and they said if this is obama's preacher than obama must share the same beliefs and so what obama did is it a very good speech on race that was perceived as being extraordinary , and he basically said he parsed very w he said on one level he disagreed right but on another level he could understand where he was coming from. on some level c criticized whites and blacks. >> host: would ultimately have to cut with his pastor loose and apologized for his choice of words during the gates episode how do you think he handled these controversy will wilentz that you just cited? >> guest: she's handled the best he can in the since the first black president he's forced out of necessity to tread lightly on racial matters and to this as a candidate, too. he would say on the one hand does america have this history of racial slavery, this awful history of segregation. but on the other, she was a prime example of the progress that had been made. another great example is the three times he mentions race during his inaugural speech he talked about those of us who felt the lash of the weapon during the i

then senator obama. one of his most famous speeches was in 2007 commemorating selma at a demonstration that occurred in march 1965 that really culminated in the passage of the voting rights act several months later. famously king and others are really turned away from the bridge. there is going to be a lot of racial violence against those divestitures. john lewis who is the head of the student nonviolent coordinating committee will be brutally beaten. it is one of the iconic images of the civil rights era. what senator obama said then at that speech was that the new generation of civil rights activists were the joshua generation. he called dr. king's generation the moses' generation, and it was really the joshua generation, people like him, who were going to see the promised land. he put himself directly as an air and beneficiary of the civil-rights movement of. in contrast we really never talked as a nation about black power. and when we did it was only in a negative context. one of the things i wanted

obama could have that luck.e's going to lose senators and members of congress in '02, but his reelection, i think, is on track. the presidents who have their recessions late like carter and the first bush are extremely unlucky and go home earlier. >> yeah, i think that comparison is apt particularly with president carter, you have to have concern with the economy and in the white house for president obama. he's undertaken so many policies that are the antithesis of what i think many economist would suggest that you do in such a recession, they're anti-growth policies. you're talking about raising taxes on small business owners at a time when small business owners can least afford to pay additional taxes and talking about raising payroll taxes. we still haven't necessarily seen the end of the real estate troubles. there's, i think, smart economists who are predicting, if not a collapse of commercial real estate, at least some serious problems coming in the months ahead. so, i'm skeptical that we have seen the wor

obama came in. for example, the problem with the state department issuing visas when perhaps they shouldn't or not telling people who they've issued visas to was the result of then secretary colin powell early in the bush administration coming up to the congress, myself on the judiciary, saying don't give the authority to approve visas to department of homeland security. we want to keep it in -- >> that's a fair point. i should correct my errors, karl rove and me. but look, you know as well as i do, everybody knows at this point, that the obama administration has dismantled the bush-cheney apparatus. they dismantled it. if i were vice president cheney and i assume president bush will do this in his book, which is going to be out in september, you've got to say, look, this is wrong headed. we had the right policies. we kept america safe after 9-11. now they're dismantling it and putting everybody in danger. as karl rove said, that's the responsible thing to say, is it not? >> i don't think they're di

maybe obama will. recognizing that an alliance with india is almost certainly in the strategic interests of both countries, and fostering that, would beat a very astute thing to do. he has a problem with taiwan. i hope he will continue to take what has become the recent history of the american administrations, insisting that this dispute be resolved peacefully. i think he is it -- i think it is in the process of being resolved by them. he can encourage that. >> steve, as we both complete this section and turned to a sense of back-and-forth, responding to each other's remarks, let me ask you, as a japan watcher, to offer some comments about the asia strategy. first, does he have an asia strategy? second, how do you judge the performance, both hillary clinton is tour and the presidents. secondly, part of that answer or separately, i think one of the ways that any reasonable panel would judge the performance of a president and international affairs would be to ask what has he accomplished in some of these

he loved obama.en given to speak in new york -- heard david geffen speak in new york, he was very tough on bill and hillary clinton. maureen in the audience was struck not only by how tough he was talking about clinton's morality, but here they were in new york, the state hillary clinton represented, and the audience seemed very enthusiastic about the notion of that criticism of hillary clinton. over a long period of time, maureen was lobbying david geffen to take what he said at that event and amplify it in an interview with. she was in california at the night before david geffen was to host a fund-raiser for barack obama and she convinces him to do the interview. host: what year is this? guest: 2007. barack obama has gotten into the race and has created a lot of excitement, and in communities that are vitally important if you are trying to become the democratic nominee for president, hollywood, new york, liberal circles, hillary was trying to not let obama rise up as a major competitor to her. for

obama as president outlawed. the president denies that he's witch hunting. >> i have the utmost respect for the cia. i don't want witch hunts taking place. i've also said, though that the attorney general has a job to uphold the law, but i continue to believe that nobody's above the law. >> attorney general eric holder acting on president obama's directive has announced an investigation to see whether the cia denied the civil rights of 9/11 actors such as khalid shaikh mohammed during the bush/cheney presidency. holder says the investigation, begun in april '09, would be sweeping and bowelless. it is still underway. >> we're going to follow the evidence wherever it takes us. we'll follow the law wherever t no one is above the law. >> question. when president obama was a senator, his liberal rating on a 0 to 100 scale was 100, liberal. as a card carrying liberal, is president obama ideologically hostile to the cia and the intelligence community? i ask you? >> well, look, the founding fathers when they wrote the de

when we talk about obama cover we talk about civil-rights including the then is senator obama. one of the most famous speeches 2007 at the demonstration 1965 that culminated in the passage of the voting rights act several months later and famously kane and others were turned away from the bridge their rebalance and john bill was head of the student 95 and coordinates bid committee is brutally beaten and the iconic images of the civil-rights era. senator obama said at that speech to the new generation of civil rights activists were the joshua generation. people like him who would see the promised land. he put himself directly as the air and beneficiary of the civil-rights movement. and contrast we never really talk to the nation of black power and only in a negative context of one of the things i wanted to show and argue in this book is the black power movement all the very combative very forceful and its mazes them it made the foundation along the civil-rights movement transforming this nation to have the first black president. >> he remain that is the most interest -- misunder

that obama's a push over. the passing of health care that was supposed to be done until last august and slipped all the way until now. and the white house is chicago style very stuff. here's john boehner making this point . is shutting down politics and demonizing. chris: how can he be both the problem? >> sure. president obama and the white house, may have a problem with that they've set themselves up. for instance, they've come out and saying that we're the most open white house. we're very open. we're releasing these visitor logs. blah,lah, blah, and the reality is, it's not that open. you saw what happened late last year when desiree rogers would not go and testify on cop to hill. you know there are so many different times where the white house has not been that open that's a storyline that could actually arm them. chris: we'll be out of gitmo. we'll be out of this by august. >> particularly saying he would get the health care plan passed by august. we heard this when jack kennedy was president was those t

obama gave his cairo audience something of a mixed message. he started by reaffirming america to its alliance with israel. he said unbreakable bond but the reflection on the plight of the palestinians went further then any american president had said let there be no doubt he assured his audience this situation for the people it is intolerable. the occupation that comes and the acknowledged that the suffering of refugees who for more than 60 years haven't heard pain and dislocation and reaffirmed his said ministrations commitment to a two-state solution where israelis and palestinians each live in insecurity that is in israel's interest and palestine interest and the world's interest. two achieve this settlement he called on the palestinians to abandon the path of violence into the arab world to lift up the commitments and normalize relations with the jewish state as part of a revived peace process and old money as part of the general peace element for the region but the challenge to the israelis was more stern yet. they must acknowledge that j

and defeating the obama agenda as if we are at war with obama.nd treasonist, this is not the time for michael steele to get him out of office. let him do what we asked him to do, and then vote him out after four years. host: thanks for the call, we have dorothy joining us. caller: dorothy from michigan, right. host: please go ahead, quickly. caller: i want to say that barack obama won because all the truth was not told by the mainstream media. fox news is winning because they tried to inform people of the agenda. host: dorothy, thanks for the call. we are out of time, the "washington journal" continues tomorrow. and we have our guests, brian jenkins to talk about the

he loved obama.- heard david geffen speak in new york, he was very tough on bill and hillary clinton. maureen in the audience was struck not only by how tough he was talking about clinton's morality, but here they were in new york, the state hillary clinton represented, and the audience seemed very enthusiastic about the notion of that criticism of hillary clinton. over a long period of time, maureen was lobbying david geffen to take what he said at that event and amplify it in an interview with. she was in california at the night before david geffen was to host a fund-raiser for barack obama and she convinces him to do the interview. host: what year is this? guest: 2007. barack obama has gotten into the race and has created a lot of excitement, and in communities that are vitally important if you are trying to become the democratic nominee for president, hollywood, new york, liberal circles, hillary was trying to not let obama rise up as a major competitor to her. for david given to agree to host th

that's the obama administration's position. but, bob, i think, you know, when you think about what we're going to do, where these, you know, 198 or so people are going to go, all accounts now are pointing to thompson, illinois. but the democrats in congress, you know, they haven't been too keen on giving obama $150 million could bring those people here. >> schieffer: it's one of the questions that really went unanswered during the presidential campaign. because both of the candidates, barack obama and john mccain, said we need to close guantanamo. because they both said that, we all forgot to ask the next question: how? and that is what they're dealing with now. >> let's face it. closing guantanamo is going to be nothing more than a change of address for the detainees because they still have the procedure of indefinite detention. for people you can't take to court because the evidence won't stand up in court for any number of reasons. but you consider too dangerous to release. that was one of the greatest criticisms of the bush

>> i don't know that anybody is blaming obama -- president obama for the failure.properly said, it was a systematic failure. for those of us, but michael can't agree with this, in the green room he might, for those of us who watch this closely, it wasn't what happened. that stuff happens, just too much going on to stop everything. but i think what got everybody's attention was the reaction of the administration after the event from secretary napolitano to the fact that the president didn't come out for three days. that's got everybody's antenna up saying why can't they get this organized? that's why the story has gone on so long. it's not anybody saying president obama or janet napolitano should have figured this out ahead of time. to use the secretary's point, the system for the administration is not working. >> the president didn't play the politics of this right, chris? >> i think rich is probably right about that. though i will say if he had come out earlier and the intelligence at borne out something he originally said, he'd get whacked for that as well. i don

their trust in obama is plunging.omebody has got to make this democracy work, so if he can get a health care bill through, and it will not take effect for years, so you're not going to see any impact from it, but it is an accomplishment. it is showing that somehow out of the chaos, he could get something large done. i think that might make people more confident about what else he can achieve, and it is going to modestly restore capital. i do not want to overstate that. the senate is not going to want to go to the next divisive issue, which is climate change and talk about, let's talk about raising the cost of fuels. i do not see that happening. i agree with the underlying point, which is that so far this has been a president that is almost passive. he has been willing to lay out broad goals and led his party take rains, and the results are not beautiful, but the fundamental question is, compared to what? had he tried to lay out the template for health-care reform in the beginning, my guess is it would look nothing lik

he loved obama. when maureen dowd hurt even given to speak in new york -- heard david geffen speak in new york, he was very tough on bill and hillary clinton. maureen in the audience was struck not only by how tough he was talking about clinton's morality, but here they were in new york, the state hillary clinton represented, and the audience seemed very enthusiastic about the notion of that criticism of hillary clinton. over a long period of time, maureen was lobbying david geffen to take what he said at that event and amplify it in an interview with. she was in california at the night before david geffen was to host a fund-raiser for barack obama and she convinces him to do the interview. host: what year is this? guest: 2007. barack obama has gotten into the race and has created a lot of excitement, and in communities that are vitally important if you are trying to become the democratic nominee for president, hollywood, new york, liberal circles, hillary was trying to not let obama rise up as a maj

of obama's stash. people just do not understand that you actually have to go out and get a job, you need to work your way up the ladder, and that is what the united states is about. we need to be independent. we should not be taking so much money from our government. the less we take from our government, the less we have to pay and the more we can keep in our pockets. host: thanks, debbie. there have been 12 formal news conferences by the president. he has visited 21 foreign countries, 29 states. he made 10 visits to camp david. he has taken two vacations. that according to the associated press. julie joins us on the republican line. caller: i am not happy with anything the president has done, and i feel like he has been attacking our country with the same policies that he claims he has to help the people in afghanistan and all that. it is dividing us. he is not bringing any body together. i am not a rich person. i am from a poor laborer family that has lost their jobs because of these eco kind of poli

obama's ambassador to china.he republican former governor of utah, huntsman, will be drafted by the gop at the 2012 convention to run against presumably, president obama. okay. destined for political obliviance, pat. >> arnold. >> naturally. >> mikeke huckabee, whose presidential ambitions have been short circuit the by his pardon of a felon who shot and killed four police officers in seattle. >> democratic control of the house of representatives and as part of that, the runner up, harry reid, who is going to go the way of his preed sees predisesso, tom daschle. >> i was going to say, harry reid, is going to lose in his reelection bid next year in november. >> let's move it to the white house. destined for political, rahm emanuel. he is the white house chief of staff and he will be forced to fall as democrats in congress suffer staggering losses, as you pointed out in the 2010 midterm election. okay, best political theater. pat. >> the beer summit with sergeant crowly and joe biden and obama, on tv, john. great t

nod, and barack obama makes history.lus, a big tragedy in virginia, a big ripoff, and a big scandal at walter r r r r (announcer) where are people with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis going? ey're discovering the first lf-injectable ra medicine you take just once a month. it's simponi,™ and taken with methotrexate, it helps relieve the pain, stiffness, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi,™ your doctor should test you for tb and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections and hepatitis b. ask your doctor if you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, or develop sympt

we talked about barack obama's report card. barack obama has been in office for 50 years.bout his report card. please share it with us. >> i am loath to give him a great because that unfairly categorizes him and i know he is working hard and has good intentions. it works, we will give him an a and it doesn't work, we will give bush an f. why should i give the man of great? bill: today, he signed the earmarked bill. he did it in private because he knows -- you have to take it a little bit away from that, right? >> my man loves to spend. i am glad we did not have the right and are hitting us. i love the fact that we are getting preached personal discipline by someone who cannot quit smoking. he should start lighting up at press conferences and when they say, how many zeros in 780 billion, just -- [laughter] bill: i was impressed, and i bet you were. he tries to stay in shape. nancy pelosi, a are aerobic power. up and down come in and out. >> ♪ get physical, physical ♪ >> that toy for christmas is called the hack lined a box. when she was sitting down, i thought she was some

obama takes his case directly to house republicans. he'll address their gathering on midterm strategy taking place in baltimore. >> woodruff: now, four takes on president obama's address last night: presidential historian and "newshour" regular michael beschloss; cynthia tucker, political columnist for the "atlanta journal-constitution"; reihan salam, who writes "the agenda" blog for "the national review" online and is a fellow at the new america foundation; and john harris, editor-in-chief of "politico." good to have you all with us. michael beschloss, to you first. i'm going to ask each one of you this question. what did you think of the speech? >> what i was not surprised by... remember the last couple days a lot of people were saying this is going to be like bill clinton in 1995. clinton had suffered big congressional setback, lost both houses of congress. and clinton gave a tune i don't know, this is almost a different human being from the previous year. a very conservative speech, a lot of it taken almost wholesale out of newt gi

nod, and barack obama makes history.lus, a big tragedy in virginia, a big ripoff, and a big scandal at walter reed all next on news watch.  >> let's begin this segment with a look at the top five stories of 2007. nancy pelosi becomes the first woman ever elected speaker of the house of representatives. a federal jury convicts i lewis scooter l scooter libby, former chief of staff. a shooter at virginia tech kills 32 people. a highway bridge over the miss misriver collapses during rush hour. the top media story of the year at walter reed army medical center after "the washington post" launches an investigation into the mishandling of reports of soldiers injured in iraq and afghanistan had received poor treatment there. that story was such a surprise, judy. i mean, people like to think that our soldiers at least for all of their sacrifices are getting the best carry and the media blew the lid off it. >> it was a great piece of reporting at "the washington post." it was really the kind of reporting th

they haven't said much in obama's first year. you can't beat something with nothing on policy. >> paul: but dan you can. the democrats beat something with nothing in 2006. they offered nothing, except we're not george bush and we don't like iraq. >> i don't think republicans -- some republicans don't want to run that way. there is something interesting going on in the senate. which is that senator jim demint head of the senate steer committee is posing his own candidate to the 911 nnin j cornyn candidate. this is running against carly fiorina who is the candidate. this is the conservative pushed again cornyn's candidate charlie crist. the democrats say it means the republican party is again tearing each other up. i think it's good competition. if at the end of the day the winners are the primaries are supported by the republican voters. >> interesting trends starting in late 2009. two governorships in virginia and new jersey going republican. >> paul: right. >> you had some democrats in vulnerable districts announcing they're not

with obama at the chair, he pointedly observed, quote, president obama has said -- has even said i dream of a world without nuclear weapons, yet, before our eyes, two countries are currently doing the exact opposite. and then he informed the president that we live in a real world, quote, not a virtual world. now this critique of liberal internationalism does not mean that we reject all treaties or all notions of communities of nations. you can, of course, have transnational agreements between like-minded nations that do share norms and for whom, therefore, these agreements are real. a commercial treaty between rule of law states such as the united states and canada, for example, or the various agreements that are in the european union have near the power of domestic law as does a common defense pact such as that which holds nato together. but universal treaties necessarily include all states, democratic and tyrannical, compliant and generally noncompliant. such agreements will not be adhered to by rogue states, who will cheat as suits their purposes. rendering the treaty not only useless

[audience boos and chants] [audience chants obama, obama] >> we are doing fine. listen. [inaudible] >> now, where were we? all right, let's go, everybody. now, listen. now, more than ever -- that's all right. hold up. now more than ever, you do not need just another politician to solve problems. you not deemed -- the people yelling at each other. we have somebody with a proven track record, a leader who has walked the walk. she is somebody who has fought for the people of massachusetts every single day. i do not need to tell you we are in tough times right now. we are still dealing with an economic crisis unlike any we have seen since the great depression. it has done a lot of damage to so many people. even before that storm hit with its full puree, middle-class families were working harder and harder just to keep up. people are frustrated and angry. they have every right to be. i understand. progress is slow. no matter how much progress we make, it cannot come fast enough for the people who need help right now. [applause] here is the thing. you know how politics is. at

in the streets was obama, obama, are you with them or are you with us? which means that they don't want intervention, they don't want military action. they want support for their voices. >> okay. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> what an honor to have you here in "the situation room." thank you. >> thank you. >>> from the beer summit to the tea parties. candy crowley looks back at the year in politics. ( laughs, click ) when you hear a click, ( clicking ) you know it's closed and secure. that's why hefty food bags click closed. hefty! hefty! hefty! so you know you've helped lock in freshness and lock out air... to help prevent freezer burn. be sure it's secure with hefty food bags. just one click and you know it's closed. hefty! hefty! hefty! ( click, click, click ) >>> memory of a historic and volatile year in politics live on. our senior political correspondent candy crowley look back. >> reporter: it was the moment of 2009. literally changing the face of the american presidency. >> i barack hussein obama do solemnly swear. >> reporter: the new presi

this is a really big thing for barack obama. i think my question is, can he handle two big crises and something like iraq would be-- or iran, iran would be that and it's not clear to me that this white house has the will to take on two or three big things and, you know, the world being what it is, there is inevitably going to be something else other than afghanistan to hit this white house. >> paul: on that point, dorothy, it sounds to me as if everything you hear from the administration they want to have this afghanistan be a nice discrete political problem that the military handles that robert gates, the defense secretary handles, the president doesn't mess his own hands up while he's trying to do great domestic reforms. can he pull that off this year. i don't think he can and i don't know what he will do when he decides, when he sees that this is a muddle that's going to take much longer than possible. >> paul: and his own political capital to succeed? >> indeed and this is true, but that back to iran as well. there's a real

you see that was what president obama tapped into was candidate obama, this idea he's a new face, able do these things and bring the parties together in a way that cannot be done. i think in his first year he probably has this list. you wonder does that go to your question, government, maybe these places are less governable. >> he said the problem is you say you're going thedo something and you do it and it's unpopular. look what president obama had to do in terms of bailouts, wall street t auto companies. he had to do things. there are debates whether he had to do all of those butty takes unpopular positions because of a crisis. that's what he faces whether government is ultimately making things better. >> then politically the white house will say if we had taken a poll we wouldn't have bailed out gm, over time they think that as long as he's got the personal credibility still with the public, they may be disappointed in all of thesehings that he's doing but that somehow this personal credibility and that when the aircraft carrier finally turns, that they think maybe he'll get credit.

hugo chÁvez es una amenaza pará obama?duras. destituye a zelaya que estaba tratando de cambiar las leyes del juego segÚn el mapa que le habÍa dado hugo chÁvez. hasta cierto punto fidel castro que lo admitiÓ que se reunió con zelaya y le dijo que lo que tenÍa que hacer, zelayh@univisi@ >> debe enfrentar barack obama al alba directamente? >> va tener que enfrentarlostarde o temprano . como lo enfrenta? ese es otro tema. pero sin duda estados unidos que quizÁs todavÍa no sabe la administraciÓn de obama ya estÁ enfrentada a hugo chÁvez y el alba. >> seÑ castaÑeda usted cree lo mismo? debe el gobierno enfrentarse en gobiernos como el de venezuela, bolivia, argentina? >> de enfrentarlo por supuesto que sÍ. pero no militarmente. sino llevando el debate polÍtico. del debate diplomÁtico en la arena pÚblica para mostrar que las posturas de venezuela, bolivia, ecuador, nicaragua no son positivas. no le sirven a amÉrica latina el problema es que los estados unidos esto no lo puede hacer sÓlo si lo empieza a ser sólo va a resultar nuev

would approve of, but to cheney, it sounds like obama is soft, and he's always thought of obama as soft. he opposed -- obama opposed the iraq war, something that cheney, you know, encouraged, to say the least. so he looks at obama as soft, and he's going to do these things with interrogation in guantanamo. i think if you get into the details of it and somebody briefed cheney, he would find out the administration acquitted itself quite well on most of these matters. at the same time, you're going to have some of the government experts on. i think they would tell you in the end you can be lucky or unlucky on something like this. in this case it could have been one person on watch that christmas holiday who said, gee, this is strange, let's look at this and let's look at that and gone on alert. it just didn't happen. >> larry: i want to take a break and we'll be rate back with bob woodward. not surprisingly, bob is doing a book on the early days of the obama administration. comparing bush and much of a difference is there between the way they command in chief. [ announcer ] if you think ab

the most significant aspect is that obama went, but obama said week, the united states, are pledging to try to reduce our emissions level, and we are going to make an effort to cooperate with the rest of the world on this. that is a modest achievement, not in a sense any kind of final plan or final arrangement, but nonetheless, it signifies something that the rest of the world can take as a marker and move forward. host: the, the democratic line, good morning. caller: two quick questions. israel's attacks iran without a u.n. resolution, will they be guilty of a war crime? and the instance with the cia [unintelligible] a couple of days before, there was a situation in which the u.s. special forces went in and a supposedly killed as u.s. -- hill schoolchildren. there was nothing about this in the united states, which is one good reason why i think we should have aljazeera tv over here, presumably for obvious reasons. guest: the first question is one that deals with international law relating to the recourse to military force. what the caller asked is that if israel were to launch a scu

in 2008, much of the country was anti-war, which is how barack obama could get elected.our balance with these issues and i think the white house does have to hit back because if you leave the charges unanswered, they take on a life of their own. but you're right, the president and the other officials have to find a way to respond that doesn't look like they're in a sandbox fight, that this is a juvenile exercise in finger pointing, as opposed to a serious effort to find the vulnerabilities in our national security and to find a new way to combat extremism that goes beyond responding militarily, because that doesn't work, as evidenced by the last eight years, and two, we don't have the resources to go into every country. yemen is an interesting case. the government there has actually been working with the obama administration, orchestrating attacks on al qaeda. so that effort has to be strengthened and, you know, nobody wants to talk about nation building, but one of the best-selling books is, of course, you know, "four cups of tea" and wanting to -- and turning stones in

, the well-being of the obamas. and prayer is very important. and that they want michelle to know that we pray for you. we're praying for you you. we'll continue to pray for you and for your safety. and while no one mentions the a-word in terms of president obama we all know it's in the back of our minds and so those prayers and those well wishes are expressed as well. and women talked about the ancestors. as peggy said the historical role that we have played in this country to have the ancestors looking down on the obamas smiling because now we have a black family that's walking into the front door of the white house that was built by who? the slaves who couldn't only come in through the back doors. and so again i think that the expressions and the themes that resonate within these letters and these poems are ones that we can identify with. black women told about their stories, about their own families and about their own history to connect to the obamas. both peggy and i have letters in this book. and my letter is

"the year of big obama is over."he goal of cutting the deficit in the bipartisan budget committee proceeds the state of the union address. it is in that venue that we would like to open the phones this morning. how would you describe the state of the union in the year ahead? if you are optimistic, to 0 2/7 -- 202-737-0001. if you are pessimistic, 202- 737-0002. "the president is reconstituting the themes that helped him to win the white house to help and to counter the republicans in the midterm election after political setbacks. from the jump page of the piece this morning is also the point that rohm emmanuel, meeting with senior staff of the white house, that this was part of the cycle of politics. counterparts in sight of the white house will continue to be [unintelligible] , the twin head of the operations. after managing the obama election races, unlike many of the camping colleagues, let's return to the private sector. his book was released in november. there is this from the front page of "washington post." th

it is official, obama is an idiot. brock herbert hoover obama. and obama liquidates himself.ama's self-inflicted lobotomy it proceeds apace. it is the president risking alienating the liberal base before the midterm elections? any concerns, the base you need to turn out on election day? guest:: the base, i think, wants to see the economy recover as fast as anybody and that is why the president has been focused on job creation and has made a point and saying the most the poor thing we need to do to improve the deficit situation is to get people back to work. we want to get people back to work so that they can pay the bills and meet the rent payments, but also if people are not back to work, obviously the deficit will continue to get worse. so, that has to be job number one. but what the president is saying here is we also need to get our long-term fiscal house in order, and we have taken a number of steps. and the house we are working very hard to pass what we call pay as you go. if the federal government and, to launch a new program will have to find reductions elsewhere or s

obama is going to be struggling along for several years with this.emocrats in november, in the mid terms, it could be a real drag on the president in 2012. >> the president has wanted to pivot to jobs and try to create jobs and talk about it more, but obviously he's talking all about terrorism and security in the past two weeks. >> right. they had planned today to really try to focus on jobs. it wasn't good news. they're distracted to some level. the odd part of this is wall street had a really good week this week. things keep coming along on wall street. it's just a very strong sort of destroy craig between the two economies. if you're at that level, and wall street seems to be doing well, you hope that's a sign that employers are going to gain more confidence, consumers will gain more confidence and that will get our economy back in gear. >> nina, since the stimulus was passed, almost 3 million jobs have been lost. that's a staggering number. >> the stimulus impact is actually -- it's been on gdp growth and going to lessen as the months go by. the

it might take a lot longer than the obama administration anticipated.but he has essentially adopted the same position on indefinite detention as the bush administration has. to them the only quibble now is where these enemy combatants should be detained, not wetter and i think that is extraordinary. in essence, they have the same position i do and yet i am the one who weighs -- and folks who embrace the kind of procedures i talk about in the book are considered beyond the pale, traders to the american tradition etc., etc.. and so i think the reaction to the book was quite interesting, and the the date we are having now. it's relevant to exactly what i talked about especially the last chapter of the book that talks about policy recommendations. >> host: you're first book, michelle malkin, invasion written in 2002, how america still welcomes tourists, criminals and other foreign ministers to the shore. you detail in one of the chapters you detail some of the deficiencies of the immigration service and getting into this country very relevant today with a c

they think barack obama is bill clinton. of course, bill clinton was rewarded with a republican congress the first in 40 years. what they failed to extend the analogy is because they overreached as a result of that clear and stinging setback, bill clinton won a landslide in 1996. ronald reagan lost significant support in the mid-terms in '82. and i think the history books suggest he didn't have much trouble two years later. things can change. beware of historical analogies. >> brown: all right. fair enough. riehan salam, sipt i can't tucker, richard norton smith, thank you all very much. >> thanks for having us. >> ifill: finally, looking at president obama's first year in office from farther away. the view from kenya, where the president's father was born, and also a nation coping with ethnic conflict and corruption. tristan mcconnell, of the international news website global post, gathered these voices. >> reporter: when barack obama took office, kenyans celebrated that a black man with roots in their country had become pr

out early for barack obama. so he actually said this during an interview for this book. now that, of course, got his advisors totally off guard. this leaked out late friday night about midnight. he spent all day yesterday, it was confirmed this morning, he made 35 different phone calls mainly to african-americans leaders trying to apologize and get himself out of this mess. >> schieffer: he did apologize to the president. that was accepted. >> that's right. i mean the president said, you know, let's just move on. i've accepted your apology. the question now is though whether or not everybody else is going to move on. obviously we saw congressman hoekstra say this is a democratic problem and a personal problem. that's the best thing that the republicans can do right now. when you have somebody exploding you don't want to become collateral damage yourself. >> schieffer: stepping in front of a firing squad. >> right. what does this mean for harry reid who is on life support in nevada. this could pull the plug on hi

now the democratic governor, a strong supporter of obama, obama had come and stood with him three times saying, new jersey, vote for this man. he just lost by five points. it was about a 20-point drop in support. that tells you something. jersey is a democratic state, but they're worried about specific things. unemployment, taxes, they worry about a lot in jersey. terrible property taxes. a bad economy. that's where their minds are. that's who votes in jersey. the president -- >> i lived in jersey. >> i lived in jersey. that's what they're worried about right now. >> still in jersey. >> you don't think unemployment, property taxes -- >> ungovern bl state because people want so -- nobody wants to give up their jurisdiction. >> understood. >> we have school boards where there aren't even schools. >> all right. i have to ask you to jump in on -- >> fareed, really wonderful point. there are two great things that happened this year. we didn't have the grand depression and health care -- the other big thing is that as you said, partisanship which we thought he might be able to reduce the pois

obama to make the administration act a tiny little bit better it's worth while. but republicans miss clues, everybody misses clues. i have to say one thing that stands out here, though, is miss napolitano saying the system worked perfectly. i know she's pack track bud that's got to rank among the all bonehead remarks and she should be chastised for in and i believe they will do it. i'd like to hear what rahm emanuel says to her. >> well, perhaps he'll come on and tell us at some point, yeah, right. okay. mark, listen, let's be fair. when the president was in the midst of two wars, certainly in the year or so past 9/11 and every year of his administration thereafter, the president was attacked a lot on terrorism and how he was handling it. and yet when you hear it, it does have a dissonance to it. any way to squeeze the politics out of this? >> no, this is thoroughly, completely political here. and it's unfortunate but that's just the nature of the political moment. when we look at what happened during bush years people attacked the way president bush was prosecut

>> well, when we think about obama. obama is very, very important.he's usually connected to the civil rights movement. obama himself talked about the joshua generation. he said that his generation was the generation after the moses generation which was the king generation. one of the things i argue is that when we look at barack obama, he grew up politically at least in chicago. that's harold washington's city. harold washington was the first black mayor of chicago elected in 1983. against the conservative back drop of ronald reagan's america in 1980 there are really rays of light in harold washington's chicago which inspires jesse jkson to run for president in 1984 and '88. so chicago and jesse jackson really impact the country's evolution from black power to barack obama. the jackson campaign is a very interesting one because it's those campaigns that change the democratic party's primary rules to proportional representation from a winner- take-all system. without the jackson campaign, hillary clinton would have been the democratic party's nominee