david axelrod would not go that far. so the president may have listened but it may be a long distance from listening to enactment. we'll have to see. jon: what about the idea of a plan-b? we know one exists. is that where the president may be heading? >> reporter: not where the president is heading now not at least what the white house is saying. we know the plan exists. very slimmed down version. quarter of estimated one trillion dollars over 10 years. it would expand coverage for kids up to age 26 with families. parents insurance. expand medicaid a little bit. expand state health insurance program a little bit for indigent children. white house said time to not focus on incree men alism by a solution sooner than later. again white house advisor david axelrod. >> our plan is to deal with a very big problem facing this country. in the ways that make sense. and, a lot of thought has been put into this. >> reporter: time is of the essence. the white house wants to bring this to a conclusion. the president set a maximum tim

lot of people are expecting at this point. >> what about your reporting -- michael enreporting david axelrodo chicago at some point to take a role in the campaign in the white house? >> yes. mike picked up a couple of names here. axelrod would be a key player at new point to re-elect effort. jim, deputy chief of staff, you don't hear nearly as much about him, as you hear about rahm emanuel, chief of staff. jim messina is a key player among all legislative battle it is white house has been having and looks likes he will be the guy to take charge of this reelect effort in 2012. the trouble here for the white house, beginning to talk about 2012, it will give democrats up on capitol hill the -- they are all focused like a laser beam on their own pace in 2010 and don't want to be -- they don't want to have the white house 'attention wandering to obama's re-election when they are concerned about their own re-election coming up now. they are a little wary of having this discussed too publicly at this point. >> you think? the -- conventional wisdom over any in congress is that the white house is mor

david axelrod's worst nightmare. this the type of voters thought they have to worry about.e has done the thing that is the most dangerous for any politician, lost control of a large segment of the population with his public image, how he is being perceived t. during the campaign, he was very successf,% - and move on to an agenda that addresses jobs and deficit reduction. the state of the union and the budget are opportunities, the white house hopes, to win over callers like that. host: the state of the union will be wednesday, january 27. steve on the independent-mi line. caller: 1 said the post, he took a called earlier -- you took a call earlier challenging your bias and saying you should be fired. we should actually look at the bias -- to get to the point, we have become so divisive in this country. i think hillary clinton has just shown herself to be a gracious loser,bvious, and the campaign, but also, what a hard- working woman. you look at her, and she's just nose to the grindstone, "i am the secretary of state and i will do the best job i can possibly do for our coun

what happened at that key meeting between al franken and david axelrod? >> reporter: the president had this question/answer session with democrats, talking with senator democrats, al franken stood up and very kind of loudly voiced disappointment in the administration, that they had not clearly mapped out their strategy on health care, his criticism directed directly at axelrod, saying that the white house hadn't mapped things out and left senators hanging in the wind on this issue. >> in fact, when gibbs was asked about that today, he said that there is no specific white house approach yet on health care, right? so, is it going to come from the liberal side or conservative side? how are they going to satisfy everybody and when are they going to move forward? >> that's the question. everyone is looking who is going to step up on this. the senate is looking at the white house, and the white house is looking to the senate. >> thank you very much, andy barr from politico. >>> sarah palin gets ready to address the tea party convention in nashville, newly relea

. >> joining us is david axelrod, and here for the questioning is jerry from "the wall street journal." let me begin by asking you to respond. twice in the last week, the president meeting with house republicans and senate democrats. the senator said we do not want it on camera. >> we want to have a dialogue with members of both parties. i think there was something valuable about the exchange the president had, both with the house republicans and with the democratic senate caucuses this week. i think it was invaluable for the public to see the changes were open and honest, but if senate republicans do not want to do that, the president is not not going to talk to them because they do not want to do it in public. >> is this a photo op, or is this serious? >> i think there were very positive. >> we had some kind words from senator ryan who said he wanted to work with him. immediately after, house democrats attacked what he talked about. what does that do for the attempt at bipartisanship? >> there is going to be back- and-forth about ideas. we should not be afraid to advance ideas. we s

one of the things we report in the book is this group of three men, david axelrod, david gibbs and david plus, the chief campaign strategist and spokesman, who have almost a stranglehold on the advice that gets to barack obama, very influential and this is a constant tension in the campaign where other people including michelle obama would occasionally say when things are going brad debate combat there needs to be broad circle and there's a scene leader in the process from the time when it's clear barack obama will probably be hillary clinton but it's where he was going to lead into the general election where he makes a decision to change course where he expands the circle. he starts at the conference with his advisers run buy not one of the three so-called suits but by anita done who becomes the white house communications director. so there is a proportion of barack obama here and again it's not all flattering. it is a true story of what happened and people have said there isn't much about barack obama or the stuff about barack obama is written by the sources who are the winners and the

one is there are always tensions, as there are here, between say the david axelrod wing, which wantso be the keep are of the flame, the idealists who would like the package passed which the president promised, versus rahm emanuel, who is the pragmatist, has to get the deals done, and understands the politics on capitol hill. there's always a tension between the keepers of the flame and the pragmatists, and the other thing to keep in mind is rahm emanuel and david axelrod are very close. >> they certainly are. they may disagree, but i'm sure they're good friends and they have to work together every single day. that column generated follow-ups in the "wall street journal," politico, i suspect there will be more of this coming out. >> well, stay tuned. >> all right. david, thank you. >>> talk about criticism, our polling center shows how many people say our government is broken. take a look at this poll. we took a closer look and asked if people trust different levels of government always or most of the time. 26% said yes, regards the federal government, 33% for state government, 52% sa

host: you can see the entire interview on "news makers" would david axelrod.it is also online right now at www.c-span'.org. finding out about your job situation, if you have a job, are looking for a job, or have given up looking. our next call comes from michigan. tara is looking. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to make one little comment. tomorrow, on "q&a," you have a wonderful person, and i encourage people to make time to listen to him. i guess that is right around football time, but it is repeated. now, i am calling because i think my comment is an address to what one of the senators said that they did not want to approve some job because, good heavens, they would want to put unions in, and i am so glad that the unions are out because those people were making wages that they could buy cars, and then, of course, their wages were good enough so that they could take vacations, even to hawaii, where that person is lamenting the fact that there is no tourism. then, of course, they have those good jobs, they can go out to dinner and go to restau

the president's senior adviser david axelrod has been telling us for a while that we can't let these midterm elections become a referendum on the president. that is what midterm elections are. but they are going to try to dilute back to the degree that they can -- by live that to the degree they can. -- dilute that to the degree that they can. democrats, too, recognize that calling out republicans and saying you have just been out there throwing rocks, will be an effective strategy. david axelrod just this weekend said we can't be governing while the other side is running an election campaign. host: there is a story in "roll call" that progressives will huddle, weather permitting, to revive the public option in the debate. guest: that story gave us a chuckle when we heard about that a day or two ago. they may be doing that for their constituents. it shows that there is sometimes a parallel reality in washington because anyone who vaguely follows the news would know there is not any chance of that. host: give us a little bit of a bad story of how the idea of the health care summit cam

>> coming up next and live, your comments and calls on washington journal and later on newses, david axelrodand later senator hearing on the don't ask don't tell policies. . .

you talked to david axelrod about that as well earlier tonight. d, where does this go from here? how important was this day? >> i think it was an extremely good day for american politics. the people of the country had a chance to listen to what i thought was a robust exchange over the course of the day. we'll come back to the politics. i think, sanjay, where this winds up is that any idea of a grand bargain or compromise between the republicans and democrats is now gone. the republicans want the president and the democrats to start off. they're not going to do that. the democrats are asking republicans, give us some of your amendments, maybe we'll tack them on to our bill. the republicans are not going to do that. that's gone. what is now left is whether the president and the democrats are going to use this so-called process of reconciliation to try to pass a comprehensive bill. at this point they do not appear to have the votes to do that, but they'll try to do that over the coming month. if they feel they can't do that, that they don't have the v

some, including counselor david axelrod work here at the white house, others including plouffe himselfo not. the president's advisor valerie jarrett told us earlier today no one here is thinking about 2012. >> with the magnitude of challenges facing our country right now i can assure you the very last thing president obama is thinking about is planning an election campaign. that's not what he was elected to do. >> former presidents clinton and george w. bush didn't announce their re-election bid until the spring of their second year in office. though informal planning may have begun earlier. historian steven hess says that's the evolution of a permanent campaign. >> it's a permanent campaign because it's so expensive. it's a permanent campaign because the media has gotten so complicated. >> democrats on capitol hill are concerned that any energy put toward 2012 could detract from the current push for reforming the nation's healthcare system, not to mention the congressional elections later this year. but steven says those elections are largely to be about mr. obama himself. he says tom

david axelrod was asked a very simple question on "meet the press" on sunday and here it is. >> final question. is the country better off than it was a year ago? >> look. until -- obviously, in some ways, the answer is, yes. a year ago we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. when the president took office. our economy was shrinking at a rate of 6.4%. last friday we learned it is growing now at a rate of 6%. the job loss is one-tenth of what it was. but until people are working, until incomes are growing, until there is a sense of stability and economic security on the part of the middle class, we've got a lot of work to do. >> i'm a fan, mr. axelrod. we all want the same thing. we got to get on the same page. sell hard! i think you missed an opportunity here! anybody that's asked that question, of course it's common, they're asked this question in polls all the time -- they don't answer based on numbers. it's got to come from the heart. it's got to come from the soul. yes, we're a lot better off this year! because his name's barack obama and he's president of the united states and we're

any minute, we can expect to see david axelrod do a tumbling run up the driveway at the white house, because as a political matter, that number is what everybody is focused on. the administration itself, and the budget that was released earlier this week on monday, had assumed the unemployment rate would stay up around 10% for the remainder of this year. that city may happen. there's no question about it, but from the short-term, this is good news for republicans, even as yesterday the democratic leadership of congress, nancy pelosi, harry reid, steny hoyer and dick durbin were here, talking about a jobs bill and health care, but talking about a jobs bill, the senate says they're going to try to take something up next week. that is the biggest part of the urgency, as far as democrats are concerned on capitol hill. meanwhile, republicans already out with a press release, e-mailed to all of us, i'm sure you got it today, showing the current jobs number evidence of stagnation. >> a word we're probably going to hear more and more. thank you, mike viqueira, and savannah, by the way, notic

. >> i asked david axelrod yesterday about all the things that jim angle just mentioned.ll the procedural, the nitty gritty things, he dodged and danced and after the interview, i'm not talking out of school here he said was i evasive enough i said obviously my questions were not good enough. he said we just don't have the answers. there is no bill. >> bill: anything could happen. >> remember that bill, i'm using the bill twice, your name and legislation, there is no bill. >> bill: there is no bill. >> a 11-page proposal on the web site that doesn't constitute legislation. there is no rule on capitol hill. if you don't have the votes, you don't have blank. it rhymes with knit. they don't have a bill. >> bill: i'm worried in addition to the 31 million unamericans uninsured we have to cover all the spiders. there is just a lot of them, you know. >> no arrack that phobia, bill. >> bill: terrible thing. major, jim, thank you. we would like to you vote in our bill o'reilly.com poll. we are asking do you favor federal oversight on health insurance pricing? yes or no? give you t

inside the obama administration and from the president to rahm emmanuel, the chief of staff and david axelrod, the political advisor, what are they saying about the way they have handled this and what they have to do now? >> well, there is a lot of frustration. they think the republicans are just being recalcitrant and aren't paying a political price, that the press is not holding them accountable. they are frustrated also with the fact that if it hadn't been for the loss of the massachusetts senate race they probably would have passed this. and so that was not, they believe, their primary responsibility to watch over that race. and there is general concern that a lot of bad things can happen now if this goes down. if they can't figure out a way to pass it. number one, on the substance and the president made this point repeatedly today and it is what frustrates him most of all that republicans won't come on board, is all the problems having to do with cost, having to do with business, ability to insurance people, all of those problems will still exist if they give up on this. and that's a big

. >> david axelrod, we thank you for joining us. we invite you back any time. >> thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> coming up, president obama's remarks of the conference with senate democrats, and later on this week's q &a, thom hartmann. president of mama took a meeting at a retreat. this is about an hour -- president obama took a meeting at a retreat. [applause] [applause] >> can i get everyone's attention? i want to talk just for a brief minute about where we were -- privatizing social security, a couple of wars that are on paid for, trillions of dollars of tax cuts and paid for, -- that are not paid for, in trillions of dollars of tax cuts not paid for, but let's talk about where we are and what we have done to establish where we are. the first thing we passed was a landfill -- not very sexy- sounding, but we had reviews and editorials across the country -- significant legislation. the most significant environmental legislation in a quarter of the century. more than 2,000 acres,

conversations with others involved in the 2008 effort, some, including presidential counselor david axelrod, working for the president right now, others including plouffe himself who are not white house staffers, the president himself says he hasn't given much thought to the 2012 bid, he told ab c's diane sawyer he'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre 2-term president. officials say no significant planning has been done here at the white house yet but one senior democratic official calls the report disconcerting, he notes there are a number of democrats up for reelection this year and in his words, 2012 is a hell of a long ways away. megyn: wendell, thank you very much. >>> don't expect an poll -- an apology from harry reid any time soon after he learning dollars unemployment to violence against women. >> i met with two people who run domestic crisis shelters, and they said very clearly, with high unemployment, it's created lots of additional work for them they would rather not have, and there was an article -- i'm trying to think -- it was in the "wall street journa

. >> reporter: david axelrod, one of the president's advisers said he was not aware of this and one ofisers valerie jarrett said they were following you for years and your work in oakland and wanted to get you to the white house, so is it hard to believe when they say they don't believe about these things? >> look, i was fl fully candid about the ideas and explored. i was a mid level white house staffer and i reported to a senate-confirmed nominee. mid level white house staffers go through a vetting process that is very, very rigorous. but i was not a cabinet secretary. i was a worker in the white house. some people decided to give me this crazy title of green job czar in the media. i came out and said, i'm not the green job czar, but i'm the green czar handyman. >> randy lorr leveled this criticism saying that the secret service under previous administrations if they saw your background they would not allow you a visitors' pass at the white house much less the job you had held, and do you believe that the white house could have done a better job in vetting you and basically preventing

. >> david axelrod has talked about this a little bit what he had to say was that part of the reasonwhy friday was so successful at the gop conference was that it was the spontaneity that occurred. it is going to be hard to sort of recreate the spontaneity that happen. the president thinks there is more open dialogue. he will look for more opportunities to do things on camera and have open discussions on important issues. but in terms of regularly scheduled event, i don't have anything further on that. host: spontaneity would be lost. guest: i would say there is so much spontaneity in the state of the union -- a lot of official traditions that have no spontaneity to any of it. it is not the spontaneity that this group is calling for. i am hesitant to speak for the group, because it is very ad hoc. we don't have meetings. but i think from the e-mail that got sent around last night in response to this, it is quite clear about what we are asking for, what people signing the petition are asking for, is more transparency and more candor. what i liked about the event on friday was that it

david axelrod and robert gibbs and rahm emanuel saying that they are populist. is the president who said small- town americans are better and that is why they cling to guns and god. now, suddenly, the white house tells us he is a man of the people. good luck with about one. [laughter] [applause] in the year that president barack obama has been in office, we have learned a lot. we've learned he is not going to govern from the center. we learn he does not believe an american ex sectionalism and he will travel the world apologizing for this great nation we've learned he will raise everybody's taxes. he will try to expend the size of the federal government until it permeates every aspect of our lives and every corner of our land. he will try to turn our healthcare system over to the federal government. we have learned he was to give terrorists constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent he has moved. terrorists from guantanamo bay on to the american homeland. that is not change we can believe in. it is not change that the american people voted for an

. >> on "newsmakers," senior advisor david axelrod discusses the obama administration's priorities, relations the white house views the 2010 elections. "newsmakers" sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c- span. >> now, the funeral service for former u.s. senator charles mathias, who died last week at the age of 87. he served the state of maryland as a republican from 1969 until 1987. prior to that, he served four terms in the house, representing the state's sixth congressional district. among those remembering him at washington national cathedral this week, his former senate colleague, vice president joe biden. this portion of the services an hour. -- service is an hour. >> mr. vice president, distinguished guests, friends and family, thank you for being with us today. we are here to celebrate the life of a great man. the public story has been well told. statesman, the conscious of the senate, protector of the chesapeake, friend of nations, fierce advocate for the equal rights of all men and women. ours was a heavy household to grow up in, but through it all, dad was still deaad, ful

. >> david axelrod has talked about this a little bit what he had to say was that part of the reasonat occurred. it is going to be hard to sort of recreate the spontaneity that happen. the president thinks there is more open dialogue. he will look for more opportunities to do things on camera and have open discussions on important issues. but in terms of regularly scheduled event, i don't have anything further on that. host: spontaneity would be lost. guest: i would say there is so much spontaneity in the state of the union -- a lot of official traditions that have no spontaneity to any of it. it is not the spontaneity that this group is calling for. i am hesitant to speak for the group, because it is very ad hoc. we don't have meetings. but i think from the e-mail that got sent around last night in response to this, it is quite clear about what we are asking for, what people signing the petition are asking for, is more transparency and more candor. what i liked about the event on friday was that it was competition, really. it was a competition in terms of ideas and political present

david axelrod and robert gibbs and rahm emanuel saying that they are populist.admire that ambition. everybody in this room remembers that president obama is the president who said small- town americans are better and that is why they cling to guns and god. now, suddenly, the white house tells us he is a man of the people. good luck with about one. [laughter] [applause] in the year that president barack obama has been in office, we have learned a lot. we've learned he is not going to govern from the center. we learn he does not believe an american ex sectionalism and he will travel the world apologizing for this great nation we've learned he will raise everybody's taxes. he will try to expend the size of the federal government until it permeates every aspect of our lives and every corner of our land. he will try to turn our healthcare system over to the federal government. we have learned he was to give terrorists constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent he has moved. terrorists from guantanamo bay on to the american homeland. that is not chang

and then we talked to david axelrod that seemed to indicate that the president would take some ideas capitol hill, democrats who think they may send up another bill. the process has not been worked out yet, but you are right in the overall vision that democrats and the president are prepared to move on and the republicans are not prepared to move on to give an inch that the whole bill ought to be blown up and restarted again. >> those sitting at home are wondering is there anything that will change? is anything going to happen in the next month? is the way health care, the way it's done in the country, will it change for me anytime soon? >> i think some of the insurance reforms that most americans can really relate to, perhaps taking away the cap on lifetime benefits also maybe extending the time you can keep an adult child on your own insurance, and the whole idea of preexisting conditions. there are things that matter to folks out there. i know the democrats have come to the conclusion that even if they have to move forward on a bill that may not be perfect, that is better than pas

dav david axelrod was there, he was working with john edwards. >> he invented the two americas slogan edwards was mesmerizing. i was mesmerized. he captivated the audience. later, we go out to dinner, talk about how great edwards was. time fast forwards and it dawns on me as the edwards story unrav unravels. 1999, a very prominent democratic senator comes to the ball game at fenway park. i ask him out of curiosity. how is the new guy, how is edwards? he turns to me and says he is a total fraud. 1999. he was on to it. we in the media completely missed it. >> here is a media that thinks it's doing these forensic looks at politicians being completely conned. one of the things that offended me is that all of these policy gremlins, he didn't read them. he didn't have to read them. all he to do is go on tv, flip the hair, say the two approxima americas. why read the briefing books? he comes up with this stuff and the media let him do it. covers of "newsweek," sit downs with tv anchors. >> to say nothing of the adviser who's guilted the mainstream media into not reporting a story that they k

he lit in to the president's senior adviser david axelrod, saying that the white house provided too littleuidance about health care and have not been pushing the agenda the way they should have. also, we saw this week a chairman, christopher dodd, complaining that the white house wasn't taking his advice about how to push financial reform. he said these political sounding attacks on banks were not helping. >> you know, we're finding in l.a. last night. and where we go, a lot of democrats, a lot of obama supporters are very frustrated. they want him to do just what al franken wants him to do. take control. take charge. tell people what you believe, and go after it instead of sitting back and allowing 435 people in the house and 100 people in the senate to frame the debate. >> unbelievably, we're seeing the same thing on the jobs bill. the president on the state of the union says that jobs was job one for him and yesterday you have senate democratic leaders coming out in this inexplicable news conference saying they will do a bunch of little jobs bills. they don't know what it will be. >> se

. >> we spoke with david axelrod. at 10:00 this morning. here is what he had to say on the issue of jobs and a provision for payroll tax. guest: center schumer and senator hatch have proposed a payroll tax holiday which will put some dollars in people's pockets right away. guest: we have discussed a similar ideas. the notion is that we are on the cost of hiring going -- growing in this country. you have seen productivity at record highs and people are hiring large numbers of temporary workers and that is generally a privilege to hiring. if you give people added incentive maybe this will encourage them to do this now. we are receptive to that. . . it's still at 9.7 or whatever it will be in november. it's going to be impossible for the unemployment rate to come down meaningfully down by november. >> we're talking about the congressional agenda and politics and policy. our guests are saying jobs, jobs, jobs. new york city. caller: good morning, everyone. i just wanted to bring up two issues and i really would like to he

. >> on news makers, david axelrod discusses the obama administration's priority.at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> this is c-span's "america and the court's." next, and discussion on women lawyers in the supreme court. the former justice supreme court sandra day o'connor talk about the challenges women face in the legal profession. the supreme court fellows program alumni association and the first amendment center posted this discussion recently in washington d.c.. [applause] >> this is a great program. it is a topic that i have spent time thinking about over the years, needless to say. my chambers window looks out on the house that look -- used to be the home of alice paul. i am reminded when i looked out my window at the efforts women have made just to get the right to vote. t to get the right to vote. much less practice law. most of the real pioneers faced a profession in a society that espoused what we call "the cult of domesticity." women were different from men, they said. there were compassionate, selfless, a gentle, and pure. their minds wer

later, "newsmakers" with david axelrod on the administration's policy priorities.an interview with the fox news, sarah palin said she would be willing to run. [applause] >> thank you so much. i am so proud to be an american. thank you so much for being here tonight. do you love your freedom? do you want at your freedom? any of you here serving in uniform pastor present, raise your hand. we will thank you for our freedom. god bless you guys. we salute you and honor you. thank you. i am so proud to be american. thank you. happy birthday, ronald reagan. [applause] well, a special hello to the c- span viewers. you and not be welcome in those healthcare negotiants, but you have an invitation to the tea party. [applause] very good to be here in tennessee to volunteer here. the home of good, country music and southern barbecue. it is great to be at the convention. down here some southern sweet tea end up in alaska we have a smaller version of tea party up there -- we call it ice tea. i'm a big supporter of this movement, believe in this movement. across the country, knowi

>> well, you know, with david axelrod has talked about this a little. what he had to say was that part of the reason that friday was so successful with the gop conference that it was for the spontaneity that occurred there. and it's going to be hard to sort of recreate that spontaneity that happened. now the president thinks that there is space for more open dialogue, he's going to look for more opportunities to do things on camera and have open discussions on important issues. but in terms of regularly-scheduled event, i don't have anything for you on that. mark? >> bill, did the -- when the president at the town meeting yesterday said he hopes that he can get health care enacted this year, is this year his new and latest deadline? is there anything before that that he wants to set or is he going to give this congress the whole year to get it done? >> i think the urgency of getting health care done because of the impact that the cost have on our federal deficit, that is has on small and large businesses, that it has on individuals, didn't go away. we w

move to chicago, david plouffe runs the campaign, he strategizes the whole thing, tries to replicate it. axelrodan you do a campaign the same way the second time or is there something necessarily that erodes in the way you run the second time? you've got to do something different the second time. >> you're nice to say i'm an expert, but i don't think i am. i do believe that you cannot replicate it exactly. there are some fundamental reasons to get out of washington and to headquarter in chicago if that's the decision of the president. but the idea of going back and trying to redo what was created last time, it was a very special circumstance. it was a lot about hope and change, but it was also a lot about doing things differently than george bush -- >> do you think a lot of white people, john, the tricky question, voted for barack obama because they wanted to see change in intersection wanted to prove america was open to change and open to an african-american president who second time around will go you know, actually i'm a republican and i've had a good look at this guy and i think he's a fine