captioned by the tional captioning institute --www.ncicaprg-- >> hel. i am llellyn king, host of "white house chronicle." first, aew things of my own, and maybe an explanaon for the umbrella. two people are telling us alternatively the y is falling. it is all over. the licies are dreadful. the sky is falli.

i have an umbrla just in cas it falls dowand hits me. i not think the sky is fallg at all. i thinit is hot air rising, not the sky falling. upnd up it goes, hot air in washington. at is the way we govern and that is what happens i the tion's capital. to discuss the events, i have assembled four of e best minds in journalism. we will right back without the sky having fallen, hopefully. >> "white house ronicle" is produced in collaboraon with whut. now, a program note. llewellyn king and linda gasparello.

>> hello again and thank you f coming along. i promed you great people. linda gasparel, welcome to the broadcast. bob franken, syndicated columnist and grea television personality. welcome to the badcast. we are glad to have fr "the new rk daily news" ken bazinet. go to see you here. i usually seyou twittering at the white house. pamela gentry of black enteainment television. you can see her onet.com. linda gasparello, the psident has enormous energy d hurdles around, yeeverybody seems to

be sayg he is not closing in als. what is going on what is it aut this man so appealing, senergetic, that the sense is that he is failg? >> i think that is the wrong sense. we have to lk at the enormity of the deals his tryingo cle, whether it is seing troops to afanistan, the heal care bill. it is not air to say that he not closinghe deal. you kn, he has got a lot of ambition, but the needs ofhe country haveaken over a lot of his ambitio we nd more money for the econom we ne more time for the economy. we need a decision on the troops. we had an indent at fort hd that he needs to tak into consideration when he is thinking about sending troops into ahanistan. we need re consideration o alth care.

he just got ambition that seems to be ovrun with these needs of the cntry. he doesn't need to clos those deals quickly. why should he csed them quickly? it is only eht months into the administration. these take more consideration d time than eight months. >>inston churchill said a decision not taken is nonetheless a decision. does that applhere? >> we cann dispute winston churchill. >> yes, you ca and many did all of his life. >> thecertainly did. i ink it is an important one. hes acting as if it is a 1- yearresidency. the expectation thate has to live up with now is th he will either pruce health care

not produce health care. he will have resold the econom issues, resolved the economic issue even though that is probab completely unrealistic. he ithe one who created those pectations. heaid, i have got to do it now while i have most of my political catal. it might have not been the tactical thing to do. >> ken binet, do you think the tacks on the preside througut this eight months have beenarticularly poisonous? is ipar for the course? >> i think it ipar for the course. thiss a president who comes with a thick layer of in. it inot an easy task to defeat hillary clintonn a prary season.

well saw the hbo docentary this wk. he makes the pnt that the last three weeks wer particularly visceral, which i was. itoes come with the job. i think is up to it. he certaly expected it. picking up on somethin bob said, agree a lot of this is politically drivenn terms of his agenda and timetae, but i cannot think of a present who s come into office with so many problems ando many dierent areas he had to deal with. i do belie this is a president who might feel that he will only have oneerm. that is yet be seen. he may very well feel like he has to acceleratin order to accomplish what heants to accomplish. >> what doou feel about his aides, his assistas, the peop around him? doou feel he is getting the bestadvice from the best

possible pple? >> his getting the best advice from the best ssible people in certain areas. he has to probably rlect upon some of the advice he has receiv, particularly with dealing with ll street and the financial crisi especially as we learned that unemploent had hit 10.2%. had a serious gap in our country between an investor class and peopleho are stuggling to put food on their table. i think thatas far ashe decision on afghanistan oes, we will seehether or not he is getng the right advice. well know that people at the pentagon, some people,re beginning to say, is is taking a bit o long. it takeswhile to deploy a battalion of troop that is where he is on the adce front. >> therere a couple of things. i think hislate has been ver

full. thday he was sworn into office, he h more than he bargainefor. you do not get that until you are actually elected. it igreat to be on the campaign and talabout how you will pure things. untiyou sit down and get those transition briefin and you s what you ve got, i thinke had a lotore on his platehan he expected. i think he tried to lower expectatio early in his presidency. he saihe would not be able to do evething right away. wh is really going to be what everyone is focusi on as his health care reform the interesting part fore is e fact that he has not bee able to alesce congrs, bipartisan or not. >> some in congress are afraid of him. >> has not used that heavy mantle to say, am the president and th is what i want to to do. i think he tri so hard to y, i want be bipartisan, i

want to be yr friend, let's all workogether. >> was ithat, i want toe liked? >> i am not suree cares abt whether he isiked. i thinhe is a person who cares about making suree was working with everyone and listening toveryone and gettg everyone's opinn. i thk that has hurt him. people are seeing m as not being quite strong enough, puttinhis fist down. >> the fear factois absent. >> lete dispute something. there is the war with fox ws. he obvioly told his aides, i don't like the people saying e things they say about me. he went on to say, will not deal with them. at is not appropriate for the prident of the united states. its not a defense of fox

news, but it is what -it is not what the relationship supposed to be. >> that is disastrous thing for esident, a prime minister. >> beyond tha he seems to be one of these people whoas achiev everything he has done in life. he comes now ill-equippe to handle people who ght be shing back a little bit. therare people like that in washington. at is the impression i get. does thato his detriment. >> am not quite sure -- i think that, rst of all, as far as his base goes, attacking foxrobably was not a bad idea. i do not disagree with anything you said. let me be clear. i think this is a presidt who, given his intellectl fipower, given the fact he has

athletic pross, given the fact he was raised to be well- equipp to deal with many of the realies he faces, hower, will say that perhaps we can measu better when we e how health care proces. it is very clear that this man has to standp to people in his ownarty. i think that will a indicationf whether or not he isoing to put it on the table where it counts. i'm not ite sure we are that different in our opion. >> am interested in seeing whher or not he retreats fro s boldness. he hasaid out a very bold agenda. he has now met theushback from the ngress. he has met t pushback fromhe military. he h met an awful lot of pushback. as i said, t needs ofhe country at seem to be running

over his ambition igoing to be an interesting thing. >> i have th concern tt i think a lot of journalts do. there e 20 events per week, sometimes more. there is a speech on thi. there's press conference. there something all the time. there is this confusion about when is he actually sitting do, issue by issue? just having a briefing every morning on all of ese things, is it really enoug why don't you stayn your ofce for two or three days and have the work? this is the first year he might learn that. might say, i may only do one or two things, appear blicly. public events.

maybe i will cut down one two pubc events per week. at least give an impreion i am snding some actual, hard time in the oval office workg on the econo, working on heth care, working on e war infghanistan. think that is deception. >> iould like to welcome our lieners on the xm radio. i am llewellyn kin i am joineby linda gasparello and bob franke a syndicated columnist, kenazinet of "the new york daily news,and pala gentry of bet.com. we're so glad to he these listens and this program can be heard every satday at 9:30 a.m. on channel 110 and 0. were also very glad to say this program is now on t voice oamerica television

around the world. out there. that is on sirius xm. 110, 130. >> 110, 130. you were not serious. > lia, our secretary of stat hillary clinton, started strong, then waded into the middle east. coulyou tell us about that? i often turn -- i often term the ddle east the muddle east. there seems to be a difference of opinion among therab leaders. had sheone soft? has thu.s. government gone

softn settlement? secretary of state clint says no, the position of t administrati is the same. it is not that soft on settlement. yet,n the arab world, there is a feeling of -- there has been an announcent by the head of the paltinian authority at he will not run for reelecon in jaary. this is mahmoud abbas. >> thehings people know least is how small an area the wt ba is and how substantial the settlements e. ey do not look like they're going away.

they aretanding all the time. they me a swiss cheese ofhe west ba. is a problem for us to deal with. it is a problem for e israe governnt to deal with because they cnot move against the settlements. it is close to civil disobedien. >> they have to co up with so diplomatic solution that over the decades ha deluded people. they tried to glosover it. the probm is that netanyahu is not somne who will gloss over things. he is dogmatic, to put it mildly. one ofhe things he has no intere in doing is really ving the settlements. yocannot say we are stopping expansion of the se time he is going out for an expanded settlement we saw the steel fist and

the velvet glove. this w the first prime minister, thfirst time around. it was interesting that the exnt to which the america present, government offials, think tankers, came tdefer to netaahu. i do not kw if that is still tr. has that chang in the clinton world? >> i don't thk so. >>omething that nanyahu has that and most don'have among israi leadership is his command of the uted states,y which i me he has lived here. he looks le the reprentative of e 51st state, as rael is sometimes derisively called. he haclout in the u.s. that his policies probably wod not suggest he would have. he does havehat. i saw an israeli phisopher

television. he said, israel should b made the 51st state. they would only havewo senators, not 100. aughter] what do you think hodo you think hillary clinton is doi? >> i think given the task that she has -- johkerry was sent to afghanistan to talk hamid karzai and se people jumped on that. he had a legitimate role bng ther at the same time, we are talkg about a world with some many complicated ises, if not oblems, that there isnough to go ound. hillary clinton is somne you want at the tab facing down a despot and explaininwhere we stand. the settlent issue is particularly complicated.

i think have this universal opinion now, a majority opinion around the gbe, and that is we need to hava two-state solution. wht is consing to the average person wn you bring up th settlent is, what does thatean? why don't the peoplehave a right to bthere? try drawing the map of the future palestineith the settlements. it is an increasingl-- it is really -- it is wrench in the negotiations that cann move forward. abbas stepping ouas a hug problem. we have trusted him for three administrations. quite frankly, theirst thing that ps in the mind of electoral nkies like ouelves is, hamas will have potential viory.

>> absolutely. you have a m in jail who was ready to take over t mantle, and you have hamas. this should t be a difficult choice for the unitedtates. >> much- what is most stressing is that it ner seems to move. all other things, the soviet uniocollapsed, there is a working peace in northern ireland, apartheid was turned upside dn, these other great issues aftetime and fatigue and changed attitudes, but everything rains constant in the middle east. i rst went there more than0 years ago. nothing hughas changed. if anythin people are mor trenched. the situation in gaza worse. the siation for the arab farmers on the wesbank has not improved and e israelis to no have the surity they seek.

th do not have the security in the settlements ty would like to ve. >> there is one issue nobody talks about bause we're interested in talking aut geopolitical thiand that. the diding issue here is water. it is this very practil thing that is reallyegotiated that the gineering level. is fundamentaand logical that it would be. look at where th is located. >> i am ad you raised that. water is an enormous probm. the first me i went across the jordan river, i had visis. ere was this little creek with precious lite water. >> in some places, you n look down athe mighty jordan river d it looks like the grand caon. there is no water.

>>hen they talk about the land of milk and honey, they're talking about the land of - whatev prosperity there has been has been donet the expense of the future they're basicallyraining the water. what igoing to be lefts going to be the flash pot in whatever is gotiated. >> let me say, witthis lo, drawn-out ace process we have had between the israelis and palestinians, when president clinton was in office, w got that close to pee -- so close thathey were talking about the war issue. thgreat thing about having hillary clintothere at the state department right now i that she w part of that proces if she has got that histor >> for amican diplomatsnd

american politician middle east reqres just tremends understanding. there are no big, sweepg things. sudden, every bend in the ver has historical signifance, rigious significance, and significanc in -- jimmcarter was very good it that. the litt things he had a firm grip o basically, the amecan public, we talked aboutvery other ise. you talked about apareid, communi. you not have -- the american peopleave lived with never having peace in the midd east for so long that tre is st of an apathy. we a always working at this. i am tired of the peace process. i want to e the peace.

>> the pcess has gone on f long. there real has to be a diplomatic solion from the p from someone like the secretary of state. >> tre has to be a solution that is adted all the way thugh, otherwise y will have terrists. >> i asaying people here in this country are just s accusted to this discussn, it just goes on and on. >> i think people inhe middl east have becomeery hardened. evyone in is really has done everythi for security. it is for serity. the arabs, it seems to me, they cannot grasp the reality that israel is ere to stay. mehow, they think one day they will wake uand israel will have gone ay.

>> from the palestian point of view, they would say wh the israelisave sought his oppression. they have sought an unequal relationship. they do not treathe lestinians as equal partners in theegotiation. that is the constant cplaint. there ararguable reasons they think that we. what hapns is you end up with the natural and transients you have a probm in the united stas. you now have the split i the "jewish bby" that reflects probably the political suation in isrl, which is always chaotic. yohave the j street lobby, represenng the labor party in israel, and you ha the traditional oneshat are more representati. there ishis seamless conntion between all of that whicmakes making progress on the ground a dealing with issuesike ter and the practical things much more difficult to do. > it is time to us -- time fr

uso deal with the problem, our high points and low point. >> i read that insad of using hand sanitizer on tir hands, teenagers e drinking it. hodo they ever -- there is alcohol it. >> we have sever laws affeing teens. they are grown uin every way buthey cannot have a beer in a bar. >> after you sneeze, can you wash youhands with a beer? i think the high anlow pois of the elections, ural. had elections in the u.s. and in afghanistan. they raised estions about

whether ther government can -- >> low point, wind farm in west texas is anning to spend $420 million istimulus money on wd turbines manufactured in china rather than manufactured inew york, genera electri or at a plant in south carolina. >> high point, bill owens pulling out a victory in upstate new york. it sena strong message to the republican party tha moderates in the party are not necessarily a bad thing. bill thompson had a ettyood run against yor bloomberg. he did not win. heame extremely close. >> we're so glad thayou joined us. we hope you can join us next week.

u can see this program and read some ofy writing at whchronicle.com. we will seyou, i hope, next time. >> "white house chrocle" is produced in coaboration with whut. fromashington, d.c., this has been "whithouse chronicle," a weekly analysis of newsith insight d sense of humor, feuring llewellyn king, lia gasparello, and guts. this program mabe seen on the pbs stations and cableccess

chnels. toiew the program online, visit us at itehousechronicle.com.