panel time, chris cillizza is managing editor of politics.com, and political analyst karen finney and handman, nbc political director mark murray, he's here. let's start with a little old poll junkie, okay? quinnipiac came out this morning, chris cillizza, and, you know, it shows the same thing on the national polls. the president's vulnerable, but who can beat him? he's ahead of all the major candidates including romney. >> he is, and do you know what's fascinating, chuck, if you look at obama's numbers in a vacuum, you know, he's really v lly vule on the economy. >> there was a "washington post" poll. and the "washington journal" poll, go ahead. >> you look at him a vacuum and say, it will be trouble. but in ohio in the national polling, you are kind of like ultimately the races aren't about president obama versus president obama or president obama versus a generic republican it's about president obama versus one of the republican candidates none of whom at the moment with the possible exception of michele bachmann is making anyone in the republican party even all that excited. >> t

karen finney is professor dershowitz giving us the right big picture? >> it is one of the big pictures. a couple of thing. a lot of people compareds they case to the o.j. simpson case, which i really take issue with and i'm going to go on a side bar about that for a second, because we have to remember, for those who particularly lived in los angeles, who lived through rodney king, lived lou that whole period, the o.j. simpson trial was about a lot more than the legal system. it was about the african-american community and our distrust of the legal system. it was about racial and socio-cultural changes going on in the countries. that's not in any way, shape or form to diminish the pain of nicole's family, but still it's not the same. this is a case where a woman may or may not have killed her child. we don't know the answer to the question. that happens often in this country, i'm horrified and probably those cases should get more attention and the legal system did what it does when you have a good lawyer and pay the right amount, can you get off. >> you'

we cannot allow default for this great country. >> a question, karen finney? >> how are you, congressman? >> fine. >> going off this sort of dysfunction question, one of the things that concerns me in the debate back and forth, certainly trying to ride tead the tea lea that are leaked and out there, i don't hear anybody talking about the impact all of this will have on ordinary americans, and i use my mother frankly as my focus group when she's looking as how are some of the things discussed going to impact her social security, her medicare, not to mention budget cuts in the state of maryland where she lives? we're talking about a prit cumulative impact and i don't hear that kind of thinking going on, just a lot of rhetoric coming out? >> you need to spend more time talking to regular members of congress. we spend all day every day speaking with people back home. my mother depend on social security and medicare. every american depends on them, we've got to keep them strong and there are ways to do that. there are problems. they're not at efficient. don't deliv

political analyst karen finney, susan del percio. on the pay roll, too, and jimmy williams. everybody's getting a little something, okay? they do fine work for us. fair deal. a market economy. your thoughts, susan, on what he just said, not so much as a democrat but as a politician, as leader? >> as a politician, he summed it up right. democrats dropped the bomb in december going for the tax cuts, which you just brought up and the republicans pounced on it and ran away with it. that's where we are right now. we can go with this and add insult to injury, the president was so late to the table, they let the republicans just use this as their mantra for four or five months. >> i get no results politic. let's stay in the political theater for a second. if it's clear that the republicans politically in terms of manipulating and accumulating power are whooping ass on a relative basis, in other words, they a great job through december. done a great job controlling the debate. we wouldn't even be having the debate if it wasn't for the republican political agenda this year, how did t

karen finney and robert traynham, good to see you both. thank you. >> thank you.ol. >> okay. we'll try. >>> it's not just washington struggling with its finances. a new survey shows that americans worry about most when it comes to their own financial health. 17% say a lack of money or income is their top concern. 12% say it's health care costs. 11% say they worry most about their own debt, either they have too much of it or not enough money to pay it off. then coming in tight, it's 9%, the high cost of living, and unemployment. >>> this is the first day of gay marriages here in new york. more than 800 same-sex couples are expected to have weddings performed today in new york city. earlier i spoke with city council speaker christine quinn from the clerk's office in lower manhattan. and she described what is an emotional day for her. >> when the city clerk said i now under the power of the laws of the state of new york marry you, it was an unbelievable thing to hear. to hear that he was marrying these two women both in their 80s. because the law of my state gives hi

so we go from here joining me now to talk about the issue is democratic strategist karen finney karen welcome back here. what's going on here recently but first of all in the headline and as i said there's been a vote yeah we had that headline in case it happened and i got slipped in there's been no boat so far but we don't know i mean they're saying that it's possible there could be a vote although you know these things go i mean boehner is clearly trying to find the votes palosi is saying it's not going to happen which means there aren't a vote they're just not there they're not going to look at them with democrats and they clearly don't have enough tea partiers are willing to do it so i think this thing goes down in flames and we are you know off for another three or four days of drama well speaking of drama there the west wing covered this a couple years back and it's really interesting for a lot of people i think this is like a brand new thing but here's what happened in the west wing. what is the point schedule shows you figure is interesting to do it with the legal limit the ne

karen finney, 20 years ago, could you do these things and when you fund raise, you did not have to do the states because he is raising money. he is not in the states to campaign. you do feel the need to campaign. base voters do not like it. they told hillary clinton when she are tried to do this, stop it. this is where it gets tough. >> my read on what he is doing is i'm going to have enough money to wait it out strategy. that is what we are seeing. that seems to be the plan. my former boss tried inevitability did not work. >> eventually it did work. he did get the nomination at the end. >> and how did that work out in the general election? >> i want to put up, we teased this. cross roads is up. this is the republican group up with a new ad. quick clip of it. we can show fast. we will not play the audio. we are running out of time. it talks about president obama. they are tying to get him to own the dysfunction in washington as it is republicans that are taking on more water. >> this is smart. this is where the republican romney is saying. that is the obama's fault. this mess is obama

karen finney is a former dnc communications director. buchanan is the former communications director for president reagan and both our esteemed analysts. thanks for joining us. >> morning. >> okay, you know what, guys? we have that sound bite we were looking forso i'm going to role that. >> after our second child was born, we became pregnant with a third baby and it was an unexpected baby, but of course, we were delighted to have this child and the child was coming along and we ended up losing that child. when we lost that child, it changed us. you can get money wrong, but you can't get life wrong and i am committed to life. >> okay, so welcome. karen, she shared a very personal experience there. what's this do for her campaign? >> i think what's important about that experience is it's an opportunity for her to talk about her position on this issue from a very personal point of view so it doesn't just seem like campaign rhetoric or ideology, not to trivialize such an issue, but anytime a politician is able to bring a personal story to it

i'm joined by nbc's political analyst karen finney and pat buchanan.ew poll out there that shows that 34% of people will blame the president if the debt celling is not raised. but 48% will blame republicans. does that mean that the president is winning the political battle? >> so far i think the president has won the battle hands down, he's got the pr advantage, he's got all these weapons and tools of the bully pull pipit over th himself and geithner and the ratings agency saying everything's going bad, but we haven't ended this battle yesterday and while the president's winning now, i think the winner in one sense is going to be eric cantor in the house because he solidified a tremendously powerful base inside the republican party, he's become more well known and more popular. and i think the president is going to lose to this extent. we're going to get no new taxes, we're going to get a debt ceiling raised and we're going to get significant cuts in the budget. quite frankly when you're chopping the budget of the federal government and no new taxes, t

let's go to karen finney and pat buchanan, former communications director for president reagan. both msnbc political analysts in high esteem, i might add. good morning. here's the question to you, pat. is it not reasonable for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share? >> i think as far as i know, they're paying 35% where half the country doesn't pay any income tax at all. to the point, the battle we got going here, alex, the president is i think using language beneath the level of his office, but it reflects a deep frustration because at the end of this battle, he knows what he's going to get is very serious budget cuts, sort of a biden plan, no tax increases and an increase in the debt ceiling. and if he gets that in the middle of july or late in july, he's going to have to sign it. but there is no way he can beat a tax increase out of the republican house because they simply won't pass it. >> now, here's an interesting angle as well, karen. ronald reagan says he never would have agreed to tax hikes if he'd known that the revenue would go to more spending. so, if t

karen finney. republican strategist susan del percio and washington insider jimmy williams. susan, why can we not get a conversation? i don't know the answer to some of these things but would love to have a debate about trade, taxes and banks as way to get this prosperity back into this country. >> because you're almost a year away from an election, dylan. it's not going to happen. unless things get so, so bad. until you hit 10% unemployment, see $5 -- no politician will take the risk to come up way plan they could potentially fail at come october. >> karen, it's clear. we talked to senator coburn who says very ex-less plicitly, no . come up way deal tuesday, will have to vote on it. he believes it will do it because it's absurd. the congress when they're back to the wall will do it. and we perpetuated this thing without ever having any of the real debate all of us are so desperate to get our teeth into? >> that's exactly right, dylan. i applaud your presentation in the the beginning. one thing i wand to add. >> please. >> we talk about 9.2% unemployment. the urban league po

. >>> now we have karen finney and robert trane.ing you two. >> good morning. >> get any sleep? just kidding. what a long weekend, right? but a source close to the house congressive caucus tells us that many members are suspiciously spooked between a deal between the gop and house. are democrats giving up too much? >> there is the concern they are giving up too much. as was said in one of the last segments, the devil will be in the details. over the last couple of weeks, bits and pieces leaking out, but not a real picture of what the deal is, we saw something kind of interesting, which is part of why you're hearing democrats sound their concern, which is yet you have mcconnell saying i feel good about a deal, after he talks to the white house and reid saying there's no deal. so clearly somebody didn't talk to somebody, and i think that is part of why we're -- there's an alarm being sounded by democrats today. >> robert, one of the biggest sticking points is the committee to recommend a second round of spending cuts this is white hou

joining me now, msnbc political analyst and former dnc analyst karen finney and the host of roll callr coffee? did you get it all sorted out there? >> good morning. >> i watched. >> i paid cash. >> very good. all of us being able to pay cash, especially the government. meanwhile, robert, we heard from white house adviser david plouffe who said on "meet the press" a deal would be this two-step approach with the committee to recommend more budget cuts. will all kinds of cuts be on the table for that committee? >> i think so. look, there is really three things that the committee needs to look at. and they know this. defense, medicare, and social security. those are the three things that take up a lot of the revenues here in this country and if we don't rein those big three things in, the country will consider to spiral into bankruptcy. if you take a look at this commission, hopefully the committee will meet, and we all know, nobody wants to cut social security, nobody wants to cut medicare, but defense, again, this committee will have to sit down and make a couple of representations. pro

. >> i'm joined now by msnbc political analyst pat buchanan and karen finney, good saturday morning totart with you, the president, is he the only adult in the room after a week of talks? we have no progress. >> i think he's going to get some progress if you read the papers this morning. the president, i think is coming around, he realizes now he's not going to get any tax increases, he's going to get his debt ceiling i think even out of the house. he's going to get some budget cuts, it's not going to be a big deal, but i think a lot of the drama is being drained out of this because i don't think there's going to be a halt to the increase in the debt ceiling, richard, i think it's going to be resolved. >> karen, what do you think? we have reports late in the week, house majority leader cantor saying that the president could be losing a little bit of his patience, is he losing some of it? >> i think america is losing it's patience, i think the president is kind of channeling that for us. i wanted to correct one thing that pat said, it's not the president's debt ceiling, i mean this defa

. >> karen finney is a former democratic spokesperson, guy benson hosts "the guy benson show," good dayo both of you. karen, let's start with you. you know, telling the president to take a valium, it sounds it's getting a little ugly here. how do we come together? >> i don't know. i was thinking of those, watching that last segment, maybe we need the judge from the casey anthony trial to come in here and mediate, because he seems pretty tough. here's the problem, though, richard, and i think guy might even agree with this, the thing is, this is bad for everybody. this is not necessarily -- i think it's a false thing to believe that it's benefiting one party over the other. essentially what's happening, if you're someone who is struggling or unemployed, when you turn on the television, what you're seeing is exactly what you think of washington. that it's broken. and i keep hoping that at some point the political pressure of that will occur to both sides and they'll kind of get it together and actually try to compromise. and the major compromise is not everybody gets everything they want.

martin bashir, the mega panel here in new york, msnbc political analyst karen finney, republican strategist susan del percio and martin. doing a tremendous job in articulating the media, specifically news corp. and power in great britain. is a corrupt government by definition something that can only get worse in the face of a corrupt media and are we now seeing that be revealed? >> interesting to hear rupert murdoch to describe him visy itting downing street the back door both with the previous prime minister gordon brown, the one prior to him, tony blair and the current prime minister david cameron. and on each occasion the members of parliament said, why didn't you come through the front door? and he said, because this is what the inhabitant of number 10 asked me to do. so there was clearly a very close relationship between him and each prime minister. you have to remember that this man's newspapers claimed to be able to swing elections. in 1987 after the general election, the following day, the "sun" newspaper had a front page headline which stead was the "sun "that he won it. not an exa

joining me now live, karen finney and robert traynam, hoef the "roroll call tv. >> this is the first republicans and democrats have been talking about guts in a very substantive way. the white house unfortunately has been very much on the defense ever since this conversation began about six months ago. you take a look at that, republicans have won. unfortunately, a lot of tea party folks out there i've spoken to don't think they have won. the losers we'll get to in a second because there's been a lot of losers. >> it's just let's look at the raw politics. republicans and john boehner's house basically snatched defeat from victory last week and so all of a sudden it is the president that cuts the final deal, it is the president that gets to play the adult in the room, it is the president with the help of the u.s. senate that gets to shepherd this through. i've heard some frustration for republicans, oh, geez, we won in all the substance but he gets to take the credit and look good to his swing voters. >> i don't know if that's going to be true because it may end up being that speaker

karen finney. republican strategist susan and jimmy.e start with you, not talking about casey anthony -- rumored it will be, asked a question. obviously the white house, you've been in these rooms. the white house made a decision to try and advance the negotiations and story by having the president come out today. what do you expect? a. couple of things. we saw coverage over the weekend and again this morning about some of the details leaking out about potential, whether it's medicare and medicaid. what kind of things the republicans may be willing to accept and getting down to the point where the devil's going to be in the details. also it's going to be in the spin. we're at a point where you're starting to hear republicans say, maybe if we can clean up the tax code as opposed to calling it government spending or revenue. part of this is, what's is the political arguments that can be made or the political argument that can be put out there that gives both sides the cover they'll need with their bases? i think part of this is, who's goi

that was really gp robert traynham and karen finney, we'll see you next hour.you. >>> so it's not as hot as it was yesterday but the muggy warm weather is hanging on. when will you be able to feel the difference? we'll have a look at that next. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. i used to not travel very much, but then i discovered hotwire. now, i use all my vacation days. i can afford to visit my folks for the holidays. and reconnect with my girlfriends in vegas. because i get ridiculously low prices on all my trips. you see, when hotels have unsold rooms, they use hotwire to fill them, so i get 4-star hotels for up to half off. now