i'm joined by bob franken. ng, bob. >> good morning. >> we have to start with rudy giuliani at a private dinner last night. he told the crowd that president obama does not love america. what is this about? >> well this is -- mayor giuliani didn't he used to be somebody? >> you're saying he's trying to stay relevant? >> perhaps that is. i mean his comments have gotten more and more extreme in the last several months if not several years. but the series point is one of the republican themes one of the underground republican themes for most of the obama presidency is that barack obama is not one of us. of course, you have the birther movement. you have this latest ittteration that obama does not love america. >> do verbal bombs like that help a potential gop candidate? or does it really reaffirm that it's politics as usual? >> well it is politics as usual in the united states. and the other part of this might be to point out that politics as usual as really undermined the united states' standing in the world. so wh

. >>> i'm joined by syndicated columnist bob franken.during this i'm just saying hello to mom. >> i was going to ask you, have you ever winked. >> no i haven't, until now. we'll talk about something serious. overnight russian president vladimir putin announced a cease-fire to the fighting in eastern ukraine. this is going to kick in on sunday. but do you think this is going to last? >> well that's a real good question. the answer is we can't tell. cease-fire haves had a bad habit of not lasting, particularly in that region. at best this is a teeny tiny step forward which i suppose is in the right direction. at the same time the principals involved, the various eu figures, a meeting with putin in minsk were saying they were unable after 15 hours of negotiation to really get substantial progress to try and resolve the ukraine crisis. as i said it's a step in the right direction, but only a small one. >> it's a step in the right direction, and you talked a little bit about it. but could there possibly be some kind of agreement on the table,

. >>> all right, i'm joined now by bob franken. good to see you. good morning. >> good morning, we can call this early thursday morning live. >> yes, we can. it is indeed that. i read an interesting article in politico that says the gop may have an edge in 2016 because historically some part -- the same party rarely wins a third term. i want to get your thoughts on that. >> well, it's easy to dismiss that as a kind of thing that sometimes history can be misleading when you factor in the existing facts of today. but it is probably true that there is an element of people being tired of same old same old and looking for something new and the question this time is, whether the personalities involved really are going to make that history repeat itself. >> yeah. exactly. as we mentioned earlier, the president is losing two major staff members. what kind of affect will this have as he faces a gop-led congress? >> both of them dan and jennifer, were involved in the president's communication strategies and there are many people who say that one of the big p