Troops on the ground. Of course, congress is still awol in all this. Out on break until midterm but a call is growing for further military authorization. House Speaker John Boehner fears Ground Forces might be inevitable. I think its going to take more than air strikes to drive them out of there. At some point somebodys boots have to be on the ground. These are barbarians. They intend to kill us. An overwhelming majority of americans agree with the speaker. More than 7 in 10 say despite obamas promises to avoid a ground assault, u. S. Troops will be used at some point. But u. S. Troops themselves, 70 of active duty troops, say the u. S. Should not send combat troops to back up iraqis in this fight. While our nations top Intelligence Officer says he overestimated the iraqi forces, our commander in chief refuses to discuss what will happen if those americantrained iraqi troops are not up to the fight. Were just getting started. Lets see how they do. I think that right now weve got a Campaign Plan that has a strong chance for success in iraq. I think syria is a more challenging situation. Is there a moderate Syrian Opposition . There is, but right now it doesnt control much territory. It has been squeezed between isil on the one hand and isil on the other. Foreign policy reports and rebel commanders are blaming that lack of communication for civilian deaths that have happened. As Richard Engel points out, the syrian kurds are eager to take up arms against isis. Reporter the battle is taking place in a valley here. And on many hilltops people have gathered to watch the battles unfold. These observers decided they couldnt they couldnt sit it out any longer, with no weapons they just rushed right in. And i think that shows the passion that a lot of these fighters have to defend their home from isis. We start with david rothkop, editor at Foreign Policy magazine. A lot of people are talking about the president saying, hey, it was the Intelligence Community that underestimated isis. Hes actually not going to iraq and syria and getting information on the ground. He can only make decisions based on what comes to him in the briefings. So, what do you think about the president saying that . Pretty mickey mouse. Look, you know, hes the president of the united states. Three years ago he had his secretary of state, he had his cia director, general David Petraeus saying to him, youve got go do something in syria. Theres a problem growing there. He didnt do anything. Earlier this year n january and february, you had isis take over fallujah and ramadi. The progress of this group over the course of this year has been clear. And it is only in the course of the past month that he has decided to respond. The military knew it. The Intelligence Community knew it. They may have underestimated how fast it was going to happen, but to say that its their fault, he was getting information. The Intelligence Community had leaders testifying on capitol hill about the threat of isis early in 2014. So, he was getting the information. What the problem was is that he and his team were not ready to take action back when it would have been easier to do so. I kind of want to debate that but i also to want play sound from the president last night. The quick version of the debate would be, i think the policy community and the Intelligence Community are always at some sense of loggerheads, whether he artfully put it or not, the folks will be expansive in intelligence because their job is to wave around what the threats are. The policymakers have a little tension there. But enough of me. Let me play an interesting part of last night explaining what kind of war were heading into. We are assisting iraq in a very real battle thats taking place on their soil, with their troops, but we are providing air support. And it is in our interest to do that because isil represents sort of a hybrid of not just a terrorist network but one with territorial ambitions and some of the strategy and tactics of an army. This is not america against isil. This is america leading the International Community to assist a quucountry with whom w have a Security Partnership with. Do you think thats a valid assessment of the effort right now and how much does it matter that it does differ from what he first said in the wednesday address to the nation before the operations . I think its a valid assessment. However, if we do have security interests there, then its in our interest to do this right. Theres almost nobody who looks at this situation and doesnt think its going to take some more american boots on the ground. Whether its special forces, operatives, advising the iraqis or others in order to make you know, help make this work out. So, you know, i think were in the early days. The president s absolutely right about that. Were going to have to see what works and what doesnt. We do know something about the capability of the iraqis. We did spend 30 billion training them. We shouldnt be surprised by what their strengths and weaknesses are. Ultimately, i think the American Public from the poll you mentioned earlier has it roughly right. We are likely to have to make a bigger investment on the sgrountd in order to take advantage of the gains we make via the air power. David, unfortunately, isis is far from the only Extremist Group that poses a threat to america. In the middle east and beyond. Are we focusing in a sense too much on just isis to the exclusion of other groups that also pose a threat . I think thats absolutely right. I think that thats the thing to keep an eye on. Early on we said we would decapitate core idea. We did. What happened in the course of the ensuing year, more terrorists, more terrorist tax, more terrorist groups, more terrorist groups. We have to look at violent extremism as the problem and we have to work with our allies to contain its spread from west africa all the way to china. This is a global problem and solving the problem with isis is only going to end up squeezing the balloon, letting terrorists go someplace else and the threat is not going to go away if we focus only on this one group and this one place. Absolutely. When we talk about simply defeating isis, almost every expert has said it is going to take boots on the ground to complete that mission. And its sounding more and more like it could potentially be our boots on the ground. A poll i saw over the weekend saw over 70 of americans believe that that will be the case. Do you think this is inevitable and a drip drip creep situation or another event, lets say another beheading that causes the American Public and the president to say, thats it, we have to go in and defeat these guys . I hope its not a beheading or something inflammatory. I hope we dont let isis set our agenda for us. The reality is i think the mission does have to expand. We have to put boots on the ground. When you listen to people like the pentagon spokesperson say, as he does last week, that we are looking at three, four, five, six years in this particular mission, you can see the drip, drip, drip is the current plan. I dont think thats going to prove to be effective. So, i think we will have to watch it evolve and our leaders are going to have to adapt and adjust from their early day rhetoric on this. David, as much as i respect the American People, i think polling on what they think the commander in chief and the military should do should be considered little to none at all. We look at a poll from the military times, 70 of soldiers, the folks who know what its like to go over there, the folks who know what it means tore soldiers to be there, saying we should not send a sfashl number of combat troops into iraq. They say that the iraqis and the syrians and the others must clean up their own house. That if we do it for them, then they wont actually act to do it. Dont you think the soldiers have the right idea here . I think the soldiers are speaking from some experience. But theres a reason that armies arent run as democracies. In early 1940, about 17 of the American People said we should intervene in europe. And ultimately the president had to take another decision. In this particular case, while the people in the region have a huge responsibility here, theyre not going to move and theyre not going to be able to move without our support, without real leadership from the u. S. And not just military leadership. If we dont create a political solution to fill the void created when we have military success, then this is just going to, you know, repeat the cycle that we saw after the surge. When we gained ground but the Iraqi Government didnt step in and create the opportunity for sunnis to represent themselves and the government and that gave a new opportunity for new extremists to do what were seeing happen there now. So, we have to win this in conjunction with allies in the region, with us leading, but focusing on the military, the political, the economic, the whole range of steps. Indeed. David, we have not had enough of you, but the segments got to end. We have had enough of ari. Thank you, david. Get a sound check on that . Is that true . On the trail and on the stage, next Chris Christie versus michelle obama. Later, sanford, weiner, in an epic offbroadway production. Who needs fiction when you have d. C. Dysfunction. The cycle rolls on. To map their manufacturings at process with sticky notes and string, yeah, they were a little bit skeptical. What they do actually is rocket science. High tech components for aircraft and fighter jets. Were just their bankers, right . But financing from ge capital also comes with expertise from across ge. In this case, our top lean process engineers. So they showed us who does what, when, and where. Then we hit them with the important question why . Why put the tools over there . Do you really need those five steps . What if you can do it in two . Whoo, thats an interesting question. Ideas for improvement started pouring out. With a little help from us, they actually doubled their output speed. A hundred percent bump in efficiency. If you just need a loan, just call a bank. But at ge capital, were builders. And what we know. Can help you grow. Excuse me. I didnt realize we were back. That election music gets me every time. We are prepared for a lot more where that came from because the midterms are just five short week as way. The senate is up for grabs so that means time to trot out all the heavy hitters for republicans in new jersey. We have governor Chris Christie. He is going to wisconsin today. Campaigning for Governor Scott walker. Jeb bush is not in florida today. He is in kansas stumping for senator pat roberts. And later this week, rand paul is in North Carolina while mitt romney heads to michigan. Meantime, the dems are also out in force. First Lady Michelle obama is campaigning for scott walkers opponent in wisconsin. No down time for new grandma, Hillary Clinton, who headlines two democratic fundraisers. President obama himself heads home to illinois later this week to throw his support behind governor pat quinn. It is those congressional races that have politicos in a tizzy today. The Cook Political Report is estimating that after the midterms, the house could be more red than it has been in 85 years. What was it like back then, toure . Really . Really . Wow, friend wow thanks, friend. Democratic strategist and senior director at purple strategies, air kashgs thanks for being with us. Im glad to be here. And i can tell you for a fact i definitely dont know what it was like 85 years ago. So, let me throw a quote at you from the New York Times about some of the likely members of the next house of representatives. One nominee proposed reclassifying single parenthood as child abuse. Another suggested that four blood moons would herald worldchanging shaking type events and said islam was not a religion but a complete geopolitical structure unworthy of tax exemption. Still another labeled Hillary Clinton the antichrist. So, if we thought this Current Congress was bad, looks like the next house is even worse and even further to the right. If john boehner had trouble controlling his caucus up to this point, what are the implication of a gop Republican Caucus that is going to move even further to the right after these elections . Even in a year thats not a wave election, it can still be bad for one party or the other. In this case well say democrats are having the worst year. The senate map isnt good for us. But also you have a frustrated p populous of voters. The president with his Approval Ratings being lowest and particularly after this isis kind of stuff, even lower than hes used to. And then, you know, the third thing is just that right now, there doesnt seem to be a national, you know, thing to kind of coalesce around. Theres not a National Conversation around these midterms. You will hear some more crazy comments pop up, because without a talking point that everyone sticks to or points to or a theme that everyone keeps going back to to stay on message, you have kind of more people freelancing, so to speak. Im getting the sense that that mood might even translate even further than the midterms and into the 2016 elections. Over the weekend there was the values voter summit where conservatives gather. They do this every year. They put out a straw poll. You can see here the two winners, ted cruz and ben carson. Two big names that are missing from this list. Jeb bush and Chris Christie, two you would probably describe as moderate republicans. Not only were they not on this list, they were not invited to this event. And it makes me really wonder about 2016 and what that means for a moderate voice like Chris Christie or jeb bush when theyre trying to feel the water, see how much money they can raise, what the reception is like when theyre out visiting these states. To be honest, from what ive seen so far, doesnt seem like they have the support they need to get through the primary states. No. Primaries are always tricky. Obviously, the primary plays to the furthest extreme of either party, which is why gerrymandering has been so bad for democracy. We have a lot of districts where they are so conservative or so liberal that theres nothing but primaries making those decisions. I think the big mistake here is that too many people are looking at 2016 without looking at 2014. You have some of the best surrogates, people like jeb bush, people like Chris Christie for republicans, who in the next month youll see them on the stump, youll see them out in the states because they are going to be the best ones to bring home the votes for these midterms. But if the base of the Republican Party ignores that more moderate, that actual delivering of general vote, not a primary vote voice, theyre going to end up being a little bit, i dont think surprised but theyll end up fighting the wrong fight, so to speak. Lets talk about the senate and deal with the question that nobody is asking. After election day, will the senate be red or blue . Well, okay. Id like to be an optimist and think the democrats have a good chance but it it looks like leaning republican. Voters engage, undecideds become decideds and people start to hit 50 with respect whereas before we were touting candidates with 42 calling them winners or really strong. 42 doesnt get to you 50 plus 1. Were kind of in a different place here now where were going to start to see certain people break away from the pack. Youre going to look at a shifting of resources. Youll see Campaign Committees moving money from one race to another. Youll see some people cut loose. And then i think right now we have theres kind of the slate of tossups which have been tossups for a really long time. We havent seen Much Movement in polls in some of these kind of battleground states in the last six months. And youre going to start to see movement there but were into the october surprise races like kansas, colorado, some people would say iowa as well where they werent necessarily on our tossup radar but are kind of moving back in. Theres two ways of looking at it. One, thats really hard. Republicans are going to be spread very thin. The other way of looking at that is that they have more opportunities to actually hit the six number mark they need to take back the senate. Its like in corporations, they always say that dont call it a challenge. Call it an opportunity. That always makes you sound like a phoney. Its like something really bad. Theres an opportunity for us. Wow. That was random. What i want to ask you about is the shorttermism here. You mentioned october surprise. October we all know is when it matters, right . This is the countdown. In is the home stretch. And i just think back to all the politics weve lived through over the last year. All the stuff on the aca, the aca website problems. That was going to dog obama. Then the shutdown which is supposed to help democrats. Here re with going to october and what are people talking about . Whats the president being asked about, right . Its all isis. Its all these Foreign Policy conflicts, which some people worry could create danger here at home. Does that mean in your view as a political strategist that all that time on all that other earlier Political Drama isnt going to be front and center in october for voters . I dont think it is going to be. And its something that nobody could predict. I mean, a beheading of an american journalist is a big gut punch. The fact the terrorists