and tip would come right back with his fingers at old jerry ford. at 6:00 p.m., tip would show up at the west wing of the white house to have a bourbon with his old buddy, jerry. that does not happen anymore. you find that the parties are 98-2 in a way and there is very little cross fertilization of ideas or a willingness to compromise and something has got to give. i don't know what it will be but i will tell you this, unless and until we do that we are going to have these types of crises which are showing up periodically. right now the discussions with respect to what essentially is going to be the budget deal, we find out that everyone is thinking well we can do a little bit. what it needs is something our more broader. as i have always said this problem that we are dealing with today in the economy and the budget was essentially solved by simpson-bowles back several years ago. i recall very vividly saying when i saw that proposal, from a bipartisan group of people and was very rapidly accepted by the economic profession and all professionals, tha

and the remarkable thing and this is so typical of jerry ford.e went in and had his meeting with governor brown and never mentioned what happened outside. he thought it would be ungracious to tell the governor well some lady tried to shoot me in your front yard. >> there we have the photograph of him being escorted by the secret service agents away from the scene. >> today with twitter and the instant news he couldn't have kept it from the sitting governor as he did then. >> that is true but it's unlikely he would be out strolling through the grounds as they decided on the spur of the moment that morning in september 1975. >> tim in denver. what's your question? caller: hi. this is a very good film. i saw ford campaign in 1976 and one asked what are you for and he said may the best team win. i hear the relations between the fords and reagans were [indiscernible] >> let me answer that this way. certainly in 1976 there were rather frosty. they were running a very intense, very close really uncertain battle for the republican nomination. i think the

. >> and that was jerry ford right after watergate.something that i liked. >> the state of our union is better. in many ways, a lot better. but still not good enough. >> you find a way to do it. and there's variations. it's getting stronger. or we are strong. >> the state of our union is stronger. >> there's always some way to do it. but it's an important thing to valy date, i think. >> around the table on that. state of the union is? >> always strong. >> always strong. >> i'll just go with strong. >> i like jerry ford, better, but not good enough yet. >> i think the state of the union is getting incrementally stronger, and i would not suggest stating it that way in the speech. i think that's where we are. >> incrementally is not -- >> in the 90s we were big on that. >> jeff, we talk about the tinkering, presidents changing and editing. nobody did it more than bill clinton. >> a lot of rewriting. with the president on the big speeches, it was very collaborative. but by the time you're in the family theater, you shouldn't be messing wit

michigan stadium in ann arbor, the gridiron home of the likes of bo schembechler and jerry ford yesterday hosted the nhl winter classic. hockey as it was meant to be played. outdoors in the elements. blowing snow, 13 degrees at game time and regular stoppages to clear the ice. they did set an attendance record. 105,491 brave souls. and dedicated hockey fans. officially the largest hockey could in hockey history. they got to see the leafs beat the red wings in a shootout, 3-2. >>> when we come back, learning a lesson about the importance of "making a difference." >>> finally tonight our "making a difference" report is about a powerful lesson kids are learning as early as elementary school about the importance of giving back after someone has done the same for you. and our report tonight comes from nbc's rehema ellis. >> reporter: at the party store, it didn't take long for students to pick out supplies for their school project. >> i love how everything coordinates. >> reporter: once back at p.s. 47 in the queens section of new york city, the whole class of 3rd graders pitched in to write c

mississippi native and former print journalist, speaks had also worked for bob dole and president jerry ford. larry speaks was 74 years old. >>> still ahead for us on this friday night, the outbreak taking hold right across the country right about now. the death toll from flu is rising. nine people at one hospital alone. >>> and later, an exclusive look at the future of space travel rapidly approaching, and seats going fast. >>> back here with health news, the flu has spread, sharply from a week ago. there is a shortage of the main drug to treat it. it is flu season. it is worth paying attention to this latest threat. we get the latest tonight from nbc's janet shamlian. >> reporter: sean mccoy was surprised when his daughter came down with the flu on new year's day. the 2-year-old had a shot last fall. so did the entire family. the doctor prescribed tamiflu for all five of them but it turned out to be hard to find. >> it took us a while to get it. we had to run around to different pharmacies. some pharmacies didn't have it. >> reporter: there is a nationwide shortage of the liquid tamiflu us

leaders, again, the comparison is not an absolute statement, it is in comparison to what i saw jerry ford do, what i saw ronald reagan do, what i saw george h.w. bush do. >> rose: you mentioned this speech about -- the cairo speech, what was wrong with the cairo speech? >> absolutely nothing. >> i didn't think so. >> the cairo speech was a great speech and i say that in the book, it was a very important speech, but the problem is it created significant expectations in the arab world. >> rose: exactly. >> and the lack of follow-up. >> rose:. >> to the speech produced a great letdown. >> rose: so suppose you were secretary of defense and there was a war that had public support, let's say. would you rather be serving under president obama or president bush? >> that is a very tough question and i am not sure i know the answer to it. >> you don't? why -- what are the factors that would go into your decision or answer? >> i guess, charlie, my answer would be i would be willing -- i would be willing to serve under either one of them. >> rose: yes. but would one be better than the other? >> they

. >> he pulled a big upset against jerry ford that saved his presidential prospects. who helped him then? jesse helms. a lot of history between us. >> the president's agenda, when he talks about what he can do with the pen and the phone, as he said so memorably. >> very competent. a very high level official. i think if you do follow that story that he's going to retreat to merely executive actions, it's almost like the nationalist chinese going to taiwan. a big part of the government is what you can do with congress. the budget, taxation. >> he was bringing in the democratic senators, though. >> i know. he's got to find a way to cut some deals. he's got three more years as president. we've got to use the congress. i don't think you can work completely around them. foreign policy. it's very hard to work around congress when they're so feisty right now. >> what do you see happening on the unemployment front? >> he wins the fight. i think he wins the argument. the american people are very sympathetic, certainly sympathetic on minimum wage. there are a lot more employees

nomination race was actually -- whether there was an incumbent president or not was between gerr jerry ford carter was fairly competitive. in 1980 with ted kennedy. the horizontal line is really an indicator used by the justice department. below that it's really a competitive market. above that line is not competitive. what you see is in those years most presidential nominations are not particularly competitive, and those below the line occurring more frequently in the 1970s and 1980s are. so kind of the patterns that we see. the first one i was on the point out is that presidents when they get renominated generally these are not competitive races. the two that we saw that were particularly competitive were 1976, 1980. a number of unique circumstances occurring with ford. he had not obviously not been nominated by his own party. he was appointed. both to the vice presidency and the presidency. he had the watergate scandal and plus you have a wide open nominating process with the new rules that were implemented, as caitlin to mention. carter is associate with minority wing of his party, and

jerry, something is wrong here. you just became president of the united states and i am still cooking. that was our reality for the next seven or eight days. >> did the betty ford that the country came to know accurately reflect the betty ford that was your mother? >> yeah, yeah. for some reason, just the way her life unfolded she was challenged with two major issues. first, breast cancer and alcoholism. within the first 30 days of dad's administration, you had the resignation and the economy in shambles. mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. you have to remember at that time in 1974 people do not talk about breast cancer. you literally did not say the word "breast." it was a closet disease for women. here you have an image of mom and dad standing there in front of the press holding hands saying we are going to take the shame of the disease and be very transparent. -- take the shame off of this disease and be very transparent. that was important to her as a person to be able -- she did not choose it but to be that role model and she did well. of the hundreds of thousands of letters she got, women who said thank you for helping to take the shame of the disease.

ford was doing when he was 19. >> just wasn't a billionaire. >>> moving to the growing excitement about the classic sitcom "seinfeld" is growing. jerryeld and jason alexander, george, outside the manhattan diner so central to the show. yesterday on the radio seinfeld faced something of an interrogation. >> seinfeld characters involved. >> yes, there were. >> was jason playing george or was he being jason in this film with the piece? >> george. >> oh, he's george. >> oh! >> a little chess match there. some other nuggets. seinfeld said, whatever it is, it will be on tv very, very soon. but he also said it was most certainly not a super bowl commercial. who knows if it's true or not. >> seinfeld says the project is longer than 60 seconds and filmed in other locations, not just the coffee shop. he also called it a one and done type of deal. >> children of the '80s, listen up. first broadway put out favorite hair bands with "rock of ages" and now our favorite movie coming to the theaters. >> "back to the future" will soon be a musical. hopes in london next year. in case you're too young to remember the michael j. fox original, it's about

ford fiesta. and here are the cars that basically failed the test. they are the nissan versa, toyota prius c, hyundai accent, mitsubishi mirage, fiat 500, and honda fit. governor jerrytate of the state address we are expecting him to talk about the drought and that we are and currently for it he just declared a drought of emergency and that will have direct impact on us here and the bay area especially as we head into the summer months. will be back with more on his comments. >>darya: check this out. the roads and indiana are covered in snow. an army of clouds of a still a lot of drivers are stuck with the amount of snow coming down. wisconsin people are running low on fuel to heat their homes. there was a massive shortage of liquid propane and not across the entire country. extra kron drying. fuel deliveries have been cut in half while but prices have doubled. how's that for a combination >>george: still slow traffic and the north bay because of the problems at lucas valley road where pg&e crews are still working on the right side of the roadway and they have their right lane called off just south of lucas valley road. traffic is still backed up through nevada on b

jerry, something is wrong here. you just became president of the united states and i am still cooking. that was our reality for the next seven or eight days. >> did the betty ford that the country came to know accurately reflect the betty ford that was your mother? >> yeah, yeah. for some reason, ethst the way her life unfolded she was challenged with two major issues. first, breast cancer and alcoholism. within the first 30 days of dad's administration, you had the resignation and the economy in shambles. mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. you have to remember at that time in 1974 people do not talk about breast cancer. you literally did not say the woly "breast." it was a closet disease for women. here you have an image of mom and dad standing there in front of the press holding hands saying we are going to take the shame of the disease and be very transparent. that was important to her as a person to be able -- she did not choose it but to be that role model and she did well. of the hundreds of thousands of letters she got, women who said thank you for helping to take the shame of the disease. and saying i went in and got the exam and we caught it early.