and dana milbank, political columnist for "the washington post." nia-malika, let me start with you.ant americans to forget just how bad things were. i mean, don't they? >> in some ways they do. and that's the point this documentary seems to make. and make pretty effectively in a very dramatic, slick hollywood-type production. that things were very, very bad when this president took office. the nation was losing something like 700,000 jobs a month when obama took office. we'll get some new job numbers tomorrow. but i think this is a very effective way that the president can really argue his case and argue the case for his re-election. we've seen in some ways a white house that had seen a lot of the narrative to republicans. but we see the president here really giving his base a reason to get fired up and get ready to go for this election. >> dana, he also, unlike when he ran in 2008, will have a record that he can run on and taking the -- 23 straight months of private sector growth. weekly job claims have been steadily falling since the start of the stimulus. full screen here is real

dana milbank's column in "the washington post" got this on the radar. i spoke with him and democratic strategist hilary rosen shortly before airtime. dana, it seems the white house can appoint this guy, ricchetti, because he de-registered as a lobbyist before president obama took office. but for all intents and purposes, he was still a lobbyist, right? >> right, anderson. and that's the problem with sort of the influence industry in this town. relatively few people who practice this business are actually, technically lobbyists. so we live in this absurd situation where the president can get around his own ban on hiring lobbyists by hiring the president of a lobbying firm. so somehow, that's better. it's just -- you know, it just sort of shows how deep this town is, into the influence business. >> hilary, i mean, isn't the president opening himself up to just a charge of hypocrisy on this? i mean, saying you're not going to hire a lobbyist, and then hiring a guy who's a lobbyist in everything but name only? >> first of all, he's not a lobbyist in everythi

dana milbank, a washington post columnist. gentlemen, good morning. >> good morning. >> we don't really think rick santorum doesn't care about the unemployment rate, do we, joe? was this a gaff or taken out of context, or an opportunity -- an opening for mitt romney, which, by the way, he has given a few times? >> well, i think, as often is the case, rick santorum often bit off more than he could chew. he was trying to grapple with a bigger idea than the unemployment rate or even the condition of the economy, and it's -- he wants to talk about freedom, and when you do that, you often end up saying things that you didn't mean to say if you're not really ready to discuss those things. he wants to have a big debate. he wants to be seen as a big ideas guy because he is really a senator who lost his seat, and he got in trouble. i mean, they often -- they end up saying things that they say they didn't mean to say, but it was pretty clear what he was saying. >> it is kind of interesting. he sdbt talk specifically about the economy a

what makes a lobbyist uniquely qualified to manage beats me but the other thing about this as dana milbank pointed out this week as the ban on lobbyist seems to be enforced on an arbitrary basis as in weaver's been granted as the defense industry lobbyist but not for those who lobby on behalf of human rights people like tom miller now see who lobbied to protect torture victims of human rights watch and then he was not granted a waiver to serve the state department's human rights bureau but the point here isn't to the sect which former lobbyist may be more qualified than the other knoxville. by all lobbyist say that once you've done the job you cannot have any value within the government because they're probably are exceptions there is a real assessment and debate that should be done there but the thing is if ministrations already made that assessment by coming up with an executive order to ban the practice altogether and so by breaking their own order or allowing for waivers they're the ones that end up looking that not business ration has ever been a beacon for proving that moneyed intere

just to name a few and are the words of dana milbank over the washington post he's also been through the revolving door more than a bellhop at the doubletree hotel so check this out for the eighty's he worked in the private sector lobbying on behalf of firms like blue cross blue shield and the ninety's was the federal government employees serving as a deputy chief of staff to president clinton up until he left office then he went back to the private sector where he start his own lobbying firm with his brother and estate on that side of operations until his most recent appointments are you did he shifted gears quite a few times in the past few decades and in fact are said he was originally hired to work as a part of clinton's presidential campaign in two thousand and eight and then senator obama was giving hillary hell for not following his lead on the no lobbying front. cultures working with the special interests and lobbyists the first couple days the better drug companies. they should. come to. the war the all the way they do. so that ordinary people to voice. it is if you stop tak

dana milbank and ken vogel. dana, i start with you. rare and remarkable interview given today by ken griffin. in responding to the question do the ultra wealthy have enough influence post recession, he said, quote, i think they actually have an insufficient influence. those who have enjoyed the benefits of our system more than ever now owe a duty to protect the system that is created the greatest nation on this planet. dana, isn't that like putting jack abram in charge of lobby i ing? >> right. he's got donald trumpb serving as his national spokesman. if there's one group in american society that's been under represented and underprivileged. >> and lacking influence. >> that's the group we're talking about. it's not helpful to mitt romney because he's already seen as this gordon gecko character. it's happening to him over and over again. hiss own sentiments are lined up for that image. >> speaking of the candidate, how much more on newt and rick going to make romney and his spuper pacs spend. they don't appear to have a clear path poth

. >> joining me now, dana milbank. character, rick santorum answers with a straight face that the dog is a serious issue of character. >> we know rick santorum has talked about man-on-dog in the past. so he takes this issue very seriously. >> but you saw this coming. you wrote a column -- what was it, january, entitled "mitt romney's al gore problem." did you think it would take the form of a dog? >> you know, it does in so many different ways. i liken it to, he looks like a person and he sometimes acts like a person, but every once in a while, you realize there's a glitch in the matrix and he's not like everybody else and he's a bit of an alien. we had that with gore. we have it going on with romney now. his son just mentioned it in an offhanded way. but whenever you see somebody who's not involved in politics, the first thing they want to talk about is, what's up with romney and this dog? >> you are a very attentive dog owner. >> i am. i go almost nowhere without her. >> what do you think dog management tells us about

joining me now dana milbank.bond between our two countries is unbreakable, speaking of israel. do you think it's likely to affect israel seeking united states support and guidance prior to any kind of military action? >> that's where the debate is right now in terms of exactly how much knowledge, consent the united states will be providing israel. i've been hanging out and watching what they have been saying. all things seem to be pointing toward this attack. all the talk about being careful and being cautious and trying all things. i'm finding very little sense that the military action is what's coming here. what strikes me is the larger point as posed to who does it in the end whether it's an israeli mission or u.s.-supported mission. >> there is an action suit? >> even president obama says the next several months will be difficult. it seems to be a lot of ominous talk. it sounds like the early months of 2003. it has that sort of feel right now. it's very similar. >> when you listen to the republican candidates

. >> joining me is melissa harris perry, host of melissa hairy perry and dana milbank, columnist for the washington post. thank you both for being here. >> hi, reverend. >> hi. >> let me start with you. the president is not waiting for the republicans to have a nominee. are you surprised at all by that? >> no. because the president, as you can see, loves campaigning. and it's interesting because in many ways i think a lot of the criticism about president obama over the course of his administration has been that while he was governing, he wasn't communicating enough about what his accomplishments were with the administration. but particularly maybe this is in part being at home, in the chicago crowd, you can see the feeling he's having in front of that crowd, the sense that, i have something substantive to run on, i have something to say. and as he sort of begins to warm up for this campaign and it's going to be a relatively long one here, i'm not at all surprised he's going to start it now, keep taking it wherever the republicans are in their primary mode he's going to go and remind

and from washington, dana milbank, political columnist for "the washington post." ith us tonight. >> good evening, reverend. >> dana, you saw the movie. sarah palin looked pretty bad, but running made her a huge star. is she still a game changer, in your opinion? >> well, of course she is, reverend. there were scary points of that film but nowhere near as scary as for those of us who lived it in realtime. i don't think anybody ever expects that sarah palin is going to be the president of the united states or even the nominee of her party, but basically, the whole party has been reinvented around her, and there's a lot of pretenders to trying to co-op the palin message. that's what rick perry was about. that's what michele bachmann is about, santorum and gingrich to some extent. and the only way romney is staying in the race is by being more like them. so it's really sarah palin's world now, and the rest of us are just living in it. >> jeannie, the people in alaska know her very well. when she was selected, steve schmidt on "morning joe" today talked about what her s

dana milbank is a "washington post" columnist and jill zuckerman is a public relations strategist. dana, this thing seep ms to have no -- what do you call that thing when you can outlive it? statute of limitation. this one's almost 30 years old, this guy. he must be thinking, i can't even remember putting the dog up in that crate on the roof, and when he got diarrhea and he had to hose down the roof, and it was one of his kids, tag, who put the story out in the first it was one of the kids that put the story out in the first place. dana, this thing, this story, has legs. >> yes, four legs, and i think this is going to hound mr. romney, so to speak, for some -- >> are we barking up the wrong tree here or what? >> we're giving him rough treatment, but i am one of those households that have the dog, in fact, my golden doodle is in the control room right now and is a dog against romney. >> is he or she offended by this? >> deeply offended, but you have to understand a lot of people in america treat their dogs as if they are children, there are even seat belts in cars now for dogs, you c

let's bring in political columnist dana milbank and amanda turcall. >> we have a flairup of obama derangedis something that happens on both sides and people go over the top. it's occurring now that these themes have surfaced before. what you see happening now is obama is doing much better in the polls. his would be republican opponents. his popularity is up. there's a lot of frustration. that's why all of this is coming back now. i think the third and fourth time we've been through the birther thing, it has a diminished impact. >> you have to wonder. did anybody see the election results in 2008? it didn't work then. what do they think? they are firing up the base. @ base going to vote for barack obama? i'm trying to figure out the rational for this. >> a lot of these attacks are coming from fringe elements of the conservative movement. republicans don't want to embrace them. that's why the obama campaign, for example, was playing the birther issue up joking about it on their facebook timeline, joking about it on twitter. and they used the opportunity to point out that mitt romney really wa

. >> dana milbank, it may be romney had the best internal polls, and that's why he's hiding out in manhattanaising money with rich republicans rather than being anywhere near a microphone to make what would be concession speeches for two states. >> right. that's true, lawrence. i mean, i suppose you can step back and look at it and say, this was the tight race that everybody expected. but the order of finish means something. and had mitt romney actually prevailed in one or both of these contests, he would have been able to say, okay, let's move on. i'm the presumptive nominee. clearly this has eluded him once again. i think the story is really more about newt gingrich at this point because they have demonstrated clearly that there is enough of a basis for resisting romney in this party. the question for newt gingrich, is it going to be about ego? is it going to be about getting a conservative nominee? the gingrich race all along has been about ego. one expects that will continue, and he is certainly being mitt romney's best friend in this competition. >> chuck todd is back with us. chuck, wh