here is doug schoen. all right, doug, that's my read.'t get-- he doesn't want flexibility. >> right, he wants to put maximum pressure on the republicans, in part, maximum blame on them for the supposed impact of the sequester all to negotiate better terms for either a short-term or longer term budget. stuart: well, now he had a dinner last night, i guess 12 leading republicans. he's got lunch today with paul ryan. what do you laboring ma-- make of this. >> ron johnson senator from wisconsin said i'll work with anyone who wants to work with me. i think we have to give the president of the benefit of the doubt. that being said, he hasn't backed off on tax increases. he hasn't stepped up on entitlement reform, and with paul rin, i wonder if he's not using paul ryan as sort of a foil, a straw man to say he's going to push back against some of ryan's more extreme proposals to privatize medicare. >> see, what i'm looking for is a signal that the president is prepared to change his -- raise taxes, keep spending, ignore the debt, basic economic

angela mcglowan, james toronto and doug schoen. our first guest is here to evaluate obama's middle east tour. today's focus on the enormous price on jordan as a result of the syrian civil war. joining me now is judith miller and quivered lifford may. it is a very big positive impression with this to her, if not a concrete result. >> it was an extraordinary tour. the israelis called it a thermo nuclear charm offensive. talk about a restart in a relationship that was crying out. basically the president figured out do you attract more bees with honey in a country like israel who did everything he had to do to put a relationship on cose. lou: wasn't he inconsistent to be talking about peace in the middle east? at the same time that he was threatening bashar al-assad and a wrong? >> yes, but they are both provocative. they are both belligerent. they are destabilizing forces and have been for years. he understands that the israelis are reliable allies, valuable allies in many ways. they are in a difficult neighborhood. th israelis, two y

we have john leboutillier, pat caddell and doug schoen. ain that the president and democrats, i suppose, ate the g.o.p.'s lunch here and i have to admit, some of the poll numbers back you up. >> if you look at the range of issues we are facing, on issue after issue, the democrats have an overarching lead. >>gregg: democrats beat g.o.p. on these issues. >> look at middle class, health care, medicare, immigration, taxes, guns, across the board, and it is fair to say that the republican party has no narrative on the deficit. they have no real narrative on reducing spending. they are missing in action. >> here is what is not in the numbers. you are right and i agree, this is a republican problem. the president's rating, he is not reagan or nixon or clinton in the second term he is at 50:45 in the "wall street journal" poll and on the economy he is upside down 51 percent saying they disagree. what is not being done, the republicans think what is missing, some of the issues the people could care less. they care about the economy, what is happenin

republican congressman from new york, pat caddell, former pollster for president jimmy carter, and doug schoend the president find himself in a political pickle? >> absolutely when the approval drops, and pat and i were in the white house when this has happened to the presidents we worked for, bill clinton and jimmy carter, when that happens, it is very, very difficult to turn around a ship that is going in the wrong direction. with the numbers up on the screen showing the approval at 45 percent, the president knows the sequestration is increasingly working against him. to have inflicted pain on the american people directly, ending the white house tours, threatening the republicans and the people of the united states, it has backfired. now he is reaching out to the republicans in a last-ditch effort to try to turn around a situation that has gone wrong. >>gregg: he seems desperate. is this that he wants to deal? or a charade. >> this is a president doing one thing when you look, and when you do not look he does another, running off and raising money. character is what you do when people are no

from new york, pat caddell is a fox news contributor and form pollster with president jarred and doug schoenter for former president clinton. glad to see you, gentleman. doug, each month since the second inauguration, he has seen the president's numbers go down. >> first, political gridlock is starting to way on the president's numbers. the sequester which he thought would be a political benefit has hurt and there is a larger sure, our economy still is not providing the robust growth and economic revital savings and job creation we need and despite a good trip to the middle east and reaffirming our ties to israel the president is sinking. the numbers, actually, on the economy which were 15 or 18 points ahead of the republicans are now dead even. >> my theory is that he is hurt about the sequester. he went out, look, i have been saying regularly, and john reminds in to say it, i don't ever remember a president going out of his way to try to hurt people whether it is the white house tours he won't have, and the democrats have a cheap chance to vote to restore the white house tours and they, 57

doug schoen joins me, former pollster for president clinton and rich louer, "national review." news contributors. doug, why do you think this has caught so much attention? >> because it is a symbol how the bureaucratic process, martha, in washington has impacted ordinary people. michelle obama a couple years said what we all believe, this is the people's house and the fundamental i think right, responsibility, of any government is to open up the white house as a living symbol of our democracy to people who come to washington. the fact that after the sequester the principal impact we all feel we can't go on white house tours strikes a raw nerve especially at a time when the white house staff hasn't cut back and when there has been no appreciable impact in the country of sequester. martha: we've done stories how many white house employees make six figures. >> the calligrapher. martha: the calligrapher makes the $6,000 a year. >> right. martha: rich, it is optics, whatever you want to call it and contrary journalees, it looks bad, right? >> right. i can't say it any better than do

doug schoen will go over that with us. a big new headline on benghazi, libya, right after the break. >> you know what, there comes a point you're left with no other choices. we have he got to get to the bottom of this. ♪ wireless is limitless. [ female announcer ] from finding the best way... ♪ to finding the best catch... ♪ wireless is limitless. ♪ living with moderate to semeans living with pain.is it could also mean living with joint damage. humira, adalimumab, can help treat more than just the pain. for many adults, humira is clinically proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. humira can lower your abilitto fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain funga

bring in our political insiders, john leboutillier, former republican congressman for new york and doug schoenat caddell is out sick and we hope he is well soon. all right. so, after four years, the president finally decides he is going to meet with the other side. >> that is right. we will get to that in a second but the poll numbers are starting to drop, the scare tactics on sequester appear not to have worked, if not backfired, and the american people are saying, we need to govern, not just the blame game. >>gregg: why does it take four years to do this? >> the first two years he had control of the house of representatives and senate so why bother. why bother. then the tea party took over the republican side of the house and the re-election of the president was on so now is the first real period of no campaigning, when we can actually do some governing, he tried for january and february to govern the old way by steam rolling the g.o.p. the g.o.p. has drop nothing, really, to commend themselves except sit on -- stand firm, we are going to cut spending and we are not raising taxes. >> it is w

>>gregg: now we have doug schoen and a former spokesman for governor jeb bush and publisher of www.safetyreview.com deal, we heard that from senators flake and schumer. the devil is not in the details but it is in the tea party and the republican right. they blocked it in 2006. the republican party is no less adamant in its base that they don't want to do immigration reform. they want to protect the borders first, and ultimately as their policy and i am not optimistic although it has come time where we need to do immigration refo as jeb bush has himself written in his new book. >>gregg: and his brother tried it back in the second term but it didn't work. >> no, he did try it. president bush did try it and it did fail. the issue that killed it was the issue of the guest worker program and under the new compromise reached between the afl-cio and the chamber of commerce, the leading business group in the country, they will have a best worker program and a new visa allowing 200,000 guest workers. there is cause for encouragement and some hope that there is going to be a comprehensive deal done, however

and doug schoen, fox news contributor. myra, that is the criticism.ave a lot of important plans for this trip and it's very significant since it's the president's first trip there, what say you? >> any time the economy is in the situation it is now it tends to evoke questions about why he would go overseas. this is much more about atmospherics over substance. surveys continue to show the american public is very supportive of israel and sympathetic. but it calls i b into question, what is he trying to accomplish with this trip. martha: that is the question. in an interview last october president obama was asked in the heat of the election season. why haven't you been to israel as president. he says when i go to israel i want to make sure we are actually moving something forward. >> if he can restart the peace process between the arabs and the israelis that would be moving something forward. there is the issue of iran which is on the table and he and prime minister benjamin netanyahu have yet to reach a clear consensus on where the red line is. and if t

martha: with that as a backdrop we bring in doug schoen a pollster to bill clinton and mary katherinecontributor. when you look at the big picture and look at fact that president obama has talked time and time again that all we need to do is everybody has to do their fair share. he says it all the time. my income is such if i get hit harder with taxes that is not going to hurt me. the question is being raised when you look at white house staffers, 20 of whom make the maximum mum allowable salary, it raises the question. if we can't go to the white house on a tour or cutback on the parks don't they need to do their fair share. >> i think there is a calligrapher that is getting close to a hundred thousand dollars. >> nice work if you can get it, right? right, i was going to say maybe until the sequester is done we ought to hand address the envelopes the old fashioned way. you're raising i think a fair point. look i'm a democrat. i don't think the sequester ace good idea. it could cause pain. seven rubio was right. but there is a larger point. everybody needs to tighten their belt and i'

we have doug schoen and mary kay ham. are you here to say we hold you so or not yet. >> not that.s new there would be consequences to sequestration. some of the defense and intelligence people are going to be furniture load, that was always part of the equation. the sequestration was designed to hurt the g.o.p. more by taking out more defense cuts than other thing. there was not another solution on the table and frankly taking 2% out of the budget -- bill: what is your evaluation about where we are. >> my evaluation is this has hurt the president. the democrats engaged in scare tactics. they said sequestration was going to hurt the american people. they talked about airports closing, white house tours ending, and bottom line it's business as usual. but it also raises the issue of how are we going to resolve the whole budgetary problems that we continue to face, the issue of the debt ceiling which we come up against in july, and bottom line we are no closer to a solution now than we were a year ago. bill: i think you raise an interesting point. let's debate that in a moment, mary k

doug schoen, pollster, and monica crowley, a fox news contributor.o be discussing this and talking how on the democratic side and the republican side, people are starting to vy, for attention, money, and so on, and rand paul, some thought that was all an ruse, a bit to get attention and name recognition. doug, you used to work with the clinton administration. >> she's a front runner, 50%, 50% or undecided or not supporting her. she's not unbeatable, but in a very strong and very powerful position and i think she'll clear the field, megyn, if in fact she decides to run. >> if she says she wants in, you don't think we'll have joe biden running, andrew cuomo running? >> i don't think we're going to have anyone running on the democratic side if and when hillary clinton says she's in the race. >> really? do you agree with that, no challenger. >> andrew cuomo and joe biden, ambitious people, they may get in the race doesn't mean this'll get the nomination. i agree with doug fshe gets in she gets it. she will have huge advantages. far out hard to tell, four

bill: doug schoen, former advisor to president clinton. monica crowley radio talk show host. contributors and welcome to both of you. tough, tough topic here. not yet confirmed. there are still fish shuns widespread, what to do if the red line is crossed publicly many times? it was not the first time. there was august of 2012. >> we've seen middle east dictators show no hesitation to use these chemical agents before. assad's own father used them. 40,000 syrians killed in hama. saddam hussein didn't hesitate to use chemical weapons against his own people and the iranian people. we know there is pattern in the middle east. the question is whether or not it actually happened here. when president obama talks about the red line being crossed, use of chemical agents if in fact that is proven would be the red line and i would believe provoke u.s. military intervention. bill: doug, what do you think?. >> i couldn't agree with monica more. let's be clear. this is the interest of the united states and our only stable democratic ally in the region, israel. israelis said, two ministers s

i'm joined by monica crowley and doug schoen, both are great contributfox news contributors. was sort of the g.o.p., perhaps, persuadable cloud, a littl. >> i think last night was a sincere a epl attempt to begin a conversation. today is different. ryan's budget is a tough one if not impossible one for democrats to deal with. with him floating a proposal of privatizing medicare for all, even seniors i think this allows the president to use him for a straw man to push back and say where he will never go for entitlement reform. martha: you think this is a set up. >> i hope doug is right, i wish he shared his optimism. i'm more cynical about the president's motives here. he set up paul ryan b. he invited paul ryan to sit front and center and proceeded to ream him and all of his policies. martha: you know what, since you brought that up. let's play a little bit from that speech that we have ready to go. >> it says instead of guaranteed healthcare you will get a voucher. if that sroeufrp isn't worth enougthat voucher isn't worth enough to buy the insurance available in the open ma