None of those things. Guest the race will be a contest of ideas. I think we will be Hillary Clinton because we will win the contest of ideas. The notion that this is about entitlement, that the is not how the race unfolds to me. The question is who is best able to go and the campaign debating the future of the American Economy and the future of our educational system the future of our regulatory structure, and winning against Hillary Clinton. I think governor bush is best able of this strong group of candidates to do that. Host good morning. Republican line, from new jersey. Caller good morning. Mr. Weber, i dont know if you heard an interview with jeb bush several months ago where he talked about the strategy being, for republicans to lose the primary, but winning the general. I understand the idea of running as a centrist, trying to appeal to the broadest base of people but barring a brokered convention, and i dont know what that has ever happened in a primary system or jeb bush running as an independent how , could he hope to run without surviving and winning a primary contest . Guest i think you identify what his intention was, which is to say that he cannot go through the caucus and primaries simply catering to the ideological fringe of our party any more than Hillary Clinton can win by doing that in the Democratic Party. That might become a very real possibility on the democratic side, as well. At the end of the day, you are right. You have to win primaries and caucuses somewhere. I think governor bush will be highly competitive, but i do not think, i dont think he will allow himself to be pushed into an unelectable position on certain issues. Host mike from wisconsin. Good morning welcome to the , conversation. Caller good morning. Very interesting this morning. I would like to hear your views on if you think there has been any, like, bad questioning or gotcha questions from the moderators. I am thinking recently of George Stephanopoulos, we know is he worked for the clintons. Do you think there should be any way to get into to make sure there is fairness in the questioning, or the sake of the people listening . It is nice to stomp a candidate but it is more important to get information, and the subject i like most is common core. Why does jeb bush not ask the question, what standards do you want . Guest first of all, i think the media bias that you pick up is in the process of being somewhat corrected mainly by the problems that my friend George Stephanopoulos has created for himself. I do think republicans are taking a close look at who will be moderating these debates and they will let allow people to be moderating the debates that have a clear bias. Not so much that they need to be easy and republicans, but they need to direct the conversation towards real issues. One of the greatest criticisms about George Stephanopoulos is, in the last row to debates, he spent an inordinate amount of time in the debates raising the issue of birth control. We have policy disasters, and were talking about for control. Birth control. That is not the centerpiece issue in a president ial campaign. I think we are going to see some of that straightened out. I think common core is an important issue to talk about. I mean there are a lot of grassroots activists who have a genuine, legitimate concern about extensive federal control of her education. At the same time, those people want to see Higher Standards in education, and we ought to have a discussion about how do we get to those Higher Standards without sacrificing anything to federal control. Governor bush understands that. His record in governor of florida was a great one on education. Host if jeb bush was asked to appear with George Stephanopoulos, would you advise him . Guest i would ask him to think it over. I have had a bias. I have known george four years. He is a friend of mine. He is not a bad person. I do not think he ought to be written off as an objective journalist. I think he made a mistake. My advice would be to treat him as the serious journalist we hope him to be. Host i want to get your reaction to what senator ted cruz told Party Activists at the South Carolina freedom summit. Heres a portion of the speech available on our website. I would encourage each of you to ask every single candidate who stands up in front of you you say you believe these principles. Show me. When have used it up and fought for them, what have you bled for them, what have you accomplished . [applause] if you say you oppose obamacare, when have you stood up and fought to stop it . [applause] if you say you oppose president obama costs unconstitutional executive amnesty, when have you stood up and fought to stop it . [applause] if you say you support the first amendment, where were you in indiana . [applause] if you say you support the second amendment, where were you when harry reid and the president were coming after gun rights . Guest host ted cruz takes a swing. How will this play out in the primaries . Guest i dont think ted cruz will be the republican nominee. But he will be a factor. He is one of the most articulate candidates out there. Host he is going after jeb bush. Thats your guy. Guest i have a lot of respect for senator cruz, but he is asking people to vote for someone who will stand up and fight a losing fight. The real question is not where did you stand, but where did you succeed . We need strategies to change obamacare and returned when market Oriented Health care system. Not people who would cast meaningless votes against it. Unfortunately, some people who simply want to rally the faithful with a call to fight and lose, are not taking this in the right direction. Look of it look at executives like governor bush, governor casey, these are people who have moved the dial of their state in terms of more conservative pile policies. We need to ask ourselves as conservatives, not to say, how do we take a stand, but how do we succeed in issues like taxes and regulations . It is not enough to give a speech on the floor of the senate on the right side, you have to have a strategy to win. Host from texas, on our line for democrats. Caller good morning. I would like to ask mr. Weber , if you want a third party why not the independent party . Not just any party wants to come up with . Being a republican, any chance he got to take a vote away from a democrat, thats what he wants to do. Guest this color is not the first to suggest this. I have to come back to what i have been saying. My concern is for the health of the system. If what i was supporting, and lee hamilton who coauthored a piece that started this discussion, we were suggesting that if there is a way of rigging a system in support of our party, we would be discredited. My concern is for the help of the political system. The confidence the American People have that they are getting the choices they want and that their choice is legitimate. A legitimate leader for the country. That is my objective. I do not know how an independent candidacy would unfold. I do not know how it would affect republicans or democrats. I think a mechanism to get an independent voice on the stage in those debates should be agreed upon now, because by the time we get close to the election, we might be able to say, well, this will help the democrats or the republicans. This stage you cant say. Neither party should feel threatened by it at this point. You look at the people, not just lee hamilton, but another a number of us signed a letter saying, open the debates. Including many republicans and democrats who support their parties, but understand the health of the system is in question. Host you are saying the process would be completed at year from now, in april. Guest with the certainty that a candidate will be able to earn his way onto that stage. That is what is necessary. There is a lot of social science that has gone into looking at this. It says, a candidate cant raise money and recruit activists if there is not some degree of certainty about the fact that he or she is going to be on the stage with the republicans and democrats. They will not be treated as a serious candidate. Paradoxically what the National Commission on president ial debate has succeeded in doing is admirable. They have institutionalized debates. It is inconceivable that we would not have a president ial debate in the campaign. That was not always so certain. By doing it in a way that limits republicans and democrats, were diminishing the historic role that independent voices and their parties have played in our system. Guest host any reaction from the commission . The rnc chair . Guest both friends of mine, both disappointing us with not responding to us. We are frustrated that we have not been able to engage in a serious dialogue with the commission on president ial debates. We would like to do that. Based books men a spokesman from our organization would like to be invited to hear their objections and find some way of accommodating what we think is a real need. They have not been responsive. Host have you talked to ross perot or people worked on his campaign in 1992 . Guest i have not. Host that was the last time we saw three people on the stage. Guest frank, republican line, good morning. Caller excuse me . Host good morning. Go ahead. Caller i agree with mr. Weber that there should be three parties on the debate, any viable party should be allowed to be in the debate. My question is, people are opposed to Voter Registration to keep it above board. And yet, they are in favor of obamacare area the last i went to the doctor, the first thing they asked me, before my Health Insurance cards, was for a photo id. If you have to have photo id to go to the doctor, how is that hindering anyone from voting . Guest i have a hard time understanding that as the color does. Listening to our last guest talk about border idea efforts around the country describing them as an effort to suppress the vote usually those discussions turn ugly, saying it is an effort to suppress minority votes. I do want to say that, but it does seem to me that the integrity of our voting process is a legitimate question. You are right. You have to supply an id to get almost anywhere in this country. It seems to me that there ought to be a way of preserving the integrity of our voting process without simply preventing people from exercising their legitimate right to vote. Guest host glenn independent, from florida. Caller good morning. Mr. Weber, you remember in 2012, who was the winner, after several days of screwing about of the iowa primary . Guest Rick Santorum ultimately one. Caller ron paul won the iowa primary in 2012. He also won three four other primaries, which should have let him speak at the Gop Convention entebbe. In tampa. The gop is a bunch of criminals who kept ron paul from having a voice actor your party and the Democrat Party are connected. They are two heads of the same snake. Guest your memory may be better than mine. I thought the initial results of the Iowa Caucuses showed romney winning, and after they counted more carefully, they found santorum edged him out and ron paul finished way back. Host that is correct. That is what of the arguments santorum is making, khmer come pairing it to the masters. His point is, he should not be discounted for the debate. Going back to the Weekly Standard editorial, which says they should hold two or three debates and select candidates randomly to make the process announced candidates. Guest there is no perfect solution. But that is a good solution. Think of it as the ncaa playoffs. You have different black brackets. I dont think you can exclude candidates and have the process be viewed as legitimate. You might actually be helping them, and a strange way. A someone says, the system has been rigged against me, i have been excluded, they will get sympathy. The networks are trying to deal with a real problem. I get that. Putting candidates on the stage is not likely to be a meaningful debate on anybody cost standpoint. We have to think through how we will approach it. Host you until fox what . Guest they should look at what people are saying. A series of debate, random selection, having a meaningful debate among 57 candidates out there at a time. Give it country at chance to look at all the candidates. Then, maybe after the process him after weve gone through the process, maybe then you can whittle it down and give candidates only a chance if they are at a threshold at the polls. But to start up by excluding highly qualified people, like rick perry and George Pataki and john kasich, just because they do not pull on a particular level, will not enhance anybodys confidence of the process that it is being conducted fairly or they are getting the best chance to view the candidates. Host fastforward to fall 2016. The debate, is there anything else that needs to be changed . Guest probably a lot. The main thing, we need a system that enables a debate independent candidates to earn their way onto the podium. Host do you see anyone on the horizon who would run as a thirdparty candidate . Guest im not sure i do. But i have to be candid. I would not answer the question. As soon as i did, what i am proposing would be seen as a striking point for a candidate. Back to what i said, this is about a health of our political system. It is not about helping the democrats or hurting either party. It is not about advancing any of the many people who we have occasionally talked about as independents. I am for governor bush. Our system has a flaw and we need to fix it to restore confidence in the system. Host dan in california. Good morning. Republican line. Host a republican from berkeley. I want to point that out. Caller i want to figure out hello . Host yes. Caller it seems to me that the divisions within the parties sebi Elizabeth Warren side of the Democratic Party versus the Dianne Feinstein side of the Democratic Party, and the john mccain neoconservative wing of the Republican Party and the jeb bush part of the party versus the rand paul libertarian side of the Republican Party, these divisions are becoming so much more evident and palpable, that having more people on the stage i think, if i am seeing what you are saying, it seems to be a desperate attempt to finally catch up to the political currents that are actually happening in this country. I think what you are doing is pretty late. I think the people are far ahead of you, and certainly far ahead of others, the oldschool thinking that if we have this kind of a centerright, centerleft, twoparty system that we can promote, that there can be a promotion of the basic ideals of what i call progressive imperialism, which is that forced intervention whether abroad or at home, whereas, you know, Newt Gingrich is a progressive imperialist on the right, Hillary Clinton is a progressive imperialist on the left, but their foreignpolicy positions are basically the same. Host we will get a response. Guest sounds to me like the caller is a rand paul person. That is an argument push forward by that wing of the Republican Party. American leadership around the world, using my phrase, showing my biases, American Leadership around the world propels the government. I understand and respect the argument. But i think american has to be a leader in the world. I think we can be careful about how we intervene, and we may have made mistakes in the past with intervention, but i do think we can look at the pentagons budget with as critical and i as we look at anything else. Conservatives need to do that. At the end of the day, what were seeing over these last six years if the chaos that ensues when america does not lead in the world. My view is that the Obama Administration thinks america role in the world should receive , should receive recede. That has brought chaos. Host looking at the primary candidate calendar, the first debate will be in early august in cleveland. Theyll be on fox news. September, cnn a debate in california. Into october, november and december, a debate in colorado, wisconsin, and nevada. In january, iowa, new hampshire, and South Carolina. A few more minutes with your phone calls. From jacksonville, Florida Democrats line. Good morning. Caller how are you doing . Guest good. How are you . Caller i am well. I want to ask a question about jeb bush during his administration here in florida. He took on the rosewood property dispute down there. That was in cedar key, florida. What he did was, instead of returning the property taken from those people at rosewood, instead of bowing to return that property, he made it a state park, so to speak, a state monument to keep the black people who had proper claim on that property from getting it. And, to make sure that they kept, the people who wanted, the black people out of there, from going to their homes. I was wondering if you are familiar with the rosewood incident. Guest i apologize i am not from florida and im not familiar with that issue. I would rather not comment because i would comment out of ignorance. Host we will conclude with a caller from minnesota. It depends line, good morning. John, are you with us . Independent line. Caller two things. One is, the issue seems to be a party issue. Why dont you having Mini Convention have a Mini Convention, then go on . The second is, redistricting is a big problem. Across districts and across the country, there is more open seats. Seems like everything is rigged towards one party or another. Guest i think redistricting is a problem. I think those people advocating for a more nonpartisan approach the redistricting, like they have in iowa, are making a good point. But i have to say, if you look closely at the american electorate these days, there are deep changes taking place in the electorate. The electorate is more polarized than the use to be. More people are either hardline republicans are hardline democrats. The center has been eroding somewhat. I dont think it will solve the problem, but i agree a fair, nonpartisan approach to redistricting would be a good thing for the country. Host we heard from senator ted cruz. How does the party take, how did they get the moderate votes . This morning, the Washington Post wrote how different difficult the map is for republicans. If you look at where mitt romney was in 2012, comparing that to where george bush was at 2004, you are shrinking the number of moderate voters of the Republican Party. Guest there are two schools of thoughts. I have a bias myself. There are republicans who say, we should try to turn out more of the traditional white republican vote and get that percentage up higher. That is how we win. I reject that. I dont think thatll work. It cannot work in the long term. The party has to become competitive among young people minorities, particularly hispanics and asians, and we need part more than 10 of the black vote. At the end of the day, democratic demographics, groups change their behavior based on what they hear from political parties. The republican message is what matters. There is no reason why we cant be competitive with hispanic and black voters, particularly after president obama is no longer a candidate with the special appeal he wouldve had. If we had a message that talks about their upward mobility economically and deals with the problems they are facing in terms of education and employment, the message of the party matters. Young people, in the last couple elections, are overwhelmingly democrat area there is a presumption that, if young people turn out to vote, it is that for a republicans. Young people voted for reagan. Based on the message the party delivers, our job is to find a candidate and a message that appeals to the voters that have been voting democrat in the last few elections. Host your plan to open up the process for debate. Will it go anywhere . Guest i hope the National Convention commission on president ial debate response to us. There is a belief in this country that the system is rigged in favor of the two parties and needs to be opened up. I would like to have them invite us to talk about it. Host then webber, former member of vin weber, thank you so much for stopping by. On the next washington journal, bill rauch discusses that earns issues such as employment, suicide, and mental health. Former cbs and nbc reporter marvin kalb and his daughter debra talk about the impact of vietnam war and their book. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Tomorrow night interviews with floor of the newest members of congress. Three our veterans. Cspans congressional profiles feature democrats from hawaii, a republican from illinois, a democrat from new jersey, and a republican of new yorks first district, who talks about his daily schedule. There was one day when i had 31 things on the calendar. You might have a fiveminute meeting followed by a 10 minute meeting followed by a fiveminute meeting. I survived three committees seven subcommittees, and i get up early. I try to exercise as close to every morning as i can. The evenings usually end late. I like to, there are a lot of other people who have vices. They might go out drinking or whatnot. For me, i love to empty my email inbox. That is how i get my high. That is my vice. Staying on top of stuff. There might be some type of event going on, a local group from the district here for a good cause, that i like to get back to work. I go to sleep around 12 00 or 1 00 and back up early at 5 00 or 6 00. Cspan interviews with the newest members of Congress Tomorrow at 9 00 eastern on cspan. President obama reiterates his and americas amendment to the security of israel. On friday, the president spoke in d. C. His remarks came as Jewish American heritage much it month is celebrated. This is 30 minutes. [applause] president obama thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Youre very kind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, good morning everybody. A slightly early shabbat shalom. [laughter] i want to thank the rabbi for the very kind introduction, and to all the members of the congregation, thank you so much for such an extraordinary and warm welcome. I want to thank a couple outstanding members of congress who are here. Senators Michael Bennet where did Michael Bennet go . There he is. [applause] and representative sandy levin who is here. [applause] i want to thank our special