Transcripts For MSNBC MSNBC Live 20110511 : vimarsana.com

today newt ging run announces today he s running for president. woo-hoo. he got a lukewarm reception from other republicans. i don t think he jumps to the top of the pack by the simple fact of getting in, because he is well known. he could own his way into the top tier. that will be interesting about this contest. if you look at the polls, there s essentially no front-runner. 42% of americans say they would never vote for him as president. that s a little hard to overcome, but he might be seen as too extreme for a lot of voters, obviously, but that s a problem that almost everyone in the republican field will have, because they have to appeal to their hard-core right-wing base to get past that primary. that s, for some candidates, to massively flip-flop on key issue it is. tomorrow romney gives a speech rejecting his main achievement as governor, which was health care reform. why? because it s too similar to obama s health care law. tim pawlenty, of course, has flip flopped on climate change. donald trump has géipped flopped on, just about everything, and in a recent rare moment of clarity, mike huckabee admitted even ronald reagan couldn t win today. ronald reagan would have a difficult, if not impossible, time being nominated in this atmosphere, because he raised taxes as governor, he made deals with democrats, he compromised on things in order to move the ball done the field. he s absolutely right. reagan wouldn t stand a prayer in a republican primary today. they would call him reagan the rhino. how extreme is the gop base these days? take a look at this. a new poll shows 52% of republicans still aren t sure the president was born in the united states. this poll was taken after the release of the long-form birth certificate. come on! that is cuckoo for cocoa puffs. the gop is trying to figure out how in the world can they get someone elected in a general election? first we ve got former pennsylvania governor ed rendell. great to have you here. good evening, jack. and republican strategist john feehery. hey, cenk, how are you doing? great. governor, let me start with you, that 52% number is stunning. so how do you get past the primary voters who believe this and then win in a general election? it s an interesting dilemma. first of all, let me say that none of us democrats should be so abu yesterday by the president s numbers. it was back in this time in 1991 that george bush sr. had a 90% approvalç ratings because of t blowback from the desert storm war. we can t take anything for granted. your analysis i thought was right on. plus tunnel only get worse, because none of the major candidates have declared themselves on the ryan budget. he got hooted out of his home district and people are jumping off the ship left and right, but not the tea party-its, so what is mitt romney or huckabee or gingrich or any of them going to do about a budget that s so flawed that the republican congressional leaders are starting to back away? it s only going to get worse for them. the way i would run, if i was and i don t know what john would say, but if i was advising one of the candidates, i would say be different, stand up to the tea party, talk sense to the constituents, and hope you can capture some of that other 48% in a multirepublican field you may emerge as a winner with enough credibility that you could compete in the general. i want to get some of the specific candidates in a second, but sdwraun, i ve got to let you respond. you see the case i laid out. so how do you get out of the that republican primary? tinchts first, the governor is right on the front that it s awfully earlier. and the bush team thought they had it. it s awfully early in the game. now, for the republicans, i think they have to be authentic to themselves, they have to offer. and offer good solutions. i think they can get through the primary process. it s all about coalition building, being true to yourself being articulate, and i think we have met of good candidates that can do that.ç i think mitch daniels is the best candidates and newt gingrich, a polarizing figure, but he s offered good solutions in his career and he will invigorate the debate with ideas. but pretty soon, as the candidates declare, they ll have to speak out whether they re for our against the ryan bucket. mad you advise? the fact of the matter that the ryan budget, no matter how i might support aspects of it will not be the campaign issue in the next year, because there will be a new budget and hopefully by that time we ll have a budget deal and will take medicare off the table. i do think we have to solve these problems starting today. john, i ve got to be honest with you, that sounds like you re running away from it in. i m not running away from it. it s an emotional budget, to pass the house, it will not get through in the senate, you ll have to have some kind of compromise, and if we don t, the country is in serious trouble. let s take the candidates one by one. he wrote the president and the congress took a wrong turn, i believe the better course is to empower the states to determine their own health care future. well, governor rendell, isn t that ironic that his plan is so similar to barack obama s, and this whole thing of like, it s a states rights thing, doesn t it seem inauthentic? two things. number one, first of all, that s exactly what the president did. remember, he spoke to the national governor s association in february and said to every governor, you come up with a plan of your own that will in fact cover asening people as our plan and will control costs, and we ll give you a waiver, we ll let you do it.ç that s not an issue. the president has said governors can do that, and states rights if they meet that threshold will be upheld, but secondly i visited governor romney, because we wanted to learn a lot about his health plan. one of the things he said is it won t work without the mandate. every business and individual has to be a part of it. of course he was right. you can t ask the insurance companies to cover people with preexisting illnesses to keep people on who become sick, to uncap the medical expenses without putting healthy people into the system themselves. the man dade is future to it. how he can back away from that now and still be authentic or credible is a mystery to me. john, c mon, really, when you look at the plans they re so similar. to say i would like to, you know, the obama plan if it s in massachusetts, but i don t like it in its other states, doesn t it seem disingenuous. what romney said it has to be done at the state level. i think there were significant flaws with the romney plan. i think the individual mandate is problematic for a lot of people. i think the problem with the romney plan in massachusetts is that it s not working as well as he thought it would. if he had a chance, he would fix it. that s one of the things he s learned. i do think that romney does have a problem with authenticity. he has to speak with more passion, and if he does that, he can win the nomination. well, i think part of the problem is what he truly believes is what his donors tell him to believe. i don t think that s it. really? yeah. here sç another guy that s raised a lot of money. he s ace nouncing today. governor, i want to ask you about that. he s raise the $32 million, apparently $1.7 million voter donor contact, so that s a lot. on the other hand, 42% of americans say they would never, under any circumstances vote for newt gingrich. is he viable or not? it s a tough bar. i agree. newt gingrich is a very bright guy, creative and interesting ideas, some with which i have joined him, but his biggest problem is, before one negative ad from his republican opponents s. no less democrats, one negative ad has been put out against him, 42% say they could never vote for him. when the gingrich story is told by people who want to do negatives on him, that numb enter is going to exploit. i think he could emerge as the conservative candidates in the republican field. if he wins the nomination, i think we re looking at a near-historic victory for the president. i hear you on that. john, i m going to let you respond, but let me lay out the case. one these get into the ads, they ll talk about how he divorced his first wife while she was in the hospital for cancer. they ll talk about how he married his third wife, while still married no, not married, but there were mistresses, then on to his third wife, and 3w4r5i78d his infidelity, quote, partially driven by how passionately i felt about this country? come on, is that stuff going to fly? you re asking a couple interesting questions. will that fly with primary voters? you know, i don t know the answer to that question. i would say about 42% of general election voters won t vote for president obama either. for newt, though, his problem is polarizing statements really kill him with independent voters. when he was speaker of the house, he did appeal to more moderate members of the house. i would çdisagree on one point. he s not as conservative as you might thing. on education, on transportation policies, he s actually much more of a spender than a lot of people would think. it s his fiery rhetoric that puts him on the right wing. but his ideas are more in the center. i think john is right about that, cenk. the ideas, and some are very creative, but the rhetoric, especially in the last year, has been tragic, i think. nigh conclusion is he knows he s going to run. he s talking this nonsense about islamic radicals taking over the country. he doesn t believe any of that stuff. he s appealing to the place. my own personal opinion is newt could get beyond the rhetoric and be effective, and i ve said that in many different forums. great conversations, guys. thanks for joining us. thank you, cenk. thanks. john boehner wants $2 trillion in cuts. start with your buddies in big oil. senator menendez had a stern message, and he s going to join us live. a federal judge ruled that governor mitch daniels can defund planned parenthood in indiana as planning. the war on women is growing. we ll show you the gop s frontal assaults on women s rights. and why did eric cantor not want to honor the navy steeles that killed bin laden. we ll tell you. ever wish vegetables didn t taste so vegetably? well, v8 v-fusion juice gives you a full serving of vegetables, plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what s your number? somewhere in america, a city comes to life. it moves effortlessly, breathes easily. it flows with clean water. it makes its skyline greener and its population healthier. all to become the kind of city people want to live and work in. somewhere in america, we ve already answered some of the nation s toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. long-form birth certificate is on you, bin laden is dead, obama s approval ratings are at a two-years high. what will the right-wingers attack on? they ll figured it out. they re going over who michelle obama has invited to the white house for a poetry reading tonight. there s noç end to their madne. what they re pretending to be so outraged about now. having the right real estate agent on your side is more important than ever. at remax.com, you can find the experts you need, whether you re trying to sell of hoping to buy. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. when the average motorist pulls up with that pump they re hit with a double whammy, the high price of gasoline and then dismiss their tax dollars are going to subsidize exxon mobil. we pay for the privilege of their gouges us. it s time for the biv filing oil companies to give up the subsidies and allow their companies to pay their fair share toward reducing the deficits. it s on. the republicans who support them unconditionally.ç the democrats sent a her to the ceos of the big five oil companies, urging them to admit they don t need the taxpayer subsidies when they appear tomorrow. remember, they take at least $4 billion in subsidies every single year. what the democrats are proposing is, hey, over the next ten years let s at least take back $21 bhil onof the subsidies. that cuts the deficits, helps to balance the budget, and they clearly don t need them. is a they made $32 billion in profits just in the first quarter. so how do they maintain these huge subsidies anyway? they have big backers in the republican party. house men who voted to continue oil subsidies received five times more money in 2010 from oil and gas. of course. they see receive more than $8.7 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas interests in that 2010 election. so now the gop says they re taking away subsidies would raise gas prices. i ve got to tell you, that is absolute economic nonsense. under that theory, the only way that gas prices would rise is if the oil companies produced less oil, because they thought they weren t making enough money. well, you know, our taxes are higher, we re not making enough, so we re not going to produce as much oil, and prices go up. that s laughable. they re making money hand over fist. you know the prices have tripled since the last time we passed one of those subsidies? tripled. of course they re going to continue producing as much as possibly, and it won t affect gas prices at all. the republicans already know that. they re looking for any excuse, which are of course the huge oil companies.ç is senator menendez, great to have you here. good to be with you, cenk. all right. you re going to bring in the oil executives. my guess is they ll say they still need the, and conoco phillips said it was un-american to challenge the subsidies. how do you respond to that? number one i hope could not ko phillips will apologize to suggest that simply asking them to be part of meeting the nation s deficit challenge, as we re asking middle class, working families, families on medium income make $50,000 a year, we say to them they could we re not willing to say to the big five oil companies who will make projected $125 billion this year that they should give up $2 billion this year 234 oil subsidies and do so for the next ten years? that s pretty ridiculous. so say that s un-american is unacceptable. and number two, some of the predecessors have suggested when oil is at the price it is, it s certainly not necessary to have these subsidies, so the bottom line is, i don t know how the big five are going to do anything to justify the position that the american taxpayer should continue to have what in essence is corporate welfare. i m going to play a clip of fox news anchors talking about this, because i want to show the nonsense and thick talk about why it makes no sense. if you raise the taxes on gasoline and oil, the price isn t going to go down, it s going to go up. this white house does not want to lower prices, and they re willing to go after the oil companies whether will only make the price go up. there aren t anyç economist who agree with that, they say that it s, of course, all about supply and demand, and that the oil companies will continue to supply the oil, because they re making incredible profits. so how do you argue with people who don t argue based on facts? so they ll make up anything. how do you argue with these guys when they don t even believe the things they re saying themselves. cenk, one of the things about truth is no matter how much you crush it, it springs back up, and it s pretty undeniable. the reality is to suggest that gas prices are going to go up, because we re going to take $2 billion away from the big five only, who will makes $125 billion this year in profits, and that somehow should dictate more rising gas prices is ridiculous, and the average american fully understands that. secondly, it s very well established that the fluctuations in the marketplace, speculation, you know, the price the strength of the dollar, disruptions in market supply, that can affect gas prices more probably than anything we re going to do in taking away a small amount of the corporate subsidies that they re getting. lastly, when it s 30-some odd dollars a barrel to produce oil and a lot less for the big five, they re even more efficient at it, and you re selling oil at $100-something a barrel, you know there s plenty of room already. that s why they re making these record profits. 24th don t need to gouge the american taxpayer more. they re already paying at the pump. it s an insult to not only have to pay at the pump, but then also give them a tax subsidy out of those taxpayers pockets. final question is how do you get this done? it seems like you should say until noç circumstances will w have any budget cutting at all going forward. that s it, we re not you know, they love to declare things off the table all the time, right? until you put this on the table, we re not having a conversation. is that actually possible in washington? well, i certainly believe that since all of the $21 billion we ll save by taking away thinks subsidies to big owl will go to the deficit, that s what we propose, that in any extension of the get keeling, this has to be an essential element. even some have in the past said this should be eliminated. well, it s time to show us that ear willing to put your vote where your comments are. and 74% of the plern people. this should be an easy win for democrats if you guys insist on it. we ll see if that comes to fruition. senator robert menendez, thank you for joining us. we really appreciate it. good to be with you. eric cantor doesn t have time to honor the s.e.a.l.s, but guess who he did have time to honor? we ll explain that in our con job of the day. and we re learning more about what bin laden was writing. those details are next. 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[ male announcer ] halls relieves coughs and sore throats due to allergies too. now you know. snow we look at the twis priorities of the republican house. eric cantor has announce d that seems stunning, right? kantor says the house won t take away, because, quote, we ve said since we assumed the majority, that we want to be substanve and meaning much. so kantor s argument is that and honoring the navy s.e.a.l.s is just not serious enough. that seems like a bit much, but fair enough. if they re not taking any çvot, then at least it s consistent. except, of course, it turns out, house republicans made a big exception to their own rule. when the house took a time to rename a texas courthouse after george h.w. bush and george wsh bush. conaway explained why this was a substantive measure. by renames the courthouse, we re able to honor these two great texans. come on. honors s.e.a.l.s, not so important. renaming a courthouse? totally worth the house s time. that big of self-serving logic is our con job of the day. your finances can t manage themselves. but that doesn t mean they won t try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let s make a plan. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice. and my hands were full. i couldn t sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it s different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we re more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that s health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. when it s planes in the sky for a chain of supply, that s logistics when the parts for the line come precisely on time that s logistics a continuous link, that is always in sync that s logistics there will be no more stress cause you ve called ups, that s logistics welcome back, everybody. here s a shocker. republicans are refusing to budge as inch in negotiations. you don t say? negotiations are being complicated by disputes over basic economic facts. well, there s a reason for that. it s because the republicans are lying on purpose about those facts. i m not just saying that. we re going to show you, prove it to you. the stimulus spending binge hurt or ecomy and hampered job crazy in our country. not remotely true. back to work and cut the unemployment rate by as much as 1.8%. there aren t almost any economists out there saying, no, no, no he also made this up. we will never have real economic growth if we re going to raise taxes on those in america who create jobs. now, remember we had much higher rates at that time. and guess what happened? 22 million were created. what related was the large zest economic expansion in history. so they say, well, you can t raise rates. if you raise rates, we don t have any jobs. you can t possibly thinkç they just missed the decades of the 90s. they know they re not telling the truth. it s possible to ensure we ll have access to the same kinds of options that members of congress currently have. they just keep saying that. i m amazed. not remotely true. by 2030, the government would cover only 32% of the average 65-year-old s health care costs. in comparison, the government covers 75% of health care cost. look, these are not matters of opinion, these are facts. either he s ignorant, or purposely misleading you. they don t care about you. they care about their donors, you re pawns to be manipulated. they want to get you to believe things that aren t true. that s why when they say the things are not honest actors, and we shouldn t treat them as such. with us, a report for the huffington post and alex wagner. you have to retaliate. not a bad plan. i can help you with that.ç i think you have hit on the nub of the problem. we have these echo changes going on, and john boehner s followers believe those things. to say what he said is true and say it s not. this is why we can t have a rational debate going on. you re not even operating with your own opinions, but operating with your own facts. i want to play another clib, which is where he talk about the massive borrowing, and says something else that s interesting. anchts this mass sieve borrowing and spending by the treasury department crowded out private investment. in order for that theory to be true, and there is an economic theory, and the way it does that is interest rates go up, but interest rates have not gone up. they are incredibly low. for anyone to make a statement like that today, they would have to not know what the interest rates was or would have to be purposely lying. it s sort of like rip van winkle politician, you fall asleep for the parts you don t like, but business is doing pretty well in some sectors. the top 500 k350es in america saw a soaring 81% increase in profits. it s the large zest profit inincrease since the the countrç doesn t seem to hold any water. isn t that the crux of the problem? we can t raise taxes, because then that would hurt jobs. we just showed you the facts, and the facts don t match that, so why are we having that conversation? sure. the argument about the still his is a good example. you can make the case it wasn t worst the expense. you could argue that in the long term maybe it s more harmful, but you can t argue that it had a negative effect in the short term. he looks like he s deep in the weeds, and mark twain said a lie can make it halfway around the world while the world is still putting on its shoes. john boehner now has some problems with some catholics. the catholic university of america from them. he said your report and support of legislation to address desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in congress. this fundamental concern should have great urgency for catholic policymakers, yet even now you work in opposition to it. dana was talking about strong responses. that s a strong response. is it interests to see catholic community in some portions say, how about the poor? i think what we re seeing is this argument that the white house has long wanted, a fundamental sort of debate about the compact that the government should and can have with the american public. qáq t that. i think you re beginning to see some real blowback. look at what aarp said. there s real concern that their, quote/unquote medicare reform will harm seniors in the long run. i think there s a larger argument here, what is the role of government in public life? when they demand another billions in spenting cuts, how do the democrats respond? they say now, the republicans say it s off the table. what the democrats are doing, which is politically effective, is to stay on the offense. and some say it s medi-scare and they are frightening some that they re going to lose their medicare. that s a way of seizing the offensive for the democrats. it works politically. the problem is it s are responsible in some ways. in fact the republicans, freshmen republicans said, c mon, white house, could you please cut it out? i suspect they ll do that as soon as john boehner backs down on the tax situation. dana, we ve got to go, but i ve got to disagree a bit there. they viciously attack democrats all the time. they re going to come to the tall, and no matter what they do, they ran away from the own medicare proposal, because they came out strong against it. i m sorry i got the last word there, but beer out of time. it was a great conversation. as always, thank you for joins us. governor mitch daniels to defund planned parenthood in indiana gets the green light. guess what? i m calling him out. opportunity can start anywhere. and go everywhere. to help revitalize a neighborhood in massachusetts. restore a historic landmark in harlem. fund a local business in chicago. expand green energy initiatives in seattle. because when you re giving, lending, and investing in more communities across the country, more opportunities happen. i ve seen the sunrise paint the desert. witnessed snowfall on the first day of spring. but the most beautiful thing i ve ever seen was the image on a screen that helped our doctor see my wife s cancer was treatable. [ male announcer ] ge technologies help doctors detect cancer early so they can save more lives. bringing better health to more people. here s the truth. allstate can also protect your home or apartment, as well as your boat, motorcycle, rv, and snowmobile, and even your retirement and your life. not many insurance companies can say that. but allstate can. now that you know the truth, know this: the more of your world you put in good hands, the more you can save. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. nbc news has learned that s.e.a.l.s retrieved his personal journal, and every morning he woke up, he tried to cup up with way bin laden wrote that his goal was to kill as many americans as possible in a single attack. clearly still in command, still plotting. we ll stay on this developing story right here on msnbc. [ male announcer ] edmunds.com says that lexus holds its value better than any other luxury brand. intellichoice proclaims that lexus has the best overall value of any brand. and j.d. power and associates ranks lexus the highest in customer satisfaction. no wonder more people have chosen lexus over any other luxury brand 11 years in a row. see your lexus dealer. they have claimed we should have a truce. well, that didn t last long. he just broke the truce by defunding planned parenthood in indiana entirely. now, that s the republican idea of a truce you don t fight back, but we get to rip your face off. daniels move is hardly surprising. it s part and parcel of the gop et cetera nonstop war on reproductive rights. the indiana bill is one of more than 900 anti-choice measures introduced in 49 states this year alone. five other states are considering similar legislation. it s simple. they re taking the battle to the states. that s where they re getting between you and your doctor and you and your body, because republicans love big government when it s intruding upon your life to enforce their morals or lack thereof down your throat. joining muss rosa delora. in texas they re making women forcing them to look at son agrams before they have the procedure in places like south dakota, you ve got to wait 72 hours, which is anç incredibly difficult procedure for people who live in rural areas who have to drive back or have the expense of staying in that area. it looks like you have a war on your hands. let me say you are right about that and it s a full-scale assault on women s health overall. it s right to challenge the constitutionality of the ruling. and it s a first step in the process. it provides primary care, preventive care services for over 5 million americans, life-saving services. what are they? immunization, gynecological exams, over 1 million surge call cancer screenings. over 4 million treatment and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases like hiv. let me tell you about early detection of illness and these screenings. i m a cancer survivor. my cancer was found at the very earliest stages so that i was allowed to survive by the grace of god and biomedical research. planned parenthood provides primary care and life-saving care. this is not about abortion. we know no federal funds can be allowed. that s what the 450id amendment said. this is a full-scale assault on women s health issues. the women who were willing to of shutting down the government of think back a bit further about those who held hostage the health care bill. it is the time now to trust ç women, trust women with these decisions about their health, and trust them with the decisions for their families. they re used to making decisions every single day. it s one way in which we re looking at the republican majority in the house and governor daniels who do not value women nor respect them or their decisions, and do not put their trust in the decisions that women make on behalf of their family s health and their own health. i have to be honest, i think the democratic party is also at fault, and i ll tell us why. for as long as i ve been in this country, the last 30 years republicans have attacked on this sudden. for so long the democrats have run away from it. 2340u we have a poll that says 54% of americans believe that abortion should be legal. you still have a significant majority, but that number used to be much, much higher. you don t run elections on it. i would take issue with you. there are several places where the sure was determinant in that senate race. let me tell you, women around the country, and there shall both democratic and republican women, or independents, are very concerned about those who would try to put women s health in jeopardy. there isn t a we don t have the majority of the votes, but in the senate and with the and the president was very clear on the issue of not defunding planned parenthood. we stood up on the floor when they tried to do it at the federal level. nobody is walking away from this issue. i understandç recently that happening to some degree, but over the last 30 years, they get lock, stock and barrel, no matter what, based on the abortion issue, whereas you have the majority of the country, and you almost never run on that issue, so that just gets wasted. i would say to you that in several states that issue was joined, and to the success of a democratic success of a democratic candidate. the issue is now enjoining that issue, which has done. it s not about abortion. we cannot use federal funds for abortion. this is about women s health. i understand that. you have to take a look at this, you have to look at it in those terms. no which is where they came from last november. thank you for the conversation, we do appreciate it. we ll be right back.ç workingr you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices. which i ll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? 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[ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it s better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you re ready for real business. many p p.m. s coming off a great couple weeks. that means those on the right and fox news had to come up with new, interesting ways to go after the president. they are ingenious, so they re criticizing the hosting of the rapper common, of course, he s not so clean lyrics, but even casual fans wouldn t characterize him as controversial. he s known for being socially conscious, but now any reason, of course, is a good reason to go after the president because of his recent wins. of course, fox nation jumped in with this headline, quote, michelle obama hosting vile rapper at the white house. sarah palin chimed in, oh, lovely, white house. i don t even know what that means. the entire fox channel has devoted entirely too much time to this issue. some on the right are upset that rapper and poet common will be the guest of the obamas. why would he invite a thug to the white house? don t worry. he s just there to read poetry to kids. the president should disinvite him and explain why, that it s outside american values, outside american culture, just plain wrong. for the president s people to allow this to happen is reprehensible. funny how quickly fox forget things, as media matters points out, fox just interviewed him as praising him as a conscious and you re known as conscience rapper. i try to show people as and i m happy to beç known as e conscious artist. conscious artist one day, vile the next. if he supports 9 president or dares to read poetry in the white house, he s got to be a bad guy, right? pathetic. that s our show tonight, guys. hardball is next.