"washington post" columnist e.j. dionne.t journal" columnist peggy noonan. >>> we're back, and the conversation's already started. our roundtable is with me now. "washington post" columnist e.j. dionne. "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan. mike murphy. and democratic congressman from california and deficit cutting super committee member, xavier becerra, whose district include s chavez ravine which is where dodger stadium is. more on that later. welcome to all of you. i want to start with republicans, the republican field and republican politics. chris christie, is he in or is he out? he is being covered by everyone, including your source for news and information, weekend update on "saturday night live." here it is. >> after claiming for months that he did not want to run for president, insiders are now saying that new jersey governor chris christie is reconsidering that decision. promising to do one thing, then doing the opposite? sounds pretty presidential to me. >> mike murphy, christie is on record saying, short

and "washington post" columnist e.j. dionne. >>> good morning, it's been a full weekend of political positioning. last night, president obama, in a speech to the human rights campaign, rallied his base and pushed again for a jobs bill. >> i'm counting on you to have my back. go out there. >> and fresh off another national security victory, the killing of a u.s.-born cleric anwar al awlaki, the president challenged after a gay soldier was heckled at a gop debate. >> -- it's okay for a stage full of political leaders, one of whom could end up being the president of the united states, being silenced when an american soldier is booed. >> meantime, republican candidates texas governor rick perry campaigned at five events in new hampshire this weekend, and trying to deflect criticism over his more moderate immigration stance, suggested that u.s. troops might actually be sent to mexico to help fight the drug war there. and the political left mobilized against wall street over the weekend, more than 700 protesters from the occupied wal

and i think that's where they are now. >> "washington post" columnist e.j. dionne, thank you very much for joining us tonight, e.j. it's always great to see you. >> good to see you. >>> whether or not you know it, you have been buying an awesome new vehicle for quite some time. it now hitting the road. it is hitting the road without a driver. it responds to your voice commands or it can just drive on its own without even remote control. we'll have more ahead from the intersection of cool, brand new and unnerving with the one u.s. member of congress who is a rocket scientist for real. we're when my asthma symptoms returned, my doctor prescribed dulera to help prevent them. [ male announcer ] dulera is for patients 12 and older whose asthma is not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. dulera will not replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. dulera helps significantly improve lung function. this was shown over a 6 month clinical study. dulera contains formoterol, which increases the risk of death from asthma probl

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and i think that's where they are now. >> "washington post" columnist e.j. dionne, thank you very much for joining us tonight, e.j. it's always great to see you. >> good to see you. >>> whether or not you know it, you have been buying an awesome new vehicle for quite some time. it now hitting the road. it is hitting the road without a driver. it responds to your voice commands or it can just drive on its own without even remote control. we'll have more ahead from the intersection of cool, brand new and unnerving with the one u.s. member of congress who is a rocket scientist for real. we're america's natural gas and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smart

and we're joined right now by e.j. dionneolumnist with "the washington post" and an msnbc contributor. e.j., just got a couple minutes now. tell the country right now what you said in your column today. >> well, i think that what you've got right now is a republican party that is so committed to the idea that government shouldn't do anything, shouldn't intervene in the economy that their solution is, the way you solve a big problem is for government to do nothing about it. and i quoted to old barney frank line, where he talked about reverse houdinis, who are people who tie themselves all up in knots and say, i'm sorry, i can't do anything, because i'm all tied up in knots. and i think the country actually wants action, your own poll says it, to get the economy moving. they know the government's got to invest, because private investors aren't investing right now, but you can't get anything through. you saw that in the republican debate and you saw that in the senate. >> let's take a look at these polls. nbc/"wall street journa

. >> i want to bring in our company, "washington post" e.j. dionne and washington bureau chief, susan page. susan, if you are not rich if you don't have a job it is your fault. what do you make of that? >> well, i think no politician should start an answer by saying i don't really know what i'm talking about. i don't think that's a very strong lead-in. in this economy and unemployment rate and people that played by the rules and found themselves laid off and gone to school and got degrees, can't get jobs, i think this message that -- herman cain's message seems out of sync with the experience of people who want to believe in the american dream and are willing to work hard but are finding it very tough these day. >> e.j., part of the appeal does seem to be that he says what he thinks and is plain spoken. is in a big misstep? >> it is outrageous is what it is. i mean, here had you a bunch of wall street guys who invented these completely irresponsible financial instruments, blew up the economy, and then a lot of people who as susan said were working ve

columnist e.j. dionne says the dominance of the right in the political debate has been bad for president obama and bad for political moderates too. and a lot of people cheered when a u.s. drone took out anwar al awlaki, the american citizen who had joined al qaeda. but ron paul is one person asking if it's right to assassinate an america and deny him the right to a trial. we'll get to that tricky one. and let me finish tonight with this question, should president obama campaign from the left, as his base would like, or should he aim for the center? that's also going to be the subject of a very special live edition of "hardball" coming up two hours from now, 7:00 eastern, the great democratic debate. i'll be joined by eight guests, from both the left and from the center, who will debate the best way for the president to run and win a second four-year term. it's going to be quite exciting and i hope you'll join us at 7:00 eastern tonight. again, 7:00 eastern tonight, for the great democratic debate. we start

it's why e.j. dionne wrote this morning, it's why most of the people who support it have flatlined politically, ultimately. when you look at your own tax code, as most middle class or working class americans are going to do, you kind of realize that you get run over by a flat tax. but mitt romney has a problem. the conservative base of the republican party, the energy among the nominating electorate right now is behind this idea. it sounds great. throw out the tax code, start from scratch. it's horrible public policy. mitt romney knows he's going to have to face real voters, moderate voters, independent voters in the fall, and so he's come just shy of saying, yes, i endorse a flat tax. he likes the idea of it. but at the end of the day, i think that's why he's kind of keeping his cards a little close to his vest on whether or not he'd support it. >> you know, john, you and i have similar backgrounds and values, i think, generally speaking. but let's get to the heart of the reality of this thing, and maybe