you know, there they are carrying joe cirincione and jamal simmons. out in chicago. hey, guys. mal, on this -- do you think the president should take some time out at martha's vineyard to talk about this? >> my guess is he's probably spending more time on this than he wants to be. >> bill: do you think he should publicly come out? >> yes. >> bill: if you were advising him, would you say yes? >> here's my general view about the presidency which i sometimes quarrel with the white house about. they seem to be a little too reactive. they wait for events to get so far down the line before they come out and make a statement that they don't seem to be in charge of what's happening. what i know is behind the scenes, they spend a lot of time working with issues, paying attention to them. secretary kerry is there. susan rice has been briefing the president. but sometimes if you're president, you have to get out there, show the american public that you're really in charge. you've got this under control. it may even be just a pool -- bring the pool together, do a one-minute statement. don't

joining me now are krystal ball and jamal simmons. >> thanks. >> this is a battle for the soul of the republican party playing out. can the tea party monster be contained at this point? >> they really have -- they really have a monster on their hands, because they encouraged this from the beginning. and they told the tea party not only are you right, but you are the rightful voice of the american people, and that we are 100% with you. so it's not a surprise that they're having trouble backing away from that ledge. i mean, i have to hand it to representative cole and these other republican representatives who are actually having the courage to step up and say we can't do this. but on the other hand, they're looking at the fact that if they actually shut down the government in an attempt to defund obama care, they would lose the house in 2014. so there are political realities here that they're just not willing to pass. >> no. and jamal, i think that when you have the shutdown debate, it's really caused major rifts in the party. and at one level, it may be some temporary courage to stand

alison stewart, christina bellantoni, and jamal simmons, thank you all for being here.fter the break, the woman taking ballet into war zones. you know she is our foot soldier and she's next. discover card. i asked my husband to pay our bill, and he forgot. you have the it card and it's your first time missing a payment, so there's no late fee. really? yep! so is your husband off the hook? no. he went out for milk last week and came back with a puppy. hold it. hold it. hold it. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card with late payment forgiveness. >>> what kind of image ls come to mind when you think about ballet. swans and discipline and structure. what about genocide, corporate greed, homeless kids. our foot soldier made those connections. as a young ballerina rebecca davis longed to join a company that did ballets about history, literature and real world challenges. when she realized there wasn't one, she decided to create one herself. she founded a nonprofit dance company. for the next four years they performed several ballets on topics rangin

joined by democratic strategist jamal simmons. of bloomberg review, anything else you want to throw in there? jamal, this -- i was talking to some white house folks who were excited about today and at the same time going, this is an impossible speech. because you have african-american political act visits that want, you know -- that just want him to be the reincarnation of martin luther king jr. and the president himself knows that that isn't the case. and of course this whole push/pull. is he a black political activist or american president. >> right, clearly, an american president. my understanding, will really broaden this conversation out to how these issues of economic injustice, voting rights, like sort of take these issues from 1963, honor that, and then come forward to where we go from here and really talk about the economic issues, the voting right issues. broaden it out to gay and lesbian issue. still have issues of people being enslaved around the world. there's all sorts of things on the agenda for the progressive comm

joining me is jamal simmons and angela rye. rev. >> jamal, this is going to be fun. what do you expect bill clinton to do next week? >> well, as you said, he is the secretary of explaining stuff. for the last 20 years of american life, we've had the joy of watching bill clinton really talking about the issues that he finds to be important, that all of us find important like health care. sarah palin, though, she famously said she could see russia from alaska. she ought to be uninsured too. she wants to unfund this effort to get them insurance. i don't understand why the republicans take upon themselves this idea that we ought to not be insuring people who need health care. they have no alternative to give us another way to get these people covered. >> angela, sarah palin loves to attack obama care. watch this. >> it's in black and white in the law that there will be rationing of health care. death panels are a part of this atrocity. not only does it strip away our freedoms as americans, but obama care will bankrupt so many busine