the goal was to oust conservatives from the democratic party and make that party solidly progressive. and he assumed that the gop would become a solidly conservative party. it made no sense for the nation to have, as he said, a democratic tweed l dumb and a republican tweedledee. he believed that the country needed two effective and responsible political parties, each ideologically consistent and united, each supporting its leaders and offering voters meaningful choices at election time. but he didn't seem to realize that the republican party, the party of lincoln, was still anathema in the south. and, apparently, he didn't understand the strong emotional and cultural ties that the south had to the democratic party. southerners believed that the democratic party was their party, and conservative southern democrats were not about to take a hike over to the gop. still, fdr was immensely popular in the south and so popular that he thought he could risk engaging in primary fights. there's a story about a southern schoolteacher and her class that illustrates fdr's quasidivine status below

really take power like the tea party did in one short year it'll take an infiltration of the democratic party itself claiming precinct committee positions if this year starting now we execute the exact same strategy the tea party did last year and we can move the democratic party back to its progressive roots and finally see the progressive reforms that we've been fighting for so here's your assignment mr and mrs phelps should you decide to accept it we have fifteen months before the next election and your vision is to show up at your local democratic party headquarters actually given the infiltration as always should you or any of your team be clawed or killed my producer shawna and sam will disavow any knowledge of your actions this video will self-destruct in three seconds good luck. that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our web site at tell arvin dot com free speech dot org. also check out our two you tube channels there are links to tom hartman dot com and this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and we have a

and we'll see the results, but i think that organizational process was very important for the democratic party, not only in wisconsin, but potentially nationwide. >> and potentially nationwide what would that look like if the democratic water nationwide, in the beltway, in the white house, decided they wanted to give the democratic base something to cheer for, what would they pick, what would they do? >> good question, and what would they be able to get? the white house and congress and the leadership in washington, which frankly has not done a whole lot of base tending recently, what could we get them to buy and would it -- we missed public option for health care, we missed a lot of potential things along the way, i'm not sure what it is. >> but the wisconsin democrats didn't win. the wisconsin democrats took this stand, fought tooth and nail, literally went down screaming. we have footage of the screaming of them trying to stop the sort of dead at night, ad hoc committee, and suing them, recall efforts, they are throwing everything they got and have not won at all. the fact they have not won

south and did not understand the strong emotional and cultural ties that the south had to the democratic party. they believed the party was their party. in conservative southern democrats were not about to take a hike to the g.o.p.. but fdr was immensely popular in the south and so popular he thought he could risk engaging in primary fights. there is a story about a southern school teacher and her class that illustrates the divine status below the mason-dixon line for a gore rejected tell the story with a southern accent but the only one i can do is new york. [laughter] of children who paves the road in front of your house? in response, roosevelt. who put electricity into your house for you? roosevelt. who gave your uncle a job? roosevelt. who got your granddaddy the pension? roosevelt. right. now children, who made you? after a moment of silence one little boy says god it.st where of boy leaps up to sayter] throw that a sorry republican out of fear. [laughter]cons the whole idea of a ejecting conservatives from the democratic party was very much out of character for roosevelt because heism sh

the finance minister is now the new leader of the country's ruling democratic party, and that means he is certain to become japan's next prime minister, its sixth in just five years. >> translator: as a result of the runoff election, we elected yoshihiko noda as our new party leader. >> the dpj held its leadership election on monday. five candidates ran for the top post after prime minister naoto kan resigned. none got the majority in the first round of voting. so there was a runoff between the two frontrunners, noda and economy minister banri kaieda. most of the lawmakers who voted for the three other candidates in the first round picked noda in the runoff. of the 395 ballots up for grabs, noda got 215. kaieda, 177. >> translator: let's all persevere and work hard for the good of the people so we can achieve political stability. >> japan's diet will vote on tuesday to decide whether the 54-year-old noda should become prime minister. it's basically a formality because his democratic party controls the more powerful lower house. soon after his victory, noda held his first news conferenc

he'll pretty likely use these appointments as an opportunity to ease friction with the democratic party. noda has already given a promotion to a member of the camp that didn't support his leadership. koshiishi will be the secretary general. the most important post in the party. >> noda has many challenges ahead. two of the biggest are managing the ongoing nuclear crisis, drawing up a new energy policy. what can we expect from him when it comes to these two tasks? >> noda supports the idea of reducing japan's dependence on nuclear power. request but he says the nuclear power plants that have passed so-called stress tests should be restarted in order to fulfill japan's electricity demands. he also insists that this country should start increasing the amount of energy it gets from renewable sources. but he doesn't have any concrete plan for how to supply enough power without relying on atomic energy. >> a tricky situation when it comes to nuclear power. for the last couple years, we've seen japan go through this what we might call a resolving door prime minister leadership. how long can we

is their leadership still always going to align themselves with president obama or with the democratic party no matter what happens they're not going to maybe call for them to really put that kind of tension in the streets you know they're not and that's the big problem is that you have people that trumka that you know they really enjoy getting invited to the white house they enjoy that type of access they haven't had that for a long time and they enjoy that type of thing and there's like the stockholm syndrome really really does are free to take on people in power and often it's relationships they have a lot of friends over there personal friends you know it's not even issue of money personal friends and the remove from most of the membership so you have president obama you know not really making a stand for workers and in one of the biggest you know attack on unions ever and you know trump is not willing to say anything about i mean you have the tar stance issue that you just brought up i mean look at all the environmental leaders are going to rush the white house look at all the gay right

>> this issue has been discussed in the dpj because the party has a majority in the lower house but not the upper house. and the democrats are split over forming a grand coalition. some say it's necessary for the government to pass bills. others are concerned that the party could be forced to review its platform. noda is rather positive about forming a grand coalition. he says the dpj should be realistic about the divided diet. the new leader knows very well that his government will be cornered. if it cannot pass important bills. however, the main opposition party prefers to have a general election because it thinks that it can beat the dpj and regain power. >> the key political question in this leadership race is who did the democratic party support? >> right. basically it came down to this. if you are loyal to ozawa, you voted for kaieda. if you are not, you voted for noda. very simple. ozawa controls the biggest faction in the dpj. he has been called the king maker of japan's political world over the last few decades. and during this party leadership race, he tried to emerge again as king maker by supporting kaieda. b

noda was elected democratic party president on monday. he will replace naoto kan who has occupied the country's top post since june last year. noda is working to select senior party officials and cabinet members. we asked people here in tokyo what they expect from the country's new leader. >> translator: he should have a clear direction as prime minister. >> translator: including the strong yen, there's many problems with our economy. i would be happy if priority was given to reviving japan's economy. >> translator: focus should be on rebuilding efforts due to the march 11th earthquake and tsunami. and improving relationships with the united states and other countries. >> here's a closer look at the new man taking the reins. >> noda acquired his ambition to become a politician soon after he graduated from university. >> translator: i want to become a politician to end the culture of money politics. >> reporter: noda was elected to the lower house of the diet in 1993 as a member of the now defunct japan new party. he became a dpj lawmaker i

>> tea party short-term economic gain. >> laura: democratic strategist holding up the tea party as thesformative guy to ever run for the presidency. that's what we are told. new politics, changing politics, bringing people together. we have 9.2% unemployment. you guys had the congress and the senate filibuster-proof senate for two years and the presidency. you had two years to pass the budget, couldn't do it. so you are going to blame the tea party for the first two years, too? >> no. what we are going to talk about right now is the fact that the tea party has made it very clear that they run the republican party. >> laura: i must have missed that memo. >> absolutely refuse to pass any legislation that had an ounce of revenue increases, even if it was a 10 to 1 spending cut. >> laura: go home and be quiet? who is more in line with the way regular families are thinking about things this day the tea party or president obama. >> president obama. two thirds of the american public made it very clear they want to see a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases and the paper said no,

>> this issue has been discussed in the dpj because the party has a majority in the lower house but not the upper house. and the democrats are split over forming a grand coalition. some say it's necessary for the government to pass bills. others are concerned that the party could be forced to review its platform. noda is rather positive about forming a grand coalition. he says the dpj should be realistic about the divided diet. the new leader knows very well that his government will be cornered. if it cannot pass important bills. however, the main opposition party prefers to have a general election because it thinks that it can beat the dpj and regain power. >> the key political question in this leadership race is who did the democratic party support? >> right. basically it came down to this. if you are loyal to ozawa, you voted for kaieda. if you are not, you voted for noda. very simple. ozawa controls the biggest faction in the dpj. he has been called the king maker of japan's political world over the last few decades. and during this party leadership race, he tried to emerge again as king maker by supporting kaieda. b

so there's a lot of anger and the you know we're going to get strapped with the democratic party because for one they don't want to have more republicans in power they don't have more attacks like that so they're kind of in this by. where they're between a rock and a hard place they don't really have a choice but they could be doing much more militant things outside of politics like quite well for instance where the only big country we're just focused on that we have these huge wisconsin protests where they occupy the capital they shut it down there were strikes there was a lot of tension walker was negotiating before you try to pass through that believe there was a lot of tension and then we just said all right we're going to or our strategy is an electoral strategy we're not going to do the type of workplace struggles that we saw in the one nine hundred thirty s. where the type of direct action we saw in the one nine hundred sixty s. and electoral politics don't really work because it's a political game people have to make deals look at greece they have a socialist government they're s

of that distracting for them and focusing on the insider baseball they took on not just the democratic party in fresno bottoms recalled their own leadership and they effectively won the vast majority of the water the tea party members made their point we're having exactly the conversation that they wanted us to have democrats come out of this looking marginally better only because he appeared to be more adult like what's the justification for a republican voting no on this still in the house of representatives even. and you wonder why so few people actually watch t.v. to try to get their news anymore because what they talk about doesn't apply to you and to i think there's a very tiny percentage of people in this country that actually care about that collective ego stroking that goes on in washington d.c. add a little bit new york and those people are the ones whose egos need to be stroked aka politicians and your so-called media stars and you know it continues to baffle me that these people get sky high paycheck to just talk about themselves their friends on wall street their friends on k. s

>> well, that issue has been discussed in the democratic party members for long time because the party does not have a majority in the upper house although it has majority in the lower house. that condition makes it difficult for the government to pass bills without the help from the opposition. however, dpj members are split over forming a ground coalition. some say it is vital for the smooth management of the divided indi diet. others say it is unacceptable because the party will have to dramatically review its election promises. kaeida seems to be supporting the latter idea. and the main opposition leader democratic party has yet to support the idea of ground coalition. if maehara becomes the next prime minister, securing leadership with lpj will be difficult because they've been accusing maehara for receiving illegal political donation. that issue forced maehara forced him to down step as foreign minister in march. >> all right, thank you. that was our senior political commentator. >>> a huge explosion rocked a united nations building on friday in the nigerian capital of abuja. the

another reason, that democrats really like unions because unions and the policy goals of the democratic party have bumped into each other more than once in the last century. for almost all the things democrats now brag about, unions have been crucial, if not essential. if there is a difference between those two things. president obama acknowledged as much almost two years ago at a labor day picnic. >> much of what we take for granted, the 40-hour workweek, minimum wage, health insurance, paid leave, pension, social security, medicare, they all bear the union label. it was labor that helped build the largest middle class in history. even if you are not a union member, every american owes something to the labor movement. few have fought longer and harder for health care than you. in good economic times and in bad, labor is not the problem, labor is part of the solution. [ applause ] >> labor part of the solution. organized labor, good for the country. that's the president's point there. organized labor also good for democrats. capital d. democrats. the democratic party's electoral successes hav

this came after the governing democratic party agreed to review a waiver program and subsidies for farmers. the opposition parties are also likely to vote for another bill aimed at promoting renewable energy. kan also made progress with his pet projects. the government will revise its energy policy to reduce dependence on nuclear power. it's also working to desperate the nuclear agency from the economy agency. kan is said to be preparing to announce his resignation soon after the two bills are approved. >> the democratic party is considering holding a leadership election around august 28th and a vote to choose his successor on august 31st. likely nominations include noda, mabuchi, and ozawa. >>> "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan post-march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami. "nuclear watch" brings you insight and information on the impact of the fukushima daiichi crisis. and "the road ahead" examines japan's efforts to recover and rebuild. don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead" on "new

this came after the governing democratic party agreed to review a waiver program and subsidies for farmers. the opposition parties are also likely to vote for another bill aimed at promoting renewable energy. kan also made progress with his pet projects. the government will revise its energy policy to reduce dependence on nuclear power. it's also working to desperate the nuclear agency from the economy agency. kan is said to be preparing to announce his resignation soon after the two bills are approved. >> the democratic party is considering holding a leadership election around august 28th and a vote to choose his successor on august 31st. likely nominations include noda, mabuchi, and ozawa. >>> "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan post-march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami. "nuclear watch" brings you insight and information on the impact of the fukushima daiichi crisis. and "the road ahead" examines japan's efforts to recover and rebuild. don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead" on "new

how did we get to the point that the democratic party is the party of african-americans and minoritiesmb in the african-american community, 16%. -- 7% above the national average what has barack obama done for the african-american community? >> wasn't that much better under the bush administration. yes he needs to do more. >> sean: maxine waters right? >> i think she has a point. the president has not fought hard enough for his principles. >> sean: what the principles more spending? >> we can disagree those principles. i think he needed a bigger stimulus. >> sean: double down? >> i think it could have been much worse. [ talking over each other ] >> i'm from los angeles, i was there the day the -- the whole thing that created the rodney king fiascoes. i was glad i want on camera. nothing has changed in 20, 30 years. >> sean: what do you moon by that? >> you can infuse all the money you want into certain inner city type programs with all of this concept that you are doing some good for people, train them to get jobs or entitle them to be able to take care of their feeds. >> sean: we'll co

. >>> the new leader of japan's governing democratic party, yoshihiko noda, is expected to be elected the country's 95th prime minister at a plenary session of the diet tuesday afternoon. the democratic party held a leadership election on monday with five candidates running for the top post. finance minister noda beat economy minister banri kaieda in a second round runoff by 215 votes to 177. >> translator: as a result of the runoff election, we elected yoshihiko noda as our new party leader. >> all members of the kan cabinet have resigned at a cabinet meeting on tuesday. noda has already been working to select party officials and cabinet members. after winning the party leadership on monday noda told colleagues he wants to leave the election fight behind and unite the party. he indicated his intention to give major posts to party members who supported other candidates in the leadership election. noda says he plans to select the party's sec. tear gen secretary-general first and hopes to announce his choice within a few days. we asked people on the streets of tokyo what we expect from

this is the kind of stuff that makes people feel that the democratic party is on their side.democratic leaders are going to lay down the tracks for their interests, and not only help democrats win, help them govern the country better. >> answer this question, back to you with the same question. kennedy was able to make that case for the democratic party back when the party was two times as strong as the republican party. the republican party was dormant in the '50s, died off. most of the people, half the people who are republicans have become independent by the end of the 50s. two to one registration. two to one competition today. do you think you can argue a strong democrat versus republican argument, alex, on the social safety net and win? >> yes. i mean, look, we're talking about veteran. we're talking about children who are sick. we're talking about the poor, the disenfranchised, people are color. this is a huge part of the american public. the idea you have to forfeit these values in the name of, what, deficit cutting? illogical. i feel like obama needs to channel that p

the precinct committees and therefore progressive's need to do the same thing only within the democratic party. well i must have been on to something because the very next day tea party central red state dot com published this article titled oh the progressives have figured out how the tea parties took over the g.o.p. and bet it in the article is my daily take and call the tea partiers to get even more involved in precinct politics now the progressives have caught on to this actually is critically important and i encourage everyone watching to find out how to be a precinct committee person and let's together move the democratic party to the left where it historically has been and should be now if fifteen months until the next election time to get to work finally our last comment comes from vicki via twitter she writes. behave as you know as discovered under my porch. early here's the deal it's really not pigeons they're actually cleverly painted as these pigeons are actually robots of the planet xenu they're here to spy on us what do you see when you ever see whenever you see meetings of power

robert reich, i want to ask you about the democratic party. i'm not talking about roots people, but regular people who vote for democrats. where do they feel in terms of their emotion about the president right now? >> chris, my work is average working-class democrats, middle class democrats, the lunch bucket democrats, the democrat party used to worry about and used to represent, those people feel like they've been abandoned. they do not hear the president talking about jobs, about wages, coming up with a jobs plan to get them back to work. they hear about all of this debt stuff, which may by important certainly, but the crisis is not a debt crisis right now. it's a jobs and wages and growth crisis. i think the president has got to speak to they people and come up with a real jobs plan. >> when they're sitting around talking a breakfast, perhaps at the local dinee, or late at night when they get together with the guys, what do they want to hear this president do to regain the stature he had coming into the offices? >> to do, not talk about. >>

the president and democratic party have heavy lifting to do. today therk found out this load is heavier. this has been the president's summer of discontent. progressives unhappy and unions worried about support for free trade agreements. today, president of the afl-cio announced you're going to see us give less money to build structures for others. in other words less money and support for political structure of the democratic party. >> i look and i see these puppets, talking heads. i'm going to do this for you and that for you ac transit bus driver milton smith agree was his union president, the democratic party, he says has not delivered. >> forget the rhetoric and talking. okay? let's drop the talking and do something now. >> unions are getting weaker. >> sandra lee says politicians will not stand up for unions if they believe it will cost votes. >> i don't think anyone is feeling such of a job these days. >> in a gathering we asked about the announcement. >> well, i, too, have reservations about the columbian and the agreements. >> both ple

the epiphany they had, the democrats, their party -- their party that they thought stood for civil rights -- were the political party that was most in the way and what frustrated them was they consider education reform to be the civil rights issue of this era. and they just really couldn't believe that it's their party that is blocking their idea of the reforms that are necessary. so they describe it repeatedly, and it comes up in the book often, as sort of the nixon to china gamut in which, you know, in in democrats are going to reform the democratic party. and they've -- as you would agree, they've made lots of progress. what you wouldn't agree on is the value of their progress, and you'd be concerned about the sources of their funding. i'm concerned about everybody's sources of funding. >> host: you mentioned in the book the democrats for education reform spend $13 million to influence state and local rate -- races. >> guest: which is what the teachers union in new york spend, what anybody spends. they are the largest single contributor to political campaigns of any interest group on t

the dpg held talks with the liberal democratic party and the new komeito party. the dbg accepted proposals from the two opposition parties. and introducing measures to curtail the burden on large scale users. the chiefs of the three parties agreed to revise the bill and have it enacted as quickly as possible. the pass of the bill is one sited by naoto kan for his resignation. >>> thursday marked exactly five months since the march 11th earthquake and tsunami. memorial ceremonies were held across the quake-hit region to commemorate the victims. at a retirement home in higashi city, 50 residents and 11 staffers were killed. despite the fact the facility is scheduled to be demolished, surviving staffers continue to remove mud and debris. [ bell rings [ ] >> at 2:46 p.m., the staff stopped working and held a moment of silence at an alter. >> translator: i think five months have passed so quickly. the disasters were a nightmare. the situation is so sad. and this quiet punctuates it. >> in miyako city, about 2,400 lanterns were lit to pray for the victims. in the distr

democrats will have voted against it. looks like 91-88. 91-90. that's close. interesting party divide. >> and the democrats -- howard mentioned progressives are uneasy with this, of course they are. they didn't get nearly the level of -- they didn't get any increased revenue, euphemism for tax increases. but some cuts are potentially in areas that are near and dear to the hearts of folks in the democratic base and they're going to have a lot of explaining to do. this is not the type of thing that's going to motivate high base turnout on either side. this is something that really the electoral gains and sort of -- wash out. >> looking at a human interest story. the fact that gabrielle giffords of arizona, has a blue shirt on in the screen in the back of the picture, she's surrounded by supportive members of congress. she's wearing glasses, she's right there voting on this measure. so excited she came back to make it. there it is, the final count. all times expired. republican, 174 for it, democratic, 93. 267, 51 more votes than necessary. howard, comfortable victory for the comp

are going to reform the democratic party, and as you probably agree they have lots of progress. when you would not agree on is the value of that progress and you would be concerned as i am about the sources they are defending. >> host: you did mention that the democrats for education reform spent $17 million in a three-year period for state and local races. >> guest: which is about what the teachers union spends in new york across the country and they have dwarfed with the democrats for education reform spends and anybody spends. they are the largest single contributor in the political campaign of any interest group on the planet and putting the largest corporations, the largest unions, the largest trade organizations, so they are on their way almost to matching the teachers' unions but not close. >> host: the teachers unions represent people who work in schools where as the democrats for reform money comes primarily from wall street. >> host: >> guest: they would say they are citizens. a lot of money comes from contributions and a lot comes from people who work on wall street,

it would not be the first time that the democratic party wasn't the hand maiden or hollywood was nothe hand maiden of the democratic party. >> the remains of the troops who died in afghanistan were brought back to dover air force base. the white house preventing the press from attending and managed to rethe photo. is there a controversy. >> there was a little one and it seems like, between that picture and the new yorker story and capturing bin laden and the white house is giving

. >>> lawmakers of japan's governing democratic party have approved their leadership lineup under new prime minister yoshihiko noda. noda first spoke at a meeting of democratic lawmakers on wednesday. >> translator: what our party needs is the leadership in which all dpj members can exert their full potential. if i were to liken it to soccer, what we need is a bunch of midfielders who can pass strategically. >> participants then endorsed the appointments of the party leadership. in a bid to unite the party, noda gave major party posts to members who supported other candidates in monday's leadership election. upper house leader azumah koshiishi will be the party's secretary general and former farm minister seiji maehara, chairman of the policy research committee. hirofumi hirano will be the diet affairs chief. and deputy secretary general. the party's new secretary general koshiishi vowed to do his best to unite the party. >> translator: we only have one thing to do, unite the party. i will do my best and i will work together with my fellow democratic party members in both the upper an

the dpg held talks with the liberal democratic party and the new komeito party. the dbg accepted proposals from the two opposition parties. and introducing measures to curtail the burden on large scale users. the chiefs of the three parties agreed to revise the bill and have it enacted as quickly as possible. the pass of the bill is one sited by naoto kan for his resignation. >>> thursday marked exactly five months since the march 11th earthquake and tsunami. memorial ceremonies were held across the quake-hit region to commemorate the victims. at a retirement home in higashi city, 50 residents and 11 staffers were killed. despite the fact the facility is scheduled to be demolished, surviving staffers continue to remove mud and debris. [ bell rings [ ] >> at 2:46 p.m., the staff stopped working and held a moment of silence at an alter. >> translator: i think five months have passed so quickly. the disasters were a nightmare. the situation is so sad. and this quiet punctuates it. >> in miyako city, about 2,400 lanterns were lit to pray for the victims. in the distr

the democratic party in general does not want to cut government assistance programs to the poor or even to illegal aliens. the basic philosophy of president obama's party is to redistribute income as we said to those who do not have very much regardless of their status. a fair system would hold those receiving government assistance accountable. that is if they turn things around in their lives, they would have to pay back a portion of what they receive. and they would actively have to look for work. if they don't, the benefits cease. president clinton signed the welfare reform act in 1996 and that slowed the entitlement industry down a bit but over the past few years it has picked up steam again. the feds must, must impose discipline here and in every other federal spending situation. and that's the memo. now, let's bring in fox business anchor lou dobbs you see him on fbn at 7:00 each evening. let's start with the children. because this is the crux of the whole debate. irresponsible parents can't cut it, right? okay? variety of reasons. ill-educated, screwed up mentally, substance abus

are going to reform the democratic party. and as you would probably agree, they've made lots of progress. what you wouldn't agree on is the value of that progress. and you would be concerned as i am about the sources of their funding. as you know, i'm concerned but everybody source of funding. >> host: you did mention in the book democrats for education reform spent $70 million on a three year period on state and local races. >> guest: which is about what the teachers union spend in new york. the teachers unions across the country have the worst democrats for education reform spent, what anybody's been. are the largest single contributor to local campaigns of any interest group on the planet including the largest corporations, largest union, largest trade organizations, so they are on the way almost imagine the teachers unions but really not close. >> host: the difference is the teachers unions represent people who work in schools where is democrats for education reform is composed, their money comes primarily from wall stree

by the same token, i never quite understand, except i understood the finances of the democratic party why so-called education reform was always seen as a conservative issue versus a liberal issue since the people who benefit the most, at least by their definition, by the reformers definition, the people who would benefit the most from their definition of education reform are the poor and the middle class, the people using our public schools. now i think when you look across the spectrum of people who are behind this movement, it is pretty hard to argue that barack obama or cory booker for the mayor of los angeles are you know, conservatives or some kind of strange strain of members of the democratic party. i think the democratic party has started to shift and they think that is what really has changed the unions view. the union i think randi weingarten in particular, i think understands that she had to shift because her base, her political base, was in the process of shifting. i don't think it is a liberal or conservative issue. asserts no democratic or republican issue and it certain

posts and he'll likely use these appointments as an opportunity to ease friction within the democratic party. noda has already given promotion to a member of the camp that didn't support his leadership. the most important post in the party is secretary general. >> noda has many challenges ahead. two of the biggest i would think are man the ongoing nuclear crisis and drawing up a new energy policy. what can we expect when it comes to these two tasks? >> well, noda is opposed to the idea of reducing japan's dependence on nuclear power but he says the plants that have passed so-called stress tests should be restarted in order to fulfill japan's electricity demand. he also insists this country should start increasing the amount of energy it gets from renewable sources. but he doesn't have any concrete plan for how to supply enough power without relying on atomic energy. >> a very tricky situation when it comes to nuclear power. for the last couple years we've seen japan go through this, what we might call a revolving door prime ministership. six leaders over the past five years. so how long can

that wants us to pull back from the world. >> sean: i would say the majority of the democratic party.crats -- >> the old democratic party think that joined, which was the party of president kennedy, which was ask not -- bearing any burden, pay any price for the survival of liberty in the world. and that's still what america, i think, is all about. >> sean: you're not sure if you will vote for obama you said it today. >> i did. somebody asked what are you gonna do in next year's election? i said i'm an independent now and i'm going to approach from it the perspective of an independent. and i'm going to wait and see. i got a little less than a year before i have to decide how to vote. i want to see who the republicans nominate this is a really important election, i don't have to tell you. some of it about foreign policy who is going to keep us strong in the wore. some of course about who is going to show the -- leadership to get our government back in balance and the economy going again. >> sean: without trying get new trouble. tell me where president obama has been successful. you vote