thank you, doug brinkley, and sam. return, let me finish with the final choice of the choice facing president obama. i still think it's a big one. my coat? solid gold. my insides? pure platinum. [ female announcer ] a healthy outside starts inside. new iams simple & natural has chicken as its number one ingredient and zero fillers. it works inside for health you can see on the outside. [ dog ] i can't be a rockstar on the outside if i'm not one on the inside. [ female announcer ] new iams naturals. you'll like what's in them and love what's not. [ dog ] i am an iams dog. [ girls ] he's so cute! [ dog ] groupies! >>> so let me finish tonight with a question that has to be answered down there at the white house. and out there at the chicago headquarters of the obama administration. should president obama run for re-election as a passionate progressive? daring to be called radical by his enemies? should he shoot the moon like fdr did back in '36? or should he today closer to the middle, stake out common ground with indepe

thank you, doug brinkley, and sam.ur debate. >>> when we return, let me finish with the final choice of the choice facing president obama. i still think it's a big one. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. your core competency is...competency. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm getting an upgrade. [ male announcer ] as you wish, business pro. as you wish. go national. go like a pro. now through january earn a free day with every two rentals. find out more at nationalcar.com. nurse...! [ female announcer ] dawn power clean can give you the power of an overnight soak in just 5 minutes. [ sponge ] it's a scientific miracle! [ female announcer ] dawn does more. [ sponge ] so it's not a chore. >>> so let me finish tonight with a question that has to be answered down there at the white house. and out there at the chicago headquarters of the obama administration. should president

joining me is historian doug brinkley. you and i love this country and we write about it and think about it. and the thing we think about is you don't have to go to oxford or cambridge in this country. the establishment's nothing like it is in other countries. you could be a steven spielberg, you can be a bill gates. you can get out there and if you believe in yourself and you've got a heart for something you can do something historic. >> yeah, we used to call it, chris, up from the tinkerer's bench in the 19th century. that you can invent anything. we were a nation of mechanics. people that had an idea and would take it all the way to the top. it wasn't necessarily horatio alger stories but just people that believed in products. henry ford being the great example of the model t. he had failure after failure, but he knew that cars weren't just for rich people, they were going to be for everyday people. and it's the same with steve jobs. he didn't think that computers were just for the defense department or for a huge corpo

doug brinkley, you know your stuff. >> thanks. >>> when we return, let me finish with why doing so is bad for their own business. this is pure par san ship, you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. [ sighs ] can't wait 'til morning. wait, it's morning in china... [ male announcer ] it's sweet. it's nutty. it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's® crunchy nut™. it's morning somewhere™. you can't change the way banking works. just accept it, man. free ? doesn't close at five ? try nature. it's a bank. what do you want, a hug ? just accept it. hidden fees, fine print, or they'll stick it to you some other way. stay with the herd, son. accept it. just accept it. accept it. just accept it. accept it. if we miss this movie, you're dead. if you're stuck accepting banking nonsense, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. ♪ ♪ co-signed her credit card -- "buy books, not beer!" ♪ but the second that she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for her whole dorm

after that we will do an interview with well-known historian doug brinkley about his latest book, on the alaska wilderness. in about an hour or so a panel on mexican drug cartels with ioan grillo whose book is "el narco: inside mexico's criminal insurgency," and sylvia longmire, "cartel: the coming invasion of mexico's drug wars." and we want to get your reaction to the panel during an open phone segment. then there's a panel on the arts of nonfiction. three authors will be on that panel. then we will talk with david sobel. in about four hours and off a panel on the air of spring. three well-known authors will be on that panel. again, you have a chance to weigh in. we want to get your reaction to that panel as well. in the last panel of the day, at about five hours from now, adam winkler has written a book called gunfight, the battle over the right over the right to bear arms in america. so that's our line up today from the texas book festival in austin. as you can see, they c-span bus is here as well. we are handing out bookbags with our partner

then we step into history with doug brinkley of rice university against sam tanahouse of the "new york times." what does history tell us about what race president obama would be smart to run? the great democratic debate tonight one hour from now here on msnbc. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. now it's time for politics nation with the reverend al sharpton. >> chris, great show. i really like your sermonette. let me finish. let me get started so i can also watch at 7:00 when you come back live. >> great. >>> tonight on this show, hey, republicans, do you have a texas sized problem? >> i'm a governor. i don't have the pleasure of standing on the stage and criticizing. i have to deal with these issues. >> day two of silence from rick perry on the racial slur and his texas hunting lodge. his campaign says, it's been painted over. but you can't keep this one covered up for long, governor perry. tonight rick perry hits rock bottom. it's the new ugly in the republican party. >> we have the deepest bench in the republican party now. >> some bench, senator. chris christie, s

then we step into history with doug brinkley of rice university against sam tanahouse of the "new yorkt obama would be smart to run? the great democratic debate tonight one hour from now here on msnbc. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. now it's time for politics nation with the reverend al

doug brinkley, you've written about t.r., you've written about james forestall, you've written about katrina, jimmy carter, why alaska? >> i'm, right now i'm writing the whole history of the u.s. conservation movement, and my first volume was called the wilderness warrior. this is the second installment, and can it's the whole campaign. it begins in 1879 with john mover, co-founder of the sierra club, going up and seeing those incredible glaciers up the inside passage of alaska and writing about it and how a whole group of what i call, really, wilderness lawyers have worked to safe wild alaska including theodore roosevelt and people like walt disney, william o. douglas, on and on. so i'm now working on "silent spring revolution." in the 1960s. this is not just a history book. i end it in 1960 when eisenhower saved the arctic refuge, anwr that you hear about in the news all the time. >> well, this really is a story about personalities, and let's talk about some of them. let's begin with president teddy roosevelt. his involvement in alaska. >> well, t.r. saved the whole grid of modern

and we've got this big debate among journalists, historians, doug brinkley goes left. like a baseball player. i don't know baseball that well, but i think the batter has to set up for a curve or fast ball. you can't decide after the pitch is thrown whether you're going to swing a certain way. i think obama has to begin to decide now, is he going to go left or where he was when he got elected? somewhere in the middle like clinton? and it's a big decision for the democrats. >> chris matthews, we look forward to that. thank you very much. >> thanks, mika. >> thank you, chris. >>> and the special edition "the great democratic debate" is live at 7:00 eastern time right here on msnbc. we'll be right back with arianna huffington and rita wilson. keep it here on "morning joe." an airline has planes and people. and the planes can seem the same. so, it comes down to the people. because: bad weather, the price of oil those are every airline's reality. and solutions will not come from 500 tons of metal and a paintjob. they'll come from people. delta people. who made us the biggest