he's also an msnbc news analyst, and bob herbert, a distinguished senior fellow at a think tank. you rate the strategy so star? do you think it's wrong or right? >> politically the strategy is very good, and i agree with you, the president is winning this battle, but i think it's a wholly manufactured crisis. there should be no controversy around raising the debt limit. the republicans should have agreed to raise it, as they did several times during the bush administration, just raise it and move on. the real crisis in this country right now is an employment crisis, which is why the economy is in the tank. what the two parties should be negotiating is a way to get americans back to work, and then leave the debt issue, the long-term budget deficits and debt issues into -- into the medium term. deal with the jobs crisis first, and then deal with the debt issues, which are serious, but deal with them subsequently. >> i had a congressman telling me if we protect the top 1%, jobs will come from heaven, i guess. >> we should be clear that most people in power are happy about the top 1%

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joining us now is bob herbert. it's great to see you. thanks for being here. >> you too. how are you? >> i'm all right. >> fired up as usual. >> as usual. i have always been fascinated by death penalty politics. in part because it is a mix of the practical and the profound. do you think that we are capable of absorbing a profound political issue like this into presidential politics or do you think it gets glossed over? >> i think it will get glossed over. i have been watching it for so many years. i have written a lot about the death penalty. and it's really bizarre. it almost doesn't matter what the individual politicians really think about the death penalty. we have such a macho culture. and such a violent culture that no politician is willing to take a chance on being perceived as soft on crime. rick perry i'm convinced, you know, is very much pro death penalty, so his decisions seem to be in learn with his own personal philosophy. >> he has killed enough people to justify that as governor, yeah. >> but many other politicians i have covered are in their hearts or minds

. >> former "new york times" columnist bob herbert is a distinguished fellow, will cain is a cnn contributorbob, you feel the deficit reduction focus in washington with the full support of president obama is actually hurting job creation efforts. >> no question about it. but i actually think that -- this is going to make you really cynical. i think this is sort of a phony debate. this is a manufactured crisis. we should be dealing with the debt ceiling separately, just raise it. and dealing with budget matters separately, they're very complex and they involve more even than just the idea of whether you're going to raise taxes or whether you're going to cut spending. and i don't think that we're making any progress here. i doubt -- i agree with david gergen. i doubt that even the republicans are going to send the economy over a cliff. so i expect the debt ceiling to get raised one way or another. but the real issues relating to the budget and the long-term debt are not going to be dealt with. >> will cain, something that sort of started trickling out there which would be very hard politically

jobs, jobs, jobs a priority, the kind of thing tavis was talking about, frank rich talked about, bob herbertd about, and i can go on and on and on, robert cutner talks about, we come up in ways in which job programs -- >> see, i think that is the american philosophy, is choose a problem and then attack it with everything you've got. if you're sick, with cancer, you want to be somewhere like los angeles. because the doctors will go, boom. and i feel that until america collectively with this job situation does this, and comes together and says, we are going to fix this, until that happens, and it's not being driven yet by the top. they are too busy struggling with each other. >> and some of this has to do with retraining those persons, as industries change, as we see where the future is headed, retrain those persons who are out of work now. dr. west and i are honored to be on this program tonight to announce in large part this poverty tour. august 6, we are getting on a bus. it's called the poverty tour, a call to conscious. the poverty tour. >> what's the idea? >> to get on this bus and go to

i'm bob herbert. i wonder what universe the politicians in washington are traveling in. we have a full-blown crisis in the country. it's a true disaster, but that's not the sense you would get if you just follow the comings and goings of the movers and shakers at the white house and on capitol hill. i've been talking to people who have been out of work for the longest time, and whose families are really suffering missing mortgage payments, missing credit card and order loan deadlines, missing meals. one man who was out of work for a year, is married, and father of a 5-year-old told me what it was like last christmas when the family put up a christmas tree, but had no presents to put under it. this was a man in his 30s in ohio in 2011, but he sounded like a figure from one of those old depression e-ray hollywood movies. even though we were not able to give gifts, and everything, we still had each other and a roof over our heads, so we were blessed in that regard. americans are learning in this hideous economic environment to be thankful for small favors. there was a perio

i'm bob herbert. i sometimes wonder what universe the politicians in washington are traveling in. we have a full-blown employment crisis in the country. it's a true disaster, but that's not the sense you'd get if you follow the comings and goings of the movers and shakers at the white house on capitol hill. i've been talking to people who have been out of work for the longest time, and whose families are really suffering. missing mortgage payments, credit cards, missing meals. one man who was out of work for a year and is married and the father of a 5-year-old told me what it was like last christmas when the family had a tree, but had no presents to put under it. this was a man in his 30s in ohio in 2011, but he sundayed like a figure from one of those old depression era hollywood movies. even though we didn't give gifts and everything, we still had each other, still had a roof over our heads, so we were blessed in that regard. americans are learning in this hideous economic environment to be thankful for small favors. there was period when he was so far behind in bills, he went d

i am bob herbert.etimes i wonder what universe the policy-makers in washington are traveling in. we have a full-blown and plummet crisis in this country that is not a sense you would get if you followed -- a full-blown in employment crisis in this country, but that is not the sense you would get. i am from -- back from ohio, where i've been talking with people who have been out of work, and whose families have been struggling, this in mortgage payments, deadlines, and meals. one man was out of work for a year, married, and the father of a five-year-old, and he told me what it was like last christmas, when the family put up a christmas tree, but had no presence to put under it. it sounded like a figure from one of those old, depression-era hollywood movies. even though we were not able to give each other gifts and everything, we still had each other, he said. we still have a roof over our head. americans are learning in this hideous economic environment to be thankful for small favors. there was a time