. >> we have mike barnicle. if that's not enough, we have msnbc political analyst and former presidential candidate, talk about palm beach's favorite, pat buchanan. and also msnbc political analyst and jersey professor at nyu, harold ford jr., progressive correspondent for the national journal, major garrett. and former communications director for george w. bush. >> oh, nicole. >> she's got a new novel out. it's called "joe". >> it's not called joe. >> her novel 18 acres now out in paperback, but there is more to come on that. >> a lot more to come. and we're talking, of course, today, we're talking a lot about the debt deal, two weeks away right now from the debt deal being done. mike barnicle, a lot of pointing fingers, a lot of yelling and back and forth. is this still going to get done? >> you know, joe, we talk endlessly about what they call the debt limit. i want to talk about the patience limit. that's the patience of the american public that's run out long ago on the people in washington who can't figure

i believe we will. >> mike barnicle? to the capital, where you are sitting right now. >> right. >> do you have any sense among your fellow members of congress how foolish they look to ordinary working americans? >> i have to tell you, lawrence. i see my constituents almost every day. i have gotten letters -- i got a letter yesterday from a guy worth a million plus. he said this is crazy. you have to deal with this. we cannot afford to cut up medicare, medicaid, mess with social security. you have to do something. the public gets tired of us. keep in mind, when you go into politics, i have been in this game for 30 years. when you go into politics, it's the art of compromise. you have one side going back to what mika was asking me, one side saying i'm not going to move, it doesn't put the other side in a comfortable position to move. democrats have moved, moved. the president moved, moved. we can't get 5% movement to where we are. >> yeah. that's fair. i mean, that's where lawrence you were talking about, the battle of per

i'm peter alexander sitting in along with mike barnicle in boston. joining us here at the table, pat buchanan, jonathan capehart and ed rendell back at the table. nice to see you. visiting professor at nyu, gerald ford jr. we are going to go into the 2012 race coming up. who is the most likely alternative to mitt romney and who has the best chance to beat president obama. a look at the war in afghanistan. now the longest war. how do we get out? does obama's policy differ from president bush's and what is the effect for generations to come? joe and mika and willie join in the conversation later this hour. we begin with the debt crisis. they are trying to make a deal on the deficit. houses of congress are rolling out separate compromises to safe off a default. harry reid is meeting with mitch mcconnell to craft a solution to appeal to both parties. according to reports, this would do the following. it would allow the debt ceiling to be raised three times for a total of $2.5 trillion. in exchange, some $1.5 trillion in spending cuts would be enacted. th

with us on set, mike barnicle. we have "morning joe" economist and tina brown. the general's next war, we'll talk about that. >> there's only one thing to talk about. >> i done see what's so surprising about that. >> not if you know wendy. >> i thought she was great. >> gosh. >> her reaction was so much faster than everybody else. not only there, she goes back, hits the guy, falls down, gets up, then when he was leaving, he had the shaving cream all over him she shoved it in his face. >> amazing. so instinktive and wendy like. >> it's all in a day's work as a wife. >> everybody else is flinching. >> it was great. she wanted to protect her man and she went for him. that was great. >> thank god someone did. >> talk about her. you all know her well. tell me about wendy. >> she is one of the most driven, focused, toughest people i have ever met. >> she's very direct. i find it beguiling. she's just going at it in a direct way. >> what do you mean? >> she will come out, ask what is on her mind, get right in your face. whatever she's thinking about. >> we gave an even

i look at mike barnicle. s probably more. >> you know, men are the biggest cry babies in the universe. >> you are not. >> we cannot keep up with the work women do on both fronts, in the workplace, at home. we couldn't do it. we couldn't do it. >> who are you sucking up to? >> your wife? >> my wife. >> men are not allowed to say, face it, we are doing more now. it's not like it used to be. i'm not saying that, either. >> oh, lord. >> it's a huge underlying fact, this phenomena. that is, one of the reasons real wages for families has not increased in 20 years is it's a two-worker family, both man and woman is now the norm, not the exception. we have a wholesale change in work culture. there are no real beneficiaries of it. everybody is working harder for less. >> even harder for low income family than high income families. this is not an upper middle class issue. the equity is greater the lower your income. people have less choice. the father and mother are working two jobs. there's no slack that they have spare

with us on set, mike barnicle. we have the director of the earth institute at columbia university, dr. jeffrey sachs and richard haas. is this a cfr meeting? >> on camera. >> awesome. >> michael? >> i vice president paid my dues. >> former governor howard dean. good to have you on board this morning. >> thanks, mika. >> there's so many headlines, news of the world going down and what it means or if it will or if it will be rebranded. one thing we'll be talking about. in yemen, the president was seriously wounded in an explosion. he made an appearance. very awkward looking, very different and what it means. we'll talk about that as well. i want to bring this up because it plays in the budget. sorry, where is my obesity story. >> i had a thing about a 20-pound cat. >> that's stupid. obesity rates rise 90% since 1995. this is incredible. each of these states look at how much is spent on obesity related illnesses. medicare and medicaid spend 20% of their budget to treat illnesses and these numbers are staggering. it pl

mike barnicle is still with us.columnist for the wall street journal peggy noonan. >> peggy, what do you think -- >> don't ask her. >> no, we'll get to that. are you not surprised the republican party, they believe the republican party is handing barack obama a victory by their actions. do you agree with charles? >> they could. i feel that the republicans, first of all, they are surprised. there's a general sense boehner would go through with the margin of a few votes. the republicans have stopped their own momentum when they had momentum. they had policy momentum. they had beat back the forces that just gave us a debt ceiling increase with nothing attached. they beefed back taxes. they were going to get something like the beginning of serious cuts. it seemed to me they had so much going for them, so much momentum, then they stopped themselves last night. >> right. >> yeah, it was a -- i don't know if surprise is the right word. i found it dismaying. >> dismaying. charles was channelling bill buckley, who, of course

pat buchanan and mike barnicle with with us.od article in the dailey beast and what you think the president should do. >> he writes a good piece today. he says -- hijacking of our constitution to close a view. i wonter if it isn't what we need? he thinks it should be a watershed moment where he forces discussion. >> didn't he try that? >> i think nixon tried that. president obama is now rejecting the latest calls for a short-term hike to the debt ceiling. he made an appearance yesterday. during the briefing, he invited leaders to meet with him thursday challenging them to reach an agreement. >> we need to come together to reach a deal that reduces the deficit and upholds the faith and credit of the united states government and the credit of the american people. it should not come down to the last second. it's important for us to show the american people and leaders we can find common ground. we know it's going to require tough decisions. it's better to take them sooner rather than later. it's my hope everybody will lead their ul

with us on set we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. he is back. hello. god. columnist for "the washington post" and news week contributor ezra klein. sorry you are next to him. keep your hands to yourself. john heilman, good to have you back. so, we are talking act -- did you see the twitter town hall? how did it go? >> it was tweety. >> did they have 140 people in the room? >> that's what i heard. visually, it was hilarious. obama would be in a chair and two people looking at their phones. >> i think it's a good idea. >> i saw one interesting thing. there was an analysis of the tweets. compared to the questions asked, they are much less process focused. they want to know about education and the economy. not what do you think about what they said to cantor when there was an ad. >> how were the tweets chosen? at random? >> no, there were screeners looking, there were eight of them. >> hello, willie. i know there was one from speaker boehner. >> he sent like nine. all the same one, nine in a row. >> in a few hours president obama is expected to meet with house