carville is optimistic.ent, the city pulses with life. >> when you live in new orleans you just don't live in a city, you live in a culture. our own food, our our music, our own social structure, our own architecture, our own literature. >> reporter: it's a completely unique place. >> it's not just a city, it's a culture. people -- we don't -- we admire what atlanta, denver has done, we don't want to be atlanta or denver. we want to be new orleans. >> reporter: james carville is here now along with douglas brinkley from austin, texas. the city, there's progress all around. no doubt about it. >> yeah. people weren't patient. it just takes a while. you can feel the steam built up from reconstruction efforts, people moving back. the ngos, the habitat for humanity. the businesses are starting to open up again. you can feel the momentum starting to move now. it's taken a while but it does feel a lot better. >> doug, you say it's a tale of two cities, though? >> first off we have to launch james' campaign for mayo

we get that tour with resident james carville who will walk us around. if you have a question for james text your questions to 22360. we're here in musician's village. new orleans habitat for humidany with the help of americorps has built 72 homes here. this is a greet place. we have a band here. we'll be right back. ♪ i'm lindy. and i'm joni. we've been best friends since we were two. we've always been alike. we even both have osteoporosis. but we're active. especially when we vacation. so when i heard about reclast, the only once-a-year iv osteoporosis treatment, i called joni. my doctor said reclast helps restrengthen our bones to help make them resistant to fracture. and reclast is approved to help protect from fracture in more places: hip, spine, even other bones. (announcer) you should never take reclast if you're on zometa, have low blood calcium, kidney problems. or you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant or nursing. take calcium and vitamin d daily. tell your doctor if you develop severe muscle, bone or joint pain or if you have dental problems

joining us, james carville, the cnn contributor and democratic strategist. also joining us, ben stein, the economist and attorney, once was a speech writer for presidents nixon and ford. as you know, he's also a tv personality and actor. and joining us from las vegas, penn gillette, the illusionist, the best-selling author. he's the taller, more talkative half of penn & teller. they're performing, by the way, at the rio hotel and casino in las vegas. their program "b.s." is now in its seventh showtime series. he's a libertarian, as a lot of our viewers know. guys, thanks very much for coming in. the president was in new hampshire at a town hall forum today making his case for health care reform, and among other things he said this. >> under the reform we're proposing if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. you will not be waiting in any lines. this is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. i don't believe anyone should be in charge of your health in

james carville and republican strategist mary matalin. good morning to you. let's start with this debate. an apparent concession or sliding a bit on the question of a public option. james, most democrats have said it's critical. the white house is counting the votes in the senate. they're not. there the president and health secretary are now saying we'd like to have it, but it's not essential. how does that influence the debate? >> a big influence. on this network, on wolf's show, said that it's a good indication of it's not going to happen if they try to get to 60 votes in the senate, which is the apparent objective. and i think senator conrad was stating what the truth was. there are not 60 votes for the public option. if the democrats can't have it, is that incentive for new conversations with republicans about compromise? or is what we were seeing in the august recess proof that any hope of bipartisanship is gone? >> i think the republicans would be happy to sit down if there was real bipartisanship. there hasn't been since eight days into this administra

style came out of the carville campaind the perot campaign, but it was driven by the subject maer. c-span: whose idea was the cover, and what is it saying? >> guest: that's a very go estion. we had some tussling about the cover. the publisher and my editor and my agent were all charmed by it, and i guess i'm charmed by it, too. i'm not quite sure what it means. i talk a little bit in the book about changing lifestyles with regard to sexual practices and habits, and i tried to argue,ple behave in our lifestyles now is much looser and freer than the supposedly decadent lifestyle that's being imposed upon us by prime time tv or by "murphy brown," for example. and maybe there's a little play with that in the title, the eye and the wink. i'm not sure. i would have preferred it just to say the five myths of television power, but i'm only an autho c-span: how did you get into this stuff in the first place? >> guest: that's a big question. i was born in this city. i came from a very naive background. i was the second person in my family to go to college, and i guess the first to get an adv

we'll talk about that more with james carville and david gergen. that's my vision.ay, transitions lenses are there to help care for my sight. announcer: transitions lenses adjust to changing light to reduce glare and help protect your eyes from uv damage so you can see better today... and tomorrow. live your vision. transitions. healthy sight in every light. show us how you live your vision and you could win $10,000, plus transitions will donate $10,000 to the charity of your choice. enter at transitions.com. >>> a little bit more than an hour away from ted kennedy's celebration of life at the jfk presidential library in boston. let's talk about this with two cnn political contributors, democratic strategist james carville and david gergen, our senior political analyst. you just came from boston. what's the latest, based on what you can hear on this battle going on to fill the seat in the short term and then in the long term? >> well, wolf, i think it's ultimately going to move in the direction that the senator wanted. there's been a pushback over the last 48 hours

carville, thanks for joining us.ering bob novak? >> well, two things. he's a guy, a lot of people, like, trim their sails. he didn't. he knew exactly what bob thought. he really didn't much care about what other people thought. and he was fierce ly -- and the other thing about bob, him more than maybe ever knew, he was a real sports fan. and, i mean, he wasn't, like, a guy that read about it in the paper. we need to find out how many acc tournament games he saw in his life. i want to say he went to over 30 consecutive tournament games. he was passionate about maryland basketball more than anybody i ever knew. every redskin name, the wizards, the nats, the "os," anything that played, he went there. he was a really knowledgeable sports fan, too. but his, you know, he had a real kind of passion for politics. and he was a good reporter. i think anything that people don't know about bob, don't realize, he's a very ideology g guy and a very interested reporter. he had the best sources in the republican party. his monday co

we'll break it all down with james carville and mary

. >>> mary matalin and james carvil carville. they love each other to death.at just fuels the fire. >> all right. well, speaking of fueling the fire, how about this? in the midst of a global downturn, there's one thing that's recession-proof. there's many. but this is a good one. cuban rum. how? well, funny you should ask. you see, after i book 10 nights, i get a free one. say i spend 2 nights at a big name hotel, 3 at a boutique, and 5 at a beach resort... and boom! free night. ( dings, monkey chatters ) ( in a baby voice ) aren't you a smart one? ( monkey laughs ) accumulate 10 nights and get a night free. welcomerewards from hotels.com. smart. so smart. >>> 42 minutes after the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. rum is making the recession a little more bear arable to the people who drink it and people who sell it in cuba. the rum business is booming even though they can't sell it in the united states. we're minding your business live from havana, cuba this morning. good to see you. >> the main export, nickel, the price has plummeted. but o

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fran townsend, james carville. thanks. join the live chat at ac360.com.what you think about the debate. >>> new twists in the case of the murdered model. the hotel suicide. a mystery woman who may have acted as an accomplice. >>> swept to sea. on lookers sucked into hurricane bill's waves. ( revving, siren blares ) there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested. special interest groups are trying to block progress on health care reform, derailing the debate with myths and scare tactics. desperately trying to stop you from discovering that reform won't ration care. you and your doctor will always decide the best treatment for you. tell congress not to let myths get in the way of fixing what's broken with health care. learn the facts at healthactionnow.org. >>> a hunt ended last night with the suspect found hanging in a canadian hotel room. police say this man, ryan jenkins killed himself. he was charged with murdering his ex-wife, a swimsuit model whose body was stuffed in

james carville. thank you to your both. mr. carville, i will start with you. with what we see with these demonstrati demonstrations, is this proof that the president has lost control of this debate? that there's more to be upset about than be happy about? and he's spinning out of control? >> no. it's true, you have a lot of frustrated people in america. these people have lost two congressional elections in a row. they lost the presidential election. the stimulus is working. things are starting to turn around and get better. they lost the youth vote. they lost the hispanic vote. it's a psychological phenomenon that they're frustrated. and their leaders are frustrated. and talk radio is frustrated. and the congressional leadership is frustrated. we have to deal with this. it's better for them to be out there screang and yelling than doing other things. just accept it for what it is. march on. things are starting to work. things are starting to fall in place here. >> you see these protests, solely as a function of political maneuvers, against the president, and n

if you're trying to figure this out as a strategist, like james carville, they watch polls very close could say, wait a minute, maybe that's not the best strategy. >> if you had to vote on the small, medium, large, what are you -- >> i can't answer that because i -- >> i don't understand. >> i think you have to see something go to the president's deck. so much variance in the proposals. >> and three lines included. >> the first one seems the easiest. >> it seems the easiest because i don't think you have anybody questioning something needs to be done. there needs to be some reform. the problem is, if you look at not only the number of uninsured americans but if you look at the cost and the rising costs over the next -- the projections over the next ten years, this is unsustainable. it can't last the way it is. >> tort reform is never involved whatsoever. >> to. >> the insurance companies are, because they're much easier. >> we asked howard dean about that when we had him on about the tort reform question. he said, it's not something -- it's too big of a political land mine right now b

james carville and paul begala thanks so much. joining us from washington and new orleans today. senator kennedy coached with many tragedies including a terrible plane crash that left him with a broken back. we're looking back at the media coverage of 1964. >>> back to our coverage of senator ted kennedy now, though head many glowing political moments kennedy also endured several personal tragedies, including a plane crash in 1964 that left him with a broken back. let's listen to how it was reported then. >> reporter: misfortune strikes the kennedy family once again. senator edward m. kennedy was seriously injured when his private plane crashed in the woods near southampton, massachusetts. the senator was on his way to the state democratic convention where he was renominated when the plane crashed in a heavy fog. however, despite a broken back, doctors expect mr. kennedy to achieve complete recovery within eight to ten months. his family, including attorney general robert kennedy, quickly gathered at his bedside and specialists were flown from walter reed hospital. it was announc

>> guest: they fired me after my argument with james carville. i was on for 25 years but i was ready to quit. so i didn't want to work for them, and they didn't want me to work for them, so they let me go. but really, brought in, they had killed all of my programs. i didn't have any programs left. so, they were looking for a reason to let me go. the program's i had -- crossfire, capital gang, inside politics, and the novak zone -- for all cancelled. so, i was just kind of -- was making a lot of money and doing very little. i knew my days were numbered there, what ever happened between me and james carville. c-span: what age were you when you jump from the airplane? and why did you do it? >> guest: i guess i was what, 72 or 73? something like that. the program on novak zone was a little program where i interview somebody every week. and we will try to have all of interviews like athletes or piano players or opera singers. and i would do things. i was a super new married and what traviata at the washington opera, and i drove a boat at the severin r

dana bash, donna brazile, james carville. lots more ahead. we're going to take a quick break. to tell you about a quick programming note. tonight, 7:00 eastern, airing hbo's acclaimed documentary, "teddy in his own words." chronicles his remarkable life from his childhood to his speech at the 2008 democratic national convention, in fact, just a year ago that was. it includes also rarely seen archival footage. a great documentary. "teddy in his own words" will be airing the special tonight. 7:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. >>> making a final stop on his tour of ireland, senator edouard kennedy finds 100,000 people in the streets of limerick to give him a tumultuous sendoff. >> 70 degrees in the shade, very warm for the emerald isle. but the temperature of limerick's populace is at a new high to salute the brother of the moderate president. the youthful senator has a last word for the friendly crowd, among which you may be sure there are some relatives, before heading to the airport. but not before he gets the gift of a silver tea service to keep forever green the memory of his vi

. >> at least there won't be the whole carville -- >> healthcare reform. >> geraldo: a moment in timee been trying to recreate ever since 40 years ago. woodstock, music and artsfest call, defined a generation i wasn't there. my old cnbc producer was there and he had his original intact ticket, intact until he lent it to me ten years ago for a show and tell. watch. >> the executive producer of this broadcast, bob fasbender, get a shot of that. was actually there. they say all the people claiming to have been -- oops. oh, god. [ laughter [ laughter ] >> all those years. all those years. >> kirsten, congratulations. thank you both for joining us. obviously fox news will continue our excellent coverage of the debate over the issue. that's it. until tomorrow. thank you for watching. see you then. see you tomorrow. we're our own bosses and our own employees and our own everything else. running a b&b is not a desk job. i have to climb stairs probably 20-30 times a day. announcer: now joint comfort is easier. introducing nature made triple flex liquid softgels. the first liquid softgel joint

. >> at least there won't be the whole carville -- >> healthcare reform. >> geraldo: a moment in timeds have been trying to recreate ever since 40 years ago. woodstock, music and artsfest call, defined a generation i wasn't there. my old cnbc producer was there and he had his original intact ticket, intact until he lent it to me ten years ago for a show and tell. watch. >> the executive producer of this broadcast, bob fasbender, get a shot of that. was actually there. they say all the people claiming to have been -- oops. oh, god. [ laughter [ laughter ] >> all those years. all those years. >> kirsten, congratulations. thank you both for joining us. obviously fox news will continue our excellent coverage of the debate over the issue. that's it. until tomorrow. thank you for watching. see you then. see you tomorrow.

i'll tour the city with james carville, someone who now calls the place home.e a look at what's working and still has a lot of work to do. >>> and we'll pay respects to ted kennedy. >> larry: "ac 306," 10:00 eastern. john, we'll start with you. are all the former presidents coming to the funeral, john? >> three of the four living former presidents, larry. george h.w. bush, the 41st president of the united states was invited. he told the kennedy family he will be unable to make it. he did call vicki kennedy, the senator's widow and caroline kennedy to pass on his condolences and thoughts at the passing of senator kennedy. but he will not be attending. the other ones will. let me describe the scene for you here. there are thousands waiting in line. the line goes on as far as i can see this way into the dark. and one one of the most remarkable things tonight is the kennedy family has been coming out to thank the people for turning out. you showed sound from vicki earlier in the program. the senator's widow, to say thank you to all these people. bobby kennedy spent

and james carville.his mother would be sexual assaulted in front of him. are these acceptable interrogation techniques? >> well, anderson, let me start by saying i don't think there's anybody in any administration that would defend interrogators who went beyond what was legally authorized. there are memos that outline that. and this report is the result of self-reporting by the cia about issues that they uncovered and that they referred to the inspector general. >> you believe these things went too far? >> well, clearly the cia did. believe they were beyond it. and that's why it was referred to the justice department. but we should be clear. career prosecutors in the justice department reviewed this report and found that there were no crimes that were worthy of prosecution. this is now going back on that and asking a second group of prosecutors to do it again. and i think that's unnecessary. and, frankly dangerous. >> james, prosecutions aside, these actual techniques, are they appropriate? >> well, i th

democratic strategist and new orleans native james carville says the economy is seeing good momentum.the steam being built up from reconstruction efforts of people moving back and the ngos and the habitats for humanity and the businesses are starting to open up again. so, you know, if you can feel the momentum starting to move now. it's taken a while, but it does feel a lot better. >> fema says that katrina was the single most catastrophic, natural disaster in u.s. history. more than 1,800 people died. more than 207,000 were driven from their homes. the hurricane caused $1.8 billion in damage. >>> all right, so, do we have more storms to worry about because we've been watching a lot of them, especially just off the east coast here. meteorologist bob van dillen in. >> decent rain right now across the gulf coast and stretching in across atlanta. this has nothing to do with the tropical storm. this brought to you by fiber one. big picture. here's the eastern seaboard and here's danny. look how bad that looks. no strengthening over the last 12 hours and, in fact, it's falling apart. 40-mi

along with republican consultant alex constellos, cnn political contributor, james carville. and in new york, cnn political analyst roland martin. fran, you were there. i'm going to go through this with you. take us back. this is days before the 2004 election. a new osama bin laden tape had come out. everybody wondering what that would mean for the election. tom ridge claims secretary of defense rumsfeld and attorney general john ashcroft pressured him to raise the terror alert for political reasons. you were there, is that what happened? >> i wasn't only there, i was chairing this meeting, and i will tell you what happened is after a discussion between tom ridge and i, we agreed i should call a council meeting. the reason you call that meeting is to get the various views the other cabinet secretaries. they frequently don't always all agree. and what you want to encourage is this free exchange of their views. which is exactly what happened. by the way, tom ridge was not the only person at that meeting advocating the terror alert shouldn't have been raised. next, i think we ha

he has advisors, he has ameran advisors actualy james carvile is one ofis adsors.prident karza is acting more liken incumbent, he's not giving one hand in a ral, but he's rrying himlf like a president. then the's posters everywhere, and ther are about 36 candidates altogethe, minor candidates, many of them quite interestig. d people are quite sincere about running, at least certainly th top three ndidates. >> brown: as we reported, president karzai sa today he was eling confident about victory and wasrepared to offer gernment jobs to the two main opponents yo just metioned. what's e sense on the ground ere about whether he's right to be so confident? is there some possibilitof a runoff? >>here's deaf -- definitely the possibity of a runoff. ere's a lot of ople who thk he will win outright many people are talking about it, if he does in fact w outrighthat there will be people chargin fraud. there is thgh the chance of a runoff, because gani has a smaller perceage of the vote, but heill pull so votes away om karzai, he'll pull so of the pashtun vote away. d it's hard

with us in washington, cnn contributor and democratic strategist james carville. you love this one. john, i'm going to start with you. this is like a test, everyone's had a different reaction to it. >> i think it's such a reveal. i think really you have a highly scripted political pro and a very unscripted emotional moment. and that's what i think made it news. plus in the wake of the whole north korea questions, a lot of beltway gossip about bill clinton being the envoy for a successful mission. i think that ended up stirring the pot. >> i saw that as her making a statement about women, i did, and women's rights. i saw her in an african country in the congo where women are treated poorly and her saying i don't -- this isn't about my husband, this is about me and that's how it should be in your country. hillary clinton to me, and james, i think she's too smart to snap as some people suggest she did. i don't care how much jet lag she had. what do you think? was it a good moment for her? >> i don't think it was necessarily a bad moment. you've got to remember too in the congo has one

james carville is suggesting that's the strategic move. strategically is that smart advice? do you worry about republicans being in that position? >> david, if it's a bad enough bill and anything that contained the so-called public option, anything that would raise taxes the way the house is talking about doing, if it were things like that, absolutely we would have an obligation to filibuster. that is one of the tools available to the minority in the senate, and if we thought, as we do, that a health care bill was about to pass would make things worse in the country, we'd have an opportunity -- an obligation to do that. we hope still, there are democrats and republicans in the senate that are still talking, that there might be a possibility that we could get together and come up with a plan that might have some republican support. i would say that is the thing that -- i think that the administration is missing here. if you're going to change health care in america, it does not make any sense in my judgment to try to change it on a party basis. >> frank donatelli, thanks so m

i thought what president clinton did so well during his term is have james carville and others who were effective advocates during difficult times. i don't know that president obama has, do you know what i mean? >> he is really shouldering this burden. i think cbs mark noeler put out today that yesterday was the first time that he had not been seen by white house reporters. he had only been seen by white house reporters not been seen eight days, i'm sorry. i'm screwing this up. eight days in his own presidency not seen by white house reporters. that means he is out there front and center all the time. and it will be interesting to see if montana today, because politico is also reporting that it might be a little bit more contentious situation in that town hall. >> certainly something we will watch on friday. in fact, speaking of the white house. president obama is headed out west right now. the white house calls myths about the bill. the president and mrs. obama just took off from andrews air force base and land in a few hours. the president's town hall gets under way at 3:00 p.m. easte

our strategy session, joining us, our cnn political contributor, the democratic strategist james carvillend republican strategist ed gillespie. guys, thank you for coming in. there's a dilemma, probably, correct me if i'm wrong, if the public house isnoption isn't ine house. the democrats in the senate, a lot of them, together with the republicans, hate that public option. do you force democrats, moderate democrats in the house to walk down that plank, even if it's not going to wind up the law of the land once they get together? >> they probably have enough votes -- >> who? >> the democrats. >> in the house. with the public option. >> yes. >> and there -- >> but in the senate, it's not going to get through -- >> if the number two person in the senate -- >> dick durbin. >> haven't gotten there, you know -- >> so the question is, do you force some of the moderate -- >> i don't think they need to force very many of them. i think they have enough votes. some of them can't be forced. but my guess is -- >> your guess, when all the dust settles, if there's legislation, the president signs, it wi

>> they fired me after my argument with james carville. but i was ready to quit.t want to work for them, and they did not want to, so they let me go. but really, i did not have any programs left. the programs i had, "crossfire," "inside politics," they were all cancelled, so i was making a lot of money and doing very little i knew my days were numbered there before james carville. >> what age were you when you jump from an airplane? why did you do? >> 72, 73, something like that. "the novak his own -- zone" was a program where i would interview someone every week and i would do things that were supernumerary. i drove of boat up the river to the naval academy. i wanted to interview the army parachute jumping team, and they sent back a letter saying we could do the interview, but why would mr. novak like to jump? i was scared to death. so i told my wife i would good. i did not tell my doctor, with all of the illnesses i had. >> he said that david stockton could have been the best high- level source. who was he? >> he was the budget director in the first year of the

james carville and susan mulinary will be joining us. >>> officials in baghdad are saying bombings killedntagon man in charge of training forces is saying clearly there was a lapse in security. is the u.s. rethinking the iraq strategy? our barbara star is tracking this for us this morning. and what are your sources saying about the situation? >> well, kiran, if they want to change strategy, it is going to be very difficult. under the long standing agreement reached between the u.s. and iraq, the iraqis would have to ask the u.s. to step back in and it's not likely that the u.s. is going to reverse course on its strategy despite this terrible violent week. but the top commander, as you say in charge of training iraqi forces says he's frustrated and he's very concerned about what is going on. have lane to what he had to say. >> clearly there was a lapse of security or this would not have happened. providing security in this country is a never ending commitment. you are never good enough. do we anticipate more tax in the future? i think there are going to be some bad days ahead. i don't know

i think republicans and democrats -- i was talking to my old friend james carville who said, he expectsepublicans to do very well in 2010. it is a pretty universal conventional wisdom that unless republicans find a way to screw it up, they will pick up seats in 2010. that is part of the bigger narrative, which is the expansion of government under obama. rick: always nice to talk to you, bill. julie: and mother desperate to get her daughter help after an 8-year-old is attacked by a dog. >> hello? >> somebody needs to come. >> i cannot hear you. you need to come down just a little bit for me. julie: an update on the little girl and three minutes. boss: but i think there are a few other things you can say about what a reliable company geico is. gecko: right. uh, well maybe how geico's the third-largest car insurance company in america? nice tidbit there. boss: exactly. and i've been thinking, looking a bit more businesslike might help too. gecko: oh my. uhhh, no it's, what's, what's the word... vogeico. 15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance. i just want fewer pills

he is western educated and james carville is among his campaign advisers, by the way. the last contender, lawmaker and former cabinet member bashardost. his campaign office is a tent pitched outside parliament. the voice of the afghan people is being heard louder than ever here in the u.s., especially with the build-up of u.s. forces in afghanistan. we're hoping for election results by early september. officials results might not come until mid-september or later. >>> dozens of needy kids depending on a scholarship program to get through school, but now they're still in need and their parents want to know why. we're going to talk to one mom who took her case to some washington big wigs. cient choic. well, this chevy cobalt xfe has better highway mileage than a comparable honda civic. this chevy traverse has better mileage than honda pilot. the all-new chevy equinox has better mileage than honda cr-v. and chevy malibu has better mileage than accord. however, honda does make something that we just can't compete with. it's self-propelled. there's never been more reasons t

let's talk about it with two cnn political contributors, democratic strategist james carville and radioe says this in her latest facebook posting, jay. what do you think about her apparent change in tone? an earlier facebook posting basically called the president's proposals evil. >> right. and she's talked about death panels, i think. and i'm not sure i would like to hear directly from her what exactly she's talking about, that people are sort of screaming and interrupting people. doesn't seem to be very clear on that, and we're waiting for some clarification there from the former governor of alaska on that point, i think. >> i think what she was trying to say in her earlier posting, bill, was that if obama's health care plans went into effect, she's worried that her elderly parents or her son who has down syndrome could be in danger. >> yeah. well, her comments are -- except as a citizen are irrelevant. she's not in charge. she's not giving orders or directions. this is a distraction. the media loves to focus on sarah palin. she's not running anything. what's happening is that in thes

>>> let's talk about this and more with cnn political contributor, democratic strategist, james carvillepresident simply get confused about the aarp? because they haven't endorsed the house democratic version. >> he misspoke. whatever you want to do, the press secretary said that. he said that. we'll see in the final piece of legislation if they do. i suspect somebody probably told them at some point they were teb thinking about it. obviously, he did misspeak. >> is the president doing enough, in your opinion, as a republican strategist, to convince the country that he knows what he's doing as far as health care reform is concerned? >> obviously not -- >> what else does he need to do? >> well, i think they've relied so much on the same speech over and over again, but the american people expect details. they expect that policy matters to people. they want to know how their health care is going to be affected specifically, and confusion reigns in this political -- >> james, almost every single day he's got a talking point. >> the talking point, explain what he's trying to do to the america

joining me, cnn political contributor and democratic strategist james carville and republican strategist with health care clients. i want to start off with you, james. i mean, obviously, the white house message has gone through a different -- some changes here. the president arguing that health care reform is good for the economy, then emphasizing good for security, your own insurance, you get your own insurance, it's not going to change, and some folks are talking about the moral issues around health care reform. what is the message the white house needs to get to folks to make it stick? >> well, the first thing -- the problem is depending on the senate finance committee to produce a bill. apparently it's dawned on them that's highly unlikely to happen. i think they're -- >> what's the issue? >> cost. cost. cost. that -- yes. spending $8,000 per person in the united states on health care. the next country closest to that is switzerland, $4,000. we spend $1.2 trillion. the co-ops are a good idea, but they won't have a chance in washington because no one is making money on it. that's the

policies specific areas and i want to start with the economy because i believe it is ironic james carvilled posted in the clinton campaign headquarters in little rock a sign that said it's the economy and i think this administration today would do well to post a sign in the oval office that says it's jobs stupid and the fact is we don't focus on jobs and we don't get people back to work and we don't create economic momentum we are in deep trouble as a country. america only works when americans are working. furthermore when you're faced with competitors like china and india you have to have a strategy for economic growth and economic to filament in a period of considerable challenge. our argument is if we want to build a safe prosperous and free future we need to create the most productive most creative most entrepreneurial pro-market economy that runs on smart and effective economic regulation. let me be clear. i believe if you set out and say well what maximize their are ways to do that. you said what maximize the number of small businesses created by small business there are ways to do t

see it, go to youtube, because he got it accurately, and to make the point, he interviewed james carvilleho is advising one of the candidates, so that is a good set up for us. i will introduce the people one by one, and very briefly, and we will start off with barnett rubin, who was an nyu professor, now on the tel to our team, and in my view, the leading american expert for afghanistan in the last 30 years. all of you know who he is. it is a tremendous asset to the united states government to have him on the inside telling us why everything we do is wrong, instead of on the outside telling us why everything we do is wrong. but today he will give you a quick overview. each person will talk for two minutes. we will move fast and then get to the q&a and i will do the cleanup. barney? >> thank you very much, richard. everyone here, of course, knows that we're engaged in a very difficult war in afghanistan, and we are in the midst of a presidential and provincial council elections under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and you will hear more about those elections later on. what i am g

let's talk about this and more with our cnn political contributor, democratic strategist james carvillee editor in chief of the cybercast news service. you know, our whole lives, i think, james and terry, i'll go to james first, we've been hearing about the war on drugs, but it seems to be getting worse and worse. >> yeah, i mean, look, i have a nephew in law enforcement who works on one of these drug forces and the stories he tells me are unbelievable. if we win or lose, we have no choice but to keep fighting. you can't just turn the world over to these criminals and, you know, maybe we need a strategy and maybe we need to do some things differently, but i don't think we can abandon this, you know, quote war on drugs. >> are you ready to through many the towel on this war, terry? >> it's not clear to me we've even started to fight. the national drug intelligence sener, an element of the justice department, that tracks these things, they said the mexican drug cartels are now the number-one organized crime threat inside the united states, not just in arizona where they operate, they oper

democratic strategist james carville has the city's economy has gained momentum. >> it just takes a whilemanity, the businesses are starting to open up again. you can feel the momentum starting to move now. it's taken a while, but it does feel a lot better. >> fema says ka trtrina was the most catastrophic natural disaster in u.s. history. the hurricane caused more than $81 billion in damage. >>> a court in the netherlands is temporarily blocking a 13-year-old girl from attempting to sail around the world solo. laura dekker's parents support her voyage but child protection officials think she is too young. today the court decided the child protection board will share custody with her parents for two months. during that time a child psychologist will assess her mental state and ability to carry out a solo journey around the world. >>> president obama, as you know, is a popular figure around the world and his image can certainly be lucrative. case in point, in egypt a man uses his name to sell dates and it's not what you're thinking probably. cnn.com's nicole lapin is here to explain this o

policies specific areas and i want to start with the economy because i believe it is ironic james carville 1982 had posted in the clinton campaign headquarters in little rock a sign that said it's the economy and i think this administration today would do well to post a sign in the oval office that says it's jobs stupid and the fact is we don't focus on jobs and we don't get people back to work and we don't create economic momentum we are in deep trouble as a country. america only works when americans are working. furthermore when you're faced with competitors like china and india you have to have a strategy for economic growth and economic to filament in a period of considerable challenge. our argument is if we want to build a safe prosperous and free future we need to create the most productive most creative most entrepreneurial pro-market economy that runs on smart and effective economic regulation. let me be clear. i believe if you set out and say well what maximize their are ways to do that. you said what maximize the number of small businesses created by small business there are ways

it is ironic that james carville and 1992 had posted a net clinton campaign headquarters in little rock, a sign that said "it's the economy, stupid." i really think this administration would do well to post a sign in the oval off all but says, it's jobs, stupid." if we don't get people back to work and create economic momentum, we are in deep trouble as the country. america all the works when america is working. when your face with competitors like china and india, you have to have a strategy for economic growth and development in a periodic and serious challenges. our argument is that we want that build a safe and prosperous future, we need to create the most productive, most creative, must entrepreneurialism, pro- market economy that runs on smart an effective economic regulation. let me be clear. i believe that if you set out and say what would maximize the number of law entrepreneurs in america, there are ways to do that. what would maximize the number of businesses created by small businesses, there are ways to do that. if you said, how can i have the most continuous process of inn