maureen dowd called him withholder in chief. it's an august ritual of sorts with the president. and in the past, mr. obama has almost reveled in the criticism. >> i'm always amused when the pundits in washington, you know, say boy, you know, obama hasn't gotten this passed yet. some of his supporters are disappointed about this. you know, the campaign, it was so smooth. you know. and i'm thinking, what campaign were they watching? >> look, there's agreement among supporters and advisers that they know they have a perception problem. they may not agree on the depth of this issue when it comes to the idea of leadership, the idea of running washington, is he in control? but the division comes to, does he need to do something big like bring congress back? as you heard terry mcauliffe say earlier this week on this show. or is it an august swoon, the typical story since he was candidate obama going all the way back to august '07. only time will tell. harry reid announced his three picks to serve on the so-called super committee charged with coming up with $1.5 trillion in deficit redu

maureen dowd called him the withholder in chief. is it a policy thing? a personality thing? what does he do? >> i think it's a bit of each of those. he's always prided himself in not responding to the back-and-forth, now, that may be an admirable trait. the problem is when you're in a crisis, and we have several crises going on here, and the president seems detached or aloof. people feel he's not tuned into their problems and the real problems of the country right now. this is a problem with his style. he's a very nuanced thinker, he likes to seek consensus, but what americans are looking for, it seems, is looking for a president to really lead them on, to charge the hill, whether he's right or wrong in his policy, but to be forceful in stating that policy. >> i wonder, bill, is there a disconnect -- does there have to be a disconnect between a nuanced thinker and somebody who states very forcefully for the american people policies, programs that will make them feel better. you should he should call congress back. some people are suggesting he shouldn't go on vacation, what

"new york times" columnist maureen dowd writes the movie makers are getting top level access to the most classified mission in history, from an administration that tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the bush administration. republican congressman peter king wants an investigation in to whether classified information is being provided to hollywood. the white house pushed back. >> we do not discuss classified information. i hope the house committee on terrorism has more important things to discuss than a movie. >> reporter: the last time they cooperated with bigelow on "the hurt locker" they pulled out after bigelow broke an agreement and added scenes, including sending military vehicle in palestinian place to record mob scene. bret >> bret: thank you jennifer. we'll talk live with a man who knows what it is like to rup and win in iowa a bit later. but first, we will tell you how democrats fared in their attempts to seize power in the wisconsin senate. [ jon ] we don't just come up here for the view up in alaska. it's the cleanest, clearest water. we

columnist maureen dowd write writes -- the movie makers are getting top level access to the most classifiedission in history. ♪ top story at the bottom of the hour, brutal day on wall street as investors get the first chance to react to the downgrading of the s&p on friday. the credit rating. the dow jones/industrials average plunged 635 points to fall below 11,000. the s&p 500 lost 80. the nasdaq fell 175. the downgrade is seen as repudiation of partisan fighting in washington. but chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel tells us there are more battles ahead. >> s&p's decision to downgrade the credit rating sets the stage for bruising political fights over fiscal matters this fall. president obama says he hopes the downgrade leads to greater political will in washington. >> my hope is friday's news will give us a sense of urgency. i intend to present my recommendations in the coming weeks on how we should procee proceed. >> paul ryan said house republicans did their part and was not surprised by the s&p action. >> because washington has not gotten the fiscal house in order. to me, t

on against president obama on this one involves hollywood last week in new york times columnist maureen dowd said that the obama administration is sharing classified information about the osama bin laden raid to oscar winning filmmaker kathryn bigelow who is currently three years into working on a film about bin laden dowd wrote the white house is counting on the big screen version of the killing of bin laden to counter obama's growing reputation as ineffectual the movie is scheduled to open on october twelfth two thousand and twelve perfectly timed to give a home stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher the movie makers are getting top level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the bush administration. upon reading this republican chair of the house homeland security committee peter king put aside his answer i muslim hearings and pounced he wrote a letter to the department of defense of the cia calling for an investigation saying the administration's first duty in

represented as we we want to know about actually i would i would postulate that maybe nancy pelosi and maureen dowd don't speak for the will of america the entitlements war was founded in one thousand nine hundred two to actually push back against the idea of nancy pelosi i think as a significant part of that population she speaks very well for women in america who have over thirty five million dollars in net worth. good point oh ok so we can we push back against the idea that women want and benefit from big government i actually find that really insulting i think that women can compete on their own without uncle sam putting his thumb on the scale. women children families are best served by the free market and the opportunities and choices that provides i don't need someone making my choices for me how i choose to raise my family how i choose to live my life is no no business of governments and obviously they can't do it well ok so on behalf of all women in america you obviously were going so well what were you hoping to come out of the women in negotiations over over the big government spending nu

host of the alan colmes radio show. >> sounds great when people who don't normally agree with maureen dowdts... martha: the image of perry galloping across the unbroken stallion in danger... >> you want as a president, a galloping stallion. martha: the point was, she felt that, you know, the president was sort of, you know, a little bit off his game and talked about the tense moment that happened, in the sound bite and let's play it. what a woman named emily, out at a farm, farm ground in iowa, let's play that. >> so when you ran for office, you built a tremendous amount of trust with the american people that you seemed like someone who would not move the bar enough and it seems especially the last year, as if you are negotiating -- your negotiating tactics cut away at the trust by compromising key principles, that we believed in, like the tax cuts and not fighting harder for single payor and even, social security and medicare seemed on the line, when we were dealing with the debt ceiling. so, i'm just curious, moving forward, what prevents you from taking a harder negotiating stance? bein

here is maureen dowd questions the president in her comment. she noted he waited until the weekend was over to speak about the navy s.e.a.l. deaths in afghanistan. his inable to spontaneously assuage americans' fears is strange. if they had died on a monday, he wouldn't have waited until wednesday to talk about it. he doesn't like the bully pulpit, but like the professor's lectern, it's made him seem strangely irrelevant in washington, trapped by his own temperament. he doesn't lead, and he doesn't understand why we don't feel led. robert reich, do you agree with her? >> chris, let me just say, and i agree with a lot of what bill richardson just said, but i think the president not only has to look as if he's fighting and leading and right there for american workers, but he's got to do it. i would add to my list infrastructure, ball right now you can do so much repairing of bridges and highways and everything else, because the treasury bill, notwithstanding what standard & poor's said, down to a low interest rates. you can borrow very easily. >>

. >>> we don't need maureen dowd to compare dick cheney to darth vader, he does it himself. >> been called skillful, dynamic, you've been called controversial and divisive. >> you left out darth vader. >> dick cheney relishes his ties with the dark side. >> not to get caught up with popular methods of interrogation. >> he's never once accepted responsibility or regret. >> totally unincumbered. >> critics have already called it a rewrite of history. >> pulling the strings behind the scenes. >> president obama is still working to fix eight years of republican mistakes. >> the worst economic crisis since the great depression. >> key pieces of the president's jobs plan are still being debated. >> we have to create more jobs, and we have to do it faster. >> does he go big, does he go tactical? >> he's got to go big. >> you try working with eric cantor. >> while the president is working to create jobs, the republican candidates were working to destroy them. >> you won't have stimulus programs. >> i will slice billions of dollars. >> i'm a person. >> here's a line today. >> career politicians got

there's that, and there's the release date controversy which i guess maureen dowd knows more than a loty reported. but, jennifer, thank you. i appreciate it. >>> a controversial medical breakthrough. a simple blood test can now tell would-be parents the sex of their baby just seven weeks after conception. what about the ethics of that? >>> and this american woman vanished in the same town in aruba where natalee holloway was last seen. but there is one big difference. in three minutes, the new details. >>> plus, attention passengers, this is not your typical turbulence. the scare in the air that put some people in the hospital when they got back on the ground. >> pretty scary. i mean, at the beginning it was a little shaky, but then it kind of bounced up and down, and you saw people's heads hitting the ceiling. it was scary. megyn: all right. take a look at this video. cops and cowboys teaming up in washington state for a modern day police chase that looks like something straight out of the wild west. look at that! your eyes are not playing tricks on you. it's a massive bull charging thr

read maureen dowd "new york times" today saying the president hasn't led and we don't feel like we are, right, left. there's disappointment in where we are in this country. a lot of fingers are pointing at the president. in a calm way, they are saying we gave him a shot, we gave him a chance, it is not working out. >> sean: a lot of people ignored the warning signs, background, association, lack of leadership and experience. the most telling number, sean hannity is a conservative. independents are leaving him in droves. even a third of democrats want him challenged now. >> because they understand how their government affects their lives. and elections have consequences. i just talked to the owner of the salon i go to in virginia. she is a small business owner, un20 employs -- under 20 employs. she said i'm in trouble. i need to hire more people but i'm scared to death of obamacare. i don't know what taxes i'm going to owe. the question is, do i keep the people i've got? i can hire more people. >> sean: i know a lot of people in business struggling the same way if i walked into a salon

. >> i want to read you something maureen dowd wrote on saturday. she said the white house is counting on the katherine bigelow and mark bowles big screen viewing of bin laden to counter obama's growing reputation. the movie is expected to open on october 12, 2012. perfectly timed to give a home stretch boost to a campaign that's grown tougher. is the obama campaign relying on hollywood to save it in the end? >> you're no hollywood guy. you know that would be a bad strategy to hitch our wagon to that. the truth is i didn't know about this movie until i read about it in maureen's column. maureen is a great friend of mine and a really talented writer. she pays a lot of attention to that stuff. i don't. the thing that's going to animate this campaign is when you have a choice. the choice is between candidates with starkly different views about how we build a better future, how we secure the middle class in this country. i don't think those who value that in our country are going to find much comfort in what they hear in this building tonight. and i loo

even "new york times" liberal columnist maureen dowd took a shot saying barack obama's slogan used to be yes we can, now it's hey, we might. but it's now looking like hey, we might is too optimistic as a worldwide marketplace has made its judgment. the u.s.a. is in dire economic trouble and perception is reality. talking points didn't think the u.s. credit would be downgraded. only standard and poor's downgraded and they should not have. it really doesn't matter. every fair minded person knows the country is in a mess financially. at times like these, the president must take charge, must address the problem directly. we need to immediately return to the spend rate of 2008 just three years ago. that would save as much as $920 billion right now. we do need more revenue which can be achieved by a flat tax, plugging loopholes like allowing american corporations to stash trillions of dollars overseas. and we need to institute a small, a small national sales tax to cover medicare and to tap into the $1 trillion a year in the underground economy. why should people making money off the books

maureen dowd wrote, faced with a country keening for reassurance and reinvention obama seems at a lossical skills he turns out to be a odd case of a prague natist who can't learn from his mistakes and adapt. >> listen it's that time of year in washington. we're in august the president's going to take some hits. i found that poll very good news for the president. if you look at it closely he's ahead in 16 states in the district of columbia and ahead in the sense he has a 50% job approval or better. that's 215 electoral votes. and to find the other votes you need to win the presidency there are a lot of options for him. as i see it right now, there's a lot of talk about the president being weak on the back foot. i see the president with a solid foundation to build on in terms of lek trorl college support. if he runs a great campaign as he did last time, i think he's going to win it. >> what about florida, what about ohio what about winning north carolina and virginia? >> listen one or more of those states is going to have to be in. ohio's lost a couple of votes. florida has picked up som

consider this from maureen dowd in today's "new york times."te, they were like cannibals, eating their own party leaders alive. they were like vampires, draining the country's reputation, credit rating and compassion. they were like zombies, relentlessly and mindlessly coming back again and again to assault their unnerved victims, boehner and president obama. they were like the metallic beasts in "alien" flashing mouths of teeth inside other mouths of teeth, bursting outoff boehner's stomach every time he came to a bouquet of microphones. it's not that pretty. dr. stanton peele is a psychologist whose specialty is addiction, and he's the author of "seven ways to beat addiction." good afternoon. >> good afternoon, martin. >> can i ask you. what is the effect of giving people their way all of the time? how does it shape our thinking behavior if by being adamant and dogmatic we get our way? >> well, the way i think about it is they are pursuing goals that can't be achieved. it's sort of like a child who has some kind of fantasy, and they keep aski

even had maureen dowd come out today and saying some of his constituents are disillusioned with him. certainly some democrats won't be satisfied by that answer. having said that, the white house is pushing back this afternoon saying, look, the presidency travels with mr. obama wherever he goes so he can be in martha's vineyard and working on this issue. they also point to the fact that he's focusing on the economy, jobs right now 24/7. we learned that a little later on this afternoon he'll be meeting with fed chair ben bernanke, timothy geithner, treasury secretary, as well as his chief of staff bill daley and economic advisor gene sperling. we didn't get a whole lot of details about what they are going to talk about, but certainly jobs, the economy, the stock market will be on tap when they sit down this afternoon. jonathan? >> thanks, kristen. would you hope that that's what they would be talking b.kristen welker at the white house and luke russert on capitol hill, thank you. >>> with the super committee coming together, can they overcome the partisan wrangling that's been exhausti

. >> maureen dowd points out that perhaps michelle should be sent in to negotiate with speaker boehner and the republicans. >> she might get a 9-1 deal. i don't think that's very strong. i think it's a bit upper middle class to be talking about golf clubs and dresses and people right now are in a recession they're not quite in that league right now. i think he has to go back and think about what he wants to do. there are a lot of people that will cheer him if he'll do something. this talk -- lloyd doggett just a moment ago says we have to pay for a jobs program. that's not the fact of it. nothing's going to pay for it. it's going to have to bo borrowed money. the government's going to get out there and have a big jobs program and have to borrow to do it. it's not going to be popular. in the businesses in investing and they're not. if the consumer is spooked and they're not investing government has to pick up the slack. that's what we all learned in grad school. if somebody's going to come out with a new kind of economics, i'd like to have somebody explain it to me. my economics is some

as one democratic senator told maureen dowd yesterday in ""the new york times," we're watching obama turn into jimmy carter right before our eyes. in "the wall street journal," peggy noonan writes that president obama is is a loser and this is an america where nobody loves a loser. of course, she's right about that. she points out, even at their lowest points, president clinton and george w. bush still had supporters who loved them, but not so for president obama. it's no surprise that the president's poll numbers are headed down. president obama has hit an all-time low approval rating of just 40%. how has the debt ceiling crisis altered your perception of proemt? go to the blog and unburden yourselves. wolf? >> yep. thanks very much, jack. we'll get back to you. we're keeping a very close watch on the u.s. capitol right now as the house of representatives nears a vote on the deal to raise the debt limit. we'll bring you every step of the way. if the legislation passes it sets the stage for another heated debate later this year and the possibility of automatic spending cuts if lawmak

maureen dowd writes, "barack obama blazed like luke skywalker in 2008, but he never learned to channelea party has run off with his light sab wesh tesaber, the dis his promise, and his reality is jarring." they just want him to do something? do something to sporespond to t. >> the american people are thirsty for leadership and he uniquely can provide it. but don't write this president off. the president's message is still the correct one. which is, we have to create jobs, jobs, in fact, will bring down the deficit, cutting the deficit won't create a single job. and that is, in essence, at this point, the president's message. he's got to build infrastructure, get those construction jobs back, and he's got to give the american people confidence. just weeks ago, we saw an incredibly confident president with respect to the killing of bin laden. he needs to bring that same intensity with respect to the economy and the downgrade. >> michael steele, in s&p's note, it was a hit on republicans too, the idea that there's intransigence here, that they can't bring it together. the issue that taxes

>> not surprisingly, i'm going to read maureen dowd. >> how nasty was she?the nice part. >> okay. go ahead. go ahid. >> why is it not a surprise to learn that dick cheney's ancestor samuel fletcher cheney was a civil war marcher. having lost the power to heedlessly bomb the world, cheney turned his attention to heedlessly bombing old colleagues. he takes himself so seriously, flogging his self-image of the rugged outdoorsman even though he shot his hunting partner in the face. he acts like he is america but america didn't like dick cheney. >> okay. i don't think maureen dowd is the person, as much as i like a lot of her columns to talk about people making cheap shots. >> i could move on to another topic. >> let's go to frank. >> this is interesting. it touches on something you said during the break. this summer crystallized a growing sense our countries can do spirit was replaced by a resignation and our best days might be well behind us. i kept finding myself in the same conversation over and over and occasionally was i the one to initiate it. children in a

a lot of criticism of the president from the left suggesting he hasn't been assertive enough, maureen dowdriting an article entitled "withholder in chief." trapped by his own temperament. he doesn't lead and he doesn't understand why we don't feel led. were you surprised? >> no, she's been writing that column for three years. they wrote that when we passed health care reform and after we passed the repeal of don't ask/don't tell, after we passed the most significant financial reform since the great depression, overcoming a furious lobbying campaign by wall street. so this has been a familiar refrain of hers. but the facts every the facts. this president with the most divided congress has done some very, very substantive things in a very difficult time, and is going to continue that fight for middle class people, to do the things that will restore economy security for the middle class, and you have a republican array of candidates on the other side who have taken an entirely different tack and sided with wall street, with major corporate interests against closing loopholes, against asking w

this is really backed up my thoughts are backed up by maureen dowd of the "new york times" this morningempt by the white house to shore up its own abysmal popularity ratings. throughout the piece all you see are sources, most unnamed. presenting obama as the commander in chief. the man who was going to lead the seals on to victory. i must say that this is really horrific. i'm sure the seals are laughing to themselves. the other thing that's quite noticeable is that he never -- the author never really talked to any of the seals. he says at one point they had -- that he had talked to people who had some recollections. a commercial for the white house. never talked to any of the seals. and it is presented in the new yorker as a true account of what happened on that bin laden raid in pakistan. >> eric: briefly, do you think they really said that? >> that part may be true. i have a feeling it was probably dressed up a little, maybe not. they are very low key guys. it would be difficult for me to make a judgment. the piece needs a little bit of a gimlet eye.

so now, maureen dowd comes them political suicide bombers and terrorists from mika, you're saying they're if you're just a lawyer, and you're looking at negotiating tactics, and you're looking at this battlefield, willie, you got to look at these guys and you got to say, you got to say, okay, they came in, they had a go, they told everybody from the beginning, from january, this is how they were going to behave and this is what they were going to do, they stuck to their guns, and they got just about whatever they wanted. you can call them insane, goofy, you can call them donald duck, you can call them osama bin laden, i tell you what a lawyer would call them, a trial attorney would call them pretty damn good negotiators. >> they took a vote in raising the debt ceiling which had been routine over the history of this country, a one-line vote, and turned it into a pivot point for national politics. they used this vote which nobody else would have noticed typically and got $2.4 trillion in cuts over ten years. i'm not here to deviate tea party, but i'm suggesting they did a good job of using

paul krugman who committed religious believers islamic extremists, maureen dowd who equate to the male domination of the catholic church to the taliban and the bush administration that we really are in a theocracy and the arizona shooter and the anti-immigration antiillegal immigration law was meant by linda greenhouse with an image that came out of nazi germany. so i think that the times and the left as a lot to answer for and may be because the internet people get more slashing and attention to it allows you to make a precise analogy about something the government of nazi germany did it again to get precise analogy and make it stick and then lowercase it's fair game hunt. r. dee very critical piece of him. you know, i would return to the question was -- there you are. i don't think anybody says that there has to be equal members and says 42% of the population of the news room has to be xx1 on balance it is better to make an effort to have this kind of a newsroom diversity and to represent different ideas of view him when i've been on the and of running a magazine trying to achieve th

. >> in "the new york times" today, maureen dowd was critical of the so-called speech making ability and the president's ability to lead and we know now only 40% of the american people approve of the president's conduct in office. in your mind, does this kind of objectivity that we might be seeing now, does that continue as we move towards an election against a republican nominee, whoever that is? >> well, some of it depends on how he acts. you could not watch obama in recent weeks. he didn't have a plan for the deficit. he still doesn't have a plan for the deficit. his remarks said it was clear we needed a long term deficit plan the day i came into office and then in the next paragraph, he said, and in a few weeks, i'll have my plan. you know, you -- that becomes very apparent, even if you like him, you're not seeing it. it's like going into a very romantic restaurant with candles and everything else and the waiter serves you stylishly with an empty plate and stands back and waits for you to be in awe. >> here's the big bill. >> yeah. exactly. and so it's going to come in waves, i t

now, maureen dowd writes that apparently, the filmmakers did have access to classified information.at in "the new york times." also, apparently, there are reports that the writer was at a closed door meeting, apparently, i think at the c.i.a. where they were talking -- where they were talking about the team that brought down bin laden. the meeting was classified. what was he doing there? the white house says don't worry, we didn't do anything wrong. here's mr. carney. >> we do not discuss classified information. and i would hope that as we face a continued threat from terrorism, the house committee on homeland security would have more important topics to discuss than the movie. >> how about -- >> that all depends on what actually is exposed in the movie. that's the white house response. >> yes, e-mail us. do you think hollywood could possibly be trying to get the president re-elected? friends at foxnews.com. >> your headlines for a thursday. you're looking live in london where david cameron is addressing the nation again on the continuing riots throughout the country. for the first

paul krugman who committed religious believers islamic extremists, maureen dowd who equate to the male domination of the catholic church to the taliban and the bush administration that we really are in a theocracy and the arizona shooter and the anti-immigration antiillegal immigration law was meant by linda greenhouse with an image that came out of nazi germany. so i think that the times and the left as a lot to answer for and may be because the internet people get more slashing and attention to it allows you to make a precise analogy about something the government of nazi germany did it again to get precise analogy and make it stick and then lowercase it's fair game hunt. r. dee very critical piece of him. you know, i would return to the question was -- there you are. i don't think anybody says that there has to be equal members and says 42% of the population of the news room has to be xx1 on balance it is better to make an effort to have this kind of a newsroom diversity and to represent different ideas of view him when i've been on the and of running a magazine trying to achieve th

yet that is out, yet we still have articles by maureen dowd and hollywood movies and evil karl rove destroying plame's life by committing a felony releasing her name. . . >> caller: i knew you were going to be on the joy behar -- i think her name is -- show, and i tuned in just to see you. i want you to comment on how rude and how -- she is so rude to you -- >> guest: oh, she's one of my favorite liberals. i forgot to mention her as one of the liberals i like. [laughter] >> caller: makes no sense when she talks. >> guest: well, he's a comedian, and i do think she's very funny. you'll see i keep raising liberal comedians as the ones i like because if it's funny, i don't care what the point is. she's funny. and she kind of has, it's a fun show to do because she has a.d.d., so you can never stay on one summit for more than -- subject for more than 30 seconds. i'll start, i'm her straight man, and we'll be whooshed off to something else. but that's her style, and i must say, i mean, she's on headline news, so as part of the cnn family i had three cnn interviews on this book, piers morgan and joy b

. >> would you agree with what maureen dowd writes in "the new york times" this morning? she says his withholding reactive nature has made him strangely irrelevant in washington, trapped by he's own temperament. he doesn't lead and he doesn't understand why we don't feel led. >> yeah, i think it goes back to the comment he made about people clinging to their guns and their religion. it's a condescending notion that he's not part of the problem -- i mean he's not part of the people feeling the problem. i keep thinking the regular guy and woman that goes to an nfl football game. they go out in cold weather. root for a team that may not win, they've got a lot of heart and a lot of gut. they may be worried about their job right now, they just lost their job. the regular person, black and white and hispanic, regular men and women looking for a job, worried about their job, is he with them, is he with those people? is he looking out for them? is he worried about them? is he one of them? that's his problem. i think a big part of it is gut and the other is action. the lack of a p

paul krugman who committed religious believers islamic extremists, maureen dowd who equate to the malenation of the catholic church to the taliban and the bush administration that we really are in a theocracy and the arizona shooter and the anti-immigration antiillegal immigration law was meant by linda greenhouse with an image that came out of nazi germany. so i think that the times and the left as a lot to answer for and may be because the internet people get more slashing and attention to it allows you to make a precise analogy about something the government of nazi germany did it again to get precise analogy and make it stick and then lowercase it's fair game hunt. r. dee very critical piece of him. you know, i would return to the question was -- there you are. i don't think anybody says that there has to be equal members and says 42% of the population of the news room has to be xx1 on balance it is better to make an effort to have this kind of a newsroom diversity and to represent different ideas of view him when i've been on the and of running a magazine trying to achieve that yo