president bill clinton "outfront." let's go. >>> good evening, everyone, i'm erin burnett live tonight from rwanda where i spent the day with former president bill clinton. we talked about a lot of things. he spent some time visiting some projects. some farms and some factories where he had spent a lot of time over the past few years. with the likes, in fact, of nascar famous driver jeff gordon. also i saw the president at a soy factory he's bringing in the countryside. he arrived with his daughter chelsea. shaking everybody's hand and taking pictures with everybody who asked. and he asked a lot of questions himself. >> whenever i hear somebody say oh, these small farmers, they're just inefficient, they can't generate income, i just decided to see if that was not necessarily true. and so we get 'em cheaper and better seed and fertilizer, get their crops to market so they don't lose half their income taking it to market. >> reporter: the president told me that he blew it here. nearly 1 million people died in a horrific

that's what bill clinton is the master of.>> michael waldman, then when he went on to say, look, what i want is more prosperity, distributed more fairly, so we hear that from president barack obama a lot. then president bill clinton says that americans like millionaires and they like billionaires and they don't have any problem with them. they just want to be able to become them. how come we don't have that sort of rhetoric from barack obama? >> well, this is geographic proof it's not because he has speechwriters. president clinton is very distinct in being able to make arguments about policy in values terms. when he talks about economics, yes, he usings the statistics and he uses the facts, but he roots it in a kind of core sense of opportunity for all and responsibility from all. as he said when he ran for president. president obama has been brilliant as a communicator in many ways about larger american themes. about the country's history. about his own history. but has often fallen flat when he comes to these policy things.

this barack obama guy, on the other hand, though, he's so far to the left that even bill clinton would something like that. that's the underlying message. >> you know, also, it might seem like a given that obama would bring up clinton as he has but take a listen to what joe scarborough had to say first. >> were i barack obama, i might not bring up bill clinton and tax cuts because bill clinton is of course a guy that said we need to cut corporate taxes. bill clinton's a guy that says we don't need to raise taxes on anybody. >> what do you think about that, ron? some might ask why hasn't obama reached out more than in the past three years. >> reached out more to bill clinton? i think he has reached out. listen, bill clinton's wife is barack obama's secretary of state. we ought to remember that. bill clinton has been campaigning actively for barack obama. so again, there's no surprise that barack obama would reach out to bill clinton or cite bill clint clinton. what barack obama is actually doing is similar to what mitt romney is doing with bill clinton is giving kudos to people like joh

bill clinton can reach those voters. second thing is that whose tax rates is barack obama trying to restore. he's trying to restore the clinton rates. who can make a better case for clinton economics than bill clinton himself? and that's the other constituency. upper middle class people who may not want to pay those clinton rates sure have some pretty fond memories of the economy in the clinton years. >> i mean, whatever you said about him, at least your pocketbook was in good shape and the bottom line was being observed. clinton as economic messenger, very effective or very, very effective? >> i think the second. i mean, bill clinton had something in common with ronald reagan. the two of them both knew how to make an argument. i think a lot of times we underestimate how important it is for a politician to make an argument to the voters and keep making it. here's why i'm doing what i'm doing. here's why it makes sense. here's why what the other guy wants to do doesn't make sense. bill clinton is one of the best people we

secondly, were i barack obama, i might not bring up bill clinton and tax cuts because bill clinton isof course, a guy that said, we need to cut corporate taxes, bill clinton's a guy that says, we don't need to raise taxes on anybody. i think he said that to harvey on cnn. that's a tougher -- it's a tougher pull for him. >> i wonder what bill clinton would think of what the president is proposing right now and perhaps it's a good idea -- >> i think he already said he's against it. >> say nice thing about bill clinton right now. talk about how much he loves bill clinton and then tell him to keep his mouth shut. michael steele. >> i think that's a fair point. i'm intrigued by the whole idea of this conversation to begin with. this invocation of bill clinton is nice, but what they fail to acknowledge is that what spurred that growth that they're talking about was not the tax rates that the top earners were paying, was the cut in capital gains that spurred those owners of industry and small businesses to go and invest in that economy that was being created and supported by welfare reform a

bill clinton did some good things. and raising taxes was one of them. joining me now, co-host of msnbc's "the cycle," krystal ball and richard wolffe, an msnbc contributor. krystal, the clinton thing for me is fascinating with romney. he's -- it seems to me that he thinks he's taken the republican thing as far as he can go. in order to get these swing voters, in order to appeal to people in colorado, independents, he wants to now run as bill clinton. >> it's an awkward fit, especially -- >> it's an awkward fit. >> the best comparison to him with recent democratic candidates is probably john kerry, just in terms of being the sort of out of touch wealthy guy, who's running against an incumbent president, rather than actually or trportraying himseld putting himself -- >> john kerry, let's get one fact straight. john kerry did not grow up in a family that had some wealth in the past, but no big -- he wasn't a rich guy by inheritance. >> but in terms of the public caricaturing. but i think for romney, he has this problem where he's gone so far to the right, i

before we break, the famously close relationship between the bush and bill clinton didn't start out so swimingly. clinton was flummox at al gore keeping him at a distance because of the lewinsky matter. but he couldn't resist spouting off. he held out a texas twang and gave his best bush impression. i'm a governor, my daddy was president. i own a baseball team. but al gore was right in using the lewinsky issue. >> now if he decides he can't help himself and starts campaigning against me, the shadow returns. bill: the shadow. we learned when book visited the white house after the recount of 2000, he asked clinton if that shadow offended him and he gave him a pass. and of course clinton became close to george bush 41 and the family. they consider clinton a brother of another mother. and listen to this. >> is that so ridiculous our odd couple partnership, that barbara began to refer to me as her black sheep son, you know, the one that -- [laughter] strays. there's one in every family. gets the politics wrong and make some of the mistakes. chris: you got all in the book? >> yes. chris: how

why bill clinton? why bill clinton now? they are miles apart. >>guest: it shows that obama thinks he has a problem with swing voters and independents and moderates. why become friends with someone who is in the your ally? and invite them to speak. if you look, bill clinton is actually more popular than obama. he, 66 percent of americans view him favorably and he has wide support among independents and moderates. obama is trying to tap into that and he swallowed his pride. >>eric: i am in the sure it is accurate, what i read, but they will show football rather than the speeches; that right? >>guest: i am actually not sure. i have not heard about that. >>eric: if that were the case, if i were president clinton i would say, wait, you wanted me to speak to you but the football game will be on, is that right? dallas and giants will be airing instead of the speech to i am in the mistaken. >>guest: i don't know. i don't watch football. i am all politics of the why like sports. >>eric: the white house calling tax cuts for the rich a $1 trillion give awa

from here on out, this could be bill clinton's show. lamps down his position as head out-of-bounds democratic party. he continues to clear the field for his candidate in 2016. the secretary of state, the smasher of glass ceilings, mrs. clinton herself. so the beat goes on. the future rises before us. we will do what we've done for a quarter century. talk about the clintons, think about the clintons, guess about them, wonder about them. count on things to go smoothly at your own risk. know this, they will be among us living rent free in our political souls. listen now, somewhere high in manhattan, you can hear the bark, loud, clear and happy. the big dog has gotten his bone. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. don't forget, tomorrow on "hardball," will "the ed show" starts right now. >>> good evening, americans. twok "the ed show." i'm michael eric dyson in for ed schultz. the miss adventures for mitt romney continues. he froofl traveled to israel this weekend. we'll have all of the details. this is "the ed show" and as e

to raise some money and one of the guys says who is bill clinton? at this meeting. governor of arkansas. he's -- may run for president. he said i'm a republican. he's a democrat? and then somebody says, this is like five or six weeks -- somebody says i'm listening to this, somebody says what, this is crazy he says. nobody ever heard of this guy. i mean, how are we going to raise money for this guy. this is nuts. only because the goldman partner asked him to come. some governor from arkansas. and i get agitated at this point. i say, this is what you're going to tell people. this is how you're going to raise money for the governor of arkansas. go out and tell people when they see him, and when they meet him and when they hear him speak and when they see the quality of his mind, charisma n tell against, his good looks even, you are going to tell people this guy is going to be president of the united states. they are contributing early to somebody as president of the united states. all they have to do is see it and come into contact and he's going to wi

who could forget barack obama having to surrender the white house podium to bill clinton so he could offer a defense of the position. now the big dog as he's called is heading to charlotte. clinton who stands now as the permanent yet unofficial leader of the democratic party has inaccepted an invitation to speak. the president wants and needs president clinton's support but what does clinton want out of this? with me tonight with the reporters covering this campaign. jeff zellni who broke this story last night and dan bolts. gentlemen, i want to ask about the clinton thing. let's look at a fund raising appearance in june. here's clinton stumping for barack obama and showing how good he can be when he's on your side. listen to him take on mitt romney like nobody can do it. >> his opponent who says that he's got a better idea was the governor of the state that was 47th in the country in job growth. he promised that if elected he would grow the economy and reduce the debt. when he left office, the debt of the state was going up. and his plan, his plan is to go back to the bush program. e

latinos love bill clinton. african-americans love bill clinton. young people love bill clinton.th independence and working class voters. also on policy. bill clinton was basically the architect of the biggest economic expansion in a generation, and one of the reasons he did that was by implementing the same policies that president obama wants to do. >> here is a statement that the romney campaign put out. i'll read it to you this is from the romney campaign. after four years of trillion dollar deficits and anemic economic growth, it's clear president obama would love to run on president clinton's record in office, but no amount of showmanship can paper over the differences between these two presidents. america deserves a president willing to run on his own record, not the record he wishes he had. the question to you is what do you think about all of this? what do you think about bill clinton coming to the convention and really going to try to energize the democratic base to get president obama reelected? >> first of all, bill clinton is a very popular president. he's still very

i knew bill clinton. i voted for bill clinton. bill clinton is an economic friend of mine. mr. president, you are no bill clinton. here is art to say why. art? >>guest: yes. >>neil: what do you make of this? >>guest: you know, bill clinton cut government spending as a share of g.d.p. by more than the next four best presidents combined. obama increased it enormously. bill clinton reappointed reagan's fed chairman twice. you have bernanke in there doing crazy stuff. and bill clinton got rid of the retirement test on social security and he passed nafta through congress. and it was the biggest capital gains cut in our history. just amazing. president obama is the antibill clinton, to be honest. he is doing everything else wrong but trying to raise tax rates which i believe bill clinton should not is done. >>neil: you said that, but you voted for him, believing that bulk of what he did, because he cut a lot of investment-related taxes and he cut spending, and he did do that, and i remember clearly at the time the markets were looking forward to because there was a great deal of susp

from here on out, this could be bill clinton's show. lamps down his position as head out-of-bounds democratic party. he continues to clear the field for his candidate in 2016. the secretary of state, the smasher of glass ceilings, mrs. clinton herself. so the beat goes on. the future rises before us. we will do what we've done for a quarter century. talk about the clintons, think about the clintons, guess about them, wonder about them. count on things to go smoothly at your own risk. know this, they will be among us living rent free in our political souls.

nevada, at the caesar's palace in las vegas, the big story is president obama taking a gamble on bill clintonpaign is putting the former president out front in the democratic convention. later this summer, mr. clinton will place the president's name in the nomination and deliver a prime time endorsement. we'll examine why and get brit hume's analysis. the man who wants to replace barack obama is on the final leg of the foreign trip. meeting with the leaders of poe land. earlier in israel, governor upset palestinians referencing a group tying israel economic success to the culture. we'll get a fresh assessment of where we are with the electoral map from karl rove and joe trippi. a new book says obama canceled the raid on usama bin laden several times before pulling the trigger. obama fights back. now back to new york and my colleagues with "the five." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> bob: when did we get greg's baby pictures from? mayor bloomberg who has made quite a deal recently of trying to tell people what to do and what not to do from sugar and drinks and that sort of thing. now he has a new one. he doesn't th

. >> president obama and bill clinton. one campaign decision could have everyone fold. [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable solutions from the olympic village to the stadium. solutionism. the new optimism.™ ♪ this dream solutionism. the new optimism.™ how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. >>eric: former president clinton will give the key note speech at the democratic national convention. the topic by president obama deserves a second

i love he has to go back and tap in to bill clinton.re is no comparison between bill clinton, this guy, and the one we have in office that tanked the numbers. as a matter of fact, what were we thinking? can we have a do-over, mulligan and put hillary in instead? please! >> eric: really? >> kimberly: yes! >> greg: you are so bigoted! >> bob: the most important comparison is between bill clinton and mitt romney. talk about someone that shines and somebody who is dull. there you go. you said comparison, that's the comparison -- >> kimberly: the democratic convention. hello. >> bob: at a democratic convention you put your best foot forward. he is their best foot. >> greg: the best foot with mirrors on the top. >> bob: that is not fair. >> eric: it took me a while but i got it. senator clinton said of barack obama mccain would be a better choice for president than obama. >> bob: your point they have been feuding. the feud has gone down and down and down. >> eric: robert! are you going to tell me they're not feuding now? >> bob: i don't think

food stamp, under bill clinton, $2 billion dropped in food stamp usage. resident obama $40 billion increase. disbas prices under clinton were flat. under obama, up 91%. up since he came to office. but here's the big one. wealth, under president clinton, wealth went up 40% in the 8 years, 3 1/2 years under president obama, it has dropped 35%. >> sean: can i give you an observation? this is a great chart. but my political observation is that this president had two years and nancy pelosi as speaker, harry reid as senate majority leader -- stimulus, health care, son of stimulus, trillion-dollar budgets. he got everything he wanted. bill clinton, when he had to work with newt gingrich, first time in 40 years, republicans took over. that at that time, it was big government's over. end of welfare as we know it. i think that's why the results are so dramatically different. >> they are dramatically different and anybody can look at math and see this is a failing report card -- >> you want me to hold this up. >> if you want america to fail and you don't like america

. >> and bill clinton hopes to sell bill clinton to a not so approving public but one aid said but --ubba will be pulling the lever for the campaign. >> and one said he will give the kids a salary but only if he shows up for class. i'm doing it for the money, hone. fox and friends starts right now! [rooster crow] >> i sense we are going to disagree on a certain talking point today. >> really? >> i bonder if it has to do with the aa ching that brian just alluded to? >> well, it hasn't worked in that town before so let's see if it works this time. >> i will get it down further, should you pay your kids to do chores around the house? >> yep. >> you do? >> yeah. it's all part of the reward system. maybe two bucks. you didn't do the same thing as a parent? >> we didn't pay an allowance. >> you didn't pay en allowance ever? >> we never did but they got money. >> pay by the chore or give an overall salary for the month. we will examine those things. >> and presidential candidate mitt romney is getting ready to wrap up his overseas tour. he spent his last day in poland where he got a warm wel

elizabeth warren will be leading in to bill clinton. bill clinton will be in the big star.star, which is a little bit controversy to me because she's having a hard time in inn a liberal state in massachusetts despite all her money. she had the controversy with her cherokee background. and she also says that she's the godmother of the occupy operation, which has been a joke. >> steve: plus, the stuff that got the president of the united states in trouble in roanoke was that you didn't build that comment, which sounded a lot like what elizabeth warren said out on the stump. here is a replay. listen. >> 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. you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. you didn't have to worry that bands would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this bec

i knew bill clinton. i voted for bill clinton. bill clinton is an economic friend of mine. mr.you are no bill clinton. here is art to say why. art? >>guest: yes. >>neil: what do you make of this? >>guest: you know, bill clinton cut government spending as a share of g.d.p. by more than the next four best presidents combined. obama increased it enormously. bill clinton reappointed reagan's fed chairman twice. you have bernanke in there doing crazy stuff. and bill clinton got rid of the retirement test on social security and he passed nafta through congress. and it was the biggest capital gains cut in our history. just amazing. president obama is the antibill clinton, to be honest. he is doing everything else wrong but trying to raise tax rates which i believe bill clinton should not is done. >>neil: you said that, but you voted for him, believing that bulk of what he did, because he cut a lot of investment-related taxes and he cut spending, and he did do that, and i remember clearly at the time the markets were looking forward to because there was a great deal of

he got very nostalgic about the policies of president bill clinton. >> bill clinton called himself a new democrat. he put that behind him. he believed in smaller government, reformed welfare as we knew it and try today get the economy going with trade and other provisions, lowered taxes. new democrats have done some good things. a lot of republicans have done some good things, but this old style liberalism of bigger and bigger government and bigger and bigger taxes has gault to end and we will end it in november. >> that's right. you just heard the republican nominee for president talking about the glory days of president bill clinton. funny thing, though, romney got his facts wrong. taxes were higher under president clinton compared to president obama. not lower. that's why president obama always makes this point. >> anybody making over $250,000 a year, including me, we go back to the tax rates that we were paying under bill clinton. which, by the way, was a time when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history, and created plenty of million

bill clinton will be speaking at the national convention will it hurt obama while making clintons lookter than before. we will examine the author of red ink and the olympics. we will look at the olympics. we have a huge agenda. we picked out our outfits we know what we are going to say. it's a matter of waiting for the clocks to tick our way. i am going to stair at the time now. ♪ ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable solutions from the olympic village to the stadium. solutionism. the new optimism.™ ♪ this dream >> it is now 10 mints before the hour. here are a look at headlines this morning. sacramento international airport getting the okay to replace tsa. this is the third to make a move at private security at the checkpoint. they will be trained by the tsa. the airport's director says the move will bring about a higher level of customer ser

africa has been the focus of much of bill clinton goes to work since leaving the white house in 2001,articularly the fight against hiv-aids. on monday, president clinton visited a health clinic in mozambique, partly funded by his clinton foundation. the work their offers one of the first early tests using technology that gives a judge be results in less than an hour. >> i want you to help us totally eliminate the transmission of hiv. >> clinton's health access initiative, which works across the continent, has also helped to reduce the cost of drugs by up to 90%. the clinton foundations ambitions extend beyond health care to climate change and removing barriers to economic development. mr. clinton cut the ribbon on a new library in a south african village. it is nelson mandela's ancestral village. on his birthday, it was not the former u.s. president who was the star of the show. >> you have just met nelson mandela and he is celebrating his 94th birthday. we do not often see him in public. how is his health? >> he seemed quite healthy to me. he actually has gained some weight. he looke

how do you press pro-says all of that. >> what i would say if you describe the bill clinton in three letters so.s. >> he chose exactly the opposite course when he his party lost control of the house of representatives back in 1994 after an unpopular healthcare bill in his case it failed. very unpopular. after that failed, he tacked to the center. barack obama has not done that and his relationship with bill clinton has been tenuous and distant for some time and clinton has proved to be a remarkably unreliable surrogate doing such things in the middle of the anti-bain attacks as saying that romney had a sterling business record. also suggesting that texas shouldn't be raised on anybody. >> why is. >> barack obama is very very serious re-election trouble. bill clinton remains popular and credibility with swing voters of a kind that barack obama is losing. and so i think he thinks they can get help with them. >> what if bill clinton gets up there and says i like mitt romney's business career? i think t was really good? what if he says that at the convention? >> i doubt he would go that