richard wolffe, what do you make of this?'t this another silver platter for the democratic opponent? >> yeah, look, it's bad politics, it's bad policy, and by the way, you know, it would fit into bobby jindal's characterization of this is the stupid party. you know, this is an old storyline for republicans. he's tapping into some very old narratives about people on welfare. and that's how, you know, somehow democrats are busing people to vote, buying up votes. we're really talking about the inner cities. we're talking about african-americans here. there are lots of code words that might work for cuccinnelli among a virginia tea party audience, but it's not going to speak to the bigger things voters are looking for. how does it speak to people's aspirations? how does it speak to people's attempt to get into the middle class, to get themselves out of being in the working poor, or cement their position in the working class? and that's where it's bad politics as well as a miscalculation about what makes this country work. >> howa

you wish they would just stop and listen to richard wolff. an attentive and systematic observer of citalism and democracy, he taut economics for 25 years at the university of massachusetts and has published books such as "democracy at work," "occupy the economy," and "capitalism hits the fan: the global economic meltdown and what to do about it." he's now a visiting professor at the new school here in new york city where he's teaching a special course on the financial crash. welcome, richard wolff. >> thank you, bill. >> last night i watched for the second time the popular lecture that is on this dvd, "capitalism hits the fan." tell us why you say capitalism has hit the fan. >> well, the classic defense of capitalism as a system for much of its history has been, okay, it has this or that flaw. but it "delivers the goods." >> yeah, for most everybody. >> right. >> that was the argument. >> and so you may not get the most, but it'll trickle down to you, all the different ways. >> the yachts will rise. >> that's right. the ocean will lift all th

richard wolffe, is this going to work?ut i think it just shows for some people, they just can't get away from politics. and i'm not sure that the people in south carolina are going to let him get away with what he is trying to kind of remake himself into. >> liz, what do you think the republicans' opponents will do with this? will they go after his character? will they go after his past? will they remind people just what happened in 2009? >> i think this makes it a little bit hard for them to do that directly and sort of attribution to use the phraseology that we do in politics. ultimately i think people are more willing to be forgiving in the instance of this scandal as opposed to other scandals we've seen. this a guy who fell in love with somebody and is still in a relationship with that person. this isn't a guy who was paying prostitutes. this isn't a guy who had a bunch of money in his freezer. it's not a guy who was using campaign funds to go buy rolex watches and michael jackson memorabilia. this is kind of a sadly t

great to have both of you with us tonight, katrina vanden heuvel and richard wolffe. share your thoughts with us on twitter, ed show and facebook. we want to know what you think. coming up, president obama tries to offer solutions, but the nra mouthpiece wayne lapierre keeps throwing up roadblocks. and in minneapolis they have reduced crimes by 40%. r.t. rybak joins us. >>> randy does a heck of a job mocking the superdome blackout on twitter, and the republicans use it to attack the president's unreasonable panel. and president obama's evolution on gay rights continues while republicans claim there is a war on scouts. we'll have the latest on the boy scouts' big decision on gay members later. you can listen to my radio show at sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday, noon to 3:00 p.m. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using the hash tag edshow. we're coming right back. testosterone to his underarm. axiron, the only underarm treatment for low t, can restore testosterone levels back to normal in most men. axiron is not for use in women or

richard wolffe, is this going to work?> well, i think you have to give him some credit for confronting this head-on. i think the aaron sorkin stirring music behind it was a little bit too much. but, you know, the question for him is in a crowded field, given the strength of christian conservatives in south carolina, are they actually willing to say this guy is not going to embarrass us again? we trusted him before. that in a crowded field might just squeak him through. on the other hand, they may not think that actually these words mean anything. >> what about it, chris? he is on bended knee. does it work in the south? >> it probably won't work. this whole thing kind of makes me feel sad for the guy in the sense -- i mean, you have to be almost pathetic at this point you have put your family through this. you have put your constituents through, this and your state through this. and you want to come back to be a member of congress. i mean, i have to imagine there is better things to do in life than put yourself through this

great to have both of you with us tonight, katrina vanden heuvel and richard wolffe. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts with us on twitter, ed show and on facebook. we want to know what you think. coming up, president obama tries to offer solutions, but the nra mouthpiece wayne lapierre keeps. throwing up roadblocks. and in minneapolis they have reduced crimes by 40%. r.t. rybak joins us. . . step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. ♪ they hatin' ♪ patrolling they tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to -- [ woman ] hi there. why do we always have to take your mom's car? [ male announcer ] the security of an iihs top safety pick, the 2013 volkswagen tiguan. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease a 2013 tiguan for $219 a month. ♪ >>

. >> richard wolff, i am too pure of soul, as you know, to analyze a marketing plan, because a marketing plan is a cynical thing. and so richard, i turn to you. >> thank you so much, i'll take it in the spirit in which it was meant. >> to interpret for us the new republican marketing plan. >> so i like rush, lamenting people going to the microphones, like the big golden thing in front of his face, you know, whose party is it anyway? there is at the heart of the philosopher, rush limbaugh's analysis, he said the perception that the majority of people supported this president. i think in the reality-based world, i never thought i would say it, eric cantor is in the reality-based world. he understands they lost the election, because it was not the perception, it was the majority of the voters who said the president was on the right track and they like his policies. the marketing thing at the most shallow, the slogans, small furry animals and motherhood and apple pie, doing things, actually is politics. you can only get to do stuff if you win elections, you can only get to win election if yo

richard wolff and timothy nolan, thank you for joining us. >>> coming up in the rewrite, the first bigince the concession speech is going to be to an audience that is going to boo the sound of his name because he was not conservative enough. the republicans like mitt romney and sarah palin will be welcome at the cpac this year. >>> and we're just moments away from elizabeth colbert busch's national television visit. as a congressional democrat. we'll find out how much her brother, stephen colbert will hurt her run for office. or if it is possible he could actually help her win. your longwear makeup might stay on, ♪ but will it stay fabulous 'til 5 o'clock? it will if it's new outlast stay fabulous foundation from covergirl. what makes it so flawless hour after hour? primer, concealer and foundation, all in one. get the longwear that survives the 9 to 5, fabulously. new outlast stay fabulous foundation from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl. . >>> ask her what it is like to have such a right winger for a brother. that is one of the questions you tweeted me to ask elizabeth colbert busch

and richard wolffe. congressman, help me out. does the republican position on these cuts make any sense at all to people in their district? >> well, first of all, it depends on which decision -- which position you're talking about. but the fact is the idea the sequester should go into effect is absurd. you have $1.2 trillion worth of cuts over ten years that would be inflicted on the budget. in our area of virginia, the impact of job loss would be about the same impact as the 2008 recession. devastating impact on jobs. the idea that we need this to grow the economy is ridiculous. this will destroy the economy of hampton rhodes. but the fact is that the across-the-board mindless cuts of $1.2 trillion will have to inflict pain. and there really is no alternative. you cannot have -- well, let's have some surgical deliberate cuts. that doesn't help. the number $1.2 trillion is so huge that you'll have nationwide between 700,000 and 2 million jobs lost. if you did this strategically, you may save those jobs, but the problem is 700,000

richard wolffe is vice president and executive editor of msnbc.com and krystal ball is my colleague andcle." welcome to you both. krystal, talk for a brief moment about that exchange between keith ellerson and sean hannity. i've heard it called epic, astonishing. what words would you use to describe it? >> it's all of those. and department of obvious. i don't think anyone serious thinks of him as a serious journalist. he does just spout talking points. and his line is the exact same line as the republicans which is the sequester, oh, it's not all that bad. the president is making it out to be this big deal. it's really not. and on the other hand saying it's all the president's fault and this is awful because obama did this to us. so it doesn't make any sense. god bless keith ellison for pointing out the absurdity. >> can we not stay with sean hannity? >> did you enjoy it? >> i did. so pitiful. but that look on his face when he has no comeback. keith ellison states the obvious to him. he has no self-awareness that he is a parody of a journalist. yet he's, what did you say? the great thin

richard wolff and timothy nolan, thank you for joining us. >>> coming up in the rewrite, the first bigeaking event since the concession speech is going to be to an audience that is going to boo the sound of his name because he was not conservative enough. the republicans like mitt romney and sarah palin will be welcome at the cpac this year. >>> and we're just moments away from elizabeth colbert busch's national television visit. as a congressional democrat. we'll find out how much her brother, stephen colbert will hurt her run for office. or if it is possible he could actually help her win. the boys used double miles from their capital one venture card to fly home for the big family reunion. you must be garth's father? hello. mother. mother! traveling is easy with the venture card because you can fly any airline anytime. two words. double miles! this guy can act. wanna play dodge rock? oh, you guys! and with double miles you can actually use, you never miss the fun. beard growing contest and go! ♪ i win! what's in your wallet? otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never

let's bring in krystal ball and richard wolffe. thank you for coming on the show tonight. >> thanks for having us. >> what do you expect from the president's state of the union tonight? >> well, i think he is going to talk a lot about the economy as that excerpt indicated. he's going to focus on not just jobs but the jobs you can afford to support a family on. it also looks like judging by the fact that he's going to have the 102-year-old woman as you mentioned who waited in line for three hours to cast her ballot perhaps as a smaller mention in his speech. i'm hoping he will talk in specific language about election reform, about how we can avoid having long lines in the future. minorities waited on average almost twice as long as white voters to cast their ballots. >> and in florida it was the longest lines. >> longest lines in the country. >> and there were people like bishop curry. if they had not done that, i don't know we'd got the results like we did in florida. >> that's right. 200,000 voters in florida alone left the polls

. >> richard wolffe, so john boehner now says it's president obama's sequester.e invented the whole thing. at the time, i believe he said that john boehner said, i got the 98% of what i want. it's at most 2%, the president's sequester. right? the president's got 2% 06 that. >> you know, maybe he has a short-term memory loss problem, but as i recall, i mean, you recall the specifics of the 98%. there was this whole debt ceiling crisis where they were about to default on american debt and send the entire global economy into a tailspin. and that's how we ended up with the sequester. now, if i remember rightly, it wasn't the president's idea to play around with default. but i could be wrong. i mean, what do i know in. >> and i thought that the president outsmarted those guys at the time. boehner is now retroactively trying to admit that after having said he got 98% of what he wanted. >> right. he wants to blame the president for a solution to, as richard said, the problem he created and this is not the natural order of things. i mean, lawrence, you showed the tape to

for more on the economic side of all this and what solutions might be possible i'm joined by richard wolffe economist now. author of numerous books including his latest democracy at work a cure for capitalism fessor wolf welcome thank you tom do you see similarities between the treaty of her side which led to hitler and today's austerity demands leading to political extremism in europe. yes i do in fact quite a few the tree of first side was the effort of the countries that won world war one to force the country the last to pay the parallel with today is that the forces that brought a crisis to world capitalism and that turned to the governments of world capitalism to bail out the corporations particularly the finance ears who brought the crisis have now turned to a mass or sturdy problem program cutting social spending raising taxes to pay for the costs of the crisis and the costs for the government bailing out corporations that leave the mass of people three times burned first by the crisis which cost their jobs and their futures second by the bailouts which bypassed most people and help

joining me now are richard wolffe and nia-malika henderson. richard, the president wants a short-term fix to these cuts before next friday. can he shame the republicans into it? and i want people to understand, we're talking about next friday. this is not by and by in some far-off time period. we're talking about next friday. >> right. i don't think he's going to shame them in time. i think ultimately he will shame them. either he's going to shame them in the next month or the next several weeks. or he's going to shame them into defeat in 2014. make no mistake. this is the 2014 battleground shaping up right now. none of these things are things you would ever thought republicans would give up ground. we're talking about first responders, security. this was the party of george w. bush. >> national security. >> right. so they're going to suffer a lot of pain. i don't think they're ready to take this on right now. i don't think the president has enough time to get them to that point. and it may honestly take two years for it to happen. my guess, th

and richard wolffe, executive editor of msnbc. richard, you first. employing these republican governors what they're advocating in their states, how good and how effective could this be? >> the president has faced tougher oppositions not just from republicans, but from republican governors on his signature health care reform legislation. and what we have seen in the last several weeks and months is that these republican governors, no matter what their rhetoric, no matter what their national aspirations have begun to crack. because in the end, they are going to be measured by what they can deliver to folks in their state. so i think it has been effective. i think it will be effective. will it change the nature of the debate among house republicans? no. but it does say to the public republicans are a much more varied group than just what you hear out of john boehner's mouth. >> heather, how can crumbling brings across america be a political issue? you're either going to fix it or not fix it. has he kind of cornered the republicans on this? >> i think h

joining me now is richard wolffe and angela.ng on the show tonight. >> thank you. >> it's a hard sell but republicans seem to crumble on a bunch of these issues. what's going on? >> they are picking fights they cannot win. they are picking fights about defense secretary who is always going to have enough votes. yes, they mess around with him. he was always going to get confirmed. it's a bit like the sequester. they have to cave. the pressure is too intense watching this unfold. medicaid dollars, really, are you going to have governors with the supreme court saying you have a choice. governors are going to turn down dollars that make them more popular. they are not picking smart fights here. that leads to a bigger question. will they ever break out of what bobby jindal call the stupid party? that's the thing they are facing right now. >> angela, you work the hill. you know it better than most people in this town. you were there in 2010 when the tea party movement was at its height and had a lot of strength. salon says that not on