That was paul white. An engineer from ham lake, minnesota. Hes one of the winners from this weeks 448 million jackpot drawing. And he is a smart guy. Smart guy. Smart financial plan. He opted for the cash payment, which ended up being just over 58 numb 58 million after taxes. Friday, august 9th. Great to have you on morning joe. With us on set msnbcs thomas roberts. Weve got the host of way too early, Brian Shactman. Pulitzerprize winning columnist and associate editor of the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst Eugene Robinson and the former governor of pennsylvania, nbc news political analyst, ed rendell. Showing that we do at nbc have a conservative there oh, wait, conservative democrat. Fortune magazines assisting managing editor Leigh Gallagher, good lord it started early, the author of the great new book the end of the suburbs. Its great to have all of you guys with us. Lets start with news. Mika, of course, she where do you think she is . South of france. Shes in the south of france, right . Well, its just that time of the year where, you know, the rich and the famous and the powerful go off to vacation and, of course, so today president obama is set to kick off his weeklong vacation, not in the south of france, but in Marthas Vineyard and that has triggered the expected criticism from corners of capitol hill. Of course who are the middle of a fiveweek vacation. Usa today is reporting the first family is going to be staying at the 7 million home of a top democratic donor and, of course, bill clinton also vacationed in Marthas Vineyard during his time in the white house but he famously and i know that gene will remember this and ed will remember this, he famously switched his vacation destination after dick morris took polls to see which vacation spots would be better and they found out that wyoming, surprisingly enough, is better than Marthas Vineyard. Nantucket is better than Marthas Vineyard but i dont think youll find that in the poll. Usa today is remibdsing us this morning Franklin Roosevelt was criticized for spending time on his yacht. John adams spent seven months in quincy, massachusetts, on his farm in 1797 and actually accused of abdicating his office and that criticism didnt help his bid for the second term. Now, for republicans who are ready to pounce, lets look at this by the numbers. The president is going off on vacation but the last commander in chief, george w. Bush, also took his share of r and r. At this point in george w. Bushs presidency, mark knoller with cbs figured this out, george w. Bush had spent 367 days at his ranch in texas or at his familys compound in kennebunkport, maine. That, of course, according to mark knoller who says also, that president obama, who doesnt own a Vacation Home or have a family compound, has only spent 92 days of his presidency on vacation and before he heads out of town hes going to make more news. The president will be holding a News Conference at the white house at 3 00 p. M. And, you know, i just got to say, and i always go back, ed rendell, to a maureen dowd column talking about first ladies and who the great first ladies were and how pat nixon was great at making Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches that would relax Richard Nixon and as maureen said and she wasnt being sarcastic or snippy at all, if that put the president s head in a better place, to make decisions regarding china or the economy or then thats exactly what they needed. Ive always felt this way joe, if you make a pbj with xanax yeah. That will that relaxes you too and let me just say, i have tried that. Bury it. Thats called the breakfast of champions, actually. Crunchy Peanut Butter. I actually i disguise it in the crunchy Peanut Butter. So ed rendell, you know, we shouldnt bedrudge or leaders vacations, should we . And i mean, is the president making a mistake going to Marthas Vineyard, poll tested this and gone to like alabama instead . Well, on that note, first of all, youre right, president s are entitled to vacations. Secondly, there are never any real vacations for president s. The work goes on. Its unbelievable how much work even as governor of pennsylvania, i never had a day on vacation where i didnt have some contact with the office, have to make some decisions, and third, forget all about polling your vacation retreat. We have become a nation of polls. Just do what you want. No one is going to vote for you because you went to Marthas Vineyard or wyoming. Give the voters a little respect for their intelligence. Well, exactly, gene. And again, i think the president would have been much better served going to nantucket than Marthas Vineyard. We can have that debate elsewhere, though. This does seem like the perfect show to have the debate on, but where does a president stand right now . He expected so much more. His supporters expected so much more. The white house expected so much more in this second term. It has been a really, really rough eight, nine months for the president. His poll numbers, according to the latest nbc news poll, down a little bit. Heck, even matt damons criticizing him overseas. What could be worse than that. What does the president need to do when he comes back to turn it around . Well, you know, i dont think theres like a mammic bullet that makes everything in washington better, joe, to tell you the truth, and i dont think he thinks that either. I think he, at this point, is resigned to the fact its going to be a bit of a slog. Hes going to keep working on his major priorities and hes also, frankly, going to have an eye on 2014. Boy, and gene, gene, could you follow up on what ed said too. No president , republican or democrat, liberal or conservative, ever has a day off . Absolutely. Yesterday, when Thurston Clarke came on said he was in the middle of all of these personal crises, when somebody came up and basically asked him to green light the assassination of dim and caroline was having a rough couple days and pulling at him and he goes, yeah, sure, basically. Couple days later he says what have i done . But that was on vacation. Its constant. The incoming is constant. No president ever has a day off or a night off or a morning off or anything. It is absolutely constant. And keep in mind, he has a family, you know. He has daughters who are growing up. First lady. They go to Marthas Vineyard every year. Theyre kind of used to it. Friends gather there. Its its a family. Lets just kind of lighten up and all wish we could be on vacation too. Exactly. Hey, thomas roberts, you know, the president when hes off, hes going to be looking at a lot of issues. Certainly Foreign Policy is at the top of the list. Interesting new poll out shows that the United States making some gains as far as how people view us. Not doing so well in the middle east, but across the rest of the world, our image improving a bit. A bit. Despite the recent backlash over these drone strikes and the nsa spying programs the u. S. Actually enjoying these levels of popularity it hasnt seen since before the iraq war. Pew Research Showing 64 of people around the world have a favorable view of america. 64 . So thats a 13point rise among those same countries when they were last vared back in 07. Still in muslim countries like pakistan, frustration over u. S. Foreign policy appearing to have only deepened 11 . Theres been a dip in approval under president obama. Leigh, you think thats just obamas transition to presidency over bush . Because that last poll was in 2007 and what else would it say . I think that has a lot to do with it. I think the world is looking to us for a number of reasons. You know, but i think that its, you know, i think the timing has a lot to do with it. That was a long time ago. I think under president obama i think our global image has improved. Joe, you cant forget how unpopular we were at the end of the bush presidency, right . No doubt about it. I mean, things were going poorly. Of course, were still having some problems in the middle east but across the rest of the world, across europe, those numbers are certainly up. You know, ed rendell, weve been looking at polls out of kentucky. Looks like Mitch Mcconnell hasnt had a lot of excitement on his side. Hes been tied with the challenger. The news yesterday, not news that any of us running in a Political Campaign would want, and there was a clip, lets throw to this clip where like do we have the actual clip of the phone conversation . Thomas, so lets go to the statement and then ed, get the response about a situation no politician would want to be in . Joe, the background on this is the master Mitch Mcconnell Senate Reelection campaign, a guy named jesse benton told a conservative activist, quote, between you and me im sort of holding my nose for two years because what were doing here is going to be a big benefit to rand in 16. Thats my long vision. Now at the time benton was speaking with dennis, a former aide to former congressman rand paul. He handed over the recording to the economicpolicyjournal. Com. Benton called this leak sick adding i believe in senator mcconnell and 100 committed to his reelection. I look forward to victory in november of 2014. Then the Campaign Even posted this photo on benton holding his nose next to the Senate Minority leader. So the republican challenger, matt bevin tweeting that photo with a close pin on his nose saying dont hold your nose, vote for a real conservative. The other thing we need to point out, there are family connections here. The fact jesse benton is married to ron pauls granddaughter and worked on his campaign in the past and kind of shoed over into mcconnell world after, you know, the wheels came off the bus. But governor, there are family connections here, talking about looking at the longer vision and his family is, you know, that would be his uncle, would be rand paul. Its pretty confusing. The only winner here is the democratic candidate who is an impressive woman. Can she win in kentucky . It really depends on how tough the republican primary is. If its tough and its bitter, she really gets a leg up for the fall and shes going to raise a ton of money nationally. Its interesting, though, that, gene, this guy was speaking to dennis, a former aide to congressman ron paul. So its kind of really inside baseball that he would go ahead and leak this to try to pants Mitch Mcconnell basically. Is this a mole inside the Mcconnell Campaign . I mean taking down the pillars from the inside. Its very interesting. Its interesting all the strategizing around rand paul for 2016. Yes. Rand paul for 2016. I mean, this is going to be fascinating. Hes going to make a serious run i think. A Tea Party Candidate if hes viable, i mean, you know, mitch might have a tough time anyway even if there are plots against him. No doubt about it. He definitely theres no doubt you go back to rand paul running in 2010 and, of course, rand paul was not the favorite of Mitch Mcconnell. He had supported a more mainstream candidate. Rand paul won anyway. The fact that they are working together as a marriage of convenience at best. And i just i have to follow up with what gene said. Whats most fascinating about this, and most revealing about this, is how people who are closest to rand paul, are so actively engaged already in his 2016 rupp for president. This is a guy and you know, weve all heard the old saying, that character is what you do when nobody is watching, i guess you could say the same thing about political plans revealed with what you say when you think nobodys listening and gene, there is no doubt here that rand pauls people are expecting a big run for the white house and this is one part of it. Yeah. I mean, theyre trying to lay groundwork and seem to be trying to establish him as in the field already, which sets up, of course, this fascinating battle inside the Republican Party with the libertarian wing trying to assert itself. Assuming there is a wing behind him. I mean its its not all that organized. But this is going to be this is going to be fascinating as we go through. You know three years left. That quote about character is perfect for this next story. Joe, listen to this one. Another day and another indelicate piece of video for mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. You dont have to make the kids leave the room. Already this week hes fought with a new york voter, dismissed another candidate as grandpa and making fun of the foreign press. Take a look. Is it ambition, a [ inaudible ] for power . I have to take you seriously. It has to do with wanting to be mayor of the city of new york and wanting to help the middle class and those struggling to make it or the hunger for the big or the hunger for the big job. Would anything stop you . I just have a feeling i stepped into a monte python big. Is a rock going to fall on my head . Anything else i can do for itb or something . Want me to do the weather or something . You can do the weather for me. Where is the weather . England . Ill do yours. Rainy, cloudy and gray, so do what you can guys. Try to keep your head up. Keep a stiff upper lip. A stiff something. Oh. Well, so listen to this, the poll, hes in fourth place. The new poll by the New York Times and Siena College finds the former congressman in fourth place. Christine quinn sits at the top with 25 . If no candidate receives 40 of the vote theres a runoff between the two top candidates which puts weiner out of the race. For former new york governor Eliot Spitzer he is faring much better. Spitzer currently holds a ninepoint lead over manhattan bur ro president scott stringer. 44 to 35 . Do you think, governor, that theres anything thats going to make Anthony Weiner hes in it for the long haul until september 10th when the election the most interesting thing about those two polls is, imagine for a minute if Anthony Weiner didnt have the second postresignation slew of tweets. Right. Imagine he didnt have those. Imagine he conducted himself without losing his temper during the campaign he very likely could have been in the same position as spitzer. Remember, before that came out, he was leading in one of the polls. Right. He was well ahead. Amazing how he selfdestructed. Do you think yesterday this video was taken as Anthony Weiner was going door to door knocking, if you were on the other team would you find out where hes going to be nooking in the future and put sydney behind and have it ready to rock and roll. She looks at him as a atm machine. Oh, god its you. And the cameras are there. Its over. Leigh, its got to be over here. What is fascinating its over weeks ago. Weeks ago. Whats fascinating is, a guy that a lot of people you cover hate. Eliot spitzer is on his way back to power, it certainly looks that way, and the Business Community, michael bloomberg, many others not happy about that at all. No, theyre not. And he looks strong. Especially when you compare him to weiner. I mean these two, you know, are lumped together and that contrast is just becoming more and more striking. Yeah, i mean, this is he was persona nongrata for all of wall street. They were thrilled when what happened to him happened to him. This is going to be interesting to watch for that reason. Weiner, talk about somebody who really needs a vacation. He just needs to go away. Its just incredible. Its just drama. Its sad. Exile youre thinking. Thats the word. He has until september 10th because he said hes going to stay in and then he can take a long vacation. Want to talk about the extreme weather events taking its toll on the country. Wildfires in california to flash flooding in tennessee. Miguel almaguer and Kerry Sanders have those reports. If we can get some air support, anything at all will help. Reporter from the air a moving monster. The socalled silver fire exploding out of control at a, quote, critical rate. Several structures involved in the community. Reporter in less than 24 hours, this inferno quadrupled in size. 16 square miles up in smoke. It hit here very fast. That wind started, started pushing that fire up over the ridge lines and before they knew it it was upon the community. Reporter this is erratic and aggressive fire behavior even for seasoned california firefighters. Request five strike teams of crews. Reporter 15 structures destroyed. Mandatory evacuation. You need to evacuate immediately. Reporter nearly 2,000 people had only minutes to flee the flames. I got here and the house was already half burned. Reporter dave clark watched his home burn to the ground. I knew where a bag of legal documents were and i ran in and grabbed them and ran out. Reporter these tinderbox conditions are dangerous and can be deadly. Four firefighters are injured, one neighbor severely burned. For some there was no time to escape the flames. Sheriffs deputies were evacuating locals when the fire tore through here and they rode out the fire storm and luckily survived. A small blaze when it began wednesday, the silver fire became a blow torch. Structure after structure devoured during a time when fire typically lays down. The wind we got last night was cool and it had some moisture in it, but it was still 35 Miles Per Hour and it continued to push that fire. Reporter with an army of nearly a thousand on the ground and a steady air attack, crews are making progress. But if the winds return, this fire could be poised to make another dangerous run. Rain was predicted, but nashville residents didnt expect to wake up to this. Eight inches of rain on already saturated ground sent water rushing down city streets and highways, forcing some to shut down completely. The water kept rising. I got up and looked at the bedroom window and i said oh, my god. Reporter making it especially difficult for emergency crews to reach people who had managed to escape their homes, only to become stranded. At least 35 water rescues were reported. Busses were diverted from flooded areas. By late afternoon, floodwaters began to recede, revealing the damage. All my furniture, everything is just messed up. Couches turned over. Reporter in missouri, six inches of rain on top of three days of relentless downpours, set the stage for flash floods. One woman died when her car was swept away and a 4yearold boy drowned. Even with more rain predicted residents began cleaning up. You cross your fingers and hope everything will come out okay. Hope the insurance covers it and go on and see what we can do. Reporter in northern georgia, ten inches of rain washed out several roads. Officials are unsure when theyll all reopen. In southern kansas, hundreds of homes damaged, dozens of camp grounds evacuated, after six inches of rain hit the area. Thousands in central tennessee remain without power, but for some who remember the devastating flood of 2010, this was just too much. I know one thing, i got to move. I cant stay here. That was nbcs Kerry Sanders and before that miguel almaguer. Of course what kerry pointed out, bill karins, is that they expect some more rain. How bad will it get before it gets better . Today is the last day and well start to dry it out in areas especially missouri but not lucky around nashville and atlanta over the upcoming weekend. Weve been stuck in this weather pattern. The weather hasnt really changed all week long. If its been hot where you have been in texas it stayed hot. Raining in missouri and kansas and it stayed raining. Four days in a r with torrential rains moving out of oklahoma into areas of missouri. This is the area of concern this morning from joplin to springfield to branson as more rain is trying to move from the south. Not quite as hard as it was yesterday. In new england we have a flash flood threat today too. It rained hard yesterday and pouring this morning across the catskills and some of that rain is shifting now to the north up into the berkshires, across the mass pike, southern vermont and New Hampshire under flash flood watches. Going to be a rainy, gloomy day with torrential downpours and see significant airport delays with the low ceilings and, of course the heavy periods of rain during the day. Over the weekend thankfully the rain will relax and move to the south. Thats not going to help our friends there in the southeast. Still isolated flooding right through the weekend. Areas of georgia, to carolinas and through tennessee. Brian, the bottom line is today is the last day of this horrible flooding there in missouri and they will be cleaning up in the sunshine all weekend. I mean, anyone who is a homeowner to see people lose their homes is pretty intense stuff. Thanks a lot. Coming up on morning joe nbcs political director chuck todd joins the conversation. Were not going to let limb talk about the dodgers 5 1 2 lead in the nl west. Also adviser David Axelrod and New York Times film critic tony scott to talk about the big flops in the budget world of hollywood. Ahead a mistaken identity. Kidnapping, bane donned child and a dna test thats thrown a family into turmoil. Up next the top stories in the politico playbook. Youre watching morning joe brewed by starbucks. Im the next american success story. Working for a company where over seventyfive percent of store management started as hourly associates. Theres opportunity here. I can use walmarts education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. Even today, when our store does well, i earn quarterly bonuses. When people look at me, i hope they see someone working their way up. Vo opportunity, thats the real walmart. Delivering mail, medicine and packages, yet theyre closing thousands of offices, slashing service and want to layoff over 100,000 workers. The Postal Service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. The problem . A burden no other agency or company bears. A 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post Office Revenue while the Postal Service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. Congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. I just have to duly note, this is my first time in the chairs. Really . Yes. Youre doing a great job. Joe was texting me, sit up, better posture, take your socks off. All these things i need to do. Youre wearing socks . I am. Youre supposed to take them off or put them on . Take them off. No socks. No socks. All right. Take a look at morning papers. New york times, the single largest source of Carbon Emissions in d. C. Is the capital power plant. The revelation comes as president obama tries to reduce the federal governments dependence on fossil fuel. The plant powers 23 buildings and is run by congress. The first efforts to ween the plant off coal began in 2000 but so far have proven unsuccessful. From our parade of papers boston globe two friends of the alleged Boston Marathon pom bomber are facing obstruction of justice charges. Prosecutors say they took dzhokhar czar nay yevs backpack from his dorm and threw it away after learning he had bomb making materials and they also removed his computer which they voluntarily turned over to official. They face up to 25 years in prison and possible deportation. Back to the New York Times, 16 honorees will receive the president ial medal of freedom this year. The list includes president bill clinton, oprah winfrey, gloria sti nam and the man that led the Washington Post during watergate, benjamin bradley. This is the highest civilian honor in the United States. Okay. And good news from the star ledger, 16 coworkers from new jersey are going to split 86 million before taxes as the holders of one of three winning powerball tickets. The second Winning Ticket was also sold in the garden state. That winner has yet to come forward and the final Winning Ticket went to a 45yearold man in minnesota. The Powerball Jackpot was 448 million and apparently you do have to come forward and identify yourself so we will all find out who that third Ticket Holder is. If you in the media, ill kick back another million in taxes to keep my name quiet you couldnt do that. I could. If someone was in new jersey recently you could be playing possum and we dont know, could have the Winning Ticket. I did buy a ticket in jersey but did not win. The miami herald the National Oceanic administration predicts the 2013 Hurricane Season might be slightly less intense than what it reported in may. We were talking off the air about all of the Global Environmental issues before we were on camera. While it will still be an active season experts believe there will be 13 to 19 storms, six to nine of which will be considered major. Usa today, the Perseid Meteor Shower will peak this weekend with an anticipated 70 meteors per hour. Listen to that. The best time to view the fireball is between midnight and dawn on sunday and monday and fly across the sky at an estimated 134 Miles Per Hour put butt quite a show. Parade explores education across the country to open the discussion on changes needed in schools to better prepare students for the world we live in today and something we talk about on morning joe all the time. Joining us now from washington, politicos Patrick Gavin this mornings politico playbook. Patrick . Good morning. Its been about three months purple sweater. He got the purple memo. Oh, my gosh. Its freezing in here. Absolutely freezing in the studios so i had to do it. That and i left my sports coat at work. Another story. Its august. The sweater is not quite there. Especially for d. C. Working on it. Well let it slide. Three months since the president took questions from the press at a solo News Conference. Hes going to talk todayp. Whats he going to address first . I think you know some of the obvious questions hell field and talk about is obviously how he plans to sort of averting a fiscal Government Shutdown on september 30th if a budget deal doesnt happen. Hes going to want to talk about obama care much in the same way on the tonight show and make sure people are signing up for that. A couple questions my colleagues jonathan and carrie mentioned would be great to ask him, whatever happened to decimated an on the run when it comes to al qaeda. That was a great catch phrase by the president in the 2012 campaign. We see 19 embassies in africa and around the middle east being shut down. That doesnt seem necessarily like decimated and on the run. Nice to get an update from him on that. Also, we know that the president canceled his meeting with vladimir putin, but how does he plan to reset that reset. Its, obviously, even though he did decline that meeting, United States and russia still need to get it along be it from issues regarding iran or north korea, which is why you have john kerry and chuck hagel and their counterparting still meeting. We know you canceled the meeting but how do you plan on reigniting that relationship. Those are two of the questions that will be great to get answers from the president on. Well see what next move is with russia thats for sure. We cant stop talking about 2016 although embarrassingly far ahead on the calendar. Indications about Hillary Clinton and what shes doing in the south. Explain. Were still i think 1200 days away, but in georgia, this is good news for Hillary Clinton, in georgia, when you stack her up against some of the republican counterparts she actually does pretty well. You consider that state went for mitt romney by 8 Percentage Points in 2012 so thats pretty good. Beating rand paul, beating paul ryan, tied with jeb bush, but, of course, the big sort of rock star seems to be chris christie. She trails him by two points in that state. Sort of funny a new jersey guy is doing so well in georgia. But regardless, thats pretty good news for Hillary Clinton if shes polling that well in georgia. Politicos Patrick Gavin, thanks so much. Governor, hillary was in the lead big, did that thing yesterday where she was ahead early in New Hampshire when that wmur poll came out and obama wasnt even in the race. What do you take away from any of this stuff about hillary right now . In the recent New Hampshire democratic poll shes ahead of the Vice President 60 to 8. Polls this early dont mean anything, but understand, Hillary Clinton 2012, is 2013, is different than Hillary Clinton 2008. Yeah. Shes grown so much in the nations perception of her because of the job she did as secretary of state, because of the bond she forged with the president. Shes so elevated in terms of her persona from where she was in 2008 that i think these numbers are real. I think theyre going to last. I agree, governor. I think that if she decides to run and i actually dont think she has decided i agree. If she decides to run, unless theres some other barack obama out there that we dont know of, somebody whos going to come out of nowhere basically and capture the nations imagination, i mean, it looks pretty good for her this time. Its almost like a coronation. Coming up next on morning joe, bloombergs interview issue, josh green sat down with senator rand paul. Talking a lot about him today. Josh will tell us what the Kentucky Republican said about a potential president ial run and up next, this is a good one, doug gilmore in the hockey hall of fame, but hes probably in the dog house at his house. Why he traded his own son from his canadien hockey team. Thats coming up in sports. Aaa. Fffffff. Laclaclac. Hes an actor whos known for his voice. But his accident took that away. Thankfully, hes got aflac. Theyre gonna give him cash to help pay his bills so he can just focus on getting better. Were taking it one day at a time. One day at a time. [ male announcer ] see how the ducks lessons are going at aflac. Com one day at a time. Stubborn love by the lumineers did you i did. Email . So what did you think of the house . Did you see the School Ratings . Oh, youre right. Hey babe, i got to go. Bye daddy have a good day at school, ok . But what about when my parents visit . Ok. I just love this one. And its next to a park. I love it. I love it too. Heres our new house. Daddy youre not just looking for a house. Youre looking for a place for your life to happen. Time for sports and the pga championship where the golfers hoping for another day of low scores in upstate new york and rochester. Two recognizable names, not named phil or tiger atop the leaderboard. Adam scott with the anchor putter won the masters. Five consecutive birdies and finished 5 under par. Tees off at 8 35 eastern time. The other leader jim furyk, maybe one of the best putters on the planet had a 65, the best first round hes ever had at a major, tees off at 2 00 p. M. Eastern time. For british open Champ Phil Mickelson he was up and down like a typical phil run. Plus 1p. Six shots off the lead with adam scott at 8 35 and tiger woods, he was doing well. He was 1 under pretty much until the 18th hole. He had some approach shots that were great like this one but he double bogeyed the final hole. He tees off at 1 45 p. M. Now tonight, big deal in new york, the question is, to boo or not to boo . Alex im not a booer per se but a lot might boo him when he returns to yankees stadium. Bill karins says 90 chance of rainout. How he will be greeted, the First Time Since he was suspended for 211 games. Hes going to play out the season because hes under appeal and the tabloids, well, some of them werent so shy about it. This is the new york post, enter banned man which Mariano Rivera comes in under metallicas sand man. The daily news does not mince words, boo the bum. Is silence worse . Give him the silent treatment. Cold shoulder. I dont think new yorkers can keep quiet. They dont do silence. Theyre pent up, ready to go, regardless of the rain. Governor in philadelphia, there would be no question, boo, right . Absolutely. Philadelphia boo anybody. Philadelphia fans i dont want to make philadelphia thinking double as or ds. Sorry. There you go. The battery throwing. Yeah. Derek jeter the captain asked about the situation. This whole scandal going around with the performance enhancing drugs and the baseball system and arod is on the cover of every cover of papers. Its got to be distracting, its got to be distracting. Like that scandal you had on snl a few years back. I was on a lot of stuff during snl. We dont want to talk about those years. Yeah, theyre awful. Its unfortunate. You know, listen, you late to hear a negative light being shed on Major League Baseball but its been a part of the game. Were trying to get it out of the game. Hopefully we dont have to hear about this for much longer. What do we do to get people to stop fooling around with these guys . I think theyre doing it. Guys are getting caught and theyre paying the price for it. Its unfortunate part of society. Everyone tries to get an edge. But you learn from your mistakes and move on. A guy shah that should run for office. He never says anything wrong. Hes a media darling. Not kissing himself in the mirror like some other people. Jeter for mayor. Yeah. Get to baseball highlights, tigers looking for a fourgame sweep against the indians. Their 12th win overall, looking at the managers, terry francona, max scherzer, shooting for his 17th win. Good offense here. Kind of a laugher, 103. They are in new york for the arod fest tonight. St. Louis, dodgers finishing up pretty much a picture road trip. Theyve won 15 of their last 16 away from l. A. Top five, aj ellis, thats gone. Threerun shot gave them a fourrun lead and they continue their hot streak. They were in last place. Don mattingly was going to get fired. Now theyre in first by 5 1 2 games and host tampa, better beat them for my red sox tonight. Must have been an awkward family moment in the gilmore household last night. Hockey gm of the on it tare yo Hockey League its juniors, yesterday traded jake gilmore to the niagara ice dogs, not just a coincidence, jake is his son. Insiders actually say hell get more playing time there, so maybe its not as cold blooded as it seems. But he wants to make the nhl, not getting playing time on his dads team so they shipped him out. President obama will have a News Conference this afternoon. Well talk to nbc White House Correspondent chuck todd and White House Former adviser David Axelrod. Up next the mustread opinion pages. Youre watching morning joe brewed by starbucks. American express credit card, every purchase earns you 2 cash back, which is deposited in your fidelity account. Is that it . Actually. Theres no annual fee and no limits on rewards. And with the fidelity Cash Management account debit card, you get reimbursed for all atm fees. Is that it . Oh, this guy, too. Turn more of the money you spend into money you invest. Its everyday reinvesting for your personal economy. Behold the power of a well booked vacation booking. Com booking dot yeaaaahhhh bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his Small Business. Take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorns Small Business earns double miles on every purchase every day. Produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less . Ahh, oh [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. Heres your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark Business Card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. Choose double miles or 2 cash back on every purchase every day. Whats in your wallet . [ crows ] now wheres the Snooze Button . Welcome back, everybody. 45 minutes after the hour. A beauty shot of the white house there as the sun comes up on a tgif for everybody. We want to get to mikas must reads and start with Charles Krauthammer. If the tide of war is receding why the giant snooping programs. If al qaeda is on the run as he innocently assured the nation throughout 2012 why is america cowering in 19 closed down embassies and consulates, boston put on an unprecedented full lockdown after the marathon bombings and from somalia to afghanistan why are we raining death by drone on violent extremists. Every target amazingly a jihadist. This policy and purpose is why an evacuation from yemen must be passed off as a reduction in staff, benghazi terror attack must be blamed on some hapless egyptian. American individual grapher, why the ft. Hood shooting is nothing but some loony army doctor gone postal. Its about leadership. The word play is for policy embedded in confusion and ambivalence about the whole enterprise. This is not leading from behind this is not leading at all. This new closing for pakistan in lahore. If he had that in time for press he would have added it to that list. They say its separate from the 19 other closures, so joe, the question is, i mean, you know, we said this the other day, joe, that there was going to be at some point criticism for taking action on things we dont know about and here comes the criticism now. Right. You know whats so fascinating, what Charles Krauthammer is writing about, i think, gene robinson, obviously you guys both work for jeff bezos now so ill take it to you, but you guys but if you listen to what Barack Obama Says and you look at his policies, there really does seem to be this great disconnect. He still wants to be the enlightened leader who spoke in cairo in 2009, who won the Nobel Peace Prize and yet there is this disconnect between that man and the man who has adopted a lot of george w. Bushs and dick cheneys policies in the war on terror. Well, you know, joe, i think you could say that certainly it looks as if president obama came into office and there were some realities that he didnt quite anticipate but i dont think thats the whole story and i dont think you can kind of make that blanket statement. I think what he rejects is the war against terror metaphor, the war against a tactic of conflict, which is a war that you cant win. I think what he has said pretty consistently or trying to do pretty consistently is narrow our focus on exactly whom were at war with and his solution, frankly, to those people thats been to send drones and blow them up. Hes done that rather successfully, but he hasnt gotten all of them and it turns out, you know, this jihadist these jihadist turns out to be like a blob of mercury which we used to play with when we were kids but now its poisonous and will kill you. You hit it with a hammer and no question it turns into or cause a terrible mutation, the mutation is you and me that occurred through the years. Didnt do us any good. You get the point. You know, you cant you cant destroy it by smashg it. It turns into 15 little blobs and thats whats happened. For the record i still play with mercury, ed rendell and i still eat lead paint. They havent proven anything yet as far as im concerned. I think what Charles Krauthammer is saying, and you hear a lot of complaints about this, is that the president s being a bit too politically correct. He will talk about extremism, he will never talk about islamic extremism. And he will Hillary Clinton, after benghazi, of course she talked about this video, but she never really talked about what the underlying problem was at the very beginning and then when shes called on it later charles says she throws her arms up in the air and says what does it matter . Charles central argument is it matters not only because do wars require truth, they require clarity and perhaps this president , hes very clear, hes going to find terrorists and kill them. His actions are very clear. His words not as clarifying according to Charles Krauthammer. Whats your take . I think its a real problem. I think the president has to explain to the American People much more clearly than hes done, whats at stake, why we do certain things that we have to do, and where the balance is. I mean, everything in government is drawing a line. Theres almost as you know, were never confronted with a black or white decision. Its always somewhere in the gray area. The president has to do a better job of explaining that to the American People. You cant have it both ways, and to an extent theyre trying to do that. All right. Still ahead on morning joe, the rise of the warrior cop. A new book examines how Americas Police forces have increasingly come to resemble military ground troops. Up next, matt damon, he had a chance to play hero for Stephen Colbert but the rescue, well, youll see what matt damon does to respond. Next. [ male announcer ] these days, a Small Business can save by sharing. Like carpools. Polly wants to know if we can pick her up. Yeah, we can make room. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Its great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. At t mobile share for business. One bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. Now, everyones in the spirit of sharing. Hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend . No. [ male announcer ] share more. Save more. At t mobile share for business. At that starts with one ofess. The worlds most advancedy, distribution systems, and one of the most efficient trucking networks, with safe, experienced drivers. 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Thats the power of german engineering. Time for news you cannot use. But you can certainly laugh. Stephen colbert has this dream of being rescued by a celebrity, not you or i most likely we have to become celebrities first. Youre there. No. Last night, though, was neither of us but almost came true. Help stephen . Stephen cole bert . Matt damon. Thank god youre here. I was just walking by. What happened to you, buddy . Are you okay . Other than the vending machine. No. I mean the vending machine. No, im not okay. Hang on. Im going to get you out. This is so great. Ive always wanted to be saved by a big star. Wow. Somebody call 911. You are big, right . Yeah. However, however hollywood is measuring that this week. Its usually based on box Office Revenue. So what was your latest movie . Promise land. Oh, the fracking movie. Yeah. I like i i heard good things. Im sorry. Thats rude. Ill switch it off. I just got to just take hello, yep, no, its me. But i got wait, what . Im on my way. I really have to go. Jimmy kimmel got his head stuck in a mayonnaise jar. I have to help him out. Im coming, jimmy. Matt matt dame somebody call clooney. Poor colbert. Poor colbert. Life forces drain out of him. Network tv. They were having a moment though. Hes promoting a movie, i think. He hopes its a moment. Up next, Bloomberg Business weeks issue. What bill gates tells the magazine about the future of the digital revolution. Josh green with that. Chuck todd joins the discussion. Morning joe back in a moment. Right now, 7 years of music is being streamed. A quarter million tweeters are tweeting. And 900 Million Dollars are changing hands online. Thats why hp built a new kind of server. One thats 80 smaller. Uses 89 less energy. And costs 77 less. Its called hp moonshot. And its giving the internet the room it needs to grow. This is gonna be big. Hp moonshot. Its time to build a better enterprise. Together. From capital one. Boris earns unlimited rewards for his Small Business. 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World, roc® multi correxion 5 in 1 man oh i cant go tonight woman i cant. hero thats what expedia asked me. Host book the flight but you have to go right now. Hero laughs and i just go . This is for real right . This is for real . I always said one day id go to china, just never thought itd be today. Anncr were giving away a trip every day. Download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. Expedia, find yours. [ male announcer ] clearly this isnt one of those speedeating contests. Thats a Hebrew National hot dog. A kosher hot dog. That means were extra choosy about the cuts of beef that meet our higher kosher standards. And only a good, oldfashioned slowmotion bite is gonna capture all that kosher delight. And when your hot dogs kosher, thats a hot dog you can trust. Hebrew national. Hey, welcome back to morning joe. As you take a live look in washington, d. C. , reagan national, back with us, weve got Brian Shactman and thomas roberts. Eugene robinson and Leigh Gallagher all still with us. Joining us on set, Senior National correspondent for Bloomberg Business week, joshua green. A lot to talk about today. Lets talk, though, about what the president is going to be doing today this week and over the next week. President obama is set to kick off a weeklong vacation in Marthas Vineyard and that, of course, in turn is triggering the expected criticism from all corners of capitol hill who are now on a monthlong recess themselves. Usa today reporting the first family will be staying at the 7 million home of a top democratic donor on Marthas Vineyard. Bill clinton vacationed at Marthas Vineyard during his time in office but he famously remember this, he famously switched his vacation destination to jackson hole after his pollster dick morris, yes, the same dick morris, found out that wyoming actually polled better in an Election Year than Marthas Vineyard for a vacation joe, dont you normally poll the family on where you want to go instead of the country . Just ask the kids, where do you want to go this year, gang . I can tell you theres only one poll that matters when it comes to vacations in my house. Its where the kids want to go. And where the kids want to go, we sort of follow. Yeah. I dont know that i could say, go to my kids and say dick morris tells me it would be much better for us to go, you know, were going to go to the ozarks this summer instead of whatever. But anyway, ozarks, by the way, a great place to vacation. Very up and coming, joe. Usa today, i better move on here, the usa today is reminding us that Franklin Roosevelt was even criticized for spending too much time on his yacht, john adams of course. Gene robinson and i remember this, he spent 17 months on his farm in 1798, accused of abdicating his office and the criticism cost him his second term. I think i wrote a column about it. I jumped on the bandwagon. You did and blamed it on george w. Bush even though he wouldnt be in office for another 200 years. I knew he was coming. You knew he was coming. For republicans who were ready to pounce, lets remember the last commander in chief also took his share of r and r. By this point in his presidency, george w. Bush had actually spent 367 days either on his vacation ranch in texas or at his familys compound in kennebunkport, maine, according to cbs News Reporter mark noller who reports that president obama doesnt own a Vacation Home or a family compound and has only spent 92 days of his presidency, only, on vacation. Now before he heads out of town, the president is going to be holding a press conference at the white house at 3 00 p. M. And i think i think its, gene, we talked about this last hour, this is a stage we look at like lets look at his Approval Ratings, where we look at where the president is going into the fall, the latest polling by nbc news and the wall street journal is putting the president s Approval Rating at 45 . Thats down from 52 in january. But a little bit better than congress Approval Rating which is 12 . Not going to be helped by their fiveweek vacation. But gene, lets look at whats happened. Of course the Obama Administration, like a lot of second terms, they come in and everybody is excited and they think were legitimized, were going to really spend the next two, three years getting things through, but look at all the things expected and up expected that have hit. First of all, after newtown, he couldnt even twist democrats and one republicans arm on guns, on getting background checks. You had the benghazi scandal that flared up over the past year, the irs scandal, the ap if you call them scandals, whatever you want to call them. The ap situation, the james rosen situation, the nsa situation. Its been one crisis after another, and nine months in to his second term going on vacation, Approval Ratings down a bit, obama care just getting bashed around which josh is going to talk about in a little bit, theyve had to put off the employer map date fmandate, con exempted themselves, the president has had a really rough nine months. This happens in second terms. This isnt just about him. But boy, what a rough nine months it has been for the white house. Its been a rough nine months but it doesnt happen in second terms as you mentioned and yeah. And then sometimes years later the second terms are remembered as not all that bad. The president , for example, is spending a lot of time himself on the implementation of obama care which he believes has to go right or has to go as well as it possibly can. And so that will be judged years from now as a success or a failure and that will say a lot about how we see this term in office. But youre right, that, you know, democrats won the election and felt that okay, well, thats kind of solved, we won the election so we can do some of the stuff that we told people we were going to do, that we ran on, and that has run up against the republican majority in the house and thats where we are. And thats washington and washington was meant, brian, to frustrate and it does frustrate. As far as the separation of powers, these things happens and it always shocks occupants of the white house especially after a second term. You know, last night was the anniversary of Richard Nixons speech where he was talking about resigning and it was absolutely stunning. As i was watching michael berb loss put it on twitter, it was heartbreaking, just not only for nixon, but for the country to see that, and brian, i was sitting there thinking this guy just a year earlier had won 49 states in one of the largest landslides in the history of america and a year and a half later being run out of office. Well, president obama won and in part saw that his vindication for obama care, but my gosh, this has been a really rough year for obama care as well and josh greene writes about that. Yeah. What is it 40 repeal votes. Josh greene from Bloomberg Business week you write about twitters involvement in trying to destroy obama care, basically the title of the article, obama care, reads in part, has passed congress, survived the Supreme Court and ratified by voters who elected obama last november but conservatives are planning one great final push to try to kill it. Will rank and file conservatives be able to muster the same grassroots fury as before . Too soon to say, bun one member suggests theres a strong possibility there can. Cantor media which tracks political ads has developed a political tracking tool which provides a glimpse of how people are feeling about the health care law. Bottom line, most people hate it. So does anyone really think they can do this . Thats a big question. Going into august, this is a pivotal period and a book end from what we saw in august 2009, where members of Congress Went back to their districts and were met by this kind of wave of furious anger by Tea Party People at town hall meeting some foe meanted by conservative groups but helped sort of spin public sentiment and lawmakers sentiment against that. Since then weve had the law passed, passed the Supreme Court, it is the law of the land but congressmen are going back to their districts and some see this as kind of the lastditch chance to kill it. You have republicans like jim demint who wanted to fund it but the trouble is you have to change public sentiment to get that law repealed. Socie so thats one of the things well see happen. Michele bachmann was first out of the gate to repeal obama care. First on the floor trying to do this. Thats how she ran her campaign. As you point out in your piece, the president won reelection based on what the Affordable Health care act means. So its kind of like they keep kicking it kicking a dead horse over and over. 39 subsequent votes to repeal obama care. Whats interesting that you get in these twitter metrics the sentiment on twitter is so negative. Yeah. Toward obama care. That doesnt necessarily translate into public opinion. I dont know if you watch snashg n sharknado did great on twitter, turned out ratings wise but kind of a bomb. This doesnt automatically joe, you know open enrollment begins october 1st with coverage to begin january 1st 2014. In the time period between now and then, can 140 characters from the president change the sentiment about what it means for the Affordable Care act . Because its coming down the line. Its chugging right october will be here before we know it. Its chugging down the line. It is. And, you know, its just its in this very strange place. Its sort of like in a no mans land and leigh, you look at whats been happening over the past year, and, you know, josh is exactly right. It passed congress. The president signed it. It survived the Supreme Court. It survived a president ial election. And yet, yeah, most people hate it. Theres a 34 Approval Rating for obama care which is absolutely horrific thats basically the democratic base. And i know in there some people want actually a more expansive bill as well, but 34 is 34 . Business leaders hated it so much that the white house had to push off for a year the employer mandate. Congress they passed it, hated it so much when the president went to talk to the Democratic Caucus the first thing they said, listen we passed a bill but you have to exempt us from it. It is alive and going to stay alive, its actually splitting the Republican Party right now as far as small group wanting to defend it by shutting down the government but its i dont know. Its like a zombie. Neither alive or completely dead. Its just sort of slowly marches on. Thats a great way to put it. Fantastic way to put it. Its been adjudicated again and again as weve all said. This is happening. I think its now time to let it speak for itself. The goal here is to provide health care to millions and millions of more people and to also hold the line on increasing health care costs. There are reasons why that might not work, you know, all the Healthy People might go for the cheaper plans, you know, and other big insurers might skim the healthy out and, you know, theres slight economic mechanical reasons why this faces challenges, but lets give it a try. Its happening. So, you know, i dont know that twitter is always necessarily the best theres an understatement. You think . I mean, i no. I think its great for sentiment unless its positive. I believe twitter when its positive. When they tweet nice things. Which is rare. Thomas is exactly right. If its positive i believe it. If its negative i dont. I always felt badly about myself on twitter because, you know, people are so negative on both sides until on the 4th of july i tweeted positive quotes about america, from jfk to Ronald Reagan to George Washington to Carl Sandberg and i was uniformly bashed by both sides. And i said you know, if america fears that badly on twitter, im okay. Its doing i mean there is a negativity there and you just its really hard to judge whether twitter loved your pants. They love my salmon pants. No doubt about that. I would call them nantucket red but i found out this past week from joy behar and town hall that nantucket red is actually a gay color. I found that to be fascinating. And town halls big headline joe scarborough, colon, i like gay pants. So whatever. Its fascinating. Theres a lot of i like gay pants too, joe. Im with you. I know you do i know you do. Nantucket reds are actually im just saying. Its not gay. Its preppy. Waspy. I have to talk to my dad. He had a pair for 25 years. Do these pants make me look i was going to say, i was just going to say, thomas, there are obviously a lot of older gentlemen on nantucket and country clubs that agree with you because they wear nantucket red too. I was ive never been to nantucket so i dont know. Well, boy, if you like gay pants, youll love nantucket because nantucket red is all over there. One guy you will probably never catch dead or alive in nantucket red, chuck todd, hes at the white house right now. Chuck, i just wonder if theres anything you would like to get off of your chest today, anything you want to talk about. Maybe we can got any grenades well maybe we can talk about nbcs fall schedule, whether theyre going to i think its wonderful. Very excited about it. It is going to be great. Nbc entertainment is doing great. Cant wait for the fall season. We love them. And if either of us said anything that would lead anybody to believe that we hated them yesterday, why, we, of course, take that back today. Hey, cluhuck, talk about today. The president getting out of town a little while. Holding a press conference this afternoon i guess at 3 00. What are you expecting to come out of that . Any news . I think it will be the first comments hes made since the putin decision, but joe, back it up. Think about what the white house thought theyd be doing three months ago at this point in time. Oh, my gosh. Before he was i think they thought they would be signing an immigration bill. There was really they thought there might be a 30 to 40 chance they would be doing that. Now you have to wonder is he ever going to sign an immigration bill. The town halls, the fight seems to be about health care, most frankly biting the republicans i think coming home to roost a little bit there, but still, its not popular and its still a debate point and still the implementation the administration has to do. I think putin is going to be the main sort of topic of conversation there. You know, think about this seven months. This is a first, lets address it here. The Foreign Policy right now, a lot of challenges on the president s plate that havent gone so well, whether its egypt, syria, whether its whats going on with snowden thats sort of brought to the forefront issues with china and russia that the United States this whole struggle for the u. S. To exert its influence in ways that it used to be able to do and then domestically, you know, the president s taking on water. Congress is very unpopular. But you start its taking the president down a little bit because theres nothing getting done here, right . No immigration. The budget battle looks like its going to be a mess. Sequestration looks like its here to stay. The economys sluggish. Frankly because of some of the challenges in washington. So this isnt a triumphant end of the Summer Press Conference as the president heads off to Marthas Vineyard. This is a little bit different of a period that theyre having than they wanted to. And boy, we said at the top of the hour, chuck, we looked at your polls, your nbc news wall street journal polls the president sitting at 45 . He was at 52 at the beginning of the year. Everybody comes into their second terms, republicans or democrats alike, expecting great things to happen. Of course george w. Bush gets reelected, he tries social security, its a disaster. Iraq just completely explodes. You look at katrina. Ha harriet miers, everything after his reelection. The same thing, not as dramatic for this president , but benghazi, the irs, the nsa, the ap, james rosen, postnewtown, they couldnt even pass a bill on background checks that over 90 of americans supported and as you said, immigration, this happens time and time again. And this white house has to be a little jarred, does it not, by the past seven, eight months . You know they are a little bit and its funny, joe, if we just looked at the president s situation and isolation, i think there would be a lot more people saying boy hes in a really bad position. This isnt going well. What keeps what keeps them hopeful that they can get something done, is that the Republican Party does feel as if its in this verge of a has a selfdestruct button on it. I mean theyre going to have a bunch of august town halls fighting about whether to shut down the government over funding a law that the Supreme Court i mean, if youre the white house youre going were in bad shape. Really . Were not those guys. Were not them. Thats what keeps the president looking like the adult in the room. And as long as the republicans keep doing what theyre doing, hes going to stay afloat, at least and be the most trust worthy figure in washington as far as the public is concerned because of where everybody else is standing in the Republican Partys problems getting behind anything. Chuck, it does seem that the president s kind of on defense at the moment. How do they play offense . What is playing offense for them right now . Thats where they tried this whole economic push, right. This is the whole try to go out into the country, try to see if they can get a little bit of credit from the public, reminding the public hey, this was a Great Recession we recovered from. This wasnt your typical recession. Things are a lot better than they were four years ago. Dont you remember how bad things so he went to arizona, place that, you know, okay, the housing crisis is no longer a crisis, its improving, its still below where it was in 06 but that is the attempt at offense here. After that, i think i this is what im wondering, gene, whether whats what do they have up their sleeve for september. Do they have a plan here to aggressively try to back the republicans into a corner, try to bait them into doing what is their plan . Or do they have plan to try to get a big budget deal, some sort of sequester deal. What is their strategy in the fall, you know. Ive talked to some obama supporters who are on the outside, theyre wondering what it is and theyre hoping these guys have a strategy that they come up with something over the next three weeks that postlabor day when you have this big push, when the immigration, the budget fights, all of it coming to a head, that they have some sort of plan to get back on offense more here in this town. Theyre playing offense outside the beltway. But are they going to play offense here in washington . All right. Chuck todd, thank you so much. I think we survived, right . We survived this block. No problem. No grenades went off. Well, you didnt fall on any grenades, exactly. Hey, i like this new i like this new midsummer jane lynch show. Hollywood game show was weirdly watchable. Go ahead. Theyre doing great over there. Theyre unbelievable, chuck, and everybody at nbc news and the Washington Bureau thanks you for falling on the grenade. We can see you also coming up next on the daily run down. Hey josh, let me ask you before we go to break, youve talked about the president s problems on twitter. Obviously problems with business. Theyve had to delay implementation for a year on when it comes to the employer mandate. Also have the problems inside of congress. What what is the plan from the Obama Administration to push back not only with their critics online but also their critics in the Business Community and even democrats in congress that dont seem to see obama care as a positive . I dont think they have a whole lot of trepidation about the online, the twitter sentiment. Talk to people in the white house they will say this has been passed into law. What we are worried about is the implementation of the law that begins in october and getting enough young, healthy americans to sign up for the exchanges in order that rates dont skyrocket. That i think is the real fear here in the white house, that component of health care will go awry and if it does, then all these kind of angry online twitter people might really have some basis for changing the law and getting it repealed. Josh, if their strategy depends on reaching out to young, healthy americans, i mean, it seems to me that actually what youre writing about this week is extraordinarily relevant because whos engaged more in social media than younger americans, than the demo theyre specifically reaching out for . Yeah. I think thats true to an exit tent. On the other hand, you know, if im a young guy on twitter and some guy is tweegt at me not to get Health Insurance or burn my obama Health Insurance card, i dont know if thats the most persuasive avenue in the world. Its one place theyre having an effect, winning the debate and thats what so interesting about this twitter metric i wrote about. In that component conservatives and opponents of obama care seem to be winning the argument. All right. Josh greene, thank you so much. Your Bloomberg Business week interview issue is out now. We appreciate you being with us. Still ahead, former president ial adviser David Axelrod joins us for the political round table. Up next, why did big budget blockbusters bite the dust . They are doing it. They did it last year. Theyre doing it again. New york times film critic tony scott is here to explain whats behind this summers hollywood busts. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. All this produce from walmart and secretly served it up in the heart of peach country. Its a freshover. We want you to eat some peaches and tell us what you think. Theyre really juicy. It must have just come from the farm. This right here is ideal for me. 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Earlier this week the Walt Disney Company warned that it expects to lose 160 to 190 million on this film alone. This quarter alone. But it wasnt just disney. Its been a season of blockbuster busts. With us now, the film critic for the New York Times, tony scott. Tony, this is the summer of ishtar, the summer of water world, the summer much whats going on in hollywood . Isttar is out on bluray and its a pretty good movie. Check it out. Its unfairly maligned. Its a funny movie. Its a movie, though, about artistic failure so its in that sense, you know, the summer of do you take responsibility because both have come out to say critics were out to pan this movie months and months in advance . I personally cost this movie at least 100 of that 100 million. You do admit to that pillar of crippling that pillar for the lone ranger . Not at all. This is great spin. About to open this movie in europe and its done quite disappointingly here and they have to look around for a scapegoat. The way the movies are made and marketed are designed to marginalize critics. Theres a huge amount of marketing and excitement and free media and publicity and usually doesnt matter what the critics say. Do you think its going to do well in europe. We all grew up watching reruns of the lone ranger so we know what to anticipate from that and how its engrained in all of us. Lone ranger, i do not get it johnny depp. Johnny depp. We like johnny depp. But and they love the french love westerns and the french reviews in particular have been a lot more positive than the american reviews. Really . What else has done well this summer . Lets just, you know is there any bright spot . How did woody allens movie do, blue jasmine . Any indy hits . There are bright spots. Sort of the big lumbering blockbuster action movies a lot have been disappointing, but one movie that was a big hit was the heat with Melissa Mccarthy and sandra bullock. The only movie, single movie released by a major studio with a female per naggist. Woody allen with cate blanchett, amazing performance, one of the richest pieces of acting in a woody allen movie since hanna and her sisters or crimes and misde meaners. Other indy movies at the smaller scale, movies that dont cost 300 million to make that actually do quite well like fruit veil station a tough interesting drama based on a reallife case of a young man killed in oakland by transit police. Another a lot of people were talking about the attack. Is this going to change the model and open up more slots in the mega plex for some of these movies . You go there and there are three theaters for despicable me which i loved and three for the lone ranger. You talk to people in the movie business, why bother, i have to go straight to netflix because i cant get in the theater anyway. Im not sure its going to change the model. Theres always a bit of you saw it last summer with beast of the summer wild and this summer too, there is counter programming. Some of the independent distributors and the art house theaters that play them, find that the audiences, maybe sort of the more mature or curious audiences that are turned off by all of the same stuff coming in at the multi flexes are looking for Something Else and they can kind of find a Little Pocket of success there. So, tony, break down the economics of this because a lot of us still dont understand the economics of it. The idea is im just a critic, you know. I know, but i know you hear it, we all hear it, but, you know, dam it, you better know more about this than us because you are a critic and you live it. But everybody says that these movies are geared towards 13 and 14yearold boys. And it has been a Business Strategy. Whats behind that Business Strategy to do 300 million blockbusters that can wreck a studio . You have to understand that Business Strategy as a global Business Strategy. Youre not if youre going to spend, you know, a quarter of a or a third of a billion dollars producing and marketing a movie youre not going to get all of that money back from teenage boys in north america no matter how many times they go see the movie. Its going to be tough. Youre talking about asia and europe and latin america and the middle east. One of the reasons that so much is invested in these particular kind of movies, these sort of, you know, with lots of explosions, cities blowing up, you know, tough guys saving the day, saving the world from destruction, is that thats what seems to play most safely overseas. It translates, right . You dont have a lot of humor doesnt necessarily translate but explosions do. Exactly. You blow up a city, you know, its everyone gets it. Tony, have you reviewed jobs. I havent seen jobs yet. Just curious. That wasnt a huge blockbuster budget on that film. No. But certainly has the name recognition. I hear its good. To see how it will do. Theres some good, small movies coming out. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Tony scott of the New York Times. Up next, you want to check out the running of the bulls but not ready to travel halfway around the world. The new festival thats bringing the tradition to the United States. Keep it on morning joe brewed by starbucks. I am alejandro morales, i was seven months old and my family moved straight to chicago. America is the only country i have ever known. Senior year of high school, i was promoted to City Court Staff commander, i held the rank of cadet brigadier general. I was head of chicago rotc. I want to be a us citizen and i want to be a marine, im gonna be a marine, because i care. I care about this country. I care about those around me, i care about my family, my neighbors. You know, i do want to give back, i believe one hundred percent in what this country stands for. Let me earn it, you know, let me serve. I just want an opportunity, i just want a chance. To, to show everyone out there that, i am, american and that i will honorably serve this country wearing a marine corp uniform. Take a look at this. That fire is what a daredevil biker narrowly avoided dying in. Tried to go through a tunnel of fire and yahoo news is reporting the stuntman was trying to reclaim his world record driving through a 362foot long fire tunnel on his motorcycle in south dakota but the tunnel collapsed seconds into his ride. He was stuck inside but later he stumbles out of the blaze after crashing his bike. That would be probably a pretty good movie scene, i would say. Thats pretty scary. You dont have to book a trip to spain. Excellent. Anyone at the table run with the bulls . Never. Governor . You and rex ryan climbing the fence . Not happening. I booked a trip to spain before but havent done that. As nbcs Kerry Sanders explains, its now coming to the United States. Reporter its heart pounding and terrifying and every rear in pamplona, spain, hundreds run, some fall and sometimes die, at least 15 since 1924. Its amazing the size. Reporter for brad and rob, it just didnt seem right that the only way to run with the bulls was to travel to spain. Their idea, an american bull run, coming to ten u. S. Cities. That thrill, the adrenaline rush that you get from putting yourself in more tall danger and then coming out on the other side victorious, unscathed. Reporter 20,000 have already signed up at a starting price of 35 a person. Its the real deal. And thats why i think its getting people excited and why were getting so much national attention. Reporter these bulls are among the meanest on the professional rodeo circuit. And they run faster than humans. 35 miles an hour. 35 miles an hour. Yes, sir. So somebodys going to get run over . Somebody is going to get run over. Reporter the bulls will be released on closed courses with the first run set for virginia at the end of the month. Unlike the streets in spain, here there will be cutouts where slow runners can escape. Some disapprove. This seems barbaric and senseless to me. Others cant wait. I want to experience as much as i can before i cant. The Humane Society is opposed to the event. The usda tells nbc news its carefully examining this issue. As a vet, will there be any harm to the bulls . Should not be any harm at all. What do you make of this idea of running with the bulls . Its not something i would want to do. I would like to be on the other side of the fence looking. I dont like to be chased by anything. Smart guy. He knows. Yeah. Thats nbcs Kerry Sanders. Why hasnt this been done before . Because its stupid because you go there and you run bulls run after you and perhaps gore you to death. This is the stupidest thing ive ever seen. Stupid in pamplona, its idiotic they would do it here and were concerned about the health of the bulls. I guess we could. People are too stupid to survive. Normally its europe importing bad ideas from america. Now were importing a bad idea from europe. See, i would totally do it. In your nantucket reds. Well, it only costs the blood in my salmon pants. The reason it hasnt been done because of insurance. They had to get a policy with lloyds of london to get a coverage. You think . You think . Its only 35. I see you doing it and writing a column on it. Ill write the column from the other side of the fence. Thank you. Coming up next, they often look more like soldiers than Police Officers. Investigative reporter Bradley Balco is here with his book on the rise of the warrior cop. The mill tarization of americas law enforcement. Keep it on morning joe. 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Explain how weve gotten to this point now in 2013 where the line is so blurred between military soldier and cop . Yeah. This is an important line that weve respected for a long time in this country, this idea that soldiers and police have very Different Missions and its dangerous to start to conflate the two in a free society. Whats happened over the last generation over so began with the drug war is the pentagon started giving away this military equipment to Police Agencies across the country and were talking, you know, tanks and armor personnel carriers, helicopters, you know, highpowered weapons, bayonets for some reason, Police Agencies love baio nets, once they hathi equipment they start forming these s. W. A. T. Teams. The increase is dramatic. In the early 80s about 15 of towns of 25,000 or more people had a s. W. A. T. Team. Today well over 80 . The total number of s. W. A. T. Raids has gone from about a few hundred per year in the 70s to a few thousand per year in the 80s to 50,000 s. W. A. T. Raids per year in this country today. But the crime rate has gone down . Yep. So isnt this is there an argument that this is actually working . I mean look at here in new york city, its plummeted dramatically, especially the murder rate, and youre seeing that in cities across the country although crime is rising in the suburbs . Heres the thing. The vast majority of these raids are done to search search warrants on people suspected of nonviolent consensual drug crimes. That is not whats affecting the crime rate. Drug use has not gone down at all. Its stayed about the same since this trend started. Theres really no evidence that the use of s. W. A. T. Teams has brought down the crime rates. Crim nolgs are fighting over what has caused the crime drop but these are mostly done on, you know, people who are suspected of these consensual crimes and, you know, theres a time when s. W. A. T. Teams were used only in these emergency type situations, hostage takings or active shooter or escaped fugitive and using violence to diffuse an already violent situation where theres lives on the line. The problem with how s. W. A. T. Teams are overwhelmingly used today, youre creating violence and confrontation where there was none before. Breaking into peoples homes, putting them in this very kind of primal state of trying to figure out what do when armed men are breaking into their house. Whats interesting, in the 90s starting with president clinton and the crime bill, the emphasis for police forces, youre clearly right about the buildup of s. W. A. T. Teams, was Community Policing, was getting a neighbor, getting to know the neighbors and it was Community Policing has been pretty effective. Actually and Community Policing is great. All the Police Officers and Police Chiefs i talk to in the book endorse it. The one problem with that program during the Clinton Administration is that there was no oversight on how that money was spent once it reached the Police Departments and actually there have been some studies done that shown a lot of Police Department used those grants to start s. W. A. T. Teams. The ones that used it well, we got a thousand new policemen in philadelphia, put them all on the street, everybody on patrol, no special teams and we got to relate better with the neighborhoods and thats the thing that brings crime down most of all. I agree. The idea that cops should have a stake in the communities that theyre policing and the people in those communities should see them as part of the community, thats effective policing. People go to the cops and give them tips, they cooperate with them and its not an us versus them sort of thing. Its a concept thats fascinating. I didnt see those numbers before. The book is called the rise of the warrior cop, the militarization of Americas Police forces. Bradley balko thank you for coming on. My pleasure. An incredible story of mistaken identity. Kidnapping, abandoned child and dna test thats thrown a family into turmoil. Pete williams has that story. How modern technology could help solve a nearly 500year mystery. What dna testing can tell us about the woman behind that famous smile. Nbcs Michele Kosinski is live in paris, next on morning joe. Im beth. And im michelle. And we own the paper cottage. Its a stationery and gifts store. Anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. So you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the Game Changing app from ink. We didnt get into business to spend time managing receipts, thats why we have ink. We like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. So you have time to focus on the things you love. Ink from chase. So you can. That starts with one of the worlds most advancedy, distribution systems, and one of the most efficient trucking networks, with safe, experienced drivers. We work directly with manufacturers, eliminating costly markups, and buy directly from local farmers in every region of the country. When you see our low prices, remember the wheels turning behind the scenes, delivering for millions of americans, everyday. Dedication thats the real walmart the beach on your tv is much closer than it appears. Seize the summer with up to 50 off hotels at travelocity. Wits hard to find contractors with the passion and the skill, and thats why we use angies list. Online or on the phone, we help you hire right the first time with honest reviews on over 720 local services. I want it done right. I dont want to have to worry about it or have to come back and redo it. With angies list, i was able to turn my home into the home of my dreams. For over 18 years, weve helped people take care of the things that matter most. Join today. Ito guard their manhood with trnew depend shields and guards. The discreet protection thats just for guys. Now, its your turn. Get my Training Tips at guardyourmanhood. Com. All right, so this next story, its really amazing. The fbi now looking into nearly a half century old case involving a kidnapping and abandoned baby and a nevada man desperate to find his true identity. Reporter the trouble starts one april day in 19 4. A baby boy born to a chicago couple is snatched from the hospital by a one disguised as a nurse. An intense search. National attention. Then 14 months later, a child is found abandoned in newark, new jersey. Investigators conclude its the missing boy based on the shape of his ears. When he was 10 years old, the boy discovered a stash of newspaper clippings about the kidnapping and began to wonder was he really the stolen child. He talked his parents into taking a dna match. The result, no match. Not their child. Now, age 49, he wants to know who is he and what ever became of that stolen baby . The fbi said it could not help because the case files were long lost. Now agents have found those files and are hoping advancements in forensics and public attention might provide some answers. Thanks, pete. Just who was the woman behind lenaonardo da vincis masterpie . A new dna test may produce some results. She found a way to stay in paris. The windblown michelle kosin i kosinski. Reporter at the louvre, people are amazed at how small this painting really is and how alive she looks. This morning in italy, an old crypt is being opened to help see if the real mona lisa was who historians thing she was. How much the world wants to know. Enough to open a centuries old grave in florence this morning. Holding the husband and two sobs of lisa garadina, a merchants wife who historians believe da vinci painted in the early 1500s. They want a dna test to see if some of these bones, found not long ago in a convent grave in florence, might really be hers. Then they can do a reconstruction of her face and see what she really looked like. Shes such a source of speculation and all sorts of ways. Psychologically, historically, personally. All thats really known is leonardo didnt hand it over. He worked on it very slowly. It became something that obsessed him. Reporter maybe the only people not obsessed with all this are these princesses at their palace and thousand year old winery in the quiet countryside. For us its quite clear. Reporter 15th generation direct descendants of lisa. Maybe even kind of look like her. Our smiles are too big. We cant do it. Reporter to them, no mystery. Their Family History and existing documents tell them the mona lisa is their lisa. At first the exhumations bothered them. Now they too have caught the fascination. Were really curious to see how she really looked and how good was leonardo painting her. Reporter the latest odd theories about the mona lisa kind of lean toward the scientific. Some doctors wondering if maybe her mouth was closed because she was missing her front teeth or maybe her teeth had turned black if she was getting mercury treatment for firsyphilis. Now maybe we will learn more about this work of art. Do they know anything about the relationship between leonardo and this mysterious woman . I mean, i think we frankly already know what she really looked like because leonardo was pretty good at that. But how did they know each other . What do we know . Reporter right, right, well, the question is whether lisa delgiocondo really was the mona lisa. They have to test these bones, then figure out if she really was the mona lisa by constructing her face. When you asked about the possible relationship, leonardo according to documents was friends with her husband who was a politician and merchant. So he got leonardo to paint his wife. And apparently, according to some art historians, he painted her twice, about ten years apart. I think whats interesting about that, he may have had some kind of obsession with her. It took him forever to paint her. He painted her twice. Then he hoeld on to the paintin and brought it to france and thats how it ended up in the louvre. Kind of interesting. Whats interesting is what story she comes up with that she gets to stay in france for a few more days. Have you guys seen it in person . I have. Reporter im sure, theres a champagne story somewhere. Thank you, michelle. In paris. Coming up next, first it was an angry voeter, then a republican rival. Now weiner getting into it with a foreign reporter. Plus, congressional critics hammer president obama for spending a week vacation on Marthas Vineyard. Of course those complaints come from lawmakers who are currently on a fiveweek break themselves. Morning joe comes right back. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers. You know who you are. You can part a crowd, without saying a word. If you have yet to master the quiet sneeze. You stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts. Well muddlers, muddle no more. Try zyrtec®. It gives you powerful allergy relief. And zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour one on the first day you take it. Claritin® doesnt start working until hour three. Zyrtec®. Love the air. Good morning. Its 8 00 a. M. On the east coast, 5 00 a. M. On the west coast. As you take a live look at new york city. Back with us on set, brian shackman, thomas roberts, Eugene Robinson, edwin dell and Leigh Gallagher. Today, president obama is set to kick off his weeklong vacation. In Marthas Vineyard. That of course in turn has triggered the expected criticism from corners of capitol hill of course who are in the middle of a fiveweek vacation. Usa todays reporting the first familys going to be staying at the 7 million home of a top democratic donor and of course bill clint be also vacationed in Marthas Vineyard during his time in the white house but he famously, and i know gene will remember this and ed will remember, he famously switched his vacation destination after dick morris took polls to see which vacation spots would be better and they found out that wyoming, surprisingly enough, is better than Marthas Vineyard. Of course nantuckets better too but i dont thing youll find that in the poll. As usa todays reminding us this morning, Franklin Roosevelt was criticized for spending time on his yacht. John adams spent seven months in quincy, massachusetts, on his farm in 1798 and was accused of abdicating his office. For republicans who are ready to pounce, lets look at this by the numbers. The president s going on vacation. The last commander in chief, george w. Bush, took his share of r r. At this point in george w. Bushs presidency, mark knoller with cbs figured this out, george w. Bush spent 367 days at his ranch in texas or his familys compound in kennebunkport, maine, that of course according to mark knoller who says, also, that president obama who doesnt own a Vacation Home or have a family compound, has only spent 92 days of his presidency on vacation. And before he heads out of town, hes going to make some more news. The president s going to be holding a News Conference at the white house at 3 00 p. M. I just got to say, and i always go back, ed, to a maureen dowd column talking about first ladies and who the great first ladies were, talking about how pat nixon was great at making Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches that would relax Richard Nixon. As maureen said, and she wasnt being sarcastic or snippy at all, if that put the president s head in a better place, to make decisions regarding china or the economy or then thats exactly what they needed. Ive always felt this way if you make a pb j with xanax, that relaxes you too. And let me just say i have tried that. Thats called the breakfast of champions actually. Crunchy Peanut Butter. I actually disguise it in the crunchy Peanut Butter. Ed rendell, we shouldnt begrudge our leaders vacations, should we . Is the president making a mistake going to Marthas Vineyard . Should he have poll tested this and gone to, like, alabama instead . Youre right, president s are entitled to vacations. There are never real vacations. The work goes on. Its unbelievable how much work. Even as governor of pennsylvania, i never had a day on vacation where i didnt have some contact with the office, have to make some decisions. And, third, forget all about polling your vacation. We have become a nation of polls. Just do what you want. No ones going to vote for you because you went to Martha Vineyard or wyoming. Give the voters a little respect for their intelligence. Exactly, gene. Again, i think the president would have been much better served going to nantucket than Marthas Vineyard. We can have that debate elsewhere. This does seem like the perfect show to have the debate on. But where does the president stand right now . He expected so much more. His supporters expected so much more. The white house expected so much more. In this second term, it has been a really, really rough eight, nine months for the president. His poll numbers according to the latest nbc news poll down a little bit. He even matt damons criticizing him overseas. What does a president need to do when he comes back to turn it around . I dont think theres a magic bullet that makes everything in washington better, joe, to tell you the truth. I dont think he thinks that either. So i think he at this point is resigned to the fact its going to be a bit of a slog. Hes going to keep working on his major priorities. And hes also frankly going to have an eye on 2014. Gene, could you follow up on what ed said too, no president , republican or democrat, liberal or conservative, ever has a day off. Remind of that yesterday when Thurston Clarke came on, he said he was in the middle of all of these personal crises when somebody came up and asked him to green light an assassination. And caroline was having a rough couple of days and pulling at him and, you know and he goes yeah, sure, basically. A couple days later, hes what have i done . But the incoming is constant. No president er has a day off or night off or morning off. It is absolutely constant. And keep in mind, he has a family. He has daughters who are growing up. The first lady. They go to Marthas Vineyard every year. Theyre kind of used to it. Friends gather there. Its a family. Lets just kind of lighten up and all wish we could be on vacation too. Exactly. Hey, thomas roberts, you know, the president when hes off hes going to be looking at a lot of issues. Interesting new poll out shows the United States making some gains as far as how people view us. Not doing so well in the middle east. But across the rest of the world, our image improving a bit. Despite the recent backlash over these drone strikes, the u. S. Actually enjoying these levels of popularity that it hasnt seen since before the iraq war. Pew Research Showing 64 of people around the world have a favorable view of america. So thats a 13point rise among those same countries when they were last surveyed in 07. In muslim countries like pakistan theres frustration over u. S. Foreign policy. Just 11 of there have a favorable opinion of the u. S. Theres also been a dip in approval under president obama. Leigh, you think thats just obamas transition to presidency over bush . That last poll was in 07. What else would it say . I think that has a lot to do with it. The world is looking to us for a number of reasons. You know, but i think its the timing has a lot to do with it. I think under president obama, i think our global image has improved. You cant forget how unpopular we were at the end of the bush presidency, right . No doubt, things were going poorly. Of course, were still having problems in the middle east but across the rest of the world, across europe, those numbers are certainly up. Ed rendell, weve been looking at polls out of kentucky. Looks like Mitch Mcconnell hasnt had a lot of excitement on his side. Hes been tied with the challenger. And the news yesterday, not news that any of us running in a Political Campaign would want. Thomas, so lets go to the statement. And then, ed, get the response. The background on this is the master of Mcconnells Senate campaign told a conservative activist on the telephone, between you and me, im sort of holding my nose for two years because what were doing here is going to be a big benefit to rand in 16. At the time benton was speaking with a former aide to former congressman rand paul. He handed over the recording to the Economic Policy journal. Com. Benton issued a statement calling this leak sick, adding i believe in mcconnell and im 100 committed to his reelection. I look forward to victory in november of 2014. Then the Campaign Even posted this photo of benton on Facebook Holding his nose next to the Senate Minority leader. The republican challenger benton tweeting that photo saying, dont hold your know vote for a real conservative. The other thing is theres family connections. Benton is married to rand pauls granddaughter. And worked on his campaign in the past. And kind of shoed over in the mcconnell world after paul kind of, the wheels came off the bus. There are family connections here. He was talking about looking at the longer vision. His family is, you know, that will be his uncle would be rand paul. Its pretty confusing but the only winner here is the democratic candidate wozhos a very impressive woman. It depends on how tough the primary is. If its tough and bitter, she really gets a leg up in the fall. Shes going to raise a ton of money nationally. This guy was speaking to a former aide to congressman ron paul. So its really inside baseball that he would go ahead and leak this to try to pants Mitch Mcconnell basically. Is this a mole inside the Mcconnell Campaign . Yeah, from the inside all the associations there, its very interesting. Its interesting, all the straig strategyizing around rand paul for 2016. The Tea Party Candidate, if hes viable, mitch might have a tough time anyway. No doubt about it. He definitely theres no doubt, you go back to rand paul running in 2010. And of course rand paul was not the favorite of Mitch Mcconnell. He supported a more mainstream candidate. Rand paul won anyway. The fact theyre working together is a marriage of convenience at best. I have to follow up with what gene said. Whats most fascinating about this and most revealing about this is how people who are closest to rand paul are so actively engaged already in his 2016 run for president. This is a guy and, you know, weve all heard the old saying that characters what you do when nobodys watching. I guess you could say the same thing about political plans. You reveal what you say when you think nobodys listening. Gene, theres no doubt that rand pauls people are expecting a big run for the white house and this is one part of it. Yeah, theyre trying to lay groundwork and seem to be trying to establish him as in the field already. It sets up of course this fascinating battle inside the Republican Party with the libertarian wing trying to assert itself. Assume there is a wing behind him. I mean, its its not all that organized, but this is going to be this is going to be fascinating as we go through. Three years left. That quote about character is perfect for this next story. Listen to this one. Weve got another day. Another indelicate piece of video for new york city mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. Already this week, hes fought with a new york voter, dismissed another candidate, now hes making fun of the foreign press. Take a look. Is it ambition, the power . Im trying to take you seriously. No, it has to do with wanting to be mayor of the city new york and wanting to help the middle class struggling to make it. Or the hunger for the big job. Would anything stop you . I just have a feeling ive like stepped into a monty python bit. Would anything stop me . No, nothings going to stop me. Anything else i can do for itv . Want to do for the weather or something . If you can do the weather. This is in england . You can do the weather in new york if you like. No, ill do yours instead. Raining, cloudy and gray. Do what you can, guys, try to keep your head up, keep a stiff what is it, stiff upper lip. A stiff something. Its not even funny. The poll, hes in fourth place, the new poll by the New York Times and Siena College finds him in fourth place. 10 support him. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sits on top. If no candidate receives 40 , theres a runoff between the two top candidates. Puts weiner out of the race. As for former new york governor spit st spitzer, he is faring better. Holds a ninepoint lead. 44 to 35 . Do you think, governor, theres nothing thats going to make Anthony Weiner hes in it for the long haul now. The most interesting thing about those two polls is imagine for a minute if Anthony Weiner didnt have the second postresignation slew of tweets, imagine that he didnt have those, imagine that he conducted himself without losing his temper during the campaign, he very likely could have been in the same position as spitzer. Remember, before that came out, he was leading in one of the polls. Its amazing how he selfdestructed. Joe, do you think yesterday this video was taken as Anthony Weiner was going door to door knocking. If you were on the other team, would you find out where hes going to be knocking in the future and put sydney leathers behind the door . Because leathers looks at weiner as an atm machine for her own career. Oh, god, its you, and the cameras are there. Leigh, its got to be over. Ways fascinating it was over weeks ago. Whats fascinating is a guy that a lot of people you cover hate. Eliot spitzer is on his way back to power. It certainly look, that way. And the Business Community, michael bloomberg, many others, not happy about that at all. No, theyre not. And he looks strong. Especially when you compare him to weiner. These two are lumped together. That contrast is becoming more striking. Yeah, i mean, this is he was persona nongrata for all of wall street. They were thrilled with what happened to him. This is interesting for that reason. Weiner, talk about somebody who needs a vacation. He just needs to go away. Its just its incredible. Its just drama. Coming up on morning joe, our faith on fridays discussion with imam khaled latif. Hell help clear up what he calls misconceptions about the month of ramadan. First, heres bill karins with the weather. Two things going on. Were watching the flooding in missouri and the fires out in california, have been really nasty over the last 24 hours. Lets go to missouri, the flooding yesterday. Just outside branson, missouri. About a foot of rain fell. Many people chased from their homes. A lot of people did see their homes flooded by that rising water. Hollister, missouri, the worst hit town. Now near the palm spring, area. In the mountainous terrain. About five firefighters did get heat exhaustion. There were about 1,000 people out there now in what theyre calling the silver fire. This has increased to 1,000 acres. Every hour ever since it began. Thats a blaze that continues to burn. Let me get to the problems today. Heavy rain up through new england this morning. Its a difficult drive, a slow drive all through new england. Thankfully and amazingly, the airports are doing fine. Im sure as we get to the afternoon, thunderstorms mixed in, well see significant delays from philly to new england. The other spot, still hot in texas. The only concerns i really have other the weekend, the southeast, carolinas through north georgia, mississippi, well have storms. Well dry it out in areas like missouri who desperately need it. We leave you with the shot of washington, d. C. Lets get the ball rolling. Along the jersey shore, cocacola is partnering with local businesses and the Seaside Heights Business Improvement district to restore the historic boardwalk, welcoming beach lovers back with a refreshed and revitalized place to get out, get moving, and have some fun in the sun. Its part of our goal to inspire more than three Million People to rediscover the joy of being active this summer. See the difference all of us can make. Together. The last thing i want is to feel like someone is giving me a sales pitch, especially when it comes to my investments. You want a broker you can trust. A lot of guys at the other firms seemed more focused on selling than their clients. Thats why i stopped working at my old brokerage and became a Financial Consultant with charles schwab. Avo what kind of Financial Consultant are you looking for . Talk to us today. [ laughing ]. Is the crackle of the campfire. It can be a million years old. Cool. Or a few weeks young. [ laughs ] away beckons from orions belt. Away. Is a place thats closer than you think. Find your away. For a dealer and the rv thats right for you, visit gorving. Com. I have to set a debate calendar that has the best interest of our party in mind. If ive got nbc doing a miniserieses with diane lane starring on behalf or portraying Hillary Clinton on a fourday miniseries, ingot to tell you, it makes my choice of moderators much easier. The fact of the matter is, this happened now, so i wrote the letter now so that before nbc goes any further, i give them fair warning. That was the rnc chairman on morning joe yesterday, on why he is concerned about nbc and cnn participating in the republican primary debates leading up to the 2016 election. After talking to him, who we both like very much, hes always been very kind with us and always come back on the show even when we disagreed heatedly. After he said he wouldnt even allow mika to be a host, it seems to narrow down which network theyre going to be willing to operate with. Lets bring in David Axelrod. Davids in chicago. David, we talked earlier and i know you heard it earlier, we were talking about the problems of second terms, of course, the most dramatic, we talked about Richard Nixon 39 years ago. He goes from 49 states to retiring. But Ronald Reagan had trouble in his second term. George w. Bush had problems in his second term. This president also challenged by a year of starts and stops. What do we see when the president and Congress Come back in the fall that will give americans hope to believe that washington will start getting some things done . Well, i think part of it is what people here when they go home, these members of congress, because, you know, as youve pointed out in the poll that you put up, congress is at 12 . I think people have no patience for the notion of a Government Shutdown, these kinds of showdowns that some in the Republican Caucus have threatened. So there is an inpet tus to try and get something done around the budget, perhaps around immigration. People want to see program. The frustration you hear americans expressing is about gridlock. And they want to see these guysing are together to get things done. You see that happening between republicans and democrat in the senate. The house is a tough nut to crack. Perhaps the voters are the one to do it. As a fairminded, down the middle, nonpartisan nbc news analyst, what responsibility i say that with a straight face, by the way, should get credit to that. What responsibility does the president of the United States bear in somehow figuring out a way to break the gridlock . I will accept that question in the spirit of coming from a straight down the middle, nonpartisan show host. But look, i think the president , if you and every poll reflects this, president s made efforts over the course of the last five years to try and find partners. You see he is finding some partners in the senate now. The problem joe, the main problem, is the one weep tave d about many times on the show. There are political rewards for some members, particularly in the house, to define the president on any subject. You know, i thought one of the best joke, at the White House Correspondents dinner was when he said i had some republicans over for dinner and i made a toast but they sent it to committee. I think that is what hes faced. I mean, actually, i got to say i got to disagree here. He actually had much better jokes. That was a clunker. Gene roberts, let me bring you in, gene. There is frustration but i guess the bigger problem is i hear david talking about members going home to their districts and Holding Town Hall meetings. Listen, republicans are going to be rewarded for going home and blocking the Affordable Care act. They just are. In the house at least. Theyre going to be rewarded. Democrats are going to be rerd wh rewarded for going home and attacking republicans. The problem is not that politicians are acting irrationally but that theyre responding to a system thats so dysfunctional that it rewards this sort of behavior so it becomes actually the rationale political thing to do on both sides. The system does reward bad behavior. I do wonder though if politicians on both sides might not hear some other messages from the voters at home. Like, you know, you guys really ought to get something done. I had a question for David Axelrod. David, youre not there anymore, so whos the president listening to these days . Well, look, hes got a good group of people there. Dennis mcdonough, the chief of staff, is one of the finalist Public Servants ive worked with. Hes smart. Hes well organized. Every, hes very, very committed. I think one of the reasons there have been ongoing discussions with members of congress and the white house staff, hes been the point person on that. So, you know, dennis is there. And the president has a great cabinet. Hes got you know, im not worried about him not getting the advice he needs. And he does reach out and speaks to peek outside of the white house, including old advisers, from time to time. So i dont think the problem is hes too insulated and hes not getting advice. I do agree with what joe said. I was getting at that before. You do have a structural problem. Its one that were going to have to address i think as a country, which is if you have districts that are so hodge mojness that you only have to worry about the strident voices in your own party, it makes it harder to get things done. Even people in your own party are frustrated with the lack of progress and enough of them agitate that members begin to say you hear Republican Leaders say, we cant shut down the government. We did that once before. We dont want to do that again. So you hope that those voices have some sway while these members are wandering around on their fiveweek vacation. Ed rendell, you and i have had this discussion before. The problem is, its not just when you go home and the gerrymandering districts that reward this sort of infighting, this bickering and this gridlock. You also have the voices on radio, the voices on tv, the voices on line, the voices on both sides that are also rewarded. You know, glenn beck made 90 million last year. He didnt made 90 million by having a nuanced conversation about public policy. People on the left make millions and millions. People on the left make millions and millions of dollars, you know, being blow torches for the progressive cause. Ed rendell, so it seems like the entire system rewards irrationality and irrationality become, rational and gridlock becomes the end result and the rest of us pay for this. How do we fix this structural problem that David Axelrod talked about . The most important part of that is redistricting. I think weve got to go back to citizen redistricting panels. The citizens are going to come up with more reasonable districts that are more c competitive. As long as the districts arent competitive in the fall, youre going to have whether its a democrat or a republican, youre going to have them worried more about primary challenges from the extreme than trying to do the right thing. David, i think the president s got to ride above the problems. Theyre not of his making. But hes got to stay with it. Hes got to wear them down. And i think he can do that. When i left harrisburg, a reporter asked one of the Republican Leaders how i got a lot of my stuff through and the guy said, he just wore us down. I think the president s got to do that. Ed, i would say he has that mindset. One of his great strengths is he takes the long view. He doesnt get flustered by the daytoday frenzy in washington. And he views this as a longterm project. So he will wait them out. He is not going to hit the panic button. And ultimately, i think the apprecia pressures will build for action. It may not be the kind of action that sort of, you know, allencompassing action that some of would like to see. But i think we can move the country forward if people rise up and express to their members what theyre expressing to these pollsters. All right. Hey, David Axelrod, thank you so much. We appreciate you being on the show. We hope susan is doing okay. Please send her our best. Shes doing great, ill pass it along. Brian, what do we have coming up next . Were going to talk a little bit about what the month of ramadan can teach people of all faiths. Imam khalid latif, executive director of the new york city for islamic university, join us next. Oh, hes a fighter alright. Since aflac is helping with his expenses while he cant work, he can focus on his recovery. He doesnt have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. Kick kick. Feel it feel it feel it nice work you got it you got it yes aflacs gonna help take care of his expenses. And us. Were gonna get him back in fighting shape. [ male announcer ] see whats happening behind the scenes at aflac. Com. Like carpools. Polly wants to know if we can pick her up. Yeah, we can make room. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Its great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. At t mobile share for business. One bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. Now, everyones in the spirit of sharing. Hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend . No. [ male announcer ] share more. Save more. At t mobile share for business. At t mobile share for business. Itabout the walmart time and welow price guarantee. Ia got your list . Lets go. Jif Peanut Butter. Peanut butter and jelly is a staple in our house for school lunches. Look at walmarts price. Wow. Thats great. Now all your back to school meals are covered. Thank you. Ok, ready . What . thats the walmart low price guarantee backed by ad match. Save time and money getting your kids ready for school. Bring in receipts from your local stores and see for yourself. Save more this back to School Packing kid friendly and tasty lunches with low prices on velveeta slices, koolaid jammers 10 packs and jif creamy Peanut Butter. With our low price guarantee backed by ad match. Welcome back. Joining us on set is University Chaplain and executive director of the Islamic Center for new york university, imam khalid latif. We just ended ramadan. For everybody that doesnt know exactly what ramadan does, thats the month of prayer, muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex, correct . Not entirely. Okay, so where am i off base . Its not the full 30 days and nights. Just while the sun is up. So from dawn to dusk essentially, were not eating, drinking. If you smoke, you dont smoke. And youre not engaging in sexual activity. But at nighttime, you are eating and drinking. Otherwise, wed have a lot of problems. So that just ended. You had a big celebration here in new york yesterday, correct . Yes. So how did that go . For a lot americans, we arent familiar exactly with the month of fasting that goes along with ramad ramadan. We hear a lot about it in the news but not about what muslims are doing with it. The month is a really amazing experience i think for those who observe it. Its something that really in my opinion enables individuals to get a better understanding of what they are, where there are areas for them to improve. The idea is youre really moving away from a kind of feeding yourself or feeding of ego. You move beyond the physical and see how you can develop on an emotional and spiritual level. Especially living in a city like new york where theres just a lot around ideas around individualism and selfbenefit and its a really fast moving city. To take a moment to stop and reflect and just really understand, you know, the world around you and how you fit into it. Becomes an amazing experience. Can you talk a little bit about youre the University Chaplain at nyu. Can you talk about faith among todays youth, both in todays community and in general . New york university, we see a huge number of students who are very attune to their spiritual identity. The majority of our student groups and activities actually are undertaken by groups that have a spiritual or religious affiliation. With our Muslim Student population, theres about 2,000 Muslim Students in new york university. I think for many of them given the temporary discourse around islam and really how theyre finding trouble at times straddling different worlds and finding a place to put in. They do become engaged in our center. Because it becomes a more empowering kind of place for them and a place where they really feel like theyre understood. It seems like its the White Elephant in the room but in the last few months in your congregation and the way people are treated outside the islamic community, has anything changed . Is it becoming any more difficult or tense in certain moments than it was, say, before boston or before these embassy shutdowns . I think the reality around the rhetoric that surrounds islam and the Muslim Community is one that at types can be very narrow. You have an understanding that equates islam to be something that is inherently violent in its nature. I think what you see a lot more these days is individuals in the Muslim Community who see the importance of not really reacting to negative stereotypes solely. So, you know, not saying simply im not violent, im not a terrorist, im not oppressive to my women, but moving mo soe ini a direction of saying this is who i am. With our Community Members at new york university, what we try to do is encourage them to see how there being a muslim and practitioner of their faith is not something that solely brings benefit to them but how is it bringing benefit to society around them. Not a reaction to someone elses negative stereotypes. I think society tends to define muslims solely by their faith and not by other attributes and other things about them. Do you agree with that . How do you then push back at that and kind of explain other ways of looking at people . I wrote a reflection series for the Huffington Post where i had a Daily Journal called the ramadan reflection series. One of the reflections i actually wrote came in the aftermath of some of the unfortunate issues that huma abadine was facing. You saw this rhetoric around her that was saying that her silence and standing by her husband was something she was doing because she grew up in saudi arabia and shes a muslim woman and muslim women are just used to getting treated poorly by, you know, men. I mean, the idea is something thats so simplistic and its something that is really problematic because we remove from so many individuals the right to just have a name and a narrative, right. Im so much more than my islam. Im so much more than being a muslim. Theres a complexity to my identity that becomes taken away when you only see me through a single variable. But i think thats what happens when you stereotype. Thats what happens when you have unfortunately a step beyond stereotyping simply and you get into realms of racism that let us only paint people in a very generalized way. You make some very valid points. I know we brought you up early. Youll be good to go for the rest of the day. Up next, captain kirk helping price line stock to go boldly where few stocks have gone before. Todays business headlines. Were back after this. [scream] dont tell mom. Dont tell mom. Dont tell mom dont tell mom. Okay. Dont tell mom. Dont tell mom. Dont tell mom . Yeah. The best stories youll ever tell start with, dont tell. Dont tell dad. Start yours in the new santa fe. From hyundai. Bob will retire when hes 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. But hes not. Hes an architect with two kids and a mortgage. Luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. And with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. Its not rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. Vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. Because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaas commitment to serve military members, veterans, and their families is without equal. Begin your legacy, get an Auto Insurance quote. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Time for business before the bell. I can buy 25 shares of price line or a new car. Basically, brian. Good morning. Were talking about a stock that if we trade at the open where we are in premarket is poised just a couple dollars south of the 1,000 mark. Theres only a couple of other stocks out there that trade above that level. They include seaboard which is a company that does things related to pork processing. Of course Berkshire Hathaway whose shares are well over the 100,000 mark. Its been rare for companies to let the share price get this high because theyll split it. If you remember the last couple of years weve been watching to see if apple or google would hit the 1,000 mark. Price line has come from behind and may again today or in the days ahead take that crown after it reported strong earnings. We know win shatner who owns shares of this company is feeling happy with himself this morning. We have seven Companies Going public which for a friday in august generally is quite a lot. Tell, you that people are trying to take advantage of share prices at alltime highs here. Theres one going private. Thats blackberry. There are reports the company is considering going private. That silver lake in fact, which had no comment on the reuters story but if it were involved, remember, is involved with taking dell private. A lot of interesting shifts. Blackberry, were not showing the phones anymore, were showing broken cookies. I will have a black bleary. I will remain faithful. Kelly, thanks. Coming up next, abandoned babies handed out live. [ female announcer ] made just a little sweeter. Because all these whole grains arent healthy unless you actually eat them multigrain cheerios. Also available in delicious Peanut Butter. Healthy never tasted so sweet. The beach on your tv is much closer than it appears. Seize the summer with up to 50 off hotels at travelocity. We got the office from england but im going to say this is a show you wont see brought into this country. A game show is getting huge ratings in pakistan. One of its most controversial prizes, unwanted babies. Critics say its blatant exploitation. Advocates say its better than the alternative. Brian williams has the story. Reporter hes the biggest star on pakistani television. Part televangelist, part game show host. Everyones a winner it seems on his ramadan specials. Translator who wants to win a baby . Reporter when he gave abandoned babies to childless couples on primetime television, outraged critics said hed gone too far in the race for the ramadan ratings. Washing machines, dvd players, mobile phones. And now kids, you know, because he in the end has become just another product. Reporter so far, three babies have been handed over on the show. This isnt a prize, its not a game show. Reporter its not a prize, its not a game show. Its a real charity. Reporter social welfare groups say theres another side to the story which is about preventing babies from being simply dumped on garbage heaps like this. Most unwanted babies are girls. And only a few survive the dump. Including the three which the Emergency Response organization found and provided for the tv show. To raise awareness, he says. We are could be standly doing this campaign. Do not kill a baby. Do not kill. This is killing a human. Do not kill. Reporter he finds parents from the show, from among thousands looking to adopt, and says they are carefully vetted. Parents like this couple who say their adopted baby is a gift from god. They said they wanted to receive tiny fatama on Live Television to help break the taboo that often surrounds adoption in pakistan. That was ian williams reporting. No way to seque to whats next. Morning joe week in review and what, if anything, did we learn today. Helicopthierhis hibuzzing, andk engine humming. Sfx birds chirping sfx birds chirping that starts with one of the worlds most advancedy, distribution systems, and one of the most efficient trucking networks, with safe, experienced drivers. We work directly with manufacturers, eliminating costly markups, and buy directly from local farmers in every region of the country. When you see our low prices, remember the wheels turning behind the scenes, delivering for millions of americans, everyday. Dedication thats the real walmart tires screeching red hot deal days are back. alarm beeping stop for no one. What . Its red hot deal days. Get 100 off the Samsung Galaxy note ii with features like popup play. Lets you use any app while watching video. Or use the s pen for handwritten notes. Just 199. 99. Hurry in, sale ends august 11th. Getting the best back to school deals. Thats powerful. Verizon. Ng out of pipe. Sfx birds chirping. Everybodys making fun of your pants. Why do you think i did my dance . Its like being with a table full of girls. It means hope. Thats nice. In japanese. Do you know what mika means . Mika means fish. No. Thats half the orders. I got to 3,500 the other day. I do smoke a lot so that increases my circulation . You and beyonce. Just like a steam engine. He has pulled pork running through his veins. Please dont take them off. Please, please. When you took your shoe off, thats when the transmission went out on the satellite. It may not have been al qaeda. Men only want two things, they want sex and they want newspapers. I dont really need newspapers. Russias now made fools of two president s, nicolle. Hes a shirtless thug. When you said shirtless thug, it was as if donny was walking down the mean streets of southampton. Shirtless thug. Chuck todd joins us also. Hes going to take his shirt off. Hes going to wrestle the chairman of the rnc. We survived this block, no glen named g grenades. You didnt fall on any glen named grenades. Its like andrew dice clay. He says the most vulgar things in mikas ears. Sometimes it takes a nice easy touch to open those bottles. I would just go like that and it would open. Mika opens everything in the office. Theres a moment that you and your dad shared. You remember three words, caribbean stud poker. Im tearing up. Takes me home. Gets me a little sleepy. Im not going to be up in ten minutes. Morning joe, i watch your show, i like you, and thats all that matters. That is all that matters. Its time to talk about what have we learned today. Brian, what have you learned . I wanted to run with the bulls with ejune robinson. What have you learned . I learned Leigh Gallaghers new book is doing well. Its a great read about reorganization of america. I learned that thomas roberts, an otherwise sane person, really does want to run with the bulls. I learned today that morning joes not just the tall show, it is the left
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