aren t losing the culture war, we re winning it. cast your memory back for a moment to 2004. american politics looked very different, faced with an increasingly unpopular war in iraq, a steady but exceptional economy, george bush s chief strategist, karl rove, decided the president s best chance at re-election was to go all in on the culture war. president bush endorsed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman and in the state s conservative groups but the referenda on the ballot. it was a morally bankrupt but astute strategy. in 2004, a majority of americans opposed gay marriage. rove updated the playbook used by nixon and reagan. of course it worked. now, fast forward to 2010. conservative darling indiana governor and former bush budget
clearly left wing part saps, boehner s picks, jeb hensarling, david kampp, fred upton, fiscal hawks, tea party-backed, the senate side, mcconnell s picking pat toomy, jon kyl, traditional conservative, rob portman, former bush budget director, then harry reid s picks, again, real partisans, talking about patty murray, head of the democratic senate campaign arm, max baucus, who is a bit of a moderate, and john kerry who s been a frequent critic of the tea party. so it s very, very difficult to see how these opposing forces, the immovable object versus the irre sistable force is going to come together if there s any kind of balanced approach the president wants to see. alisyn: it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall in that room and hopefully you will bring us inside there when it happens. doug, thank you. alisyn: taking bets as to whether or not they can come to an agreement, we will see. what had been peaceful student protests, exploding into violence in chile.
social issues. ed henry, part of the best political team on television, live from the white house. what are you up to? how are you doing? reporter: john thune mulling a presidential bid is mixing it up with a potential republican rival, mitch daniels, the indiana governor, who as you noted, suggested last week maybe there should be some sort of temporary truce on social issues because of the economic crisis. that could suit mish daniels because he s the former bush budget director known for economic issues more so than social issues. john thune saying he thinks it s a bad idea and the eventual republican nominee has to be someone who has the enthusiastic support of republicans who care deeply about social issues. donald trump taking a look at whether he might run in 2012. there is a movement that s popped up by an iraq war veteran in missouri. this comes as political analysts
communist ussr and their victory in the race to space, yeah, they won but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the soviet union. so i listened to that sputnik moment talk over and over again and i think, no. we don t need one of those. if you re a left doint yy do want her to get the nomination? wouldn t it be fun? a huge super power collapses because of military spending? the same problem we face now? on a tape in 2004 osama bin laden said he wants to bankrupt the united states of america with military spending, driving up our deficit. quote, al qaeda has gained but on the other hand the deficit shows that the bush administration has also gained. something that anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady bush administration linked megacorporations like halliburton and its kind will be convinced. and it all shows that the real
and if it works, it works. if it doesn t that s okay. that s just wall street. that s the risk. that s the difference. and it s the fundamental question that the younger generation in this country has to choose where they want to go. you want to risk? talk to your parents about it. talk to your grandparents about it. i mean, we have done this correctly. now, you look at the way reagan ran his finances. you look at the way bush ran his finances. if you were an investor would you want somebody handling your money with that kind of track record? or would you take somebody who has never defaulted on a payment for almost 80 years? so you be the judge. the republicans are totally wrong on this issue. they re wrong on every account and they re phonying up the information when they say it s a crisis. it s a crisis. it is not a crisis. the report is out and it should matter to anyone who wants to get at the truth tonight.