Transcripts For MSNBC Morning Joe 20110124

george will talk about that. >> it's monday, january 24th. >> it sound better with barry white in the background. >> nothing will make that right. >> thank you, charles. with us on set, national affairs editor for "new york" magazine, john heilemann and columnist for "the new york times," charles blow. how are you, willey? >> tough night. >> oh, for the jets? >> sorry. sorry. >> let's talk about something else. >> sorry. okay. >> we can keep barry white going for the next three hours. >> no, that's all right. all right. >> so willie, let's talk about the main thing, the jets, jets, jets. i saw the first half. and was so depressed i turned the tv off, woke up in the middle of the night and got online and expected to see a 48-0 blowout. >> when this play happened at the ends of the first half, 24-3, you figured the game was over. everybody taz thinking about the packers/steelers super bowl. it was a totally different game in the second half. the steelers did not score in the second half, they finished with 24 points. sanchez got it going a little bit. they had a chance late in the game, they lost 24-19. they could not stop the steelers on a third down play and the steelers ran out the clock. we'll show full highlights. >> a safety in the fourth quarter, follow up with a touchdown three minutes later. but in the first half it was -- talk about little shop of horrors, as chris was saying before the show, you had some of the worst statistics in the history of nfl playoffs. the pittsburgh steelers in the first half, more points than the jets ran plays. >> that's true. that's true. we showed at beginning of this, the play that really was the deciding play. that was the -- t. was. >> at the end of the first half, sanchez going back, fumbling the ball and getting scooped up. there was -- we heard troy warn the jets, hey, you know what, just run the clock out, because the last thing you want to happen is give up another score and that's exactly what they did. >> i was thinking the same thing. and then disaster struck. that turned out to be the difference. they lost by five points. they were terrible on offense. they were terrible on defense in the first half, too. >> they were horrific. >> they didn't deserve to win the game. >> is pittsburgh -- pittsburgh's not that much better than the jets, are they? >> they're a little bit better. >> we'll get to it in sports. your time is up, boys. >> big ben, a guy that really doesn't get a whole lot of respect, this guy is in line to win his third super bowl ring. that just snuck up on me. >> he's still pretty young, too, relatively. >> 28. >> third appearance, his second ring. >> he has two rings. this would be his third ring. >> this would be his third ring. >> oh. >> and i think that ties him with -- bradshaw doesn't have four, does he? chris doesn't want to talk about it. >> we'll move on. >> that's surprising, though, isn't it? >> he doesn't put up huge stats. that's why he doesn't get all the acclaim of everybody else. he's just as good as they are. >> belichick -- >> i mean, he wins -- >> that's the approach to football. the numbers don't make sense but he's the best. what is that? >> drew brees throws 50 times a game. that's why he has big stats. roethlisberger hands it off a lot. >> when it's third and 14, the guy will run for 14 yard if he's has to do it, even when he's hurt. as belichick says when it comes to football, you're only as good as your record. judged by that standard, this guy is as good as anybody in football today. and with that, mika, i'll let you go on. >> thank you. >> i'm going to move on. >> i'm not saying i like it. i'm not saying i'd like to be a young 22-year-old college student in a georgia bar when big ben walks through the front door. i'm just saying if you're judging by his numbers, on the field, he's a winner. mika, what do you think about ben roethlisberger? >> i was just looking at -- >> the question of numbers versus championships. >> i have no thoughts at all. i'm looking at your cover story for "new york" magazine and you, too, have exult undertones going on there. what is wrong with you people. >> what do you mean? >> what's this? okay, i'm not reading it out loud. >> ahead of tomorrow's state of the union address. >> happy ending has several different -- several different meanings. >> oh, my god. really? >> oh, my god. >> i was trying to get you guys to politics. and i thought maybe that would attract you. >> this is a great story by the way. you talked about the reboot of the obama administration. >> where is her mind? >> what -- >> she watches way too much -- >> it is from "curb your enthusiasm." that's why i thought it was a bad word. am i wrong? >> really quickly, john heilemann, you do talk about this reboot. i think we all may be at risk of overselling it now. he's doing really well but i saw mark halperin saying he goes into the state of the union stronger than any president he can remember. i don't know that i'd say that but he's turned things around pretty damn quickly. >> the biggest question people had after the midterms people asked the question, is this guy capable of doing a midcourse correction? this has not been his strength in the past. he's been a stay the course kind of president. what the piece tries to do is goes into the white house, and look at the way much faster than bill clinton, for example, really looked hard at what was wrong with the white house and what was wrong with himself and has taken a very series of pretty significant actions to restructure his white house, to reposition himself politically and open himself up in a way he hadn't before to outside influence and other things. it's been really dramatic on the inside. >> internally, this is what fascinates me about barack obama. he seemed incapable of noticing his weaknesses for the first two years, had a horrific blind spot, took the democratic party off the ledge when everybody was screaming you're taking your party off the ledge. was it just the shellacking as he called it? how do you turn from not being self-aware to being extraordinarily self-aware? >> maybe it's all planned. >> i think there were two things. some of the frustration that he had with things around him and the white house have been building for some period of months. i do think in fact the shellacking was a wakeup call for him. again, one of the things i focus on in the piece is the extent to which he heard from people around him and let people in who weren't around him and that his insularity was around him. he listened to people he wouldn't ordinarily listen to. it's a store rye about him not going the easy path and choosing another insider, choosing someone who will bring more of the outside influence and more voices into his world. >> i tell you, mika, he certainly deserves a great deal of credit for that. because i heard some of the same horror stories about how this administration was functioning, being insular as i heard from republicans when george w. bush was in the white house. you just couldn't get in that inner circle and tell him how badly things were going on the outside for the party and for the country. and you've got to give him a big tip of the hat. >> let me give you one scamle from the piece. there were half a dozen cabinet members, talk about insular, not just talking to republicans or people outside, there were half a dozen cabinet members who in the first two years never spoke to barack obama. >> wow. >> there was also a lot that he got done on his agenda, far left as it may be, which you can only get done in that first year. so i say maybe it was all planned, might be too strong a statement but there is something to be said for ramming things through while you can and edging back to the center politically. >> that's how you get to a happy ending, mika. >> oh, god. later tomorrow, the state of the union address. republican leaders have drawn the battle lines on government spending. president obama's speech will call for investments in key areas like education, infrastructure and technology. republicans insist the nation's budget can't afford that kind of spending. appearing on "meet the press," republican eric cantor insisted that serious cuts need to be made. >> what will you exact as a promise in order for your members to vote to increase the debt creeling? >> let me be clear, david, republicans are not going to vote for the increase in debt limits unless there are serious spending cuts and reforms. this week we will vote on an issue having to do with the presidential election fund. we're going to vote to cut that. that's a $500 million expenditure. we'll see hundreds of programs experience analysis and cuts just like that. >> let's deal with the $500 million is a drop in the bucket. i realize it's real money. in terms of the federal budget that's nothing. you're not really tackling the big three, you're not tackling entitlement. what about defense? is defense on the table? defense cuts on the table? do they have to be. >> i'll get to entitlements in a second if you want. we always said this, too, every dollar should be on the table. >> and mitch mcconnell -- >> i was going to say, these republicans are talking about serious cuts. >> yes, they are. >> they're going to cut education, infrastructure, they'll cut the things that will keep us competitive with china in the 20th century. they have yet to put on the table cuts for the pentagon, cuts for social security and medicare. charles, you can't -- if you want to make, quote, serious cuts, those are the three pots of money, i'm sorry, there's no other way mathematically. they have not put a budget up. paul ryan has. all the republicans are talking about doing now are slashing a small percentage of the budget which will hurt us in the long run. but won't pay down the debt. >> the math cannot add up unless you put the big three on the table. for cantor saying you'll cut hundreds of programs, you're cutting the things that touch people's lives the most. when you get down to the hundreds of things, it becomes politically poisonous. you cannot get away with doing that and not touching the big three, making your math add up and actually being popular in the polls. >> you're cutting cops, you're cutting teachers, you're cutting infrastructure. you're cutting, against, r & d, all the things china's investing in right now. listen, i understand as a small government conservative, there's waste everywhere. let's go after waste. >> waste, fraud and abuse. >> waste, fraud and abuse. those are the last things we get to. we have to cut pentagon spending and social security, and medicare. after doing that, if you then have to go into classrooms, then have to pull cops off the street, then talk to me about that. that's not your starting point. >> well, here's what mitch mcconnell said on fox. >> excessive government spending, running up debt, making us look like a western european country is the wrong direction, that's the direction they took the first two years. the american public as one pundit put it issued a massive restraining order. i don't think we'll go in that direction any longer. this is not a time to look at pumping government spending in very many areas. >> all right. we shall see. i think the lines are going to be drawn as we move forward. heilemann. >> yes, and look, the last time republicans, joe, you remember well, the last time republicans put themselves in a position where it looked like they were trying to attack popular programs like medicare and social security, they had a huge political problem there. i agree with you, there's a serious need to take it all on board. you can see why republicans don't want to go there. they remember what happened in 1995 and 1996. >> at the same time, republican politically risk an awful lot by, again, going after the parts of the budget. >> that will keep us competitive with china, india, with the european union. they just need to be very careful, because right now it souns sounds like they're walking into a trap. >> we shall see. coming up, peggy noonan, historian douglas brinkley and broadway joe namath. not broadway bill. >> broadway bill? >> you call him broadway bill, bill karins has a check on the forecast. bill? well advertised cold this morning. record cold in some cases. if you can make it through this morning, you can make it through the rest of the winter. today's the hard one. temperaturesing with negative number in boston. hartford at minus 5. once you factor in the winds, it really hits you. minus 20 for it. minus 22 in boston. for our friends in vermont, new hampshire and maine, it's even worse, with minus 20 to minus 30 wind chill. a dangerous morning to get caught outdoors. that includes the kids at the bus stop, too. precautions need to be taken. highs today only in the teens. if you're lucky you get into the 20s around philly, baltimore and d.c. that's it. today will probably be the coldest day of the winter. as i said, just getting past today, everything should be all right. troublesome weather, freezing rain possible in chicago, minneapolis snow showers. wednesday it looks like the possibility of snow, sleet, over to rain from d.c. to philly to new york and boston. more details on that later today and as the storm approaches on wednesday. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. 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"the wall street journal," beijing hails the start of a new era. they say hu's visit was seen saz with resounding success. also in the "wall street journal," how sick is steve jobs? apple's limited disclosure over their ceo is stirring debate. all right. that's a look at the papers. >> the same thing goes in washington, d.c. today, you know, ten years ago everybody wanted to know if somebody ran for president, how is this guy's health? now who is the one guy everybody wakes up to in washington, d.c.? it's mike allen. >> mike allen. >> people are constantly worried, does he have the flu, the gout? >> does he have a nose cast on? >> because they have to have their playbook. >> we know with the nose cast. >> it's crooked from the break. >> like last summer. >> mike, you feeling all right. >> with a packers victory, packers favored 2 1/2 points -- >> oh, dear. >> we're happy around politico. it's a great day for america. >> thanks very much, mike, have a good day. we done? >> let's talk a little business. former senator george allen best known for the, quote, macaca moment in 2006. he announced his run for senate in virginia. sounds like it will happen? >> it is, willie. we're seeing the new way candidates announce. it used to be press conferences, you'd fly around the state, have rallies. instead, governor, then senator allen is sending out an e-mail to his supporters with a link to a video, hillary clinton started this in the way she announced her presidential campaign. over the weekend, president obama used this method to preview his state of the union, an e-mail to supporters instead of the press. and then after the e-mail and the youtube are out today, george allen you will put out a press release. this is so he can start raising money, start building an infrastructure. there's a couple staff members already on board. then he'll do the fancy stuff later. >> how does it look for him, how does the field look? >> there's a huge unknown, this could be a rematch with jim webb, the current democratic senator. he hasn't said whether or not he'll run again. but george allen is the best known challenger to come out. this could be one of the best senate races in the country, largely because president obama would be playing heavy here. he had a surprise win in a red state here. he'll be back in virginia in 2012. >> you know, john, though, when george allen lost, he lost by maybe 1,500 votes. he ran a terrible campaign. and it was 2006. the worst year for republicans, probably since '82. you'd have to put your money on george allen, wouldn't you? all things being equal. >> it will be a very tight race. he comes in with some baggage but people forget, back before macaca, george allen was not only favored to win this race but people talked about that being a stepping stone to run for president. people thought he was a serious national leader for the republican party. if you asked me this six months ago, i would have said, yes, probably the favorite against jim webb. we have to see where the political winds are blowing over the next two years. virginia will be hot and heavy in play. >> you think he gets back in play in '12? >> do i. >> the other unknown is how much the president comes back. as he was in 2008, he'll be a big draw to the polls. >> 2010. >> right, right. >> what the polls are showing now is a big uptick, particularly among independents. that could be prove to be crucial in 2012 for that senate race. especially, willie, if republicans pick a weak nominee. >> right. >> that drags down republicans across the country. it's happened before. >> it has. mike allen, thanks, we'll talk to you later. >> have a good week. >> thank you, mike. >> god spied, mike allen. >> careful with the nose there. time for business on the go. let's bring in nicole lapin at cnbc headquarters. happy monday. >> happy monday. >> i say it the s&p and ben bernanke weighing in on the state budget crisis. what are they saying this morning? >> the s&p is saying more states could see muni defaults. it looks like more and more papers are reading, my staff is watching "morning joe" and talking about bankruptcy as yet another solution. it's not a perfect one by any means. it's getting more play out there as the teddy roosevelt big stick, that bark, to get serious about this and avoid the 1975 headlines. a lost governors don't want those headlines, namely democrats are against bankruptcy. >> over the next two years, you have u.s. states which face about $250 billion in budget shortfalls. giving states the option, which they don't currently have, to declare bankruptcy would give states the opportunity and make it much easier for governors and legislatures to rework these public sector union contracts. >> all right. here's the deal. at first glance it seems nuclear but ben bernanke said no dice on a bailout. he said this, earlier this month, we have no expectation or intention to get involved in state or local finance. states should not expect loans from the fed. >> so what do we do? >> i would guess the fed and a lot of people in washington wouldn't mind it if states figured a way out of these public union contracts, to renegotiate them, just like corey booker right now in newark is trying to figure out a way to renegotiate with his police union. >> they're trying to figure it out in new jersey, illinois tried to figure it out as well, joe. they imposed tougher tax austerity. you know that. bigger corporations could leave, they fire people and then you have massive crime. there's got to be balance here. responsibility has to be shared. >> all right. nicole lapin, thanks very much. >> thanks, guys. when we come back, the jets mount an epic comeback but come up short in the nfc championship. complete highlights next in sports. plus, a powerful new promise from oprah who says she has a deep secret to reveal. we'll be right back. ♪ one for the money, and a-two for the show ♪ i like it. i do too. ♪ even if i'm poor ♪ i ain't chasing nothing ♪ you're gonna have to catch me ♪ ♪ and if you want to dance ♪ you're gonna have to pay a fee ♪ ♪ i'm the bomb and about to blow up ♪ ♪ yeah, i'm the bomb ♪ and about to blow up ♪ yeah ♪ whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ everybody, sing it now ♪ whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ everybody, sing it now let's raise a glass to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk. [ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk. that weight tracker continued to go down and down and down. weight watchers online has some great tools. i just love the chinese buffet cheat sheet -- if you like the chicken and vegetables you can put a little serving here and you actually make your plate. it just blows my mind to even think i've lost 100 pounds and i have weight watchers online to thank. the fun, funkier me has come out to play. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] join for free today. weight watchers online. finally, losing weight clicks. : diving to 4,000 meters. >> boy: go down, down, down. down. straight. go straight. no, to the right. to the right. >> go to the right, go to the right. >> whoa! >> whoa! >> what is that? >> man: well, that's a, uh... i don't know. >> whoa. >> can we call him blinky? >> woman: expert teaching. deeper learning. together, we are the human network. cisco. guarantee me the best deal on my refinance loan, or pay me $1,000? that would be nice, not getting swindled. um...where are we? don't just think about it. put lendingtree to the test. get the best deal, or $1,000. welcome back to "morning joe." >> is t.j. not here today? that's such a gorgeous shot. >> what is that, schenectady? >> what is that? >> here's poughkeepsie. looking good. >> what are you doing, t.j.? >> okay. that's the shot. there we go. >> let's go to news. >> quick look at the news for you, jared loughner, the suspect in the tucson shooting spree will be arraigned in a federal court in phoenix today. he's been indicted on three counts of attempted murder. more charges are expected. the case is likely going to take years to play out. a temporary tube is in place to drain fluid in giffords' brain. pope benedict xvi now says that no one has an absolute right to a wedding. the pope made those comments in his annual speech to priests over the weekend. he said the right to a church wedding requires that the bride and groom intend to celebrate and live the marriage truthfully and authentically. but benedict said no one can make a claim to the right to a nuptials ceremony. jack lalanne, the godfather of fitness -- love him -- has died due to complications from pneumonia. lalanne began his career in 1936, opening the very modern gym at a time when doctors said working out with weights would give people heart attacks. >> that is why willie and i don't do it. >> come on. >> can you name somebody who has had heart attacks exercising. >> he later became a television icon from a workout show that spent 34 years. he celebrated his 60th birthday by swimming from alcatraz to fisherman's wharf in san francisco. >> ten years later he performed a similar feat in long beach harbor. jack lalanne was 96 years old. >> he was sort of the godfather of fitness in america. >> yes, absolutely. let's do sports. >> i was just about to say -- >> there was no segue. >> i do feel a responsibility, i mean a void. mind the gap. >> the torch has been passed, joe. >> let it go forward. >> step up, joe. >> let's go to some sports. >> to a new generation. i'm hungry. >> everyone is excited about the games last night. >> i was. >> they were good, not great. >> here's last night. steelers and jets, afc championship game in pittsburgh, jets did not look good early. really not good. quarterback mark sanchez blitzed from behind by ike taylor. ball comes loose. william gay picks it up, runs it in 19 yards for a touchdown. it was 24-0 at that point. 24-3 at the half. a lot of people turned this one off. after the half, the jets found a little light and frankly, the steelers weren't very good. sanchez goes deep to santonio holmes, the former steeler. jets cut the lead. here they get a safety on ben roethlisberger. he fumbled the sack in his own end zone. rex ryan is excited. the jets get the ball back and score again. jericho cotchery, four-yard touchdown. jets down 24-19. they have to get a stop. pittsburgh would have had to punt here. >> heart breaker. >> that's your ball game, right there. santonio brown, they run out the clock. >> they had it third and six with two minutes left. they could have come back. >> they would have gotten the ball back. 24-19 is the final. rex ryan and the jets fall short in the nfc conference game. rex vowing they will be back. >> our goal for next year, it will never change, we're going to chase the super bowl until we get it and we'll chase it after that again. that's it. if people want to criticize us, go ahead. you really got no right. >> steelers go to their third super bowl in six years. could be roethlisberger's third super bowl title. >> unbelievable. new york is really lucky to have that guy. the jets have had so many ups and downs since '69. >> he's been with the year two years. he's taken them to the title game two years in a row. >> it's unbelievable. >> there's no beef with rex ryan. in terms of results his two great years. >> my god he had to go through brady and belichick to get to where he's gotten. >> peyton manning. >> this guy has done a remarkable job, schottenheimer on offense, the entire team. >> it's fun. >> people criticize he talks too much. it's fun, it's sports, relax. >> they put up, you know. after they talked a lot. >> the steelers were in, earlier in the day, the packers got there by beating the bears in chicago in the nfc championship game. jay cutler part of the story. more on him in a second. packers jump out to an early four-point lead. underthrows there, nice interception by sam shields. cutler completed only six passes for 80 yards. he was booed by the home fans. and then things got more interesting after the half pep limps off to the sideline after the first possession in the third quarter, trainers working on his left knee. he was taken out of the game and did not return. got a lot of heat because he didn't look like he was in too much pain. people wondering how do you not put yourself back into an nfc championship game? rodgers struggled with the bears defense. had a chance to put it away here. throws an interception to urlacher. if he can slip that tackle, he has a touchdown. jay cutler out,ed ed ttodd col put in but did not complete a single pass. they put in the third stringer in the third quarter. caleb hanie. he leads the bears down the field. >> that guy came through. >> sets up a one-yard touchdown run by chester tailor. bears on the board. packers stopped by the bears' defense. hanie gets another shot. this was the back breaker. raji, 338 pounds, interception dance. a few minutes later, hanie did have a shot to be the hero. he's picked off by sam shields. shields' second of the day. the packers hold on to win 21-14. first trip to the super bowl since '97 when favre was the quarterback. jay cutler, people online even suggested during the broadcast, why did he not come into the game? he didn't look like he was hurt. here's what he said after. >> the decision not to play, jay, was it the doctors who made that? >> we gave it a go the first series but couldn't really play it and throw. they kind of pulled me. >> jay was hurt. i don't question his toughness. he's one of the toughest guys on our football team. he doesn't complain when he gets hit. he practices every single day, no, we don't question his toughness. >> you have to love urlacher. >> some people think it was an mcl injury. it's chicago, they want you to limp in and give it a shot. urlacher defended cutler against other nfl players, other nfl players tweeting about this, jaguars running back maurice jones-drew, he wrote in a tweet, he basically criticized him and urlacher said, who? where's he at right now? he's home. it's easy to talk, blank, about somebody when you're signature on your couch at home. >> hanie really came through. we didn't show his second touchdown. >> it's like the fifth game he played in his career. >> he had great presence, dumped off short passes. he got a horrible grounding call. >> that was awful. >> it actually had an impact. he almost brought the bears back. he showed a lot of -- >> the press didn't like jay cutler because he doesn't engage, doesn't give him the sound bites. you saw it from urlacher, his teammates respect and love him and they don't question his injury at all. >> he's good. he's good. by the way, coming up in the next hour, jay namath. >> how did you get that? >> broadway joe naj namath will on this program. >> and rahm emanuel getting help from the guy who plays him on "snl." and mika's must-read opinion pages, keep it on "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. i will always vote as i have throughout my life, for the person i think is best qualified to be president of the united states. and i don't adhere to a single party line. i'm not committed to barack obama. i'm not committed to a republican candidate. i will see who emerges. right now, i do not see on the republican side any one individual who i think is going to emerge at the top of the pile. so it's going to be an interesting 2011 and a very interesting early 2012 as the primaries begin and they separate themselves. >> isn't that fascinating? >> why do we keep saying he's a republican? let's stop this nonsense. >> he's backing away from barack obama here. i'm surprised, charles, he didn't say i'm still supporting barack obama. >> that's what i'm surprised about. >> that's what he was basically saying. >> no. >> nouns with emerged from the republican side and he can't identify a leading candidate so far on the republican side. you know, he was a strong supporter of barack obama and even in his statements about how they're going to pick things to cut, his comments over the weekend were you can't cut npr and think you're going to get to where they need to be. he's actually saying -- he's not toeing the line. >> he didn't say he fully supports president obama. >> you're kind of on the outs with -- >> i'm on the outs with crazy people but i'm not on the outs with mainstream republicans, i guarantee you. >> who are mainstream republicans now? seriously. >> mainstream republicans -- >> you and -- who's left. >> forget the media bubble. mainstream republicans are always who mainstream republicans have always been. we go out there, they're the same people they were 10, 15, 20 years ago. it's just some of the candidates are less attractive than they used to be. for instance -- >> they're all in the witness protection program. you don't see them. you don't see -- you don't see people who are kind of more towards the middle. they don't get the press time. they don't get the coverage. >> right, in the media world. >> the people that most americans see are getting to be more and more extreme. >> but there are reasons why people, even though he was a weak candidate, why john mccain won when the entire right wing blogosphere and talk radio world was against john mccain, because it's those people in the solid middle of the republican party that said, you know, no. >> even he viewed some to the right and some to the crazy. >> he did eventually. but he was thenmy of the right in 2008, just like bob dole was in '96. george w. bush when he won in 2000, he had people run together right to him. i had crazies coming up to me all the time saying bush is a moderate, bush is a liberal. >> he got to the point where -- i mean, he picked -- >> listen, again, we can go back. i'm just making a much bigger point that -- >> it's interesting. >> that the far right is always ignored, even in republican presidential primaries. not in off-year elections. i'm telling you, if a strong conservative candidate with a moderate temperament emerges, that person will wipe everybody off the map that we're talking about right now. >> they'll deflate the tea party? >> absolutely. it will be -- >> i think there are some tea party people out there -- >> the fringe element. >> like me, they just want washington to get serious about big government. >> that's an explanation of what the tea party is. when you said that, i felt you were talking about the fringe element of it, which now we're going to get nailed on twitter. >> there can be a republican candidate out there that colin powell could support. i think he still is a republican. we go so many places where republican come up to me and grab me, they go, where are they? where are the people that, you know, used to run for office? >> i see this happen all the time. >> conservatives. it happens all the time. seriously, i'm not going to go down the list of candidates. none of those people would have been in the top 30 of the republican party 20, 25 years ago other than maybe mitt romney. >> frank ridge had a great column yesterday. >> we don't have time for it, but -- >> frank ridge had a great column "new york times" in the. he compared true grit to the social network. >> right. >> with maddie, the 14-year-old girl who at one point says to rooster, there's nothing for free in this life except god's grace and compared, sort of, that idea with social network. where everything goes. >> the ethos of the old west where there was justice even if it was rough justice versus the ethos of today where you can do whatever you want. he argues that the reason true grit is so popular right now is there's been the sense that the world is sort of spinning out of control, people looked at that, they're pining for a return to a system of order and law and some kind of justice. >> isn't it something just like '69 when the first true grit came out. by the time, one of my dad's favorite movies of all time, "true grit" and "how the west was won." we looked john wayne movies. >> willie. >> did you see "how the west was won"? >> you weren't the jane fon dda. >> we were more of the westerns. what was the one where the cowboys, he got killed? >> willie, what's next? quickly. >> wild bunch is a great one, too. >> oh, my god. forget it. oprah has a big announcement, next. ♪ sun in the sky ♪ you know how i feel i feel like jennifer hudson but with new arms, new legs, and this smile. ♪ freedom is mine ♪ and i know how i feel i'm loving weight watchers new pointsplus program and the edge it's giving me. ♪ it's a new dawn, a new day i've got even more control now. ♪ and i'm feeling good go on, join for free. weight watchers new pointsplus. because it works. ♪ [ folk pop ]rs new pointsplus. 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[ clang ] tough being the only girl. aw, there's the man of the house. who's this ? this is rufus. hey, rufus. he's actually pretty talented. you wanna see him do a trick ? ok. hey rufus. who do we love ? we love our bank. we love our bank. we love our bank. we love our bank. yes, yes. you really love your bank don't you. ally bank customers love our 24/7 customer care that allows you to talk to a real person anytime. ally. do you love your bank ? is it time? i've been waiting all weekend. >> have you really? >> yes. it's time for news you can't use we have a big announcement. oprah, huge. >> really? >> we've had huge announcements from oprah before. she says this is the biggest of them all. >> really? >> yes. it rocked her to her core. let's see if we can get any hints here. >> a lost people. >> the oprah show has reunited a lot of people. your family is here. i thought i'd seen it all. but this, my friends, is the miracle of all miracles. i was given some news that literally shook me to my core. this time, i'm the one being reunited. >> only a handful of people in my life know about this. i've been keeping a family secret for months and you're going to hear it straight from me. >> all right. >> oh, my. >> there's speculation. kitty kelly wrote the unauthorized biography of oprah. >> what do you think it is. >> suggests that it might be a father situation. >> let her tell the story. >> or a sister. the wider speculation is that it's a sister. >> i thought it might be she was coming on the "morning joe" show. >> oprah -- >> on february 11th. >> is it possible? might you? >> come on, oprah. come on. break the news there. >> don't mess it up, joe. stop. >> i'm just asking her. >> february 11th, we'll be there. >> chicago. >> for the hour. >> we'll give you 15 minutes. >> no, please, don rickles is there. we have to give him the rest of the hour. >> big announcement today from oprah. >> i can't wait to see that. >> that's going to be awesome. >> that looks interesting. >> what else you got, willie? >> our house keeps -- all of our tvs, we have 12 in our 800 square foot apartment and they're all on the own network. >> rip off the dial. >> multiple dvrs. >> it's on a loop. the kids love it. >> this is mindless dribble. >> funny you bring up oprah's network. the next clip comes to us from gayle king. >> love her. >> she was hosting a conversation on own with oprah's all-stars, dr. phil, dr. oz, suze orman. they're all there. they got to talking about circumcision. >> what? >> oh, yeah. >> dr. oz, i love this question because don't you think peenies look better circumcised? audience? >> we know what gayle likes in a man. >> i'm just saying. >> personally, this is just in the world according to gayle, they look better. >> when you cut off the penis -- if you don't mind, be my decision. >> i'm being asked to hold a penis. i never held one my whole life. >> maybe we have to change the channels to versus now. >> they're having an honest conversation. >> yes. >> i watched dr. oz in the doctor's office and i saw people jumping around the room holding cans. i'm thinking we're working too hard. because everyone in the waiting room was transfixed. >> by dr. oz? >> jumping around the room, holing cans of beans. >> one more out of chicago. >> yes. >> you know andy sandburg? >> sure. >> great guy. >> out campaigning for rahm emanuel over the weekend. why? saws andy sam berg plays rahm emanuel on "snl." >> rahm's running away with this one. >> he's got it. >> do we get rahm on the 11th. >> i can't follow that one. >> charles, thank you. >> later. >> we'll be right back with peggy noonan and joe namath on "morning joe," coming up. the smartest thing you could do is cut the fuel supply... ♪ ...unlock the doors, and turn on the hazard lights. or better yet, get a car that automatically does it for you. ♪ ♪ but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. just like you. go national. go like a pro. and finally, the problem isn't that there's too little civility in government, it's that there's too much. president obama's state of the union speech is next week. as you probably heard, members of congress have agreed in response to the tragedy in arizona to break with the tradition of republicans on one side of the room and democrats on the other. instead, they're all going to sit together, conservative next to liberal, gay next to straight, nerd next to jock. oh, wait that was an episode of "glee." >> are you going to sit with a democrat at the state of the union? >> i'm going to sit where i usually sit and we don't have seating assignments for most of our members. they can sit anywhere they want to. more important than at appearance of sitting together is what we do together. and the american people are more interested in actual accomplishments on a bipartisan basis here in the next six to nine months than they are the seating arrangement at the state of the union. >> welcome back to "morning joe." still with us on "new york" magazine's john heilemann and joining us, speech writer for ronald reagan, peggy noonan back on the show. nice to have you on the show this morning. >> nice to be here. >> why can't they sit together? just sit together and don't even talk about it. it would be nice. >> some people would say it doesn't matter. i actually think sometimes sill bollix is nice and sometimes symbolism is needed. i would say after the gabby giffords shooting, now is the time. >> i agree. >> one of the things that aggravates americans more than anything, and makes washington look foolish, is when they all -- one side stand up, the other side sits down. it makes them look like jack asses. >> especially now. >> the fact that they might sit together and burnish their image a bit, that's not a bad idea. e >> also, i think one of the bigger criticisms about the polarization in washington is that representatives and senators don't know each other. they go home. they work online, they do not interact socially. they don't go to church together anymore and this would be perhaps a positive step. do you agree? >> do i. >> why are you laughing? >> it's theater. i was actually thinking about george mitchell. george mitchell was at a dinner of ours last week. peggy, you'll love this. george mitchell all these years later is still miffed -- >> a little bit. >> still angry -- >> about what? >> that ronald reagan picked up that bill and threw it down on the desk. and he went on and on. i just turned to him and i said, reagan still gotcha 20 years later. >> that's a really funny thing of generations of politicians retain the resentments of their era. it's not only george mitchell. by the way, ronald reagan, the evening of the state of the union that he picked up the huge federal budget and put it down so everybody would see how big it was, he sprained his thumb or pinky because it was so big and heavy and had to go through the rest of the speech with an aching hand. >> interesting. >> we're hearing a lost people saying that barack obama has turned things around remarkably. john heilemann has a great piece in his "new york" magazine. and mark happlperin said last night, barack obama was going into this state of the union in a stronger position than any president in recent memory. i think that may be an overstatement. >> yes. >> he's in a pretty good place right now, isn't he, his presidency? >> yes. i am fascinated by the degree to which in america, the tectonic plates keep shifting and keep shifting quickly. and dramatically. obama was over the day after the election in november. now we are in late january and he's not over. he's in a comeback. you know, things just keep on moving along. i think he goes into the state of the union in a strong position. i don't think i'd say stronger than any president in recent memory but he is in the middle of -- you can always tell with political figures they're on the uppalator or a down alator. >> that was the title of your piece. >> on the uppalator. >> in your piece, you say, this is the most impressive thing i've heard of this president over the past month or two, that he actually turned inward. something that he had not done before. he was very insulated, isolated. he was surrounded, for the most part, by people who treated him like a god-like figure, yet he was able to go inside of himself, saying i messed some things up, i have to make it right. that is not an easy thing for any man to do, let alone any president of the united states. i say that about men, not as a strength but as a weakness because of our egos. in that bubble were for him to do that, that's a pretty remarkable feat. >> any president has to get ka kind. obama again from he became president was a guy that had a tight insular circle around him. one of the things that his interim chief of staff said, this has become a problem for us. obama said, i think you might be right about that and it did this amazing thing, scheduling himself, largely at his own initiative, started inviting people into the white house for private meetings, one-on-one, no staff and sat down with people, former chiefs of staff, republicans, ken duberstein was reported at the time. another person was matthew dowd, the political director for bush/cheney in 2004, reaching out to talk to people who were not only not members of his inner circle but not even democrats saying what did i do wrong? how can i fix this problem? i think as a said earlier in the show, the choice of bill daly as chief of staff has been portrayed as a move to the center or a move to appease the business community. i think much more a move to open himself up to a broader diversity of views, a bunch of contacts, some in business but also across the aisle. if he had chosen pete roth to stay as his chief of staff, he would have gotten waves of applause from everyone around him. instead, he decided to take a risk and bring in a guy who's not part of his inner circle and would expose him to viewpoints he never would have heard otherwise. for a guy like obama, that's a big step. >> it is. he finally stepped out of his comfort zone. a lot of presidents hate doing it. george w. bush hated to do it. barack obama hated to do it for two years. not anymore. he's being rewarded for it. >> he brought in jeff immelt to the work he's done in the lame duck session. you're talking about a lot of things happening over the last couple of months. it in your piece do you talk about any other moments over the past two years where he had this sense? >> he's proud of his accomplishments of the past two years. i think there was a sense as the midterms were approaching that, to speak to management style, the way that rahm emanuel ran the white house in a very frenetic ad hoc kind of transitional way, obama thought this worked pretty well in terms of getting legislation done but this is not going to work well going forward. i think he had a sense when rahm decided to leave, that it created an opening to be a less pr reactive, more pro-active. >> this that was great insight you brought up about the moment president reagan slammed down that big book, a stack, i didn't know he hurt his finger. >> looking ahead to president obama's state of the union speech, what does he need to do? >> well, i'll tell you, one thing i think he needs to do, i think is maybe a little bit different from what you're talking about, john. you are talking about obama having new insights with regard to the running of his white house. perhaps as all presidents have gotten in trouble, having new insights with regard to how he is communicating, that's all fine. what about new insights with regard to his -- to the application of his political ideology, did he decide he had gone too liberal the first two years? did he look too much like a lefty, that he was too much like a lefty and that he ought to be more centrist? that's a long way of saying i you think in the speech he ought to be billed on the good fortune of the past few months and become or present himself as and be more centrist. >> let me try something out on you, peggy. >> that's what matters. communications and how a staff runs. that's not as important as what he's doing. >> let me ask you this question. i want to do a little test on you because you, like myself, you've been a republican for a while. >> i've been a conservative for a long time. >> i've been a conservative for a long time. i actually devoted my adult life fighting for spending cuts and balanced budgets. i have. it's been an obsession of mine. i think the republicans, this republican party, is off kilter and they're setting themselves up for a fall. i want to run this by you. they're talking about cutting education, cutting r & d, cutting infrastructure, cutting the things we're falling behind on china. and yet they're refusing to cut pentagon spending. to go after social security, to go after medicare. you and i know and everybody that's educated that's watching this show knows that if you want to make america solvent again, you've got to cut where the money is. and between social security, medicare, pentagon spending and interest on the debt, you've just swallowed up about 80% of the budget there. and yet the republicans say, we're going to slash and burn in this little 20%. the areas we actually need to build, cops, teachers, r & d, infrastructure -- >> infrastructure. >> do you agree with me as a conservative -- >> yes, i do. >> that they are making a mistake? >> yes, do i. i think -- i saw something the other day, joe, am i correct, some congressman is saying we're going to move against the nea, we don't need funding for the nea. excuse me, is this 1995 again? >> i know! >> this is an old argument. it may be a good or a bad argument but it has nothing to do with the essentials that have to be discussed. the republican is also as the democrat party is, to an extent, dodging the debate on what overall u.s. grand strategy and foreign policy should be. >> right. >> they're dodging that debate. if you dodge that debate you cannot seriously and correctly make cuts in our military infrastructure. >> eric cantor was talking about -- >> what kind of world are you planning for? >> -- on "meet the press" about cuts. then he threw out a $500 million number. >> how big is our deficit? >> chicken feed. chicken feed. our debt is b 14 trillion, going on 15 trillion. >> $500 million, 14 trillion, that will help. >> it's insignificant. >> it's a rounding error. >> i'm in a bad mood this morning. >> we're not letting democrats off the hook because nancy pelosi -- >> they've awful. >> and democrats were reckless when it came to social security and medicare. i'm saying -- >> they're trying to rope-a-dope the republicans. >> don't tell me you're going to fix the debt problems, don't go on sunday shows or "morning joe" and saying you're going to fix the problems but stay away from pentagon spending, keep the war going, don't touch medicare, don't touch social security. it's ridiculous. the numbers -- this is not about ideology, willie, it's about math. it's lunacy. >> as we all know, this comes down to politics. what do you say if you're still a congressman, go back to the voters in florida, how are you going to change the entitlement system? >> i'm going to do what marco rubio did. when he was in a position where a lot of people thought he was going to lose, i'm going to say, yes, florida, one of the oldest states in the union were we're going to have to raise social security to 70. we're going to have to look at means testing. on medicare, guess what, we're going to have to cap spending, the rate of increase there. listen, any corporation -- >> you don't say get rope-a-doped by the democrats and lose the 2012 election if they were frank. >> they'd get hammered but remember, bill clinton tried this on us, 1959, medi-scare. he's like republicans are cutting medicare to give tax cuts to the rich. i where the home and talked about nothing but that. i was so angry at the demagoguery. my numbers among seniors skyrocketed. seniors get it. especially -- i mean, this is what's so outrageous. it's like george geist and jack scarborough, 2-year-olds are the one who social security will be bumped up to 69. it's such recklessness, if you can't explain that to your constituents, you don't deserve to be in congress. >> okay. >> you disagree? >> i don't. >> the big republican governors who are making it work, guys who are being honest, saying we have to cut here and making the case. >> his numbers keep going up. >> exactly. >> mitch out in indiana. there's impressive ones that -- >> we need to talk more about mitch. coming up, savannah damagery with the headlines out of the white house. and battleground alaska, the struggle to preserve the wilderness. and joe namath is with us live if just a few minutes. first, we go to bill karins. everyone in the northeast dealing with cold this morning. the wind chills are brutal, wind chill warnings were minus 20 from hartford northward to vermont, new hampshire and maine. new york city right now, minus 4 doesn't feel nice either. during the day, the sun will be out. temperatures should recover a little bit. still a cold day with temperatures in the teens. if you're lucky, you get in the 20s up to areas around philadelphia. if you get through today, you can get through the rest of the winter. look at boston. temperatures in the mid-30s. the rest of the country is warming up, too. the midwest which was brutally cold this weekends, you're finally up around 32 degrees. the big storm system will be moving from the gulf. this does not look like a blockbuster snowstorm but it will be messy. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. good night, stuffy. >> ( yawning ) >> good night, outdated. >> ( click ) >> good night, old luxury and all of your wares. good night, bygones everywhere. >> ( engine revs ) >> good morning, illumination. good morning, innovation. good morning, unequaled inspiration. >> ( heartbeats ) back in the 80's, it was really tough for me and my family. i was living on welfare and supporting a family of four. after i got the job at walmart, things started changing immediately. then i wrote a letter to the food stamp office. "thank you very much, i don't need your help any more." you know now, i can actually say i bought my home. i knew that the more i dedicated... the harder i worked, the more it was going to benefit my family. this my son, mario and he now works at walmart. i believe mario is following in my footsteps. my name is noemi, and i work at walmart. ♪ >> ♪ >> ( party horn blowing ) >> ( speaking chinese ) >> ( speaking chinese ) >> ( laughing ) >> introducing cisco umi. be together in high def on your tv. exclusively at best buy's magnolia stores. cisco. if the republicans offer an amendment on the floor, then we will require them to vote on the individual protections in the bill. that are very popular and that even some of the new republican house members have said they support. so in the end, their repeal bill is going to be so full of holes it looks like swiss cheese. >> all right. welcome back to "morning joe," live look at the white house on a gray monday morning. joining us now from the white house -- >> how much time do i have. >> is this on the air? who is that? >> put t.j. up for a second. >> wow. >> if you could go to disneyland. >> i didn't do that. >> go on a cruise. >> who was that talking? asking how much time we have? >> t.j. hit the wrong button again. >> my bad. >> nbc news white house correspondent and co-host of msnbc's "daily rundown" savannah guthrie joins us. good morning. >> good morning. >> savannah, how is the white house preparing for the speech tomorrow night? what's the headline out thereof today? >> i think what we're going to see from the president is the posture of where can we work together? it will be in some ways a conciliatory speech, certainly recognizing the change, political landscape from his state of the union one year ago. it's expected to be kind of a frame of, here are some things we should be able to do together. it's just was told this morning by a senior aide this the president will be fairly specific about places to cut in the budget. it's not going to be -- reveal the budget tomorrow night but he will be specific about where to cut spending and then there's been a lot of talk, certainly you have been talking about it this morning on the sunday shows, about what the white house calls investments. the position here is you want to take a scalpel and be surgical when you approach the deficit problem, approach budget issues. you don't want to just cut everything the way republicans are proposing to do. so the president will talk about places where there does need to be investment in things like innovation, maybe perhaps a mix of tax cuts but also spending on education. i think the frame will be in the sense of, republicans, this is where we should be able to work together. i'm told to expect the president to be gracious, to speaker boehner in that hall tomorrow night. >> i have a question. savannah, is there -- i feel i speak for the american people on this. >> yes, you do. >> we are united in a desire that this speech go less than one hour. is there any chance -- you know how they go over one hour with applause and everything. >> yes. >> i always think president obama's going to surprise us with a state of the union that is shockingly wonderfully marked by brevity and clarity and actually when they timed it even with applause it went only 28 minutes. any chance? >> really? >> yeah, really. >> i can dream. >> what are you hearing? >> i don't know that it will be 28 minutes. these things do tend to get long, especially with applause. at the white house will say it's applause, look, the speech itself is 4 aminutes or so. obviously, this president, other presidents have been known to blow past that hour mark which makes broadcast network executives crazy since they have to break into their primetime programming. i think it will be standard state of the union length. i don't expect it to be a real shorty. >> what are you hearing about rehearsals? is the president in a small room in the bottom of the west wing working, rehearsing on teleprompters surrounding by aides who are acting out applause to time this thing out? >> haven't heard anything like that yet. the president was definitely working on it all weekend, tweaking it and i would expect if past is any indication that would be something that would continue over the next couple of days. you know, remember the tucson speech. he was working on that late into the night the night before and even on air force one, still making changes. this has been something that's been months in the works, actually, david axelrod, john, they've been working on it for months. >> you know, john heilemann, when they want to tweak the state of the union address, there's only one man they go to, willie geist. >> they say, get me rewrites. get me geist! >> i come in at the end with a pack of smokes and rewrite it for them. we saw president obama tipping off in that video message that it would be a centrist speech, start to move more toward the middle. if you go online, you see from the left, he's getting cozy with business. he's bringing jeff immelt. he made the tax cut deal with republicans. do you get the sense he's worried anymore about infuria infuriating the left the way he does most of the time? does he even care at this point? >> i think he'll try to walk the line. they recognize the base is important but so are independents. and that's where they were really hurting, particularly in the midterms. that's what was waking them up in the middle of the night, the loss of the middle. you've seen it in the polls the last few weeks or so, they're starting to regain ground with independents in the middle. what the president's pollster seems to be telling him is people like it when you appear to be working together. it seemed to be an occasion where he was making a compromise and reaching a middle grounded with republicans. so i think the president will increasingly try to stake out that territory. and it's interesting how he's framing this. we saw a preview of it on friday when he was talking with jeff immelt of ge, parent company of nbc universal, about framing it as competitiveness, almost a quasi patriotic message saying we can get these jobs back, america is just as good as any of the countries that are growing so quickly, like china. we can be competitive but we have to increase exports. the president will make that argument. part of that argument will be we need to invest in innovation and education. other countries aren't scaling back on those expend tours and neither should we. i expect the president will argue. >> savannah, just quickly. the reports we've seen in the press the past few days, the president is going -- attempting to have his own, quote, sputnik moment. is there any truth to that? this is the idea that sputnik, 50 years ago, the russian -- the first russian satellite, startled america and made it think we've got to catch up here. the president is going to use that metaphor to say we've got to catch up in many ways now. is that true? you hearing anything about it. >> if i'm not mistaken, that's an analogy the president has used before, for the very thing you describe, saying, look, we have to stay xpetative. you have countries like china and india growing so quickly, spending that kind of money on education and innovation. we can't let this country be left behind. i'll have to double check it. peggy be think he's used that metaphor before. >> he's used it. >> never mind. >> back in december of the middle of the tax cut fight he gave a speech in north carolina that is actually the template for what they want to argue in terms of the economic policy they want to pursue going forward, which used that metaphor at the core of it, for him to argue we need to invest in infrastructure and medication going forward. >> that's a great example, though, for my conservative brethren about how you can engage the government in a limited way to inspire industry to grow the economy. sputnik, what did it lead to? it led to kennedy believing we could do the moon shot. you go back and look at kennedy talking about the moon shot, he doesn't talk about going to the moon. >> it led to focus. once america focussed it moved ahead in the area of space exploration. >> created a generation of engineers, mathematicians, scientists that created the american central. >> that's the sort of thing only the federal government can do. the state of illinois can't do that. if you're going to have a space program, it's federal. the federal government should move forward on the things that only federal government can do. >> savannah guthrie, thank you so much. catch savannah and chuck on the "daily rundown" at 9:00 eastern time. we'll see you in d.c. we'll be there for the state of the union address. much more on the president's state of the union. we bring in historian joe hinckley. >> and joe namath. >> he'll be here. >> he'll join us for the morning gridiron. keep it right here on "morning joe." >> i was huge namath fan. can i eat heart healthy without giving up taste? 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[ male announcer ] in the event of a collision, the smartest thing you could do is cut the fuel supply... ♪ ...unlock the doors, and turn on the hazard lights. or better yet, get a car that automatically does it for you. ♪ ♪ you know what, tell me, what makes peter, peter ? well, i'm an avid catamaran sailor. i can my own homemade jam, apricot. and i really love my bank's raise your rate cd. i'm sorry, did you say you'd love a pay raise asap ? uh, actually, i said i love my bank's raise your rate cd. you spent 8 days lost at sea ? no, uh... you love watching your neighbors watch tv ? at ally, you'll love our raise your rate cd that offers a one-time rate increase if our current rates go up. ally. do you love your bank ? and they are looking to throw. now, roethlisberger in trouble, throws it. what a catch. the catch to clench it. >> rex ryan knows that's it. >> our goal for next year, i have news for you, it won't change and it will never change. we're going to chase that super bowl and we're going to chase it until we get it and then we'll chase it after that again. that's it. if people want to criticize us, then you go ahead. you really got no right. >> time now for the "morning joe" gridiron report. it is say special one. >> this is huge. >> because joining us on the phone from florida, the quarterback of the super bowl champion jets the last time they won it, hall of famer, joe namath. joe, great to have you with us this morning. >> well, thank you. wish i were feeling better. but it's the way it goes, man. >> it is. and the jets now have been as i said to the super bowl since you took them there, january 12th, 1969. you guaranteed the victory. take us through last night. it was a tale of two halves. they looked terrible, the jets in the first half and they looked better in the second half, they came up a little bit short. >> even sanchez, players alluded to the fact they came out flat. forget about it. to me, i think the steeler team played wonderful football the first half, they were a split second ahead of the jets, it seemed, coming out of the block. the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, the steelers really played above any level that first half. and, you know, i have to give them credit. of course, to the steelers and, hey, ben roethlisberger making the plays, you know? the thing is, the jets stayed in there and kept fighting and could have made it back but the steelers just didn't let them. >> no doubt about it. hey, let's talk about big ben for a second. here's a guy who's not completely beloved and embraced in his own hometown of pittsburgh yet this kid may be sneaking up on his third super bowl ring in a couple of weeks. what makes him such a leader? >> well, he leads by example. he's got no quit in him and he's tough. every football fan knows that. aside from being tough, the man is smart on the football field. he buys time with his feet. he's a huge guy, hard to bring down, obviously. and his passing is pretty darn accurate. i've got to give ben a lot of credit. i know the jets do, too, the guy just played superbly. >> joe, you're still part of the jets family, pretty close to the team there. you spent some time around rex ryan. he gets some heat in the new york papers for his approach, all the trash talk leading up to that patriots game. but he did deliver. tell us about rex ryan. do you like his style? >> i think what he's done, absolutely. his style is working for the jets team, of course. it's different than any other style that we've seen. but, you know, realistically, the man's been here two seasons and we've made it to the championship game two seasons. i only believe that the future is bright. we've got some players that are going to get better and we're going to bring some more guys in. but the winning attitude, the winning way is kind of established here. these guys, the nucleus is used to winning now. they know why they didn't well now that first half. they got whipped. i expect to see the jets back and in the hunt not only next year but for years to come. >> let's talk about quarterbacks, of course, chad pennington was in new york. didn't have a strong arm. had problems throwing a basic out route. here you have with sanchez, a kid who -- i say a kid. we interviewed him here on the set. he's so young, he's so young, yet he showed a lot of poise this year, time and time again, bringing the jets back in the fourth quarter. what's your take on mark sanchez? >> the same as most jet fans or all of them. we love him. we think he's sensational. he's grown dramatically in the first two seasons and the future looks awful bright. for every quarterback, it's a team game. it's what is up front that counts. with his maturity, he's going to be sensational for a good while. >> got to ask you about the other game and another quarterback in the bears/packers game. a lot of people talking about jay cutler. he came out of the game with a knee injury, gave way to a backup and a third stringer who gave them a chance. we still don't know a lot about the injury. we take him at his word that it was serious. he was getting heat from people online especially wondering how you don't go back in and give it a shot with the super bowl on the line. what's your take on that? >> you know, i'm very careful here because i don't know what's wrong with his leg. and none of us do. they never did tell us. and when a ballplayer sees a ballplayer on the sideline, he's able to move around, i don't know why he didn't go back in the game. you know, a bad knee, i can understand. i've dealt with it. but pain is one thing and stability is another. if he lost stability in the knee, i don't -- i know he can't play but i still don't know why he wasn't somewhere getting treatment if the knee was that bad. it is perplexing and i'm curious to find out what's really wrong with him. >> yes. speaking of perplexing, joe, let's move from the jets to the mighty crimson tide. >> oh, yeah. >> i have a hard time trying to figure out how our crimson tide lost three games despite the fact, for new yorkers who have been stuck on this island for too long, of course, joe namath, a hero, a hero in tuscaloosa, alabama. and across the state and, of course, bryant's favorite player, the stories are legendary. joe, how did a pittsburgh just absolutely overwhelmed them. and when you're playing against good competition, man, you have to bring your best. and in the crimson tide's case in those losses, they didn't play their best ball. the jets certainly didn't play their best ballast night. >> before we let you go, we'll run through super bowl picks. mika, who's your pick? do you want me to tell you? >> steelers. >> you like the bridges. >> big ben picks up his third, steelers. >> i'm with you, steelers. john heilemann? >> packers. >> peggy recuses her least because she's the lead analyst in the game for fox. >> thank you. that was gracious of you. anxiety for me. >> joe namath, who do you like, packers, steelers to win it all. >> i like the packers to win it, a really well balanced team. i'll be pulling for the steelers, though. i do like that packer defense as well as rodgers' ability to spread the receivers around. and get some yardage downfield. the steelers are going to have a tough time trying to cover that spread offense. i think the pack's going to be able to outscore them. >> all right. >> joe namath and me. that made my day. >> be sure to check out joe namath's website, broadwayjoe.tv. it's a great site. >> how cool is that? >> great site. >> great, great legend in new york and in alabama. >> thank you for being on the show. >> a thrill to have you, joe namath. >> thank you, joe. >> you bet and go jets! >> coming up next, historian joe brinkley joins "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. curtis: welcome back to geico radio, it's savings, on the radio. gecko: kate from mill valley, it's all yours. kate: well, i'm shopping for my first car. gecko: nice! i do hope you'll choose geico and save a good bit of cash... curtis: what color is the car? i bet you'd look great in a blue car. kate: no...actually, i'm torn between a fuel-injected inline-6 and a higher torque turbo diesel. gecko: yeah...now that's quite a quandary! umm, i mean of course you could save either way. curtis: yeah but is one of them blue? cause i'd go with the blue one. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. maybe we can cut back a little bit on all the jumping up and down which i think, frankly, distracts from any president's speech when it's interrupted every 30 seconds by people jumping up and down. the president isn't speaking to congress. he's speaking to the american people. >> welcome back to "morning joe," 45 past the hour. joining us now, contributing editor to "vanity fair" and author of "the quiet world, saving alaska's wilderness kingdom 1879 to 1960." douglas brinkley, i can't wait to read this. >> thank you. >> my daughter carly as well will love it. >> you, of course -- >> it's an incredible story. >> you talk about america's most beautiful stretch of wilderness, but it's not peaceful. there has been a battle for over a century to save alaska. >> absolutely. you know, united states got alaska in 1867, andrew johnson got it, secretary of state william seward. it was called seward's folly, seward's ice box. then gold was found in the hills. people poured into the gold rush, the klondike of alaska. theodore roosevelt was in town, he was governor of new york, infatuated with wild alaska. he started thinking of it as being the last wilderness place. he wanted to reserve the great forest reserves, wanted to make sure the place wasn't overfished. this goes from roosevelt to dwight eisenhower where anwar was created. >> i remember talking to you as you were writing this book, you couldn't stop talking about the beauty of alaska. and at the end of the conversation you were like, you have to go. you can't explain it. >> i spent -- i have three kids 7 and under. my wife brought me to homer alaska. i picked a town because u.s. fish and wildlife runs the aleutians. as i document here in the 1950s it became a nuclear test bomb site during the cold war. now it's healed all these places. you have grae sea otters, seal life, walrus and incredible bird life. our u.s. government, we're always talking about federal cuts in the news. the u.s. fish and wildlife does a remarkable job of running the 500 wildlife refugees. some i write about in the book, west virginia, south carolina, this is big, wild country still. we saved this due to people like walt disney, william o'douglas and others. >> so doug, it's gorgeous, it's irreplaceable, you've got to go there. is there any warning this this book that tells us, wait a second, something is going on where we might lose part of this or something is under threat? >> the glaciers are melting. global warming is very real. if you could ask lisa murkowski whose probe for drilling in the arctic refuge. i begin this book with mir going at the outside passage. he's one of the great american writers. the glaciers he wrote about and documented in great detail. many of the species of alaska, polar bear, they're struggling with the melting ice. >> what do you do with melting glaciers? >> all you can do is stop the extraction, leave it alone. just leave our wildlife refuges alone. in american history whenever we have a recession, people want to raid the public lands. theodore roosevelt stopped them from looking for zinc and copper and asbestos in the grand canyon. there has to be a no in these alaska parks. we don't need shell oil drilling offshore. we don't need drill, drill, drill. this is a biosphere up there. it's eisenhower wisely demilitarized antarctica. he created this incredible arctic refuge which just needs to be left alone, no taxpayer dollars. that way the animals could live onwards. as theodore roosevelt said, these alaska parks like glacier bay or mt. mckinley, these are our heirlooms. they belong to our children's children. we may die rich or poor but at least we know we've saved these places in wild alaska. it's ground zero in the environmental movement. it's our most beautiful state. >> i'm struck by so much of the writing about alaska, foreign correspondence. it's so foraway, feels so alien to many people. you're writing about this like a deeply american story. >> unusual americans who worked to save alaska. a guy named bob marsel, recognizing that the brooks range is as beautiful as the rookies. very important american poet, they just think about mountains and rivers in a different way. the salmon runs are still running. the bear is still there. the u.s. government, national parks and monuments are doing a terrific job. a story of how when hyper industrialization was coming, a group of americans said no to destroy alaska. >> incredible story. >> it stops, you have 1960, what is the state of this state today? does it struggle? >> what was crucial is when icen hour was president, he was terrified. it turned out he was right. he made alaska a state and it was at that point, two democrats came in and one democrat one republican, but the big story, the oil found in the late '60s. suddenly, the environmentalists had the crown jewel. now, it's a big fight. do you drill or do it to the wildlife? this story tells about how people want to save it for the caribou and the great american bird life. >> look at this, he's like you. he's wearing a sweatshirt. >> my wife took that. >> interesting. thank you so much. the book, "the quiet world saving alaska's wilderness kingdom." still ahead, is jimmy carter's legacy in jeopardy? >> woman: good night, gluttony-- a farewell long awaited. good night, stuffy. >> ( yawning ) >> good night, outdated. >> ( click ) >> good night, old luxury and all of your wares. good night, bygones everywhere. >> ( engine revs ) >> good morning, illumination. good morning, innovation. good morning, unequaled inspiration. >> ( heartbeats ) ♪ it's a new dawn, a new day, a new life ♪ i lost 50, 50 pounds. ♪ and i'm feeling good [ liz ] and weight watchers new pointsplus program gave me the edge to do it. ♪ it's a new day i can't believe i get to live my life in this body. i mean seriously... look what i'm wearing! ♪ and this old world is a new world ♪ ♪ and a bold world i'm feeling good, i'm feeling happy. 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[ squawking ] ♪ we've turned this into this panorama, every president, regardless of party, tries to -- and it becomes a political pep rally. >> okay. good morning. it is 8:00 on the east coast. welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, january 24th. >> sounds better though with barry white in the background. >> nothing's going to make that sound right. >> thank you. national affairs editor for new york magazine, john heilemann and charles lowe joining the table. >> willie, let's talk about the main thing. i tell the first half and so depressed, i turned the tv off. woke up in the middle of the night and got online and expected to see a 48-0 blowout. >> when this play happened at the end of the first half, 24-3, you figured the game was over. but really, it was a totally different game in the second half. the steelers did not score. they finished with 24 points. sanchez got it going a little bit. had a chance late in the game. lost 24-19. could not stop the steelers at the end and then the steelers ran out the clock. >> a safety in the fourth quarter, they follow up with a touchdown three minutes later, but in the first half, it was talk about little shop of horrors. you had some of the worst in the history of nfl playoff. the pittsburgh steelers in the first half, more points than the jets ran plays. >> that's true. we showed the beginning of this, the play that was the deciding play and that was the -- at the end of first half, sanchez going back, fumbling the ball and getting -- there was, we heard -- you know what? just run the clock out because the last thing you want to happen is give up another score. >> turned out to be the difference in the game. they lost by five points. they were terrible on offense and defense. they couldn't stop anything. you know, they didn't deserve to win the game. >> is pittsburgh, pittsburgh's not that much better than the jets, are they? >> they're a little bit better. i think the better team won. >> your time is up, boys. zb big ben, a guy that just doesn't get a whole lot of respect. this guy is in line to win this third super bowl ring. that just snuck up on me. >> he's still pretty young, too, relatively. >> he's 28. >> two. it would be his third. >> this would be his third ring and i think that ties him with -- chris doesn't want to talk about this. >> he doesn't put up huge stats. that's why he doesn't get the acclaim. >> but belichick has it right. >> he wins super bowls. >> the republican approach to football. numbers don't make sense, but he's the best. >> drew brees throws 50 times a game. roethlisberger hands it off a lot. >> when it's third and 14, the guy will run for 14 yards even when he's hurt. has belichick said when it comes to football, you're only as good as your record? with that, mika -- >> thank you. i'm going to go -- >> not saying i like it. i'm not saying i'd like to be a young 22-year-old college student at a georgia bar when big ben walks through the front door, i'm just saying, if you're judging by his numbers, on the feel, he's a winner. >> what do you think, mika? numbers versus championships? >> i have no thoughts at all. but i'm looking for your cover story and you, too, have some sexual undertones going on. what is wrong with you people? >> what do you mean? >> what's this? i'm not reading it out loud. ahead of tomorrow's state of the union -- >> several different meanings. >> really? >> oh, my god. >> i'm just trying to get you guys to politics and i thought maybe that would attract you. >> it is a great story. you talked about the obama administration. >> that's why i thought it was a bad word. am i wrong? >> john heilemann, you do talk about this reboot. i think we all may be at risk of overselling it now. he's doing really well, but i saw mark halperin last night saying that he goes into this state of the union stronger than any president i can remember. i don't know if i would say that, but he's turned things around pretty damn quickly. >> after the midterms, i think people asked the question, is this guy capable of doing a midterm course correction? what the peace tribes do would go inside the white house and look at the way which obama, much faster than bill clinton, for example, really looked hard at what was wrong with the white house and with himself and has taken a very series of pretty significant actions to restruck his white house, to reposition himself politically and open himself up in a way he hadn't before to outside influence. >> so, internally is what fascinated me about barack obama. he seemed incapable of noticing his weaknesses. took the democratic party off the ledge when everybody was screaming, you're taking your party off the ledge. was it just the shellacking as we calling it? how do you turn from nothing being self-aware to being extraordinary self-aware? >> there are two things. one, some of the frustration that he had with things around him in the white house had been building for some period of months, but i think the shellacking was a real wake-up call for him. one of the things i really focus on is the extent to which he heard from people who were around him. his inslarty had become a huge problem. he needed to listen to people who wouldn't normally. the choice of bill daley, it's a story about him not going to easy path and choosing another insider. choosing someone two bring more voices into his world. >> i'll tell you, mika, he certainly deserves a great deal of credit for that because i heard some of the same horror stories about how this administration was functioning as i heard from republicans, wen george w. bush was in the white house. i said you just couldn't get in that circle and tell him ou bad things were going and you've got to give him a big tip of the hat. >> one example. there are half a dozen cabinet members. talk about insular, not just talking to republicans, people outside. there were half a dozen cabinet member, who in the first two years, never even spoke to obama. >> which you can only get done in that first year. i say it was all planned. might be too strong a statement, but there is something to be said for ramming things through while you can. >> that's how you get to a happy ending. ahead of tomorrow's state of the union address -- republican leaders have drawn the battle lines on government spending. president obama's speech will call for investments in key areas like education, infrastructure and technology, but republicans insist that the nation's budget can't afford that kind of spending. appearing on "meet the press," republican eric cantor insisted that serious cuts need to be made. >> what's the leverage moment? what will you exact as a promise in order for your members to vote to increase the debt ceiling? >> let me be clear, david, republicans are not going to vote for this increase in debt limit unless there are serious spending cuts and reform. >> this week, we will vote on an issue having to do with a presidential election fund. that's a 500 something million dollar expenditure. we're going to see hundreds of programs experience cuts reich that. >> $500 million is really a drop in the bucket, i realize it's real money, but in the federal budget, that's nothing. you're not tackling the big three. entitlements. what about defense? is defense on the table? do they have to be? >> i can tell you, we've always said this, too. every dollar should be on the table. >> and while mitch mcconnell -- >> these republicans are talking serious cuts and they're going to cut rnd, education, infrastructure, keep competitive with china in the 21st century, but they have yet to put on the table, cuts for the pentagon. cuts for social security. cuts for medicare. charleses, you can't, if you want to make, quote, serious cuts, those are the three pots of money. i am sorry. mathematically. they have not put a budget up. paul ryan has, but other republicans are talking about are slashing a small percentage of the budget that yes, will hurt us in the long run, but won't -- >> the math will not add up unless you put the big three on the table. for cantor to say you've got to look at hundreds of cuts. he's cutting the things that people, that touch people's lives the most. when you're getting out of those hundreds of things, it becomes politically poisonous. you cannot get away with doing that and not touching the big three. making your math add up and being popular in the polls. >> you're cutting cops. teachers. you're cutting infrastructure. you're cutting, again, rnd. you're cutting all the things that china's investing in now. now listen, i understand as a small government conservative, there is waste everywhere, but those are the last things we get to. we've got to cut pentagon spending, social security, medicare. and then after doing that, if you then have to go into classrooms, are they going to have to pull cops off the street then talk to me about that. that's not your starting point. >> here's what mitch mcconnell said on fox. >> excessive government spending, making us look like a western country is the wrong direction. the american public as one pundit put it, issued a massive retraining order and i don't think we're going to go in that direction any longer. this is not a time to look at pumping up government spendinging in many areas. >> we shall see. i think the lines are going to be drawn as we move forward. heilemann. >> yes, and look, the last time that republicans, joe, you remember well. the last time they were able to put themselves in a position where it looked like they were actually trying to attack popular programs like medicare and social security, they had huge political problems there. and i agree with you. there's serious need to take it all on board, but you can see why republicans don't want to go there. >> when we come back, the legacy of former president jimmy carter, don't say anything, a new profile in rolling stone says why he remains so competitive. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. >> good morning, everyone. cold temperatures. that's the bottom line out there. but this morning is it. a quick warm-up for new england. look at these windchills. windchill warnings from bangor to boston. new york city at minus 8. today, the sun will be out. clouds will increase late in the day and temperatures begin to warm up. pittsburgh and d.c., not too bad. still cold during the day. as far as the rest of the country, we have a little light snow in areas of the ohio valley. about 20-minute delays at o'hare airport. could turn to freezing drizzle in chicago. no big weather headlines today or tomorrow, but on wednesday, a heads-up to everyone. interior sections of the mid-atlantic to new england, coastal sections, you look like you're going to go from snow to rain. we'll have details on that in the days ahead. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ it's true. you never forget your first subaru. as a part time sales associate with walmart. when william came in i knew he had everything he needed to be a leader in this company. 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[ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. there are elements of this country who question the president's decision, who think his birth certificate is not authentic. will you call that one it is, which is crazy talk? >> a lot of that has been an issue sort of generated by not only the media, but others in the country. >> but i don't think it's nice to call anyone crazy. >> just call what it is. a lot of republican leaders who don't want to criticize. >> i think the president -- >> period. >> yes. >> okay, 19 past the hour. eric cantor on "meet the press" yesterday. >> did the evidence come out -- >> that's just ridiculous? >> it finally did. it just seems painful. why is it so hard? >> i'm so sorry. i was taking notes and i didn't listen to the bite. >> wh do you say about the people who say the president isn't a citizen of the united states? >> it's crazy talk. >> what did eric cantor say? >> just took a long time. >> it's not nice to call people crazy. he hemmed and haued. >> i like tim pawlenty personally, but i tried to get him to say it's unfortunate that michele bachmann said she wanted to be armed and dangerous. i could not get him to say that. >> it's not that hard to say. >> and i predict that the person who eventually leads the republican party says of course that's right. of course the -- let's move on. >> okay. >> mika, i'm looking for ward to you contributing. >> oh, lord. >> with us now, contributing editor for "rolling stone" -- >> nicholas writes that the riddle of jimmy carter saying in part -- >> let me read this -- thanks for being with us. it seems to me, we in america want to love our ex-presidents. republicans are moving towards embracing bill clinton. it just happens. and yet, jimmy carter always seems to stand in the wachlt he just always seems to stand in the way. why can't he just stay out of the way and help us love him. >> i think love for jimmy carter is such a complicated thing because he values things beyond how people feel about him. he is one of the most committed, dedicated people. when he was in the navy, his sport was marathon running. how people perceive those things. he's not worrying about people loving him. a really hard place to get to. >> which again, anybody that's been to the carter center knows, certainly his wife needs to pull him to the side, i'm the most significant ex-president ever. there's a blind spot. >> i think one of the things that make him interesting is how complicated he is. on the one hand, he'll do things like that, then express tremendous modesty. many people who know carter well spent a lot of time with me, including your dad, on this piece. with unusually complicated people, even the people close to them want to know about them. >> is he modest personally, away from politics? >> i think every question with jimmy carter is complicated. >> there's dr. brzezinski by the way playing chess. after mika brzezinski ran over knocking bacon with a golf cart earlier in the day. >> he's modest and on some levels -- >> any other person, being aggressive and wanting to be known. >> he's a great subject and a great suggest -- i want you to look at this picture. every president -- let's just say that the all told stories, carter was the one person, and in fact, he was standing away from the rest of them was -- >> was symbolic. as a matter of fact, i had originally saw that picture, the former presidents were treating jimmy cart er was that he had kootties and so they would not stand with him. >> let me ask you, political figures often, they have sometimes an unboundaried affection. my impression was that he didn't necessarily really like people. am i correct? >> i couldn't say -- >> people who i talked with who knew him to some degree who say, yeah, he likes humanity, but can't stand people. i think that's overstrong. he generally liked the members of the almond brothers band. >> who doesn't? >> no, i think it's more that he's an eccentric person. an unusual person to have become president. >> did his staff love him? >> i think they loved him in a different way. i think they really care about him, but i feel sometimes they would like to be closer to him. he does so many good things for strangers all over the world, so the way they talk about him, in the way you do sort of somebody that you would like to be closer. >> so you write about how the fact that it gals him that people think of him as a great ex-president and your people identified that period of time that sinking feeling. if you asked him, so forget about your post presidency. make the case for why you were a decent or good president. >> the last president to have done so and as a president, he did many significant things. it's a perfect carter accomplishment. it didn't interest many people. i'd say also, you know, sort of creating diplomatic relations with china and camp david. these are all huge and significant accomplishments. they were created by carter. of course, there were two vastly important things that happened dmesically. the hostages in iran and the misery index, the terrible economic situation. >> nicholas, let me ask you and i'll bring you in because you've obviously studies president obama, it seems to me in times of crisis, we're willing to take more of a chance. on a quirky political figure like jimmy carter, a guy who was the one-term governor of georgia. wasn't considered the greatest of governors. and with barack obama, a guy who for the most part was a glorified state senator when he got elects president of the united states. do we allow people like this in the white house at certain times? 1980, ronald reagan comes in, he's been governor of california twice, all the rough edges are smoothed over and reagan's ready to go. just like george h.w. bush. just like bill clinton. does that contribute to the fact that all these years later, we're still trying to figure out who this guy is? >> i think one of the interesting things, to get elected, he got elected in the aftermath of sort of watergate and vietnam. so the country was looking for something different. they're looking for a pergtive to a really hard time in american life and culture. this is a guy who wasn't well-known. who was a real outsider, like obama in that way. he created a model and template for what gets elected. somebody we don't know that well and has a lot to do with just our times. the unbelievable scrutiny like this that happens to anybody who's going to run for this office. >> there are two types of guys that run for president. one time, when you elect him, you're electing him, a particular personality, a particular style, a particular sense, charisma. i thought carter was one of those and so he was full of surprises as president. never quite knew. >> i still remember '76, john, the '76 campaign. stunning. this guy came out of nowhere just like barack obama. i always thought the parallels and i didn't mean this negatively, but the parallels between '76 and '08 were remarkable because these guys dropped out of space into the middle of our political system. jimmy carter was just as beloved in the summer of '76. >> as nick was just saying, after watergate and vietnam, people were ready for something different. a president as good as the american people. very much as peggy said, he was a -- on which people projected a lot of things and that was, all those things of obama in 2008. >> that's kipd of the american team, isn't it? that's a great american story. >> i can't recall though another election in modern american history, maybe in the 20th century, where a man came out of nowhere like jimmy carter, knockknock ed on doors in iowa, won an unknown caucus and was elevated. with barack obama, he's a celebrity. he got a big, head start with the convention. carter is a marathoner. he saw it in a vast distance before anybody else. he was a great politician. that's one of the real criticisms that he undervalued politics. >> yeah. >> peggy, is there a parallel in american politics? in 1976, another president that got elected the way carter did? >> the funny thing about '76 is it was huge in retro spect. for one thing, look at this shift. the last time evangelical prod stents, jimmy carter and by the end in 1980, those people went conservative. and they never really came back. >> the end of the religious rights in many ways. it's hard to believe. >> and he had this new phrase, born again christian, phrase like where i grew up, we had never heard. no, we just never heard of it. we found it fascinating. >> and most importantly, he wrote the endorsement. >> all right. >> the article is the riddle of jimmy carter. >> thank you. fascinating. >> business before the bell with erin burnett is next. [ male announcer ] in the event of a collision, the smartest thing you could do is cut the fuel supply... ♪ ...unlock the doors, and turn on the hazard lights. or better yet, get a car that automatically does it for you. ♪ ♪ ♪ you know how i feel i feel awesome. i'm a new mom and i lost 22 pounds. ♪ freedom is mine and i know how i feel ♪ weight watchers new pointsplus program gave me the edge to finally get out of my rut. ♪ it's a new dawn, a new day it's a new day for me because i have my body back. i feel sexy again. [ jennifer ] go on, join for free. weight watchers new pointsplus. because it works. >> boy: go down, down, down. down. straight. go straight. no, to the right. to the right. >> go to the right, go to the right. >> whoa! >> whoa! >> what is that? >> man: well, that's a, uh... i don't know. >> whoa. >> can we call him blinky? >> woman: expert teaching. deeper learning. together, we are the human network. cisco. let's get a check on business before the bell with erin burnett. she is live at the new york stock exchange and erin, this is what all the kids on wall street are calling earnings week. what's going on? what are we going to hear? >> it is. we're coming in with a great number and that is 71% of companies that have reported so far for the fourth quarter have done better than people thought and expectations were pretty strong. that's a good number. companies often beat expectations, but not as many as 71%. this week is a big number. we've got 369 companies reporting. that's three times more. >> can i stop you there? this is why i love erin so much. she can go anywhere. i saw a number on friday that shock medicine. i thought, bank of america way down. is bank of america in trouble or just still writing off the countrywide mess? >> it's countrywide. they seem to be fine although some are looking at their loan loss provisions, the money they set aside. they were the only bank to increase that significantly. everyone's saying that's because of countrywide. if there's any other prb -- bank of america is an american bank unlike citigroup. >> ge had incredible earnings. but they had trouble with ge capital. they have washed that out. now, they seem to be using it to actually make investments across the globe. how long is it going take for bank of america to wash up all of these horrible country wide loans? are there any guesses on the street? >> i long time. you still have one in five homes under water. it's interesting with all this talk about a jobs recovery and profit recovery, but housing, we were really still at the bottom. >> when housing turns around, back of america -- general electric, just incredible week for ge. also, stocks going up, they turned it around? >> we're all shareholders of ge. things have really started to come together. when you look over the past ten years, ge's down 60%. among big stocks, the absolute worst. let's hope, right? >> i want to keep going. because nbc and i have no idea because i'm not a numbers guy, but i saw nbc had a great quarter for general electric. >> we did. our theme park did very well. >> we helped ge, the bad news, ge's losing nbc, which these cable channels are turning a big product. cable channels and nbc are simply fantastic. >> please. >> ge is a better company. it's a more consistent company without a media company. it made sense. i cannot believe i had all this for you. >> just like it made comcast, get a guy like steve burke, his dad ran abc. i mean, he's a media guy. no, i'm dead serious. he's not making turbines on the side. they, comcast, does media, so it's a tighter fit. >> he's not making turbines. just got an image. >> isn't that what ge does, bring good things to life? >> as we go, joe, i'm saving my great thing for tomorrow. everybody's talking about eric smid t getting a payoff, it's not like it moved the needle for him. erin burnett, thank you. >> i'll save it for tomorrow, mika. it will work. >> the "morning joe" football frenzy with roger bennett next on "morning joe." >> that's why erin's so good. she can go anywhere. >> she certainly can. hey smart, you book your room yet? nope. see, hotels.com has over 20,000 last minute deals every week. so i get a great deal, no matter how long i wait. yeah... i'm not very good at waiting... then we must train you to wait. 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[ male announcer ] now, it's ok to wait. get great deals. even at the last minute. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. >> woman: good night, gluttony-- a farewell long awaited. good night, stuffy. >> ( yawning ) >> good night, outdated. >> ( click ) >> good night, old luxury and all of your wares. good night, bygones everywhere. >> ( engine revs ) >> good morning, illumination. good morning, innovation. good morning, unequaled inspiration. >> ( heartbeats ) might say and if he didn't compete -- >> exactly. >> what did he say? >> i don't know. >> speak english. >> welcome back. we have espn soccer analyst and the author of everything you know is pong. roger bennett. john heilemann here as well. what did kenny say? >> who cares? the red sox have just hired him to be the messiah of the liverpool. he's 59 years of age. i think he's doubled that since he took the job about two weeks ago and the revolution has started. >> they had a good week and poor uncle roy out. >> he's shuffling around the retirement village in florida. kenny's a former iconic player, once a coach in the '90s when most his players were not even born yet. it's a little like getting johnny carson back. >> they beat the wolves. >> they did. a tawdry team. >> but this is like -- something like liverpool's only second or third win away. in a year or two. >> ends a loss of five straight losses. wolves are a tawdry team, but this was a fabulous win. a female lines woman. remember that for a second. nine times out of ten, when you hit them like that, it's like a work of michelangelo. >> by the way, team kenny has moved him up in the pitch. >> absolutely. it's been wonderful. liverpool playing free flowing counterattacking. three points. you saw for a second mika, a female lines woman. >> yes. look at that. >> a hint of off sides and there was two very legendary -- our equivalent of -- one saying to the other, that's a woman. why is she a lines person. she doesn't know what the hell she's doing and there, you're going to be spending time in england very, very soon. just want to warn you, the mid evil times are alive and well. that's andrew gray. he's a legend. >> what happened after they said that? >> his tenure -- >> are you serious? they're going to boot him? >> even in england. we have some standards, very few, but one or two. >> let's go to aston villa who picked up quite a player from southern. >> he has taken a great team and turned them into the cleveland browns. they are awful. he just paid a lot of money for this gentleman. just three weeks ago he said about his old team, he never wanted to leave them. he wants to pl he wanted to play that for life. he's a bloody liar. he did score the only goal which -- manchester city -- >> supposed to be pretty darn good. his name -- >> i think he's just dedicated to a deeper truth. >> mika's been coming to me every single time, i think there are values in football. you'll save a lot, said he wanted to be nearer to his children, wanted to leave manchester say for argentina. >> but he's still there. >> mika told manchester city to open up the coffers. >> so, something's happening right now with the evil empire. they have had a lot of draws, but man u, they are undefeated. manchester united, undefeated. >> but unconvincing so far this season. they turned around, there's five more of perfecting. they're inviting tampa bay buccaneers. they've just been off a $2.7 billion by the royal family to pay the team. add on a couple more there. >> verb ta, who had a terrific season last year has yet another hat trick. >> third this season. >> that's never happened before. >> it's happened i think a while ago. probably when he's not playing football, smoking and watching the god father movies. the title will be i guess decided in february. >> okay. >> so does man u win it? thank you. >> thank you. roger. ♪ sun in the sky ♪ you know how i feel i feel like jennifer hudson but with new arms, new legs, and this smile. ♪ freedom is mine ♪ and i know how i feel i'm loving weight watchers new pointsplus program and the edge it's giving me. ♪ it's a new dawn, a new day i've got even more control now. ♪ and i'm feeling good go on, join for free. weight watchers new pointsplus. because it works. weight watchers new pointsplus. ♪ ooh, ah la, la, la ♪ ♪ ooh, ah la, la, la ♪ ♪ ooh, ah la, la, la ♪ ♪ ooh, ah la, la, la ♪ ♪ [ dance beat ] [ male announcer ] join theladders.com. we don't just post the $100k+ jobs. we give you the tools and guidance you need to be irresistible. ♪ work, work all week long ♪ punching that clock from dusk till dawn ♪ ♪ countin' the days till friday night ♪ ♪ that's when all the conditions are right for a good time ♪ [ male announcer ] advanced technology that helps provide cleaner air, cleaner water, and helps make all of us more energy efficient is something the whole world can get in step with. [ static ] ♪ i need a good time [ male announcer ] ecomagination from ge. it's technology that makes the world work. ♪ ♪ today was the day ♪ that i put everything in perspective ♪ ♪ i fell asleep ♪ when i woke up, everything changed ♪ ♪ and the sky was turned off ♪ that was before ♪ that was before ♪ you came along and you played me a song ♪ ♪ with a little bit of love ♪ and a little bit of yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ la la, la la [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. this is a song that's been gathering momentum this week. it's written by sarah palin supporters. a beautiful and inspirational song set to the tune of the battle of the republican. ♪ the second half is when things got good. ♪ ♪ sarah palin went to town riding on a pony shot a moose right in his heart and made it into bologna ♪ ♪ >> nobody parties like the tea party. >> i've never shared this with anybody. i'll share it with you folks tonight. i wished paul 15 years ago had taken me aside and said, dave, it's time to get a facelift. about ten years ago, i realized that i needed a facelift, but that it was too late. >> too late. >> the idea is you've got to be ahead of the facelift. you've got to be prepared to look peculiar for a couple of years after the facelift, then it all starts to make sense. look at regis for god sakes. he looks like he's 16. that's because he had the brains. >> he got ahead of the facelift. i was living in a fool's paradise. >> okay. >> letterman talking about his buddy, reg. a big announcement, i'm getting old, going to be 80 this year. there are multiple reports that say perhaps there was more to the story. maybe money was involved. >> what? in terms of the television business? >> that they offered him a contractor that was not agreeable and the age thing was a cover. >> i know about television. that doesn't happen. >> good people doing good things. >> just keep doing the lord's work. >> up next -- >> shattering everything. a leek at your weekend forecast. this weekend, it's all about cold. very cold air. high temperatures only in the single digits in the northern plains. 19 in chicago even the new england area is going to be cold with highs in the 20s but the time we get to sunday, it's still going to be chilly. packed. you know when to hold 'em... and how to fold 'em. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above and still pay the mid-size price. here we are... 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