is there are real bill clinton to back either many pilgrims? who is bill clinton? and a complicated man the story is told to the voice of one of its 69 people who know him. the idea was to create a book like conversation about this fascinating man, a conversation that the reader can ease drop on i hope it is the most intimate character portrait yet. i think it is the most varied. people included of the book are people who grew up with him, went to school, worked for him, worked with him, worked against him, investigated him, defended him, reported on him, love him, hit him. everyone from the cousin who took the 5-year-old bill clinton to the saturday westerns in arkansas to a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. classmates and every stage of his education to nationally known journalists. cabinet members, political consultants, over two dozen current and former members of congress, to republicans like bob dole and late henry hyde. there is even a cameo appearance by larry flint, the publisher of hustler magazine. i spent a solid year interviewing. my wife t

will the real bill clinton please stand up. is there a real bill clinton? or are there many? -- "a complicated man" told the the voice of 169 people who know him. those who have conversation about the fascinating man that "the reader" can eavesdrop i hope it is the most intimate character portrayed debt of our 42nd president i do think it is the most very, as the book included, people who grew up with bill clinton's holocaust went to school with him come investigated him, defended him, reported on him, love him or hate him. everyone from the cousin who took five year-old clinton and on saturdays to former's joint chiefs of staff also tom brokaw and sam donaldson a cabinet members and political consultants, over two dozen current and former members of congress like a party for a or bob dole or henry hyde even a cameo appearance by larry flint. i spent one solid years interviewing. my wife will tell you, i in my mahan of a strong opinions so she was struck each evening whenever a report on the interviews i would find merit in the view of whatever person i had spoken to that day

obama and the clintons. have forged a political bond that's working for the country, the political party and them. it was forged initially in denver in the summer of '08, the rousing festival of unity and excitement. was upgraded with obama asking hillary clinton to be his secretary much state. an offer backed up by bill clinton's strong endorsement. he wanted her to accept, seeing the duty and global stature she would obtain. the president's people wanted help in three vital states for 2012, florida, ohio and colorado. they asked bill to hit those states and he did. he spent his additional time on the stump traveling for candidates who helped hillary in 2008. >>> then came this past friday, bill clinton arrived at the white house, met with the president. from there the two men met with the presidential briefing room to meet the press. bill clinton gave a full throated endorsement on the bipartisan compromise on taxes president obama had struck. when president obama felt he spent enough time making his point

the old clinton, the former president, is tolely in tune.'s like he never left the music. >> he's been in the middle of it and part of it, i think at first he stayed because it was motivating to try to help hillary clinton's career, but i thought it was amazing how he came in and says, you know, i spend an hour a day studying this economy. >> i believe it. >> probably also an hour a day on finding on on arkansas politics and florida politics. >> mark, your thoughts because i think his touch the perfect. i think he was off touch 2008. a very difficult time to have your spouse running. you can't be the candidate. you had to be the enforcer. >> a lot of times when i would run into him in 2008, he would say, i'm rusty. so much of the politics was not around when he was a candidate. as a rusty guy, he's still bet eer than everybody else and has clearly gotten really engaged in the politics of this. when he was helping for other democrats in the midterms. >> how does he connect with the net roots? does he help them support obama who are disappoint

clinton correctly?> i don't -- as to the choreography of their appearance together and his leaving and all that. i don't know about that. i don't think it matters much. the fact he was there and said what he said is more important. the president does need to learn a little bit more about how to go about this dance we call triangulation. which the president, facing a partly hostile congress and skeptical electorate and a potentially resive base, places himself somewhere where he's not quite with one or the other but in part with both, that's triangulation. that's what bill clinton did. if the president is going to it he needs to do it in a way when he reaches a deal with the other party that he seeps to like it, believe in it and be gracious about it. >> bill: do not say they are hostage-takers? >> i think it was unnecessary. made him look like he lost. you want to look like you are winning. particularly if you are engaging in something the public likes and the polls show the public likes this. you don't

bill clinton and bill and hillary clinton. two former clinton administration heavy weights -- robert reich and terry mcauliffe join us in a moment. >>> plus, let the fun begin. the loud noise you heard last night outside the window was the republican snowball that came when word came that michael steele is running again as rnc chair. how can the party of lincoln stop the guy with all the wins? lining up in favorite of the new s.t.a.r.t. nuclear treaty, why are so many right wingers standing in the way? we're going to debate what could be lost in the treaty goes down. >>> meet the old boss. not the new boss. you'll love this. he's in business to serve the banks. didn't he get the memo? you're not supposed to admit that. >>> we start with the tax cut deal. the "huffington post" howard fineman. so is richard wolffe. can't be any colder than this place. you know, i have to say, romney. this guy is mobile. this guy moves around. he was for the health care plan in massachusetts. pro-choice in massachusetts. the minute he cleared the

bill clinton in his 6th year, 1998, won seats for the democrats. george bush in 1990 won seats, but the democrats lost pretty bad. it's a harder question to say to what degree was obama's fault whether it was bad leadership or failed leadership on his part, and to what degree is just a function of, you know, very terrible economy. i think, you know, there are elements of both. >> host: well, when you look back and see george w. bush losing seats or ronald reagan or jimmy carter in 1980s, historically, has it been the president's fault or is it things that congress has been up to? >> guest: well, it's always a combination of things. i mean, -- one, there is a dynamic by which, you know, this is political science called serge and decline. you win big, bring in with you two year congressman, senators. two years later, the congressmen, some of them are going to be swept back out in the tide. six years later, some of the senators are swept back out. some of this is dynamic. it also has to do with the economy. when times are bad, voters are more motivate

can he pull a clinton? he literally pulled a clinton.they sat up there and defended the bush tax rate and the republican estate tax proposal. think about it. not defending the clinton or the obama tax rate. >> payroll tax cut. >> that's something the republicans liked for a long time. i'm saying from a policy point of view, a big move to the center by president obama. followed by his symbolic freeze for the government workers' pay, something that the republicans have been for. south korea free trade agreement, something the republicans are for. sustain the surge in afghanistan. remember the december review, obama will begin pulling out? no way, no how. david petraeus is in charge of afghanistan. president pivoted to the center and it's good for the country and conservatives and it helps his re-election bid. >> wait, wait -- [ overtalk >> chris: take over this conversation but you have this continuing fracture now between this president, who seems to be moving to the center, and a house democratic caucus that led to retirement of the blue

that was especially true of the clintons. both hillary and bill clinton loved dick holbrooke.him to be secretary of state. and some people thought he should have won the nobel peace prize for his work in bosnia ending with the dayton peace accords. other people thought he should have been secretary of state. he never got there but he was still willing to go out and do these really messy jobs. >> thankless jobs. >> thankless. afghanistan, pakistan, you were just saying before we went on the air there was something in "the washington post" about his talking to his surgeon -- his last words, talking to a pakistani surgeon saying you have to end this war in afghanistan. that was him. he was -- i've never seen anybody who lived to be a diplomat. everything else in life was waiting. he liked to be up on that wire. >> this all happened suddenly. he had had a problem i guess in the past but i guess he was in a meeting with secretary clinton. what exactly went wrong? a tear in the aorta, is that right? >> yeah. i heard that he stood up, was able to walk out of the office. what we now k

clinton supporters say she's the perfect person to deal with the perfect storm of wickedly clinton personallys though many international leaders for years they say and if anyone could smooth ruffled diplomatic feathers or bring relationships back on track they say,. today not surprisingly the white house is taking new steps to protect government secrets including the appointment of new senior adviser to prevent any further leaks. on man-made disaster up global sport and pop culture leading ladies they all took over yah hoo searches this year. internet reporter kimberly is talk about shows the less. >> this year's list is a mix of news and entertainment let's take a look at the top can claim on to the top. pretty spears at 10 and american idol it is in its ninth season came in at 9, just a beeper swept and at no. 8. that's his first top- 10 an appearance of the jobless. number seven is like a fox, number six is i phone the release of the fourth generation help the device it out i pad and searches. no. 5 was like god got the entertainer, no. 4 socialite can car-yeah, interesting choose the #one

is there a clinton role here to play? i think some people on the left, we know the differences on the tax bill. i think what clinton said the other kay day, it's not ideal. >> not a democratic bill. >> we've got to move it forward. the payroll tax deduction, 2%, you may not like the tax cuts, but we had to do something to get this economy moving again and i think for clinton what he said the other day, a lot of things he didn't like about it, but overall, it will move the economy forward. i think it's very important to move forward, but he and president obama, they worked together on north korea. he sent president clinton to north korea, to haiti. >> is this a relationship or transaction? >> it's been a relationship and i think the press has wanted to see this, but president obama's calling clinton, go to north korea, to go to haiti. president clinton did 133 campaign events, worked with the white house. they've been working together. they love this country. they want it to go forward. >> i think all the political transac

el departamento de estado... la secretaria de estado ella misma firmada clinton. presidente venezolano dijo ayer que hillary clinton debería renunciar a raíz de la violación de la seguridad de su propio despacho. en venezuela al menos 25 personas han muerto como consecuencia de las fuertes

clinton and his ideas. mr. obama came into office with promises of transparency as well as getting rid of people who are basically puppeteers. especially with the oil and fuel situation. he has not done. when it comes to negotiating, mr. obama continuously gives away the store. one example is the health care situation. the first day of may in 2009 there was nothing for public option people. it was basically moving right along towards we are going to support private industry as far as health care goes. and in the summer of 2009 all that we heard from the republicans was that panels. we were reaching out to them constantly over the last 16 months. it demands hand was bitten as many times all -- in a man's hand was beaten that many times all there would be left would be a bumper and napalm -- thumb and a palm. host: how would the republicans go about changing things in in january? caller: whenever the republicans' takeover, that will be sure to put more idealism and harder programs going through against us as far

not about nancy pelosi and other house democrats digging in, but about the fact that bill clinton had blessed this in a way, that led to the senate vote and i think it will eventually lead to a house vote that'll be successful. that circuit breaker i think was vital. the weekend would had been a lot different had it not occurred. >> and let's remember and you bring up a good point, mark, because let's remember what the picture, and i joked with a white house staffer earlier that day, i'm like, hey, you going to give us anything on this clinton/obama meeting? because other than that, i got about eight hours of bernie sanders tape to start running on air. so the of half kidding, half joking. and then you know they bring out the big dog. elvis comes into the building and guess what bernie sanders, his show ended up getting -- >> here's president clinton, though on his party. let's listen.

we had a stock market higher than when bill clinton was president.worked -- the bottom fell out when the democrats came back in and uncertainty was introduced. >> erick, come on, man. >> james, those are the numbers. >> five years -- i'm sorry. you're going to say the stblth under bush was better than under clinton i'm going to fall right out the chair. the whole world -- >> those are the numbers, james. >> take it back. you're not looking good. you're not going to look good when you compare the clinton market with the bush market. >> you always say how awful they were and didn't work but the fact is under george bush after the tax cuts were passed we had ridiculously low unemployment. the unemployment didn't go back up until 2007. >> let's look at income growth, stock market, deficit, everything and compare clinton and bush. in the entire eight years bush was president created 1 million jobs. please -- you got to deal with the facts. >> the facts is the unemployment rate under george bush after 2003 was significantly low. >> okay. all right. the sto

. >>> clinton in central asia has had a lot of explaining to do to foreign leaders after the embarrassing wikileaks release of classified u.s. embassy cables. >> i have certainly raised the issue of the leaks in order to assure our colleagues that it will not in any way interfere with american diplomacy. >> clinton was attending a meeting of the organization for security and cooperation in europe in the kazakhstan capital on wednesday. she later told reporters that the participants there agreed that despite the document leaks, the u.s. would continue to play an important role in the international community. clinton added that it is natural for foreign governments to raise questions about the leaks and pledged to offer a satisfactory explanation. >>> in washington, state department spokesperson phillip crowley said the u.s. government is investigating the leaks as a criminal matter. he said the government will continue to review security procedures to make sure that this does not happen again. the leaking of classified documents the whistleblowing website wikileaks is drawing mixed reactio

>> reporter: i have not heard about president clinton making phone calls.een lots of phone calls going out for members of the white house to members of congress as these votes pile up here. but i am sure clinton has made himself available. the question is, can that be helpful right now? it's not clear. >> well, one of the sets of phone calls that i understand are going out are the new gop committee chairman. we saw that still photo of the president. what are those conversations like? >> reporter: well, it's surprising how the small things can be extremely useful for the white house and for the president and the republicans who said why didn't we have more contact earlier? you hear from democrats who say, we really are unhappy with the tax deal because we weren't in the room at the time. the personal element is what makes it that much harder to demonize the white house, although, let's face it we all expect, in the new year, these two parties to go at it all over again, and it's not going to be easy to see the couple bkumbaya continuing. >> how cold is it? >

and for president clinton, he took on the bosnian war.st diplomatic achievement may have been his most personal. >> i don't think there's ever been a negotiation any more difficult than this one. 48 hours with almost no sleep, people dying, incredible pressure. >> holbrooke, whose grandfather escaped hitler in nazi germany said the conflict brought the world modern day scenes of ethnic cleansing. he reflected on that in a 2008 advise to bosnia. >> i thought, i'm seeing a color remake of the black and white scenes we've seen in world war ii. >> he also served as u.s. ambassador to germany and later the united nations. leaving the spotlight after the clinton administration for a second krooer on wall street. but he returned to washington in 2009 in perhaps his toughest role. president obama's special enjoy for afghanistan and pakistan. >> we concluded quite simply that america's basic national security interests were at stake in these two countries. >> he was a regular voice in president obama's situation room meetings on the new afghanista

clinton. clinton, a master of the tale hung in there, obviously enjoying the moment but also showing that he has indeed been spending an hour a day on economic issues. as well as his loyalty, of course, to obama and his program, which was also on display. even the skeptic must see in this obama/clinton alliance, the boast kind of politics. once president himself, clinton knows the duty and power of politics. he knows that certain realities just need to be accepted if you're going to continue leading the country. he knows, too, that president obama must succeed for his party to succeed. he knows that even if hillary has foresworn to any desire to pursue electoral office once again that the best bet for her in 2012 -- or 2016, rather, is a good record for a barack obama till then. the great fact of today's politics for obama and the clintons is their profound need for each other. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. right now it's time for "the ed show" with ed schultz. >>> good

most americans were against impeaching bill clinton. they did not approve of the lewinsky business but they were ready to move on. republicans pushed the through and in november they were punished the polls. 2002, we were coming out of 9/11, and there was fear and vulnerability and anger. people looked to the president and his party to provide strength on national security, which for a number of years republicans have done better than the public on those issues. very cannily, the republicans brought up the question of an iraq war a vote before the election and put democrats and a hard spot. when the debate was on a national security, democrats ended up doing poorly on 2002. those exceptions should give us some pause about the iron laws of history. yes, there is a good reason why there is a tendency for the party in the white house to lose midterms its, but it is not an iron law and it does not have to happen. there are a lot of individual -- the individual presidents and congress can do to make otherwise. host: last call. go ahead, bob.

president obama and president clinton, side by side at the podium. and when the current president left, president clinton continued, conducting his own free-wheeling question and answer session about the tax cut deal made by president obama with the republicans. a deal that, of course, has the democrats in revolt. as we said, can president clinton now be the closer? jake tapper can tell us. he's at the white house tonight. jake? >> reporter: good evening, diane. that's right. ensnarled in an intense debate with democrats over the tax cut deal that he negotiated with republicans, president obama today unleashed the big dog. after meeting for more than an hour in the oval office, president obama this afternoon introduced the husband of his democratic primary rival to offer his full throated support for the controversial compromise. >> i thought, given the fact that he presided over as good an economy as we've seen in our lifetimes, that it might be useful for him to share some of his thoughts. >> the agreement taken as a whole is, i believe, the best b

he wanted to be in the clinton administration. al gore had won in 2000 almost certainly woe have been secretary of state. certainly in the campaign of 2008 he was positioning himself and he never did. but it always struck me that having been disappointed, in that quest, he didn't go off and sulk. he joined the clinton administration and the obama administration at levels that someone of his stature might easily have said, you know, that's beneath me. instead, he got into this extraordinary work. my colleague at the new yorker, george packer, did a profile of holbrooke where he traveled to afghanistan with him and the difficulty of just getting around afghanistan, you know, david, what you said about what that did to him physically, you know, he was a big man. he probably could have lost a few pounds. he -- the physical cost of going in these small planes, very dangerous conditions, it's a lot. >> i think that speaks to what jamie referred to before. he actually believed there was something overwhelmingly powerful, important, and g

it was better for clinton and barack obama doesn't have exactly the same public skills that bill clinton had. but certainly putting himself between two parties, we saw president obama do that this week monday night when he announced the deal and tuesday at his news conference saying, look, we've got i deal logs on both sides, i'm in the middle, a version of what clinton do in the mid-'90s. >> it was a fascinating scene. president clinton comes out and this says is a good bill. does the message somehow get undermined by the headlines of today deja vu, bubba's back, from the "washington post" or the "new york times" looks like bill is on the big stage once again? >> maybe that's a bit of a diversion but i think the message that also comes across, here's a popular former president who served when it was a time when the economy was good, who learned to work with the opposite party and he thinks this is an okay deal. this deal is actually quite popular, if you look at the gallup poll, americans by huge margins like the two main pillars of it. i think it a to the white house's notion, look, ad

and it was vintage clinton. there was some lip biting, hand gestures, even poetic license of his own biography where he referred to himself as a depressionary kid. he was america's first baby boomer president. the basic message was this, this is a good deal on substance, he said, and he said it will just make the american public feel better that members of both parties can somehow vote for the same bill. >> two presidents in the same room and the other end a genuine mr. smith goes to washington moment on capitol hill. chuck todd witnessing all of it for us and starting us off tonight. chuck, thanks. >>> now to other news from today. almost nine years ago, the kidnapping of 14-year-old elizabeth smart from her home in salt lake city, riveted this country. tonight, the case is finally over. and tonight we finally get to hear her voice. our own kristen welker is at the courthouse in salt lake city tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. elizabeth smart smiled today in court when that guilty verdict

>> i am -- yes, secretary clinton opened the saban forum in washington on friday. and she made a very compelling speech, and i really agree with i would say 99.9% of her thoughts as she put them forth. you asked hani a minute ago why isn't peace happening. it's a very complicated area loaded with emotions, and at the moment, you know, the leaders on both sides i think are very well intended but at the same time they need some more encouragement, and what we're hoping is that the united states will supply that encouragement and basically the safety net that both the israelis and the palestinians need, because there are significant risks involved for both sides, so the united states absolutely can play a very significant role. and i believe that this administration has every intent to do so. >> larry: hani, do you have faith in the american commitment in this? >> i do, but this is a very difficult question to answer, because in the last 15 years, different administrations have dealt with this issue. nothing have happened. in the meantime, we have 60% of the palestini

secretary of state hillary clinton has been contacting foreign leaders and expressing regret over the wikileaks document release scandal. u.s. assistant secretary of state philip crowley told reporters on thursday that clinton has been in contact with pakistani president asif ali zardry and argentinean president christina fernandez dekirschner to express regret over the issue. she has so far called ministers and leaders of ten countries including china's foreign minister yen jae ch sxichlt afghan president hamid karzai. clinton is said to be planning more phone calls on the issues. >> some government officials that have talked to us freely in the past may be more reluctant. we understand that for a period of time this is going to make our day-to-day conduct of diplomacy much more difficult. >> crowley criticized wikileaks' founder julian assange. he said assange is not a journalist nor a whistleblower but "a political actor with a political agenda." >>> the u.s. ambassador to japan, john roos, has explained the wikileaks scandal to japan's foreign minister, seiji maehara on thursday.

oh. >> president clinton wanted to clarify not that kind of zipper club. one of the other big friends regis philbin back on remote in new york. there's a little delay which makes a duet very difficult. >> i got one for you tonight, larry, okay? >> go. >> totally unrehearsed. >> all right. ♪ so long for a while that's all the king for a while ♪ yours. larry, don't let me down now. good-bye. >> i don't know the second. >> you know the song. >> yeah. frank sinatra sang. >> yeah. ♪ so long to your hit parade and the guests that you loved to be played ♪ >> larry doesn't remember it. we're dying, trumper. . we're dying! >> larry has never heard the song, regis. i don't know how to it tell you to do your business but i might have worked that out in the preinterview. larry's young son 10-year-old cannon does the best impersonation of anyone you've ever seen. watch this. >> first cannon does me. do me. >> where's shawn. get in the car. i'm too old for this. i done this for 50 years. >> that kid is good. all right. now to say good-bye, our favorite, recent moments f

he calls bill clinton in. he's got the press conference with bill clinton. he's doing all the things he should have done over the past two years. what happened? >> this was a -- this thing was an audible done on the fly in the meeting. i believe the new chief of staff is washington's most meticulous planners and is a great realistic -- great at being realistic. being realistic, the president needs to build some sort of coalition to govern and you're going to see this week and all the rest of the month you're going to see attempts to rebuild the presidency, which is in a recall stalled position. >> john, again, they just winged it. they just decided to go out there. >> it was good. >> not to make too many beatle analogies, this is paul and john, "saturday night live," trying to go downstairs, trying to get a cab because they wanted to play. but this time they actually went out and played. >> just to get to it, there's no demographics more popular than the liberals. he's the liberal democrat -- he's got a 90-plus percent approval rate. where the liberals are r

bill clinton is popular among democrats and more broadly. economy was pretty good during his term so he can speak to the policy here but also he is a pretty good politician and can defend president obama against the idea that republicans took him to the cleaners. but this kind of tag team thing is odd, and it's particularly striking given how bitter things were between the obama and clinton camps during the 2008 democratic primary. >> mitchell: let's talk about the filibuster yesterday by bernie sanders, independent from vermont, gets up there for what's being described as an old-school filibuster beight hours where we goes off on everything including the tax cut bill. will this have any impact as congress moves forward? >> reporter: well, it's become a rallying point for liberals and progressive who are very angry with the white house, not just angry with the tax cut deal the president put together with the republicans but the way it was handlessed, leaving out the democrats in congress. but the white house thinks the democrats are getting

host: if bill clinton was president -- he writes a couple of things. it certainly looked as if barack obama had outsourced his presidency to bill clinton. first he cut a deal with republicans on tax cuts, and he literally turned over the white house lectern to his predecessor. equally revealing an astonishing, mr. clinton's performance reinforce the impression of political deja vu, in the sense that once again a democratic president hobbled by midterm elections was pivoting to the center at the expense of his own supporters. here is what bill clinton said late friday afternoon. >> yes, i think the one thing that has always happens when you have divided government is that people no longer see principled compromise as weakness. this system was set up to promote principled compromise. it is the ethical thing to do. in a democracy where no one is a dictator, we would all be at each other's throats all the time and we would be in a state of confidence paralysis -- constant paralysis. guest: i think that if you see the difference between how bill clinton is

bill clinton is known as one of the party's great communicators. he cemented that last week when he did that with obama. >> the front page of the "new york times" had clinton right there and the president walking away. it looked symbolic. >> absolutely. >> we will watch him. it affects a lot of people. politically, it is a rollercoaster. thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> the man accused of trying to blow up a baltimore county recruiting center is due in federal court tomorrow. the fbi says that antonio martinez who calls himself muhammed hussein attempted to detonate a bomb at the facility. no one was in danger during the operation. martinez is charged with attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. >>> the ninth street nightclub known for its in the bands may reopen. five employees, including a co- owner, were initially charged in a man's death. charges were dropped. then the ninth district ruled that the club could be reopened. in the liquor board disallowed the bar from rehiring any of the previous employees until aft

married to kati martin, a celebrated human rights advocate he was at the end at hillary clinton's side at duty at the state department. a larger than life presence who helped reshape foreign policy for generations. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. >>> and last night on the "rachel mad dough show" she shed light on why he is being remembered by president obama as a giant of american foreign policy. >> the fact is he took the thankless tasks. no one else would have taken this job but the bottom line was that only by combining afghanistan and pakistan did he think that you could pull all of the strands together and make some sort of a sense out of the policy and do it on a regional basis and there were a lot of bumps in the road. his greatest victory, his triumph which is a lasting one will be the bosnia accords. he single handedly with his brilliant team of chris hill and robert frazier who died -- holbrooke was in that motorcade that went off the road in sarejevo after holbrooke was unwilling to persuade milosevic to fly in and took that dangerous road and lost three gifted diplom

this is not analogous to bill clinton's economy. we have had a great recession that came not out of the fed raising interest rates too high, but really out of a huge asset bubble. a housing bubble exploding. and that means that it's going to take years until consumers are out from under that deficit, consumers are able to borrow again. consumers are ready to buy as much as they were buying before. the analogy doesn't hold. potentially, this deal, this tax deal that obama is entering in with republicans is going to explode the deficit without any real gain for the economy at all. >> moody's pointed out that in the -- with the 2012 presidential elections coming up that might make it possible to prevent the republicans making the bush tax cuts permanent, again. does this president or do congressional democrats have plausible way out of that scenario? >> the only plausible way out, i think, keith, is to tell a very different story about how we got into the recession and how we are getting out of it and how we need to get out of it. the

berkeley and he spoke out against clinton who he felt was going to war too much was wasting taxpayer money and he talked about clinton's imperial presidency and there was another legal school scholar at yale and his name is harold koh now howell co protested what clinton was doing he didn't speak so much of the. presidency but he spoke out against treatment of haitian refugees in one town alone and he together with a group of students the president and one and there's a book about that called storming the which is quite amazing in itself that i tell you about with these two men right we have two of you i guess you could say the top legal minds in america who had one point were very critical of the presidency of the perhaps has too much authority and then we have both of those men working for people like barack obama in the obama administration working for george w. bush and then essentially making excuses for them and so in saying that in fact oh torture is legal under the law in fact drone strikes are legal under the law how does that happen i think well first of all i think lawyers

clinton said again that it's a difficult and emotional issue. it requires a just and permanent solution. is it time for the palestinians to recognize what basically everybody knows and that is that not all the 48 refugees are going to come back and that there must be a just compensation and a just solution to all of this. can the palestinians do this? >> the formulation used by the secretary at this event forum two days ago was appropriate. she talked about trust and fair resolution. this is one of the issues to be actually discussed and agreed along with borders, jerusalem, settlements and the rest of the issues so we're looking forward actually to a process that could begin immediately. we already have indicated to the americans where we stand on the basic issues. i think what really needs to be done now in order to give the process the kind of credibility that is required is for us to really know the position -- where it is that the government stands on the fundamental issue of what it is that's meant by an israeli occupation. what is it that

hillary clinton has been busy apologizing to world leaders all week. the secrets spilled and on fought during -- and unflattering comments revealed. >> in the short term it is bad for relations, which is an essential element of our diplomacy, and i am sure there are some leaders seeing material published about themselves who will think twice about how candidly it will speak to us on future occasions. >> wikileaks is finding it increasingly difficult to operate. the internet may also be closing around its founder. he is wanted in sweden on charges of sex crimes, which he denies. from hiding somewhere in the u.k., he managed to answer questions on the guardian's website this afternoon. whatever happens to him, there are plenty more revelations in the pipeline. >>> president obama has left the main u.s. air base in afghanistan after an unannounced visit. he was doing to visit with president hamid karzai, but the white house said bad weather prevented the travel. they talked over a secure telephone link. he also spoke with american troops at the american a

the real disconnect is that clinton is some kind of rock star in the democratic party. lost 63 seats in his first midterm, bill clinton lost 54, right behind him. >> sean: good point. it was funny to see him take over this is the same pill clinton that said they played the race card against him. i don't think he has gotten over that. we spent a lot of time, maybe a week, two weeks talking about joe wilson we he said you lie during the state of the union address. we have these reports about democrats using the f-word to describe the president. do you think the media spent a lot of time covering that? >> it was the shout heard round the world. >> you lie! >> it was a frightening mix of disrespect and bad behavior. >> booing. >> it strikes a lot of people as awfully close to the idea that maybe there was some sort of racist or bigoted element there. >> sean: what do you think? >> what a difference two years makes. it wasn't just that one comment that was made about obama reportedly. they also -- it was reported in the huffington post they also said "f" the president, no in

clinton looked strong moving to the center. because he won and moved to the center. >> sean: he was also a southern governor. they have two different backgrounds. from chicago, radical leftists that he hung out with et cetera. i think there's two different backgrounds here. the democrats are so used to the cornhusker kickback, louisiana purchase, they want to sweeten the deal in the senate, ethanol subsidies, help big cities, they want to get -- if we give you this, republicans aren't gonna let that happen. what if this -- what if his on party rejects his deal that he cut with senator mcconnell? >> look, if this doesn't pass, it is the most wonderful thing of all. on january 2nd, -- [ talking over each other ] >> the republican party comes back and gives america a big fat christmas present january 2nd. >> sean: they look great. >> they extend bush tax cuts. kill inher tax. cut 100 billions of spending and take out all of the extra stuff obama had. and obama has to sign it. >> sean: tactically, republicans should have never made

president obama brings in president clinton to plead his case on the tax cut compromise. a decade after leaving office can 42 help 44 seal the deal? >>> amanda's appeal. amanda knox is back in court in italy today where she's appealing her murder conviction. could jailhouse letters from a convicted killer set her free? we'll talk to her parents. >>> and the imagination diet. can thinking about eating food instead of actually eating it help you lose weight? a new study says yes. we'll tell you how it works. >>> boy, i actually thought of you when i heard about that study. because i think it makes sense in a way. if you build up foods to a certain extent, they're never going to be as good. once you finally eat them. there's a burger joint you always talk about -- >> shake shack. >> and i think that you talk about a burger so much, it may not be as good when you finally eat it again. >> that may be true. but what i find interesting about the study, it's not as easy as they make it sound. coming up, we'll give you the details on how to use the imagination diet. but it's a lit