Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140702

It could be individual justices, but we want to know your opinion of the Supreme Court. You can make your thoughts known on the phone, 202 5853880 for democrats, 2025853881 for republicans and independents. 202 5853882. On social media you can post your comments on twitter. We posted the question last night. About 800 responded so far. You can add your thoughts there. You can send an email, too. If you take a look at polls specifically asking about opinions about the Supreme Court gallop is posting one that talks about americans level of confidence. It started, again, if you believe polls, in 2012, they asked if you had a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court and in 2013, 30 said they had a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court. It reflects a negative 7 change in Public Opinion of the court, again, according to gallop. Several other polls reflect that. But for our first 45 minutes, we turn your attention to the Supreme Court. We want to get your opinion of the court and its dealings and its workings. Here are the numbers again. You can also make your thoughts known on twitter at cspan wj and send us an email if you want at journal at cspan. Org and if you want to post this on our facebook page. Well read a few as we go along in the morning, but facebook. Com cspan as well. One of the people or companies that do polls of this is the firm penn schoen berland. This is their survey of june of 2014, being timed with the end of Court Session for this year. Joining us on the phone to talk about the results, robert green, a principal there at the firm. Mr. Green, hello. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you sir . Host good. Before we go into the specifics, tells about the behindthescenes work as far as what you were looking for. Guest weve been interested in this subject for many years. Weve had the opportunity to poll on attitudes on cameras in the Supreme Court for five years now. Several times on behalf of cspan and weve expanded an analysis as part of our own Monthly National tracking studies. This latest survey, the one we conducted earlier, early this month, or, rather, excuse me, early in june 2 through 4 last month is sort of a continuation of that interest. Host so we talked about the gallop poll of people and their opinions on it. This is the question you asked. Generally speaking, what is your opinion of the overall effectiveness of the Supreme Court. Would you say and you went down categories of those who strongly approve the way the court does its job, 8 of respondents somewhat approve of the way the court does its job. 46 somewhat disapprove of the way the court does its job and 34 strongly disapprove the way the Supreme Court does its job, 12 , making a total approval rate of 54 and disapprove 46 . There are the numbers. Fill in the blanks. Guest let me fill in the first blank. Theres been a drop in the last few years of approval of the Supreme Court. Weve seen a 6point drop since 2012. That would in essence its now a 50 50 or very close to a 50 50 proposition among americans on what they approve of what the Supreme Courts doing. Similar to what you see in the gallop poll, we used a different measure than they did. They looked at whether you approve a great deal or quite a lot, so on and so forth, have confidence in the institution. Ours was, id have to say, a slightly softer scale. Were seeing the same decline they are. Theres approval in what the Supreme Court does is dropping. Host so numbers only tell us one thing and you only asked specific questions. I suppose theres no sense of why people responded the way they did or at least anecdotally you can perhaps give us some insight . Guest look, theres two big things going on out there. One is theres a very strong feeling that, you know, theres declining confidence in institutions government, noted in most of the stories. But a big factor that we see and this is what weve explored i suppose as much or more than any other polling firm is that theres a strong feeling that the Supreme Court should be more open and transparent. And thats a were seeing 90 plus numbers on that. What theyre not seeing is what they like to see which is how the Supreme Court does its business. They think theres too little coverage typically. This is particularly true weve learned in past polls when theres been cases such as samesex marriage. This is the fact, the feeling, theres simply not enough coverage is is a strong feeling among the public and that theyre not open and transparent. Theyre not sharing about what theyre up to. Thats a dominant feeling. Host too little coverage according to those responding. 49 . You had mentioned that. 45 saying just the right amount of coverage and only 5 saying theres too much coverage. Guest thats correct. What they dont like is they tend to learn heres how they learn about the Supreme Court and their activities and this is its basically either how the media interprets it. Ive seen, as im sure you have, so many stories in just the last few days suggesting that its all republicans and democrats and thats in essence the only thats the filter through which the public perceives whats going on on the Supreme Court. No consideration about how they might be different than, if you would, more partisan parts of the government like the congress. They are not seeing literally, theyre not hearing anything about the Supreme Court except as filtered through the media and to a lesser degree the congress and the president. Host one of the things you do discuss or at least poll on is Television Coverage of oral arguments. With 69 agreeing that there should be televised coverage. 31 disagreeing. And then it breaks down by category. Why do you go down this road . Why do you ask this question . Guest we asked the question because its its i mean, its a fundamental issue now, which is that in a sense, the kocourt you know, by not opening up cameras in the courtroom, by not making it possible for people to watch the proceedings, in a sense, its almost pretending the coverage doesnt exist. In essence, coverage does exist. Its going to be what the Supreme Court does is enormously important and if its only coming through the filters, you know, as defined by others, as i said, the media, i mean, what theyre doing the reason we asked this question, one, its something thats important to keep a measure on and we get very strong numbers in support of Television Coverage. Its gone up 8 points in the last few years. But i think the Bigger Picture thing that i that in a sense your question is getting at is the Supreme Court is outsourcing control over their reputation. And so the role of the court and what the justices do is left entirely in the hands of other bodies. And thats thats not thats not useful for them. The cameras are really the only trustworthy witness there is where the justices could demonstrate that they take their job seriously, that theyre not acting in a partisan way or in a gridlocked way like we see so much with congress. Host robert green on the phone from penn schoen berland, talking about this poll, hes a principal at the firm. If people want to see the poll itself, is it Available Online . Guest yes, well make sure its in everyones hands. Host mr. Green, thank you. Gue guest thank you. Host youve seen the questions and the gallop poll information. We turn to you for your opinion about the Supreme Court. The phone lines for you to call. It all starts with the 202 area code. Mark is up first from philadelphia on our democrats line. Thank you for waiting, mark. You are up first. Go ahead on your thoughts and your opinion of the Supreme Court. Caller yes, good morning. All i have to say to you is when you think the court can get, they get even lower. Theres the hobby lobby decision and little known about the union dues. Is this 2014 or 1894 . This court is rolling back all the games made in the 20th century with the progressive year. With Citizens United and now hobby lobby, does anyone know that the Koch Brothers corporation with 60,000 employees is closely held . I mean, i cannot believe this. Host bobby from georgia, on a republican line, go ahead, please. Caller yes. Id like to know why the Supreme Court bashing . The hobby lobby case is just one of many decisions, and the bottom line is i think that the media itself, the left wing bias of the media, right now youre talking about the Supreme Court because of that case and in my opinion it should have been a 72 decision, barring the two people that obama put on there, and i want to know, like i was looking at msnbc a few minutes ago and they had a poll and polls are just polls. They had a poll on there that said 30 of the people think obama is the worst president since world war ii. Polls are polls. May i make one more statement before i finish . Guest go ahead. Caller i remember in 2008 you had Christopher Hayes and when it looks like obama was going to get elected, you two were high 5ing. Host i know that didnt take place. Besides the recent rulings the court made, whats your general opinion of the court . Caller my general opinion is theyre doing the best they can. Its general knowledge that its got to slant towards conservatives today and kennedy in the middle, he goes either other way. Theres a lot of liberals like to say about this time, elections matter. Americas tired of all this liberalism and stuff like that. If you look at the hobby lobby case, its basically this. They do allow 16 other contraceptives and everything but everybody is talking about it like theyre trying to deny womens rights. Host several of the papers this morning including a Washington Post appears in the denver post. It says the number of rulings without dissent skyrocketed to rates not seen since the 1940s. The courts decisions of closely divided decisions is a low. The decisions announced monday shows a stark decision appear in the court. Theres a graph that shows you the cases and their breakdown. Well show you that in a little bit. Democrats line is up next. This is debra. Youre on, go ahead. Caller okay. Dont cut me off because i have two comments. The first one is they need to open up the court. People need to be able to see whats going on. Now, my second comment is im not an attorney, im not college educated, so my wording might not be too articulate. I believe that if anyone dies or anyone has any harm from their decisions, i do not know why they cannot be sued civilly. Their opinions, they know, affect the lives of people. The people of the lives they affect should be able to hold them accountable for it. One person dies from the buffer zone being gone, i think somebody should sue them. Host overall, debra, what kind of opinion do you hold of the court . Caller i think they suck. Host allen is up next. Hamilton virginia, independent line. Caller yeah, i think if you look a little bit beyond the surface, the whole notion of the Supreme Court deciding a case between the federal government and the state is kind of akin to airing into contractual relationships with you and if theres a discrepancy, nine of your cousins are going to decide the case. Host okay. The breakdown of Court Proceedings for this term, this is a done in the washington times. Theres a total number of oral arguments for 2013 and 2014, 73. The number of unanimous decisions, 48, which makes it 65. 7 . The notable unanimous decisions including the search warrant needed for cell phones, massachusetts abortion buffer zone that was struck down, the curbing of the president s deployment powers and stricter standards for Software Patent applications. Bernie, howard beach new york. Go ahead, please. Republican line. Caller yeah, i believe the Supreme Court, as it was designed, is doing what its supposed to do. Theres congeniality among the nine justices as opposed to the problem with the congress. They cant sit down and talk to each other without calling each other a nazi or communist or a pervert. Most of the people who and i do listen to the broadcasts of the discussions, the oral arguments i dont understand i dont understand all the intricacies of how these people make the decisions, but im not a lawyer and im not a philosopher. I depend upon other people who are smarter than me to recommend these people and i have faith that the government and the constitution has been designed for nine people together who have certain abilities to do a job. It doesnt come out black or white. But im willing to accept whatever they whatever they agree to as opposed to some of the other countries that dont have a Supreme Court like this. Thank you. Host the New York Times takes a look at the effect of chief Justice John Roberts in the court, that the Roberts Court remains skeptical of Campaign Finance regulations and raise conscious decisionmaking by the government it solicits of corporate rights and its efforts to curb union power. Host more analysis pieces in the papers this morning. Were asking your opinion of the court. Massachusetts up next, this is fran. Democrats line. Hello. Caller yes, good morning. Anybody that doesnt believe that the Supreme Court is biased, theyve got to be asleep at the switch. Youve got alito, scalia, and thomas regularly getting paid to give speeches to conservatives groups and your first guest on this morning, it felt that there wasnt any biased in the Supreme Court, hes the reason my grandmother used to say to me i would say, no, no, friend, liar, liar. I mean, its just unbelievable that a lawyer would get on there and say that the Supreme Court is not biased. Look at the corporations of people. Look at the fact that they wanted 252 buffer zones around themselves and they wont allow a 5foot buffer zone around a woman who has to go in, through a herd of screaming, swearing, obnoxious people to go in an abortion because she cant afford another child. Host from new york, this is john, independent line. Caller ive been watching cspan for a while. I know the Supreme Court has passed bills that were proobamacare in the past and i dont recall ever hearing a poll taken and i understand why the people are upset now because of this latest bill that they passed but as far as cameras go, they have cameras in congress and it hasnt had a good effect as far as their rating goes. If they introduce cameras into the Supreme Court, i think it would be interesting but i dont know if it would be beneficial for the American People and once they introduce that into the judicial system, will there be calls to have cameras introduced into the executive branch for nonconfidential proceedings . Host do you think if you put cameras in the courts that the process of the court making this process and the hearings that they hold, do you think that would be of interest to viewers or do you think it would change because there would be a camera there . Caller when youre on camera, you react a lot differently. They take these little film clips and they edit them and present them to the American People and its very easy to create different impressions and to figure your political needs. So i think that would be a detriment. Just personally, im not 100 sure, but i think it could be a detriment. Host Washington Post writes the average male white house employee earns 88,600 while the average female makes less than 13 . Host if you go to the Washington Post, they show the salaries that are made. Host you can find out more in the Washington Post. Bob, what is your opinion of the Supreme Court. Caller hi, hows it going . Host fine, thank you. Go ahead. Caller i just have a few simple questions. I know in the smaller Court Systems a lot of it seems to be a money game where they shovel people in and out of the courts. Just to make a profit. I dont see why it wouldnt be that way in a larger court system. I dont know who is behind lobbying judges or anything like that. But i do know it has been going on historically, you know, for a very long time, from the mafia and businesses and corporations and whatnot. My next comment is rather a question of why it takes the Supreme Court to enact civil rights for the people . Host they make the decisions and uphold them or at least make decisions so we can let other viewers answer your question if youd like. Vernon in new york, republican line. Caller i just caught your topic this morning and see youre asking whether or not they should have cameras in the Supreme Court. Youve been talking about that for years. I want the audience to know that ever since 1955 there have been audio recordings of the oral arguments available and easy to get. You just go to Supreme Court. Gov and its not updated apparently as it happens. I think you can get it right the next day. I might be wrong about that. Host we take some of those audio recordings from Major Court Decisions and we air them along with pictures of the justices speaking and those before the justices as well. But go ahead. Caller okay. Great. Basically i just wanted the general public to know that you can get access to this. They have the previous session up on their site from april 21st to april 30th. With the dates argued. It looks like pretty much every single case that comes before them, you can download the mp3s and listen at your leisure. So the information is out there if you want to get it. Host do you think cameras in the courtroom would change the way the court works . Caller i think it would. When we have trials, criminal trials, if its a highprofile case like o. J. Simpson, they wanted to make sure the jury was sequestered so theyd be out of the reach of public influence. People seem to lose sight of the fact that the third branch of the government, the Supreme Court, is supposed to be above politics. We talk about the personal leanings of the justices a lot, kind of get into their heads and determine what were biases. You cant get above that as long as you have human beings deciding these things. People are going to have their own biases. But when the Supreme Court serves, they dont serve as a democrat or republican. They serve as a judge. And the judge is job is to interpret the constitution. And people jump on them when the interpretation of that constitution doesnt go their way, as you see happening with this hobby lobby case. We start questioning whether or not the Supreme Court should change what theyre doing. But theyre not there to serve in a political fashion. And you have cases where a justice gets appointed by a certain president so you think the justice is going to rule in a certain way. But it doesnt always turn out that way, like Justice Roberts, his ruling on the obamacare legislation. He was appointed by george bush. I think it was a testament and im not a supporter of obamacare, but i think its a testament to show just how beyond politics the Supreme Court is, and im just very hesitant and weary about changing how they do business. I dont want to see them become subject to the kind of political pressure that our congressmen are and people end up becoming president. I dont think it would be good for the country. But the information is available to people. Host you sound like someone who follows the court closely. Why so . Caller well, i dont follow the court closely. I do know the information out there, and i like to listen to Supreme Court cases every once in a while like when a big topic comes up, like when obamacare was being debated. I remember the whole situation of the 2000 election coming up, i was a pretty young guy, i heard of the Supreme Court but i didnt really look into it too deeply. But when he was hearing some of the recordings of the case that got presented to them, i thought how amazing. Because all of our decisions, all of our through all the processes as we go through the chain of command or process, you know, with these cases, it all boils down to just a simple conversation between the nine justices and the lawyers. I dont know. Its an amazing thing to see. Because you see our government boils down to just a simple discussion. I think everyone should view it. Host weve got about 15 minutes on this topic of your Supreme Court. From twitter, a viewer says the scotus, an acronym for the Supreme Court, is truly an activist court, the worst in history. Detroit, michigan, this is gloria, democrats line. Hi, there. Caller ive been watching cspan host gloria, youre on. Go ahead. Caller ive been watching cspan for quite some years. And i used to hold the Supreme Court in high esteem. But once the decision was made when bush beat gore, i started watching and its a sham. I used to hold it in very high esteem, no longer. Host so when bush beat gore, that changed it for you. Caller yeah. Theyre just political hacks like the rest of them. Before that, i used to, like i said, hold them in very high esteem. I thought they were the part of government that, you know, didnt have didnt hold any biases that went by the constitution. But thats not true. Host analysis of health exchanges, a feature of the Washington Post this morning. A pair of reports issued tuesday by the department of health and Human Services office of the Inspector General conclude that internal controls for evaluating applications were not always effective in verifying peoples Social Security numbers, their citizenship and whether theyre eligible to buy health plans through the marketplaces because they cannot find affordable insurance elsewhere. A post story includes some key numbers. Part of a graph. Graphic, saying that studies found the problems with evaluating applications 2. 9 million inconsistencies found and federal insurance marketplace records, thats for the 8 million americans who signed up for plans under the Health Care Law by early spring which leads to 425,000 inconsistencies resolved out of the estimated 4 million discovered by late may. Larry up next from fort worth texas. Hello. Caller yes. Im a 63yearold black man, born here in the south. So i lived through the jim crowe era. My point is this. I would rather see an all white, nine white judges, than to see that one black token, clarence uncle thomas. Hes a disrespect to the black race and the way he mistreated anita hill, hes a disgrace. Thats all i got to say. Thank you. Host next call, betty, albuquerque, new mexico. Democrats line. Caller good morning, pedro. Thank you for taking my call. Host good morning. Caller this present day Supreme Court to me is a perfect example why more women should be involved in our political system and, in particular, sitting on the court. The women on this present day court possess more common sense and objectivity than all five of the men combined. God, i hate to sound sexist, but i cant help it in this case. Particularly where alito, scalia and thomas are concerned. Youve got the very procorporate alito, the pompous and arrogant scalia, who when interviewed by diane sawyer some time ago who questioned him about the decision about bush versus gore laid back in his chair and said to her, oh, that again . Get over it. The arrogance is just unbelievable. Then youve got the mute Clarence Thomas who sits there and contributes absolutely nothing. I think this is the worst Supreme Court in the nations history. I believe your massachusetts caller and your michigan lady caller were spot on. Its an overreaching court, way beyond what is expected. Weve got three branches of government. The executive, which is supposed to execute the laws. The legislative, the congress, which is supposed to make the laws, of course, what do we say about this congress . Biggest donothing in the history. Thats why the Supreme Court is overreaching and we need to regulate them big time. Thank you for taking my call. Host to the topic of cameras, a viewer on twitter says the courtroom is not their private system. It is the venue in which they make decisions affecting everyone. We demand cameras. On facebook, karen posted this morning, 800 or so before this program, my decision of the Supreme Court, politically motivated, shortsighted and disappointing. Make your thoughts known on one of those two social sites as well. Conversations tend to continue on topics even after were well done with them, here on television. If you want to give us your thoughts on the remaining minutes of the Supreme Court, here are the numbers. 202 5853880 for democrats. 202 5853881 for republicans. And 202 5853882 for independents. Immigration reform is a topic of the wall street journal this morning. The headline industries piecemeal approach to immigration, they say with no congressional relief on the way, some businesses are wondering if president barack obama can help solve their problems through administrative action. Theyre also considering whether the time has come to break the compact that has bound the interests together to push for a sweeping immigration rewrite and instead lobby for industryspecific measures. The National Milk Producers Federation said it would look for solutions to its problems finding year round workers under the current agricultural visa system which provides permits only for seasonal jobs. Initially the group will see if they can assuage things by administrative action by president obama. The president of the group still backs a broad overhaul. Robert from oklahoma, democrats line. Hi. Caller good morning. How are you . Host im well, thank you. Go ahead. Caller i just want to comment on the recent courts decision about the hobby lobby case. Im a democrat. I did vote for president obama twice. I think people are going way overboard on this. Its kind of crazy, all the all the bad, bad, bad, extremely bad name calling and stuff, it does nobody no good, at all. Whether you agree with the court or disagree, thats our right to do so, but when you start calling names, all it does is divide the country. We have a Supreme Court and we need to just, whatever they hand down, we have to abide by it, whether we agree with it or not. It doesnt do nobody no good for this kind of language to go on these hateful calls. Host if someone asked you about your gut feeling toward the court itself, how would you respond . Caller well, it is the way our country was founded. So whether i agree or dont agree with the court, it is the law of the land. And if they do uphold the constitution, this was the law put in place by president clinton. Theyre not denying women birth control. Theres 16 that was already providing and hobby lobby pays double of the minimum wage. Host a viewer writes i think the Supreme Court is one of the last uncorrupted institutions in our american life. Im unhappy with several decisions they have made including Citizens United but im not about to throw the baby out with the bath water. Our email is journal at cspan. Florida democrats line. Thank you for holding on, joe. Caller i want to ask a couple questions. Ive been thinking about the hobby lobby law and do you think everybody should be against hobby lobby in a hat . Host i wont answer the question, but why dont you answer your own question. Caller i want you to answer it, buddy. It seems like youre enjoying it. Host ill ask your opinion about what do you think of the Supreme Court overall . Caller were going to get our land back by how you used to say were going to get our land back. What land is supposed to be host howard, up next from locust grove, georgia, republican line. Hi. Caller hi, this is howard from atlanta. Im disgusted in all of them in the white house. Weve got to clean it out. I blame the republicans and the democrats because they need to impeach obama for breaking all the rules and regulations up there. Im a u. S. Truck driver. I run across this country. They up there breaking its a disgrace of america. Im a tea party person. We need a third party up there. Host when it comes to the Supreme Court, give us your thoughts and opinions of that. Caller oh, the hobby lobby . Host overall actually. What are your thoughts on the Supreme Court . Caller its all corrupted. Its all corrupted. But with the hobby lobby, now, if youre going to be blessed, youve got to do whats right and speak the truth and stand up. And i hope everything changes and turns around, you know, i really do. Host liz wrote about Iraqs Parliament and current problems in its meeting and making decisions the features in the Washington Post this morning. They write that sunni and kurdish lawmakers left the meeting after two hours with no progress on forming the new government. After the exit, the acting speaker of the newly elected parliament ajourneyed the meeting until next week. They have conquered much of the north and the west of the country and kurds have asserted control and the government in baghdad has been scrambling to hold together what is left of its collapsing security forces. Thats in the Washington Post. He says he will leave his post, saying hes 72 and will be succeeded by his deputy with ties to secretary of state john kerry dates back to mr. Kerrys 2004 president ial campaign. In an interview he took a hopeful, if somewhat guarded view of the situation in afghanistan. Host the story also talks about possible future plans for mr. Dobbins. If you go to our website and type his name, youll see several instances in which he appears. The story says mr. Dobbins may write a book, if he does, it will be much to recount, including the difficult negotiations over a Security Agreement to keep american troops in afghanistan after 2014, the missed queues last year that led to abortive efforts to explore peace talks with the taliban and the deliberations over the administrations troop exit strategy. Ronnie from kentucky on your opinions of the Supreme Court. Good morning. Caller good morning. My opinion about the Supreme Court, its gotten way to politicized. I have although i do agree that a company should not have to pay for some type of medication, i dont think anyone should have to pay for anyones abortion. The taxpayers money. If i may Say Something about congress right quick, i know theres been a lot of talk from suing the president and things like that, but what is he supposed to do because Congress Wont do what theyre supposed to do . Im not a fan of obama, believe me, but somethings got to be done in this country. Were just going down the drain because theres just too much division. So anyway, everything is politicized now. Thank you. Host heres nancy from arkansas. Democrats line. Caller hello . Host youre on. Caller okay. My comment is if you take a look at the Obamacare Decision and a few of the other decisions the Supreme Court has made, those decisions are basically given corporations the same right as an individual. Thats what this court is pushing for. To push across on the American People the corporations have the same rights as individuals. I personally dont believe that because i dont think any corporations are going to show up for church, and but thats whats going on. And all the rest is nothing but hearings. Host so are you saying that the court is too probusiness . Caller yes, definitely. You cannot give corporations the same rights as an individual. And i dont thats not my interpretation of the constitution. Host sandy lives in massachusetts. Were asking folks about their opinion of the Supreme Court. Shes on our independent line. Hi, sandy. Caller hi. What id like to know is whats the average age of the Supreme Court . And why havent we got younger people sitting on the Supreme Court and why dont we have a junior Supreme Court and possibly start it very young in the small, small grades, teaching them how to become one of these justices and what they have to decide . We have to have younger thought. We have a lot of old farts up there and we need to get rid of them. Host so age is a concern of yours i think she hung up. Judy from north carolina. Hi. Caller good morning. I wanted to say that in response to the lady from massachusetts that just talked, with age comes wisdom, and also these people that are on the Supreme Court, for the most part, has been in the law and they look at the law. This is what i love about cspan is that you can hear the cases that have come in front of the Supreme Court and youre going to hear the arguments, you hear the cases that are cited, and after being told that obamacare was not a tax over and over and over and over, of course, as it was read and as it was passed by the Supreme Court, Justice Roberts did say this is a tax and that is how obamacare got passed. And in the hobby lobby, as far as people being corporations being people, there is strength in numbers, just as in the unions. People like to say that unions get by their unions and have strength and this is also the way corporations are. So some of the things i agree with the Supreme Court does and some i dont, but they do look at the law and abide by what the laws are. Host so judy you have brought up the fact that you can listen to Supreme Court proceedings and we show them here on cspan. What do you think about a camera being shown during the Supreme Court . Would that be beneficial, do you think . Caller absolutely not. I watch the hearings that take place in the senate, and in the house of representatives, like with the i. R. S. Hearings and so on and so forth. And it says to me that when the cameras are there, a lot of our representatives, a lot of our senators play to the camera and they editorialize. They want their they want to be perceived by the public thats watching the hearings as some grand person, and they do tend to editorialize instead of getting down to business. Host lets take one more call. Don from houston, texas, go ahead. Caller yes. Its just a bunch of bad decisions coming out of the Supreme Court, and i didnt say it again, please . Host i didnt say anything. Go ahead. Caller i didnt want to go here but it seems like Citizens United or the Koch Brothers have reached the Supreme Court. The decisions are absolutely bad. Theres no win to what they have decided on. Im not understanding what the Supreme Court okay, the law is the law. But we are 2014, not 1876. So lets get serious and get some people up there who are forward thinking and not and i would also like to see cameras in the courtroom because somebody or several people are up there sleeping. Because theyre too old and not functional anymore as far as im concerned. Thank you. Host coming up on the program, our next guest will offer his view of the relationship between the obamas and the clintons. Hes edward klein, the author of blood feud. Hes joining us next and well examine issues and this is going to be continuing after this. It was quite the a risk and so they took their culture, what they knew here, there. Of course, some of them took the bad aspects, too. The slavery. But that was all they had ever known and they built houses like this one because, after all, theyre the ones who built this house there were a lot of basically greek revival houses that the preslaves built in mississippi and africa and across the river was louisiana in liberia, which was settled by freed slaves from louisiana. There was a georgia, a virginia, a kentucky and Maryland County and all of those people came from those states in the u. S. Host our next guest joins us from new york, the author of a new book taking a look at relationships between the clintons and the obamas, blood feud the title. Edward klein joining us from new york. Welcome. Guest thank you for having me. Host why did you turn your attention to these two families . Guest well, the media has spent a great deal of time writing and talking about the feud that exists in the Republican Party between the tea party and the establishment wings of that party. But has spent virtually no time at all on the feud that is going on between the two great democratic families, the obamas and the clintons. And that feud is going to affect who gets the democratic nomination and maybe even who is in the white house in 2016. I thought it was an important story that deserves a book. Host so, mr. Klein, what is the feud over, as you see it . Guest well, the feud is over many different things. First of all, its a personal feud between the clintons and the obamas over the kinds of words that they hurled at each other during the 2008 president ial primaries in which the obamas called the called bill clinton a racist and bill clinton called and hillary called the obama a fairytale. Theyve never really even forgotten those slurs. But even more important, theres ideological battle between the left wing of the party thats represented by barack obama, and the more centrist left wing of the Party Represented by the clintons. So this is a battle not only over personal slights and revenge but also over ideology. Host and when it comes to the ideology, you say president obama is more left of center and president clinton more centrist in his approach and those two kind of expose themselves as negotiations between the two came to the forefront, not only over his wife and her future but also about support that president clinton would ultimately give to president obama in his Reelection Campaign . Guest thats right. As we know, in 2008 im sorry in 2012 i meant to say president clinton made a rousing speech for barack obama at the Democratic National convention, and the media played that as though these two wings of the party were burying the hatchet and now were united. That was part of the deal that bill clinton and barack obama struck during a golf game in which bill said he would support obama in return for obamas support of hillary in 2016. So it was a political arrangement that fell apart after the election when barack obama changed his mind and decided that he was going to keep his options open in 2016 and he has not backed Hillary Clinton and her march toward the nomination. Host and part of that meeting that you spoke about talks about president clintons view of the meeting, one of the quotes from the book, its partial from the book saying, president clinton said i hate that man, obama, more than any man ive ever met, but the important thing to keep in mind that obamas decision to invite me out for a game of golf is a sign of weakness, since any deal we might strike will immediately place obama in my debt. Can you add some context to that . Guest id be happy to. Because bill thought that by backing obama and giving that speech at the Democratic National convention in august of 2012, he had placed barack obama in his debt. Thats what happens in politics. Its generally one hand washes the other. The trouble is bill clinton washed obamas hand, but when it came time, obama reneged on the deal. And according to my sources, who were in the room with bill clinton when he got the news, he placed his face in his hands and shook his head and he was so upset that Hillary Clinton thought he was going to have a heart attack over this, what he considered to be a welching of the deal. Host there are questions about the book. What do you make of the claims and why not bring more people to the forefront as people who actually gave you the sources and give their names . Guest i think its a very legitimate question and its a question asked of bob woodward whose books are all anonymous sources. The game change authors, all their sources are anonymous. Thank you very much. Their sources are anonymous, too. When you report on current political battles, its very hard to get people on the record because they dont want to lose their access to the people in power. So ive developed over the course of many years, during the books that ive written on Hillary Clinton, on barack obama, the last book i wrote was called the amateur, barack obama in the white house. I have a rolodex of sources who ive come to depend on who have proven to be absolutely accurate, again and again and again. And these people will talk to me for a variety of reasons, not the least of which they like to see themselves as quite important and close to power, but none of them will go on the record and understandably so. Host edward klein, our guest to talk about his book, blood feud and takes a look at tensions between the clintons and the obamas. As our guest mentioned, he wrote previous books about Hillary Clinton, the kennedys and other topics. If you want to ask him questions about this book, heres your chance to do so. For democrats, 202 5853880 for republicans 202 5853881 and for independents, 202 5853882 and on twitter, its at cspan wj and our email is the journal. You bring in Valerie Jarrett, the president s adviser. Whats her role in all this . Guest well, i say in blood feud, this book, excuse me, that Valerie Jarrett is the single most important behindthescenes adviser in the white house since harry hopkins, more than 70 years ago in the Franklin Roosevelt administration. Hopkins was a friend of both Franklin Roosevelt and eleanor. Valerie jarrett is best friends with both Michelle Obama and barack obama. She lives in the white house. I mean, by that, she literally has a suite of rooms that she occupies permanently in the white house. She has a secret service detail. She eats with the president and first lady every night that theyre in the white house. She goes on vacations with them. She goes to whatever meeting she wants to attend and she carries the president s message to cabinet ministers and other people in the administration. Theres been no one since harry hopkins, way back in the 40s, who has this kind of power. Host and you write of her from your book saying, she watched over him and made him feel safe she was his special charge, the devoted one. She gave him the kind of unconditional love that he never received from his mother, who frequently abandoned him as a child. Guest thats right. Now there have been several, as you know, biographies, of barack obama. Theres been a lot of speculation about the fact that his mother was not around a lot. She traveled a great deal. Left him with his grandparents, his white grandparents. When she was around, he felt a great need to win over her love, according to many books, by showing what a great man he would become. And i think in many ways, he has a similar relationship with both his wife, whom he really wants to please, and Valerie Jarrett, who is a kind of substitute mother figure. Host first call for you is from kathy. Shes from montgomery, texas, on a republican line. Youre on with edward klein. Kathy, good morning. Caller yes, good morning, ed. Im so happy you wrote this book. I just have a comment. The clintons are so fake. This is what they get, they went overboard thinking barack obama would save him at the end of the day like bill clinton did at the dnc when he made that ridiculous speech. This is what he got for dealing with the devil. Thank you. Guest well, thats an interesting question. You know, its interesting that bill clinton has been taking some soundings in various states across the United States with Democratic Party chairman, building a support team for hillary in 2016 and he has told his friends and associates that when he speaks to these party chairmen, these democrats, he learns the Obama Administration, the political people in the Obama Administration have been there as well and that they are looking for what bill clinton called a mini me, a clone of obama, somewhat who will come out of nowhere and challenge hillary for the 2016 democratic nomination. So in bill clintons eyes, theres no greater obstacle to hillary getting the nomination than barack obama. Clinton may be the single most popular politician in america, if not in the entire world right now. There seems to be a collective amnesia about what the Clinton Presidency was like. Budget, asnce the you just said, during the clinton years. We did do a reform of welfare. That was in conjunction with a republican congress, which in many ways forced his hand. Havewe seemed to forgotten, so many americans, is that during the clinton administration, youre right about this last act, which allowed banks to do their own freighting, and which ultimately does resulted in the collapse of the economy in 2008, plus, and even in my estimation, and more important failure. During the clinton years, nothing seriously was done about the rise of al qaeda. Terrorism thatme is now shaking the world to its foundations. Interesting bill is popular wherever he goes and no one seems to remember anything from monaco to terrorism. The one thing he was the one prison he was not popular with was valerie. Why is that . Guest an excellent question. The blood feud between these two families, the obamas and the clintons, has an ideological dimension. Say when theyre with their friends and associates and they do notvisers, believe the clintons really stand for any principles. They look down upon the clintons as opportunists. The clintons,and, for their part, look on the obama team as a bunch of amateurs, inexperienced people who seem to fumble all the great issues of our time because they do not know how to govern. Whye are so many reasons these two sides do not get along. He cannotis guy here, even say president obama, so you know where he is coming from. , weconflict is so divided are going down in a handbasket. It is ridiculous. You need to have more black people on speaking. I and 75 years old and retired. I have time to watch this stuff. Direct a dont you comment or question directly to our guest. Himer i am talking about directly. We just got through talking about the Supreme Court. He is now coming out with more negative stuff. It is ridiculous and i feel sorry for my grandkids and great grandkids. Anything you would like to respond to . Guest i had a little trouble hearing her. The connection was not very clear. I am hearing, what about all the negativity in the country and is , the blood feud between the clintons and the obamas, just adding fire to the negativity. That i say to our caller am just as patriotic as you are, maam. I feel you are right this country is divided and that what is to pick a leader in the white house and a congress that knows what theyre doing. The most recent poll that just came out i believe today, says that the majority of mouth americans think president obama is the worst president in 70 years. That is a pole, not my opinion. Poll, not my opinion. A lot of people think this is based on racism, that because he is africanamerican, people do not like him. I do not happen to share the view. I think the opposition to barack obama and his plummeting poll ratings has to do with what i inexperienced,an fumbling administration that does not seem to be able to get its act together. Says someone off twitter to hide it used well, that is true. I am not so sure they are still, bille only recently clinton came out publicly and said obama care was a flawed law. That is a big statement from and a huge blow to president obama, that a former democratic president would say this law needs to be revised. On her part, hillary has come out publicly and said that despite the white house claim that the irs scandal is invented, that it is really not a scandal at all, she thinks it is a scandal and should be looked into. Shealmost came out and said there should be a special prosecutor. It is indicating their beginning to push space between themselves and the Obama Administration, as we get closer and closer to the time hillary will announce she is running for president. York,from brooklyn, new republican line. Caller good morning. It seems to me, mr. President obama, even though he is having trouble, he also does not care for mr. Bush either. This in someo put kind of round, you know president s,now, two sitting president s, and there is one president in the house now, besides that, when the clintons were in, they happened to have it very good because they were at a stage in life where electronics for coming up. People were just getting into that and there was a lot of money made through that. Do you understand what im saying . And i would like to respond and say barack obama, basically, if you just get to the court matters, won the by hisncy in 2008 opposition to george w. Bush and the iraq war. That was his key platform. Years, he isd four now in his sixyear in office, he blamed bush again and again for the problems he has inherited. My view and inn the view of the clintons, has caused many of his own problems. We see the middle east going up in flames. Hillary clinton urged barack obama to get involved in syria early in that war, not with ground troops, but with support of the opposition to assad regime. If obama had listened to hillary, i think we would not be of radicalspread islam through syria into iraq that were seeing today. Course, theas, of issue with russia, in which the Obama Administration tried to make good relations with vladimir putin. We have seen how that has worked out. Again and again, blaming the past is no excuse for not functioning well in the presidency. I think the clintons feel very strongly, and as bill clinton once put it, that barack obama is an amateur. Host edward klein is our guest from new york. The title again is blood flute feud. Hello. Can you hear me . I hope you understand what i will say. Likening to you is everything. He is incompetent. If he were incompetent, he would not be the president. You have a problem because he is there. T makes you confident competent in what youre doing with your book . Guest i will let other people decide. I have been a journalist for a very long time and have written 12 books, most of which have been on the bestseller list. I used to be the editorinchief of the New York Times magazine. Before that, i was the Foreign Editor of newsweek. I have a long history of, in my field, achievements. I feel my books have, again and again, proven to be true. As far as the president is concerned, i am not the only person who is saying this is an incompetent administration. This seems to be a widespread and spreading view among the olitical political class. Threatened obama that syria would go over a redline the United States drew, that the United States would take military action. That was a threat. He backed down on that after the weapons were used and in doing so, he lost not only personal credibility for himself, but credibility for the stature of the United States throughout the entire world. Cecil up next, from georgia, democrat line. Caller thank you for cspan. There has been a lot said since i have been on the phone. I think this guy just wants to and thaty for his work is ok. That is his job, to try to make money on his book. Think he is just trying to get stuff started. Everyone else talking about the redline and some of the things. And hillary had not even decided to even run yet. We do not know what obama will do as far as supporting hillary. I hope that you have an opportunity to read my book, blood feud the clintons vs. The obamas because this book to occupants chapter after chapter the bitter family fight going on in the Democratic Party between these two great families. Many of mynly i but sources and many of the sources in other publications who have documented this growing feud. I think as we go beyond the 2014 midterm elections and start really getting involved in the president ial campaign, which will happen after november, you between a widening rift these two wings of the party, represented by obama on the left and the clintons on the centerleft. Host roger green on twitter says guest yes, that is exactly correct. The appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state was opposed by Michelle Obama on the ground that it would bring the clintons into the white and complicated obamas ability to get his policy through. But in obamas point of view, and the point of view of his other political advisers, bringing hillary in in a way to silence,clinton to not be an active opponent of the obamas. Though clinton literally signed an agreement with the Obama Administration that if hillary was pointed as secretary of state, he would not make any speeches in foreign countries, for which tom abide away, he used to get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, as we know now. Anything in major policy speeches that was not first vetted and cleared by the white house. As thising hillary in twitter person said, he kept his enemies close and kept them quiet. The wallstreet journal guest at this point, they have practically given up on getting obamas active support in 2016. They have been creating what i would call a parallel Democratic Party organization, a clinton from thearate Democratic National committee controlled by the white house. Bill has been actively involved in this, putting together policy books for hillary. He has been bringing major donors and political figures down to little rock, where he has his clinton library. He has been spending all of his time putting together the Campaign Hillary will run. Mostct, he has turned over of the day to running and the policy decisions of the Clinton Foundation to his daughter, chelsea, who is now in charge while bill is spending his time on hillarys campaign. The obama about campaigns database names, donations, what happened to that . Is a very good question. Part of the deal i mentioned, in which bill thought he had a deal with obama, part of the deal was, in addition to obamas support of hillary, that he would turn over the whole database and donor base to the bill to, and allow nominate the head of the Democratic National committee, all of which obama has since reneged on. Host washington is where jamie is on our independent line. Ok, i am going back a bit. It is very hard on somebody on the west coast to get in and you were not kind with your phone numbers to old ladies, but i want to know what your guest thinks about the current Supreme Court and, in particular, about ,ts decision with hobby lobby i do not know if that is the topic we are engaging with this morning. I wanted to see if callers wanted to comment on your book. If you wanted to comment, go ahead. Say will make a brief, and the coverage of the Supreme Court decision and the reaction from the obama white house, in factew, overlooked the that the Supreme Court did not that these smaller corporations do not have to give any contraceptive health care. Contraceptiveme health care, including day after pills, which some people think is an abortion pill. Contraceptives are concerned, there is still coverage, theyre very inexpensive as well, and i do not think this Supreme Court decision was that radical, although i certainly think the Obama Administration is seeing it as a big body blow to obama care. Host joe from maryland, democrat line. Caller good morning. Comment. Nted to evidently, you are a professional author. Think, when you write, you sound prorepublican or whatever and that is your choice. But when you look at the it hastration, you see always been a government, and it is always been what it is. Politics as usual. When president obama was elected, it was a relentless suit for imperfection. That is ok, but to betray him as is, less than a president , i think that is an insult to the nation. America, wake up. I would like to comment on that. I think it is a very sensitive issue. Among the Africanamerican Community in my night in the there is a deep feeling that this president is being unfairly attacked because of his race. Whites, that is not as common, although a number of liberals agree with that point of view. I do not comment on that in my book because i do not think i am qualified to do so. About thein my book actual policies carried out by this administration, about the conflict between bill clinton, who, by the way, is a great friend of the Africanamerican Community, and so his criticisms of obama, i think it is very hard to say race is based. Jokes he wasten the first black president because he did so much good for the africanamericans in this country. Hard to say itry is racially based between the obamas and the clintons. Carlos from chicago, on our independent line. Caller good morning to both of you. I have a couple of questions, and then a comment and a suggestion for your next book. As you just spoke of, africanamericans. If you talk about the africanamerican perspective,nd you look at both residents past and present, my question you aof all is, are republican, democrat, or independent . At cspan asked me. As cspan asked me. Guest im a registered independent. Caller what prompted you to write this book and, as a lot of callers have heard, and what economy to make the phone call, again,ecause they say, you have to look at things like you said, youre not qualified. I understand that. Then, africanamericans you have interviewed, what did they share it with you about the accomplishments our president has done. Guest i would like to comment on that. Go ahead. Ok. I have made many trips to chicago where barack obama began his political career and where the Africanamerican Community was the First Community that got behind him in a strong way, raise money for him, and launched him on his political career. I have interviewed many members of the Africanamerican Community in chicago. Without exception, they are disappointed with barack obama because once he got into the white house, they never heard from him again. They wrote letters and sent emails and said, here we were, first day people, people who were there at the beginning of his career, and with whom he could not have risen to the great heights he has, and he has forgotten them. It is not only the Africanamerican Community. Whove also interviewed jews raced a lot of money for barack obama, christians who are ,iberal and are very proobama and they all say, almost without exception, that they love this man, they were happy to be behind him, but that he has shown no gratitude toward them or even made an effort to bring them closer to the white house to show his gratitude. Feeling about obama is also common among members of congress. Democrats and republicans alike who say they never hear from him, he does not get to know detached. S aloof and this is not just me reporting this. Journalists both in the mainstream media, in the liberal media, and in the conservative media. James from delaware, youre on with edward klein. First, i want to address what he just said about africanamerican views on obama. They thought he would do more and the reason he could not is because he faced a congress that no one imagined he would face. He faced opposition that no one even imagined he would face. If he looked toward the Africanamerican Community, he would be called different names. But what i wanted to ask your that is, he said earlier there is a poll that said obama is the worst president in 70 years. Does he agree with that . Does he have any idea about the last administration . What is this guy . Every day, you have a parade of political hacks coming on and criticizing the democratic administration. If Rupert Murdoch bought the station, why dont you tell us . Host that is not the case. Go ahead with your remarks. I think he was rehashing a little bit of what he said, previous criticisms of this president by congress and others, particularly relations with congress. That is my gathering. But go ahead. Guest right. Well the clintons feel, as i describe in my book, that obama has not shown the political talent to even try to work with this congress. For instance, lets remember when bill clinton was president , he had a republican revolution on his hands and that newt and essentially said the president was irrelevant, almost. He came very close to saying that. What did bill clinton do . Bill clinton, rather than dig in and say, i will just do what i want to do irrespective of triangulated and found Common Ground with the to do manycongress very important things we have already mentioned, bound the welfare, send 100,000 new Police Officers onto the streets of american cities, and on and on. A political calculation on bill clintons part, that he could not work opposition. This has not happened during the Obama Administration. There is virtually no communication between him and the republicans. I am not for a second suggesting the republicans have not been very critical of him. They have. But i interviewed vernon jordan, an africanamerican who is on the record in my book, by the and has been a major figure in the Democratic Party for many years, and he said, yes republicans have made it difficult for the president , the when you are elected president , you are expected to lead. Vernon jordan is a relative of valerie . Guest the life. The wife. How are you doing . The republicans are the ones who put us into this mess. Withess has not worked this president throughout both of his terms. I would like you to, come back on after the midterm ction and sulu will be run see who will be running. Trust me. I will call back after the midterm election, and i would like you do come back and listen to my comments. I would like Nothing Better than to come back on cspan and if they invite me, i will be here. This is about president ial advisers. Do you believe the advisers of both president obama and president clinton came from the same think tank pool . I do not. Clintons advisers came from the democratic leadership council, a centerleft group that tried to bring the Democratic Party away from its radical base to more of a centrist position. The Obama Administration has been, by and large, running its policy decisions by political people. Im talking about David Axelrod who helped him get elected. I will give you a concrete example. In my book, i discuss a meeting that took waste between bill and Hillary Clinton and caroline kennedy. Was about toedy take up her post as ambassador to tokyo in japan. Wanted advice from hillary, the former secretary of state, about what she should expect and hillary told her, according to sources that hillary spoke to later, that, do not be surprised if your marching orders as , come not in tokyo from the state department but from Valerie Jarrett in the white house, essentially a political advisor and not a policy person. I think that says volumes about how the administration has and run. In run. Has been run. They workedbout how together as a couple, particularly in the political sense. How guest that would take us a long time. Would say as quickly as i can say this, that the clintons have a marriage that is somewhat similar to the marriage of franklin and eleanor roosevelt. It is essentially a working relationship. They have gone their separate ways in many ways. They do not live together often. But they are colleagues and collaborators on policy as eleanor and franklin were. Side excuse me the obama side, we have a first lady and Michelle Obama who is best friends with Valerie Jarrett, and who is a behind the scenes advisor to her husband in a way that is quite different. Michelleespects, behaves toward her husband as though she knows better. Is the in public she boss. He often sounds like a henpecked guy. I know that is radical to say that. I think there is a lot of truth to that. These women, michelle and valerie, have enormous influence over his policy decisions. Concrete example, when bill daley was chief of staff of the obama white house, he said after he resigned that he and obama would come to a agreement and then Valerie Jarrett would go upstairs to the residence that night, spend the evening up and the next morning, the president would come down and shell out an agreement that daley had. Daily resigned because he said with thatot function kind of white house. Blood feud the clintons with edwardas klein. Thank you. Coming up, Marilyn Geewax will join us for a discussion. Later on, 2016 politics. We will continue on our conversation. But first, we get updated news from cspan radio. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] some international news. Iraqs Prime Minister is warming extremely and extremist groups declaration of an islamist state in iraq and syria is a threat to the entire region. In his weekly address today, the Prime Minister said the announcement this week by the Islamic State is as unilaterally words, aed, in his message that you are inside the red circle now. He added that no one in iraq or any neighboring country would be safe from these plants. In the to politics states, mitt romney is campaigning again in New Hampshire. Senateet to endorse candidate scott brown today. It is the former massachusetts governors first New Hampshire appearance since election day 2012. He says he is not running for president a third time. News to the u. S. Navy. The first female fourstar admiral, who will serve as the vice chief of operations, which makes her the number two admiral in the navy. Admiral howard has served 32 years in the navy, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1982, and in 1990 nine, became the first africanamerican woman to command a navy ship. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. Now you can keep in touch with Current Events from the Nations Capital using any phone at any time. Simply call 20s every weekday, listen to a recap of the days events. You can also hear audio of the network affairs programs. Cspan radio on audio now. Longdistance or phone charges may apply. My first reaction was surprise. I had worked for him. I coached the clippers in the year 2000. He invited me to his daughters wedding. Exactly what was going on. But also, because of my association, i know what he was complaining about. Confused, not knowing exactly which set of facts mr. Sterling stood behind. Then his work came out and it was so obvious and shocking and disgusting, all of those things wrapped in one. But the surprise of it, to find that type of sentiment in on blackho relies americans for so much of his success and public profile, it was amazing. I just could not believe that someone could have that much bigotry inside and think it was ok. Fourth on cspan, a look at racism in sports. And next mission with senior nasa officials. Later, discussions on gun rights and the personal recovery of the former arizona congresswoman, get begin third. Washington journal continues. Now, nprsng me Senior Business editor, Marilyn Geewax. Welcome to the program. The news breaking even in the last hour or so is this report that talks about jobs numbers. First of all, what is 80 p and why should we care, and what is it significant or not . They collect statistics about private employment. The report is positive and in line with what everyone is expecting for tomorrow. Usually, the Labor Department releases job reports on fridays. But we have a holiday on friday so we are all off. They will release it thursday. Everyone watches the monthly job report and pays a great deal of attention. Like the latest private poll and other data suggest that once again, we will have a good month for job growth, probably in the range of 2000 jobs and maybe more. If you can keep going at that rate, about 200,000 new jobs created and added on top of what we already have, it is starting to finally pull the economy forward. It is not as strong as it should be, but when you think, it was exactly five years ago, right where june was turning into july of 2009, when the economy began a rebound. We are now five years, happy birthday recovery, five years into it, and we are just now getting to where unemployment is not quite so bad. There are still millions of people come more than 9 million, who are unemployed. But when youre adding 200,000 jobs a month, you are eating into the unemployment getting the economy on stronger footing. Probably, the Unemployment Rate will still come in at 6. 3. It is not great, but not the horrors we had in 2009, which was 10 . Magicand that is the number anyway as far as recovery is concerned. Guest yes. It has been a long and slow climb and there is still a long way to go to get the economy back to a vibrant state, but we have recovered all the lost jobs, and were starting to dig into the pool of longterm unemployed unless something changes. It is finally starting to feel a little bit more like a normal job market. What about the jobs being restored . Economy isall, the starting to be a two track economy. People who are in the petroleum right now, natural gas, any kind of engineering job, those kids are coming out of school, starting in six figures. Chemicalal pay for a engineer graduating this year was just shy of 100,000 a year to start. Those kinds of good jobs are happening everywhere. If you have the right skills. But the problem is many of the jobs that have been created tend to be in hospitality, leisure, restaurant work, that kind of thing. Twotiered economy happening where we have skilled workers who are very much in demand and getting good quick good wages, and a lot of job growth in service jobs that do not pay much. Average people can provide middleclass wages, those are still tough. Recovery is as the concerned, is there still a y factor . Why factor . A series of factors on why the economy is recovering . Guest that is more of an economic argument, sort of a political argument. President obama was saying Congress Needs to do something construction,way bridges, those kinds of things. Congress needs to act to get that done again. In the president s point of job, there is a reason growth has been slow. Congress has not done enough to get the stimulus going and get the economy moving and get m ake sure the state is hiring construction workers. Good paying but not super skilled but not super low skilled, good old construction jobs, building bridges. President argues he needs more help from congress on that. Others would argue republicans certainly would argue that the president ss policies have been too focused on regulation and have held back businesses and things like the Affordable Care act. They feel it has slowed job creation. Those are arguments for someone in politics. From an economic point of view, i think it is fair to say that the economy has been growing over the past five years. It clearly has been. But there have been setbacks throughout that that have kept growth lower. One of the setbacks we had this was the gdp report we have recently that shows come in the first quarter, january, february, and march, the weather lousy, that it really restrained the economy. It looks like the quarter that just ended in april, may, and june, that secondquarter probably saw a great deal of growth because it was a bounce back from the first quarter. Things that did not get done in february got done in april. You will probably see more than three percent when the numbers finally come out. Overall, they would like to have more even growth rather than up and down. What goes through your mind . Is that a valid concern . The past winter was quite exceptional. If you have a terrible tornado that hits a place in missouri, that is bad for the town. Ondoes not have an effect the Overall National economy. Even a pretty big hurricane, a thing like trina is devastating for new orleans, but it did not do much to slow down massachusetts. But the weather this past winter was quite pervasive. There are large parts of the country that really had a problem. This you have got the us ongoing drought and flooding in the upper midwest. That will have an impact on food prices. We are already seeing meat is quite expensive. You have weather factors that are real and that do impact the economy. Eventually, the field strike up and sooner or later, it has got to rein in the dry parts. Toodo not want to put that much into a longterm forecast. But, for the first half of this year, there have been real weather issues that are again important enough and pervasive enough that they have affected the economy. Topicthat is our broad for the segment. Here is the way you can comment and ask questions. If you want to send us a tweet for may, the Unemployment Rate is three. 6 . 6. 3 . This is mark on the democrats line. Caller good morning. I think there are a couple of not having jobs picked up. One, they are our jobs overseas tax cuts to send them overseas seems pretty stupid to me. The southone is, korean Steel Industry dumping america, isl into just decimating our Steel Industry. Just like the golden gate bridge. As it did, it came out over budget. Host we have two comments out there and we will let our guest respond. Guest they have had a tough time for a long time. The complaint when i was young was about japan, who was flooding the steel. There is now a lot of concern about south korea. Really seen is tremendous technological change in the Steel Industry. There are a lot of different aspects of that. Things like the kind of steel mill my grandfather worked in, where there were tens of thousands of men going to work, a lot of that has really dramatically changed, where you can go into a germ a modern steel mill today and shoot a cannon and not hit anybody. They are very empty. Issuesre two separate involving steel. One is steel sales and sales taken by foreign competitors. When it comes to steelworker jobs, that is, in many ways, more of a technology issue. The industry has changed so much. That is a real challenge for the economy. There are technological advances happening and that is a lot of what has happened with middleclass jobs. It is very tough to keep up with that level of change. Caller i disagree with the numbers. Andid slow with florida texas and california. They are constantly blaming the lousy economy on other things. Ands a democrat economy democrats thrive in bad economies. When the economy is good, they got beaten. Ohio, it didl in exactly what it was supposed to do. Moved industry out of ohio to mexico and other places. That is what it was supposed to do. Manufacturingong country, democrats lose. They love the economy. There is nothing wrong with the economy. Guest a couple of points to make. They did have a really bad drought there. It was a mix of problems. There was snow and cold in some parts of the country and dry heat in others. But they have got, of course, some problems with their crop from disease. The economy is quite mixed. To say things have been bad joined the obama era, it is a complicated picture when you look at it. The stock market has done almost unbelievably well. Incks from where they were 2009 when obama came into office, they are really at record highs again. Financial markets have boomed. It looks like the markets are moving even higher. Host it is about to hit 17,000. Guest the Financial Markets have done very well in the country. Is problem for everybody that there is a lagging job growth. Republicans would say the economy is being choked by too many regulations and too many taxes. As toa political debate the more core problem. As far as the overall economy, it is quite mixed. It depends on what sector you are looking at. Investor, thetock last five years, you should have bought in the summer of 2009. You would be very happy today because these stock prices moved up sharp lee sharply. Host from texas, republican line. Caller one comment and two questions. Comment is im hearing a lot of excuses, basically. The weather has not been bad for seven years now. You mentioned how Chemical Engineering jobs are everywhere. They are only where the epa does not shut them down. Then you differ that obamas policies are political in nature. They have real economic effects. My two questions. Like to know the total labor force over the last 10 years. Also, we are now halfway to a recession. We have negative growth, negative gdp. Why is there not much comment about that . I will listen to you on the television, thank you. I wanted to be clear, when i was talking about the weather, i have not been talking about the first five years, but just the first half of this year. I was only referring to this past winter in the first half of 2014. Think you would have a tough time finding an economist who did not agree that weather was a factor in the first half of this year. Factor thiss a year. There was a reference to the Labor Participation rate. The number of people who participate in the labor force peaked in the late 1970s. With of that has to do women coming into the workforce. Previously, most women came home in the 1970s. A lot of women came into the labor force to take jobs. The Participation Rate shot up quite a bit. Years, all those women who came into the workforce in the late 1970s, the women who came in the 1980s, people are retiring now. You have a demographic old shove people who are in their 60s right now and they are falling out of the labor force. You also have a High Percentage who, this recession was brutal. People washed out of the labor market and have never gotten back in. 2008,you lost her job in when youre in your late 50s. Now, you are on Social Security and just out of the workforce. There has been a demographic been a majoras reason for the decline in Labor Participation rates. There are other factors as well. It is just true that baby boomers are aging. It is also true this has been a horrible economy for a lot of people in the middle sector jobs who have not been able to get steady work and they have drifted away. A lot of people have turned to disability insurance. Many people are in their 50s getting a Social Security system and moved into disability because they really cannot fit in todays workforce. You have a lot of factors. A slow growth in middle income jobs, demographic factors, and changes in the way the skill level people need to participate. Host democrats line. Caller i want to say to everyone out there, we are all in this together. Lets stop moving backwards and talking about what happened and lets move ahead. Way,ing, somehow in some we have got to get it through congress that they need to incorporate money for people to get traded. Come on. If people do not buy things what did george bush say after 9 11 . Get out there and buy stuff and keep the economy going. The middleclass keeps the economy going. Understande have to this is going to take time. Because the time recession was pretty bad. We have got to work on this not,her because if we do this country will not survive. There are two very valid points to make about what has been holding back the economy. One thing is this discussion of training, a tremendous missed smatch masmatc mismatch. How do you get people who have the skills to fill the job . If you talk to employers, they are deeply concerned about training. Another thing that is important is the Housing Market continues to fit together with that in crazy ways. One of the things that has really kept the Housing Market from being as robust as it otherwise might the is the fact young people are shying away from buying a firsttime home because they are so burdened with student debt. Much more than we have had in the past. People know they need the training. They try to pay for it themselves. They find themselves with typical student loans. Debtsin 10 have student and there in the tens of thousands of dollars. They really have a hard time saving for the first down payment. These twin issues are tied together because you need job training to get ahead. Funding it yourself is very expensive, so you want the college degree, you do not want the student debt. What you end up this with literally People Living with and they cannot take the first step toward has reallyip. That impaired the ability of the economy to grow because we are counting on the housing sector to be a big job creator. Alain is next, florida, republican line. Caller wondering if you could answer a couple of questions. Could you tell us how many jobs that were created that are fulltime and how many are parttime . With the weather being a factor for the low economic numbers, couldnt the fact that salaries for parttime workers being lower, People Holding onto their money they dont have the money to spend. I would like to hear your answer to that. Thank you. There has been a very High Percentage of jobs that have been parttime jobs. I am sorry i dont have a specific number for you, but it is true that there has been a real problem with creating fulltime jobs for people. Many companies have turned to using parttime work or the existing work for overtime, anything to avoid adding another person to the payroll. That has been true throughout the recovery, it has been hard to add the fulltime jobs. Wages have been really quite low. We really have not seen the kind of wage growth that one would stockly expect with the market and corporate profits being very strong. It really has not translated into wage hikes for workers. When you ask economists about that i say that there is just such a large pool of Unemployed People that unless you are in those super skilled positions where there is high demand if you are just sort of a regular, ordinary person looking for a over 10lions of people, Million People until recently were unemployed. That meant that large pools of downable workers have held wages and kept people in a parttime situation. It really has been a real problem for demand. When you want to get this economy going, what people say is that they have got the of supply, they can make all the things that you want, but they just dont have the consumer demand and the demand has been held back by this low wage growth. It is a process of healing when you have gone through such a traumatic event as this recession. Getting debt to diminish you have to sort of walk up these rungs of the latter to get back to growth and we have been having a tough time climbing the ladder. Our guest works for npr host our guest works for npr. You were in europe. What were you studying . They take a group of journalists each year into the radio in the americas sector. Do anogram continues to Exchange Program where they take a group of americans, we go there, germans go here, we study politics. I am just back from this great time in germany it is a great time to go during the world cup, everyone was very exciting excited. In the daytime we toured factories and talk to people. This comingok at trade relationship that the white house is trying to put together with europe. Europe is under the some relative of the European Union. There are 28 countries, hundreds of millions of people, a big, robust market. It is our biggest trading block. In some ways the u. S. Economy and european economy are already so tied together. On any given morning you wake up and you have got your cup of getles hot chocolate, you in your volkswagen, you drive to work, maybe you havent no key a phone that you use to call the office. There are so many european products in our lives and in europe there is just a tremendous number of american products. You would think that the relationship would be very close. But it is not that close. It could be closer. There are still lots of rsists, terrorists terrorists tariffs. The white house and the European Union want to create this new the name is kind of stupid, it is a trade and investment pact, trade and investment partnership. We can really merge into this sort of transatlantic giant large single economic space where we can do a great deal of business with each other. Are who knows, but the white house says that they could create air t million createthin the trait 13 million jobs within the trading zone for economic activity. What we were learning about this summer is that there is still a long way to go in putting together this trade packet. There are a lot of concerns in europe about companies coming in with our privacy standards. When you look at the history of germany with not seas, with half the country being occupied or whatever you want to call it with communists in east germany, there are a lot of concerns about invasive Government Police , corporations, those kinds of things prying into your private life. They have very different feelings about privacy. They dont want people snooping into their lives. A lot of people in europe feel like the privacy standards that our companies observe are too low for their tastes. And then there are a lot of concerns about agricultural products. Genetically modified things are a concern. There are a lot of reasons they are worried on their side. And of course a lot of americans are worried about increased competition from everything from bmw to like whatever, they dont want to have even more imports. There are concerns on both sides of the atlantic and it is a very complicated negotiation, but they are going to regroup again. Another round of talks is coming later this month. On but asoldiering real problem for the United States is that congress has not reauthorized Fast Track Authority for president obama. Fast track would help to facilitate it is a special power given to the president to speed along these kinds of trade them. To simplify they have expired and congress has not renewed them. Until the president has fasttrack authority renewed, it will be tough to complete this deal. Mike, texas, independent line. Thank you for cspan and npr caller thank you for cspan and npr. The Corporate Structure is making more profits than ever. Ceos are getting huge bonuses and salaries. They sent all the jobs overseas and have replaced us with robot, and yet they say that government cannot create jobs. These guys got there on the infrastructure that we all made, why dont we want the government to help replace it . Those are, again, political discussions, but certainly the things he raises about robots and imports the thing that is nice about studying another economy from a couple of week for couple of weeks is that you have the opportunity to see many things. We got to tour of volkswagen plant in germany. It is just amazing. Just watching how the technology involved these days the chassis comes by, the body, a robot puts the body on the chassis, things come up and they zip it together. You have a bunch of parts and the next thing you know it looks like a car. Humansw, there are no involved. The idea that the guys there with a wrench twisting it, that just does not happen in a modern factory. So, boy, i dont know how you change that. In the particular factory that we saw they said that 70 of the cars they make go to china. Is a very Global Market where robots in germany are making cars they can be shipped to it is very tough to see how no matter what you might want to think about it lyrically or say it is happening, like it or not. That is what the factories look like now. People monitoring things. There are still some workers on the factory floor but so much of it is done by robotics now. That is a trend that is very hard to say that hard to see corporations saying wait, we are going to stop using these technologies and go back to a bunch of guys with wrenches in their pockets. Its not how the Global Economy is moving right now. Greg, missouri, republican line. Caller i was calling to speak with marilyn. Doesnt npr receive government money for your Radio Station . About obamashat policies . He has done nothing but lied to the American People. He continues to live to the American People. And he expects us to believe what he is doing . There is no way. Public radio as an overall system does get some government funding. But it does not particularly go to npr. We create content here in washington. Our member stations use it. The public funding tends to go to the member stations, but it is really complicated. It is a complex subject and i dont want to get into the details, it is above my pay level to understand where all the funding goes. But the general idea is that our member stations, those public stations in your community are the primary recipients of public funding. All one, big, giant public radio system along with public television. Terms of what is a lie or not . That is, you know, something that Everybody Needs to look at through a political prism. It is not an economic argument, that is a political debate. Host kathy, florida, thanks for waiting on the independent line. Hi. Er i was wondering what marilyn thinks the possible impact of the iraqi Oil Situation over there how might that impact this country in the future . That we are so dependent on foreign oil. The 1970 three crisis. I am not a welleducated person, but it would appear that our country has not learned a lot since that time. Thank you for the question. There is a lot of concern all over the world about Energy Conservation right now, things are very unstable in the middle east. There are all sorts of problems now with israel and this concern around events involving, us, there is instability there. Obviously syria, iraqi, those are places where it is helping to Push Oil Prices higher because there is such instability in that region that provides the world was such a great degree of oil. On top of that the big issue is ukraine. Ofsia is a major producer energy, gas, and oil. Pipelines run through the ukraine. There is a lot of political and military turmoil, shall we say, in ukraine. Certainly a big issue, russia wants to control the territory, that is whether pipelines go from russian sources of energy to the markets that they supply in europe. So, with both Russian Energy and its questionable state and ,iddle eastern turmoil, this is as they call it, a risk premium for oil prices. It makes everything more expensive. One counterweight that we heard a great deal about in europe was the discussion of the United States the coming such an enormous producer of oil and gas, there has been technical lot technological changes there, the process called fracking has greatly increased our out what of oil and gas. Americanlk about saudi , that we have become this huge counterweight to russia and the middle east. Whether or not, you know, i think it is unquestionable that the oil prices and gas prices would be much higher right now if it were not for the tremendous increase in the american output to counteract these concerns in russia and in the middle east. Americans are also just using less fuel. People switching to hybrids, just higher levels of gas mileage that we are getting out of our cars, we really have slowed down dependency on gas. Even looking at it from a consumer point of view, gasoline prices are pretty high this summer. You are looking at around four dollars per gallon depending on the part of the country you are in, but it is high for the fourth of july. But people dont take it as hard now with cars getting 30 miles to the gallon when they use to get 10 to 12 miles to the gallon. Areeven though gas prices high, the usage of the gasoline is not as intense, so it helps the consumer in that regard. Davis, crockett, texas, independent line, go ahead, please. A question on infrastructure. Everyone always talks about infrastructure, roads and bridges and stuff no one ever discusses power plants. You know, coal burning power plants. Nuclear power plants. Host thanks, dave. That isan. Org guest actually a big issue, there is a lot more natural gas being produced now. A lot of coal fire plants are being shut down and Nuclear Power plants that were built in the 1970s are now being seen as obsolete and potentially fukushima,ever since the catastrophe in japan people have increased concerns about some of the older Nuclear Power plants. So, some of these power plants are being moved in the direction of being out of commission. But new things natural gas can be used to fire generators to create electricity. There is sort of a giant move going on in the economy that in general tends to be away from coal and in the direction of natural gas turbines that produce power. So, there is a big shift going on. One more caller host one more caller. Rich, virginia. Republican line. Caller two big points, cspan, i would love for you guys i know sometimes you take comments from guests, but i would love for you to do a show on the stock market. I really dont understand why it is so high with the economy sputtering and maybe going backwards. The other question that i had was i am in the construction business. Just about everything that we use now is made in china. Many millions how of cars that General Motors is recalling what impact does have inof bad products terms of a drag on the economy . Host thanks, rich. Profits haveate been very strong and again, it is back to this idea of a globalized market. Just taking the example of that vw plant in germany. If they have got a lot of capital invested in new equipment, robots, the latest things, and they have the technological capability to ship is a verychina, that different kind of model for how the whole world is working. Companies can invest a lot of their own money and capital to invest in these new kinds of equipment. They become very profitable and can sell things to wealthy people in other parts of the country, but it does cut out the average worker where you dont have just the runofthemill person standing on the line making a runofthemill income. So, there are many people, many economists, who are very concerned about this mismatch. That you can only do this for so long, but markets make a lot of money with corporate profits being very strong and you eventually get active the demand side where you hold everything you can and sell it to rich people and you need the middle power. O have more buying that is where you need people to have jobs and that is sort of the big question. Can we keep going like this with Financial Markets looming and the job market still remaining subdued with wage growth slow . Is that the kind of mismatch that leads to another coming recession . That is really something that we cannot fully predict, but certainly many are very concerned about it. Has joinedyn geewax us to talk about the economy. Thank you. Coming up, the 2016 elections are far off, but the new issue of national the new National Journal takes a look at that and that topic. First, an update from cspan radio. Business news in this hour, tmobile u. S. Says that federal regulators have their fact wrong and say that they have not in overcharging their customers, but the federal trade Commission Says they are suing the carrier, accusing them of working with thirdparty vendors to stuff customer bills with bogus charges, like 10 per month for a scopes or updates on celebrity gossip. The government says their goal is to make sure that every unfairly charged customer sees a full refund from this cramming. An update on the co2 satellite, nasa says they have launched a rocket carrying the equipment that will study how the environment studies carbon dioxide, the main Greenhouse Gas caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The launch was canceled yesterday morning because of an equipment failure and in 2009 a similar satellite plunged into the ocean off antarctica during the launch. U. S. Prosecutors are expected to argue before a federal judge in washington that the first person prosecuted for the deadly attack on the american compound in benghazi, libya, should remain in detention. Prosecutorss have accused him of taking part in the september 11, 2012 attack that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other americans. In india they have summoned a u. S. Diplomat and launched an official complaint over reports that the u. S. National Security Agency snooped on the new Prime Ministers Political Party in 2010. An x terminal Affairs Ministry Spokesman Says the ministry told the diplomat earlier that if true, such a transgression against the indian government, its citizens and entities, was highly objectionable. The u. S. Embassy in new delhi declined comment. For more on the u. S. Election of electronic communications, coming up when the privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board meets this morning. You can watch it live at 10 a. M. Eastern time or listen to it here on cspan radio. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. I tell the story of how every aspect of this persons identity is in one way or another threat to israel. My gender is male, my religion is muslim, my citizenship is american but my nationality is a romney and. My ethnicity is persian, my culture is middle eastern. Offything about me sends all the Warning Signals for israel. So, the experience of an iranian american single man trying to in theough the airport 21st century is a reminder to everyone that despite the way that globalization has brought us closer and has diminished the boundaries that separate us as ethnicities, peoples and cultures, despite all of that, all that you have to do is spend a few minutes trying to get through that airport to remember that those divisions, the things that separate us, are still very much alive. Bestselling author rest of oz lot will take your phone calls, emails, and tweets on the war on terror and the current instability in the middle east. Live for three hours on sunday, noon eastern, on indepth, part of a threeday Holiday Weekend of nonfiction books and authors. Television for serious readers. For over 35 years, cspan has brought Public Affairs of ends from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, briefings, conferences, offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House as a Public Service of private industry. Cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago, brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Like us facebook on facebook, follow us on twitter. Washington journal continues. Host time for our regular wednesday feature spotlight on magazines. Journal, national not just because of the redesign that they went through, that for look at 2016. Richard just, editor there, is with us. Welcome. You wrote that the opening page or your editors did, that sometimes paying attention to the hidden narrative or the overlooked character is the thing. What did they mean by that . Guest we have a wonderful website that tells people what is going on on a daily basis, but in the Current Media climate it can be easy to get wrapped up in what is going on in the minute by minute hourly basis. What a print magazine is for, we feel, is to step act, look at the characters and underlying themes, things that may not be as apparent in the daily news cycle. What we wanted to do was a deeper dive into the characters of 2016, some of the candidates and their advisors are, as well as their histories, looking at where they come down on the issues and what their historical patterns have been. One of the major feature stories of the magazine takes a look at Hillary Clinton, the unified. Hillary. You did not write it, but what is the thrust . Isst peters basic thesis that her greatest strength and weakness are the same thing. She has an incredible capacity for putting her head down and executing a welldefined plan. Incredibly hardworking, incredibly smart. When she knows what she is doing she is incredibly hard to beat and a talented at moving ahead and executing a plan. Peter also identifies in her. Ast and inability to pivot and inability to always realize where the political world is headed and adjust accordingly. He draws on two examples to make the case. The first is the debacle with health care and 94. It was really clear, well into that process, that what the clintons were proposing was not working. Folks inside of the white house were telling hillary and bill that they needed to adjust, that they may be needed to settle for half a loaf and she was very dug in on what she wanted to do with it. Might be example that even more compelling is her stance on foreign policies, particularly a rack leading up to 2008. She dusted not grasp that the center of the Democratic Party had moved to the left he just did not grasp at the center of the Democratic Party had moved to the left. Rip not speak to that that liberal base. That was how obama was able to out maneuver her and get to the point passed her on policy long past the point where she should have been pivoting to the left, she was still stuck in very hawkish rhetoric. President hillary would be someone great at executing a plan but maybe would not he has nimble as, ideally, you would want a politician. Host numbers to call the 2016 president ial landscape is the topic with richard just, of National Journal. You talk about hillary, Hillary Clinton. You are also taking a look at scott walker. Guest absolutely. Walker is an interesting case, there is a Huge Division in the Republican Party between the tea Party Grassroots base and the Tea Party Establishment of the party. Whoever wins the nomination is going to be someone who has to speak to both constituents. Looking at the republican field it divides into folks who are on one side of that or the other. One reason we focused on scott walker is because we felt he was a candidate to check both boxes. Someone an enormously popular with the tea party and libertarian roots of the party, seen as being a truly conservative figure, but im one who is also acceptable to the establishments, the elites, the business folks who have a lot of influence in the party. They were obviously impressed with him taking on unions in wisconsin and emerging as the winner. He also has a sort of very calm, stayed, demeanor on the outside. Someone like ted cruz, who is very pugnacious, conservative, which the base of the party loves, he communicates that pug nations this in a way that maybe is not always ideal for a president ial hopeful. Someone who has conservatism underneath that the base looks for and has a mild manner and likable demeanor. Again, richard just of National Journal, looking at this series of stories that you can find. Florida, fort myers, up first. Good morning. When i was watching the primaries, Hillary Clinton had a breakdown and said you people just dont get how important this is. Media, they have kind of circled camps around obama. The way that i heard that in her voice, the stress that i heard he is right, people just did not get putting a neophyte in there. As a republican, had she won that primary i definitely would not have voted for john mccain, he just seemed like the lesser of two evils. Guest you mentioned the word neophyte. Which is interesting. One of the things that a hillary or a jeb bush brings to the table is a lot of experience, which can kind of play as a positive or negative in american politics. I think that often americans dont like dynasties. In their gut they find them to be unamerican in certain ways. On the other hand, obviously a dynasty brings with it experience, which can be valuable in washington. One of the really interesting facts that he notes in the piece, something i did not know before i edited it, in 1993 when bill clinton arrived in the white house, not a single one of his domestic ill see staffers had white house experience. That speaks to just how much of thatphyte administration was. If hillary is the president in 2016, if someone like jeb bush wins on the republican side, that kind of situation will bring a lot of experienced folks into the white house and the experience that they personally have in politics, changing the kind of shape of the potential administration. Takes a look at the joe biden dynasty, the article. Connecticut, good morning. Good morning,r yes. I have a couple of things to say about the hillary situation. Hillarycerned that approaches politics with the manner. Tuned if you say it this way that it does not work or if you say at the opposite way or some other way, i dont it the sense of fidelity from her. In particular i am concerned that she is in the back pocket of the zionist who hang around the white house. Guest well, i would obviously disagree with the notion that she is in the back pocket of zionist. Obviouslyat hillary sort of moved has around on the political spectrum, there is no question that she came out of the 1990s struggling with the perception that she was very liberal. I dont know that that perception was ever really true. Veryhe said about very, concretely in her years in the senate and the early 2000s trying to change that image of herself, trying to move to the center and make it clear that she was not a left winger, but a centrist democrat. I think that that was something that actually got her into trouble, where she had moved too far to the center for the days base of the Democratic Party, particularly on issues of Foreign Policy. It will be interesting to see how she positions herself in 2016. Host huntsville, alabama, michael. I am in Elizabeth Warren democrat. There is something more intriguing about rand paul, who has been talking about populist issues around the prison situation. If he gets serious and stays with that, he could peel lost some minority votes. But his biggest problem is that aynn randn problem. Question thats no the folks who identify with the occupy movement are going to want a spokesperson on the stage. I think a lot of folks from the war in camp would like that person to be her. She has basically come out and said that she is not going to run. It just doesnt look likely. I think the likely spokesperson for that wing of the party will be Bernie Sanders, from vermont. The big profile in this issue looks at what kind of spokesperson he would the on the left on the primary stage. Obviously, sanders would not say this but he would not be running to win the presidency, he would be running to move Hillary Clinton to the left and force the Democratic Party to address some of the Economic Issues that are important to this segment of the electorate. It will be interesting to see how he does as a spokesman for that wing of the party. There is no question that there is an overlap between that wing of the party and rand paul republicans. Is entitled ile am right, everyone else is wrong. Clear about that . Good morning. Caller good morning. Does he think that anyone could come forth as a nationalist candidate for the citizens of the United States to get us out of these horrible trade , maybe with some things like a Constitution Party that would include some Government Programs like Social Security for our own citizens. I really think that the time is right for this. Sounds like you are speaking to the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. That would be the rand paul ring wing. There is a real Decision Division within the party on the issues that you are speaking to around things like rand paul, who want america to retreat from the world. Who want a very limited, if any involvement, by america and world affairs. And then there is the more traditional neoconservative party that holds them up over the recent years. It will be very interesting to see how that division plays out. Is fair to say that the Republican Party is as divided on Foreign Policy as any Political Party has been in recent recent memory. These are just diametrically opposed worldviews and it will be interesting to see where the passions of the base of the party are during primary season, particularly on those issues. Host a poll on democrats for jeb bush, Chris Christie, ted cruz. Republican line, go ahead. Caller to the guest on the show, hello. Guest how are you . Caller fine, thank you. I live in a little town in marietta. It is about 40, 50 miles west of los angeles. Are aboutnes there miserly tomboys. I woke up this morning to find that the immigration powers that town in colorado are attempting to distribute illegal changes. Do you think the immigration issue will be in 2016 . Guest the Republican Party base is not in alignment with the establishment. You keep seeing this on Foreign Policy as a division between the base and the establishment. Immigration is one of those issues that is going to obviously have a very hard line to pass. It is an issue that could hurt someone like marco rubio, who was a darling of the conservative wing of the party and attempted to broker a compromise and has now lost his conservative streak read because he moved to the center on that issue. It could hurt someone like jeb bush, forcing them to move further to the right than he would ideally like to be for the general election. One of the things that we saw in 2012 is that mitt romney was forced to move so far to the right during the primaries, it hurt him during the general election, making it so that in the general election he had no shot at Bettina Wulff latino voters. It is not a part of the country that the Republican Party can ignore forever. They will have to figure out a way to talk about this without alienating voters, but they are obviously passionate coming from the other direction as well. Joe, indiana, republican line. Caller what is going to be the most likely thing to come out of left field . Dumping the Electoral College . Third party . Or even canceling the election because of martial law or countries at war, Something Like that . Guest i dont think of the election will be canceled. Hard to see those scenarios playing out. Thirdparty is always a possibility, but they often pander to the most likely candidate on the left to appeal to those nader voters, people who have split off, he feels he does not want to do that now and it seems he does not want to split the Democratic Party. It looks like someone like sanders would run to make a statement but would then get behind the candidate area that is probably true for most of the folks on the left who could potentially challenge him on the left. Even if Elizabeth Warren changed her mind to run, it is hard for that hard to see her damaging democrats like that in the general election. Peter, hi, youre on, go ahead. Clintonho would hillary picked to be Vice President of the United States in 2016 . Guest that is a great question. It is hard to know who would be in their. Before this recent issue of National Journal i might have said Brian Schweitzer would have wasa shot. Brian schweitzer planning to run for president , at least. It appeared he was planning to run for president against hillary. We did a profile of him that i thought was a terrific profile of his rambunctious character, very controversial. He made some comments to our reporter that i think caused the controversy in washington that may have made it so that now he cannot run for president although who knows, we are still two years away from the election. Host would you explain what he said . Guest he said that eric cantor. Et off his gait are gaydar probably not the most residential thing to say. He also compared Dianne Feinstein to a prostitute. Not usually the kind of red rhetoric you would want to hear from a candidate. That is part of his style. That kind of freewheeling style is one of the things that i think a lot of people liked about him. He is a western democrat who appeals to that wing of the party, someone who might have been a potential Vice President ial pick, but i am not so sure he would be on the short list anymore. Logan, for richard just, hello. Would you think about Bernie Sanders running . With the fact that he identifies as a socialist hurt him in the long run . A great question. Being a socialist is a very dirty word for most of the electorate. It is not a word for not a dirty word for Bernie Sanders. I think he is proud to be seen as a member of the Progressive Left and if you ask him i think you would like that label to not be known as a dirty word, but there is no question that it could limit his appeal and it is among the many reasons he would probably never be the actual nominee. But i do think it is possible that someone like Bernie Sanders could have a real influence on the primary. His presence on the stage with hillary could force her to the left on Economic Issues, particularly on the kinds of populist things that he likes to talk about in terms of the economy and the working class. He has this really interesting theory that he is very passionate about, the democrats need to talk less about social issues and focus enormously on Economic Issues, potentially a way to reach out to economic social economic conservatives. I dont know if that theory holds water or how it plays out, but there is no question that he could have an influence on the primary stage. David, utah, independent line. Caller hi, richard. Obama will be running for lawident because of that declaring a president running becausetutional obama will make the long running for only two terms unconstitutional. Host do you honestly believe that . Caller what the . Host we will leave it there. Response . Guest probably should not. Trust is very low in the nation right now. How can you all promise that these black ox Voting Machines are not being deregulated . I am having a hard time believing these numbers anymore. Why cant we go back to handcounted ballots . Should pass on that. I dont think there is any evidence that Voting Machines are being manipulated. Host the technology has improved since 2000 . True. That is certainly i think technology has changed. I cant really speak to the pros or cons of the technology. From los angeles, independent line, hello. Caller good morning. I have a question. The Republican Party has a number of possible options for the election. The upcoming president ial election. I have not necessarily heard all the names. Ben carson, ted cruz, and of course you have scott walker, but one of the things i would like to point to is that there are many options in the Republican Party. I am not hearing all the options in the democratic arty. You have Hillary Clinton. Mentioned earlier was war in, but where are the others . Are hardly any options with regard to a vp for the democrats. Guest well, there is no fortion that it is smaller the republican bench. Whether that is good or bad is hard to say. It could help or hurt democrats as well, and hillary might in some weird way be damaged by not being tested by tough competition. There are other people out there who have been talked about. Andrew cuomo comes up. Martin omalley, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren probably not going to run but if she did a segment of the Democratic Party would be excited about her. Schweitzer has again signaled that he is going to run. There are other people out there circulating around hillary, it is just hard to see any of them assuming that she wants to run, that she does run, it is hard to see any of those people mounting a serious challenge. Just, editor for the National Journal. Tom, go ahead. Yes, i will enjoy seeing hillary secure the nomination. I am backing Chris Christie of new jersey and i cannot wait to see the debate. Thank you very much for letting me call. We we have and will havent talked about Chris Christie yet, he is worth talking about. He was obviously damaged by the bridge gate scandal, but he is off also obviously very appealing to the republican establishment. His. He is centrist with views appealing to moderate democrat voters, very successful as governor in a blue state. The one thing i will say about christie is that his persona is going to be an issue for him. It was an issue before the bridge scandal and it will be an issue even afterwards, because that seemed to reinforce the doubts that people had about his persona. If you look at recent president ial history you will see that every president has had a kind of optimistic, hopeful, positive persona. Someone like Ronald Reagan was much more conservative than Ronald Reagan ideologically but on the surface he was nonetheless a happy, optimistic, friendly presence in the lives of the American People for the years he was president. I dont think that the kind of pugnacious and this and kind of anger that you sometimes see from christie it can be very appealing to the people who already like him, but i think it will limit his appeal. It is not to say that he cannot soften that, but i think it will be his one drawback. Asked to pickans the nominees for 2016. Jeb bush topped the list, Chris Christie at 11 . Louisiana, hello. Caller i enjoyed your show, guys. I like it a lot. I have worked for the oil industry for 30 years and i have worked on humanitarian stuff and all of that in central louisiana a peer central louisiana up here. I think that in the next election we will see a big change in the old politically correct holiday tax going out of the way to deal with the reality. You know, fixing our problems with the border, fixing our Foreign Policy, creating jobs where we can compete with other countries and stuff like that. I believe a lot of this you know, they talk about on the major news channels fox and cnn, all they talk about are things that are irrelevant to our real problems that we have to deal with. Again guest you again mentioned fixing the border, i think it will be an important issue in the primary and in the president ial elections. A segment that the republicans really need to do better among if they are going to have a chance at capturing the white house not just in 2016 but in the years ahead. That is a problem that is not going away for republicans, it is only going to get bigger for them until they find out a way to talk about immigration in a way that can win. Again, not that the majority latino vote they dont need that, but they need to make ettore inroads than they have made in recent years. Pennsylvania, high. Caller thanks for taking my call. Feel about the independence coming out, like Dennis Kucinich . One that interests me is jesse ventura. I would love to see him run, but the way that i see it is i see a desire for people to want to embrace the independent parties. Lets look at this. The bushes, the clintons, hillary running in 2016 . Kind ofthat people are getting tired of it, and away. Guest again, i mentioned this before, but there is no question that there is a dynastic element to american politics with the clinton and bush running against each other again and as you say, it is genuinely unappealing to a lot of voters. I think that there are hidden advantages to that that are not always talked about, but at a gut level that can be unappealing. You have mentioned jesse ventura. I have not heard his name tossed have peopleyou do like rand paul among the republicans, as well as Bernie Sanders, speaking to that sense that there is just something not going right with the current twoparty system that we have and it will be interesting to see how much of that independent spirit someone like rand paul or Bernie Sanders can soak up. Host maryland, democratic line, high. Taking myank you for call. I consider the democratic rdn Republican Party the same. Bernie sanders, i pray to god that he runs for president , he is the only individual in this whole country that understands what is wrong with the country and will pick up for the average person and kick the millionaires and billionaires in the and pick up for the middle class. Thank you. Questionhe big guest the big question is that he will have big fervent supporters, but will that be enough . And can he actually speak to folks who do not identify as of the Progressive Left and are not natural Bernie Sanders supporters but might economically benefit from those policies. Again, Bernie Sanders is very optimistic that he can win back reagan democrats and speak to white, workingclass voters in the south who have certain economic interests that may be aligned with the populist left. Obviously, there will be some very fervent supporters, the question will be how big he can make his base of support. Host tony, texas, hello. Caller thank you for having me on. I think that the democrats have sold the country down the tube. They want to achieve votes. Countryblicans sold the down the tube because they want cheap labor. Bill oreilly last night had a good, commonsense solution to the immigration problem. I am not a particular fan of his, but his solution was commonsense and spot on. That is my comment. Host it is obviously unlikely that there will be any immigration issue between now and 2016. Guest the Republican Party is adamant that there be no compromise right now. Democrats have their own views on the issue and there is very little space or overlap, it appears, for compromise. I think it will be a very important issue in 2016 of the country needs to address, one way or the other tom a an important issue substantively for the country and it is important to the Republican Party which, i think in 2012 with mitt romneys comments in the primary, that didnt alienate voters in a way that was not helpful to his general election campaign. Brett, louisiana. Independent line, good morning. Morning. Ood my comments are first of all, the hypocrisy of the left, like hillary, for instance they will go through all means to protect the 300 people, the 300 little girls who were kidnapped but wont say one word about the up ins who are caught mexico . The more important thing is he or she is defending abortion rights because it is a womans privilege. Ity would understand that if is a womans privilege, it is her body and they can do that, why is prostitution illegal . That is a choice that a woman has, it is harmless, and yet she will go to jail if someone puts a 100 bill on the table that night . Yet she is able to wake up and kill the baby the manmade . I dont get it. That hypocrisy from Hillary Clinton that womans body is her own, it contradicts. I will listen to your response. Guest we have obviously not to talk about the social conservative wing of the Republican Party and it exercises a lot of sway in the primaries. It was the reason that Rick Santorum was able to emerge as runnerup to rip to midromney in 2012. It will be interesting to see if social conservatives continue to exercise that influence in 2016. Rick santorum is currently running a movie studio, but he may step away from that and go back into politics and run for president and if he does he would be a strong voice for the kinds of issues youre talking about. Ted cruz is closely identified with social conservatives, scott walker as well. Abortion is an issue that, obviously, the country is very split on. Other social issues, it will be interesting to see how the republican candidates handle them and want to 16. By two years from now i think the country will be in terms of polling numbers very solidly behind gay marriage. Seeill be interesting to how far right the republican electorate expects those candidates to move on gay marriage during the primaries. And whether they are able to pin it actor the center and speak a more tolerant language about gay issues coming in the general election. A profile on profile on someone named nate morris. They have emerged from kentucky. Rand paul is in such an interesting position in the republican field. Are of his advisers. Ardfought hard fought for a passionate part of the Republican Base with that has taken a lot of ,teps to broaden that appeal the symptom and cause of the move towards the center of the Republican Party. Unlike many of the other advisers he is not someone who has any major links to his father, someone who is very much a creature of the gop establishment and someone who has emerged as a key bridge between rand paul and the donors in the establishment that you will need to mount that or the presidency. We wanted to focus on it for that reason. Rand paul is reaching out to the establishment in other ways. The article about him opens with a scene of them visiting israel together. Obviously, one of the issues ron paul was widely identified with was very antiisrael sentiment, which does not tend to play well within the Republican Party. It is clear that he was trying to make gestures that he was part of the more traditional republican establishment view on this policy. The newly redesigned version of National Journal, there it is again, richard just as our guest. Florida, republican line, go ahead. Maple, florida, go ahead. Gina allen. Ame is i am 94 years old. Want to say that ted cruz cant run for president because he was born in canada. I read three of oreillys books. I read one of i dont remember his name, but he was political. I read Newt Gingrich. And of all the three men i think that Newt Gingrich was the smartest of the three men. Host thank you. Guest Newt Gingrich was obviously very successful in 2012 for a brief. Of time. He is seen as being in and and intellectual with a lot of ideas. I think that some of those ideas give him more of a wacky persona within the Republican Party than can be ideal for a president ial candidate, but it will be interesting to see if he runs again. I dont think people are talking about him as a possible candidate. As i mentioned before, i think cruise is someone like christy who will have to deal with this question of persona. Is he seen as too pugnacious, too angry to sell himself to the voters in the center . There is no question that there is a segment of the base that likes him a lot. Tracy, we are just about out of time. Could you go straight to your question or comment . Caller i dont understand why everyone is continually koran aiding hillary the inevitable democrat president. There is nothing that she has really accomplished in her positions that she has held. You cannot find anything positive that she has really done as far as health care. She is just not as accomplished and experienced as we would like to pretend that she is. Host that is tracy, from georgia. Guest there is this sense in the Democrat Party that it is kind of her term. It was kind of her turn in 2008, then this newcomer came along and became the nominee. There is this sense that because of that years later it is time for hillary, rightly or wrongly. I think that part of it is because the democratic field is not strong or deep. There is hillary and there is everyone else. It is a struggle to come up with a plausible names of who could wrest it from her. There are some people out there, but not huge number, and on the republican side huge number of people could win the nomination and i think there is a kind of disparity between the parties in that sense. Host we have talked about these stories in the magazine, can they still be found online . Guest absolutely. We have a beautiful website and it displays the longform writing in that format. Richard just, thank you. Today the release of the independent bipartisan report from the privacy and Civil Liberties committee. We go to that event right now. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] favor of opening the meeting, please say aye. Time receiving unanimous consent to proceed, we will now proceed. After the meeting has been adjourned, we will not be having a press conference, but individual members of the board will be available to meet with the press. The board is convening today to formally adopt its report on the Surveillance Program operated pursuant to section 702 of the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act. Section 702 permits the attorney general to join the authorize surveillance of targeted persons who are not u. S. Persons who are recently believed to be outside of the United States with compelled assistance of Electronic Communication Service providers in order to obtain foreign intelligence information. Although u. S. Worsens may not be targeted under section 702, communications of or concerning u. S. Persons may be acquired. 702 program is extremely complex. It involves multiple agencies, collecting multiple types of information for multiple purposes. Overall, the board has