bush and his father. in congress, in the reagan and carter years and before that, under presidents ford and nixon. but to really understand him, you have to go back much further. richard bruce cheney was born in linkon, nebraska, on january 30, 1941. though he was to become one of america's best-known conservatives, it was hardly destiny. >> i grew up in a -- in a democratic family. my grandfather was ecstatic when i was born on fdr's birthday. my dad was a career civil servant, worked for the u.s. department of agriculture. >> in 1954, the family moved to casper, wyoming. >> we had the last house on the east edge of town. it was 50 miles across the prairie to the next town. it was a defensive openness of space. it becomes part of you. >> we grew up in this amazingly optimistic setting. you had a feeling that things would be even brighter tomorrow. >> cheney's high school sweetheart was lynn vincent. >> how did you meet? >> in junior high, i knew who she was, but she didn't know who i was. >> but he was n

bush, that i'll get to. in the latter stages of his presidency, bill clinton, there he is again, bemoaned the fact that his presidency was the void of the great challenges that could mark him as a great president. george w. bush was not so handicapped. he had many challenges, very severe ones in their tenure as president. but he lacked the werewithall of greatness. he came into the drawn out election outcome decided of a 5-4 supreme court majority that lacked grounding in any constitutional law. but someone had to be inaugurated on january 20th. so nonetheless, the result was that a close election was perceived by the democratic base as a corrupted outcome, and bush as an illegitimate president. get over it was the republican mantra. but it was not so easily gotten over. though, in fact, it was gotten over by the public at large. given the resenments produced, bush came into office as a conciliator. acceptance speech, victory speech after the supreme court decision, and inaugural speech all promised this, ve

bush. i know from the perspective from the former president that he has a cordial personal friendship two decades with the governor. i think that's true for the governor, too. why he falls in this pattern of sounding like he is being dismissive of the former president is not smart politics. >> sounds like he has been ungrateful to the bushes. >> well, you know, it sounds like that and, yet, you know, bush moved heaven and earth he likes bic perry. i talk it up to he is on the stage for the first time. >> laura: are bush loyalists trying to sabotage a perry candidacy? joining us now from d.c. with the inside story. james rosen, fox news chief washington correspondent. -- >> the bushes versus perry, the old next versus the slightly newer texas. is there anything here? i was watching that karl rove interview. it seemed to be that he was pretty preteshed over the fact that perry wanted to distance himself from george w. bush because the comparisons are coming pretty quickly on the campaign trai

bush and not necessarily against war. to cross talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he is a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he is assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened so the answer was months. just drive to bush's war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits on city squares and in front of the white house whereas a brave fires. at city adamantly opposed to military interventions have always tried to reflect public opinion and policy makers how much has changed the answer vietnam war movement in major impact one hundred sixty eight faced with widespread public opposition t

bush was doin' the talkin'. bush post-traumatic stress disorder. we'll see if there's a cure. >>> look who's offering the toughest criticism of the republican field. not president obama. not even democrats. it's jon huntsman who had at his rivals like rick perry for dismissing global warming and evolution. the gop is a party with a fringe on top. and huntsman says the extreme right wing of the gop will find itself unelectable. >>> finally, let me finish. with the republican party's attack on logic and science. we start with the situation in libya. richard engel is chief foreign affairs correspondent, and he joins us on the phone from tripoli, libya. welcome, richard. glad you could join us. >> thank you very much. communications have been a little bit complicated today. but i am now in green square, which is in the center of tripoli. there are some rebels here, perhaps 100 or more. they've brought their heavy weapons. i think in the course of our conversation you'll hear some of them probably fire them in the air. they are still celebrating. there

bush and showing a very power. card they still play because you have to admit if you like the man or not he is at least eloquent and some of the things he about his liberal. intervention humanitarian intervention which is really hogwash if you really look at it carefully if you watched antiwar dot com read there you would have known that but how do we get away from that i used to really address the michael's question well it's really hard to know what you can do to oppose somebody like obama in a very direct way because i think that the left is very confused about what to do with right now and so really i think that you know the opposition to obama on his war policies if it comes ball from the left and from the right that may be the most effective way of dealing with the issues so you may see that the left doesn't come out in full force against obama's war policies but if the some of the more reasonable elements of the right also do then there will be a general rosen of support and as obama looks forward to two tho

bush that made the seem so threatening and once president bush went away people felt less threatened them were less likely to participate i guess i would also add that the anti-war movement has not gone away completely or rather it has gotten very small so that what is really left is the hard core highly organized dedicated people in other words it's become a movement in abeyance now rather than a really mass movement michel thank you staying with you i mean and i want to just kind of press you a little bit i mean if it's really really. diminished in in its numbers i mean how can you say these people the anti-war element to it seems a bit thin really they're i mean you're just slightly against the war or you know i'm against the war this war i mean what i'm saying is that you know the united states is constantly at war it is bankrupting itself while others are making a fortune and misery unspeakable misery that we caused united states causes so many places and uses the people kind of walk away from it. yeah i think that's right i mean i think it's important to understand what motivat

a growth rate of under 3%. >> did the bush tax cuts yield anything? >> [unintelligible] >> republicans are still fighting to keep the bush tax cuts. >> the 1984 campaign of ronald reagan in his reelection. in every of the statement, he was running against the kaiser mondale policies. he did not hesitate to run a rerun. the campaign of 1980. you know, the idea that nobody should mention -- george bush has been the most circumspect for president in our history. he has taken away any target that the democrats might have, much to their regret and chagrin, but i think reality is that this was not the first time a president has mentioned his predecessor. >> we have about a 1-year or maybe two-year statute of limitations of you blaming everything on your predecessor. time is up. >> that is not written into law yet. is the giant collection of egos, the owners of the nfl teams, could make a deal, what with it be like? >> without football, there would have been a lot of miserable people run the country. >> there are any way. i began this broadcast by courting t

three million under bush i. three million of the clinton, three million under bush ii. and clinton had the biggest reduction in deficit and debt by far than any of them. the best economic growth, the best job creation and second bush administration comes and say big tax cuts will fire up economic growth and fire up job creation. they were wrong. when clinton had a proposal to raise revenue and cut spending they said it would crater the economy and yet clinton had the best record on economic growth, best record on job creation. they were wrong again. during the second bush administration we were on the brink of financial collapse. i was called to a special meeting in this building with the bush administration's secretary of treasury and our along with other leaders of the house and senate was told we were days away from a financial collapse. this idea that you can't raise revenue or it will kill jobs, cat cut spending or were killed jobs has not proven to be right. in the real world the clinton administration raise revenue, cut spending to get our debt under control and

bush did not necessarily against war. to cross talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he is a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he is assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened so the answer was months so just prior to bush's war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits on city squares and in front of the white house whereas a brave fighters for peace activists adamantly opposed to military interventions have always tried to reflect public opinion and policy makers how much has changed the answer the war movement in major a bet by nine hundred sixty eight faced with widespread publi

and when bush was around, bush cooperated with the democrats. bush, as i plengs mentioned in that article, he sat down and talked about all 181 of them. he doesn't do that. rick doesn't do compassion or conservativism. rick does kick-ass conservatives im. he demands that doctors ask mothers to hear the baby's heart beat before abortion. he is not backing off on any of this stuff. >> wasn't he a democrat? >> he was democrat, al. he came to austin as a democrat. then he ran into karl rove and karl whispered in his ear, look, you're a good looking guy, politics are conservative, and you could go north of the red river and they would be a conservative republican. it was easy for him to make the switch. karl got him money to run for statewide office. then he became lieutenant governor with bush as governor. he was on his way. he's been tack together right very hard for many years. and he's way off on the edge of the right of the flat earth with this crowd he is following now. >> now be a lot of digging and a lot of what you guys have come up with sho

bush? is he really what george w. bush pretended to be? >> this is exactly -- you've got it exactly right. this is the real thing. the real cowboy from a dryland farm on west texas. the suggestion is that he's the guy in the cowboy boots from texas. as you know, george bush was born in connecticut. so rick perry is the real thing. now, is that a good thing or not? might be a bad thing in some places. >> it could be. here's perry pronouncing a certain word. just the way his predecessor george bush did. let's listen. >> it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. >> i am a supporter of nuclear energy. >> what is it about nuclear and nuclear? i don't get it with these guys. richard, an interesting thing. when perry got into the race, the people who jumped on him first and began pointing out problems with his record and things like that were not really the democrats so much. they were old bush hands. old w. bush hands and others associated with that family. what's re

bush and selling a very powerful. well card they still play because you have to admit if you like the man or not he is at least eloquent and some of the things he above is liberal. is intervention humanitarian intervention which is really hogwash if you really look at it carefully if you watched antiwar dot com read there you would have known that but how do we get away from that i just really addressing michael's question well it's really hard to know what you can do to pose somebody like obama in a very direct way because i think the left is very confused about what to do with right now and so really i think that you know the opposition to obama on his war policies if it comes both from the left and from the right that may be the most effective way of dealing with the issues so you may see that the left doesn't come out in full force against obama's war policies but if the some of the more reasonable elements of the right also do then there will be a general rosen of support and as obama looks forward to two thousan

bush and his father. in congress, in the reagan and carter years and before that, under presidents ford and nixon. to really understand him, you have to go back much further. richard bruce cheney was born in lincoln, nebraska, january 30th, 1941. though he was to become one of america's best known conservatives it was hardly destiny. >> i grew up in a democratic family. my grandfather was ecstatic when i was born on fdr's birthday. my dad was a career civil servant. worked for the u.s. department of agriculture. >> bret: in 1954 the cheney family moved to casper, wyoming. >> last house on the east edge of town, 50 miles across the prairie to the next town. just a defense of openness and space. it becomes part of you. >> we grew up in this amazingly optimistic setting. you had a feeling that things would be brighter tomorrow. >> bret: cheney's high school sweetheart, lynn vincent. how did you meet? >> in junior high. i knew who she was, she didn't know who i was. >> he was new in town. >> she was the star

bush and not necessarily against war. to cross talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he is a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he is assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened to the answer one movement. just drive to bush's war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits on city squares and in front of the white house whereas a brave fires. at adamantly opposed to military interventions have always tried to reflect public opinion and influence policy makers how much has changed the answer vietnam war movement in major impact by nine hundred sixty eight faced with widespread public o

bush that put us in the hole. bragging about $10 trillion you threw us in, now you're going to analyze how we dug out of a hole you put us in. >> happy to do it. the fact of the matter is if you look at the bush tax cut from 2003, look at the revenue that came to the united states, the revenue it was about $1.5 trillion. you look at the revenue coming into the united states in 2007, it has gone up nearly $700 billion. so rather than this nonsense of saying president bush put us in the hole, president bush's policies with the tax cut led to more revenue going in the government which of course the people in washington, d.c. spent. so i am sick and tired of all of this. >> how do we get the 10 trillion back. aside from having no logic. >> let's be clear about who we are referring to when you refer to hostage takers. john boehner was ready to do an agreement with president obama and was going to give the republican party entitlement reform on a level unprecedented. >> and the president walked away. >> no, no, no. >> t

and perry seems to be channeling bush. look at these side besides. >> you know, this annual meeting has truly become an incubator. that's what i call it. man, it hatches some great ideas. it's an incubator for good ideas. >> we need to unleash the america.ector incc1: >> i see a great day coming for america. >> even though perry looks like he is working hard to imitate bush, he is actually more authentic. he is a true believing deep south conservative compared to blood bush who sometimes seemed to be playing a part. listen to this bite to how bush slips in the word desert. >> i think, see as i remember, i was raised in the desert, but see1: a tide y tocc turn. >> some folks look at me and see a sort of swagger which in texas walking.cc1: chris: well, of course, that dones mess with texas was swagger for another bush caricature, will farrell. he had an hbo special lampooning bush's texas image. bush is telling a story about aving his brothers and dadcc1: into an abandoned mind shaft on a texas ranch. 1:ne time all the famil

bush. they are like everybody's grandfather. they are really good people. and they taught their children. at the end of the day i'm rick perry, i am who i am. i'm not george bush, i don't try to be. respecting him, i consider him to be a friend. megyn: today ma perino is a former press secretary for george w. bush. and she is a cohost of the fife. that's interesting. did you notice how he spoke of there is no better man that george h.w. bush. he wasn't talking about your guy, though, the younger bush. >> i'm not going to try to stir it up any further. megyn: you were one of the initial instigators. that's who they are talking about with the anti-perry push. >> if someone to point to me where i have been an anti-perry person. i admire him that he has not given many interviews. i think that's a smart strategy. he let it build and doing laura ingraham today was a smart thing to do. another smart thing to do is there is not a soul in america that doesn't think george h.w. bush is an honorable p

clinton, 3 million under bush ii. and clinton had the biggest reductions ineficit and debt by far of any of them. he had the best economic growth. he had the best jobreation. and the second bush administration comes, and they say big tax cuts. that's going to fire up economic growth, tt's going to fire up job creation. they were wrong. when clinton had a proposal to raise revenue and cut spending, they said it would crater the economy, and yet clinton had the best record on economic growth, the best record on job creation. they were wrong again. during the second bush administration, at the end, has everybody forgotten? we were on the brink of financial collapse. i was called to a special meeting in this building with the bush administration's secretary of treasury, and i along with other lears of the house and the senate were told we were daysway from a financial collapse. this idea that you can't raise revenue or it will kill jobs; you can't cut spending or it will kill jobs has not proven to be right. in the real w

bush pch bush spent to much money. not a fiscal conservative. so what perry is going to have to do, enhe is playing a primary game right now, pale to the primary voters, if he get the nomination, it is how can he pivot and emphasize he is not george w. bush in a general election. >> wayne slater and maggie haberman, thanks for joining us on "hardball." >> thank you. >> when we return, was irene worthy of the treatment she received? you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. emily's just starting out... and on a budget. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. ben and his family live on this block. ben's a re/max agent, and he's a big part of this community. re/max agents know their markets, and they care enough to get to know you, too. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. over time, my lashes thinned. after 40, i didn't have enough lashes. i'd heard of latisse® but had q

he bush 2 or bush heavy? >> that's about as-- the only thing you can say about them that's the same. what is amazing, the media or some of it, george stephanopoulos for one kind of missed the story, the issue is not whether or not they both come from texas, but how much they dislike one another and how much their camps are at war with one another, when you have our fox contributor karl rove attacking them on, you know the guys are distinguished by the differences between them, and i'm just amazed it took a while for that story to get through. >> do you think the media is picking up on that. >> now they are, now they are, when people from the perry camp and the bush camp are kind of openly firing at one another in the political version of the okay corral, yeah. >> and it is worth noting that what passes for presidential journalism consists of picking on one word, black cloud, and like that, and the reality of the state of texas under governor perry in the the last ten years and the state, the nation under pres

democrats and president want to maintain all the bush tax rates except the top bush tax bracket. that is what the president campaigned on in his presidential campaign, that is what he tried to achieve last december and the game of chicken on the tax breaks the republicans have won come down to this, if republicans take no action, all the bush tax breaks will expire and all the tax brackets, including the bottom tax bracket, currently at 10%, that will go up to 15%. they'll all go up. so far the president and the democrats are more in favor of preserving the lower bush tax brackets than they are in favor of raising the top tax bracket. that, and only that, is why the president didn't raise the top tax bracket back in december and that is why legislatively he will never be offered a stand-alone opportunity to do nothing but raise the top bush tax bracket. until the president decides that, if necessary, in order to get the top income tax bracket raised, he is willing to see every tax bracket go up, then the republicans will always, always win the fight to extend the bush tax rates.

. >> sean: happened in the bush years. >> it happened at the end of the bush years. then preceded the worst financial crisis in all of our lifetime. i don't know that is the perfect example. >> sean: all right. go ahead. >> we face a downturn where we lose a significant number of jobs, seven, eight, pushing up to nine million in the downturn. let's not get into a thing where guy takes your tv up to the balcony, drops it off and says the last i saw it, it looked fine. when the president takes office, we are in the midst of what is now recognized as the worst down turn since we've had data in the 40s. >> sean: the president said -- [ talking over each other ] >> there's no question -- >> sean: the president said this is the worst economy since the great depression. he knew what he was inheriting here. it seems to me you blame bush for a couple of years. he had both houses of congress. to his credit he got his budget passed, stimulus, health care bill, he got the economy. he owns the economy according to david plouffe and debbie wasserman schultz. we are going to blame

bush did not necessarily against war. and. to cross talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he is a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he is assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened so the answer was meant so exit just drive to bush's war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits on city squares and in front of the white house whereas a brave fighters for peace activists adamantly opposed to military interventions have always tried to reflect public opinion and influence policy makers how much has changed the answer vietnam war movement in major impact by going to sixty eight faced with

bush and not necessarily against war. and. to cross talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he is a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he is assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened so the answer was months so just drive to bush's war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits on city squares and in front of the white house whereas a brave fires for peace activists adamantly opposed to military interventions have always liked to reflect public opinion and influence policy makers how much has changed the answer the war movement in major impact by nine hundred sixty eight faced with widespr

bush. bush spent too much money and was not a fiscal conservative. what perry has to do, appeal to the primary voters, win the nomination. if he gets the nomination, it's how can he pivot and emphasize he is not george w. bush in a general election. >> wayne and maggie, thank you for joining our conversation on "hardball." >>> let me finish with this, was irene worth the treatment she received? ♪ okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? i've tried it. be healthy. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours. and my p

bush ignored the. briefer who flew down to crawford i mean they sent a special guide out across projectile over that famous memo that condi rice finally had to blurt the name out before congress you know been wow determine a strike inside the united states and then after he got the memo he was scheduled to go back to d.c. but instead he extended his vacation for a couple weeks and nothing happened and then he went longest presidential vacation in history back to george washington and then he went to his brother state of florida rather than going back to d.c. and jeb walk down the entire state. it makes one wonder if bush was just like waiting for something awful happened maybe didn't know what it was i'm not trying to play you know the nine eleven conspiracy theorists here but. what was going on with that well i think all the investigations going on from the the nine eleven commission the congressional investigations there been a lot of investigations of this is that the bush administration just terror

bush that made the vents seem so threatening and once president bush went away people felt less threatened and were thus less likely to participate i guess i would also add that the anti-war movement has not gone away completely but rather it has gotten very small so that what is really left is the hard core highly organized dedicated people in other words it's become a movement in abeyance now rather than a really mass movement michel thank you stay with you i mean and i want to just kind of press you a little bit i mean if it's really really. diminished in in its numbers i mean how can you say these people the anti-war element to it seems a bit thin really they're i mean you're just slightly against the war or you know i'm against the war this war i mean what i'm saying is that you know the united states is constantly at war it is bankrupting itself while others are making a fortune and misery unspeakable misery that we caused the united states cons of so many places and you say people kind of walk away from it. yeah i think that's right i mean i think it's important to understand what m

bush and not necessarily against war. and. to cross talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he is a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he is assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened so the answer was meant so just drive to bush's war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits on city squares and in front of the white house whereas a brave fires for peace activists adamantly opposed to military interventions have always tried to reflect public opinion and influence policy makers how much has changed the answer vietnam war movement moved in. major impact by nine hundred sixty eight faced wi

the bush administration made up its mind to go to war on september the eleventh two thousand and one that very first day on september twelfth one day after september eleventh. the meeting that was held in the white house in the situation room. led to rumsfeld asking the question should we use this as an opportunity to do something about iraq as well we all said but no no as in afghanistan we need to bomb afghanistan rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets in afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in iraq from that time on you were dealing with rationalization and justification for the war you weren't dealing with the real causes for the war a real reasons for the war there was never a clear and present danger there was never an imminent threat with weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass destined weapons of mass destruction was a convenient way of tricking our congress and to giving the president authority to wage this war saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons development clear weapons nuclear weapons it was clear that i

bush's administration in the run up and during the iraq war. senao has weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass destruction for the united states and is good for ballistic it is sponsored and sheltered terrorist training suicide bombers weapons are heathy trial logical weapons including anthrax and botulism toxin a logical and chemical agent to kill millions of people chemical weapons including v.x. and sara mustard gas and massive and so far massive death and destruction on a massive scale the danger to our country is great if the danger to our country is growing iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons iraqi regime is building the facilities necessary to make more biological and chemical weapons. and according to the british government had iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as forty five minutes after the order were given the regime has longstanding and continuing ties to terrorist organizations and there are al qaeda terrorists inside iraq three shima seeking a nuclear bomb and with physic

bush did not necessarily against war. and. to cross-talk of the anti-war movement has vanished i'm joined by angela keaton in los angeles she is antiwar dot com development director and anti-war radio producer also in los angeles we have various russell he is a historian and author of a renegade history of the united states and in ann arbor we cross to michael heaney he is assistant professor of organizational studies and political science at the university of michigan ok cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's have a look at the anti-war movement then and now. what happened to the answer one movement still active just drives a bush's war in iraq mass demonstrations in the straits on city squares and in front of the white house whereas a brace fires for peace at cities adamantly opposed to military interventions have always tried to reflect public opinion and influence policy makers how much has changed the answer vietnam war movement moved in. major impact by nine hundred sixty e

bush and selling a very power. well card they still play because you have to admit if you like the man or not he's at least eloquent in some of the things the above is liberal. intervention or humanitarian intervention which is really hogwash if you really look at it carefully if you watched antiwar dot com read there you would have known that but how do we get away from that i just really addressing michael's question well it's really hard to know what you can do to oppose somebody like obama in a very direct way because i think the left is very confused about what to do with right now and so really i think that you know the opposition to obama on his word policies if it comes ball from the left and from the right that may be the most effective way of dealing with the issues so you may see that the left doesn't come out in full force against obama's war policies but if the some of the more reasonable elements of the right also do then there will be a general rosen of support that is obama looks forward to two thou

bush? chris: welcome back. president owaugh ma plans to go to martha's vineyard for a vacation, it's getting some criticism. so far in his presidency, barack obama has been on vacation for 61 days compared to 196 days for president george w. bush at this point in his first term. not counting camp david. which brings us to this week's big question. even though he trails bush is this a bad time to head to martha's vineyard? >> yes, it's a bad time because it's the least of his problems politically. >> he needs to go on vacation, he's a family man. >> this is in a so what category for me. this guy needs a vacation and pictures of those cute kids with their dad will be good for him. chris: thanks for a great round -- round table. that's the show. thanks for watching. we're going to hey! you want that? you want a warm, super-delicious strawberry toaster strudel yeah but now i have nothing to eat sure you do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat with totino's pizza rolls

democrats and the president want to maintain all of the bush tax rates except the top bush tax bracket. that is what the president campaigned on in his presidential came takpaign and s what he achieved last december and the game of chicken on the tax breaks comes down to this. if congress takes no action all of the bush tax rates expire and every tax bracket including the bottom tax bracket will go up to 15%. they will all go up. so far the president and democrats are more favor in preserving the lower bush tax brackets than they are in favor of raising the top tax bracket. that and only that is why the president didn't raise the top tax bracket back in december. that is why legislatively he will never be offered a stand-alone opportunity to do nothing but raise the top bush tax bracket. until the president decides that if necessary in order to get the top income tax bracket raised he is willing to see of tax bracket go up, then the republicans will always, always win. the fight to extend the bush tax rates. joining me now is msnbc contributor jared bernstein, the former chief economis

bush and showing a very powerful. well card they still play because you have to admit if you like the man or not he is at least eloquent and some of the things he about his liberal . intervention humanitarian intervention which is really hogwash if you really look at it carefully if you watched antiwar dot com read there you would have known that but how do we get away from that i just really addressed the michael's question well it's really hard to know what you can do to oppose somebody like obama in a very direct way because i think the left is very confused about what to do with right now and so really i think that you know the opposition to obama on his war policies if it comes both from the left and from the right that may be the most effective way of dealing with the issues so you may see that the left doesn't come out in full force against obama's war policies but if the some of the more reasonable elements of the right also do then there will be a general erosion of support and as obama looks forward to two t

bush and something very powerful. card they still play because you have to admit if you like the man or not he's at least eloquent and some of the things he above is liberal. intervention humanitarian intervention which is really hogwash if you really look at it carefully if you watched antiwar dot com read there you would have known that but how do we get away from that i just really addressed the michael's question well it's really hard to know what you can do to oppose somebody like obama in a very direct way because i think the left is very confused about what to do with right now and so really i think that you know the opposition to obama on his word policies if it comes both from the left and from the right that may be the most effective way of dealing with the issues so you may see that the left doesn't come out in full force against obama's war policies but if there are some of the more reasonable elements of the right also do then there will be a general rosen of support and as obama looks forward to two thou

over the last ten years of bush tax cuts have are one of the biggest contributors to the debt in fact let me just lay this out here this is this is our total you know the tax code this is our public debt going out to twenty nine thousand which acting on what you see here is that the bush tax cuts account for the largest piece of it the second largest piece of it is the bush their precious right the economic downturn pretty this is no brainer the third biggest piece of it is our wars in iraq and afghanistan which were not paid for in the bush it all out civil war pay for it now we're not going to pay for go shopping. there's the other day out here this is always been with us we've had a and underlined get basically since george washington borrowed money from france to fight the revolutionary war that's nothing new and that wouldn't change if it wasn't for all these things and then you got the two things that the republicans are absolutely hysterical about right tarp which was george bush's contribution but actually turned out to be fairly small years tarp or eight years that we've done

jeb bush would be that candidate. jeb bush can't run because it's too close to the bush era. in a way, he's the candidate to run. if he has to wait for years, who knows what could happen. the press couldn't bear to write about that story again. he's stuck. it is an irony. he probably would be the best person to run right now. >> i agree with everything. i don't fully agree it's not a year he couldn't put it together. he took on bachmann, perry and the rest of them. he elevated romney and huntsman because they are the only ones resembling his remarks, but none of them have his tone. if you are a republican, i would be interesting to hear what we should be doing. he said what the republicans are going and the bad motives. out would be interesting to hear his plan for policy. if you are president obama and you listened to jeb bush, you see an opening. the opening is clear. you have to focus like you said you were going to be for a year and a half. this speech after labor day is that much more important, not just the speech as benjamin franklin once said. well done is better than

bush ignore the cia. read for who flew down to crawford i mean they sent a special guide out across particular that famous memo that condi rice finally had to blur the name out before congress you know determine a strike inside the united states and then after he got the memo he was scheduled to go back to d.c. but instead he extended his vacation for a couple weeks nothing happened and then he went longest presidential vacation history back to george washington and then he went to his brother's state of florida rather than going back to d.c. and jeb knocked down the entire state. it makes one wonder if bush was just like waiting for something awful happened maybe didn't know what it was i'm not trying to play you know the nine eleven conspiracy theorist here but. what was going on with that well i think all the investigations will show for move the nine eleven commission the congressional investigations they're going to a lot of investigations of this is that the bush administration just from terrorism w

bush seven >> george w. bush was completely -- the 9/11 and the whole war on terrorism kind of overshadowed that chapter as it did overshadow his whole presidency when i think that at the time -- i mean, we were working on this book during that whole time, during his presidency, well, not the entire presidency we were working on the second half of his presidency and i think that that chapter on bush 2 -- it was at the time at the end of his presidency you did have situations that were unsolved and that were not going well. and it was not a situation that you would want to say, okay, here's a very successful outcome as he was leaving office. i don't think anybody would really say that so i think it was a result of both the iraq and afghanistan wars and then we get into the two chapters on obama where you're still dealing with afghanistan and that's still, obviously, is continuing and is in the news this week as well. >> there was one line i mentioned to you before we came out here, marvin, in the president's

bush is speaking out. he recalls the moment when he learned the al qaeda leader had been killed. >> president obama called me, told me osama bin laden had been killed. my response was, icon congratulated him and the special operations. i didn't feel a sense of happiness or jubilation, i felt a sense of closure and a sense of gratitude that justice had been done. >> okay. >> it's part of a special of the upcoming tenth anniversary, if you can believe it, of the september 11th anniversary attacks. >> we are going to talk to goolsbee, he's still around talking about the president's jobs bill. the president is going to have a jobs bill. jeffrey sachs has to be happy as well. >> i hired him 20 some years ago. >> what was his first job? >> working in eastern europe. >> real? >> good guy. >> we're not going tell you what he smuggled to the united states for the professor. we'll say it was a well-paying job. >> up next, must read opinion pages on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of

. >> rick perry sounds just like george bush. >> he's not george bush on steroids. >> rick perry accusing our federal reserve chairman. >> some felt that was a threatening comment. >> well, i might have said it a little bit differently. >> welcome to the nfl. >> even carl rove is worried his party is going too far to the right. >> republicans are going to have to make a choice. it will become a self-defeating message. >> the worst thing you can do in politics is be a hypocrite. >> howard dean is here. >> there's a lot of explaining to do, as they say. >> and michele bachmann gets fact checked again. >> let's all say happy birthday to elvis presley today. >> 34th anniversary of his death, not his birthday. >> i forgot my teleprompters today. >> but who's counting? >> he's still alive, alive in our hearts. >> bachmann got a commanding 80% of the votes she paid for. >>> good evening from new york. it took all of three days for smooth customer, political veteran, rick perry to say something odious, not just odious to me or liberals, but thuggish and odious to anyone, even mr. carl rove. we'll

president bush and i always agreed we would leave at the end of 2004. he said i went out of my way not to present my positions to the president, but to take them outside of the administration. that's nonsense. president knows i told him what i thought about every issue. >> in some ways, he's no kinder to your successor, condoleeza rice. >> well, he's taken the same shots at con di with an almost condescending tone, she tearfully did this or that and also at george tenet and indicated he didn't always approve of what president bush was deciding. there's nothing wrong with saying you disagree, but it is not necessary to take these kind of baushs and try to pump a book up by saying heads will be exploding. that even on the headline section of the nixon foundation to sell the book. i think it is a bit too far. i think dick overshot the runway with that kind of comment if the that is how he plans to sell his book. >> that it would be colin powell. a veteran of foreign wars a hero of the first gulfer war and undeniable pate with i don't think who served under

bush has crawford. texas political experts say that may explain why perry has worked so hard to step out of bush's shadow. >> i don't think there's anything wrong with respectfully disagreeing with someone who i highly admire. i love george bush. he's a great president and i support him. >> reporter: he's also courted tea party republicans. >> all of that was an effort to rebrand, if you will, texas as rick perry's texas, rather than george w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible national campaign, clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter primary challenge. >> i think apt the staff level there is a certain tension between some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: but former bush secretary ari fleisher says, there's no

president bush was away from washington. there were communication problems, even keeping in touch with what was happening. dick cheney was in the command bunker under the white house and he was the one telling the government what to do. managing that crisis that day. and from the days that followed, drawing on his deep experience in national security matters, he was the chief architect of the bush administrational response to 9/11, whether that was open warfare or the intelligence system, whether that was asking the questions and pushing for what led to the surveillance program, which he takes credit for here or what he calls the enhanced interrogation program which led to the huge dispute over torture when they came to light. >> i'm quoting, in discussing the must disputed 16 words about iraq's supposed hunt for uranium in niger, mr. cheney said unlike other aides he sat knoll. ms. rice eventually came around to his view, she came into my office and tearfully admitted i had been right. condoleezza rice isn't going to be hap