when david axelrod sits around and looks at the electoral maps and the strengths and weaknesses as you them in the republican field, who worries you more, the guy from boston or the guy from austin? in a moment we'll give you the answer, plus the president's top political adviser's take on the job challenge and the republican field and the liberal criticism that the president isn't being tough enough on republicans. >>> but, first, the politicens of the economy and the state of play in iowa, jessica yellin is here and in ames, iowa, two of the country's finest political reporters, dan balz of "the washington post" and jeff zeleny, and i'm stuck indoors tonight, i'm jealous. dan, to you first, are we going to wake up sunday morning or monday morning and be missing a republican candidate? will somebody come in third or fourth that needed to come in first or second in the ames straw poll and be gone? >> well, it's certainly possible, john. as we all know, governor pawlenty of minnesota has a tremendous amount on the line saturday if he finishes really badly, i'm sure he's determined to st

when david axelrod sits around and looks at the electoral map and sees the strengths and weaknesses aspublican field, who worries you more, the guy from boston or the guy from austin? >> well, john, i can't answer that question for one simple reason, i haven't seen the candidates out there. the one thing having watched my candidate campaign two years for president, these campaigns are very revealing. people find out exactly who you are. they test you. they test your ideas. just today at the state fair, governor romney had a curious exchange with someone there in which he kind of bellicosely said corporations are people, too, when the man was asking why he would value tax cuts for corporations more than strengthening social security and medicare. and, you know, that was a revealing moment. i don't know how rick perry's going to be as a candidate for president. nobody really does. so, let's let this campaign play out and see how these candidates present themselves, and i think we'll know more down the line. >> i want to ask you about something in our new poll out today. we ran horse race

david axelrod is in buchanan michigan this morning. mr. axelrod, welcome to the broadcast. >> thank you, bob. >> schieffer: for the first time in the long, proud history of america, u.s. securities are no longer considered the safest place to invest your money. i just want to ask you, what is the impact of that statement going to be on people who are turning on this broadcast this morning? >> first of all, let's see how the markets react because i think there's a broad consensus that this is still the safest place to put your money. you know, we can debate the strength of the analysis that they did, the history of s&p and so on. they made an egregious analytical error here but theirs was largely a political analysis. that's what we should focus on because what they were saying is they want to see the political system work. they want to see a sense of compromise. they want to see the kind of solution that the president has been fighting for, a large solution that will team with the problem, that will be balance, that will include revenues, t

david axelrod. >> as president obama heads to martha's vinyard -- >> -- we were watching stocks go down again. >>> plus surprising numbers about whwhat is iviving ters with republican pollster frank luntz. joining our "roundtable" with george will, democratic strategist, donna brazile, jeff zeleny of "the new york times" and fox business network's liz claman. >>> good morning. christiane is off. i'm jake tapper. and we will l t to our exclusive interview with republican presidential candidate jon huntsman in a moment. but first some news since your morning papers. libyan rebels say they're closing in on moammar gadhafi's stronghold on tripoli. a day after fighters launched their first attack on the capit capitol. heavy gunfire and explosions battled tripoli with reports of coordinated nato air strikes after firefighters captured the coastal town. >>> in egypt. protests continued outside the israeli embassy in cairo after a rare apology by the israelry government on saturday for the deaths of three e

what we want is for them to listen to their stitch whens and come back to work. >> david axelrod, thank you for joining us. good luck handling all of the republican crowds tonight in iowa. >> got my gym shoes on just in case. >> okay, thank you, david. >> see you. >> bye. >>> come up up, steven colbert is back in the rewrite for what he's doing with his filthy journey superpac money and after we caught him not telling a lie about i. >>> but first, more on mitt romney's very, very bad day after he faced off with angry iowa voters over social security and tacks. taxes. >>> coming up, the same day "the washington post" has a headline reading a wiser romney returns to iowa, romney does something wicked unwise. that's ahead. >>> and rick perry big foots the republicans in iowa by putting the word out today that he really, really, really is running for president. ♪ [ male announcer ] you never know when a moment might turn into something more. and when it does men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a

is the president right, is david axelrod right? >> david axelrod is not right. the tea party happens to be the group that got people to tart thinking about the problems. the tea party want -- start thinking about the problems. the tea party wanted a stronger solution that was approved. i know the s&p from lots of experience, including watching them miss so many calls over the last couple of years. these people are probably publicity hungry. they probably love doing what they are doing. i see their representatives all over the press, being heroes. going home to their wives and buy friends and everybody else. i think they are loving -- and boyfriends and everybody else. i think they are loving it. they are losers. they shouldn't have done what they did. but they did it. and they had a reason. they shouldn't have done it, but they had a reason if they wanted to do it. the reason is, we really do have a dysfunctional government right now. it is terrible. what is going on with the presidency, what is going on with other aspects of our government is absolutely insane.

today, the summer slump with obama senior campaign strategist david axelrod and then job creation in uncertain times with governors o'malley of maryland and mcdonnell of virginia. and congressman elijah cummings, former chair of the black caucus, and analysis from greg ip, an economic editor of "the economist," and chrystia freeland, editor of thomson reuters digital. i am candy crowley, and this is state of the union. >>> what a difference a year makes, or not so much. last year at this time, president obama was vacationing on martha's vineyard, and that's where he is today. last year he said -- >> a year and a half ago the economy was shrinking rapidly, and the economy is now growing. >> this year he is saying -- >> america is going to come back from this recession stronger than before. that i am convinced of. >> unemployment was above 9% in august of 2010, and a year later it still is. compared to last summer, fewer americans approve of the president's handling of economy, and more say the economy is getting worse. joining me from michigan, senior obama campaign strategist david a

david axelrod, senior strategist for the president.come back to iowa. >> great to be in iowa. >> like coming home. >> it is subpoena go to the state fair. fried macaroni and cheese shgz man. >> warned off. >> you look great. be careful. >> exactly. i could fall off the wagon. >>> still ahead, after another wild day on wall street we're going to get a quick check on the opening bell, and how is this struggling economy affecting our children's education? one of the questions msnbc is confronting in our upcoming "making the grade" special. we'll get a preview. >>> plus -- a love affair. i personally picked out today's fried food of the day. a tough job, but someone had to do it, despite his doctor the warning. my pick and much more coming up on "the daily rundown" live from java joes. specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i

joining me from michigan, senior obama campaign strategists, david axelrod. thank you for being here. i want to ask you first -- >> sure, candy. >> the president is going to have the new jobs plan and a stimulus that is coming up in september, he's going to announce it. tell us what you know about that, and in particular when we talk about modest adjustments to entitlements, what is that? >> well, first of all, let me say, these are not all new ideas. some will be new and some we already talked about. there are things he has been asking congress to do for sometime, and some of them, for example, extending the unemployment -- the payroll tax cut that was passed in january for another year. that's something that is absolutely critical to do. there are basic things we need to do relative to infrastructure, rebuilding roads and bridges, and that needs to get done. so some of the things will be familiar because he has been talking about them. one of the things that was disturbing to me, candy, was in the last week i saw a spokesman for speaker boehner say we will

also david axelrod joins us live from iowa. we'll also have lon dons bureau chief john byrnes. >> and why the tottenham match got canceled. >>> up next, don't miss willy's week in review. first your weekend forecast with bill karins. >> the brightest bulb, right, mika? >> yes, adorable. >> actually one of the coolest mornings we've had in a while. temperatures are very comfortable. the ac should be off in many locations, in the 50s in new england. fantastic afternoon. no travel trouble at all. friday and saturday is great. the mid atlantic and new england, sunday looks bad. make plans for saturday. we'll watch the wet weather on saturday that moves into the ohio valley. it looks like a rainout and all the wet weather on sunday is going to move to the east coast. be prepared and make your weekend plans accordingly. beautiful day, beautiful start in new york city. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. the safety of onstar is now available for your car. ♪ [ recorded voice ] onstar. we're looking for city hall. i'm sen

i heard earlier tonight, david axelrod ticking off good ideas of extending tax cuts for the middle class on the payroll tax. a patent reform bill and south korean trade deal. it's not enough. he needs a big, major jobs package and then defy the republican house to the to pass it and run against harry truman and say, i compromised a lot. why won't they pass it? and then you have the fight that the people want to see. >> paul begala, appreciate your time. candy crowley, thank you. >>> michele bachmann will be candy crowley's guest on this sunday's "state of the union." >>> still ahead, more turmoil in the stock markets. another day of wild swings. this time swinging upward. what is driving all of the volatility. we'll talk to ali velshi. >>> and a young american woman vanishes in the same town that natalee holloway disappeared six years ago. an update on that. [ male announcer ] members of the american postal workers union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens

the other stuff is all david axelrod on the record saying things perfectly sensible and responsive tohings he's getting about romney and things he said before, so it actually doesn't read to me as suddenly the obama campaign has come out and decided to turn over its cards about romney. this story came to them. >> they have always had two things that they are going to go negative with. one is his years at bain capital, remember when ted kennedy was running against romney in 1994 for the senate from massachusetts, he pulled that out, it was a close race, kennedy won in the 11th hour by going to people who had lost their jobs as a result of decisions made by bain capital, and even though that was many years ago, you can expect to see those same folks in obama ads, and the other thing that's very important that you're going to hear a lot from republicans is that massachusetts was 47th out of 50th in job creation when mitt romney was governor, and before this race is done, if romney's the nominee, every voter will at least have heard that, that statistic, because romney's whole campaign is

you see john kerry and david axelrod calling this the "tea party downgrade."say thank god for the tea party for bringing this to our attention kind of thing. i don't think americans are going to care that much about it because they're not going to see it effect them. i think voters care about what effects them, what affects their wallet, pocketbook, investment. they're going to care about jobs, whether or not they have them. i'm not sure how much this aa rating is going to affect the election. we'll. >> rick perry has a solution to the economic ills of the country is facing. he -- he had some kind of a come and pray away the bad economy get-together. >> yeah. yeah. it's called the response, i guess 30,000 people showed up at reliance stadium in the capital where rick perry, of course, is the governor of texas. and it was billed as nondenominational, but tell that to the jewish folks, muslim, the buddhist, the nonreligious and even the catholics who wouldn't, i don't think, have felt that welcomed. rick perry wants people to fast and get back to jesus. well, i

. >> sean: you've got david plouffe, david axelrod, they are blaming the tsunami, arab spring.it is lame in terms of and george bush. by the way the earthquake was george bush's fault. here's what i think is happening. they are polling, focus grouping. come up with a few new buzzwords. repackage his old ideas. and act as though this is a big new idea and blame republicans. accurate? >> right. if you looked on the sunday morning talk shows david axelrod said several times we are going to present something that reasonable people should be able to interpret. anybody who disagrees with it and doesn't like it will be unreasonable in addition the other thing that was interesting and it could have been a nuance. president obama said i'm going to introduce a plan. axelrod said he will produce an outline. those two things are different. a plan is detailed. an outline could be just rehashed stuff from before. that won't be enough for businesses. >> we said 5&us before, the president cannot change course. he cannot do what is required. he cannot lower tax rates and increase revenues to th

if he is the guy to beat and you are david axelrod, what is your strategy?him to george w. bush straight on with a couple of exceptions, george w. bush was favorable, he could galvanize the evangelical christian blacks in the south he can't. he's legitimate southerner, five generations. george bush was a transplant with a twang but could rope in the people. he has troubling things in his background, he wants to get rid of medicare and all government socially funded programs. he said that on the record. he's got a lot of problems and i would be rubbing my hands together getting ready for him. >> i'm being really careful if you underestimate rick perry. never run a race. that's how he likes to be known, he wants to be understimestimatt this point. given his record on job creations, out of the top five cities and jobs that just came out, three of them were in texas. >> how did he do it? using plans that obama wanted to push through but was blocked by our republican congress. >> you know as well as i do, you get the credit, whoever is in charge whether for the g

here's david axelrod on gma this morning. lelgs r let's listen to david. >> a specific reason texas has done so well and that's because the oil industry has done so well in the last few years, and the military has grown, because of the -- because of the challenges that we've had overseas. he's been the beneficiary and had little to do with it. what's happened to health care in that state. it's a record of december nation, not of progress. >> back to his strengths. what we do here on "hardball." ignore everything substance, right or wrong, left or right. how good a candidate will he be? timed everything exactly so far. a bigger story than anybody that wins tomorrow, looks like. looks like he's going to give sarah palin, reading the tea leaves. seems to like him. said so. she could jump in and look close. he's doing pretty good. she comes in, gives him a booster rocket. he wins the iowa caucuses. he guess on and does really well with the whole thing. looks to me like that's the timing set up here. any thoughts? collaborating, t

clearly, the democrats, heard david axelrod, president obama's chief campaign strategist, he gobbled that moment up. saying, see, this is, proves the point that the president was willing to move in the middle, and the republican party today is not. but the fact of the matter is, the issue of taxes is what unifies this party. there's a lot of despair coalitions in the republican party. social conservative, libertarians, isolationists, you name it. the one thing that keeps them together is taxes. chris, i've told you this before. i've had republican pollsters tell me it would break the republican party apart if they somehow split on taxes. >> let me go to jeff on that same point. this was the bicentennial moment yesterday. jeff, to make it, follow on on has chuck said there. they make backtrack on that, some of them, in three, four months. but none of them asked for a clarification. they immediately, knee jerk response. they all put up their hands afraid not to be with the group. >> no question. i mean, but i think that sort of was a metaphor for the whole debate. they were really focu

that's what david axelrod is doing. if sarah palin is going to show up and get herself into the story, why shouldn't they be there. >> thank you for your two cents which is worth three here. thank you very much. we'll see you next hour. >>> casey anthony is going to have to return to florida after a new court ruling. anthony was free after she was acquitted last month of murdering her daughter and she's been in hiding ever since. the judge in her trial ruled she has to come back to serve one year's probation for an earlier conviction of writing bad checks. >>> one week after standard & poor's downgrade of the united states, calm returning to wall street on friday spurred by positive july retail numbers, the dow rose 126 points to close the week. s&p and nasdaq saw modest gains. somewhat mild end to a five-day period that included two of the top ten single day market drops in history that were then followed by jumps of more than 400 points. for the week the key averages were down one percentage point or more. >>> nearly

if i were a david axelrod, who i love and admire, the chief strategist for the president, i would put big picture of henny youngman, who famously said every time he was asked, "how's your wife?" compare to what? those three words ought to be on every democratic's lips. confirmed what? right now confirmed their dreamy expectations that they had a few years ago. i would rather have folks, confirmed what? governor romney or governor perry or congressman bachmann or the other leading republicans. that will bring the democrats back to obama. >> so you're saying make this race, not a referendum on president obama, that would be, for him, a huge mistake. make it all about the republican candidate? >> right, and that's easier said than done. every incumbent wants to defend his or her record. every politician wants to talk about themselves. let's be honest but this truth they'll have to make this psychological shift. to make this a choice and from the a referendum and to spend a lot of their time talking about the other side. it's harder now because there's not a republican nominee but there's

david axelrod, an adviser to the president said that the emphasis needs to be on employment as a whole and not on one community. >> there's lots that is there with the eye towards those who need the help the most, but we have to move the entire country forward and not just one community, and he is definitely looking to do that. >> and joining me is one congresswoman fredricka wilson, who is hosting a town hall tonight in florida. and thank you for coming on and let me get your response to david axelrod saying that the unemployment issue is not exclusive to one community. >> well, it sounds good, but it is exclusive to one community. >> and how can you say that when the national unemployment rate is 9.1? >> well, when you look at african-american males, 40% of them are unemployed and those under 30 years of age, and i understand exactly that the entire nation must be involved in this recovery, but the black community is experiencing a great recession. that's what we are experiencing right now. and all of the growth in the past 30 years, we see it slipping away from homeownership, for th

if i were a david axelrod, who i love and admire, the chief strategist for the president, i would putg picture of henny youngman, who famously said every time he was asked, "how's your wife?" compare to what? those three words ought to be on every democratic's lips. confirmed what? right now confirmed their dreamy expectations that they had a few years ago. i would rather have folks, confirmed what? governor romney or governor perry or congressman bachmann or the other leading republicans. that will bring the democrats back to obama. >> so you're saying make this race, not a referendum on president obama, that would be, for him, a huge mistake. make it all about the republican candidate? >> right, and that's easier said than done. every incumbent wants to defend his or her record. every politician wants to talk about themselves. let's be honest but this truth they'll have to make this psychological shift. to make this a choice and from the a referendum and to spend a lot of their time talking about the other side. it's harder now because there's not a republican nominee but there's a

now hear representatives of the obama administration -- not the administration but his campaign, david axelrod and others, who are calling this secret money a necessary evil. there are major hollywood brokers getting involved in funneling that money, raising money for democrats. rather than us standing in our truth and saying this is wrong, now the left is saying, boldly, they will engage in the same way the republicans engaged and will find as much secret money as they can find and spend. is that the answer? >> of course not. the answer would have been for the democrats to take a principled stand and say we will not turn politics into a war of the rich against the rich. but as always has been the case, one wrong door who is not chasing will it lead others into the same wrongdoing. we will have a political system depended on secret money from anonymous sources influencing who runs, who wins, and the policies they act upon. tavis: i want to ask whether or not you are concerned, and if so, to what degree, there are not the kinds of voices -- not so much just about bill moyers but the paucity of

clearly you heard david axelrod, president obama's chief campaign strategist, he just gobbled that moment up. saying see, this proves the point that the president was willing to move in the middle and the republican party today is not. but the fact of the matter is the issue of taxes is what unifies this party. there's a lot of disparate coalitions inside this party right now, social conservatives, libertarians, isolationists, you name it. but the one thing that keeps them together is taxes. i've told you this before. i've had republican pollsters tell me that it would break the republican party apart if they somehow split on taxes. >> let me go to jeb on that same point. i think this was the bicentennial moment yesterday. jeff, to follow on on what chuck said there, they may backtrack on that in three or four months, some of them, but the fact that none of them asked for a clarification. they just kneejerk response. they all put their hands up, afraid not to be with the group. >> no question. but i think that really sort of was a metaphor for the whole debate. they were really focused, m

on krbts on cbs's "face the nation," david axelrod pointed the finger at republicans. >> this is the tea party downgrade, the tea party brought us to the brink of a default. it was the right thing to do to avoid that default. it was the wrong thing to do, to push the country to that point. >> on that same broadcast, republican senator lindsay graham had a different take. he says the tea party is the result of what's wrong with washington and blames the president for the downgrade. >> this president failed to lead in any other private sector enterprise he would be fired. if he was asking to be reupped to run a football team, they wouldn't hire him. if he was trying to be a ceo for a second contract, he wouldn't be hired. >> as part of the u.s. deal to raise the debt ceiling a congressional super committee has to come up with $1.5 trillion in spending cuts by thanksgiving but even that may not be enough to convince s&p to raise the country's credit rating. >>> there was more unrest overnight in london. police were on the streets in force sunday in the tottenham district, they're trying

but when it's up against him versus the tea party, and that's how david axelrod and the democrats are going to try to frame it, barack obama -- chris: is that what color the sky is on the democratic side? they believe it's him against -- >> him versus the tea party. he gets the middle and he said, look, i was passive there. my hands were tied. i'm still the most reasonable man in the room and he puts jay carney out there every day, the press secretary. chris: a very reasonable guy. >> he has to quickly reassure the base. there are very committed voters out there, they are the democratic base, the elderly, they vote and they think that he has sold them down the river on medicare and social security. he has to set that straight. >> he is going to say, also, hey, if it weren't for me, the tea party would have destroyed medicare and social security. chris: let's talk about the vulnerability and that's the rich people. i keep being taken with these numbers. i guess i knew conceptually people made $270 million a year in income, not wealth, income, and they pay like 18%, which is a little bi

. >> that is putting a chill down the side of david axelrod and the gang in chicago. iowa is competitive territory. >> on the marquee campaign issue of jobs, iowa unemployment is 6%, lower than the national average of 9.1%. the state lost over 21,000 manufacturerring job since the 2008 election. that economic unease was a factor in the 2010 gubernatorial race. >> i defeated incumbent governor, something that hasn't happened in iowa since 1962. >> how is it going, iowa? >> plus, it will be impossible to rep kate the obama -- replicate obama-thon put on for iowans in the first run. >> iowa was spoiled in 2007 leading up to the caucuses they basically had all obama, all the time. >> president obama will be back in iowa tuesday as part of the bus trip to talk rural economics. officially it is not campaign event. the re-election campaign has the luxury of time. >> the election is not today. is it unsettled? it is. but every re-election is unsettled. >> she also says that iowa today is a purple state, evenly divided between republicans and democrats. that's very different f

sunday on "face the nation," bob's guests will be david axelrod, republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina, and former democratic national chairman howard dean. in new orleans today, a federal jury convicted five current and former police officers in the shooting deaths of unarmed civilians six days after hurricane katrina. bigad shaban reports on the case that has focused national attention on police corruption. >> it is going to be all right because justice has been served. >> reporter: sherrell johnson has been waiting six years for this day. her 17-year-old son, james brissette, was on the danziger bridge looking for food when he and five other unarmed people were confronted by police. the officers claimed they were responding to a report gunmen were shooting from a bridge. the police opened fire as soon as they arrived. brissette was shot nearly a dozen times. he and another man were killed. the officers then covered it up, falsified report, and planted a gun at the scene. >> the citizens of this country will not, should not-- and we intend that they will never-- have t

involved in recent weeks but now thanks to robert young pelton of a small he reports and david axelrod's danger real when even more information turns out that buried deep in u.n. reports is evidence that half of all u.s. supplied weapons to ugandan and burundian soldiers who belong to the african union peacekeeping force that are supposed to be fighting al shabaab turns out that have those weapons are ending up right in the hands of al shabaab and it's a familiar sounding story because it is it's happened numerous times before so you have to wonder why we can't learn from our own history what it says for the wars that we might be arming in the future joining me to discuss this is scott horton contributing editor on legal and national security matters for harvest magazine scott thanks for joining us tonight we finally got got you on the screen there now am i right or am i right this is a familiar story how many times could you say that it's happened before. constantly i mean with scott so back to the whole crisis in afghanistan actually both in the soviet air and then later with the ameri

host: david axelrod, a political strategist, on cbs talking about the downgrade. here is how "the wall street journal" is covering it this morning. an image here of an employee of the tokyo stock exchange washing the index board as she waited for the markets to open last night -- exchange watching the index board as she waited for the markets to open last night. the european central bank signaled it would purchase government bonds of italy and spain on a large scale. that is from "the wall street journal" and also part of what is influencing financial markets this morning. let's go to syracuse, new york. ron on the line for independents. hi, ron. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: the question was, can america still lead? i would say, god, i hope not. we have to look at exactly what this country leads in. in the industrialized world, we lead in the inequality, poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, child abuse, and the main thing we lead in is the difference between public opinion and public policy. that means we do not really have democracy here. the s

that is why when david axelrod left the white house, he said priority one was getting in touch with the base because he knows there are wounds to be healed and maybe more that will be made before you get to november 2012. >> the white house is making the argument to liberals that what they did in this was key the social safety net intact, that when republicans wanted to make medicaid, for example, a part of those triggers and the eventual cutbacks, the white house said you know what, stop, no, we cannot do that. so what joe biden was on the hill telling liberal democrats yesterday was we protected the needy in this country from these potential cutbacks and that's the argument they're going to be taking to the liberal base, and they also believe it's always compared to what, that they are going to say okay, you liked the paul ryan budget, you liked the voucher program for medicare, well, go vote for that, then, or go vote for barack obama. so again, they're going to use the ryan budget and they're going to wait and see what comes out of this committee, because if they can reframe the deb

let's listen to what they were saying about the tea party, david axelrod taking direct aim at the tea party: >> the fact of the matter is that this is essentially a tea party downgrade, the tea party brought us to the brink of a brought. >> here's the other thing, republicans are quick to defend the tea party, saying they did not create the debt problem or out of control stepping. some republicans in fact say the president needs to come up with a plan. they've been saying that all along. a plan that that can bring the country oust its downgrade now and some are calling for treasury secretary geithner to be fired. i think having had timothy geithner testify before us in small business committee and having the opportunity to query him, when you open up thatry french rater door the lights don't come up. -- on. i think he should move on and we should have someone else. >> top comments from congressman allen west, who of course is a member of the republican party. but also, got into office because of the tea party momentum in this country. i can tell you that timothy geithny, treasury secr

i'll ask david axelrod, who's standing by live. >>> it's supposed to fly to any target in less than an hour. the results of a new test of the fasters aircraft ever built. specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ >>> president obama certainly has a lot on his plate these days, but he has more to worry about than sim

. >> eric: can we play john terry and -- john kerry and david axelrod blaming the tea party go to that the fact of the matter this is a tea party downgrade. >> i believe this is without question the tea party dow downgrade. >> if/am not mistaken tea party said cut spending and make sure the debt doesn't get bigger. >> saturday there must have been a conference call where the democrats said we tested this and we'll call it a tea party downgrade. in undignified way they all say the say thing. the american people see through this. it annoys them they're not taken seriously. it bothers them that we have to deal with entitlement and no one is coming forward. they missed a huge opportunity to pull people together. >> eric's first question was good. the market going down after the president spoke. is it possible the way the democrats think he thought he could stay above the fray and didn't want to get involved? only after everybody talked about nothing but this he jumped in around 1:30 afternoon? >> bob: the idea that eric suggests that the market went down means that eric spent last night at

military a -- maya, you have david axelrod calling this a tea party downgrade, the republicans sayingan obama downgrade. is this just a d.c. downgrade? how would you even phrase this? >> there are obviously three big plays here. the economic challenges we face, the budgetary challenges we face and political challenges we face and they're all real, but there's no question that the responses and finger pointing and the flurry of the press saying whose fault it is is a wake-up call, we have to have polices to get our debt down and if we don't do this, we'll have more downgrades. it'sest -- it's a taste of what to come. >> some say it was good to get a downgrade, that it is a wake-up call, that it is something that lawmakers needed to see to have any sort of reaction. do you buy that? >> i think you bring about tough change either out of leadership or crisis and my hope is this is still going to come from leadership. we're about to have this so-called supercommittee in washington, the big group that's going to come together and come up with a trillion and a half of savings, that was part

the tea party brought us to the brink of a default. >> but the history, see david axelrod points outrtant word here, history. and if you look back in history, this country has been spending, spending, spending, spending. at least for the last couple of decades. so is it really in your mind, the tea party who has been in existence for two to three years, is it their fault or is it the fault of all the spending that preceded that or a combination? >> it's interesting that particular interview yesterday with bob schieffer, bob let them have it. one of the first questions to axelrod is why does barack obama deserve to be re-elected considering that the economy is in much worse shape than when he took the presidency? and then it went from there. >> and the funny thing is axelrod and the obama administration keeps pointing the finger at bush. it's bush's fault and you inherited this. you inherited a triple a credit rating and somehow turned that into a downgrade. >> i'm sure he's watching right now. >> couple of headlines for your monday. the tsa apologizing after refusing to let a pregnan

. >> gretchen: congressman tonka, are you going to say the same thing that david axelrod and other democratswas better known as a tea party downgrade? >> look, i think a blame game doesn't help anyone here right now. i think what the country needs is certainty. i think the certainty that we can provide comes with a response that is sound, that speaks to a jobs crisis, that is looping large and heavy for a long time as opposed to a manufactured crisis that was an overnight crisis on the default that really didn't get to the jobs creation issue that i think will provide certainty in the market and provide protection for all of the income strata in this country, including the middle class. >> gretchen: so you're not blaming the tea party for the downgrade? >> i think that some of the extreme thinking of cuts for the sake of cutting was not helpful. we don't need a cleaver approach. we need a scalpel where we cut where we can and invest where we must. >> gretchen: let's listen to david axelrod. i want to get congressman ginta's response. >> the fact is this is essentially a tea that's right down

that's one of the questions we want to put to david axelrod.omy along the president is getting hit from the left and from the right. at this point certainly, a year and a half out, it's interesting to talk to the president's top strategists, about how do you maneuver your way through all this. and we will go to the states and talk to governor martin o'malley of maryland, a democrat, and mcdonnell of virginia, and both head of the governor's associations to say what do you need from the federal government or do you want the federal government to back out of it and what have they done in their states to keep the economy moving. both of them have the jobless rate under the national average of 9.1. we want to talk to them. ae alie jaw comings in coming on. they have been upset with obama for not doing enough to help the stricten african-american community where the unemployment rate is nearly twice that of whites. we will talk about that. >> candy, i found it interesting when max aen waters came up and expressed her disappointment in the president.

>> i think our party is experiencing something david axelrod described in twice. i think the reaction on the right to obama's presidency is this almost correction, i think, this purification of the conservative movement, and i found that fascinating for a lot of reasons, but i think the reason they are relevant and the white house yielded to them on the debt ceiling debate isn't because of the attributes to the self-described car-carrying bumper sticker on the back of the suv or whatever they drive. it's not just them, the reason that the white house yielded to them, the reason all the republicans in congress are listening to them is that there are a whole lot of voters acting like tea party members. and that's the graver threat, i think, to the democrats. it's not that this, you know, 24 26% of what you just described as wildly unpopular people are going to hijack the country, impossible. impossible. >> but don't republicans look at the christine o'donnell, sharon angle, linda mcmahon, joe miller phenomena of those tea party candidacies taking over the republican

president obama's former advisor and now campaign strategist, david axelrod, said s&p's move was a tea party down grade. john mccain of arizona saying it's on president obama's shoulders that he never gave a clear path during the debt ceiling debate. and chris wallace was asking the head of s&p about his been about who bears the blame, republicans or democrats? >> in this country both congress and the administration are jointly responsible for the congress of fiscal policy. so this is really not about either political party, it's about the difficulty of all sides in finding, you know, a consensus around fiscal policy choices now and in the future. >> we are live in washington tonight. standard and poors is saying no single party is to blame but the finger pointing continues. >> of course. democrats and republicans each blaming the others. for example, senator john kerry is laying the blame squarely on the tea party. >> there were some people in the republican party, and mitch mcconnell even admitted this, that wanted to default he said there were people in his party that were willing t

later on "this week" for more on the interview with jon huntsman and top obama campaign adviser david axelrod. dan. >> going to be a good show. >>> now to an extraordinary, personal and public confrontation that erupted in the middle of a search for susan powell. the mother from utah missing for nearly two years now. this weekend when police were chasing down a new lead in the nevada desert, several family members, a few states away in washington, were clashing in front of cameras. here's abc's clayton sandell. >> reporter: with still no sign of susan powell after a mysterious new search in the nevada desert -- >> i want to get my daughter's picture out there. i want help finding my daughter. >> reporter: her father, chuck cox, was passing out fliers when he was confronted by steve powell, the father of josh powell, susan's husband. >> how is your coming here helping to find susan? >> it isn't helping. how is your standing at our neighborhood market helping to find susan, chuck? people see the sign -- >> reporter: this open hostility is nothing new. >> they've been just bullying us from the b

david axelrod shot down that story on "today." >> and anyone who purports to be a source within the obama camp who used that term and some of the other terms that are in that story according to unnamed sources should be ripped out of the role decks. >> are you saying that story is false? >> yes. >> we're hearing it. we're seeing it. now my turn to talk. regardless of whether the story is false and axelrod calls it garbage, is mitt romney the primary concern for the president's campaign? >> well, he certainly -- i actually will tell you that i heard from some folks within the campaign that someone had talked to ben smith and it got blown out of proportion. i think we've seen some activity in terms of them trying to frame mitt romney again as a flip-flopper. again sort of also since he's trying to run as a business person making a point of his record. clearly he's someone that they are focused on. >> romney has a target on his back with all these gop opponents. it will be interesting to see how rick perry's entry shakes up this race. and also whether schara palin even an endorsement from he

. >> yeah, we saw david axelrod and other democrats pushing that line on the sunday talk shows, jay carney kept it up today. we also heard and they say that's because the tea party nearly drove the country to the brink of default. and that when you look at the s&p report. they specifically cited gridlock here in washington. the other line that you are seeing the administration pushes this notion that treasury secretary said last night, this president is not responsible for the downgrade. bottom line is, look, republicans ran up the credit card in the bush administration. they bear some responsibility. but this white house has been running up the credit card as well. they haven't stepped up and said, look, we're responsible as well. shep? >> ed henry live at the white house. ed, thanks. s&p is one the big three credit agencies it's been in business for doing this close to 100 years. clearly each one of those agencies can have a significant impact on financial markets. coming up, fox reports on what these companies actually do how they do it, and why the critics are so displeased today. and

david axelrod in town, senator chuck grassley, tim pawlenty's campaign manager and a lot more, we'lleaa lot of food on a stick. my colleague and pal "andrea mitchell reports," she's coming on saturday and she's coming here tonight and you're going to see her tomorrow here in iowa because she loves food on a stick as well. >>> coming up, chris jansing and company and don't miss andrea at 1:00. see you tomorrow. es nearby. interesting... wow, i'm blown away. you look great. hotels.com summer sale, save up to 30%. and get a free kindle. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >>> good morning, i'm chris jansing and the question is