>>> speech tonight he will find that his reputation among republicans is actually a lot better off than it was power years ago. just ask mitt romney and paul ryan .
>> under president clinton , we got welfare reform .
>> this is very different, by the way, than the democratic party of bill clinton that said that the era of big government was over.
>> no wonder bill clinton and so many other mainstream democrats are revolting against the backward direction president obama is taking this part and our country.
>> joining us now from charlotte, policharlotte charlotte. the author of the new book, "what's the matter with white people ," joan walsh . good day to all of you. you heard mitt romney in claiming bill clinton is revolting from the president. have you done reporting on the subject in your book," the promise" which i read. would you please bring mr. romney up to speed?
>> well, you know, it was a nice try by mitt romney to say that bark bash is some radical departure from bill clinton . but the radical departure from bill clinton was george w. bush and what he did in the first eight years of this century where they -- tried to slash taxes and slash regulations as a way of growing the economy. they have pathetic, utterly pathetic, job growth , some of the worst in many, many decades compared to bill clinton 's 22 million new jobs. so what president clinton will do tonight is say yeah, okay, if you want to go back, let's go back to me. not to bush. who by the way didn't even show up at the republican convention which gives you some idea of, you they, what their feeling is about him.
>> john, you anticipated my question to the great david korn . these would convention could not be more different corks they in regard to former presidents? for the democrats, president clinton could not be more present for the republicans, president bush cannot be more absent. yet, republicans keep telling us that things are much better four years ago. yet, never mentioned bush. explain that to me, david.
>> well, the republican convention last week in tampa reminded me of the old soviet union . comrade bush is no longer with us. he has been photo shopped out of the of the pictures. this is soviet style revisionism. were you off better off four years ago? december of 2008 when we were losing 850,000 jobs a month due to the bush/cheney recession? they don't go into those details. they are counting on amnesia amongst voters and really want to start the clock on january 20 , 2009 . bill clinton , i think -- i haven't always been a big fan of bill clinton issues but i think he will be great tonight. he will take this issue on and he will take on the welfare issue they tried to raise in the last few weeks. the -- republicans and he will knock it out of the park. and i don't think you will hear mitt romney or paul ryan mick a single reference to bill clinton after tonight, up until election day .
>> we have been watching live pictures of gabby douglas who will be giving the pledge of allegiance this evening. there is a wide shot of the stage. she was just given a walk-through. joan , if i might come to you, i want to read the last line from your most recent article. and you say this. if anyone should be nervous about clinton's unvetted speech, it is mitt romney . what do you mean, joan ?
>> well, you know, martin, at this convention, there's so little tension. there's so much excitement that i really think a lot of our colleagues are inventing a form of tension and making their there be a big story line in the last couple of days. the obama team is really nervous about this speech. what could president clinton possibly say? they haven't been able to vet it yet. and it is just kind of ridiculous, almost like some reporters are buying into this notion that there as more policy difference between the two presidents. i think even politico referred to clinton as the centrist and obama as the liberal. ultra liberal. when there is very, very little daylight between the two men when it comes to policy. they did have a few bitter moments in 2008 . but that's a long time ago. i think that bill clinton knows very well that whether it is on welfare or whether on his entire legacy, the best thing for his legacy is the re-election of barack obama . it has been a lot of reporters in search of drama where it doesn't exist.
>> also really good for hill hil hillary clinton , too. i hate talking 2016 at the 2012 convention. if that's a possibility she is considering running four years from now, it gives bill clinton tremendous motive to do exactly what needs to be done at the moment and i think joan is exactly right. this is a made-up story by reporters of -- that like to look for tension that may not exist.
>> you are being cynical there. we couldn't help notice how diverse the crowd is in charlotte. and you tweeted today that mitt romney has named congressman west to lead his black leadership council. alan west ? i mean, this is man who made race baiting an art form. isn't alan west a man that said there were 79 communists masquerading as democrats in the house of representatives ?
>> he might not even hold his seat, martin, in florida. i do want to take a little bit of issue --
>> hang on a second. i was addressing that question to corn who tweeted. would mind?
>> i --
>> sorry.
>> let's think back a long, long, long time ago. back to last week. last thursday when mitt romney talked about getting rid of the divisive nature of politics. and then puts alan west who is really truly objectively speaking, perhaps the most divisive guy in the house tea party republican caucus who asked -- who is -- you know, i will drive the car. remember, when he came to beating up the democrats. i will drive the car. 79 communists. he makes them the head of his black leadership counsel scil. i guess mitt romney didn't read his own speech.
>> john, you wanted to correct something said earlier. please do so.
>> not necessarily correct. just slight issue with my colleagues. i agree that bill clinton ultimately will be a big asset for the ticket. agree there is no open tension or hostility anymore between the two men. but they are not close. and bill clinton has a lot of submerged or maybe not so submerged frustration over 2008 that never is going to completely go away. so you -- there's got to be some nervousness on the part of the obama team until they see the text of his speech which apparently is being written by bill clinton which -- usually uses speech writers. so -- you know, to the extent he wrote a lot of this i am hello, this could prove interesting and he doesn't like to be controlled. he doesn't like to be on anybody else's script and he's going to go his own way. it is going to be fun to see what happen.
>> joan , correct the correction.
>> i just remember that we p went through this in 2008 . and there was all this drama. that was real drama. bill clinton was very angry. there's no doubt about that. but that was real drama about how he was going to behave and he -- he gave a terrific speech and has been a great surrogate and gone off the reservation a few times. it is true. with his remark about romney having a sterl career and, you know, maybe they shun go so hard on bain capital . he does do that. you know, i don't expect anything like that tonight.
>> i don't either. he is in close touch with the obama campaign .
>> joan walsh , david corn , thank
>> under president clinton , we got welfare reform .
>> this is very different, by the way, than the democratic party of bill clinton that said that the era of big government was over.
>> no wonder bill clinton and so many other mainstream democrats are revolting against the backward direction president obama is taking this part and our country.
>> joining us now from charlotte, policharlotte charlotte. the author of the new book, "what's the matter with white people ," joan walsh . good day to all of you. you heard mitt romney in claiming bill clinton is revolting from the president. have you done reporting on the subject in your book," the promise" which i read. would you please bring mr. romney up to speed?
>> well, you know, it was a nice try by mitt romney to say that bark bash is some radical departure from bill clinton . but the radical departure from bill clinton was george w. bush and what he did in the first eight years of this century where they -- tried to slash taxes and slash regulations as a way of growing the economy. they have pathetic, utterly pathetic, job growth , some of the worst in many, many decades compared to bill clinton 's 22 million new jobs. so what president clinton will do tonight is say yeah, okay, if you want to go back, let's go back to me. not to bush. who by the way didn't even show up at the republican convention which gives you some idea of, you they, what their feeling is about him.
>> john, you anticipated my question to the great david korn . these would convention could not be more different corks they in regard to former presidents? for the democrats, president clinton could not be more present for the republicans, president bush cannot be more absent. yet, republicans keep telling us that things are much better four years ago. yet, never mentioned bush. explain that to me, david.
>> well, the republican convention last week in tampa reminded me of the old soviet union . comrade bush is no longer with us. he has been photo shopped out of the of the pictures. this is soviet style revisionism. were you off better off four years ago? december of 2008 when we were losing 850,000 jobs a month due to the bush/cheney recession? they don't go into those details. they are counting on amnesia amongst voters and really want to start the clock on january 20 , 2009 . bill clinton , i think -- i haven't always been a big fan of bill clinton issues but i think he will be great tonight. he will take this issue on and he will take on the welfare issue they tried to raise in the last few weeks. the -- republicans and he will knock it out of the park. and i don't think you will hear mitt romney or paul ryan mick a single reference to bill clinton after tonight, up until election day .
>> we have been watching live pictures of gabby douglas who will be giving the pledge of allegiance this evening. there is a wide shot of the stage. she was just given a walk-through. joan , if i might come to you, i want to read the last line from your most recent article. and you say this. if anyone should be nervous about clinton's unvetted speech, it is mitt romney . what do you mean, joan ?
>> well, you know, martin, at this convention, there's so little tension. there's so much excitement that i really think a lot of our colleagues are inventing a form of tension and making their there be a big story line in the last couple of days. the obama team is really nervous about this speech. what could president clinton possibly say? they haven't been able to vet it yet. and it is just kind of ridiculous, almost like some reporters are buying into this notion that there as more policy difference between the two presidents. i think even politico referred to clinton as the centrist and obama as the liberal. ultra liberal. when there is very, very little daylight between the two men when it comes to policy. they did have a few bitter moments in 2008 . but that's a long time ago. i think that bill clinton knows very well that whether it is on welfare or whether on his entire legacy, the best thing for his legacy is the re-election of barack obama . it has been a lot of reporters in search of drama where it doesn't exist.
>> also really good for hill hil hillary clinton , too. i hate talking 2016 at the 2012 convention. if that's a possibility she is considering running four years from now, it gives bill clinton tremendous motive to do exactly what needs to be done at the moment and i think joan is exactly right. this is a made-up story by reporters of -- that like to look for tension that may not exist.
>> you are being cynical there. we couldn't help notice how diverse the crowd is in charlotte. and you tweeted today that mitt romney has named congressman west to lead his black leadership council. alan west ? i mean, this is man who made race baiting an art form. isn't alan west a man that said there were 79 communists masquerading as democrats in the house of representatives ?
>> he might not even hold his seat, martin, in florida. i do want to take a little bit of issue --
>> hang on a second. i was addressing that question to corn who tweeted. would mind?
>> i --
>> sorry.
>> let's think back a long, long, long time ago. back to last week. last thursday when mitt romney talked about getting rid of the divisive nature of politics. and then puts alan west who is really truly objectively speaking, perhaps the most divisive guy in the house tea party republican caucus who asked -- who is -- you know, i will drive the car. remember, when he came to beating up the democrats. i will drive the car. 79 communists. he makes them the head of his black leadership counsel scil. i guess mitt romney didn't read his own speech.
>> john, you wanted to correct something said earlier. please do so.
>> not necessarily correct. just slight issue with my colleagues. i agree that bill clinton ultimately will be a big asset for the ticket. agree there is no open tension or hostility anymore between the two men. but they are not close. and bill clinton has a lot of submerged or maybe not so submerged frustration over 2008 that never is going to completely go away. so you -- there's got to be some nervousness on the part of the obama team until they see the text of his speech which apparently is being written by bill clinton which -- usually uses speech writers. so -- you know, to the extent he wrote a lot of this i am hello, this could prove interesting and he doesn't like to be controlled. he doesn't like to be on anybody else's script and he's going to go his own way. it is going to be fun to see what happen.
>> joan , correct the correction.
>> i just remember that we p went through this in 2008 . and there was all this drama. that was real drama. bill clinton was very angry. there's no doubt about that. but that was real drama about how he was going to behave and he -- he gave a terrific speech and has been a great surrogate and gone off the reservation a few times. it is true. with his remark about romney having a sterl career and, you know, maybe they shun go so hard on bain capital . he does do that. you know, i don't expect anything like that tonight.
>> i don't either. he is in close touch with the obama campaign .
>> joan walsh , david corn , thank