him so early and carefully and explain why he's been so ineffective as president i would say it's no doubt that this book as successful you know atop the new era time's best bestseller arrest but there is a lot of controversy surrounding about many critics say that being details right now lot of them just simply aren't true what do you say about. well first of all they do say that and then they don't point to anything that they can prove is untrue as you know i had a three hour tape recorded interview with the reverend jeremiah wright. barack

obama was former minister which i released to the press and no one had known nobody in the history media's picked it up the criticism of the book has been against me personally not about the facts in the book because the facts that are in country vertical i spoke to obama's position for twenty years i've spoken to his colleagues at the university of chicago law school i spoke to people in in his administration nobody has come forward and said you misquoted me i didn't say that the book is solid and i coming into it to question average because i know you worked for the new york times and of course seven you know abt up holding of eighty highest journalistic standards and a lot of it comes from where your source says are from and i think that is what is generating a lot of this controversy that i am your sources tend to be anonymous a i think

their sources are being questioned but their response to that of the actually so i'd say that well more than half of the sources in the book are actually on the record and named. including as i said his former physicians and his colleagues at the university of chicago medical school african-american business people and political figures who are all on the record only people who are off the record are washington figures who have to continue to work with him in congress a lot of congresspeople where typically unwilling to go on the record could with their names but i have to tell you that you know i've been doing this for being a jew i've been a journalist for over fifty years and i've interviewed everyone from un indira gandhi in gold in my year to president reagan i'm very careful about my sourcing. and you can be sure that that when i say somebody said something they said it i

would i do want to bring the. it's from a new york magazine this is what they found where they found fault and this particular lie quote no american politician had attempted to us or a sitting president of his own party since ted kennedy fail to see jimmy carter more than thirty years before pat buchanan than a mara pointed out attended to and see george h.w. bush in nineteen ninety two and that's on paid to widen the so what do you think about about that that mistake that they pointed out i don't think it's a mistake because it's not the matter is that ted kennedy. launched a serious challenge to president. carter. mr buchanan never succeeded in doing anything near that it's so it's it's it's it's . it seems to me very accurate to say that no treasure that has

been challenged seriously since ted kennedy challenged to be toward our right i do want to bring in one more thing the publisher of the of this but there publisher is conservative so is it fair to say that you believe in the conservative. the simple answer that question is yes all right there we go straight up answer so did i mean did you get funding from being a romney campaign or from a romney super pac by chad i wish i had gotten the funding from all these places unfortunately know. i'm a. writer of books and the case really freelance magazine articles and i know and funds the ever. my wife used to help me but now she's retired so i'm i'm funding myself and my dog and my wife and that's that's where the funds come

right they go i'm sure they're very appreciative it may be one last thing some of the things that you disclose in the box not only beslan but some of your other books in the past very shocking or what's maybe some of the most surprising things there are shocking things that that you reveal i think in the amateur when we're talking about now the book that i've just brought out of the amateur brock obama at the white house the most surprising thing to me was major views with african-american leaders. i expected naturally i spoke as naturally that they would be very favorably disposed to brock obama because he's their the first black president of the united states but in fact i found that again and again and again african american leaders in chicago and in washington in the in the congressional black caucus had very critical things to say about barack obama because under his administration. lack of employment has soared

black youth unemployment is now a terrific levels forty fifty percent crime is up more and more people will your roles in the african-american community and as far as they're concerned and they are on the record saying this in the book there are a bomb has not reached out to the to american community and done anything for them and they're very disappointed and disillusioned with. very interesting thank you so much edward for coming on the show that was edward klein has a new york times best selling author. well economic woes in california has pushed city after city and to bankruptcy in the last few weeks three cities have filed for bankruptcy here they are san bernardino california the city filed for bankruptcy on july tenth that has a budget shortfall of over forty five million dollars stockton california the largest city to file for bankruptcy so far with

a budget shortfall of twenty six million dollars and mammoth lake a forty three million dollar court order has been placed against the town and oakland is now on the verge of filing but they're holding off and trying to fight goldman sachs and there are more cities face with similar financial woes but what exactly happens when cities go bankrupt mccalla crowds are contributor for next american city join me earlier i asked our cities and towns filing for bankruptcy is a growing trend and if we should expect to see more of them take a lesson. well i think that that's actually what a lot of people are wondering their concern and that is my my city is going to cast for a strong nine anytime soon. and most experts are saying that's not what's going to happen basically half of states actually make it nearly impossible for cities to file for bankruptcy harrisburg is included harrisburg recently we found that out i plan to have some strict laws i think us filing for chapter nine and also basically

a lot of studies you know that filing for chapter nine is no way i'm going to wipe their slate clean at. the front of them a pension costs that city will. be taishan will definitely king fall so sebelius is definitely where data. and i mean that's the thing the cities they file for bankruptcy they're hoping that it will provide them this clean slate and give them some relief but i mean to what extent is that true i mean it's definitely not this carol that they are hoping for. it's just not i mean. like california was out for bankruptcy three years ago. definitely a lot of money but they did have significant legal there but apartments significant tenants and so it's been a struggle for a bill i hope and what you see now is that the residents were. showing the

surprised by the severity of budget cuts and the beginning when to file for bankruptcy the communities are reaching out more and trying to get involved and. you know helping out with city services. ok i want to talk more on the tell about the implications i mean when you file for bankruptcy bankruptcy yes in a way it is this kind of clean slate but you have this tarnished reputation the stigma associated with having filed for bankruptcy and then you get your credit downgraded so i mean there is implications and drawbacks to that yes there is i mean. there's a stick or. if you can stigma for china for filing for chapter eleven cities face of a similar stick. your question earlier and i think there's a fear that filing for chapter nine is losing it. i think most experts do not

agree with that. filing chapter and i think it's still very much the last resort for cities and that. cities are going to try to maintain their reputations and credit as long as they possibly can before going project nine. those mccalla crowds are contributor for next american city. will have an update tonight on the story we brought you yesterday about the d.c. police chief ordering officers to let citizens film them as we've reported across the country police have been demanding people stop recording them stripping them of their phones even arresting people for rolling the camera here in washington the police chief is making it clear that recording law enforcement is legal police chief cathy lanier issued an order thursday explaining the constitutional rights of citizens here is the statement r.t. obtained from the police department reads quote well we have a preexisting policy that addresses interaction with the media the new general

order reaffirms the metropolitan police department's recognition of the first amendment rights enjoyed by not only members of the media but the general public as well as a video record photograph and or audio record m.p.t. members conducting official business or while acting in an official capacity in any public space unless such recordings interfere with police activity but guess what it appears her officers didn't get the memo last friday one and one day the aft one day after that directive came down a d.c. man had his phone taken away by a police officer for filming. so. it's a record. grows more into these mega phone with. earl staley told a local news station that he considers what happened to him to be a robbery he says the officer took the phone after he saw police punching a man they were trying to arrest staley says when he eventually got his phone back

later that night the memory card was missing a memory card had hundreds of pictures of his four year old daughter according to local media here in d.c. police are looking into the claims so maybe the police chief here in the district should issue her directive. well the fast food joint chick fil a facing huge backlash this after the c.e.o. professed his anti gay marriage of years now mayor rahm emanuel says these views aren't consistent with the views of the city of chicago there is similar backlash and boston now government leaders want to block the fast food joint from expanding into the cities but wait a minute is this a decision government leaders should make earlier i was joined by mike reg's associate editor for reason dot com i asked him if government officials should be able to block businesses just because of their political views. absolutely not the

licensing boards and the zoning boards in chicago and boston and let's be clear that's what the rahm emanuel and the american you know in boston they're talking about using zoning restrictions to keep to put out those do not exist to tests. to institute political it missed tests for business owners they are there they're used quite frequently i mean this is just a very public example of how those boards are abused but they're supposed to be there for safety you know zoning boards are supposed to exist licensing boards are supposed to exist to make sure that restaurants are healthy food or or that their kitchens are dirty and rat infested and that you know buildings are safe they do not exist to make sure that business owners have political views that are copacetic with the views of it given away to the official i mean it's sort of crazy if we were to look back to you know jim crow time in the south. this same thing was going

on verse you know african-americans are being discriminated gives gays or it didn't discriminate against the south and nobody thought you know that's a bad example as opposed to work response you moving away from me and i while i do find that your views you know remove him but i think there's another way to to sort of forward. so much to show their feelings and that's to vote with their their wallets and their checkbooks net pocket books and it's not shop at chick fil a go but. they're saying it's not to keep people from doing business so it sounds like you think the government is overstepping their boundary is absolutely one hundred percent and i mean to be clear i think. your crowd regulators licensors they do this a lot it is very if you look at fields in which people have to have a state or a simple license to do business there are a lot of great examples of people being punished for being tagged mystic towards

government officials for having. you know are sort of in this case i mean it's sort of great to be anti-gay is now considered outside the mainstream but there are just a lot of examples that government overstepping their bounds you know if you complain about the way you know somebody had a licensing board does their job they can punish you they can find you can make it more difficult to they can reject forms that you've submitted so yeah this is the this is a really clear cut really highly publicized case of government overstepping its bounds but zoning and licensure are used all the time so punish people so you know this isn't really exceptional it's just exceptional public and aaa i mean i've never even there myself but my producer of deadly air today apparently it's so delicious that they just left me with these empty empty bags never tried it

but apparently some people say it's really delicious but as far as we know it they haven't discriminated in terms of their their hiring practices are serving their customers. right. the only boerma discrimination that i've seen reported on is that they don't offer. benefits for employees who are in committed relationships with people of the same sex so you know there's obviously room for chick fil a row on that and i definitely think again if consumers have a problem with donating money donating money to places like family research council which i highly doubt i don't like their research council and if you have a problem with them not giving benefits. you know there's another way to express that using this sort of strong arm them and line and that is again don't shop at chick fil a you know and i was even thinking today i was on like we had a lot of time thinking about how do we punish people who use it and i and i got to

wondering tonight you know is there another way i mean could you instead of having a boycott to play could you have some sort of. group of gay people wearing shirts saying you should play something i don't know by their lunch there and bass or something i mean the show chick fil a you know you are alienating people who enjoy your food you know in their own way never cites trying to punish them with the state because that works both ways the state as you know for a long time punish gays want to step in americans. of my know party and it's. always the right goes wrong not to the crease freedom to treat them like they think that the of the mayors of you know the response time and chicago are facing political pressure to make these decisions do you think their decisions are politically motivated. a little bit of a cynic so i actually think that neither rahm emanuel or mahmoud abbas i don't

think either one of them have any intention of following through with. chick fil a out. me a lot of big city mayors well sort of push back against chains entering their cities and sort of electing floodwall martin but i think more than anything this is sort of a rallying the troops thing you know one of the ways to sort of to get people amped up before an election culture war issues work really well class war issues worked really well so i just wouldn't be surprised if this was a way of sort of rallying the troops in addition to that some people are calling this an attack on free speech would you go as far as a column that. absolutely whether or not you agree with the citizens united ruling . or with a large campaign slash issue expenditures that aren't affected by this is like the fact of the matter is the money that the kathy family which owns should play has been on political issues is legal that's legal and supreme court has ruled that

account of the speech so regardless of whether or not you. agree with that the law for exercising political speech is a first amendment issue right mike we're going to leave it out there thanks so much for coming on the show that was mike reg the selfie editor for reason dot com. that's going to do it for now if you're about to leave the house don't forget to take us with you we stream our show's live on at r.t.e. on air or you can catch the interviews later just go to our you tube channel it's youtube dot com slash r t america and for the most up to the date information on the stories we covered today and a few things that we didn't have time to get to check out our web site r t v dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at liz well the capital account is up next i'll see you right back here at the top of the hour.