joining me melissa harry's perry and e.j. dionne.oth for your time. >> thank you. >> good to be with you, reverend. >> melissa, this is a big debate there is no question the attacks in syria are awful. but what is your take on going to work? >> look so, this president we know is a student of history. and so he has two examples in recent history. he has president clinton who did not intervene in rwanda in the context of genocide. and of course he has samantha power and susan rice there from that administration. so undoubtedly, he is weighing that. he is also of course got the most immediate president who took us into the war in iraq on faulty -- >> right. >> at best, faulty intelligence, and embroiled us in a decade-long war. and then he is also a student of a longer history. we heard there from secretary kerry when he said this is about the credibility of the united states, about our strength sort of in general as we do the work of the world. so even beyond this immediate point. and so he knows from world war ii and from world war i

joining me now is joy reid, managing editor of thegrio.com, and e.j. dionne from "the washington post." thank you both for joining me. >> thanks. >> good to be with you, rev. >> e.j., has the rodeo clown become a symbol for everything that is wrong with the gop right now? >> oh, i don't know. i think there is a sort of clown car aspect to all of this. i mean, it's really striking that people who are talking about the problems the party confronts aren't just liberals or democrats. there is the piece today in politico under the great headline "eve of destruction" about how worried republicans are about the signal they're going to send if they shut down the government or let us default on debt. republicans are very worried. and in this business about debates, i mean, i don't particularly care where republicans debate, and i don't think democrats would actually pay rush limbaugh's airfare if he were chosen as one of the debate moderator. but no debate moderator forced mitt romney to talk about self-deportation or forced rick perry to forget about an agency of gov

joining me now on our panel is "washington post" e.j. dionnejoy reid. e.j., it seems to me that we have conflicting feelings when it comes to moral obligations. how is this one more important than the other unwithes that i mentioned? >> first of all, ed, it's great to have you back on weekdays. a lot of people are cheering. secondly, i'm glad you went after that word surgical because no matter how you feel about syria, i just don't like the word surgical applied to war. it seems war is the opposite of surgical. i think the president has a problem here. i think on the one hand, when he talked about nation building begins at home, it was one of the most popular things he said. richard haass of the council on foreign relations who is no liberal wrote a book called foreign policy begins at home. i think we agree that's where our priorities should be. but i think the president kind of boxed himself in because he did draw a clear red line and said that if they use chemical weapons, we got to act. and i do think that democratic countries have to look