>>> debt in this country, and he has passed a stimulus program that grew government and not the economy. he socialized health care , and he armed mexican drug cartels . admit it, america , 2008 was our national oops moment.
>> no word yet if rick perry has tried to trademark oops, but while the gop tries to define president obama 's re-election as a radical detour of the country, how different would a leader is mitt romney ? we are looking into the possibility that they represent the same subsection of america . the biggest division is not within the classes, but the parties that represent them. barack obama comes from the moneyed elite and as well as mitt romney . comparing them strikes the ire of both on the left and the right, and mark leibovich in terms of talking about personality and executive style, there are similarities and both are analytical introverts operating in a extroverts and neither has a stomach for idle chatter and have both been called aloof at times.
>> well, if it weren't for politics these guys would get al lon famously, and in other words, if they met on a golf course or at a collective leadership seminar at harvard, they would have tea and exchange ideas and the like. no doubt about that, but what is interesting is the ideas for the country. because the kennedys can say that you can have a whole bunch of money over here and still be concerned for the poor over here. there is not a lot great sim similarity of governor romney and president obama , but the question is how alike are they and dissimilar in treating the disease at the heart of american culture which the rampant inequality that makes poorer people poorer and richer people richer.
>> well, there is obviously a huge gulf, and jimmy, the congressional expert, you are, in terms of governing though, one of the biggest criticisms lobbed at the president is this idea that he does not like the s sausage making and now more than ever, it is about sausage making to get anything done in congress and relationships and interaction and cajoling and arm twisting , and et cetera , and you could feasibly have someone else in the white house who does not like that process, but how much arm twisting does mitt romney have to do?
>> well, if he becomes president a lot. barack obama spent two or three years in the senate at most four, and i can't remember actually, and not many, but you don't become an expert at deal making per se unless you do. unless you sit on the floor day in, day out as a junior senator doing the job, and that is to sit back to listen to the wise old men and women to go into the committee and discuss something, and he hates it. bill clinton loved it. might i remind you that bill clinton is the one who said i feel your pain. there is not a single american out there who feels that mitt romney has felt their pain.
>> well, some say that the president has a visceral understanding of the economic pain they are in.
>> yes, that is correct.
>> and in terms of the policy and the politics, jonathan, i want to bring you in on this, because eric finstrom with a strong statement saying that mitt romney would endorse the ryan plan and we talked about the laminated cards we made featuring highlights of your story about the ryan budget plan and ryan is explicit about massive cuts to the very rich and cuts to the programs that aid the poor and the deficit. you could rarely call it a plan to help the poor and the sick, and when you talk about a line of attack for the president, this is a potent one.
>> well, he is a tech no krat or at least he was inmanma. when they looked at the health care problem, they hired the same advicer from m.i.t. and came to the same conclusion, and the problem is that romney is running against the same technocratic approach that he employed so well in my opinion in massachusetts. so he is kind of running against who he used to be, and embracing this ryan approach which tries to present itself as wonky and technocratic, but it is an ide logic approach to government.
>> and the most important thing that is happening at the polls this november is actually are the congressional races, and depending on the makeup of the house and the senate, it is either a difficult time for president obama or a very interesting time for president romney . joy, i want to try to hit this before we have to leave this segment, but we are talking about the raised expectations and lowered expectations, and there was a thoughtful op-ed in the " washington post " this weekend by fredrick harris talking about the african-american disappointment in the president, and he makes the point that the black americans are explicit in the decline which is broader decline in terms of prioritizing policy that takes into consideration african-american problems. fearing that racial issues will undermine the president in the eyes of the white voters, african- americans appear to have struck an implicit pact with obama. even as we watch him go out of his way to lift up other marginalized groups, and we've accepted his silence on issues of this particular interest to us. and in the campaign, he talked about it a lot.
>> i felt that argument was more about the congressional black caucus and old-school black politicians who went about politics in a explicitly racial way, and they have to understand deep down, barack obama cannot do that. when you talk to the white house , they say that the policies we are pursuing do help african- americans , and health care disproportionately helps them, because they are disproportionately uninsured an edge ska education is the same thing, so the older term politicians don't want to hear the word black coming out of his mouth don't understand his job as president is not to do that.
>> and the op-ed takes the logic, rise the oceans and everybody's votes -- i am paraphrasing so badly right now.
>> but it is more poetic, and i love yours better.
>> what happened to the global warming ?
>> well, that is happening right now. and he says what for those of us who do not have boats that, you know, gay marriage is a piece of policy specifically targeting the lgbt community and why not anything for african- americans ?
>> well, those who defend the president would say he has, and the question is, again, back to the debate between joy-ann reid and jimy williams is what he has talked about and if you have talked to him like i have, he says the pell grants is disproportionately helping african- american people , and health care is disproportionately helping out, and if i go out to say it is black and for black people , and that is a winner and helps out t the problem, and people are drawn in. now-year-old could have an intellectual and targeted and universal conversation, but there is a different way to frame it so that the argument can be subsumed under what barack obama is doing. it is a complicated thing, but the problem is that if you have a guy up there who is black already, he is at a disadvantage and he cannot say if trayvon martin was my son, he would look like mine, and so he can't speak on, that and to what degree is the president effective if he deploys a racial rhetoric that leads to divisive efforts where the senators and the congressmen cannot come together. one choice line he said to me, you know, michael, i'm dealing with a congress that does not read cornel west and michael eric dyson . i said, did you chumpp me? i'm an actual politician.
>> and in fairness, the radical language around this president, and the incendiary language and the painting him as the other is something that no other president has dealt with in terms of the --
>> bill clinton has more freedom to be black in public than barack obama .
>> that is absolutely right. their deepest fear is that they would seen by america as pushing a particular list agenda, and barack obama as a black man looking to aid his people against white america . that is what terrified them when the reverend wright problem came up in '08 and that has been dynamite for them all along and they have stayed as far away from the image as they could.
>> we will be take a look at the ballot initiatives play in the elections. former governor of california gray davis
>> no word yet if rick perry has tried to trademark oops, but while the gop tries to define president obama 's re-election as a radical detour of the country, how different would a leader is mitt romney ? we are looking into the possibility that they represent the same subsection of america . the biggest division is not within the classes, but the parties that represent them. barack obama comes from the moneyed elite and as well as mitt romney . comparing them strikes the ire of both on the left and the right, and mark leibovich in terms of talking about personality and executive style, there are similarities and both are analytical introverts operating in a extroverts and neither has a stomach for idle chatter and have both been called aloof at times.
>> well, if it weren't for politics these guys would get al lon famously, and in other words, if they met on a golf course or at a collective leadership seminar at harvard, they would have tea and exchange ideas and the like. no doubt about that, but what is interesting is the ideas for the country. because the kennedys can say that you can have a whole bunch of money over here and still be concerned for the poor over here. there is not a lot great sim similarity of governor romney and president obama , but the question is how alike are they and dissimilar in treating the disease at the heart of american culture which the rampant inequality that makes poorer people poorer and richer people richer.
>> well, there is obviously a huge gulf, and jimmy, the congressional expert, you are, in terms of governing though, one of the biggest criticisms lobbed at the president is this idea that he does not like the s sausage making and now more than ever, it is about sausage making to get anything done in congress and relationships and interaction and cajoling and arm twisting , and et cetera , and you could feasibly have someone else in the white house who does not like that process, but how much arm twisting does mitt romney have to do?
>> well, if he becomes president a lot. barack obama spent two or three years in the senate at most four, and i can't remember actually, and not many, but you don't become an expert at deal making per se unless you do. unless you sit on the floor day in, day out as a junior senator doing the job, and that is to sit back to listen to the wise old men and women to go into the committee and discuss something, and he hates it. bill clinton loved it. might i remind you that bill clinton is the one who said i feel your pain. there is not a single american out there who feels that mitt romney has felt their pain.
>> well, some say that the president has a visceral understanding of the economic pain they are in.
>> yes, that is correct.
>> and in terms of the policy and the politics, jonathan, i want to bring you in on this, because eric finstrom with a strong statement saying that mitt romney would endorse the ryan plan and we talked about the laminated cards we made featuring highlights of your story about the ryan budget plan and ryan is explicit about massive cuts to the very rich and cuts to the programs that aid the poor and the deficit. you could rarely call it a plan to help the poor and the sick, and when you talk about a line of attack for the president, this is a potent one.
>> well, he is a tech no krat or at least he was inmanma. when they looked at the health care problem, they hired the same advicer from m.i.t. and came to the same conclusion, and the problem is that romney is running against the same technocratic approach that he employed so well in my opinion in massachusetts. so he is kind of running against who he used to be, and embracing this ryan approach which tries to present itself as wonky and technocratic, but it is an ide logic approach to government.
>> and the most important thing that is happening at the polls this november is actually are the congressional races, and depending on the makeup of the house and the senate, it is either a difficult time for president obama or a very interesting time for president romney . joy, i want to try to hit this before we have to leave this segment, but we are talking about the raised expectations and lowered expectations, and there was a thoughtful op-ed in the " washington post " this weekend by fredrick harris talking about the african-american disappointment in the president, and he makes the point that the black americans are explicit in the decline which is broader decline in terms of prioritizing policy that takes into consideration african-american problems. fearing that racial issues will undermine the president in the eyes of the white voters, african- americans appear to have struck an implicit pact with obama. even as we watch him go out of his way to lift up other marginalized groups, and we've accepted his silence on issues of this particular interest to us. and in the campaign, he talked about it a lot.
>> i felt that argument was more about the congressional black caucus and old-school black politicians who went about politics in a explicitly racial way, and they have to understand deep down, barack obama cannot do that. when you talk to the white house , they say that the policies we are pursuing do help african- americans , and health care disproportionately helps them, because they are disproportionately uninsured an edge ska education is the same thing, so the older term politicians don't want to hear the word black coming out of his mouth don't understand his job as president is not to do that.
>> and the op-ed takes the logic, rise the oceans and everybody's votes -- i am paraphrasing so badly right now.
>> but it is more poetic, and i love yours better.
>> what happened to the global warming ?
>> well, that is happening right now. and he says what for those of us who do not have boats that, you know, gay marriage is a piece of policy specifically targeting the lgbt community and why not anything for african- americans ?
>> well, those who defend the president would say he has, and the question is, again, back to the debate between joy-ann reid and jimy williams is what he has talked about and if you have talked to him like i have, he says the pell grants is disproportionately helping african- american people , and health care is disproportionately helping out, and if i go out to say it is black and for black people , and that is a winner and helps out t the problem, and people are drawn in. now-year-old could have an intellectual and targeted and universal conversation, but there is a different way to frame it so that the argument can be subsumed under what barack obama is doing. it is a complicated thing, but the problem is that if you have a guy up there who is black already, he is at a disadvantage and he cannot say if trayvon martin was my son, he would look like mine, and so he can't speak on, that and to what degree is the president effective if he deploys a racial rhetoric that leads to divisive efforts where the senators and the congressmen cannot come together. one choice line he said to me, you know, michael, i'm dealing with a congress that does not read cornel west and michael eric dyson . i said, did you chumpp me? i'm an actual politician.
>> and in fairness, the radical language around this president, and the incendiary language and the painting him as the other is something that no other president has dealt with in terms of the --
>> bill clinton has more freedom to be black in public than barack obama .
>> that is absolutely right. their deepest fear is that they would seen by america as pushing a particular list agenda, and barack obama as a black man looking to aid his people against white america . that is what terrified them when the reverend wright problem came up in '08 and that has been dynamite for them all along and they have stayed as far away from the image as they could.
>> we will be take a look at the ballot initiatives play in the elections. former governor of california gray davis