donilon has a long history in politics which included working during the 1988 presidential campaign.ntional wisdom. >> reporter: with iran and national security threats looming a florida congressman says his lack of experience with the military makes him unqualified to serve. >> the american people should realize that tom donilon is the worst choice to be national security advisor and he should decline the appointment. >> reporter: the former regan chief of staff who worked closely with donilon on a project at the brookings institution disagrees with the criticism. >> for every foreign policy decision there is a domestic overlay. for every domestic decision there are usually foreign policy consequences and i think tom understands very much that vital intersection. >> reporter: donilon served in the clinton administration under secretary of state warren christopher. he has worked for mr. obama since the campaign and one critic says he might be too much of an insider. >> there is a problem and the problem is that tom donilon thinks a lot like the president. one of the things you have t

almost immediately. 3:55 a.m., president obama is awakened by the national security adviser, tom donilon. 4:33 a.m., they issue a statement saying united states strongly condemns the attack and calls on north korea to halt its belligerent action. 9:15, the director of national intelligence, kames clapper, briefed the president. the u.s. decides not to respond or escalate. urging south korea to show restraint. in seoul, south korea's president meets with his generals and threatens an enormous retaliation if the north attacks again. in fact, this is the second attack from the north in eight months. in march, pyongyang sank a south korean ship killing 46 sailors. is all this a show of strength? as north korea's ailing leader kim jong-il prepares to turn over power to his youngest son, kim jong-un. >> the younger kim is being encouraged to show that he can be strong. that he's a tough guy. and so, this is probably not the last such provocation we're going to see. and these are really acts of war. >> special u.s. envoy stephen bosworth, already in beijing, urged china to stop its aggression.

and new national security adviser, tom donilon says disagreements were minimal. >>> is the president on a losing streak here? we're joined by james carville, in his hometown of new orleans. james, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> good morning. so, after the shellacking of the midterms, i know that's becoming an overused term. after the shellacking in the midterms and let's say this tricky trip overseas, do you think the president is on a losing streak? and if so, how serious is it? >> well, losing streak is -- i wouldn't use that word. but i would say he's in a rough patch. kind of a slippery slope. and that happens to presidents all the time. i don't think any president goes through a time in an administration where they don't have several of these. and it's going to be interesting to see how he reacts, what he does between now and the first of the year. >> so, if you were advising him, what would you tell him to do to get out of this rut? >> well, you know, first of all, time passing is one thing that works in your favor. some economic news is a little better now. he's goin

tom donilon, who will be barrack obama's new chief of staff, was once a high-ranking fannie mae executive. >> you mentioned richard baker. didn't he leave the congress to head up a trade association in the financial world? >> that he did. that he did, so the revolving door is nothing unique to fannie. >> you write up -- you have a chapter where you talk about robert rubin and i believe larry summers. >> yes. >> there were three of them, total, involved in it. again, the whole business of people coming in the government, going back to the financial industry, coming back into the government. >> yes. >> how much of that did you find? >> there is -- there is awful lot of that. there is an awful lot of that and i think you can look at that through two prisms and you can look at it through one prism in which you say how great. people make their money in the financial world and they come to the political world to share their wisdom and their insights into the real world with the rest of us. how wonderful that these people, after making fortunes, are willing to give that up and devote time to pub

in the morning here by his security individualsor, tom donilon. it's being taken very seriously. a senior defense official says nobody wants the situation to escalate but they're keeping a very close eye on the situation, the white house calling for a halt to the belligerence by the north koreans, all of this comes a few days after the north north koreans revealed it has a second track to producing nuclear weapons, bill. bill: we have thousands of u.s. forces stationed in south korea, it's been that way for 50 some odd years. any u.s. troops involved in this, jennifer? >> no. of course, there are 30,000 u.s. troops on the ground in korea, it's been that way, i should mention, since the 1953 armistice. technically north korea and south korea have been at war since then. no u.s. troops were involved in this incident, they weren't involved in the exercise. if it were taking on yu -- on yoengang island, the north koreans knew about this but this island community was stunned when the artillery shells came across and we understand that residents are fleeing that island as we speak. bil

tom donilon, the national security adviser called the president, woke him up to dive him the latest on the korean peninsula situation. president obama will hear more about this during the presidential daily briefly at 9:15 this morning. this is a serious situation, as martha said. especially coming off reports this weekend, as you mentioned before on this show, of a new, possible uranium enrichment facility in north korea, which would be a violation of an agreements. north korea has made before. right now, president obama is expected to call south korean president lee and talk to him. in addition, steven bosworth, the special representative to the korean peninsula, is already out there in beijing, china, talking to world leaders about the uranium enrichment facility. this has been added to the agenda. they're going to see just what over world leaders want to do about this. in the statement the white house put out, they used the word "attack." they say that north korea attacked south korea. that's an unequivocal declaration of support for south korea, george. >> a sign of just how serio

>> well, she's at the white house now, i believe, meeting with national security adviser donilon and secretary gates. that's a regular meeting, but obviously, north korea is going to be something they're going to discuss there. and i believe she will be making some counterpart or calls to some of her counterparts in the region. once we get a fuller readout of that, i'll let you know. >> the usual suspects? >> don't want to say yet. again, once i get a better readout, i'll convey. the usual suspects, but i don't want to -- >> china, south korea, japan? >> once we get a firm list, we'll let you know. >> are you suggesting she might call someone other than that, like i don't know the botswanan foreign minister to talk about north korea? >> matt, i trust that you'll use your keen foreign affairs intellect to discern who she might call. >> but she hasn't made any calls yet? >> not yet. sure, christophe. >> most [inaudible] think that china is the only country to have some sort of leverage on north korea. so my question is: do you think china is doing enough? do you ask them to do more to

donilon want, reporter with usa today and the immediate past president of the national press club. billy shore, founder and executive director of share our strength and a guest of the speaker. andrew schneider, associate chair for killing her. skipping over our speaker for the moment, we have melissa sharpen know, a producer with news took media. clark bunting, president of the discovery channel. governor martin o'malley of maryland, a guest of the speaker. [applause] you can tell there were some elections last week. duckham. finally, paul mccullough, executive producer with -- thank you. [applause] our audience may recognize today's guest as he is essentially no -- as he is a set -- as he is it affectionately known -- they call him the dude. he was in the 1998 cult film "the big lebowski." he was named oscar winner this year. at the academy awards -- [applause] bridges received the best actor award for his portrayal of alcoholic country singer blake in the film "crazy heart." his latest role is national spokesman for share our cement dust share our strength, no kid hungry -- share

donilon want, reporter with usa today and the immediate past president of the national press club. billy shore, founder and executive director of share our strength and a guest of the speaker. andrew schneider, associate chair for killing her. skipping over our speaker for the moment, we have melissa sharpen know, a producer with news took media. clark bunting, president of the discovery channel. governor martin o'malley of maryland, a guest of the speaker. [applause] you can tell there were some elections last week. justin duckham. finally, paul mccullough, executive producer with -- thank you. [applause] our audience may recognize today's guest as he is essentially no -- as he is a set -- as he is it affectionately known -- they call him the dude. he was in the 1998 cult film "the big lebowski." he was named oscar winner this year. at the academy awards -- [applause] bridges received the best actor award for his portrayal of alcoholic country singer blake in the film "crazy heart." his latest role is national spokesman for share our cement dust share our strength, no kid hungry -