so, what is obama stream? what motivates obama? one-way device that is obama's during the american dream? is that martin luther's dream or is it something else? is it the american dream? no. that seems odd to say because obama is an embodiment of the american dream. during the presidential campaign he said my story is only possible in america. and that since you think america is unique. and yet in a press conference when obama was in europe, he was asked, do you believe america is unique? actually he was asked, do you believe in american exceptionalism? american exceptionalism is the academic word for american uniqueness. america is exceptional. it's not like any other place. the founders certainly believed america was unique. they called america a new order for the ages. so obama was asked, do you believe in american exceptionalism? and obama said, no, i don't believe america is in a more exceptional than greece or britain or anyplace else. so in a sense, obama was rejecting at least this idea of american uniqueness that the found

obama? richard call-in a columnist for the "washington post" and supporter had a column a few weeks ago titled who is barack obama? it is very clear he has a set of policies. we know about those. but what is missing is a description of what is underneath that were behind that were the ideology that is driving those policies and what motivates obama's? and interestingly the last couple years we had a bunch of series about what motivates her obama in response to the fact that obama does things people don't know why so people think he must be this or that but did my view they don't hold up or make that much, sen spreads on the left and the right you have these explanations it on the right it is commonly said the obama is not the american citizen or board in this country over obama is a muslim a closet follower of islam that explains why he came out in favor of the ground zero mosque or obama is a progressive. a left liberal picking up ideologies o or obama is a socialist european-style that is

obama that he had a. clinton not that the interesting thing is you look at the team that obama surrounded himself with, and i hate to say this, but i think it starts with his ex-chief of staff rahm emanuel which is if you only surround yourself with the insiders, it starts to take a toll. which is bad to say that he didn't need some people like rahm in his white house, and i think in some ways they can start taking it over. it didn't make a similar space for the grassroots part of it. you need to mix and i think obama in some over learn the lessons of the clinton years, which is the clinton people came in and they told congress this is the what is going to be done and they came in with a lot of smart, brash, kind of insurgent types, and other people from arkansas that weren't that well regarded by the traditional washington players in the capital. and it backfired on clinton. so i think they said okay we need to pitch on a washington capital insiders. we need to put it in our administration and we will ma

his new book called "obama's war." thanks for being here. >> guest: thank you. >> host: i watched you on charlie rose. as i was saying at the break, i wanted to start with the very last thought on the program. i'm going to play it for the audience. then pick up the conversation for them. >> i'm here -- it's on thin ice. and that not enough has been done to clarify and set the direction of a war which will not -- it's not just going to define in part the obama presidency, it's going to define where it country is in one year, two years, 50 years. >> host: pretty big stuff. you think we are at an important cross roads of history. will you tell me more? >> guest: yes, this war has been going on since 2001. longest war ever for this country. right now, it's in trouble. this report released by congress this week shows that it's not. and if you take in the back of the book i print the secret ordered that president obama issued to the military and his national security team. and he lists four criteria for evaluating progress.

and obama may need them. now, the white house is right, they're not talking about it now because they are worried about the november elections coming up. but after that when they get into presidential election mode, is, we know in politics people will do anything that is legitimate to win. and sometimes things that are illegitimate. >> host: one of the things we will do during this program is show some clips if we can from prior books. but before we get to that and to our calls this is the list in front of the current book, "obama's wars." you seem fascinated, using regulate to go back to the concept of presidents and pentagon as the leadership around the war position. why does that aspect interest you? gets back because it's so important to give you travel abroad you discover we're defined by our wars in many ways. i think the country is defined to itself by its wars. it is a serious moral choice always. people lose their lives. people are named. is the defining undertaking for a nationstate, and if you can

>> obama: i do get discouraged.there are times where i thought the economy would've gotten better by now. one of the things i think you understand as president is, you're held responsible for everything. but you don't always have control of everything, especially an economy this big. there are limited tools to encourage the kind of job growth that we need. i am constantly reminded that we have been through worse times than these, and we've always come out on top. and i'm positive that the same thing is going to happen this time. >> kroft: you spent nearly a trillion dollars on the stimulus package. you've got short... short-term interest rates are zero, practically zero, and still the unemployment rate is 9.6%. what can you do to create jobs that hasn't already been done? >> obama: some of this is going to be just a matter of the economy healing. there are some things we can do to accelerate growth. we still... we've got a couple of trillion dollars' worth of infrastructure improvements that need to be made around t

barack obama took responsibility. pledging to work with the newly empowered republicans. >> president obama faced the media after the american people delivered their devastating verdict on his policies. >> yesterday's vote confirmed what i have heard from folks all across america. people are frustrated. they are deeply frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery and the opportunities that they hope for their children and their grandchildren. they want jobs to come back faster. they want paychecks to go further, and they want the ability to give their children the same chances and opportunities that they have had in life. >> obama says the only way forward lays an honest debate and bipartisan cooperation. the man expected to become the next speaker of the house signaled his readiness to work with the president. but john boehner made clear that the republicans intend to roll back a key obama policies, including al refm. >> i believe the health-care bill that was enacted by the current congress would kill jobs in a

of the opposite of obama in a lot of ways. it was an immediate indication that this white house was not going to be about "kumbaya" and getting along and trying to do everything they could to win republican votes. they were going to try and win. >> narrator: emanuel told obama to win, he needed to move fast. >> he recognized that the moment obama was going to be at his strongest was the beginning. >> narrator: in the end, the president decided to go for health care right away to make a larger point. >> we were sitting in the oval office, and we were sort of having a debate around health care at one point, and the president said, "it's about health care, but it's not really about health care. it's also about proving whether we can still solve big problems in this country." and this was going to be the test case for that. ( sirens ) >> narrator: in his first address to congress, the president wasted no time putting health care on the nation's agenda. >> let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and

we haven't seen that in president obama and die-hard obama supporters are getting nervous, does he have it in him to take a stand and take it to them? >> he may get his mojo back if he has an opponent. sarah palin has a new book and is talkingo t the "new york times." kelly, will she be part of the opposition to the white house that gives the president back his mojo? >> what's interesting to me on capitol hill is one name i almost never hear is sarah palin. in the political world we're covering, she is a forceful presence, but among senators and members of the house, remarkably, if you say tea party, they say jim demint or michelle bachman. her world within that establishment of office holders is strangely quiet. >> but they have a show on tlc. >> no, they don't. >> it shows how out of touch they are. you go to anywhere else in america and you'll hear someone mention sarah palin's name. only on capitol hill is it a name that's not mentioned. and you said something earlier, norah, that if sarah palin plans to run -- listen, she's running. >> she's not just selling books? >> i do not thin

so, the bell were in hiroshima and obama was in yokahama at the same time. >> did president obama owe hiroshima a visit? >> i think it would have been nice but frankly if the president would have done this, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about what a great trip he had to india. monica and pat would be saying enough with the apology tour. so, i think this is not an invitation that has been head lined and i don't think there were any expectations of this president. he has been gone for ten days. it's time for him to come home. >> this is a historical wasps nest he didn't want to polk. he sent the u.s. ambassador to japan to the memorial in august on the actual anniversary of the dropping of the bomb. so, there was no need for him to go. you don't want to suggest moral he quiff vow lens in the role of the united states in world war ii and imperial japan in world war ii. the dropping of those weapons brought an end to the war. it was a last resort. truman didn't want to do it. but at the risk of having a full ground invasion of japan to end the war, it was the right moral decision. >

> i don't want to see obama cry either. i want to come back to monica's point. boehner is going to discover the same thing nancy pelosi did. they are going to get things done and they will be dead on arrival in the u.s. senate. two years from now, the american people are going to hit the clicker and say where are the jobs? where is the progress on this? where's the progress on that? he didn't get anything done. >> john -- >> change the language talking about cutting spending. i didn't hear anything about cutting the deficit. he is going to adjust to reality because he's going to have a hard time fulfilling the pledges. >> he'll have a bigger problem with the deficit. it is the public debt, which is $13 trillion, is it not? >> bill has a good point. the country -- if they gave obama a mandate, i'm not sure they did in 2008, there's a new mandate. the country said we don't want to go qover here, we want to go over there. how do you compromise? >> let's get into that. tuesday's election. >> republicans gained 60 plus seats in

had yet and yes obama did go to nato defending the u.s. mission in afghanistan but doesn't mean that nato really agreed with america's current agenda abroad so if you tell come on oh i ask is can you please get with the times because i don't know who obama's charming these days that effect seems to have worn off a very very long time ago for everyone except maybe a few white house staffers. pope benedict wanted to kick start a debate the mission is accomplished the pope has said that condom use may be justified in special circumstances such as that of male prostitutes seeking protection from hiv or aids the pope made the statements during conversations with a german journalist there's now been compiled into a book that was released today but today the vatican came out making a correction of the pope's statement adding that in fact his comments about condom use also apply to women her own but just the hint of a change on condom policy really began raising a lot of hopes for people but the church might start you know backing away from its r.

chris: contrast that to what barack obama told you, bob, in your new book, "obama's wars. quote, we'll do everything we can to prevent it but even 9/11, we absorbed it and we are stronger. a potential game changer would be a weapon of mass destruction in a major american city, because that's one area where you cannot afford any mistakes. is there a difference between these fellas in terms of what to do after 9/11, what obama would have done, what we're doing now? >> certainly obama would not have gone into iraq and, of course, you know bush is right, they didn't hit us again. chris: is there a connection? >> no, there's not, unfortunately. as we know, there was no al qaeda in iraq until we invaded. and then they came. >> but the sort of political extraordinariness of the bush administration was cheney imagined to convince 70% of the american people that iraq was, saddam hussein was directly behind iraq. chris: you're right, it's in the polling. >> the other piece of it was everyone in that inner circle, in the foreign policy team and at the cia, they felt that it was compl

prospects looked worse than obama's do now. i think in our hyperventilating commentarriat tend to exaggerate what's happening this week, and as significant as the election was, it was a typical correction that we associate with all bi-elections, and the last three elections have been swing elections. so it may well be that we're going to see this kind of back-and-forth now for some period of time. and i don't see it as necessarily an indication that 2012 is going to deliver either the house or the senate or the white house to the republican party. >> rose: reminds me of mrs. churchill who said to winston churchill after his defeat in 1946, it may be a blessing in disguise. and mr. churchill said it's a hell of a disguise. >> i wouldn't describe it as a pleasing in disguise, but i wouldn't say the presidenciy is dead on arrival at this point. >> rose: so who has influenced barack obama's mind? >> that's a very difficult question to answer in short order. i think he is seriously influenced by social christianity, by the gospels--

obama's real religion. his favorite team, the chicago bulls, who just happen to play in the same division as the milwaukee bucks whose arena just happened to be known as the mecca. coincidence? the wall street shuffle. big business's latest fix. avoiding taxes on the big bonuses. my special guest michael moore. including his response to shots taken at him by president bush in his new autobiography. bush versus reality. waterboarding? >> if it's legal, president bush, and if an american is taken into custody in a foreign country, not necessarily in uniform. >> i'm not going to debate the issue, matt. >> the tea party rallies against michelle backman. ron paul endorses her opponent. plus -- >> backman is a loud mouth. >> so how was your weekend? >> msnbc has a hard and fast rule that political donations represent bias in journalism unless you ask first. >> all the news and commentary now on "countdown." >> ready? here we go. >>> good evening from new york. this is tuesday, november 9. 728 days before the 2012

i think the anti-obama is mitch daniels, governor of indiana. mean, you don't get drier than the former omb director under bush. he's a number cruncher. what he's done in indiana, bret, he privatized the interstate, and everybody held after he did it, but turns out to be a genius move. he's taken budget deficits and turned them into budget surpluses. created thousands of jobs. the guy is dry, but very, very likely. i think he has a very good chance of challenging barack obama from a very crucial state. >> kirsten? >> i think that's sort of the johnson and mitch daniels fit into what charles is talking about if it turns out into the year of the dull as he said it would be, those are the type of people, but when you go through the list it always leads you back to sarah palin. the reason is because most of these people are kind of -- yes, they're great on paper, they're kind of like the bill frist. remember bill frist? great on paper, but when it comes to connecting with voters doesn't really work. the only one that really jumps out me as a great c

barack obama took responsibility. pledging to work with the newly empowered republicans. >> president obama faced the media after the american people delivered their devastating verdict on his policies. >> yesterday's vote confirmed what i have heard from folks all across america. people are frustrated. they are deeply frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery and the opportunities that they hope for their children and their grandchildren. they want jobs to come back faster. they want paychecks to go further, and they want the ability to give their children the same chances and opportunities that they have had in life. >> obama says the only way forward lays an honest debate and bipartisan cooperation. the man expected to become the next speaker of the house signaled his readiness to work with the president. but john boehner made clear that the republicans intend to roll back a key obama policies, including health reform. >> i believe the health-care bill that was enacted by the current congress would kill job

obama really wasn't. every once in a while he'd appear in a factory or workplace or talk about green jobs. >> rose: and that was later rather than earlier. >> yes. he didn't really talk about it. joe biden was given that role, didn't really do it much. and then he'd have to send out people like summers and geithner who would appear on shows like this on sunday and say, you know, joblessness is a lagging indicator and we're seeing some green shoots. it's ridiculous. i mean, it wasn't even... >> he didn't have anybody speaking to the workers. he didn't have anybody speaking to business. i mean, you don't have a central person in the administration who talks a language of business so you get a jack welch as you did earlier in the show feeling like they don't talk my language and you didn't have peel who really felt like they were talking to the average guy losing a job. >> i would argue he accelerated the narrative. the president was brought in because people wanted change. in many ways the change they wante

president obama said yesterday in the news conference that i had the privilege of attending that we had to act fast and furious to get out of the ditch ok for you aren't you in your folks the republicans certainly weren't satisfied and you probably very quickly fell with your victory what's going to be different this time what's the difference you know a lot of what a little a little says let me finish my question a little supercharged tea party stuff and who knows where that's going to lead to i mean if we just heard here bob just said that the president was punished for doing too much what he thinks. well i would say that the president's agenda was part of it but i'm not exactly sure this was a vote of confidence for republicans either the bottom line is we were not the victors yesterday we were the beneficiaries of voter anger a lot of people are going to put this on the tea party and say particularly the us media these are a bunch of crazies they're not really crazies or average americans are concerned about the fiscal plight of this country yes we are going to have gridlock but

snubs obama. congressional republicans said they were too busy to accept the invitation to a bipartisanship leadership meeting thursday of last week. the meeting would mark the first time president obama meets with new leaders since the midterm elections. the white house postponed the meeting until november 30 to accommodate the g.o.p. schedule. question, was president obama trying to lure the g.o.p. into a snare? and did they dodge the trap? >> no, i don't think he was trying to lure them. i think the president is genuine, talking about bipartisanship, compromise. i think he's being followish in a way to say this so openly that he's ready to compromise. where is the leverage going to come when the meeting actually happens? >> right. senator mcconnell was complaining that he never really met with the president, hadn't gotten any phone calls, and now we've gotten two phone calls, as though they were welcoming this. they are intimidated by the tea party that doesn't want them to do any engagement ac

obama's father, of course, was kenyan.herever you go on this vast continent you can find shops named after the american president, obama sells. politicians have tried to gain inspiration from his political discord, too. there's one area where perhaps he's less popular is here in sudan. the leaders were infuriated when he renewed u.s. sanctions on the company but in general the africans remained upbeat about president obama in a way perhaps many americans haven't. >> barack obama promised to make the middle east peace process one of its foreign policy priorities from day one. in terms of commitment, an almost infectious enthusiasm, he's arguably succeeded. despite some of the mistrust between palestinian and israeli leaders, president obama and his team managed to cajole them back to direct talks and the negotiating table at the start of september. but those talks are currently stalled over the issue of illegal jewish settlement on the palestinian west bank. mr. obama's view is that continued building in the settlement does

obama is probably not to blame. my issue with obama and his administration is the way he is forcing things on us, which is no different than any government in the past 30 years. health care, he has forced us to take it. he did not care what people wanted. that is my issue with obama, not what he is or is not doing for the economy. guest: i think that is a very pertinent comment. i am also of the opinion, that while health care needed to be addressed, clearly it is a crisis in the economy, was not the most pressing crisis. i think it smacked with a bit of hubris that they were going to had onlys on when they die taken on have of the economy. the problem taking on health care when he did, he sort of used his political capital. now we need more stimulus, more government intervention, but it is politically impossible because of this rebellion over big government. i think it was a political mess copulation. host: michael hirsch is the author of "capital offense." he is also the chief correspondent with "national journal.

major political parties it's a repudiation of the bush years as well as the first couple years of obama and i think that it's hard to say that it's not a long term political winner because it's hard to predict the long term but we do know the short term what's about to happen in this election and that is that there are seats in play all over the country especially in the midwest especially in the northeast especially in the suburbs they were not in play under the old paradigm that said republicans had to move this forward of the center or even to the left as possible to compete in these areas and i think it's now becoming clear that if you run and the core fiscal conservative message of limited government you can compete anywhere in the country i think the tea party gives ground troops to fiscal conservatism which used to only exist on the social side on things like guns and abortion and i think that bodes very very well for republicans having the sort of ground president they're going to need to compete in these areas in the mid to long term as well ok peter brown in orlando so it cuts

obama changed all that in 2008. he won the state of virginia which no democrat had won since lyndon johnson in 1964. he won indiana, he won north carolina. so we are then saying and i think he acted on, governed upon this principle, wait a minute, it's a whole different country, the ideological center has shift ed and it's a different map and he's going to govern on those premises but hold on, that's the message of 2010, it's a very familiar map and a very narrow one. so for me the question is how does barack obama react to that? does he say over the next two years i'm going to bet back to that wide map? i'm going to show i can run for reelection and compete in virginia and indiana. or does he say, well, look, i'm not going to get that back so i'm going to fight on a traditional map. that means maximizing the traditional democratic coalition. so the message and the policies from those two choices i laid out are quite different, i think. and i think we will see within the first couple of months what bet obama and his

now it's the obama bailout. they haven't made a job good making it clear that that policy that hurt him is a policy that has con newity that goes back into the other party and it's the previous adnisttion. >> charlie: he should be wary of changing his policies of changing his direction because truth be known he is essentially a centrist and as john just said it's a question of the public catching up to him. >> he has to be more assertive than he has been. he said at a photo opportunity with his cabinet, he has to be part of what gets down now. he can't be part of it he must lead it. he's identified very wel the challenges the country must deal with. deficit reduction, afghanistan, education, jobs first and foremost and immigration. i think he's picked all the right energy. he's picked all the right things. he must, this is a mathematical reality he accepts, he must find ways to cooperate with republicans without abandoning his principles. >> charlie: these republicans and democrats cooperate over the next two ye

republicans say president obama ambushed them. republicans say obama broke their trust. republicans also say they're fiscally conservative. republicans say they're cracking down on our national debt by cutting earmarks. it is true that republicans have been saying all of these things. that is not the same thing as those things being true. in that spirit i hereby declare that if there is, in fact, a coup in madagascar today, it is to make me queen of madagascar. it is true that those things have all been said, i just said them. you can put them in quotes. it is true that someone has said those things that is not the same thing as those things being true. there is a difference and it is really, really, really important. without taking pills around the clock? try thermacare heatwraps, for all day relief without pills. i was surprised, thermacare worked all day. you feel the heat. and it relaxes and unlocks the muscle. you've got to try it. [ man ] thermacare, more effective for back pain than the maximum dose of acetaminophen, the medicine in tylenol. go to thermacare.com t

i wish all of these through you know obama obama excuse me has been saying all along that he wants lunch on a motive closed down and i don't know if that's going to happen especially after this so while it was a victory victory because the idea was to get everyone out of there bring him over here and have these civilian trials and now there's still many people are dissatisfied with the result is that going to take place probably not why i think that people need a serious reality check which is something that you know this case this verdict offered them because this is what happens when you break the rules when you torture people when you do things that are illegal then you can no longer take them to the justice system and you know expected to always go your way and have a guilty verdict kelli thank you so much for joining us. all right so to come on tonight's show the hypocrites on the right who ran against repealing health care reform are now being challenged to give up their government run health care outside time award and then has obama given up he seems unwilling to fight anyone the