it's in the library and anyone who reads it other than john meacham in a certain number of years will be shot. >> i guess as an historian, i won't be reading that. >> barb is so unbelievably disciplined. it takes a lot of discipline to write in a diary, and then she would go to the white house pool and swim laps. >> now i can't. since i have new knees, they sink. i'm in real trouble. >> what fun it must have been to live with you. >> i don't know as george thinks so. >> i think he does. speaking of routines of the day, when i read your memoir, the funniest thing is when you talked about at the white house correspondent's dinner, your nightly routine. but you tell these people about that. i loved it so. >> well, the white house correspondents dinner, have you probably seen it every year on television, but it's the evening when all of the white house correspondents, the press that are assigned to the white house and their guests, and they always try to outcelebrity each other and invite lots of celebrities come to roast the president. as george said, everyone makes fun of the president

. >> but john meacham argues the opposite.ere is a pretty good rule of film for democratic presidents. if it didn't work for franklin d roosevelt, it probably won't work for you, too. let's bring in author of "obaminos." thank you for joining me. >> yes. >> should president obama attack the supreme court, defending a statute that is inherently unpopular. it doesn't strike me as the best way to victory. >> it doesn't strike me that way either. it means the issue of who is going to appoint the next justices of the court. that's an issue he can campaign hard on. i don't think there is any way to paint the fact that the idea of having this law unconstitutional is any kind of a political plus. it's just not. >> right. at a certain level the healthcare act is the defining feature, economics survival notwithstanding and if it is the fulcrum to have this court strike it down, it's an emotional blow to the legitimacy of his agenda. >> it certainly is. that's huge political problem for him. but you know what john meacham said about fdr.

i missed you. >> you did not. >> it's good to come back. >> john meacham was gone also this past weekend. you know where he was? to the love club. >> this is a terrible story. >> exactly. >> what's terrible? what? is this a shock? >> i'm not going to start the week like this. are you? >> i'm shocked, stunned, and deeply saddened. so how was your get away? >> it was very nice. very nice. chasing 2-year-olds around the beach is very relaxing. >> that is great. always not what you think it's going to be. >> no, it was great. >> i often watched my wife do that. it looked pretty difficult. >> see, i don't get off the hook as easy. yeah. >> so dick cheney, he doesn't follow the bush idea of not going after the sitting president. he just launched full in there. saying that barack obama was an unmitigated disaster. >> well, i don't think the president or the white house is surprised by the vice president's assessment. bin laden is dead. gm is up. unemployment is coming down. health care bill, ambitious, parts of it works. a lot of it works. some of it doesn't work. >> what -- >> cheney made the

now, we've been discussing of course on this show, and john meach meacham, we discussed last night the fact that you can't blame this economy on barack obama any more than you can blame it on george w. bush, any more than you can blame it on bill clinton, any more than you can blame it on bush the first or reagan. yes, their policies do have a big impact abou. but we are in the middle of a 30 to 40-year transition, and a painful transition. but barack obama can't point back to the other guys politically. i just don't think that resonates anymore. >> no. for the same reason i think you don't get political credit for things you avoid. the political market discounts faster than any other. so by arguing it could have been worse, intellectually i think people say, that's right, or historically say they that's interesting. but what about the gas prices that mike is talking about? you know, what about the house payments payments? what about the fact that tuition payments are going up? what about the fact there aren't community colleges around or broadband? i think harold is right. it comes do

we continue this evening looking at the presidential campaign with evan thomas, mike allen, and john meacham. >> this is a 50-50 country and it's going to be decided by people between the 40-yard line, the middle of the middle who aren't tuned in. so mitt romney has a chance to that none of us do, which is a second chance to make a first impression. they're starting to reintroduce him. we saw the easter pictures, the egg hunt, the egg coloring. we saw the body surfing picture i think we're going to see a lot of romney family photos in the next few days because it's all part of saying hey, it's not really what you've been inclined to think. >> rose: we conclude with a conversation of james gorman, the chairman and c.e.o. of morgan stanley. >> the most important thing with any professional service firm is to tap the d.n.a., to find out what it is that is the magic about the institution and morgan stanley 75 years old found it coming out of the great depression the magic of morgan stanley is the quality ofhe people dealing with exceptionallyly complicated problems. helping clients find solution

guest: what we tried to do in the book that is published by random house, conceived and edited by john meacham at newsweek, what we tried to do was show how the campaign is trying to portray him and also reveal their frustration in how he is coming off. what we heard time and again is people who really knew mitt romney did not feel like he was being portrayed the way they knew him. they admit that is partly the fault of the campaign and partly his fault and they think it's partly the fault of the press. his oldest son said that his dad has always been sort of a mr. fix it. he would come over to visit and would want to talk about the water heater needed fixing, or something needing to be done in the yard. the next time he would come back, he would be there with a pickup truck, would be trying to what the patriots game. that's a big part of the message for the campaign, someone who fixed the salt lake city olympics, helped to improve the massachusetts government, and could help to fix the country. we also see behind-the-scenes a fastidious side of mitt romney. you and i walk into a gym and wind

>> well, just in time for good friday, tomorrow and easter and passover, we have john meacham, cover> reverend meacham. >> have you seen the pulitzer prize? i haven't seen it. >> he is making that up. >> you have to give him a break on that. >> ok. >> so the idea is that, you know, there's this best-selling book that's been on the bestseller list for like a year called "heaven is for real" about this young boy who after going to the hospital claimed to have this vision of heaven. and it's a very, very traditional vision of heaven, of angels with harps. and john writes about this new thinking in christianity and among all religions that heaven is actually something that occurs here on earth, and that in fact the idea of the divinity is what you should do here on the planet, on earth, is what really will make heaven for real. and it's a really interesting idea. >> so is meacham abolishing the after-life for all of us now? is that what -- >> well -- >> has he become just a full-blorn secular humanist? i have always told him that being a -- >> joi joe, do you think you'll there on a clou

you know, john meacham writing a book called "the last gentleman," and it's hard to find somebody into '87 and '88, and he was trashed. the same things we were saying about romney people were saying about george hw bush. and i remember watching the '88 convention and we all made fun of him because he couldn't talk, he couldn't speak in complete sentences publicly. privately, very elegant. but peggy wrote him that line, i think, something about that he is not a good talker, but i hear the quiet people. and he turned that around. romney is going to have quite a few months to turn around these perceptions that he's blinded from the plight of the working class american. and if he's got a good team around him, maybe he can do it. listen, nobody has been more critical of mitt romney than me. as a conservative republican, who would actually like to win an election, ok? i want to win an election. >> not this time. >> be nice to your party. >> but that said, i think he could turn this thing around. but he's going to have to do a lot better than he has the past couple of months. >>> all right.

as john meacham said, you look at all of these pictures around here, it looks like saddam hussein's castle>> can i do the news? >> can you believe what happened yesterday? >> what? >> everybody is talking about hilary rosen. alex, is she even connected to the obama white house? >> no. she has no official role even in the dnc. >> so she has no role in the dnc. she has no role in the white house. she is a pundit for cnn. she talks on a primetime cable show. >> yeah. >> and suddenly, you've got the white house and the republicans and ann romney and michelle obama immediately -- it's just crazy. >> but it's a motherhood and apple pie thing. it's an easy one for both sides to jump on hilary rosen for. >> joe tends to kind of back into things and vomit, so i'm going to back up and explain what we're talking about, because now the headlines this morning are spotlighted on ann romney. that is the headline from today's "the wall street journal" after democratic strategist hilary rosen's comments that mrs. romney has, quote, never worked a day in her life, continued to draw reaction from both campai

john meacham writing in time magazine that barak obama should not declare war on the supreme court.ke how the justices were rolling, so he's going to add some. that didn't work out for him then. it won't work out for barak obama now. mr. meacham says even when they make a bad law, it has the last word. >> gretchen: shooting rampage in a california university. now more in oakland forest. >> good morning. investigators have been interviewing the suspect. they say he is showing no remorse for what he did. he remembers details vividly and he has been forth coming in details. they have been able to obtain the weapon. all of this unfolded yesterday morning around 10:30 in front of the university. a woman was bleeding on the ground in front and at that time, officers didn't know if the gunman was still on the loose. we watched people shot and bloodied coming out of the school, getting into ambulances and we're told that the victims range in age from 20 to 40. police confirmed six women were killed. one man. three others injured. here is how it went down according to witnesses. he was disgr

what we tried to do on "inside the circus" published by random house, conceived and edited by john meacham at news week, we tried to show how the campaign was portraying him and reveal their frustration in how he is coming off. what we heard time and again was that people who really knew mitt romney didn't feel like he was being portrayed the way they knew him. they admit that is partly the campaign's fault, partly his fault and partly the fault of the press. his oldest son, tag romney, said that his dad has always been sort of a mr. fix-it. he would come over to visit, and he would want to talk about the water heater needing fixing, or something needing to be done in the yard, and next time you would come back, he was there with a pickup truck while tag is trying to watch a patriots game. that of course is a big part of the message of the campaign, that is something who can fix the salt lake city olympics, helped improve the massachusetts government and can fix the country. we also behind the scenes see the pass tidyuss side of mitt romney. when we walk into a gym, we wipe down the equipm

meacham. editor for new york magazine, john heilemann. hello. how are you?t. >> good. >> nice to see you. >> keep it short. >> wow. >> geez. >> kentucky wildcats. >> they won. >> the best team with the best players won the game. won the national championship. >> nobody was even close. it's tournament. they dominated. >> kentucky was up 18 at one point. kansas came back with under two minutes to go. kentucky was a far superior game. this night and most nights of the season. >> all right. we'll talk more about that. we'll get to the news now, though. some of you around the table may find this interesting. president obama is speaking out about the health care. the president shot down suggestion that is the justices may find his signature law unconstitutional. >> just to remind conservative xhem thai tors is that we have heard the biggest problem on the bench is judicial activism of lack of judicial strength that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted law. i'm pretty confident this court will recognize that and not take that. ulti

the walmart scandal, the secret service scandal, you take all of this together, jon meacham, and this is -- you know, johny. you go for it. you talked about the duopoly and how it will break at some point. it seems like the time has never been better for a new party or a reform party to dominate the system. >> all of the factors, all of the ingredients are there, it seems to me. we have talked about this for a long time. and i think ron has put numbers to the general conversation. it's just been a long time since we've -- the political system has risen to or been commensurate with our hopes and historic expectations of it. and i think that right now we have an establishment party with two wings. and for all of our fighting, it's, you know, christopher lash called it the narcissism of small differences. and both sides hate it when you say that. but it has the virtue of being true. >> all the factors are there except for our electoral system, which is set up in a way to make it somewhere between difficult and impossible for a new party to really emerge. and a lot of very serious people have studied being th