. >> joining me now is dana millbank and michael steele. dana, let me start with you. president obama clearly, i think frustrated by all this and making a good case saying we do things differently in america, the notion of american exceptionalism and american courage. something that was missing from the debate. that was refreshing to hear from the white house. you have been critical thus far. what did you make of the comments today? >> you are right. this is the sort of thing the president needs to be doing. this is the modern equivalent saying everybody take a deep breath here. we have exactly one active case of ebola in the united states. understand what the risks are, what the risks aren't and telling people not to respond in irrational ways. the complaint early on is as the crisis began to roll out, if we call it a crisis, people started to panic and the president was playing it cool. in times like this, people sort of want to see strong presidential leadership. i think we saw some of that in that speech here. if he's wise, he is going to do much more in the days t

joining me now is joe madison, host of the:pl÷ madison show on sirius radio and dana millbank of "thewashington post." dana's new article is titled "leon panetta, other former obama subordinates show stunning disloyalty." thank you both for being here. >> good to see you, reverend. >> thank you. >> dana, you called this "stunning disloyalty." what's different here? >> well, look, leon panetta is an american and free to say what he wants. but i can tell you what the effect is here, is to embolden conservatives and republicans right on the eve of the election. i was at an event yesterday. this was coming out with bobby jindal, republican governor of louisiana who wants to run for president. he's saying everything that's wrong with this president, you don't need to hear it from me, just go and listen to leon panetta. so certainly he's fair to say what he wants. the criticism itself is a very common one that many people on the left have made before. the timing is very unfortunate, i think, for this president, and it does lend itself to the suspicion that leon panetta is looking to ring up

joining me now is dana millbank of "the washington post." dana, thanks for coming on tonight. i know the tv lights can be a little hot. regardless of what the rules say, doesn't it look like scott lost his cool? >> yeah, it looked like he got a little hot under the collar there, reverend. and it is a little corny, i suppose -- >> wait a minute, dana, what do you have there on the desk? >> i have a fan out here now, because you ask the tough questions, reverend, and i don't want anybody to see me sweat. so i'm taking a page out of charlie crist's book. you know, anybody's who's studied political science knows about the kennedy-nixon debate, and nixon's perspiring, kennedy looks good and therefore kennedy wins the election. that's how political lore has it. so i can see you might have a dispute over the fan, but there's a time to cease and desist and get out there on the stage and air out your differences, regardless of what the air currents in the room actually are. >> well, you know, unlike scott, i'm going to stay on -- keep going back and forth with you. i've been in a lot o

and dana millbank of "the washington post" had a great take on her race. he writes, nun, daughter of the legendary senate democratic centist sam nun, may yet lose the race, but she's doing far better than expected in a run despite the hostile year and terrain for democrats. a big reason for this, she's showing authenticity and courage at a time when both are in short supply among democratic candidates. i mean, karen, a big part of her courage, is that she's not trying to run from the president. why is that working? >> because, you know what, rev, people are so frustrated with government. it's not just that they're anti-government, as much as they want to see things get done. i listened to focus groups this week from women in two states, and they said, we're just tired of things not getting done. it feels inauthentic, they're just there to fight. so to have a candidate who is authentic and sincere, and being herself, and as you point out, not running away from the president, perfectly comfortable standing up and saying, here's where i agree, here's where i

joining me now is jess mcintosh from emily's list, and "the washington post" dana millbank.thank you both for being here. jess, i thought this was supposed to be the year republicans rode an anti-obamacare wave to victory. so why are so many races still so close? >> it's amazing that democrats are playing at all in 2014 with this map. the states that they were looking at are not traditionally good ones for democrats. kentucky, georgia, arkansas, alaska. but obamacare is not a terribly salient issue this year, when it seems to be working fairly well. unfortunately, republicans have zero fallback plan. once they're done attacking the president, they're done talking, full stop. there's no, so elect me to the senate so that i can do x, y, and z for american families. they used to talk about lowering taxes or the deficit, things that at least sounded good. they're not even trying on that this year. this is their map and their cycle, and they are running on essentially nothing. >> dana, you know, in a debate last night, the gop senate candidate in georgia, david perdue, he made so

joining me now are dana millbank and jason johnson. thank you both for being here. >> hi, reverend. >> thank you. >> dana, we have to start with ted cruz and jeb bush. is this the basic gop split, extreme versus moderate, in the public view? >> or maybe it's extreme versus more extreme. it's interesting he was saying jeb was the model of a bob dole or mitt romney or john mccain, as opposed to the model of his own brother, george w. bush, who won the presidency twice. so i, i think this is just an early shot across the bow. there's little secret that ted cruz would like to run for the presidency. the republican electorate, the primary electorate has gotten it right and said we're not going with the most extreme character, even though they flirt with each possibility along the way. ultimately, they go with the most electable one. if they're going to beat hillary clinton, they have to come up with the most electable one, and chances are that's not ted cruz. >> jason, i see you nodding. what do you say to this? >> ted cruz came to the righ

. >> dana millbank writes the nasty politicization of ebola. budget cuts forcing them to shelf 14 ebola grants. the nih was forced to prioritize spending to react to the most pressing currents threats rather than potential ones and because there was little ebola activity at the time shifting money to ebola from say cancer or alzheimer research wasn't a viable possibility. with ebola vaccines entering clinical trials it's not much of a stretch to conclude that with those extra research dollars vaccines would now be on the market. all right. >> i can't let that go. that would be like me telling my mother, like when i was 14 years old and i kept forgetting to tie my shoes before i went out and played football and i kept tripping on the one yard line and fumbling, mom if you only spent more money on my shoes -- no it's that i can't stand up for falling down as abbott costello would say. we had a congresswoman who we liked very much on friday who said all of this is happening because of cuts to this budget. no. we're talking about basic incompetency