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President obama, i am just curious. you personally, have you thought about switching your party allegiance as you've watched all of this unfold? >> well, i'm glad you played the ben sasse clip because it gives me the convenient way to say i'll consider myself a ben sasse republican. >> convenient. >> i think that there really is a battle here for what you have to call the soul of the republican party. a lot of us were drawn to the republican party because it was an optimistic vision. character counts, personal responsibility. fiscal responsibility with the debt, strong on russia. and all of th...

Critical of donald trump? do you realistically think this is cooked right now? >> well, i'm not particularly optimistic. which is unusual for me, because i normally am, in that i just see the specific issues, the underpinnings of what it was that so many of us were drawn to the republican party for. it was character counts. personal responsibility. strong on russia, having a realistic view of the soviet union and russia, even the national debt. these are all things that have been turned on their head in this moment. and i think that they transcend any particular vote on taxes or vote on tariff...

And so that tells you everything you need to know about where the republican party is in arizona, and it is, you know, just an anecdote about the shift away from the mccain republican party that we've seen in part really since 2007, like stuart was saying in 2008, when john mccain almost lost the republican nomination because of his very deep differences with that base. >> so, stuart, you have worked in republican politics for your whole life. where is this going? are you optimistic? do you feel as if the party is headed where you want to? is it going in that mccain direction or have you been ...

From the american intelligence community which i hope survives as well as general petraeus predicts it will, but it was a blow. senator coats didn't know he was going to say that. d.n.i. coats didn't know he was going to say that he since said he didn't think the one on one meeting that went down in helsinki went down -- he wouldn't have recommended it. are you in agreement these constitutions will endure? >> general petraeus is in a good position -- >> it's not. >> there is another man right above you right now. >> the record of those -- >> we can be less optimistic of all that's available to...

Post-9/11. within the primaries, within the party, he is as solid as he can be. and they show no signs of peeling off. we'll see if this has any impact, probably not. nothing else really has. so people are going to stick with him. and he has used his power in the campaigns to take out people that are against him. and so, you know, unfortunately for almost everybody in politics, it's all about survival. >> conservative columnist george will, mark, is out with a column today about the president titled "this sad and embarrassing wreck of a man." is that how you see it, or do you think will is too...