Republicans have even floated a High Court Pick of their own should a gop member when the race. We are asking if you are feeling optimistic about americas future. Already merrick has best days americass are best days ahead of us or behind us . If you think they are ahead of us, call 202 7488000. If you think they are behind us, call 202 7848001. Good morning. We do want to hear from you about your feelings about if you areuture optimistic. Lets take a look at what president obama said earlier this week. [video clip] president obama the numbers do not lie. There seems to be an alternative reality out there from some of the political folks that america is down in the dumps. It is not. America is pretty darn great right now. Making strides right now. Small businesses and Large Businesses are hiring right now and investing right now and building this country brick by brick, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood all across the country. Expect that these facts and this evidence will convince some of the politicians out there to change their doomsday rhetoric, talking about how terrible america is, but the proudan people should be of what they have achieved because this speaks to their resilience, innovation, creativity, risktaking, and grit. Host in the wall street journal, a piece says that optimism has become a casualty in campaign 2016. In that piece, he writes that those downbeat appraisals that the president ial candidates have given underscore one of the broader realities revealed by campaign 2016 that there has been a sharp decline in the traditional american spirit of optimism. Historically, americans like to think they carry a spirit of cando optimism. That spirit is usually reflected in the chicken in every pot, audacity of hope rhetoric of president ial campaigns. But this year, candidates such as donald trump have had a different view, saying that things are bad and America Needs to get better. What do you think . Do you think americas days are ahead . Those who think that the best days are ahead, chime in at 202 7488000. Think the best days are behind us, 202 7848001. We will start our discussion with bob from duluth, minnesota. Why do you think the best days are behind us . Caller i think our best days are behind us now. If we were to get money out of politics, i think we could turn that around. The reason why i think that is because if we continue down this , jobsf money in politics are going to continue to be withoutoverseas and american jobs, we are not going to have a u. S. Economy. Host is the economy the number one issue for you in this president ial race . Caller yes, it is. Without a good economy, the rest of it is just going to fall to pieces. Host can i ask you who you are backing for president . Caller Bernie Sanders. The reason why is because of money in politics and i think we need to get the money out of politics. Host that was bob from duluth. Up next, we have dave from shelton, connecticut. You think the best days are ahead of us. Caller yes, i do think the best days are ahead of us. President obama is the worst president we have ever had in the country. That is why i do think our best days are ahead of us. Host what do you think is worse now than what it used to be . Caller pick one subject. The respect the United States has overseas. Trillion, soon to be 21 trillion in debt. The massive amount of people on food stamps and government assistance. I could go on and on. Host do you mind if i ask you who you are supporting for president . Caller right now, im choosing ted cruz. Host what is it about his campaign that makes you optimistic . Caller he says what he means, means what he says. Host ok. One of ted cruzs republican opponents, donald trump, had this to say about the optimism of america. [video clip] we are going to start winning again because we dont win, we never, ever win anymore. With our military, with trade, on health care on anything. We are going to start winning again, folks. We cant beat isis. We are going to knock the hell out of isis, believe me. Can you imagine what our great generals, general George Patton , general douglas macarthur, can you imagine what they would be saying if they saw what was going on with what we are doing and the way we fight . We dont fight like people from long island. We dont fight like people from ne york. [cheers and applause] mr. Trump we are going to rebuild our military. It is totally depleted. They dont like talking about it. We are going to rebuild our military. It is going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before and nobody is going to mess with us. Nobody. Host our next caller is karen from oklahoma. She thinks our best days are behind us. Do you share Donald Trumps view . Caller well, i do think we need startstart we need to winning at something. Im for anyone but clinton. My thing is this 19 trillion in debt. What did that get us . Where did our money go . Their main job is to protect the nation, yet john mccain is on tv they are telling him the military would not be able to protect us if we are attacked. He looked surprised. Isnt he one of them supposed to be tending to it . And they talk about medicare and cutting old people. Eventually, we die off. The people in the illegals having 46 kids that they know they cant tend to, they know they cant afford, nobody ever says anything to them. The syrians they brought to kansas why kansas . Why didnt they send them somewhere that was all for it. Host do you think that america can return to a time that is seen as a golden era . Are you optimistic that things may change. Optimistic because i have the hope of america. Weve got to get back to where. Eople tend to themselves the illegal lady across the street from me for the last six years, she has already had four kids and is fixing to have another one. And no job. But she has a new car and a cell phone and she smokes cigarettes the whole time. Host that is karen calling in from oklahoma. In todays wall street journal, it says president obama is readying a new wave of rules. The article states that planned move across labor, health, finance, and the environment ranges from overtime pay for whitecollar workers and more of secure matters obscure matters. This is all in an effort to help the economy in his final year in office. Evelyn is calling in from fort worth, texas. You think the best days are ahead of us. Why . Caller yes, because the Unemployment Rate has dropped and the housing crisis has improved. The housing market. With all of the ideas coming from the president ial candidates, hopefully, congress will Work Together and make it better. Host can i ask you who is your president ial candidate and do you think that candidate will continue what you see as a positive place for our economy and our country . Caller yes. To say thatappy im going to be voting for Hillary Clinton. Continue thehe can legacy of president obama. Ok. what specifically has clinton said that makes you optimistic . Caller well, you know, just the idea that she is one of the most experienced of all the candidates. Attitude,at cando like president obama. Host that was evelyn from fort worth. Up next, kathy from michigan. You think the best days are behind us. Why . Caller good morning, cspan. X and wane to young people life was a lot more livable in terms of having in 1957. I was born a friend of mine was a cashier at hamadi food stores, a grocery chain in flint. She made 18 per hour. Cashiers start out at 10 per hour. There is a lot of manufacturing and not just the big plants there are a lot of small plants and many of those have closed. When you have all of these smaller segments of the economy else startsrything to shut down. You see that a lot in michigan. You see a lot of vacant buildings, homes, businesses, that were once driving and supporting the community. It is no wonder people and up on food stamps and medicaid. Although i fully support universal health care. Host are you satisfied with what you are hearing from the president ial candidates about the economy . Caller im a supporter of mr. Sanders. I think that he has the gumption and i think he truly believes that we have to bring jobs back, that the banks are way too big. I bank with a very small bank and i have for a dozen years, not to say that they are not politically aligned. Think my children are young they are in their 20s and a teenager, they fully support Bernie Sanders. They are not feeling a lot of hope, as i felt growing up. Host that was kathy calling in from michigan, talking about young people and how they feel about americas future. Today showsusa that millennials are still optimistic about the american dream. Worste growing up in the downturn since the Great Depression and coming of age during wage stagnation, more than two thirds of those in the nations rising generation predict there will be more success they will be more successful in their professional lives than their parents were. Is calling inr from chicago. Roger, you think the best days are ahead of us. Caller i feel like the best because ahead of us americans work hard and if you follow the rules and the game, you will go ahead. A lot of people that are calling and saying that this country is going down, i would like for them to go and live somewhere else and see the opportunities that they will be diminished. Host do you mind if i ask you who you are supporting for president and what you think about their message for the future . Ler i really dont have currently, i dont have anyone in mind right now. Im just looking to the whole thing it is amazing to me all these people, clinton and Bernie Sanders and trunk and cruz, they are talking all in the sense of americaica great is already great. The opportunities that are given in this country, yes, the jobs have left, we feel bad about it, how the economy is turning all over the world. America is only 5 of the population of the entire world. It has the innovation 99 . Look at apple, look at ge. America has done what it has done and people should understand especially the people talking about a guy named bob from connecticut, im going to be happy when obama leaves what are you going to be happy about . Bush brought us all this war. We have a president who says lets Start Talking about amending all these things. Host ok. That was roger from chicago. Terri from have upper marlboro, maryland. Ok, we lost terri. We have terri now. You think our best days are behind us. Why is that . Are you there . Ok. We will move on to charles from cincinnati, ohio. You are optimistic about the future. Why . Caller yes, im very optimistic. Together,ties were they can move this country forward. But the president , mr. Obama, president obama you can see that the country is moving from worse to best right now. The economy is doing very well. What i want to say, both parties have to Work Together so that we can move the people forward, move the economy forward, move the country forward. That is my opinion. Host what do you think about what the candidates are saying . You said that the people need to Work Together. Do you think the candidates are putting forth an optimistic message . Caller yes, they are. Have to listen to the people and help the people. You see, it is not about themselves, it is about the people. If we help the people, this country is going to move forward. Whether republicans or democrats, they have to Work Together. Host ok. Democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton recently sounded a more optimistic tone in her campaign. [video clip] america hasinton never stopped be in great. Despite what you hear. [cheers and applause] we doary clinton but need to america whole again. Walls, we building need to be tearing down barriers. Show, by everything we do, that we really are in this together. Have, too many people forgotten, too many corporations have forgotten this basic truth about what makes America Great. Continuing our discussion with viewers about whether americas best days are ahead of us or behind us. Up next, jim from fort lauderdale. You think our best days are behind us. Caller the reason is because our society, our values are rotting at the core. All of ouring questions and answers to government and not on ourselves. I have a message for everyone, especially mrs. Clinton and Bernie Sanders. That is, when i was younger, if you took something from the government and your neighbor found out about it, that had to be the most sacred secret you could keep. If you ever told anybody that you took money from the government, your friendship would be over. Another thing, when i was growing up, you could walk down any street, just about any , andt in the United States you would not have to be worried about a crime being perpetrated on yourself. People were very honest. Andont have that honesty personal responsibility. Do you think it is possible to get those qualities back in america . Caller not as long as the personal responsibility aspect of things is out of the mix. You dont hear people talking about personal responsibility. He committed a crime because he did not get his education, his upbringing it is everything but him. Host up next, we have catherine from louisiana. She thinks the best days are ahead of us. Why are you optimistic . Because,m optimistic yes, im voting for trump. The riotism and all of the other stuff that the media is pushing on us. He wants to build up everything that president obama never talks about. He wants to get rid of the debt, he wants to build up our military, which is so essential for our country. He wants to get rid of the debt, which is so essential. He is not a mean person. He is a nice person. He wants to get things done. Host let me ask you, are you concerned about the town, the feeling that he has taken a more negative tone saying that the economy is bad, that things are on the verge of collapse . Would you like him to be more optimistic . Caller yes, no, im not optimistic about that. He is going to change that. He is going to make it better. Yeah. Host that was catherine from louisiana. Did a study center that talked about the views of the press coverage of candidates and attitudes about the government in the country. Voters continue to be more frustrated than angry with the government. Frustration, rather than anger, is the dominant emotion in voters view of politics, as well. Neither republicans nor democrats have a great deal of confidence in the political wisdom of the american people. These sentiments have persisted into the president ial campaign. We are talking about whether americans feel optimistic or not. Ed from clarksburg, west virginia. You are not feeling so optimistic. Caller im pretty pessimistic. Blind, iars old, im live by myself. In 1935. N timell never have another of our lives like the 1950s. Host why do you think the 1950s were such a great time . Caller there wasnt that much difference in wages. Ive never had a job in my life that paid over three dollars per hour. I get food stamps. I get 16 per month on food stamps. I get 1000 per month on medicare. When i ask if i can get a medicaid card, they say you are not eligible. I say, im under poverty law. They say, we could give you one if you used it more often. Right now, ive got four doctors. A heart dr. , ive got a cancer doctor, ive got my general doctor host ok, what would you like to see happen, what would you like to see changed to make america as great as it was in the 1950s . Caller i would like to see a tax rate break put in there. I dont know what it was. I was a teenager when it started. I want to see people right now, the minimum wage is 7. 50 in west virginia. People around saying the middle class, the middle class. The people that dont work, they do good because the government takes care of them. Us old people, we did not get a raise last year, but the president saw fit to give every government worker a raise last year. From west is ed virginia. He thought the 1950s were the best time in our economy. A survey of americans asking what they think what the golden age was, that was the secondhighest time rated. 24 said that they dont think america has had a golden age. Up next, we have steve from ohio. Steve, you are optimistic. Caller im 73 years old and i think our best days are ahead of us because in america, we have the options to solve our problems. We have the ability to bring all of that lost jobs back here by lowering taxes, controlling energy, building up the military we can do all the right things if we put the right people there is nothing wrong with the american people. This is still the greatest workforce with the greatest attitude in the world. Our problem is weve got to get our government out of our way and put our people to work. When they put the people to work , that deficit, which they think is so overwhelming, will go down so fast it will make peoples heads spin. Host do you mind if i ask her you are supporting in the president ial race . Is that candidate optimistic . Caller yes. Im supporting someone who, as far as im concerned, it is not bragging if youve done it. Im supporting john kasich, who is doing it now for the state of ohio, and who has done it in the past, when he was a congressman. I will support any republican because the democrats have no solution to the problem and their kind of policies do not work. That has been proven historically. Host that is steve calling in from ohio. Fromxt, we have linelle indianapolis. You are optimistic. Caller im optimistic because, number one, the american dream, iterican constitution is a living document that we have to build up to a more Perfect Union. Like the caller just said, the people have the ability to change their future. At this time, since the people chose obama, obama did a great job and is doing a great job and want a if the people more Perfect Union and can produce it from the candidates we have before us, i think Bernie Sanders is talking the to build on what president obama has established. Host what is it about Bernie Sanders message that you think is an extension of what president obama is doing . That is a good question. Mind as theeople in leader of the people. When barack obama came in people he was for the and is acting for the people. That is all of the United States. Those leaders that we choose should be chosen with that same mind, the mind for the people. You, one last question for you said you liked president obamas policies. Hillary cl