for a 30-tablet free trial offer, go to cialis.com. >>> coming up, howard fineman and richard wolfferess to the nation. ooo. sounds pricey? nah, with the hotels.com summer sale, you can find awesome deals for places nearby. interesting... wow, i'm blown away. you look great. hotels.com summer sale, save up to 30%. and get a free kindle. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. >>> president obama is now minutes away from addressing the nation from the east room of the white house as hopes for keeping the nation nrnm defaulting seem to dim with every passing day. the incredible, political, and financial drama is about to reach a nationwide, primetime, television audience. joining me now, msnbc political analyst howard fineman, editorial effort for the huffington post, richard wolffe, author of "revival 2.0, how the obama white house is making its political comeback." some would say the comeback is to try to portray himself as a centrist, deficit cutting president. has he achieved that, do you think, in his public postures in the debt ceiling negotiations up to this point? >> well, the polls

joining us now, msnbc political analyst, howard fineman, editorial director at the huffington post andstein, reporter at the huffington post. howard you're in the capitol, it is all happening around you. where are we, what's going on? >> well, it takes two reporters from the huffington post, lawrence, to cover the fact that absolutely nothing is happening, which at this very minute at least publicly. behind closed doors, john boehner and there's big crowds of reporters outside his office for hours, looking to see people coming in, see whether they've had their rear ends realigned by john boehner as they try to get the votes they need. this is crucial. if boehner can pass the republican plan in the house, they will at least, that is the republicans will at least be able to say hey, we put something on the table, and in the physics of blame and in the last phases of negotiations, that would mean something. but he's having a terrible time getting the votes. i just talked to one tea party guy who said look, if not me, when, if not us, who. the way the tea party people view it, they're sort

it's too much of a pain. >> howard fineman brings up the battle axes. king talked about the group four years ago, they are trying to get on the ballot. if there's a group that says here you go, we have ballot access, there's a lot of politicians whose egos say there it is. >> i'm unclear as to how the new come pain laws and the freedom for superpacks and so forth that can spend unlimitly to allow big money people, who if they didn't run on their own could help fund to make sure they get ballot access. when i first started in the '80s, ballot access was almost impossible. it's now possible to do it. you need a lot of money but you can do it. you can get on in all 50 states. that's the way it would have to happen. >> i'm going to put up one more poll. 31% believe the two-party system is so broke we need a third party. 52% say they can work well with the two-party system. the question is, you know, when this happens, when perot rose up, you saw the two parties respond. bill clinton became interested in fiscal issues. you saw the republicans talk about less

and he should have said that. >> howard fineman and ezra klein, thank you very much for your time tonightight. that's why we want you here. >> okay, lawrence. thank you. >> thank you both, very

joining me now is msnbc political analyst howard fineman, editorial director for "the huffington post" media group. howard, thanks for joining us tonight. >> hi, lawrence. >> howard, what's the latest reporting on what's breaking here on the boehner plan. they went into the afternoon thinking they had a plan that was what it said it was and the question was how do we get everyone to coalesce around it, now the plan turns out to be much less than speaker boehner thought it was, where do they go from here? >> well, what's breaking on the boehner plan is broken. it's broken by the numbers and it's broken politically. that group of the -- the cut, cap, and balance crowd, that's 51% said on the republican side, we're not voting for it, would be a violation of your pledge to be part of the cut, cap, and balance group if you vote for it. so that 51 -- those 51 republican votes are off the table. lots of other republicans are said they can't go for it. the anti-tax crowd is against it, and even david addington is worried about a user patient of power in the congress by this select special com

joining me now is howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and senior political editor for "the huffington post." thank you for joining me tonight. >> hi, lawrence. >> let's just start with what bill clinton is up to here. and we can stipulate it's entirely possible he is up to nothing other than the limitless joy of hearing himself talk. but am i -- could there be something clever to what bill clinton is doing in praising michele bachmann? >> lawrence, i have known and covered bill clinton, i don't know, for about 25 years. he doesn't just kill two birds with one stone. he kills a whole flock, ok? of course he wants the publicity. all politics is local, lawrence. the clinton global initiative meeting is going on, in competition with the aspen ideas festival. so bill clinton wants to generate some headlines for his conference. and just for being bill clinton. but he's also trying to do what he thinks is a favor for the white house. and i think bill clinton cares about being politically relevant to barack obama and the white house. wants to do chores for them, even if they don't ask him to.

. >>> we started with the latest, my favorite expert howard fineman editorial director for the huffington post media group and msnbc political analyst. tonight is a great time to do an espn get together with two political guys. you and me. we had jay carney on the other night, saying you've been through this a lot, chris. no, i haven't. i haven't seen anything like this, where the government of the united states is tottering on the edge of some kind of default, and these crazy people, most of them on the republican side, most of them not seeming to give a darn. i'm talking about the back benchers. howard, what do you see in that market dropping? it's dropped about 100 for two days, 200 today. are we getting close to niagara falls? >> i'm in new york today, chris. while i was here, i was talking to some business leaders. one was james tissue, head of lowe's corporation, very smart guy, a republican, and, you know, he professed to be calm, but on the other hand, he said i think everybody underestimated the tea party. that means even the establishment republicans like jim tish, and the chamb

. >> howard fineman brings up the ballot access. angus king talked about a group called americans elect. there was another group four years ago they're trying to get on the ballot. if there is a group that says here you go, we've got ballot access, there's a lot of politicians whose egos will say if you build it, maybe i will come. >> i think that's true. chris is right, that's the way it would work this time. i'm a little unclear as to how the new campaign laws and the freedom to have superpacs would allow big money people who if they didn't run on their own, could help fund making sure that one of those parties could get ballot access. when i first started many the '80s. getting ballot access was nearly impossible. it's now possible to do it. you do need a lot of money, but you can do it. you can get on in all 50 states. >> chris, one more poll from nbc "the wall street journal" poll. 31% believe the two-party system is so broken the country needs a third party. 52% says it can work with imprivates to the two-party system. the que

. >> joining us now, howard fineman, editorial director of "the huffington post" and msnbc analyst. >> how are you tonight? >> i'm not sure. >> stress out. >> look. i was listening to senator schumer basically calling on maturity, a kind of sense of adulthood, where are the grownups in the room, but particularly when he said listen, we all know that the senate is the only way out of this mess, given how dysfunct n dysfunctional the senate is as of late, should i be concerned the senate is the only way out of this mess? >> that's not reassuring, and having covered the senate for a long time, i can tell you the way they operate sometimes isn't reassuring. to go to luke russert's point, it's not just this drama now, what people are looking at is whether our country is suffering some kind of political nervous breakdown, and maybe a sort of permanent inability to deal with the fundamental questions of our economy and our finances and our society. how we deal with entitlements, how we deal with the ageing of the baby boom, how we deal with our tax structure, how we create jobs, these fundam

howard fineman and sam steinman of "the huffington post" are my guests. >>> and this fight is not about deficit or the debt. it has been all about starving the beast, reducing the size of government, and reversing the last century of progress. [ male announcer ] we asked real people if they'd help us with an experiment for febreze fabric refresher. they agreed. [ experimenter 1 ] relax, take some nice deep breaths. [ experimenter 2 ] what do you smell? lilac. clean. there's something that's really fresh. a little bit beach-y. like children's blankets. smells like home. [ experimenter 1 ] okay. take your blindfolds off. ♪ hello? [ male announcer ] and now new and improved febreze fabric refresher with up to two times the odor elimination so you can breathe happy, guaranteed. both from "the huffington post." howard, you're in the capitol. it's all happening around you. where are we? what's going on? >> well, it takes two reporters from "the huffington post," lawrence, to cover the fact that absolutely nothing is happening right this -- at this very minute, at least publicly. you know, beh