it is bankrupting this nation. >> he used to confuse me to hear him blame george w. bush, months and years after he got the job, but i understand it now.

economy shape, more blame george w. bush. >> the public doesn't blame bush, they're not interested in hearing that. >> even if they blame george w. bush more than barack obama, george w. bush won't be on the ballot in november. >> right. and it is a leadership question. they don't want a president that whiens about what a terrible situation he is in and woe i me. they want somebody that can lea ks woulde gone to the what both of them talked about today, economic the world changed. we know job growth is less robust than people predicted, we know the european crisis is effecting the united states. will either of these guys change their plans to adapt to today or are they just going to stay in their predictability. >> it is hard to no honestly. i think they're in their safe corners right now. you have to see where this is at the end of the summer, as you head into the convention speeches. some democrats suggested to me that the convention speech for president obama as well as for mitt romney is the place where you can start def

so september 11th, 2001, my sense here is when we elected george w bush or when george w bush was handed the american presidency by the supreme court of the united states, that that decision was made in part because we understood ourselves to be in a time of peace internationally, of domestic economic growth, and george w bush for whatever failings or successes he has, does seem like the kind of guy to keep the party going, right? if you're thinking you're coming out of the clinton era and things are good economically and we're at peace internationally, then it does not seem that odd to make the choice of electing a kinder, gentler conservative, right? you have to go back to 2000 to remember where we were in that moment. we did not know then that just a few months into the first year of george w. bush's

the official portrait unveiling ceremony was held for president george w. bush and former first lady laura bush. george bush said "we may have our differences politically, but the presidency transcends these differences." from the east room of the white house, this is 30 minutes. [applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states and mrs. obama accompanied by george w. bush and mrs. laura bush. ♪ [hail to the chief playing] [applause] >> good afternoon. i am chairman of the board of the white house historical association. the association is honored to be a part of today's historic ceremony and to have played a role in arranging for the magnificent portrait that is about to be unveiled. the association was founded 50 years ago with two specific missions, the first is to educate and inform the public about the history of the white house and the distinguished groups of americans who have the -- inhabited it. it is an exciting time for us. we marked our 50th anniversary. to the north of the white house we have just launched the new national cen

. >>> plus, george w. bush returns to the white house. >> when you are wandering these halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you will now be able to gaze at this portrait and ask, what would george do? >> president obama and bush 43 do a little schtick in the east room later in the show. >>> first to the news. here at 30 rock in new york city. the obama campaign's attack on mitt romney's business record ran into a road block. bill clinton. president clinton praised romney's background at the investment firm bain capital. >> i think it will affect some people who relate well to businessmen. and i think he had a good business career. the -- there's a lot of controversy about that, but if you go in and try to save a failing company and you and i have friends here who invest in companies, you can invest in a company, run up the debt, loot it, sell off the assets and force all the people to lose their retirement and fire them. or you can go into a company, have cutbacks, try to make it more productive with the

forward out of the eight disastrous years of president george w. bush.orward out of eight years of traded deficits, by the 1% of the 8% for the 1%, forward out of eight years, wages were actually shrinking. the end of the worst job and home losses our country had suffered since the 1930s. that was the reality of our situation. and you know what, my friends? the truth can darn well defend herself. but she needs to be stated. no president, no president, since franklin delano roosevelt inherited a worse economy, bigger job losses or as many wars or as large of a deficit as our president inherited from george w. bush and the bad choices he made on our behalf when he was our president for eight years. [ applause ] so let's start off with a little audience participation here. let us resolve these for the next seven months, we never, ever say the words -- recession, deficits or job losses without proceeding them with the proper pronoun -- bush. all right? so repeat after me. roman catholics and accustomed to not singing with others, dispend this. repeat after m

so while the george w. bush portrait veiling thing was going on and while the nation's news rooms were riveted to the prospect of this john edwards verdict that nobody understood, and what the david axelrod thing was being drowned out by romney campaign aides and staffers, i guess, who were sent there, while all that was going on, what the romney campaign was trying to get people to pay attention to was their big campaign stunt of the day. the romney campaign told reporters that they needed to get on a bus because they were going to be going somewhere with mitt romney. but the campaign would not say where they were going. when the bus finally arrived at its destination, it turns out they were at solyndra, the solar energy firmed that received a loan from the george w. bush era. the company went bust. republicans tried for more than a year to make the solyndra story into a scandal for president obama. but it didn't really work. even their top attack dog in the house on this subject from california, he eventually

george w. bush, 40. clinton, 21. w, 69. under counting that because they don't count camp david. obama, 26. they took less vacations and the bushes took a lot morvay cases. after all the record-breaking and george w. bush broke a record for the first four years and whole eight years how many vacations he took, they turn around and say, can you believe that obama went on vacation? one line after another after another. >>> meanwhile these guys with the six houses have the nerve to talk about obama golfing etc. do you remember when romney was caught on tape talking about all the horses they own let's watch. >> what kind of horses do you have. >> she has austrian warmbloods, it's a dressage horse for the sport she's in. me, i have missouri foxtrotter. mine is like a quarter horse just a much better gait. >> cenk: i have no why idea what he's talking about. i don't know what a quarter horse is. i didn't know what a dressage ours horsehorse is until now. why is she going side ways? i don't know what they do with these poor horses.

obama accompanied by george w. bush and mrs. ura bush. ♪ [applause] ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentleman, the president of the united states and first lady, michelle obama. the company by former president george w. bush and former first lady, or a bush. ♪ ♪ [applause] >> could f. been in. i am chairman of the board of afternoon. i am chairman of the board of the white house historical association. the association was founded 50 years ago with two specific missions, the first is to educate and inform the public about the history of the white house and the distinguished groups of americans who have the -- inhabited it. it is an exciting time for us. we marked our 50th anniversary. to the north of the white house we have just launched the new national center for let us history. the next year, to the south, we will open a new white house this their center. it will give millions of visitors -- the visitor center. it will give millions of visitors a new understanding. if we acquire something on the east and west we will have the police surround

jim jeffords never talked to george w. bush. isolated. >> and you can think of it as maureen dowd did the story 20 years ago now, of -- called polaroid diplomacy, how bush had -- bush 41 had a one-step camera back when that was cutting edge and all the members of the house, the house, come down and sit on the lincoln bed and he would take a picture of them so they would have a picture taken by the president of the united states. they could have forever. >> yeah. >> and, you know, then you have johnson calling people in the middle of the night. you don't -- >> but bush and obama both have vice presidents who are of that body who are very active who certainly serve as their ambassadors. >> i just don't think you can subcontract it. >> not the same. >> there's a president. >> you get the president -- >> can't subcontract connecting with people. >> and then you get -- >> we try. >> we try all the time. >> as men we try and it doesn't work out. >> really quickly, we have to go. i'm curious both of you guys, because it's a question th

obama accompanied by george w. bush and mrs. ura bush. ♪ [hail to the chief playing] [applause] >> good afternoon. i am chairman of the board of the white house historical association. the association is honored to be part of this historic ceremony and to have played a role in preparing the magnificent portraits about to be unveiled. the association was founded 50 years ago with two specific missions, the first is to educate and inform the public about the history of the white house and the distinguished groups of americans who have inhabited it. it is an exciting time for us. we marked our 50th anniversary. to the north of the white house we have just launched the new national center for let us history. the next year, to the south, we will open a new white house the visitor center. it will give millions of visitors a new understanding. if we acquire something on the east and west we will have the police surrounded. are proud to have provided funds for financial support. through the portraits of our presidents, it is a wonderful

times were not good during george w. bush. l he created were mcdonald's jobs, except for his friends. host: george bush was at the white house last week for the unveiling of his and his wife's portraits. the article says -- north carolina, ricky, a republican. i think we lost him. let's move on to st. louis, missouri, dane on the democratic line good morni. caller: good morning. i don't think it matters. republican blowback of republicans and democrats will back a democratic. host: what about when they -- a republican will support a republican. the democrats will think their way and the republicans will think their way. that is just partisan politics. that's just the way it is. host: let's go to harvest, alabama. william is a republican. caller: hi. tooon't think it matters much what clinton says, his endorsements. if i want to know what clinton thinks, i will go ask the neighborhood pervert. host: i don't know what that has to do with what we are talking about the. we're talking about former presidents, their influence in camp

an oath of loyalty not to the united states of america, but to george w. bush. the oath read, i, full name, do hereby endorse george w. bush for re-election of the united states. the grammatically challenged form warned anyone who signed the pledge they were consenting to use and release your name by bush/cheney as an endorsing of president bush. what if you didn't want to sign it? what if you just wanted to hear what your vice president said? too bad. a couple months later in 2004 at a republican event in florida, a party official asked everybody in attendance to stand, raise their right hands, and recite a pledge of allegiance to george w. bush, not to the country but to that one person. in this loyalty oath, they were told to say i care about freedom and liberty, i care about my family, i care for my country. because i care, i promise to work hard to re-elect george w. bush. what do you think if democrats asked them to stand and pledge allegiance to barack obama. after the bush/cheney team left office, loyalty oaths have kept popping up with kind of surprising

when george w. bush tried to be a moderate on immigration, the reason he got no legislation passed through it is because he ran up against that other post-prop 187 pete wilson wing of his own party. pete wilson himself was essentially lost to history and forgotten after his role in the prop 187 con flag rags in california, and for all the fallout that it caused, for all that he did to rip the state apart and drive this divide down the state's population on the issue of immigration, for the generations worth the damage that pete wilson did on the relationship with hispanics, ultimately prop 187 never went into effect anyway, it was ruled unconstitutional. then pete wilson retired or something and became largely forgotten until, until mitt romney dug him up. for his presidential campaign this year, mitt romney went trolling through the dust bin of republican history and lo and behold he found pete wilson there. mr. romney went and found pete wilson from whatever he's doing now and brought him on board as h

chris: when we come back, is it risky for barack obama to keep blaming george w bush for things? e'll be right back. chris: welcome back. president obama welcomed george w bush back to the white house for the unveiling of his official portrait the other day. he gave him a little dig. >> the months before i took the oath of office was a chaotic time. we knew our economy was in trouble, our fellow americans were in pain. george, you went out of your way to make sure that the transition to a new administration was as seamless as possible. >> which brings us to this week's big question, is the president risking trouble if he keeps doing things like that, pointing to w, john? >> i don't think he is pointing at w. he is pointing to the financial crisis. i think that the obama people want to always remind people of the depth of the hole that the president inhabited. people know that, they need to be reminded. >> that was a graceless moment considering what else was going on there. >> yeah, you be is unlikely to have george w sitting in front of him again. he has to carry him. it's a good

that is 80 years of george w. bush and at three and a half years of poor -- 8 years of george w. bush and three and half years of barack obama. that is a terrible, terrible record. >> what did you make of it jeb bush's comments about the republican party and that it will have eight horrible time if you define it as orthodoxy that is not tolerate disagreement? >> it is seditious truth. it is so orthodox that you -- it is a vicious truth. it is so orthodox that you saw him try to walk it back the next day. the extremes in both parties, more at the moment in the republican party, but it will be truth in the democratic party eventually -- that is where the money is. the money gets plowed into clever is the most orthodox candidate in the primary -- whoever is the most orthodox candidate in the primary. whoever wins is by a factor of x more to the right or left than the previous candidate. it may be that the vast majority of americans think of themselves as moderates or middle-of-the- road or want to compromise, but the system, especially with the gusher of money we now see on the outsi

>> my other former boss, george w. bushrked in the white house for almost six years where the dissemination of classified information to the "new york times" and others is not something that's just fodder for our discussion here today, but it's actually something that lives are in jeopardy, sources and methods are in jeopardy. in the white house i remember we went to the "new york times" when they learned of information about our methods for tracking al qaeda after 9/11 and told them that national security was on the line. it's the most serious thing that a white house deals with. i think two things. one, to say that someone asking questions about how that information's being disseminated and it's not a matter of someone showing up with a little love letter for david sanger, but it's information is passed in all sorts of ways and the fact that it falls into the hands of reporters who feel they have a duty to put it on the pages of their newspapers, very complicated and very serious and it should be lifted out of politics on

chris: when we come back, is it risky for barack obama to keep blaming george w bush for things?e'll be right back. [ mechanical humming ] [ male announcer ] we began with the rx. ♪ then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx. this is the next chapter for lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection. but that label can lead to prejudice and discrimination, and let's not go there. see beyond labels and judge people by their actions. you can help create a more united states. the more you know chris: welcome back. president obama welcomed george w bush back to the white house for the unveiling of his official portrait the other day. he gave him a little dig. >> the months before i took the oath of office was a chaotic time. we knew our economy was in trouble, our fellow americans were in pain. george, you went out of your way to make sure that the transition to a new administration was as seamless as possible. >> which brings us to this week's big question, is the president risking

one of them, is george w. bush. you see it right there. the producers of the dvd commentary. they said it wasn't a political statement, they had to use whatever heads they had lying around? they had george bush's head lying around. you can see -- the side by side, there's no question about it. it's george w. bush. hbo released a statement apologizing for the incident calling it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste. >>> the "daily show"'s jon stewart horrified by president obama's kill list. jon is worried he might be on that list. >> president obama is int patly involved in the discussions of suspected terrorists. and the decision over who dies next. >> mama. >> somebody is leaking secret national security intelligence to the public. >> it is inconceivable breach of universal human rights to tell us about the kill list. the president is killing people with flying robots and you should not know that. >> the big question was anyone of the administration responsible. and if so, did they do it for political reason. >> the only con

. >> joining me, mark mckinon, former advisor to president george w. bush. george w. bush took on the immigration issue and tried and did not succeed. as did other presidents and other senators. now we've got a case where both sides are accusing each other of failure of leadership. >> yeah, that's the difference between george w. bush and our current nominee in the republican party. george w. bush embraced the issue of immigration and tried very proactively over a number of years to get something done. it was clear by his tone, clear by his rhetoric, this was something he recognized as part of the american dream. now it's being portrayed as part of the american nightmare. mitt romney said it was model legislation in arizona. what the courts have said -- >> they would point out to you when he said that in the debate, he clarified that he meant the e-verify portion. the campaign has been very specific about that. wasn't speaking about the arizona law per se. at least that's what they say. >> well, what is clear is that it is muddled and we need leadership on this issue a

george w. bush, and therefore i was horrified by some of the things that john wrote about presidential power. i assumed that many of you in this room were no fans of bill clinton or barack obama in terms of their capacity to be kpas commander in chief, i think all of us are right, you wouldn't select out these people to make the decisions of peace and war, life and death. shift the financial crisis, one of the most interesting books on that was written by a reporter for "the wall street journal" whose name escapes me right now. one of the points he made, whether you like them or not, the decisions were made by the head of the fed, ben bernanke, and who knows something about the economy. george w. bush is nowhere to be seen in this book and nobody in this review has suggested that he got it wrong. and frankly i am more reassured by bernanke, or other heads of the fed that i like more than bernanke, let's say busch or obama whom i supported with great pleasure. there are many -- one thing i found biza

that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. >>> former president george w. busheceiving and honor only 43 men can say they have. a portrait put up at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. we have a report. >> reporter: the current president welcoming his predecessor to washington, george w. bush and former first lady laura bush, paying a visit to the white house having their portraits unveiled during a ceremony in the east room. >> today, with the unveiling of the portraits next to he moshings president and mrs. bush will take their place alongside men and women who built this country and those who worked to perfect it. >> reporter: this is the first time the former president has been back in the white house in two years. >> we may have our differences politically but the presidency transcends those differences. we all love this country. we all want america to succeed. >> reporter: the 4 #rd president suggesting the current chief executive look at his painting for some inspiration. >> i am also, pleased, mr. president, that when you are wandering these halls as you wries we'

. >> remember when george w. bush made the dead or alive comment about osama bin laden just days after the 9/11 attacks and he was la mbasted. >> they did the same thing with ronald reagan. a cowboy. the new york times which almost never finds anything to criticize this president about in the lead editorial on thursday said that his ability to decide like cesar thumbs up or thumbs down on the coliseum is too much power for a president. so at least we know according to the new york times where the line is with this president for too much power. >> does this kind of leak,. >> doug: did i, have any effect on national -- does this kind

every time he got off the helicopter as president reagan had done and it was passed further when george w. bush went to visit clinton when president clinton was leaving office and george w. bush asked clinton and said to him you didn't be -- to infuse the such a great speaker. clinton had given a horrible speech at the 1988 democratic convention and he said do you have any tips how to give a good speech? the president's club functions on levels both high and very practical. >> ultimately what struck us is of all the rules and rituals and souvenirs and clubhouse the thing that makes it most real is this notion that the office itself is more important than the individuals who occupy it. we kept hearing this again and again particularly when one administration gives way to another. in january of 2009 president bush summoned the entire club membership to the white house to meet the new guy. he said at the time to president obama we all want you to succeed. those of us who have been in this office know that the office transcends the individual. what michael and i took away from this research was see

president george w. bush used six. bill clinton used 14. president bush -- h.w. bush used one., do you think, for the democrats and the president to go ahead and make and invoke an executive privilege that the time? >> it is. because there's a constant tug of war between the legislature and the executive. the legislature generally wants to get more than the executive wants to give. and that happens in republican and democratic administrations. but when any privilege is invoked, the person who feels rejected by the use of that privilege oftentimes draws conclusions about motivations or hiding or cover-up. i don't have an opinion right now of the president's executive privilege call since i haven't seen it. it just came out today but it's risky. >> congressman peter welch, we'll let you get back to work. thanks for joining us. we'll speak to republican john mica member of the that committee and seeing him speak earlier in the last hour. again, they're moving closer to this vote of con sempbt of congress, a vote for eric holder. do you see it ? there it is ! there it is ! where ?

but she began by asking about one of the most memorable interviews when going face to face with george w. bush. >> i did and interview with president bush on the fifth an verse i of 9/11 that was contentious. the two of us were standing in front of the desk and we started talking about secret interrogation of terror suspects and he got very animated to the point where he was basically jabbing me in the chest. >> you can't expect me and people in this government to do what we need to do to protect you and your family if we don't have the tools we think are necessary. >> okay. which is always a difficult scenario when you have the leader of the free world in the secret service so you really can't do it back.

all guidance points to some mention of the crisis george w. bush got us into as far as the white house and talking points. what's interesting to me is a gallup poll shows in terms of who should shoulder the blame for the economy, george w. bush is still polling at 68%, the president at 52%. so regardless of whether you think, you know, the punditry thinks it's a good idea. the american public seems to lay a fair share of blame on bush's plate. >> that's right. unfortunately for obama the problem is nobody's blaming mitt romney for the problem. when the americans are going -- >> wouldn't that be great? >> when americans are going to the polls it's not going to say obama/george w. bush. obviously the sophisticated people understand that no presidency is finite. you know, it's not like everything starts over the day you become president. and so the challenge for obama is to deal with the counterfactual. is to say, as much as much as it is a total loser to say we're not greece -- people talk about the so-called experts about the election. when they say

this program was started by george w. busha means of upsetting people about gun violence and abolishing the executive amendment. if you watch fox news, you marinate daily in conservative media. this is drilled into your head over and over and over again. >> were the guns actually out there because the guy is against second amendment and would like more gun roll in the country. >> the political agenda behind this entire thing was to blame american gun shops for cartel environments in america in order to push one and more regulations. >> the president told mexican tv fast and furus was a mistake and some say it was needed to justify tougher gun laws. >> others believe it was justified. others are -- others? just like with the shirley sharrod story. fox news has been very upset that they haven't yet been able to bait the rest of the real media into following this crazy conspiracy theory of theirs yet, and they are starting to overtly bait the mainstream xheed ya into covering it and they lash out and blame people who do not cover