helping america make it happen, jamal simmons good friend of the program here. f bill." jamal, let's start out. you and i are both big barack obama supporters. >> yes sir. >> bill: no doubt about it. >> yes sir. >> bill: just want to make sure everybody understands it. lately, it has been a rocky road right? i mean some justified and some not. when you look at benghazi, i.r.s., department of justice now nsa. now war on syria. kind of a rocky road is. this just typical second term blues or is the white house -- or has the white house lost its footing? >> it is probably a little second-term blues. things that were bubbling up two years ago have made it to the surface. the world has a way of having its say on any presidency. you can't predict what's going to happen in another country. it always happens. but the place where the obama administration's got to do better is they've got to really sketch out a narrative for us about what the administration's about. what they're focused on. i think they're focused on some things that aren't as sexy, getting the healthcare l

joining me now are richard wolffe and jamal simmons. thank you both for coming on the show tonight. >> great to be here, rev. >> tomorrow the president is out touting the progress. funny how the right wing is quiet about the economy these days. >> they are going to be quiet about it because they don't have a leg to stand on. what's important is that the president is claiming credit for what we've seen. people feel very good about the economy recovery, they just don't give him a lot of credit for it. he's showing new energy projects. this is happening because of the president's policy put in place. >> you know, richard, where americans are asked about it, where all of the scandals and bringing up new angles and new things but really never connecting the dots to the president or one of his people, when you ask the american people in the middle of all of this, they want to talk about the economy and though we have a long way to go and it's disproportionate in some areas, we are making progress but 73% say dealing with the economy and unemp

we also have matt welch, editor in chief -- nyu political scientist professor and jamal simmons who worked for bill clinton, al gore and max cleland. raul, we just talked about everything that is up against this bill, this important gang of eight bill, what are the republicans facing off with this week that we're looking at that's important to distinguish between poison pills and real amendments? >> well, the main thing that's really i think will be a turning point is this john corn anyone amendment. because this could give republicans cover to not support the bill. they could say, if this isn't part of it, we won't be part of it. this cornyn amendment comes on top of so much border security but when you break it down, the big problem with the amendment is if takes the path to citizenship, it separates it from the people who are actually trying to go through that process, makes it contingent upon the department of homeland security and other the metrics that can be changed by different administrations or -- if the path to citizenship is not secure, not direct, this whole balance of the bil