5.13.12: You Can't Erase History

Aaron Ross Sorkin accurately said today that one of the problems for the banks is not that they're too big to fail, something that Jamie Dimon said did not support, but too big to manage.  The question is how can one Mr. Dimon, who is regarded as one of the best in his business, miss what he called a major mistake.  He went farther by saying that, "We know we were sloppy, we know we were stupid, and we know we used bad judgement."  Yet, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said this was an example of how the Dodd-Frank law didn't work, meaning that we need to get rid of it.  We would conclude that he means that we would replace it with nothing, hence making the effort by investigators now looking into the bank's actions unnecessary in finding out why the bank lost $2 billion by trading credit derivatives and were designed to hedge against financial risk.

But if the CEO of JP Morgan Chase said that his company was sloppy, that means that they don't have a handle on or a proper way to monitor the traders that work for there.  It's an industry that has little time or interest in policing itself, but at the same token doesn't want to be regulated.  Our feeling is that you can not put blame on the banks for tanking the economy in 2008.  The rules at the time were that there were essentially no rules, and traders' obligations are to the bank and making money, not to a single home owner in Florida.  If we do not want to see another crisis like this again, then the government for the general welfare of the people have to put rules in place as prevention measures.  Of course the financial industry isn't going to like it, but as Mr. Dimon said, he supports large parts of the Dodd-Frank law.  However, he has also been critical, of course, so let's not deem Mr. Dimon with too many magnanimous-type adjectives,  especially when he talks about how the industry is in favor of letting the Bush tax cuts expire and raising the rates on capital gains. 

What we saw on today's show was a banker speaking more responsibly about the overall good of the the American people than a political party representative, the representative.  The logic is if a part doesn't work, you fix or replace it with something stronger, not to get rid of the part and then hope the thing still works without it.  But that is what Reince Priebus was advocating for today. Get rid of Dodd-Frank and replace it with nothing, and you will see a financial boom, but only in the short-term until the same thing happens all over, but not with housing, but some other industry next time.  Playing for the short-term is popular, instant gratification is now a core American trait, and that's the promise that Republicans carry with them.  However, it does nothing for the sustainable economic health of the country.  The cycle that we're seeing - Republicans delivering us 'high' times followed by a complete bust; then Democrats getting into office to try to clean up the mess, causing people, spurred by the Republican rhetoric, to become impatient for more high times; and then the Republicans, hoping the public forget the details of why they caused the problems in the first place, ask for control again and claiming that the law has made things worse. As Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) said, the war is within Washington.

Then you come to moments like these, 7 months before the election, with the RNC Chairman on Meet The Press taking cheap shots at the President saying that Mr. Obama is in love with the sound of his own voice and hasn't fulfilled the promises that he set.  All Republicans say that, and they all leave out the second part, which is that we're going to block every effort on his part to make good on those promises. 

[With all this stinging commentary, we as a column must officially go on record (again) to say that we're no fan of Reince Priebus and he does the Republican party, even in its currently radicalized state, a disservice as its foremost spokesperson.]

 But make no mistake, Mr. Priebus, the Republican Party and their corporate backers know that the country's demographics are changing to a more Democratic viewpoint and if Republican want to have their way and serve its interests, the time is now.  This is why you see a Republican House passing all kinds of bills that won't become law. It's like throwing darts at a board with your back turned, over the shoulder.  It's awkward and consistently miss the mark, but by chance you might hit it once.  That's what Republicans hope to accomplish in this instance. 

Economically, Republicans would like to return the country to Bush-era policies, we all know this, but the key word here is return, but we can not go back.  From this point, banks need to build their business given the rules in place because they have proven to be irresponsible [think Mr. Dimon's "We know we acted stupidly."]. 

What we said above translates to the marriage equity debate in as much as that Republicans should not be concerned with being on the wrong side of history (the short-term), but being history (the long-term).  They have to be willing to adapt or risk irrelevance. 

Last week, a funny thing happened on Meet The Press.  Usually, a historic act makes news, this time making news prompted a historic act, and after Vice President Joe Biden said he was 'comfortable' with gay marriage, the President came out and said that he personally was for it as well.  (Legislatively, he would leave it to the states to decide.) Chris Matthews found it interesting why the Administration would want to publicize the friction in the White House caused by Mr. Biden being out front on the issue.  We think that's the reason, the Obama Administration is stern when it comes to people knowing who exactly drives the boat, and that's Barack Obama.  It's not some kind of Bush-Cheney situation where the joke.. urrrr reality... was that Cheney really called all the shots.

Refreshingly, on today's program, the Chairman of the American Conservative Union Al Cardenas said that he was surprised by people's surprise. "A lot to do about nothing," he said.  We wouldn't dismiss it like that, but he does have a point.  People shouldn't be that surprised.  However, he also said that he thought this would cause an uprising of social conservative in November the likes of which we haven't seen for 20 some odd years.  Here, we would disagree because from 20 years ago to now, too many people's attitudes have changed, as well as demographics, and the impact he's suggesting will not come to fruition.

However, as Jonathan Capeheart noted, this is not a slam dunk for President though it has buoyed millions psychologically.  Within the body politic of Washington, the lines are being drawn, and not in sand.  People are looking for the permanent marker as we head down the stretch of the Presidential election, and Republicans are trying to figure out a way to ultilize the President's historic stance on gay marriage against him beyond this one issue because they can not erase it.


Round Table:  Lt. Governor of California Gavin Newsom; Chairman of the American Conservative Union Al Cardenas; Washington Post columnists Kathleen Parker and Jonathan Capehart; and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.

4.29.12: Criticism of the Criticism

Despite having to cut through some respective twisting of facts, we always find having campaign representatives, and specifically Ed Gillespie (R) and Robert Gibbs (D), highly informative because their answers provide insights to what political tact each campaign will take on a particular political issue.

Before getting into other issues, it was a good first tackle by Mr. Gregory to discuss whether or not the assassination of Osama Bin Laden is being politicized and whether it should be. [Let's take a time out by saying that this subject is and was tied into NBC's Brian Williams' special program on the one-year anniversary of the operation.]  To answer the first part, it is certainly being used for political gain as evidenced by what Vice President Joe Biden has been saying on the campaign trail. "Bin Laden is dead, and GM is alive." The key part what he follows it up with, "Could Mitt Romney use that as a slogan," and then he goes on to explain why.  It's a bit of a stretch to say that Mitt Romney, if President, wouldn't have taken steps to get him given actionable intelligence, even though he did say it wouldn't have been a priority to get Bin Laden.  Mr. GIbbs stopped short saying that it is not clear as to whether he would have or not.  For President Obama, on the other hand, it was a priority and the success of the mission proved to be significant, especially in the psyches of a younger generation who spent most of their informative years living under the shadow of a post-9/11 world.

It was an vital get.  The killing or capturing of Osama Bin Laden should have always been a priority. That President Bush didn't put a priority on it, and in fact didn't get him in the ensuing 7 years of his Presidency was a error in judgement, and given that, it's fair game for Mr. Obama to tout the fact that his administration conducted the successful mission.  However, prominent Republicans, Senator John McCain as Mr. Gregory noted, said that the ad in question had gone over the line.  Mr. Gillespie said that the President turned a national triumph into a divisive partisan political attack against Mr. Romney, the 'sign of a desperate campaign.'

For Mr. Gillespie, here's where his argument falls down.  When Mr. Gregory asked him if the country was safer now, Mr. Gillespie said that the United States isn't as strong as it should be, and he repeated the phrase again for lack of a credible counter because he certainly can not say that the United States is not safe, without causing a stir, but on the other hand, he can not say that we're safer because that would be giving credit to President Obama.

[As for the second part of Biden's slogan, Mr. Romney is on record saying that he would have not helped General Motors with a bailout, and where he didn't level with the American people when saying that the government should not bail out private companies, he's not addressing the big picture that no saving G.M. would have been the killing of an industry - that's how key General Motors is to the entire equation.]

Going further on foreign policy, there were conflicting opinions on our relationship with Russia.  Mr. Gillespie said the 'reset button' diplomacy is not working.  Conversely, Mr. Gibbs said that the United States, under President Obama, was able to get them to go along with sanctions against Iran.  Well, neither the 'reset button' or the 'I saw into his soul' approaches have been effective.  It's difficult to say from what we've heard today who has done better, but should we keep Russia in a subordinate role to China (a role reversal from the height of the Cold War)?  Absolutely.

What was definitive and insightful came with the discussion of how women are being and would be treated under Republican leadership versus Democratic leadership.  Mr. Gillespie, countering the presumed charge that Republicans have a 'war on women,' explained the women are economically worse off under President Obama since he took office, citing a few statistics.  Mr. Gibbs, for his effort, noted women's health care restrictions Republicans are proposing.  The argument is on two different plains. But it distills down to this, and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos explained the strategy inadvertently during the panel when verbally jousting with Rachel Maddow saying that the subject wasn't the states but the federal government.  To deflect the conversation away from the unprecedented amount of legislation Republicans have introduced limiting women's reproductive rights on a state level, Mr. Romney will try and keep the focus on the economy and how that has effected women.  It's not quite saying one thing and doing another.  It's more of a matter of saying one thing while others do another thing that we won't talk about.

One has to realize that the economy has been difficult on women because of what has been done on the state level by Republicans in their cutting of education budgets, a move that disproportionately negatively effectives women.  Mr. Gillespie stated that the work place has become hostile toward women under President Obama.  This is simply a political platitude, for which the President's record doesn't reflect, starting with his signing of the Fair Pay For Women Act aka Lilly Ledbetter.  Then there is the clip of Speaker John Boehner from the floor of the House saying the so-called 'war on women' is something that the Democrats are simply using for political gain.  Yes, that is correct, but why?  Because Republicans have tried to institute policies not favorable to women so what does he expect?  Mr. Boehner's pompous indignation that Democrats would challenge these policies, making a political issue, given what's on record, shows some pretty thin skin.

Lastly, we like the succinct description Mr. Gibbs put on the Republicans' criticism of the Administration's handling of the economic - that we didn't clean up your mess fast enough.  One reason why we like it is because it plays into Mitt Romney's criticism that the recovery hasn't been fast enough.  The reason for that is political gridlock. [Quick Aside: For good or ill, depending on what political side you're on, simple Senate majority needs to be put back in place as a rule.]  It's an effective criticism of the criticism because by all indications Republicans want to repeal all the economic policies put into place by the Democrats under President Obama, returning us to the policies of the Bush Administration which created the Great Recession, essentially trying to clean up the mess by making more of a mess.

[On a program note, during today's program, there were two extended promotions for other programing on the network and as we touch on earlier in the column, they were woven into the topics discussed.  There was a promotion for Brian Williams' special on the killing of Osama Bin Laden and an interview promotion for Saturday Night Live.  This has been somewhat of a trend on the program, and it's inappropriate for the 'program of record' as we like to refer to Meet The Press.  There is too much to discuss and Meet The Press is a serious program which required every minute to be focused on the topics at hand.  There is plenty of other airtime on the network to promote programming.]


Round Table:  Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen is back to weigh in on the campaign.  Also joining us: Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos.

4.15.12: How Will History Judge?

Representative Michele Bachmann stated during her debate segment with Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) that health insurance costs have risen 9% in the past year under 'Obamacare,' and that families (women) pay $2,000 dollars more in gas per year under President Obama, and that these are the real issues that women should be concerned about.

What you can appreciate about this debate is that the two representatives from their respective sides elevated it beyond the misplaced comments by the CNN contributor Hilary Rosen. However, the two spoke on different planes. When asked about women, Mrs. Bachmann, as previously mentioned talked about the economic impact on women whereas Mrs. Gillibrand spoke about womens' freedom to make health care choices. When Mrs. Bachmann finally weighed in on the points that the Senator was making, her argument completely fell down. Congresswoman Bachmann said that HR1 was a law designed to have women make their own health care choices, but that's simply not the case - it was an abortion restriction bill, which has been followed by 90 state bills that have been passed restricting a woman's choices with her doctor. As we've said before, legislating womens' bodies is the ultimate in big government control over an individual, more so than a health care mandate ever would be. And speaking of the mandate, the reason why health care costs have gone up 9% is not because of 'Obamacare,' which hasn't been fully implemented yet, but instead it is because that private insurance companies are trying to reap as much profit as possible before it kicks in when they won't be able to charge what ever they want, taking advantage of people.

So when Mr. Gregory challenges Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the strength of the economy and the recovery that is still underway, of course he's going to say is still pretty tough. And the reason that it's still tough right now, as it applies to this country, separating out for a moment Europe's financial situation and the effect it has on the stock market, is that President Obama and the Democrats put in place rules such as Dowd-Frank and the Affordable Health Care Act to rein corporate excess. Of course one person's excess is another person's extra profit.

In between the lines you can distill the different strategies. The Obama Administration is looking more long term, while Republicans are looking for the politically and economically expedient. This bears out with regard to the debt and deficit. Mrs. Bachmann stated that in 15 years our economy will collapse under the weight of our debt if we stay on the trajectory we're on, to which Mr. Geithner disagreed. But even if this collapse were inevitable, the Republican answer in the form of the Paul Ryan budget plan doesn't head this off. His budget, if enacted, would not balance the budget until 2040 - 28 years from now.

Despite the anemic job growth numbers, Secretary Geithner stated that by all indications, the policies the administration has put in place are having a positive effect. He cited the growth in business and manufacturing and an increase in consumer confidence. With a weak dollar, manufacturing will pick up hence businesses will grow which is all good, but a weak dollar doesn't help consumers so why the increase in confidence? It's a false label, it's not that consumers have more confidence, it's just that they've had to figure out how to buy things with less money and that took some time to figure out - get out of your house, take the second job, sell a few things, and only now are people starting to buy things again, specifically, for example, women and moms.

"Ridiculous," was the word Mr. Geithner used to describe Mr. Romney's statement that 92% of the jobs lost belonged to women. That's not even a real news maker because no one has really come to believe anything that Mitt Romney says, the core realization that the public will come to and the primary reason why he will not be elected President. Calling Mr. Romney out like that doesn't require any political courage, and where Mr. Geithner could have exercised some was when he rightly mentioned teachers losing their jobs and that a high percentage of those positions are held by women. Where he came up short was that he didn't explain that those teacher job losses were the product of Republican state houses cutting their public budgets and shifting the dollars to tax cutting. He didn't go there. Nor did he mention, as Mrs. Gillibrand correctly did, the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act that President Obama signed into law. How does Mrs. Bachmann defend, for example, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's decision to repeal that law on the state level. She can't and she has to change the subject as she did today because it's not OK that an employer can just decide to pay a woman 75 cents on the dollar for an equal amount of work - simply.

Then there is the whole 'still blaming George Bush' debate and if it's still valid to do so, as Mr. Geithner did today in the context of the tax cuts, with which Mrs. Bachmann took umbrage. Well, in a way as far as continued Bush blame - no, but ultimately in a way - yes. No, because the Obama Administration has not done a good enough job of controlling government waste in medicare and medicaid and has not cut the defense budget at all. However, we're still debating the Bush tax cuts. And if we really want to get rid of the 'blame George Bush' game, then we have to eliminate the tax cuts that carry his name. If you're a Democrat that means raising the rate back up to what it was in the Clinton era. If you're a Republican, that means replacing the namesake (insert Romney or Ryan) and providing an even larger permanent cut.

That's the choice going forward now that the general is effectively on, and as Mike Murphy said during the round table, it's going to get nasty, quickly - no one seemed to disagree. How could anyone in the stratosphere disagree with that? Thirty-five million dollars was spent between Mr. Romney's campaign and his surrogates on attacking Rick Santorum, in the primary. That figure will balloon to about $300 million in the general, not to be outdone by much by Mr. Obama. Ironically, Chuck Todd said that Mr. Romney was getting tagged with Santorum rhetoric. Mr. Romney had to go too far to the right in our estimation to get the votes over his opponents and in some cases, too far from which to recover. This is why Mr. Gregory illustrated the disparity in respective support from women votes - 57% for Mr. Obama, 38% for Mr. Romney. Also, a costly factor in the election. Voter turnout, as Mr. Todd, mentioned will be negatively effective, especially on the Republican side if Mr. Romney starts walking any hard right statements back to the middle, combined with the negative advertising.

And instead of debating whether or not Mitt Romney should make an appearance on Saturday Night Live, how about we give a little thought to what Mr. Geithner said during his interview, which was that history will judge what President Obama has done, is doing, and what he will do favorably. After all, Mike Murphy said that the election would be a referendum on each individual - stick with that. Some would argue that history will not be favorable given the $5 trillion in debt that has accumulated under the Obama Administration so far. They'll be correct if Mr. Obama wins a second term and doesn't focus on deficit reduction once the health care act is in full effect. If Romney wins the election, Mr. Obama's policies will be looked upon as even more favorably because Mr. Romney will throw back the country into a deep recession and then people once again long for fiscal sanity.


Round table: former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd.


Postscript: Mr. Gregory's interview with Bill Cosby (excerpted during the program) provided nice closure to the program despite some frivolous conversation during the panel. We agree with Mr. Cosby that the Trayvon Martin shooting should be more a conversation about the gun instead of race. Sadly, there is nary a politician with the political courage to speak up about it. We would also agree that it is un-American to route for the failure of the President because in essence, hoping for that is hoping that America fails, and that just sucks.

4.1.12: We Like Broccoli

Substituting for Mr. Gregory this week were NBC's Savannah Guthrie and Joe Scarborough respectively, with Mr. Scarborough taking the round table. In the opening interview, Rick Santorum said that what's worse than a contested convention is picking the wrong candidate. With due respect, Ms. Guthrie got the wrong candidate in grilling Mr. Santorum on getting out of the race. Those questions should really go to Newt Gingrich, who at this point is being completely ignored by the media. The general Republican consensus with the small wave of endorsements this week of Mitt Romney is that Republicans should start focusing on a one on one race. However, that's all that Rick Santorum wants, his chance to have a one on one primary votes with Mr. Romney. It's Mr. Santorum's only real chance to contend, possibly beat, Mr. Romney in Wisconsin and or Pennsylvania, Mr. Santorum's home state and where it is now a dead heat.

In his campaign of inevitability, as Mr. Santorum correctly put it, Mitt Romney may be that 'wrong' candidate as his favorability rating is at 34 percent, damage done inadvertently by his Super PAC, so much negative advertising that it has turned people off. Also, there's the damage the candidate has done to himself with all of his changing on positions and the endless verbal gaffes, that Mika Brzezinski who essentially co-hosted today's round table, pointed out through a series of clips. We must admit it is fun to see how far Mitt Romney can take this vulgar display of wealth, and the house with the lobbyist and car elevator is a great way to one-up yourself.

Mr. Santorum was also making the case that the Republican nomination is not a done deal because more than half of the delegates in states where they've already had primaries have not yet committed to a candidate. But what is the end game for Mr. Santorum in taking this line of attack, a contested convention? It's at the convention where the establishment does take over, which is only a further benefit to Mr. Romney. It's a weak case on the part Rick Santorum for the nomination. But you never know, we agree with Tom Friedman who said today on the panel that the Republican Party is becoming a radical party. You could tell that the comment made his conservative colleague David Brooks cringe, as it should. In this Republican primary, the rhetoric has gone farther to the right than in the past 40 years at least.

And of course, speaking of weak cases, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) best answer in defense of two-thirds of the American people against the Affordable Healthcare Act is that once people get beyond all the horribles being touted about the bill, they'll see the benefits. What? However, he did say that the concept of the individual mandate came from the conservative Heritage Foundation back in 1993. For Democrats, this is a good nugget to be pulling out hammering home, that conservatives were for this but the Dems just haven't made the point effectively enough as Mr. Schumer did today. It wasn't as weak an argument as the case the Solicitor General Donald Verrilli made for the law before the Supreme Court this week, according to all reports, blogs, and tweets.

Mr. Schumer did say that even given the weak argument, it's difficult to say how the court will judge. However, there will be significant negative effects if the court does not uphold the law, and those will be felt on all sides. From the round table, Jon Meacham stated that it would be a permanent black eye for the President if it's not upheld. It will be - he spent a year and a half working on a Health care law that was deemed unconstitutional. If the vote comes down 5-4 against, which looks like the anticipated tally, the court will be viewed by most to be ideological and partisan, and Republicans who will be thinking victory will once again be the grand party of 'no' because they'll offer no alternative but to cut benefits for Medicare, Medicaid, and the rest. Finally, what will ultimately be lost, and rather quickly, is Americans faith in our system of government. Congress can barely get anything done, and when they finally do pass something of significance, for good or ill, a court of 9 can negate the whole thing. It leads one to ask, what's the point?

There's no doubt that the court is ideological activist, the track record is there. We contended before in this column that the court makes decisions without considering the practical nature of their conclusions. Case in point is the Citizens United decision, where the court made a conclusion and now see the result in practice and there thinking that it's pretty awful what they unleashed. Since they've seen it now and the accompanying consequences, this time around with health care the judges are trying to consider the effect of the decision more. This is what leads a smart man to ask dumb questions about mandating people to eat broccoli.

It seems that the court is short in the overarching consideration for the Interstate Commerce Clause and the effect on it for striking down the law, a point that Senator Schumer rightly brought up. By ruling against the government, the court could put Congress's ability to regulate industries that operate state to state in real jeopardy. As Mr. Schumer mentioned, food safety standards could deteriorate. This and environmental protections, air and water, are underestimated in significance of importance in this country. We don't seem to understand that the better the food, the better the air, and the better the water, the less we'll be sick and... then require less health care.


Tom Friedman and David Brooks of the New York Times, Fmr. Newsweek Executive Editor Jon Meacham, Fmr. Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN) and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.


Postscript: Oh yeah, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) was on the program today to endorse Mitt Romney. We guess that is what you would call 'mild news' given the upcoming Wisconsin primary. Important? Hardly, no one's listening, not even in Wisconsin.

3.25.12: The Anguish and the Anger of a Natural Sin

Mr. Gregory said that the President seemed reluctant to take the lead in discussing race at this time in the aftermath of the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, FL. But David Plouffe, in his interview segment, said that the President's leadership has been profound. Really, he's stayed somewhat measured in his responses, as he's had to be, and he doesn't need to lead the conversation. The discussion, the way it's playing out in the public forum, is how the discussion needs to progress, and the President should weigh in and observe (as should Congress) about what the American people are saying - they are leading the discussion.

In response to something tragic, the nature first reaction is outrage, but more so anguish, as NPR's Michele Norris described it, because it has reinforced the existing reality of race relations in the United States of America, and specifically as Mr. Ben Jealous described it, African-American men being 'born suspect.' The anger will instill cause in individuals and the conversation will turn productive. It will happen, and we'll progress positively but it takes time. Mr. Jealous said he's already seen a coming together of the public.

As for the President's comments this week with regard to Trayvon Martin, of course it's going to touch him in profound way, he's an African-American and a father, he made a personal comment, and race is a component here. David Brooks described it as a nature sin, that we have to fight, and the only way to fight it is to bring it out in the open. We can not deny the reality so we find it distasteful for the Republican candidates for President, specifically Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, to say that President Obama has politicized this with his statements. Newt Gingrich went so far as to practically accuse the President of reverse-racism, that's disgraceful. Mr. Gingrich marginalizes himself from the conversation with such responses.

Moving on to another nature sin, the Obama Administration's energy policy has been 'cagey,' as Mr. Brooks described it. Mr. Obama has acted , in this area more so than all others, in a true political way, in that he's trying to make everyone happy and like what's he's doing. With his announcement of starting construction of the southern part of the keystone pipeline is the object example. This announcement is clearly aimed to placate his Republican opponents in an attempt to tamper down the rhetoric. All the while, he's also turning to his left and saying I'm holding that up for environmental concerns.

However, if the President doesn't announce plans to build the northern portion, even if it could devastate the environment, then what he has is the pipeline to nowhere. In other words, a political loser on both sides of the argument. With that said, the discussion in the media hasn't focused on at all on alternatives to the pipeline or on how we're building it. Are there any? It doesn't seem that way so it comes down to a do or don't do. Even though the pipeline won't be finished and producing until President Obama is significantly out of office, the call will have been his to make. He's not being completely honest with part of his base, and so that's the risk he takes politically, but we get it. He's trying to head off the politics of Keystone before he gets to the head to head with Mitt Romney, who Haley Barbour said is to be the nominee unless he steps on a landmine. (Even given the media downplaying of Rick Santorum winning big in the Louisiana primary yesterday.) Despite the reality that any President can not control gas prices, he's the one who gets blamed, and they all have thin skin on this issue, Mr. Obama being no exception. We guess what President Obama could say is that his policy on Keystone is just like one that Mitt Romney would agree with - I'm for the pipeline over here, but not over there, taking both sides.

Where the President will not, can not, should not play both sides is in the health care law debate. Right now, he is staying out of the argument while others make it in front of the Supreme Court this week. David Plouffe seemed confident that the Supreme Court would uphold the law, most probably calculating that the mostly conservative court could not possibly take the hit that they are partisan in their decisions, as it was perceived in the Citizens United case, and evident in the Bush vs. Gore decision.

We not going to underestimate the Supreme Courts capabilities in this case, they could very well repeal it, perception or no perception. What's funny is that Republicans are basically putting down what they in fact originally proposed, thanks to lefties like Bob Dole and Mitt Romney. Getting millions of more people into the market and potentially bringing costs down could be a bad thing. Our feeling is that Obamacare will be policy that years down the road will be one of those things, like Social Security, where everyone is saying, why wasn't this way before. Then is 40 more years, the whole thing will go haywire and we'll have to figure it out again.


Round table: Fmr. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R); head of the NAACP, Ben Jealous; NPR’s Michele Norris; presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; and the New York Times’ David Brooks.


Post: We commend Rachel Maddow for her engaging in the conversation, through her book Drift, about America's constant state of war and the military superstructure that exists. The notion of Americans being comfortable with it is worrisome at the very least even though 60% of of the people say that we should get out of Afghanistan. It renders us with no moral high ground that we as Americans like to occupy, but in even cold financial terms, we spend too much money on the military superstructure. That's not the troops, who we need to spend more on, but the industries, contractors, and lobbies that push an agenda. What makes us slightly hopeful is that for all this to change, the conversation has to start somewhere and this one is starting in the right places. Way on one political side, the left, is Rachel Maddow talking about it. On the other end is Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul. If you could get those two in the same room, on the same page talking about this, people would take notice.

3.18.12: Connecting the Dots

Today's program was seemingly all over the map with discussions on the Republican Primary races, Super PACs, Afghanistan and the tragic act committed by Sgt. Robert Bales, the crisis in Syria, and finally the discussion of what is happening in the Sudan with George Clooney and John Prendergast. However, there are three consistently interwoven threads that connect them all and those are the United States, Russia, and China.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), making his 64th appearance on Meet The Press, said point blank that Mitt Romney needs to do a better job campaigning if he wants the nomination. Mr. Romney, on the campaign trail, consistently speaks of increasing military spending so that there will be no question around the world as to which country has the most military power. But we already have that supremacy, 10-fold in fact. Rarely does he speak of diplomacy in solving the problems that the U.S. faces abroad. Diplomacy requires nuance and as evidenced on the campaign, this is something that Mr. Romney sorely lacks.

Mr. McCain is correct to complain about Super PACs, but you get what you pay for. In the case of Newt Gingrich's campaign, Sheldon Adelson funds his campaign on the promise that the United States will wage a war on Iran to protect Israel. In strict constructionist terms, the First Amendment guarantees free speech but does not designate the difference between a collective or an individual so technically the decision was correct, however, in practicality this decision is a disaster. It's created the nastiest campaign, to use the Senator's words, that he's ever seen. So will our foreign policy be dictated by the whims of a few? Senator McCain said that there would be scandals (with regard to Super PAC funding) and then we'll have to 're-legislate,' but really it's a 're-litigate.'

The Senator also stated that Iran would be dealt a crippling blow in its influence if the United States were to engage militarily with Syria, and given the evidence that Russia is supplying the Assad Government with arms, he concludes that we should arm the insurgents. In effect this will create another proxy war with Russia, which we can not afford. What would a President Romney do? Would he look into the soul of President Putin, as President Bush did, and conclude that we trust them? Russia is loving what is happening in Afghanistan with the United States being bogged down in a prolonged war in that country, seeing our finances and human resources stretched beyond capacity.

The good Senator said that we needed to be committed to victory in Afghanistan instead of consistently emphasizing withdrawal plans. However, if you listened to the round table discussion today, 'victory' is a murky proposition. Author John Krakauer deemed the counter-insurgency doomed to fail at the start. The point being that a military trained to fight can not win hearts and minds with the barrel of a gun. To buttress that, Ms. Cooper pointed out that the population does not feel safe with the presence of the U.S. Military in country. Of course this is punctuated by this latest tragedy of Sgt. Robert Bales' mass shooting of Afghan civilians. These realities, along with many others, should be the impetus for us to get out of country.

Paul Rieckhoff stated that at this moment the suicide rate among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans is higher than the casualty rate among our soldiers. This is the direct product of too few fighting too much, over ten years of war and more than 200,000 traumatic brain injuries in ten years. So to Senator McCain, where's the victory in this? The panel threw around comparisons between Iraq and Afghanistan with some of the members pointing to the commonalities and others disagreeing. But here's how that stacks up given that we've executed a troop surge in both countries. The similarities are few. Afghanistan is no where near as stable as Iraq, and that's saying something. The Iraqis have had the sense of what a functioning government looks like and the network of bureaucracy that is needed to create stability. Also, a distinct difference between both counter-insurgency efforts is that in Afghanistan we are paying people whereas in Iraq we enriched people with money, and power. For dissident Iraqis there was the incentive of control. There is no sense of control in Afghanistan.

Mr. Gregory, in the interview segment with Senator McCain asked about the contraception law in Arizona that if passed would require women to inform their employers why they would want birth control. The Senator doesn't think that this will pass, and when asked about the Republican (clearly Republican initiated) 'War on Women,' he said that this needed to be fixed. What Mr. Gregory didn't point out is the distinct irony that in Afghanistan we're fighting for women's rights (Republicans advocating for continued/escalated fighting) while here at home Republicans are trying to take rights from women. Frankly, this is a disgrace.

Lastly, in addition to the human cost, our finances are so strained because of our extended wars, it renders the United States with little leverage in dealing with China, and in the example of today's program, the Sudan which Mr. Gregory discussed with George Clooney and John Prendergast. Though Mr. Clooney effectively puts it in financial terms, China has little incentive to do cooperative business with us because they can outbid and outspend the United States at every turn in the procuring natural resources [read: petroleum]. As long as the United States is engaged in protracted wars, Mr. Clooney will have to continue to solely rely on his celebrity because the U.S. government, though would like to have his back, can not afford it.


Round table: Author and Afghanistan War veteran Wes Moore; author of the bestselling book “Where Men Win Glory” about the death of Pat Tillman, Jon Krakauer; Founder and Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Rieckhoff; the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward; and the New York Times’ Helene Cooper.

3.11.12: What Happened to 'God's Green Earth?'

All the talk about the delegate count and whether or not Newt Gingrich should get out of the race between Rick Santorum and Mr. Gregory this morning is a bit frivolous in as much as there's no telling at this moment where the Republican primary race is going to go. Mr. Santorum mentioned uncommitted delegates and super delegates that are still up in the air, but the fact of the matter is that the primary races have to play out and delegates are going to go with the proportional winners. As for Mr. Gingrich, and Mr. Santorum for that matter, there is no reason to get out of the race when you have the structure of financial backing that these two candidates have, which is to say that both of their campaigns rely on a single mega-donor, Sheldon Adelson and Foster Freiss respectively. In this new climate, candidates will ride all the way to the convention and then try to leverage their delegates for their own goals.

What we find ridiculous, and for Rick Santorum in particular, is the Senator's take on the President's energy policy, calling him the leader of a radical environmental movement in the United States, so much for God's Green Earth we guess. The rhetoric is on the Republicans' side, but the numbers and the reality is on the Democrats side. If you know nothing else, know that all the oil produced gets put onto the world market, a world market where the United States doesn't set the price Also, when you consider the fact that the United States produces 2% of the world's oil and uses over 20% of the world's supply then oil prices are going to be high. Also, high gas prices are completely relative. Gasoline in the United States is cheap comparatively to many industrialized countries around the world.

Americans were upset when the BP oil spill severely damaged the Gulf Coast, so why is it unacceptable when we take time to pause and evaluate the environmental effect on more drilling or an oil pipeline installation? Money drives judgment but every decision can not be made with respect to money. This may come as a shocker, but money doesn't fix everything, especially when it comes to the environment, just ask the Japanese. Opening up all the spigots right here, right now is not going to lower gas prices.

Mr. Santorum also mentioned regulations that are damaging business and getting in the way of it, and what he's talking about is the Dodd-Frank bill, which was created presumably so that we do not repeat the mess that we got into in 2008, which was driven by credit default swap where no one was held accountable at margin call. What Mr. Santorum is talking about is a regulation boogie-monster.

Lastly, and ever-present in an interview with Rick Santorum is the discussion of 'Obamacare,' which he sites as the overriding factor to his calling to run for President. Mr. Santorum says that 'Obamacare' would neglect his special needs child, and marginalize that child as unproductive and not worth the time. He continues that intrusive government is making that judgment,'government running people's lives' he said, and its unacceptable. However, at odds with this is Mr. Santorum's stance on women's reproductive rights.

Governor McDonnell, tactfully circumvented the question about the invasive procedure that his state legislature mandated within Virginia's new law that required an ultrasound for women seeking an abortion. Mr. Santorum is for this procedure, but as Mr. Gregory pointed out, this is a government mandate on a health issue. This leads to the biggest problem the Republican party has right now, and that is what conservative columnist Peggy Noonan deemed as a lack of respect toward women. She didn't specifically point the finger at anyone, but this misogyny against women, as she also termed it, is going to be the ruination of the Republican Party. The optics, the rhetoric and the policy initiatives are all at odds with the natural evolution of society in the United States. We could go into all the rhetorical angles illustrating why this is bad for the country, but frankly, and simply, men, only men, should not be making laws and about women's reproductive health, and the debate on contraception takes most Americans back to a time they can't remember. And you know why they can't remember that time? Because it doesn't make sense since they weren't even born yet.


MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Washington Post’s EJ Dionne, and the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan


Postscript: During today's program, there was a report on a U.S. soldier in Kandahar, Afghanistan who left his post and shot 16 Afghan civilians, which included women and children. The bottom line is that the sooner we get out of this country (and end our warring) the better. Because of our military having to overextend itself, we've lowered recruiting standards, we've asked soldiers to do multiple tours - meaning years and years of war for each individual, and increased the stress level for our people and cemented resentment in their people.

The story of the Koran burning, on its face, was bad enough but there are stories that the Korans in question had been used to pass messages to plot against American soldiers. The books were defaced by their own proponents. However, this murder rapage, no matter how you would attempt to spin it, is the moment where we need to turn it all around and turn it back. It is not in our national interest to be there in these numbers anymore.

3.14.12: Predicta-Inevitability

When Mr. Newt Gingrich begins to, what my mother would say, hem and haw toward the end of a question you know that what ever his answer is going to be it is going to start with a condemnation of the press, the 'elite media,' for being on the topic. In a way he is right in that now, the debate is about how the debate itself is being framed. The devolution occurred very quickly. However, you have to consider the source of the debate, Mr. Rush Limbaugh and his influence amongst the Republican party rank and file. It was a large voice from the Republican base that created the ugliness of this. And Mr. Gregory made sure to ask everyone on the program today what their thoughts were on Mr. Limbaugh's comments (which we're sure by now you know all too well). The sad reality of Mr. Limbaugh's show, if you listen to it, is that comments like his are bound to come out because he spends three hours a day, five days a week criticizing and ridiculing, but never once offering any solutions.

But here is where Mr. Gingrich is very wrong in his rhetoric. Of the statements that he could quote, he quoted the Catholic Bishops in saying, "The President is waging war against the Catholic Church," and he ran with it going further that this is the most radical move against the Catholic Church, which is hyperbole of the tallest order. Additionally, what's wrong with his rhetoric is his labeling of birth control as 'abortion pills.' It's a minor point, but still inappropriate. Where he really goes over the lie, is when he implies that the President is some secret Islamic sympathizer because he's 'waging war against Catholicism' at home, and apologizing to Muslims overseas (for the Koran burning incident with the U.S. Military). Congressman Cantor (R-VA), for his part during his interview, at least came out strong against the commentator's comments.

If the debate is framed in one of religious freedom instead of the moral compass and hence authority to speak out by the Catholic Church then we can talk, but if it's the latter then there needs to be another source of the outrage. [Yes, you can forgive, but forgetting is always something entirely different. The Catholic Church, frankly, has yet to fully atone for all its sins.]

Getting beyond all this... Rush Limbaugh, the Catholic Church, the outrage... If a Catholic Hospital doesn't want to fund birth control pills, for example, in their health insurance offering to employees, then according to what Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) said today, the insurance company that they use assumes the burden of payment, instead of the religious institute. That's the compromise from the President, but it's still unacceptable.

If the insurance company is also a Catholic Institution, then we can see the objection, but if it's a private for-profit insurance company then fully comprehensive plans that include contraceptive health services should be offered. We could go on for columns and columns just listing the book titles about how there needs to be more compromise in our political system, but we need to do two things here: One, respect women's health rights first and foremost; and secondly, we need to get beyond this. Things like the Blount Amendment voted on this week in the Senate, which Ms. Wasserman-Schultz was rightly outraged by, go too far and it is no where near where the American people are on health care and religious/moral freedom. Being more concise - that amendment was just stupid.

In addition to Mr. Gingrich railing on the press, what also struck predictable was Congressman Eric Cantor's endorsement of Mitt Romney for President. Mr. Cantor, like Mitt Romney, is not a cultural warrior of the Rick Santorum stripe per se, but very fiscally conservative. Interpret that as you will. The understated Savannah Guthrie made the good point that Romney blew an opportunity to come out against Mr. Limbaugh's comments and by doing so appeal to independent voters which he has to start doing but hasn't because of a very messy primary. Mr. Romney clearly has no stomach for dealing with social issues despite what Mike Murphy says. Mr. Cantor also boldly predicted that Mr. Romney would win his state of Virginia where there are only two people on the ballot - Mr. Romney and Dr. Paul (Santorum and Gingrich both didn't make it). In Mr. Cantor's description of Mitt Romney's economic plan, he characterized it as pro-growth, pro-jobs, and went on to say it is because Mr. Romney knows how to do it. To that point, one could argue that in his time at Bain Capital, he created a net of 100,000 jobs. But the question has to be what are the quality of those jobs? Simply creating retail jobs means that middle class income will be unlikely to progress upward. This says nothing of his proposed tax policy, which would create even less revenue for the government and hence a larger deficit.

Mr. Cantor made the Romney-like argument with regard to the United States' energy policy. He said that the President will argue that oil production is at an all time high, but despite that the President is holding back permits for more drilling. The argument is thin because additional permits aren't going to lower oil, hence gas, prices. The United States is now exporting oil and prices have not come down so this nuance of restricting permits wouldn't really solve anything. The operative example for this debate is the Keystone Pipeline, for which Republicans advocating.

Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz pointed out that it would take 45 years for the oil production from the pipeline to equal the same amount we would save under President Obama's policies. When one is speaking in projections, it's difficult to say how it will turn out so that reasoning is something to be considered but not taken as gospel. What was telling is that Ms. Wasserman-Schultz said the Republican Governor of Nebraska is one record as saying that more time and assessment is needed before proceeding with the pipeline. This is a fact so as it stands, somewhere in the Republican argument there is a disconnect between the ideological/political assessment for the pipeline and the practicality of it. Mr. Cantor said the President is hostile to fossil fuels, but instead we would contend that the President is seeing it simply as a finite source of energy.

Despite Mr. Cantor's assertions that Mitt Romney is the best man for the Presidency, the candidate is mired in a tough primary battle with Super Tuesday, primaries in 11 states, two days away. The reason it's been tough is the very reason why Mr. Cantor believes Mr. Romney should be the nominee, his economic policies. Rick Santorum is arguing that Mr. Romney's policies wouldn't be good for working-class Americans. This perception is reinforced by Mr. Romney himself with his numerous verbal gaffes - another Bain Capital Moment - 'a couple of Cadillacs.'

The remaining question is whether or not Mitt Romney will wrap up the Republican nomination this Tuesday. Ms. Guthrie also astutely pointed out that candidacies do not die a nature death these days, running out of money when you run out of support, because of Super PACs. This couple with Mark Halperin's assessment that if Mr. Romney loses Ohio, which is a very tight race right now, the primaries will go on.

Mike Murphy said that Mr. Romney is doing well with the delegates collected but his perception of winning primaries isn't great. We would contend that the opposite is true. Mr. Romney isn't doing as well as he should be with delegates. His perception of winning is good because he's been declared the winner in primaries and then it has ended up that he in fact lost the primary (Iowa) or his win is being contested by the other candidates (Michigan and Maine). Is the inevitability factor blinding the actual results? We predict that these discrepancies will continue to play a factor on Super Tuesday (or after it as the case may be) and that the Republican primary race will continue to slog on.



Round Table: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, GOP strategist Mike Murphy, Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin, and NBC’s Savannah Guthrie.

2.26.12: Everything You Wanted to Know About Connecting with People (but Were Afraid to Ask)

We lead with this... Former Congressman Harold Ford made a good point in that the most interesting answer Former Senator Rick Santorum gave during his interview was on Afghanistan and not on the separation of Church and State.

Mr. Santorum said that the President should not have apologized for the U.S. Military inadvertently burning Korans in Afghanistan; Mr. Ford disagreed. However, in addition to making the point that if the situation were reversed and an Islamic Army burned Bibles here, would Mr. Santorum want an apology because it is a matter of faith, Mr. Ford pointed to this as a barometer of how Mr. Santorum would negotiate with other nations in times of conflict. Mr. Ford rarely delivers during his guest spot, but today he certainly did because what he was getting at is the major flaw of Rick Santorum as a Presidential candidate. He only see the world through his very narrow prism and is unable to figuratively step outside the situation and see it from all perspectives, and that means everything from contraception to foreign policy.

Yes, the President did apologize and should have as he understands the delicate nature of other people's faith, especially in Afghanistan. Senator Santorum did when it came to the Administration's decision on contraception, which angered the Catholic Bishops, but not this? Is a blatant disregard, a sense of arrogance toward other nations and faiths under the cover of the idea of American Exceptionalism? On another point, which we'll get to later, Mr. Santorum called the President a snob so either in the above point, he's either arrogant or stupid. The question, as Mr. Ford rightly brought up, is not whether to apologize or not, but how will Mr. Santorum negotiate with other nations in instances like these?

And we'd be remiss not to mention Senator Santorum's answers with regard to faith playing a role in governing. In referencing the Kennedy video (see below), Mr. Santorum said that Kennedy's stance on the separation of Church and State was too rigid and disagreed with Kennedy that it should be absolute. He quickly said that it wasn't the founders vision, but that's not true at all. The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

So how could President Kennedy's stance be too rigid if he followed the above tenant? Mr. Santorum cited the slave movement and the civil rights movement as ones that were rooted in faith. In fact, he said that it's a "Dangerous idea to take faith out of the decisio in making process." Given that more people die in the name and because of religion, we'll refer back to the First Amendment for our stance. But beside leaving that to interpretation, what raised eyebrows is how he referred to slavery, as a movement. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he meant anti-slavery. Movements usually are called so because they advocate for something, and Mr. Santorum isn't advocating for slavery. Given that, the anti-slavery movement? More Americans died in the civil war, a war fought over slavery, than in all other American wars combined, not to mention the merciless oppression with all its ripples and echoes. It wasn't simply a movement as Mr. Santorum labeled it... Just saying.

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This entire discussion points to the fact that Mr. Santorum, as Washington Post Columnist Kathleen Parker said, overshoots. He always takes his argument too far to the right, and as Ms. Parker also pointed out, it's troublesome to people who know Mr. Santorum well. He's just never going to get enough people behind his views and agenda.

However, as the argument has been, at least he has views, convictions, and an agenda as opposed to Mitt Romney who apparently does not. Mr. Santorum said that Mr. Romney's speech earlier this week at Ford's Field was timid, insider, and nothing new. Mr. Santorum just needs to be careful with that rhetoric because as he admitted as much in the Arizona debate earlier in the week, his vote on No Child Left Behind. That vote was along party lines, he was the Whip (the person responsible for getting the votes) at the time, and the law advocated for standardized testing (some thing he opposes).

But Mr. Romney can be insufferable. That he said his wife drives a 'couple of Cadillacs' during said speech just creates another layer of separation between him and the people whose votes he's trying to court, like a bad onion. Cut to Kathleen Parker again - who said that given that he is a dork, Mr. Romney's persona should be shaped as the doctor with no bed side manner, with the bottom line being that he has the cure. This is good, it could work for Mr. Romney given all of his verbal catastrophes [Corporations are people, I'm not concerned about poor people, the trees are the right size (one we'll never understand)].

Here's the rub, Mr. Romney doesn't have the cure, and Mr. Santorum pointed out it out. Mr. Romney was for bailing out the banks, but not for bailing out the auto industry. It's the very reason why the Michigan primary polls are so close. But larger than that, it is well established in people's minds that the jobs that were saved by the auto bailout were in the millions, think of the supply chain to those car makers. If this people's perception, but Mr. Romney doesn't understand that, how is he going to implement economic policies that positively effect those people?

A positive effect is not what college campuses are having on our youth according to Mr. Santorum. As we mentioned, he called the President a snob for saying that every one go to college even though he has encouraged all his children to attend. But we understand Mr. Santorum's point that every kid isn't meant for college, but that the opportunity should be there for them. That's fine but to go on to say that college campuses are indoctrinating students with secular thought is a wrong-minded generalization that seems to imply that university professors should not engage their students in critical thought.

Rick Santorum's positions are appealing to a small sliver of the American populace so hence Mr. Romney (who has yet to come to Meet The Press for an interview) still remains the safe bet for the nomination. And speaking of safe bets, Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ), on the program today, officially endorsed Mr. Romney for President, who is way ahead in Arizona primary polls. As Republican strategist Steve Schmidt noted, Mr. Romney also has momentum because Mr. Santorum has to continually answer questions about social issue positions, like the content of this column.

In the joint interview with Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA), Ms. Brewer was vocally frustrated when discussing immigration. She said that Texas goes a good job, California does a good job, but Arizona doesn't because it doesn't have the support of the Federal Government. In fact, the state is being sued for its immigration policy that says it can check an individual's citizenship, 'show me your papers,' if they are stopped by police, for example, for something else. The decision will come from the Supreme Court in April. The Federal Government helps all three states with border control so if Texas and California both do a good job as Ms. Brewer said, but Arizona does not, isn't that a reflection more on the governor's performance than anyone else's? Governor Brewer, in fact, framed it in such a way that the responsibility for poor border security should rest on her. Governor Brown, whether you agree with his agenda or not, he does have a clear one, which is the Dream Act in California giving students a path to citizenship. He said that it would also include scholarship opportunities. His reasoning being that you simply can't just round up 12 million people and deport them. Whether or not you agree with him, he didn't whine about it, he brought what he thought was the best solution. Not no solution.


Round table: McCain '08 senior strategist Steve Schmidt, Fmr. Democratic Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., Washington Post's Kathleen Parker, and NBC's Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd.