jon meacham, you know, like george w.one-on-one, they'll tell you, the guy is great in small, informal settings, you put him, though, you put him in the east room at a press conference, deer in the headlights. there's strengths, all presidents have their weaknesses. >> that's true. but the key was authenticity. and that's the problem, i think, for mitt romney. i mean the problem there's a perception that mitt romney doesn't feel voters' pain, but the voters feel his bain -- >> oh, gosh. >> and that endorsement yesterday seemed so transactional. you don't get the sense that donald trump likes mitt romney and you don't get the sense that mitt romney wanted to endorse donald trump, but they did this transactional event for the sake of politics and came off just like that. it was just pure politics. >> okay. so i feel like we've launched heavily into eugene robinson style and not substance. having said that, how much does this matter? especially given the type of style we're talking about. above it all, rich, 1%, donald trump

jon meacham and i are from tennessee.wo conservatives in a race against a moderate republican, the moderate republican always wins. if he's able to win there and in ohio, you give georgia to gingrich and look at the mountain west states, this could be another good day for him, another good night. >> i think newt could do very well in the south. so -- you have -- don't you agree, michael? >> i do. >> you're going to have newt taking conservative voters, santorum taking conservative voters. and in the end, it may be like south carolina four years ago where the perceived moderate, you know, in that case was john mccain won because you had huckabee and fred thompson splitting the vote. >> i think you laid it out exactly right there, joe. and it's going to be an opportunity for, i think for the romney campaign to begin to stop the bleeding and to slow this train down or speed it up, rather in terms of getting toward that nomination. so tennessee and ohio loom big for him and i think it's a real opportunity. >> meacham? >> it w

jon meacham? >> and jon meacham, you look, and these are warning signs.ou look at exotic places, greece, italy, california, i mean, sacramento, all those foreign countries. it's, again, it is the same formula. promise too much and welfare state benefits and just wait for the economy to melt down. >> and i think that -- to my mind that's the great political cultural hurdle we have to get over. we go from the birthplace of democracy to -- a very important piece in the "new york times" yesterday about how government is not just about poor people. and it's the middle class that is dependent in many ways -- >> that was a great piece. >> -- on the government to actually -- >> the very people who say we don't want the government involved in health care are the very people who say don't touch my medicare. the very tea party activists who say washington's gotten too big and too involved, there was a poll and that's why and i know it's like a drinking game at this point, but simpson/bowles, he had to cover -- that's why you have a commission is to give yourself cov

jon meacham, he is the author of "american lion: andrew jackson in the white house." it earned him a pulitzer prize. he's currently writing on george h.w. bush and thomas jefferson. finally, robert caro, he is a two-time pulier prize winning author and has dedicated decades to writing about lyndon johnson. his fourth volume "the passage of power," is set to come out this may. i am pleased to have them here to have this discussion about men and power, the power of the office and how those two things come together. i begin with barack obama. what did you go in search of? >> trying to find out to the extent anyone could what makes obama tick. we know if you support obama or oppose him there's something different about the way he seems as he prepares for his reelection before anybody pected four years ago when he was making his debut on the national scene. so trying to parse out whether the disappointment in him was the i evidentable because the mismatch between what he symbolized in his election and the kind of problems he had to deal with or whether it was something int

with jon meacham, matt dowd, richard land, and e.j. dionne. >> i think the point is we need to save religion from the religious. santorum is pushing things to an extreme where it's going to be very hard for religious people to argue that religion has a place in the public square when you have extremist views taking over and taking such a central place in the conversation. >> i think rick santorum is completely mishandled this whole entire issue and how to talk about it. voters want somebody that they believe is faith-filled. they want somebody that they believe is religious. they want somebody that they believe answers to a higher authority not of this earth but they don't want somebody that constantly talks about it and constantly says every decision they said is going to be informd by it. to me being faith-built and being religious is lot like what margaret thatcher said about being a lady which is if you say you're one you're probably not. if you have to say that over and over again, prove it by what you do in the political marketpl

cents over jon meacham's french and indsiddian war. >> you asked him, he got up and left. it was weird. >> yeah. >> wow. >> you mentioned a tree, though, on his way. >> i know. sort of just mumbling about, walking endlessly around the studio. all right, that's it for today. willie, if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." we'll see you back here, stick around for chuck. 9:00 tonight, "rock center." >>> we didn't win by a lot, but we won, that's enough. >> mitt romney, a win in the must-win michigan contest and he's breathing a sigh of relief and he's quieted the talk about searching for another candidate. but romney asked for funds for the first time in last night's victory speech, of course, ohio looms large. >> a month ago they didn't know who we are, but they do now! >> but rick santorum, that may have been the problem. he falls short by three percentage points in michigan, the only moral victory he may end up with more delegates there putting a positive spin on the results but will he recalibrate his message in time after a very rough week. >>> an

you look at the great presidential historians, and they'll all tell you every president, jon meacham,nt believes it was unfair, it was vicious. and the fact that we now have an african-american president, it shouldn't be a surprise there's some element of race to it. but at the end of the day, if he were white, barack obama, and was traveling down the path of republicans believe he's traveling down, they'd be criticizing him with the same kind of -- >> not as a closet muslim. that's all i'm saying. that's all i'm saying. >> that element i agree with. >> john, you remember in the '80s, george h.w. bush was accused of running drugs for the cia and some even suggested that -- a congresswoman suggested they were shipping it to south central l.a. to african-americans. and then they were funneling that money -- there are these crazy conspiracy theorys that surround every president. and unfortunately, that's just part. the president four years into it. he's becoming a bit more zen about this, isn't he? every attack on talk radio isn't penetrating the way it did four years ago, is it? >> look