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i'm david gregory, and this is "press pass" you're all access pass to "meet the press." this week chris dodd who is chairman of the senate banging committee played a key role in forming the country's banking laws on the books. he's the chairman of the motion picture association of america, which is celebrating the life and career of the great communicator, ronald reagan, a man who used his charisma and stage presence to propel himself from hollywood to the white house. i want to talk about president reagan and about films, but i have to do some top of mind stuff with you. your name is out there everywhere in this republican primary fight and in these debates. repeal dodd-frank, the regulations for the financial sector. newt gingrich said you should go to jail, you and barney frank. how do you react to that? >> i should be flattered.

in financial areas whether it's glass steegle, sarbanes oxley, i don't know why financial bills have names with them. no one pressed them about the alternative. i don't know if anybody wants to go back to the fall of 2008 when you had banks without capital standards and liquidity requirements. you had a shadow banking system, you had mortgage regulations that would allow anybody to get a mortgage regardless of whether they could pay for it or not. i don't know that anyone wants to return to that. the idea you repeal it, what do you replace it with? no one asks that question or what they're opposed to in the bill specifically. i'm not suggesting it was totally bipartisan, but a lot involved democrats and republicans. ironically it was a bipartisan product in my ways and i wouldn't have passed it without republican support. >> on on one end of the political spectrum on the right some say too much is a bad thing. on the other side a lot of

liberals think the banks are still too large and should be broken up, still too big to fail. >> i understand that. i had to put a bill together. i'm not a columnist or a pundit talking about it. i had to get 60 votes in the senate and half the how. putting a bill together in the environment we're in was hard. the fact the right thinks we went too far, those on the left think we didn't go far indicates we may have it right in a sense. >> does your financial regulation encapsulated in dodd-frank survive? >> i think so. it will survive for the next year and a half regardless because the president would veto any effort to repeal it. if people think about it and do they really want to go back? >> president obama will not get re-elected unless he does what in your estimation? >> unless he stays with what he's doing. i think if tries to become something he's not. the one thing the country won't tolerate in a politician or pub servant is all of a sudden look

as though they're tailoring their positions to suit the moment. barack obama is who he is. he's thoughtful, he's rational. for him all of a sudden to go on out and become that tub up thumping screaming politician i think would be a huge mistake. >> because it sounds like he's trying to become a populist again. >> out in the street is where he's comfortable. he's been inside the white house for a couple of years getting things down with people. i believe most people are growing to the conclusion that this is a structural economic set of problems, not cyclical. so changing the team doesn't put on you a better track automat automaticalautomati automatically. that's a growing perception. secondly, they look for a rational leader to get down the 5 to 10-year road on a better track. ilts always about a choice. it's not whether or not you vote up and down on barack obama but opposed to whom. in my view looking at the field

respectfully, i think he'll do well in the field. >> who is the nominee for the republicans? >> i believe there's a fellow in florida by the name of jeb bush. if he decided to change his mind, could have the nomination. >> could up-end everyone? >> wait until new year's day and get in. it wouldn't have filed in certain places, but i think the republican party would gravitate to him and i would understand why. >> you don't think romney is formidable. >> i think he is. but part of the republican constituency that doesn't trust him. that's showing up in the polls. that's not my own conclusion. >> you've been on debate stages before. what did you think about rick perry? >> i thought he was a little young to have a senior moment. lord knows with this gray hair of mine, believe me, i've had moments like this. maybe i'm more forgiving. i have three points toipt make, and that third one leaves you. he was on a tough stage in the middle of the things. >> do you survive something like

that? >> i think so. it's a washington chatter thing. people are watching. how many times was on this set doing "meet the press" and i -- it was either you or tim and walk out and get on the phone and call my family and staff, how did i do? they said you looked great. i'd say what about my views on immigration? tell me again what they were. in a way i think sometimes we fly-spec these moments and don't step back. i think it's human being and it's a good laugh and oops and so forth. >> we'll take a quick break and be more with more of our "press pass" conversation with connecticut senator chris dodd. [ jamaul ] good jobs in tough times. a chance to move up and do better. [ delaunta ] excellent healthcare. [ caletha ] beautiful benefits. what they used to call the american way. it still works here. [ jennifer ] not a single layoff of a u.s. manufacturing worker. [ glen ] not one. not one. doing things the right way. quality. [ jimmeka ] building cars that americans want. [ jamaul ] right here in america. hyundai is an all-american success story.

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we're back as we continue our weekly "press pass" conversation with chris dodd. you stepped out of politics, and you were disappointed approximate the state of the politics in washington, it is inability to compromise, the venomous relationship in washington, and so you sought out the warm embrace of the motion picture industry. what fascinating you about that world and about this job? >> well, i had no idea when i was leaving this is what i'd be doing. they recruited me in the late winter and went through a long process with them before i decided to do . i thought i'd be doing something else. the decision it to leave was after 30 years it was time. too many people know when to get into but not to leave it. that's true of a lot of professions. so while i loved it and enjoyed it and my colleagues, it saddens

me to hear people talk about people in public life. i would say 98% of the people i served with were honest and patriotic and cared about the country and determined to do the right thing. i wonder why some run for a legislative body, not mayor or governor in their states? you're elected to serve collegiately with 99 other people in the senate or 434 others in the house, and by the very nature of the institution that you sought to be a member of requires you be partisan, bring your point of view, but at the end of the day, the hour, you have to come to some conclusion that the country expects you to arrive at. i'm just stunned in a way that people want to be there, but don't do what's required to be successful there. >> you're celebrating the centennial of reagan by looking at his career in film and in many ways, any film buff will use that, the vessel of a film to apply it to life. he did that, of course, as president, didn't he? >> he was great at it.

>> i would say and i was a year old when roosevelt died so i can hardly say i lived during that time. in the 20th century, it was roosevelt, kennedy and ronald reagan who understood the ability to communicate to the american people or world for na matter. he brought those skills and he spent almost 30 years in the film industry. he was the first actor to receive a $1 million contract. he was tenacious. he started out when jack warner stuck with him and lou wasserman was his agent. it didn't go well the first few years for him. he was relegated to a b actor status. then newt rock aney and "millio dollar baby" came along and grew. he was elected seven times to the head of s.a.g. actors that get residuals have one person on to thank for that,

ronald reagan. he had great pride in it. he loved to talk about his years in the film industry. i remember hearing bill clinton one time talking, and i won't quote them exactly, but it is an acting job in some ways. the notion of communicating to people what the role of the presidency is is not an unimportant point he made. >> people have said to me the thing about bill clinton is he can both capture what the problem is and then speak in a very high level about what the solution would be. now, how you evaluate that depends on on where you sit politically, of course. do you think this is a liability actually for president obama? do you think he lacks that same ability it to capture all that? >> i think he does. he's communicating different. i should have added bill clinton. i said roosevelt and kennedy and reagan. bill clinton qualifies as well. we stee it today. it's wonderfully persuasive and engaging and real to president. president obama, we're in it in

the moment and because we're so preoccupied with health care and financial reform, we're not stepping back and looking at his presidency as we are now with the clinton years, the roosevelt years and kennedy and ronald reagan. i believe history will judge barack obama as a great communicator as well. different than president reagan, but nonetheless a good communicator. >> i hate it to end on a sour note, but i've been thinking about it as so many people have. this penn state scandal, these disgusting charges of child rape. we're in the middle of a national moment about this, a sort of national conversation about it that's a lot bigger than college football and even in -- but certainly goes to the heart of the matter what you do it to protect innocent people, innocent kids in any organization. what as a leader of the country take away from this? what kind of conclusion do we need to be coming to ?