he printed and takes it to obama and shows him and says this might cause some trouble and obama said trouble for you because it wasn't going to cause trouble for obama and as it plays out we reported the book it was even worse for the clintons than they felt. this is the first time a lot of issues of bill clinton's chief of personal life whether they were old politics or to lose with the truth was laid out and the one to punch ladle by david geffen is the pillar of the hollywood establishment via the maureen dowd column was devastating in public for the clintons and personally behind the scenes even more devastating because of all represented. >> host: and bring to turn this over to the viewers because insure people are eager to ask their questions. blundell tennessee, sylvia democratic schley your first, go ahead. >> caller: i saw you all on another show and you are talking about bill and hillary were upset during the iowa caucuses that the obama campion. what i heard and read as they were upset because the obama campaign dustin lots of young people from illinois with the help of a.

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

think of obama. i was wondering if you can comment on that. >> yeah, i think obama dramatically put the lives of atomicity to argument. but to a certain extent, you know, i understood where cosby was coming from because i had a very anti-intellectual response to when michael dukakis ran. you know, i said, americans aren't ready to vote for somebody named dukakis because it's too ethnic. you know, and i may or may not have been relevant at all in dukakis' campaign. but i had that same reaction. so i understand where you're coming from. it obviously, we are evolving beyond that particular hangout. >> is amazing. so many rules were broken. well, now i will say, thank you so much for coming and thank you for sharing the stage with me. wonderful book. got back on track on turn [applause] been a >> thank you. got to be here. on this rather crisp january day. there's an old saying that no matter how popular you are, the size of your funeral is going to depend on the weather. so i'm so glad to see so many of

obama hasn't raised spending? >> most of the new spending that happened in 2009 happened under president bush. >> did i miss the $850 billion stimulus -- >> it was -- larry, it was $800 billion and a third of it was tax cuts. guess what -- only $100 billion was spent in 2009. no, there wasn't a huge increase in spending in 2009. there was a huge drop in tax revenues. >> my jaw hurts so much because it dropped so much after what mike said you have to respond. >> look at the numbers. >> i don't know if i can, larry. i think he's a professor at hogwarts. >> i wish. >> i don't know where he's getting the magical things. we know what obama has done, what he's trying to do and what he's going to do. you will have a good economy this year. you are. but once we get to the tax border you will see the train go off the tracks in 2011. once the tax rates hit you will see the opposite of delaying tax cuts. they are delaying tax increases and the train's going off the tracks. right today, that's my call. >> michael, you're a go

and recover from obama's attacks. and the two i'm crowing about tonight the ones that i had said were presidential pinnate taz i am releasing which ones am i releasing from the presidential dog pound? are you ready ski daddy? goldman sachs and jpmorgan who i withheld endorsement of that i have known from my travel trust and i have wanted them ghettobly the rated. both of which soared today. i think the pattern is at last becoming visible to the spart money. that's why i'm making it visible 0 to you. i'm telling you this two-day rally is really about the banks, about goldman, about jpmorgan because the president's rants on banks are from now on full of sound and fury but will signify nothing when it comes to earnings per share and in the end that's what matter. the investment banks are the latest sector on an obama corporate enemies list. this gives you a chance to make money whenever the president bashes an industry and knocks down the stocks giving them a real beatdown, the business because obama and democrats don't

obama's victory is very important. the symbolism is important but it's also been exaggerated and it's been exaggerated in the sense of obama's victory equals the end of racism. obama's victory in post racial united states so there's one aspect of the wallace b. five victory that encourages a kind of mythology and myth making that the united states is completely turned a corner and if you want me get in this country it's based on your sole individual behavior and not any kind of racial and institutional racism or any kind of racial discrimination barriers. the positives to the factory are the way in which obama, as president, really delivers a different image of blackness not only to the rest of the country and globally, but also blacks themselves especially young black people. i think one of the best things about obama being president, and we go back to that homily you start with with so barack obama could fly, could win so your kids could fly, the resonance this is going to have on african-american children and childr

>> it was bush, but then obama extends it and continues it. >> why would obama not have the wherewithal, the intestinal fortitude to say, actually, this was a republican precedent, may he rest in peace and retirement actually who did this. >> the stimulus package was absolutely necessary. i think it could have been more imaginative in terms of what it could have done to promote jobs. it was absolutely necessary to help bailout the states, and i think that it was certainly definitely the case that you needed a bank bailout. the problem is that this country always has a history of populism in recessions. what has happened with the obama presidency, you've got a double whammy because it's not just the recession, it's the idea, the specter of big government. obama has presented big government as a solution in these troubled times. that really has provoked a backlash. that's why you're seeing the tea party movement. and the obama presidency, the white house was very slow to pick that up. >> it's not true that it's an operational -- >> 1930s -- >> did not get in the way of roosevelt's institu

obama should point that out. analysis from washington, fox news political guy karl rove a lifelong republican. the president seems almost obsessed with cable tv or am i wrong? >> i think he has got a thin skin so i think he is not only obsessed with cable tv but also talk radio and anyone who is a critic or finds fault in his otherwise sterling performance over the last year. >> bill: but he did mention cnn and msnbc which have been friendly to him. you know, he seems to believe that the punditry and the bloviating that you do, i do, and all that has made it more difficult for him to do his job. do you think that's true? >> no. look, you know, what's odd was he was basically saying two things. first of all, he was saying turn off your television, members of congress, he was talking to democratic senators. turn off your television, don't watch cable tv and just go talk to the folks. we saw what happened when he went and talked to the folks in august during the break last year when they went home to their districts

senator who is close to obama. embryonic stem cell research, obama's going to fund that ngt starts adventure with one of the largest unsell companies in the world. you see it again and again and the causality probably happens both ways. i don't think barack obama is trying to embrace ge. and not because they still own msnbc were keith olbermann and rachel madell sing dare hull lilia songs. i think that they just see that the way to make money in the world of obamanomics is to line up with government and what does that do? it really sacks entrepreneur ship. ended stultifies the economy and it means that you guys won't have jobs when you get out of college, and thus one of these chosen few that google, the microsoft, the general electric, the boeing that have the best lobbyists, they are going to increase in the control more of the economy but that has the net effect care of being back on the whole economy. if there are no other questions-- sorry.

i think that barack obama does believe in the power of big government. he talks about all of these green programs that are going to create jobs and so i think it's really being driven by a view that this is a way to expand the economy. it hasn't worked, we saw with the unemployment rate, numbers that came out on friday that the economy still isn't creating jobs, despite this massive infusion of government and the stimulus. >> as a part of paul's question though, i just do not understand is what their political calculation is. i don't read it because as you said there was massachusetts. i personally believe that both the gubernatorial races in new jersey and virginia also went to the republicans because the electorate in large part is very anxious about the level of spending that we're engaged in the past year, we started the year with a 787 billion dollar stimulus package and into the health care debate which was a trillion dollar proposal and now this. i think you get to levels of spending and the american people just get nervous about it. i mean, after

obama did a smart thing last week. he said he wants to work for the republican party for the good of the folks. left of center said he is not an idealogue. some people believe that some people don't. of my beef is not with mr. obama g.o.p. i think far too many play political games. my is the gulf between the president and you, the folks. three examples, first on friday the obama administration announced it may not try khalid sheikh mohammed and other al qaeda thugs here in united new york city there was no reason to run up hundreds of millions of dollars of expense when they could have handled by the military. in fact, 44% of americans believe that al qaeda should be tried in guantanamo guantanamo n astounding number considering all the controversy. why did it take months for the white house to figure this deal out? excellent question. second, health care. americans simply don't understand the bill. more than 2,000 pages. the president doesn't understand it either because he couldn't explain it in 29 speeches. so, you

hurt barack obama. he told as much. as a result he gets in the white house a lot. he gets invited in. he talked about education with newt gingrich. he is like okay. people who are critical are not getting invited in. you have to figure a different way of working the system perhaps and sometimes it is effective and sometimes not. maybe it is important that there is a loyal opposition or just loyal opposition. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. [applause] >> hi. i have another generational question. i realized the election we just had was tiny on the blimp of things, but what we did see was the young people of all colors and race and ethnicities that were so much better for barack, were on their hands. what do you see coming down for 2010 in terms of engaging the change agent who got us where we are right now? >> if i were a democrat and who is running for office, i would be a little nervous about what we saw in these elections, except they are not representative of barack. 2010 the term elections perhap

obama will never get them. it is the people in the middle. the first step is coming clean with people about what is involved. obama at his best can be somebody who levels with you. >> ok, walter mondale tried that. he said, i am not much to raise taxes -- i'm telling you, i am going to do that. >> he ran against an enormously popular incumbent at the time and he lost three he will forever be remembered for the pledge at the convention, the convention speech. the results you read, from an independent pollster, not a left-wing pollster at all, the 33% who think obama was born outside the country -- i asked mike huckabee, the former arkansas governor, how you handle people who think president obama was born elsewhere, and he said, " i say to them, and you don't think hillary would have found that out?" [laughter] >> look, you have a taliban faction of the republican party , the conservative movement. they are getting the play right now. the game is still light in the center. that is up to the democrats to figure out how to play the game and not

>> i think obama is on the offenser, it's game on for obama. massachusetts was a wakeup call to the white house, and perhaps caused them to re-evaluate their legislative and political strategy of the past year, i think obama is trying to address two constituencies at once, one is the american public who indeed -- many of whom are out of patients or worried they see unemployment high even if the economy has grown a lot in the last quarter, and they see big bailouts. the other constituency that obama is aiming at, is the democratic senators, he wants to basically show them that he can be a strong political leader and can be of help to them in the fall and get them to pass this health care reform bill within the next couple weeks. i mine -- i think this whole turn that he's on now is about demonstrating once again that when he wants to, he can indeed grab ahold of some of those independent voters out there, and he can mobilize the base and keep that coalition together jazz it up, and give these democratic senators a little more security about what

and they said if this is obama's preacher, then obama must share these same beliefs. so what obama did was give a very, very good speech on race that was perceived as being extraordinary. and he basically said, he parsed very, very well. he said on one level he disagreed with right, but on another level he could understand what right does come from. so on some levels criticized whites and blacks equally. >> host: but ultimately had to cut his pastor lives. >> guest: yes. >> host: and ultimately apologized for his choice of words during the gates episode. i do think he has handled these controversial moments that you just cited? >> tracy i think he has handled it as best he can in a sense as the first black president, he is forced out of necessity to tread lightly on racial matters. and he did this as a candidate, too. he would say on one hand that yes, america had this history of racial slavery, this awful history of segregation. but on the other, he was a prime example of the progress that had been made. another great example is the three times he mentions race durin

i don't blame obama. i think the damage was so deep -- i own two franchises, two very successful franchisees. i am lucky that i sold them before it happened but all of my friends that have businesses in the last two years, i don't know one who has not been really hurt. yes, they are still complaining so there has not been all that much improvement but i do not think it is because of poor policy by obama. i think it is because of the poor policies of the republicans. host: thank you for calling in. welcome to "washington journal." this is from the associated press. white house report the u.s. will likely average 95,000 more jobs each month this year while americans' personal savings will remain high as credit remains tight. next call comes from texas. go ahead. caller: peter beard host: good morning, mr. peterson. been a long time. caller: yes. host: how is everything going? caller: good, watching the snow. caller: you are going to have to move to texas with us, peter. host: i am sure it is nice and warm d

senate seat left by president obama. the bank that is owned by his family, broadway bank, has gotten problems with federal regulators who say in addition to losing $75 million last year, broadway bank, owned by his family, needs to recapitalize by a date certain raising questions about long time viability as a general election candidate but among democrats, here, he is likely to win the democratic nomination and be defending president obama's seat in the fall. >> what is the republican's story? >> they are libbing their chops -- they are licking their chops and the republican front runner is leading the polls significantly and fiscal conservative, socially moderate, the type of republican that has a chance of doing well in illinois. he has tremendous support. and hopes to be riding the wave of antiobama administration, anti-incumbent, antipolitical establishment although he is a ten year veteran of congress. >> facing patrick hughes. okay, on the ground in chicago. in florida republicans have a new frontrunner, statehous

it was obama and a corn. host: president barack obama talked about health care yesterday when he gave a 22- minute speech before the democratic national committee which is meeting in washington over this weekend. here is what he had to say. >> here is the thing, democrats -- if we walk away, we know what will happen. we know that premiums and out- of-pocket expenses will skyrocket this decade and a decade after that and a decade after that just as they did in the past decade. more small businesses will be without coverage as, more businesses cannot compete internationally, more workers will take home less pay and fewer races. we know that millions more americans will lose their coverage. we know that our deficit will continue to grow because health- care costs are the single biggest driver. in case there is any confusion out there, let me be clear, i am not going to walk away from health insurance reform [applause] i will not walk away from the american people, i will not walk away on this challenge for any c

. >> president obama signs an order. former republican senator an [unintelligible] this is 10 minutes. >> america faced challenges. one was a financial crisis brought on by reckless speculation. this helped to spark the deepest recession since the great depression for which we are recovering. the recession held to aggravate an already severe fiscal crisis. the economic crisis requires the government to make investments that added to our accumulated debt. critical investments have helped break the back of the recession but now with so many americans out of work, the path to recovery is far from complete. in the short term, we're going to be taking steps to encourage business to create jobs that will continue to be my top priority. there is no doubt that we will have to address the long-term quandary of the government that routinely and extravagantly spends more than it takes in. when i walked into the door of the white house, our government was spending 25% of gdp but taking in 16%. without action, the accumulated weight

>> i think obama is on the offensive. it's sort of game on for barack obama once again. i think massachusetts was indeed a wake-up call to the white house and perhaps caused them to re-evaluate their legislative and political stratd jif the past year. i think obama is trying to address two constituencies at once. one is the american public, who indeed -- many of whom are out of patients or worried they see unemployment high even if the economy has grown a lot in the last quarter, and they see big bailouts. i think the other constituency that obama is aiming at is the democratic senators. he wants to basically show them that he can be a strong political leader and can be of help to them in the fall and get them to pass this health care reform bill within the next couple weeks. i mean, i think this whole tour he's on now is about demonstrating once again that when he wants to, he can indeed grab hold of some of those independent voters out there, and he can mobilize the base and keep that coalition together jazz it up, and give these democratic senators a little more secur

and we talk a lot about obama doing this and obama's policies as a person. but he's part of a system. and as the man just said now, you know, our foreign policy is basically killing bad guys. and it's a very kind of immature concrete idea without understanding what you were talking about. that it provokes escalation of cycles of violation or the law of opposites. and in other meetings here like a few weeks ago ray mcgovern talking about pressures obama may be having behind the scenes. in addition to us holding obama accountable for what he can do and what you said before, you know, we have to make him do it, what do you imagine or do you know is going on -- the pressures behind the scenes and how might he be constrained by those kinds of pressures? we know that if he chose not to send troops to afghanistan, there would be a huge rise up of hysteria that he's weak and he's soft. so what do you think about that? >> before you answer the question i want to say a very thank you to our media sponsor wpfx 89.3 fm. [applause] >> and those of you out there who don't

we are just as safe or safer today under president obama. miranda rights has nothing do with security. michael bloomberg did the biggest flip-flop this city has ever seen and new yorkers that i talk to are not afraid about their security. it's just i guess a measure of how we want it view it all. senator, good to have you on tonight. >> thanks, ed. >>> joining me now, joan walsh, editor in chief of salon.com. joan, is this just political pandering? in your opinion? the way this whole thing is coming down about miranda rights and security with this trial? >> of course. of course. it is just political pandering, ed. to say that barack obama has not kept us safe has not made us safer, what senator barrasso just said is just an outrageous charge and completely untrue. it's very sad to see republicans, and in the case of new york, some democrats, playing politics, quite honestly, with our national security. now we have tried terrorists in our criminal court system. we have convicted them. we have imprisoned them. they have not escaped and they ha

a crucial test to the obama strategy. here is part of that report -- that is a report this morning in "the washington post." to "the times' on-line," as we saw it from the latest news from the battle. theç taliban stronghold find u. marine and afghan units facing sporadic rocket and mortar fire on day three of the offensive. the report from afghanistan to our topic -- the report and afghanistan. to our topic. the headline, front page of "the daily news." crunk the old man -- grumpy old men. they have two pages of coverage. here is a column -- he writes, it isxd as if someone at fox knows what happens in post was keeping score, as it did really believe every sunday these talk shows is the super sunday. we will review more in a moment and get to your phone calls. first, what some of vice president cheney had to say yesterday on abc. >> i think trying khalid sheikh mohammed in new york is a big mistake. it gives him a huge platform to promulgate his particular brand of propaganda around the world. i think he ought to be at

you talk about obama and culture and politics. >> i look at obama as an opportunity or an encouragement to step up my game. i think the things that i want to do personally as a husband, as a father and as a writer, i think i already believe that they were achievable but i think what it has done this sort of reduced my tendency to klein, to say this is going to be hard. you don't know. you don't know part of this is going to be hard. i have got to do this. i am a writer, i am an. i am famous for talking myself thought of things. i am very good at coming up with reasons why something will not work, why it will not happen so i am trying to make it a point of personal transformation to tell myself, to look at why things can happen, why things can be done so we will see how long that lets that that is what i'm feeling right now. >> that is pretty good. >> hi, i am a former colleague of don's and was an instructor at columbia college so you can blame me for all of the questions. i had of course as a journalist and have a three parker. the first is about, you talked a lot about curatin of the

president obama' shoes. let's put ourselves in them. the president took a big gamble yesterday moderating the health care summit. for seven hours republicans and democrats bloviated but not very much was accomplished. talking points liked the exercise, however. the folks should be able to hear both sides. there is no question that liberals and conservatives are i've noticed lots of fishermen forget to latch their tackle box before they pick it up. (lures splilling out) don't do that. come to the bass pro shops spring fishing classic this weekend for great deals and free seminars. my muscles just ache... ... all over my body... ...it just doesn't go away. it's so baffling. (announcer) does this sound like the pain you've been experiencing? this is fibromyalgia. chronic, widespread pain and tenderness that affects millions. sometimes i need a hug... ...but i know it's gonna hurt... (announcer) there is hope. understanding your pain... ...is the first step to treating it. talk to your doctor and visit fibrocenter.com for answers and suppor

senator close to obama, embryonic stem cells research obama is willing to fund that. g starts a joint venture with one of the largest embryonic stem cells in the world. you see it again and again and the timing and the causality probably happens both ways. i do not think barack obama de. not even just because they still own msnbc where keith olberman and rachel mad now say there holley lu de obama songs commit [laughter] i don't think he's trying to enrich them. i think that the they see the way in the world of obamanomics is to line up with government and what does that do? it really saps' entrepreneurship and defies the economy and means you guys won't have jobs when you get out of college unless one of these chosen few, google, microsoft, general electric, boeing that have the best lobbyists, they're going to increasingly control more of the economy. but that has a net effect of being bad on the whole economy. if there are no other questions -- sorry. i don't know if the microphone can reach that far. >> you mentioned earlier -- he mentioned earlier you felt the am

it didn't say obama was president. it said obama to receive intelligence briefing. never said he was the 44th president of the united states. so to say it is justified individual, you know, what happens to individuals. it's just not true to what exists in today's society. has there been progress? everyone we talked to, we'll talk about the progress that has been made, but postracial has become, we would argue, i think a political term that i think we're not that far apart on that, a political term that doesn't mean anything. isn't meant to sort of squelch discussion as opposed to really open up a debate. >> yeah, i just want to add one thing, that's one of the things we want to tackle in the book which was sort of complicated class. industry difficult part, the to, but one thing you see over and over again, this gives voice to ordinary uncelebrated african-americans, or people who are black or identify with black who speak the same language as us, that we profile as from scotland originally who married a caribbean man and had two daughters, but i joke, she is the bl

it was published when barack obama was only 4 years old, we think. without the birth certificate, we really just don't know. [applause] anyway, the professor and his research assistant offered what became known as a strategyi] but orchestrated crisis. i want everybody in this room to leave tonight understanding what this is. they specifically calculated their strategy as a way to end poverty by bringing the capitalist system to collapse through a series of escalating demands that could never be met. one of their principal demands was the establishment of a guaranteed annual income, just six years after they wrote their little manifesto, it became part of the platform of the 1972 democratic national convention. and they did not just argue that these ideas should become political demands. they argued that action needed to be taken by like-minded people to recap on the system. that is the goal. to wreak havoc on the ssytem -- system. one way for that to happen was to sign up up for -- sign up the poor at such levels to tax the system. the new independen

obama road a social movement. the tea party movement, nobody in washington understood where that was coming from but it's a social movement and it arose. >> rose: did you see it coming from the beginning? >> no, i understood the distrust because i can read the polls but i certainly did not see how that tea party movement would be part of a larger movement. >> rose: are you also saying that what this president has to do most of all is get a trust and a connection with the country? a level of trust which we might have had if he had not tried to do too much? if he lad not seen too... as you wrote in one column, too too... what's the word? not imperial but as if i can fix everything and i am the great fixer. >> activist, technocratic. and i do think that's what every politician has is the intuitive sense of where the country is. >> rose: does he have that? >> glong the moment he has it. he certainly did. >> rose: well why not? as smart as he is. he doesn't have an intuitive sense of where the country is? >> because he

obama's bid to fill a key labor post. two democrats, lincoln of arkansas and ben gibson, and they write that this rival is only the latest flair up to the minority party and individual senators. senators debated months for the health care overhaul, along the way that expected filibuster. to wavering senators. we have more calls, petty politics, what do you think? caller: well, it is petty politics whether we want to believe it or not. take for instance i am a vietnam veteran, and i think that veterans have served their country well. but what they are doing is charging veterans for household income for the husband or wife when they did not serve militarily. how could you actually charge veterans on pay because of the household income feeling. that's a slap in the face. that's a disregard to the veterans that served their country. i think that something needs to be done about that. the health care debate as well. any time the republicans or democrats sit at the table, our veterans should be there also to add their view. the

then senator obama. in fact, one of his most famous beaches within 2007, commemorating selma and the demonstrated that occurred in 1965 that really culminated in the passage of the voting rights act several months later and famously came to attend another certain way from admin penders bridge. john lewis was head of the student nonviolent chordata committee and was going to be brutally beaten. it's really one of the iconic images of the civil rights there are. and what obama said, senator obama sat down at that speech was that the new generation of civil rights activists were the joshua generation. he called dr. king's generation moses generation and it was really the joshua generation, people like him who were going to see the promised land. so he really put themselves directly as an errand beneficiary of the civil rights movement. now in contrast, we really never talked of the nation about black power during the election. and when we did was only in a negative context connected to reverend wright and r

president obama, you never silence us. [applause] there is one man in particular we all know who certainly has taught me what it means to have the courage of your convictions. youo% know who i am talking abt [applause] for my whole life, he has taught me to stand up for what i believe in andjutjpá is right. often before big speeches like Ñithis one,Ñi i asked his opinii seek hisñr advice. today, instead, i brought him with me. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you. thank you all very much. thank you. knock off. [laughter] a welcome like that almost makes me want to run for office again. [applause] z$but i'm not going to do it. [laughter] i believe very deeply in something date said earlier and that is that there comes a time when those of us of our generation need to move on and make certain that the younger generation has an opportunity to step up and take on the responsibilities that are so Ñiimportant to the nation. i am enormously proud of my daughter. [applause] she said i could

obama put a big end to that. and by presenting a very, very different affront on how we are going to fight this battle in the future. >> ifill: david cole and juan zarate, thank you both very much. >> thank youness thank you. >> woodruff: now, new questions about rising premiums amid big profits for health insurance companies. newshour health correspondent betty ann bowser has that. the health unit is a partnership with the robert wood johnson foundation. >> reporter: recent announcements by anthem blue cross/blue shield said it would raise premiums 35% for policyholders in the individual market in california has created a storm of controversy at the state and national levels. so in what appeared to be bowing to pressure, over the weekend the company said it would delay the increase two months. but timing aside, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius called the increase unreasonable. >> well, i think it's hard to look at a company which had a $2.7 billion profit in the fourth quarter of 2009, pays

>> i think obama is on the offensive. it's sort of game on for barack obama once again. i think massachusetts was indeed a wake-up call to the white house and perhaps caused them to re-evaluate their legislative and political strategy of the past year. i think obama is trying to address two constituencies at once. one is the american public, who indeed -- many of whom are out of patience or worried, they see unemployment high even if the economy has grown a lot in the last quarter, and they see big bailouts. i think the other constituency that obama is aiming at is the democratic senators. he wants to basically show them that he can be a strong political leader and can be of help to them in the fall and get them to pass this health care reform bill within the next couple weeks. i mean, i think this whole tour he's on now is about demonstrating once again that when he wants to, he can indeed grab hold of some of those independent voters out there, and he can mobilize the base and keep that coalition together jazz it up, and give these democratic senators a little more sec

it came right out of president obama's mouth. i just talked to a friend over the weekend, he has a title company. he had a 30 people working for him that he has to lay off because there is no construction hardly going on in florida right now. it has gone down -- the stimulus package is a slush fund to get people in elected and to pay favorites back to people. this is not to create jobs. the way to create jobs -- 80% of the jobs in the country are in small business. so, stimulate in the atmosphere for small business. you cut taxes. you create opportunity so they can expand and grow. host: speaking of politics this morning, two different headlines, two different takes on the same story. here is "the wall street journal" this morning. that is the way the wall street journal phrase it this morning, saying republicans face an uphill battle as a they have to go after 10 seat -- that have to gain 10 new seats and retain all of their own to gain control of the senate. here is how cold the new york times" -- "the new york times" phrase is

there are some specific criticisms of president obama but i think the way people look at president obama internationally is best summed up in the words of a 20th century philosopher ofwhom i am very fond, henry youngman, and mr. youngman's great philosophical wisdom was in the question and answer, how's your wife? compared to what? and when people do compare to what, president obama looks very good. >>reporter: what happens when you want to skateboard and snowboard at the same time? >>: you keep dreaming... >>strand: the idea for freebord actually came from a dream. i'd grown up doing a lot of skateboarding and i'd recently started snowboarding and if you do both those activities you really start to understand howthey differ. and anyone who's snowboarded before you know the freedom of motion that comes from skidding or sliding, it's just this really cool thing to experience and so the idea of having that on askateboard, i was just half asleep one morning and it just came to me. >>reporter: the concept was freebord, neither skateboard nor snowboard, but a hybrid of both. the harvard grad

it mains people are gonna do to the obamas -- it pains me people are gonna do to the obamas what people did to the bush family. >> sean: i can't get beyond, people say hannity, let go. i can get beyond 20 years in the church. we are talking about religion, the character. you had wonderful things to say about her. you said she is a person, nice, cordial to you. you support her in effort about obesity in children. why can't i get beyond, you are a pastor, counselor. help me. >> it is going to take more time than several shows. prayer, fasting, i don't know. >> it is fair to wonder what her reaction was. what his reaction was to some of the comments that were made. however, let's look at the point, over 20 years. it wasn't he was saying that every sunday. >> sean: just about. he said a lot of bad things. he had a lot of outrageous views. black liberation threeology. >> he's a liberation theologian. he does have some of those strong beliefs. and there's no doubt about it. but that wasn't the totallive his ministry and his church did many good social things in the community. and i just have

she is very close to the obamas and extremely close to michelle obama. she is part of what some people call the chicago mafia in the white house. and she is the first to leave. the other reason it's news is because she was at the center of the storm about the gate crashers, the celebrity couple who talked their way into the white house for a state dinner honoring the indian prime minister much to the chagrine of the white house and the secret white house and the white house social office. she is head of the social office. the notion that she has just picked this moment in time out of the air to go back to chicago and do things that she wants to do, it's not particularly credible. host: i'm going to put you on the spot. if she was forced out, who pushed her? guest: i think -- you know, i haven't even talked about this since all this happened. first, let's go back to the previous issue. it was about the fact that you had people come into the white house who could have endangered the lives of the prime minister of india and the president of the united state

and recover from obama's attacks. and the two i'm crowing about tonight the ones that i had said were presidential pinnatas, i am releasing, which ones am i releasing from the presidential dog pound? are you ready ski daddy? goldman sachs and jpmorgan who i withheld comment on, and endorsement of that i have known from my trust, and i have watched them get obliterated. both of which soared today. i think the pattern is at last becoming visible to the spart money. that's why i'm making it visible to you. i'm telling you this two-day rally is really about the banks, about goldman, about jpmorgan not just because of the turn in housing, because the president's rants on banks are from now on full of sound and fury but will signify nothing when it comes to earnings per share and in the end that's what matter. the investment banks are the latest sector on an obama corporate enemies list. this pattern makes you get a chance to make money whenever the president bashes an industry and knocks down the stocks giving them a real

barack obama, president obama, does not share that commitment. if government spending were an olympic sport, he would be a repeat gold medallist. [applause] >> i want to share with you -- this is no longer a matter of right versus left, liberal versus conservative. we can prove our conclusion on this. by basic mathematics. the united states federal government from all sources, for all purposes takes in $2.2 trillion a year. keep that number in mind. $2.2 trillion a year. we have total unfunded liabilities of $65 trillion. $2.2 trillion in revenue. $65 trillion in total unfunded liabilities. that is more than 30 to 1 leverage. if the united states federal government were a bank regulated by itself, they would shut themselves down. [applause] >> we live in a nation where not long ago our united states secretary of state was on rhetorical bended knee in communist china pleading with the chinese to continue to buy our debt because if they don't buy our debt and other foreign sovereign wealth funds don't buy our debt, our beloved united states of amer

first of all, obama's good at it. he was never a courtroom lawyer, but he looks good going after them the way he did in the lion's den last friday, looked good doing this. second, the democrats on the hill are not popular. get them out of the way. attack the republicans who are not popular. a two-fer for him. get harry reid and nancy pelosi off the stage and make it a one-on-one race between him and congressional republicans. that's what he's trying to do. >> do you think it is possible he can create a phantom bad guy? somebody out there to vote besides him. >> he's got to put the republicans on the defensive. he tried very hard to do that. great scheduling and staging going to the house republicans, to new hampshire who has two races up. a nat race a senate race. a state that the politics are going to be a lot of focus and create energy. the only concern i have for him in terms of success and strategy, the a.p. said the president today, with one hand, he reached out to the republicans, looking for the sentence here,

is barack obama a socialist? >> well, i certainly think a number of -- a range of his policies are certainly social itsic, he is certainly more that way than any contemporary president i can think of. in that sense i kind of agree with newt gingrich. i think that president obama would have been comfortable in the british labor party, free-tony player-blair and other socialist parties he mentioned. not communist though. socialism does not mean the confiscation of all your property. it doesn't mean that that's communism, really. >> bill: if you look it up in the dictionary it's government control of the private sector and private property. for example, hugo chavez is probably the best example of the socialist in power right now. and basically chavez can go in and do whatever he wants. if he doesn't like you you, he will take your business and close it down. he can take your house on some kind of violation. he has no compunction about doing that i draw the line -- you know, look, it's everybody's definition of what

president obama campaigned on bringing change to washington. we candidate how much change that has been in the last year. i think he himself admitted he is frustrated there has not been enough change. this is probably one of the easiest forms of big change. the republicans invited him, he came and they kept the tv cameras on. it did not take a bill. there was no debate about it before hand. somewhat encouraging that, yes, they can change without a lot of fuss. host: we were originally told the q&a would be off-camera and we have plans and our coverage and we did not find out until about an hour before the coverage that it would be open. host: -- guest: i heard of the reporters were told they could walk in and they had to leave and they were surprised. that is why there was not a lot of build up. the audience was not as big because people were not prepared until later in the day. i think if you had advertised in this before hand on c-span for the cable news shows, a lot of people would have been sitting and waiting to see this. host: 1 twitter -

h obama de. not even just because they still own msnbc where keith olberman and rachel mad now say there holley lu de obama songs commit [laughter] i don't think he's trying to enrich them. i think that the they see the way in the world of obamanomics is to line up with government and what does that do? it really saps' entrepreneurship and defies the economy and means you guys won't have jobs when you get out of college unless one of these chosen few, google, microsoft, general electric, boeing that have the best lobbyists, they're going to increasingly control more of the economy. but that has a net effect of being bad on the whole economy. if there are no other questions -- sorry. i don't know if the microphone can reach that far. >> you mentioned earlier -- he mentioned earlier you felt the american people were being left out in times in favor of big government and big business. however i believe he were speaking specifically in terms of the bailout and stimulus package which if i remember cor

during the campaign obama camp had kids for obama parades. the public school teachers more than once were caught indoctrinating children into the obama cult. do you remember this, caught on tape, by a european documentary filmmaker. zuda (inaudible) >> you have to keep your disad in iraq for -- your dad in iraq for 100 years -- from a teacher? that is unacceptable in america. our country demands the founders be taught, we need to start standing up and say original sources. the radical left will find out when they are smoking dope this college, can we leave our kids alone? president obama found his marxist professors in the classes in college. back off our children. shall we, mr.~president?t the t. >> the great -- this means passing a comprehensive energy bill with incentives to make clean energy profitable kind of energy in america. i'm grateful to the house for passing such a bill last year. and this year i am eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the senate. that is the president from the state of the union. bipartisan cap and tra

obama trying to ram through unpopular health care bill. president obama succeeded in the surge. that didn't help him much in the court of public opinion. president obama may succeed in getting his health care vision passed but like president bush, i don't think it's going to help him very much. and that's the memo now for the top story tonight. what's going on behind the scenes at the white house and in congress. joining us now from washington fox news chief d.c. correspondent jim angle and fox news senior white house correspondent major garrett. you know, this is political intrigue, you guys, at its finest. everybody behind the scenes doing this, that, and the other thing. let's begin with you, major. the white house mood today, are they confident that they accomplished anything yesterday? are they going to get this through? >> bill, the white house believes yesterday was a do-over. that they got more transparent. the president looked more agreeable. he was seen for seven hours talking to republicans. all the things that he was criticized for not doing. and all of the health ca

president obama created an independent commission to deal with the federal deficit and national debt. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight, judy woodruff talks to the panel's co-chairmen: republican alan simpson and democrat erskine bowles. >> i believe we have a chance if we deal with trust, we pull all the facts on the table, to make progress. this is bigger than me, or erskine, or you. this is about, this is about the future of america. >> lehrer: then, a look at the new nicks in u.s.-china relations keyed to the president's white house chat today with the dalai lama. >> brown: spencer michels reports from san francisco on one man's mission to send specially-designed wheelchairs around the world. >> not only do they need a wheelchair, but they need the best of wheelchairs because they have the worst of terrain. >> lehrer: a newsmaker interview with john holmes, the united nations chief aid coordinator, on the state of the relief efforts in haiti. >> brown: and paul solman continues his series on banking tonight with a former head of the federal deposit insuran