senators and give the democrats control. i think it s a major defeat for the public employee unions, in effect, a reversal, paul of the 2005 referendum in california which arnold schwarzenegger tried to limit the power of the public employee unions and they spent 100 million dollars and walloped them. this is a reversal, a defeat for the public employee unions. thanks for being here. we have to take one more break. our hits and misses of the week. non-stop day starts with back pain. and a choice. take advil no and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. get out. get out. try tide stain release. it gets out tough stains better than the leading in wash powder booster. get out. get out. get out. [ female announcer ] see for yourself. get out and take the challenge.
president visited have seen increase in unemployment since he took office. in minnesota 5.3% to 6.7. in iowa, 6.4 to 9.2%, what does the president have to offer the midwest, let s ask michael barone, senior only list for the washington examiner and co-author of american politics. great to have you back with us. nice to be with you, paul. paul: what do you think about the president s bus tour, did he accomplish what he he wanted to. he took a bus tour through some of the rural and town counties in one splotch of rural and smalltown county areas that he carried in 2008, but i don t think that he accomplished very much. a run of bad luck is not an alibi that i think that most americans are going to accept and the policy ideas that he he ladled out were pretty thin
country and a lot of insurance companies just collapse. yeah. i mean, it will be a very bad problem. paul: i want to ask you a political question. did you think the critics of this bill, republicans, conservatives are putting too much stock on the legal argument, in the sense that the supreme court, we don t know what it will do, decides to uphold obama care in 2012, the decision is likely to come down, that would be a huge boost for president obama s re lex campaign? i mean, are they putting too much hope in a legal argument, not about in explaining why. i think they need to explain why the bill is bad, but i think the legal risk is one that they have to take because the opposite, and if it s possible, the supreme court declares this law unconstitutional, will be a monumental political defeat for the president. this would be as though they declared medicare or medicaid unconstitutional. this is a big entitlement. i think that the administration and the democrats are in a posit
huge political vulnerability right now. and do you think it s going to the supreme court and judge is the linchpin vote. he s probably the linchpin vote and liberals obviously will support to uphold it. the only one would be justice thomas, i think that scalia votings against it as well as. and it went down to he defeat at partisan lines, 51-47. all the democrats held together even the ones running for election this year, did that surprise you? a little bit, but you have to remember all of them voted for it less than a year ago. they circled the wagons, but it s hard to ignore the apaches around them and you know, they did vote to repeal one of the provisions in the original bill, the 1099 small business reporting mandate. paul: a burden on small
being more public than we have. i think we ve done one thing well, kind of essential, we have made sure that the army doesn t go for a crackdown. absolutely, and in fact, different with iran and summer in 2009 and circa egypt right now, the fact that iran was not in our that egypt is in our sphere and the kid gloves treatment, if you will, restraint of the army and restraint ever the police and restraint of mubarak, something to do they re under the gaze of america and the officer of the army which is reliant on american training and american weapons and american economic and military aid, is not one to break the bonds with the united states. paul: one more question, we don t have a lot of time with you if the freedom agenda of george w. bush, is this uprising a vindication of his politics. he should, he he should i think he s a modest man and he is comfortable retirement.