sincerely, ronald reagan.sweat, a new hampshire democratic congressman said ronald reagan turned his vote to a yes. he was then attacked by the gun lobby and he lost his re-election campaign in 1994. we know what president reagan would be saying today if he were still with us. he would support diane feinstein's bill just like he did in 1994. the reaganite position is to support feinstein's assault weapons ban. but self proclaimed reaganite newt gingrich has not been talking about the assault weapons ban in the aftermath of the killing of children and women in newtown, connecticut. newt gingrich doesn't blame the easy availability of assault weapons in this country for the murder of 26 at the sandy hook elementary school. he blames this. >> an anti-religious secular bureaucracy, and secular judiciary, seeking to drive god out of public life. >> newt gingrich was one of the members of congress who received that letter in 1994 co-signed by president reagan, asking him to vote yes on a ban on the domestic manufact

but it was ronald reagan. he was drinking a screwdriver, and he was sitting there drinking, like, there wasn't any secret service people there and i were standing there and he was just kind of standard and it was made a couple people. been a photographer. it's not like now everybody is like this, you know. unless they had some twitch. so i, like did what i would normally, i went up and i said hello to but i didn't say hello to him. i said i'm not. [laughter] >> and he just looked at me and bobby have -- it's nice to have those people cto the dinners. w compassionate. anyway, i endedup in h kitchen. i ate his dinner, tied to the secret service guy. it was raining. it's fitting i'm here. i think i have something in common with ronald reagan. he was governor of california. i lived in california. [laughter] he was once a democrat. i once bought a counterfeit watch from times square. same thing. everybody makes mistakes. as an actor, he starred opposed a three-foot every chance named bonzo. i worked with bob dougla

i don't think ronald reagan was hit.you know what's funny, people talk about ronald reagan to this day and how conservative he was and he raised taxes in this and that but for some reason he exemplified what was special about the american idea. i do think, no one would describe him as hip but he would articulate something that nobody else could. i had a strong feeling that he was giving their and i saw it when he said that one line. i have lived here 25 years and i have no idea what you're talking about. it was an engaging line. his mistake and i said this over and over again is why he dropped libya. he got scared and i think that he had a glimpse of what he could do, but i agree with you. remember back in the primaries, there were 13 people and i bet you can't name them all. i sat around trend to name them. there were 13 candidates and including -- that guy. 14. but you like sports event that you didn't like all of them and that was the problem. i think however, i remember i was writing and they were going crazy for bar

>> ronald reagan tried to do that. it amazes me how reagan has become one of the most beloved presidents. but people forget the stuff that happened there wanted to make sure civil-rights laws were not enforced the way they were supposed to be. so he decided to replace the commissioners they did not want anybody to watchdog them. then we got into of big fight i sued them and i won the lawsuit the court said the commission should be a watchdog and i said it should be a watchdog and not the lap dog but they succeeded to change the direction and even though we could get some traction like bush be gore, going out of the voter suppression it has never been the same. reagan succeeded to listen to ordinary people and is not independent. so they should endorse whatever the administration said. so those political appointees, their job is to monitor them. and to make suggestions. in the most recent election with the activity taking place the civil-rights commission should have been at the center of the debate based on history, an

to get there you can do what ronald reagan and george washington did. they understood margaret thatcher's rules for stephen the argument then you win the vote. george washington denied that they were marching to climb on the votes in the snow storm had his officers greeted the opening pages of thomas kane's latest pamphlet which washington had asked him to write. he was the great pamphleteer with common sense and describe the declaration of independence and now it was turning out to be really hard. in july of 1776 had turned into a bitter and painful depressing and demoralizing series of defeats. when washington had the crisis which begins these are the times as washington said the first to win the argument then you in the war. people had to believe. i just came here tonight to say to you we have no reason to despair, no reason to back off, no reason to surrender but you have every reason to behave as americans. i look forward to questions. [applause] [applause] so, the speaker has been kind enough to give us a few minutes for questions and answers and

that's the goodness within ronald. and it helps me.t helps me try to find more goodness in myself. he's a loving, upbeat, happy young man. and he played in the band. played cymbals. and in the middle school band and the high school band. he ran track in high school. now, you know, he wasn't fast. but the people were so abiding and supportive. i mean the coach let him run on a relay, knowing there was no way the relay team was going to win because he couldn't carry his part of it. but whenever he ran and he came around the track, the teammates would run with him the last stretch. and say, "go ronald." and the people in the stands would applaud. i mean it was in a way, ronald gave people the opportunity to sort of find the divine in themselves. to find the best in themselves. >> he's how old now? >> 20, he's going to be 29. >> he's lived in his own apartment for six years. he has had a job for three years. lives alone. he's only 15 minutes from our house. he has a dog. he has a cat. he drives. he has a car. he gets up every morning at 6:

i don't think ronald reagan was hip. you know what's funny, if people talk about ronald ray began to this day -- reagan to this day of how conservative he was, he raised taxes, this and that, but for some reason he exemplified what was special about the american idea. and i do think that, i mean, no one would ever describe ronald reagan as hip, but he could articulate something that nobody else could. i had a strong feeling that mitt was getting there after the first debate, and i saw it when he said that one line like i've been doing this for 25 years, and i have no idea what you're talking about. [laughter] [applause] like, whoa, that was an amazing line. his mistake, and i said this over and over again, why did he drop libya? i don't know why. he got scared after the foley thing, and then i think that, you know, he had a glimpse of what he could do and the aggression and that stuff, and maybe he was too nice a guy. but i agree with you, i think like when you remember back in the primary and there were 13 people, by th

this is ronald reagan. thanks for listening. (end of excerpt) c-span: what was your reaction the first time you heard that? >> guest: oh, it was emotional. i've heard it ma--a few times now. we've played it to audiences as we've discussed our book in the last couple of months, and it's a--it's an emotional one, because you also see rea--reagan as a--his kind of emotional side. and it's authentic reagan. it's just who he is and how he thought, and it just, i think, gives a lot of credibility to the--the book, because you see him writing as he's talking. you see him thinking, looking out of a window, thinking about, you know, the fact that he has to write these things. he's really writing this as he's watching the cars, so i think it's wonderful. c-span: now did--did you go into this project with a certain idea of who ronald reagan was? and have you changed your mind? >> guest: i didn't, and so i didn't go in with a certain view. i think had i--had i had a s--fixed view of reagan, i don't know that i would have even asked for the

ronald reagan, you have in your are kentucky -- are give the great video. my feet are in concrete he said and being reagan, he could get away with going to the press conference one morning and saying, the sound you're hearing, is concrete breaking. because as governor, he concluded in order meet the state's requirement he no choice. but it never cost much. he was totally unfront and honest. he went to the people of california and said look here is where we are. it's a bigger mess than we thought. i can't fix it any other way. ic we have to do this. he did that after create agency -- nobody thought ronald reagan was raising taxes to create a bigger government. they thought if he needed it, it must be serious. what we have today is no innovation. no reform, no new thinking, no creativity, no hearings on waste. no hearings of better ways of doings things. you live until the age of the ipad and the iphone, and of google and a facebook and twitter, and you're faced with a federal government which currently runs at the pace of manual typewriter. [laughter] you ha

ronald reagan, you have in your archives this great video. reagan campaigned at one point and said my feet are in concrete. and being reagan, he could get away with going to the press conference one morning and saying the sound you're hearing is concrete breaking. [laughter] because as governor he concluded in order to meet the state's requirements he had no choice. but it never cost him very much because he was totally up front and totally honest, and he went to the people of california and said, look, here's where we are. it's a bigger mess than i thought it was, i can't fix it any other way, i think we have to do this. but he did that after creating a commission which fundamentally cut costs and dramatically cut spending. i mean, nobody thought ronald reagan was raising taxes to create a bigger government. they figured out if he needed it, then it must be really serious. what we have today is no innovation, no reform, no new thinking, no creativity, no hearings on waste, no hearings on better ways of doing things. you live in the age of th

republicans will all say ronald reagan and they will all be wrong because they no longer understand ronaldhemselves. no one will say one-term president george h.w. bush and everyone will be right about that. democrats will say bill clinton and they will be wrong. that leaves the last man standing, newt gingrich. i think that i can safely assume that none of you chose newt gingrich as the person who had the most lasting and influential on our politics and governing. and that is because the american media covers the presidency the way the british covers the monarchy. they pretend that we have a king, that nobody could possibly be more important than the president. the media simply refuses to comprehend how powerful congress is and how powerful the speaker of the house can be, something that the founding fathers discovered. why are republicans wrong when they say that reagan was such a great president? because nothing of reaganism survived his presidency. there is no reagan legacy. republicans lie to themselves and they try to lie to history about reagan being an anti-tax fanatic like republi

>> guest: yes, ronald reagan tried to do that. it always amazes me. icann has become one of my most beloved presidents in all the polls and everything else. people forget some of the stuff that happened. he wanted to change the direction of civil rights. he wanted to make sure civil rights passed in the 60s weren't enforced the way they're supposed to to be enforced, so he decided to replace all the commissioners because they were standing up and watchdogging at restorations so they said okay, they got into the fight because when they got to be ready to change me, i see them. i won the lawsuit. the court said the commission is supposed to be a watchdog. i used to say should be a watchdog, not a lapdog for the administration. they succeeded in changing the direction of the commission. even though we were able to get some traction during my time, things i wish ricoh are, out of the 20,000 election about the commission has never been the same. so reagan in a sense succeeded in making it a body that couldn't listen and was not independent and kept trying

it was for families staying at ronald mcdonald house near the children's hospital where their childrening care. there was food and fun for the families whose holidays otherwise might not be too bright because of medical circumstances >> a lackluster week at movie theaters led to a return to the top of the box office for a certain secret spy >> the latest james bond movie sky fall... returned to the no. 1 spot earning 11 million in ticket sales. the total box office since opening is now more than $260 million. here are some of the other box office winners... break [ roasting firewood ] ♪ ♪ many hot dogs are within you. try pepto-bismol to-go it's the power of pepto but it fits in your pocket. now tell the world daniel... of pepto-bismol to-go. i've been living with hearing loss for more than 50 years. me and my sister have been wearing hearing aids for most of our lives. but it's not a solution for everyone with hearing loss. i suffered hearing loss while serving my country as an army specialist in iraq. the damage i suffered in combat is making it even harder to fit back in as a civili

i had a fight with ronald reagan even though i was a commissioner one of my latino women was the only other minority we would dissent when they would try to do something that was terrible. we had a big fight with him but i went to all of those. >>host: but president carter appointed you? >> yes. then there is a new department of education and i went back to teaching and that i was appointed. >>host: when did the clear it would be a permanent

ronald reagan. every single president. george h.w. bush. >> it's a brutal job. >> they all leave broken. >> well, i mean, look at obama, he's not broken but his hair is graying. they visibly age before -- >> joe's not broken. >> but you know what, he refused to leave. remember? bill clinton still in the hanger four months later. >> they're broken when they leave, but then they rehabilitate themselves. i mean, even nixon. you couldn't leave more broken than dicks nixon. he becomes the sage of saddle river, having journalists at the dinner, rewriting history books. even nixon can come back. there is life after the presidency if you handle yourself. but history is like -- >> another reason this is so much fun and so important ultimately is remember the way the founders described -- i think it was washington described the senate as the saucer in which -- >> where the tea cools. >> right. >> that's what history is. and it takes our friend michael beschloss as a rule, you can't write about a president in full until 25 years after they leave

my fact in 1982, ronald reagan passed the greatest tax increase in american history. true or false because the same question shaun asked you. >> i talked to the president about it. >> let me go on. let me ask you the second question. >> hold it, lanny, because this is an important point. he was offered $3 in spending cuts for every dollar in taxes increased. he got the reverse. >> the answer is true. secondly, john kennedy was shown on television because shaun liked the speech. you said a reduction from 90 to 71%. bill clinton increased taxes from 35 to 39%, started with a $300 billion deficit. ended with a trillion dollar surplus. all of you and i think you on television predictedicted thered be a recession. 23 million jobs later, there was no recession. >> lanny, if what you say is true, that the clinton tax cuts did it, why doesn't barack obama say let's have back all of the clinton tax hikes? let's have back all of the clinton tax increases object on everybody and we'll have a boom because he knows in his heart what he knew in 2010. you raise taxes on everybody, a

country to do that i'm joined by jim stokoe yank and kevin powell author of the new book barack obama ronald reagan and the ghost of dr king blogs an essay so jim i'm going to start with you i know that you're going to say that gun control is not the answer but i want to show you a chart before i get your answer i mean this this chart that we're showing right here is a list of just a few of the shooting massacres that we've seen in twenty twelve alone so if gun control isn't the answer what is well what's really and truly on the chart is this shooting back the mass shooting the last twenty years virtually all of the big one at the democratic national convention which might as well be gun free zone have occurred and what we call target rich environment to go where the victims of mass shootings were able to defend the. idea that the common denominator in all the.

>> ronald reagan was the first, 1981, the first one to be on the west side of the capitol. mike understanding is that there was a center of oregon, ronald reagan fought and was a good idea, he was beginning to discover for the that way. he liked that idea but the biggest factor was the fact that now so many more people can view that. now they're there for you obama add delete your inauguration four years ago there were a thousand tickets and they still live tv commercials up and they stand there. but when it used to be on the east side there were about 20,000 people who could see the actual ceremony. and a lot more of course could be present for the parade and oftentimes there were more than a million but not for the ceremony itself. >> are all of the pictures you showed on the slides were those pictures in your book? >> not quite all of them, but many of them coming yes. i have many pictures in my book that are not part of the slide show that were sent here that are not in the book. >> if you take a look at the book you will see there's more than 50 pictures in the book. y

welcome back to spotlight i'm not been just to remind you that my guest on the show today is ronald engel hart renowned american sociologist and political scientist well russia is certainly a post-modernist country and ronald just told us that russia is also becoming post materialist as many countries of the west is that good starting to become literate yeah but is it good or bad will we lose our identity the the mystical slavic we come as a post materialist as the others the only russians are different from the old russians. if you want to call it old russians always hate the young russian. never envy them the old americans envy of the isle americans in russia is the other way around. we never like a new new generation i wonder where the progress comes from. it seems to me that young russians are different and in ways that i think are encouraging and kind of present what you like i think they're more tolerant or looking more. more favorable to gender equality and freedom of speech and things like that which. if you like it it's good if you don't like it it's. in russia now we now witness

>>> and new revelations about ronald reagan's relationships with two of the most powerful women in the world, the queen and margaret thatcher in documents released three decades later. "nightly news" begins now. >>> from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. >>> good evening, i'm natalie morales in tonight for brian. it is down to the wire now with about 80 hours until the fiscal cliff deadline. and on what is a holiday weekend for many, that is not the case for congressional leaders in washington. there was a sense of urgency today as the president met with house and senate leaders along with the treasury secretary and vice president a short while ago at the white house to try and forge a last-minute deal. the president says he is optimistic, but at this hour, the fiscal cliff still looms. we begin our coverage with nbc's white house correspondent, peter alexander who has been watching the developments all day. peter, good evening to you. >> reporter: natalie, good evening to you. after his first meeting with all of the top four congr

and we will also hear a timeless message from president ronald reagan recorded 32 years ago but still just as meaningful tonight. first, pastor rick wa warren hs book the purpose driven life has been read by more than 60 million people worldwide and currently bel rereleased to celebrate its 10th anniversary. i sat down with pastor warren to talk about the meaning of christmas. what does christmas mean to rick warren? >> the very first christmas the angels said three things. those three things are the three purposes of christmas. celebration. salvation. reconciliation. here are the three things. the first thing the angel announced is is i bring you good news of great joy which will be for all people. christmas is a time to celebrate and america right now needs to sel celebrate. people are down and discouraged. we had four, nearly five years of bad economic news. we need a party. [ laughter ] >> we need to celebrate. >> when pastor warren says you need a party, all right. >> i bring you good news of great joy. by the way which shall be for all people. >> sean: can we turn the water into

it doesn't stop the ronald reagan to stop supporting the 2nd amendment.k to us about his dad's stance on 2nd amendment. he will be here at 10:35 this morning. >>> federal investigators issued subpoenas to several major solar panel companies. they want to know if the companies overcharged for work to get federal stimulus money. this comes after solyndra, the solar company that declared bankruptcy last year after getting about a half billion dollars in your taxpayer money. monica, what do you make of this? >> incredible. here we go again. every time i appear on the show, we seem to be covering the same green energy scandal. yeah, and the real scandal here is we've had billions of dollars in taxpayer money being poured into these companies, all for not. most of those companies have gone bust. others are faltering, and still the administration pursues this. the reason it is not so much green energy per se. this is all part of is a broader strategy, stuart, of radical wealth redistribution, and they are doing it in the energy sector as they are doing it in the

the reason we need another supply-side revival of the same kind we had under ronald reagan. >> would you change anything you wrote in the original "wealth and poverty"? >> i would've changed quite a lot. there's all kinds of details that a changed. but i found that to try to change one thing would be to change everything. so you know, you get into the morass of editorial work. so instead of changing an essentially retained the old look and added 40,000 new words at the beginning and kind and revision of my monetary policy in the middle. it's a new book, but it contains the old book veered >> pennysaver bishop monetary policy, what do you mean by that? >> i failed to make clear in the original version of "wealth and poverty" that i believe can stable currencies. i don't believe including current these. i agree with steve forbes that flow currencies, which is the standard value by which every entrepreneur has to guide and has decisions it's like floating our so that people wouldn't have to work so much. one man could have the power worth 50 minutes. the next come the 70 minute and need

same with ronald reagan, paying his visit to capitol hill. why do we not see that any more? is it two sides or environment is so hardened? >> i think so. i also think that personality of these two men would not be best described as anti-social they to. but we're seeing this weird culture of bipartisan, you know we were supposed to put it away after the elect, and think about what is best of the country. i think they are staaing separate, they should be eating at the same table now. neil: they are not doing that. there is so much you could dodo with a serogate, and say surprise it seems to me, dr., doctor when ronald reagan heard things come up out of capitol hill, or tip o'neill he brought him over to the white house, said how can we compromise on this his famous line, i would rather get 80% of a loaf or no loaf at all, we don't see it, it is either my way or the highway, and i blame motorcycl both side. >> i do too, you said the word, compromise that is what works in great marriaging and even politics. meet in the middle. neil: why not have it at the white house? i think th

reagan and british p mi but >>> well, they defined a special relationship, president ronald reagan and british prime minister margaret thatcher, but now the classified documents released just this morning shed some new light on their very special partnership. cbs news reporter barry peterson has more now from london. >> reporter: this was her public life. >> the united states came down firmly on our side on the falklands and we're very grateful for them. >> reporter: a tiny british ruled island off south america invaded by original -- argentina in 1982. the british sent troops and warships to overtake it, but behind the scenes there was conflict with mr. reagan urging her to negotiate a truce which she angrily rejected and her asking for his support. you are the only person who will understand. she was not always happy with his responses describing one of his late night messages regarding the falklands invasion as so vague i didn't think it was worth reading, but one letter shows the woman the british nicknamed the iron lady could have a velvet side adding a p.s. to the president who w

ronald reagan, first term, great people everywhere. then they shuffled the chairs, some people left. second term, it's on the bitberg, selling arms to iran. chris: the second team sometimes is second rate? >> that's correct and if he falls down that same rat hole, he won't do what he wants to. chris: i think sometimes they pick people they're more comfortable with. i think it's time for him to swing for the census, middle east peace, something he hasn't touched in years and how he goes about trying to assemble -- chris: looks like he's getting ready to do that? >> no. >> i wish we could end on a positive note. chris: your chance is now. >> they are so preoccupied with the middle east, iran is part of that but on the national security side, it's iran, the state of egypt, syria. there's a ton of stuff he has to look at. chris: should we warn our grandkids that in the news when you're getting older there will be a topic called middle east peace process. >> in the history books. chris: it will always be there. >> i'm with the first one. i

. >> in an exis ambivalent way i want to talk about stability for my former boss, ronald reagan. he would have tim o'neill, his partisan, fierce opponent of the speaker of the house come in and try to work on the same sort of deals being discussed now, but ronald reagan also had the republican leaders of that same house and that same senate in. he had to mash them all together. he had to make it work. one of the surprising things about president obama in this crisis, i think, is that he walked in as a winner. he just won an election. he had everything going for him, much higher popularity ratings than the congress itself has. the republicans were humiliated. they had no leverage. so you get those republicans in. you get nancy pelosi in. and you shake it up. you give the republicans something so that they can save face pup make them raise taxes. at the end of the day, nobody's happy. but stability occurs. and the thing goes forward. i am continually surprised by president obama that he lets it become these dreadful enervating dramas. >> could i just say that when ronald reagan was

romney won a higher percentage of the white vote than any candidate since ronald reagan in 1994 beating obama among white voters. by 14 points among white women. five points among independents. he won all the groups by more than george w. bush did in 2004. but he lost the election by a wider margin than john kerry. why? because the composition of the electorate changed. as the obama campaign predicted more than a year ago, the white portion dropped from 2008 to 72% in 2012. the president carried nearly eight in ten nonwhite voters including astounding 71% of latinos, 73% of the asian voters and 93% of black voters. remains a real question why the democratic nominee can hold the obama coalition together but the republican party is right to be reexamining the relationship with minorities. finally, lesson four, don't ignore the data. the polls matter and more are right than wrong. though public polling consistently showed the president ahead, the romney campaign sin veerly believed that romney would win. why? they assumed it would be wider and older than it was. the enthusiasm numbers favo

romney won a higher percentage of the white vote since any candidate since ronald reagan in 1984. he won by 20 point with whites, he won with women, 56% to 42%. but he lost the election, why? as the obama campaign predicted, the white portion of the electoral dropped. the president carried nearly 8 in 10 non-white voters including 71% of latinos, 73% of asian voters, a whopping 93% of black voters. it remains a real question whether the democratic nominee no 2016 will be able to hold the coalition closer. finally, lesson four. don't ignore the data. the polls matter, more of them are right than wrong. though public polling in the swing states showed the president ahead, the romney campaign sincerely believed until election day that romney would win. why? romney's pollsters assumed the electoral would be wider and older than it turned out to be. the enthusiasm numbers did favor them, but they didn't have enough voters. more than any cycle in recent memory, many republicans bought into an alternative poling universe. in 2016, much of the emphases in both parties will be to match and

ronald depino is the president of the world's largest cancer center, m.d.in houston, texas. you believe that we are at a point where we could actually finally cure cancer? >> i think we're at a major turning point in the history of cancer medicine where we have a very deep understanding of how it comes about and if it is established, how to deal with it. and we have game changing technological advances that allow us to do much better care, accurate care of cancer patients. >> what is the game changing technology? what's happened? and you say this has happened really in the last five years? >> there have been major events and what's unusual about this period in science history is that it's occurred in a narrow window and across a very broad front. so it's not one technology, it's the fact that we can sequence genomes, the entire tumor profile in a few hours for a few hundred dollars what took billions of dollars and a decde aid, question have the -- >> if i look at just to understand that advance in computing. you showed me a machine that now sequences dna,

press president ronaldpresident ronald reagan and margaret thatcher. now declassified documents released this morning shed new light on their partnership. >> reporter: this was her public line on the falklands. >> just came down terribly on our side over the falklands and we're very grateful to have been such staunch allies. >> reporter: a tiny british ruled island off south america invaded by argentina in 1982. the british sent troops and warships to retake it. but behind the scenes, there was conflict with mr. reagan urging her to negotiate a truce which she angrily rejected and her asking for his support. you are the only person who will understand. she was not always happy with his responses. describing one of his late night messages regarding the falklands invasion as, so vague i didn't think it was worth reading. but one letter shows the woman the british nicknamed "the iron lady" could have a velvet side adding a ps to the president who was a bit under the weather, warm personal regards and a rapid recovery to full health and strength. the world

. >> glor: margaret thatcher and ronald reagan-- once-secret documents reveal their uneasy lianance next. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. >> glor: a spokesman says president george h.w. bush is improving and is now even winging with doctors and nurses at a houston hospital. . . bush, who is 88, is in the intensive care unit with bronchitis and a high fever. president bush's predecessor ronald reagan once famously called margaret thatcher the best man in england. meirs was an enduring friendship but barry peterson reports on documents that reveal fnother side of their alliance. t reporter: in front of the cameras, it was all smiles. >> britain and america will stand side by side. bu reporter: but the documents released today by the british national archives reveal some tempestuous moments. aft

james baker was ronald reagan's most important lieutenant. so who better to tell us how to get a deal done in washington today? i spoke with him at the baker center at rice university in houston. mr. secretary, pleasure to have you on. >> thank you so much. pleasure to be with you. >> so you've been chief of staff, secretary of treasury, you know this moment. the president is negotiating with congress over a budget. what would you do if you were to put yourself in the place that tim geithner is or john boehner is. how would you play this? >> well, i think it's very important that the -- that the top levels of both parties are involved in the negotiation and that they get together as soon as possible because what we really need is grand bargain to deal with the state of our economy. we're fiscally bankrupt. if we didn't have the dollar, we might be greece. we have a deal with our debt bomb. giev tot face the fiscal cliff that's coming in a couple of weeks. >> so you know what both sides are saying. the president is saying there's no way to mak