today at this very precipice of such a dangerous move if the obama policy in the middle east wasn't naive and arrogant, misguided and dangerous. >> and the governor didn't stop there. he called the obama foreign policy naive and said that it left iran's radical regime emboldened. >> to date, we have fumbled our greatest opportunity for regime change. average iranian citizens were marching on tehran in the green revolution in 2009. america was wasting precious time on a naive policy of outreach to both the iranian and syrian governments. >> let's discuss the president's diplomatic challenge and governor perry's political gambit. cnn's david gergen and gloria borger. let's start first with the policy challenge. the president was at the united nations. the president was not scheduled to meet with the palestinian leader abbas, but they will have that meeting wednesday. david gergen, how critical is it for the president to try to convince president abbas and what might there be as a compromise? >> it is enormously important to the united states, john, and to much of western europe. and that's why tony blair is trying to head this off. we are in this situation. president obama said he supports statehood for the palestinians. if the palestinians now look for a vote on that in the security council, we promise we would veto it. in other words, the president who supported statehood is going to now veto statehood and that, as you saw, will risk a backlash not only in the arab states but palestinians and could put the united states -- the statehood issue itself could lead to more violence. it certainly will lead to an end to prospects for negotiations any time soon with the israelis. >> gloria, the president, we know he is frustrated with the netanyahu government of israel. we know he wish there is were negotiations and there had been more progress. but at the same time he has a, the united states and israel allies. b, domestic political consideration. listen here. listen here to former president bill clinton talking to wolf blitzer earlier today. if you listen closely, it seems that president clinton also thinks that mr. netanyahu has been too intransigent. >> sooner or later, everybody is going to have to come clean here. if they have no intention of having a reasonable settlement on the west bank, they should say that so the palestinians can get on with their lives and should live with the consequences. but meanwhile, the united states will veto this because we have to keep open the possibility of a negotiated peace. and the people in the arab world that understand that will be fine with it. we need to contain the fallout, make something good happen. >> and -- for a former president there who thought he was once close to an israeli/palestinian agreement, that's a very small, if you will, goal, contain the fallout. >> and he is -- you know, he's really making a charge about netanyahu, saying, you know, there is talk that he really doesn't want this two-state agreement and he ought to come out and say it. i mean, it is very clear to me and, of course, don't forget bill clinton is married to the secretary of state of the united states, that he was -- you know, he was making a charge that there's not some sort of straight talk going on and it is clear that he feels for barack obama in all of this. >> and yet, they have to be so careful, david and gloria, because it is no question they are frustrated with the israeli government. also no question we are heading into a re-election campaign where being openly frustrated with their government could cost you key financial, key political support in the united states. it used to be said politics stopped at the water's edge. if the president was overseas then his political rivals did not criticize him. the president is in the united states, but he is at major international meeting. the texas governor, rick perry, comes into new york city directs assault on the president's foreign policy and a direct assault on his relationship with israel. listen. >> neither american allies nor adversaries know where america stands. our muddle of a foreign policy created greater uncertainty in the midst of this arab spring and our policy of isolating and undermining israel has only encouraged our adversaries and their aggressiveness. >> now, that is certainly in your face. on camera, in the same city where the president is trying to manage diplomacy. not only governor perry, another leading republican candidate, former massachusetts governor, mitt romney, issued this statement today. when we are watching unfold at the united nations is an unmitigated diplomatic disaster. it is the culmination of president obama's repeated efforts over three years to throw israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position. and that policy must stop now. david gergen, is this new line in our politics, when the president is at such an important moment, does it surprise you that republican candidates are so in his face? >> it does, john. i actually -- did not think we would soon see someone to the right of george w. bush on israel. yet, here we are with rick perry. rick perry sounded like he was channeling netanyahu. he took almost every position netanyahu has taken and was very hardline about it and i say this about rick perry. he at least has gone to the region, he has been there and is not speaking entirely from ignorance. but it is such a hardlined position that it will -- as you well know, there was just this -- congressional election in new york in which a lot of jewish voters vote for the republican out of frustration with the president. there is an unhappiness with president obama within the jewish community and this country and think he pushed netanyahu way too hard in the beginning of the settlements and he botched the negotiations. got a long litany of things. having said that, however, no one has gone as far as rick perry, who is in a major position of authority. the front-runner for the republican nomination, who essentially has said everything is okay with israel and it's all the palestinians' fault. >> i think, john, in the context of a republican primary, what rick perry did today may play pretty well. he was -- his press conference was with some hard-line conservatives. i think that it may play well in that part of brooklyn where the democrat lost 2-1 because of the conservative jewish vote. but i think that in a general election, there is still some suspicion about rick perry with some jewish voters. for example, he led the august 6 day of prayer. and there's some -- you know, jewish voters that are sort of confused about that. so, i think that, you know, he's walking a fine line here, aligning himself with netanyahu on the one hand but there is still questions about him in the jewish community and there's some moderate jews who may not be aligned with netanyahu who may be independent voters. so, i think that there are two sides to it politically for him. >> i'm shifting gears here. i had an extended conversation with the former vice president, dick cheney, today. one of the issues we talked about was with his new book, he restirs up some of the old debates of weapons of mass destruction and reasons the bush administration went into iraq and stirs up tensions between secretary of state powell, former general colin powell, and the vice president of the united states. listen to this little piece of the interview. >> general powell, or secretary of state powell, has said -- doesn't like a few things you said about him in here, you were someone who saw snippets or suggestions or possible evidence, but unproven unsubstantiated things and to you, they became facts. >> well, that's interesting coming from general powell. he is the one that went to the united nations after he personally had worked for days going over the intelligence and made the presentation to the united nations that turned out to be all flawed intelligence. i meanm if somebody got sandbagged, i think it was general powell. >> interesting language there, david gergen. he does concede it was all flawed intelligence, all flawed intelligence, and says that general powell one time he was considered a dick cheney friend. not so much now, got sandbagged. >> well, general powell did get sandbagged by people in the cia who misled him on some aspects of that, and to this day -- i think probably the most humiliating day of his public life. what is surprising is that dick cheney had been pounding on general powell so hard. they were friends at one point. you always like to see friends renew themselves after it's over. thomas jefferson/john adams tradition, if you like when you leave office, to try to compose your differences. but i do think on general powell's party, there's no question that when he went to the u.n. that was -- i think the most humiliating day of his public life. >> you know, i -- >> gloria borger, go ahead, quickly. >> you know, i think that dick cheney is trying to say that, you know, colin powell himself got sandbagged, as if he had any choice but to believe the intelligence that he was presented with. it was sort of an interesting way of describing it. >> gloria and david, thank you. more of that conversation to come, my one-on-one conversation with dick cheney at the reagan presidential library. >> i just think the democrats ought to have as much fun on their side as we are on ours. >> and blockbuster allegations of indecision, turmoil and sexism at the obama white house. one of the aides said to have seen it all joins us next. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. borrowed technology from ferrari to develop its suspension system? or what if we told you that ferrari borrowed technology from cadillac to develop its suspension system? magnetic ride control -- pioneered by cadillac, perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v. possibilities are everywhere. multiply them with the premier rewards gold card from american express. with triple membership rewards points on airfare, double on gas, double on groceries, and a single point on everthing else, it's a fast way to earn more every day. plus, you can earn 10,000 bonus points. and the annual fee the first year is on us. call 800.axp.gold to apply. the author of a new book about the obama white house is defending his unflattering portrait of the president and top adviser. it quotes an ex-staffer, saying that the boy's club atmosphere made her feel like a piece of meat. it also describes the president as often uncertain, second-guessing himself. the treasury secretary tim geithner, major figure in the book, says those and other descriptions don't match the reality he lived. on nbc's "today" show this morning, suskind defended what he wrote. >> everything in this book is solid as a brick. this book, like all the books i have written, is densely sourced and the analysis is picture perfect. when the curtain is pulled back they often respond vigorously. that's testimony to the fact that this is really -- really who they are. >> with us is a veteran of the obama white house, economic team, austan goolsbee. he's an economics professor at the university of chicago. mr. goolsbee, i want to play more of mr. suskind. so many of your former colleagues have said it is simply not true. here's a question here put to ron suskind as to whether larry summers, the president's top economic adviser at the white house at the beginning of the administration, thought the president of the united states was in over his head. >> seems he did. it seems from the comments of orszag and others, certainly the start of the first year in 2009 into early 2010, these sorts of things were part of the prevailing conversation in the white house. when i asked larry summers he was one of the source force the book about that quote, i said look, what did you mean when he said that? he offers a comment which is more seasoned and less political than that and says we were overwhelmed. we had five times as many problems and didn't have five times as many people. >> incredibly damning mr. goolsbee, especially when you know the economy is such major challenge facing the administration. i want to read one more example from the book. larry summers to omb director peter orszag is described in the book -- you know, peter, we are really home alone. there's no adult in charge. clinton would never have made these mistakes. is this a fair characterization of what happened at the top levels of the white house at such a critical time? >> i mean, that doesn't at all describe what i saw. the episode you are describing there is ron suskind hearing what peter orszag says he heard larry say about a fourth person and so i wasn't -- i wasn't at that dinner. i saw the book. i would characterize it as the -- you would want to read the book if you are the kind of person who would like to hear from the a ten-person meeting what the one person who was upset and happened to be the one who talked to ron suskind thought. i thought that the overall characterization that somehow the president wasn't decisive or wasn't really in charge was, frankly, ridiculous. we were in the middle of a terrible economic crisis, the worst in all of our lifetimes. and i can give you many examples where the president would hear the evidence on both sides. of course there are were disagreements. if you go find somebody upset they are going to say oh, i disagree and i was contradicted. >> one of the questions -- >> the president -- >> forgive me -- >> he decided and then would do it. >> forgive me for interrupting, but one of the questions here, and some of your former colleagues are saying now privately under their breath, is larry summers so arrogant he is trying to protect himself and in the process criticizing the president? there is more in the book about you, more on the chrysler bailout. obama realizes goolsbee is the architect of the chrysler strategy and asks -- where's austan? summers had frozen him out of the meeting and go and get him. goolsbee presents his case. were you frozen out meetings by larry summers? is that how things worked? >> look, the -- i was on -- involved in these auto discussions. i don't think that it is appropriate for people who were advising the president in private meetings to come back and then try to relitigate their battles through some -- through somebody's book. i will say that i absolutely got my position heard, and everybody on that got their position heard. and that's a perfect example of where the president hears all the evidence, and he decides, in very short order, what we are going to do and we proceed to do it and everybody gets onboard right away and says the president's decided, he heard the evidence and let's proceed. i mean, there's nothing -- administrations where everybody just says good idea, boss, and all agree with each other have not done very well through history. that there were people who disagreed on policy is not unhealthy. that's perfectly healthy. what i think was, to me, the most unrepresentive thing about the books the thing i think the book is flat-out wrong, is the author trying to portray that the president was indecisive, wasn't making decisions, wasn't getting things done. it's ridiculous. the president was absolutely making the decisions. and when he would make the decisions, people would get behind those decisions. >> austan goolsbee, we appreciate your insight tonight. we will continue to follow this one as the book plays out. japan braces for yet another natural disaster. also, what former vice president dick cheney thinks of governor rick perry's in-your-face criticism of the president. and having enough income when you retire. that's why i'm here -- to help come up with a plan and get you on the right path. i have more than a thousand fidelity experts working with me so that i can work one-on-one with you. it's your green line. but i'll be there every step of the way. call or come in and talk with us today. build an app for the sales team. and see my family while they're still awake. 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