under 40% in the polls? how do you explain that? yeah. i think his if you could say the big failure of the year in contrast to the substantive accomplishments is his failure to sell himself politically to the american people. paul: still swing voters. he s still bumping along, and i think a lot of it is despite what is turning out to be a pretty significant record of achievement in year one, he often says things that even his supporters wish he didn t say, tweets things they wish he didn t tweet, and i thinkç it a historically hostile media, but he s also given them an opening to attack him with a lot of we ll say imprecise statements. [laughter] some people say lies. i would say often he is being judge by a higher standard, but he needs to be more accurate, i think, if he wants to avoid handing a sword to his enemies in the new year. paul: kim, i guess i d point as well to some of the chaos in the white house mt. early part of
going to be the big political story of 2018, what happens to this economy. because we have all of these suggestions in 2017. consumer confidence is at a 17-year high, unemployment is at a 17-year low, manufacturing is at a 13-year high of. it s as though we have just ova presidency. and so the question now is will that hold, and if it does, it s going to give a huge boost to this presidency s prospects. i think what we can be shul sure of is when absolutely sure of is when the private sector keeps more of its own money rather than giving it to government, by definition you re going to have a better investment and growth scenario. now, things can happen including north korea, you know, lots of external factors. but the u.s. economy s going to be better off with more money in the hands of the private sector. paul: still ahead, from islamic state s defeat in syria and iraq to north korea s nuclear threat, general jack keane joins us with a look back at the highs and
on streamlining, if he does anything with infrastructure, making it easier to build things in the u.s. again so you don t have a decade of environment aral impact statements and various environmental impact statements. well, you know, it s an interesting political question. if the economy strengthens, jobs continue to be created, that would0b the moment to do infrastructure, when the economy s healthier. but if chuck schumer tells his union supporters we re not going to do business with this guy, wait until we take control of the government, then we ll do infrastructure, i think a lot of unions are going to say i don t know if we re going to buy that deal. trump helped the coal industry, and this is the moment to get those jobs while you have a bird in the hand. so i think there could be pressure on the democrats to do a deal. paul: i think, mary, there s a chance on immigration. you ve got the daca bill that democrats want, and maybe combine that with some border enforcement to g
and a normal kind of interest rate scenario, i think, will also be helpful for the economy towel. paul: okay. so you don t think that rising rates will necessarily slow down growth? not if it s, you know, taking the fed funds rate back to something that is historically normal. obviously, if you start to get into, you know, what it looks like in the early 1980s, that s a different ballpark. we don t have that problem. we don t have an inflation problem. and part of that, a big part of that goes to the private sector because, you know, all of the um improvements in productivity are part of what holdsç down inflation while, you know, you re able to grow. paul: james, some of our friends on the right i mean, on the left, rather, larry summers called it a sugar high yeah. paul: gets the fed fueling things but also the short-term tax cut, perhaps, anticipation. so it s all phony. what do you think? yeah. well, keep in mind a lot of those people were saying in
team is promoting american global leadership, returning it to a world stage. and what they ve been advocating is peace, security, prosperity. they spentç the entire year reassuring allies of the same. in the indo-pacific, in the middle east and also in europe. and they ve also demonstrated they haven t had a lot of crises, but they ve demonstrated a willingness to confront our adversaries in a way that their predecessors, you know, were not willing to do. so i definitely think contours of a trump policy, national security foreign policy that clearly is right in front of us. paul: okay. now, one of the things that struck me about the document, the strategy document, was the clarity and forthrightness with which they identified threats. they identified china and russia by name as revisionistç powers who are seeking to upset the global order and undermine u.s. interests. they mentioned north korea and