Life, this piece of your heart was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It changes you. Youre not the same afterwards. And obviously, whatever that experience is like is nothing compared to the experience that those families are actually going through. It makes you realize that if theres even one thing to do to keep our children and communities safe, one step to prevent more families from feeling what they feel after theyve lost a loved one, you have an obligation to take that step. We have an obligation to give our Police Officers and our communities the tools they need to make some of the same progress thats been made here in minneapolis. There wont be perfect solutions. We wont save every life but we can make a difference. Thats our responsibility as americans. Thats what ill do every sine day as long as ive got the honor of serving as your president. So thank you. God bless you. God bless these United States of america. Thank you. President obama just wrapping up the first campaignstyle push for gun control legislation. Why minneapolis . Because that citys efforts to curb gun violence cut the number of young people involved in 66 in 5 years and produced a 41 drop in the number of young people involved in gun violence. And pushing better background checks. Over the weekend the white house released this picture after critics said he shoots all the time at camp david. David plouffe tweeted, make our day. Let the photo shop conspiracies begin. Does it really matter whether the president shoots himself if he has respect for the american hunting tradition . The senate set to unveil a gun bill to parallel the president s proposal. Didnt vote for the assault weapons last time because it was didnt make sense, but ill take a look at it. I think we need to take a look at federal trafficking. I think that everyone acknowledges we should do something with background checks. Universal background checks . Yeah. We need to increase that. Wayne lapierre hit the sunday show circuit and taken to task over the ad asking obamas daughters protected by guns at school. Why isnt your child . The point of that ad was this. It wasnt picking on the president s kids. The president s it mentions them. Theyre safe and were all thankful for it. They also face a threat that most children do not face. Tell that to the people in newtown. Tell that do you think that the president s children are the same kind of target as every school child in america . Thats ridiculous and you know it, sir. Even the xherms last night with the gun debate. The nra once supported background checks. America can do this. For us. Please. Starting with michael sheer for time magazine. Welcome. Thank you for having me, toure. One of the things that the senate is proposing a curbing sales in states with relaxed laws to buyers in states with tougher laws. This is not something that the president s been pushing already. Sounds interesting. How exactly would they go about doing that . Im not sure the details of how that one would go. I think the full suite of proposals pushed in that bill you are talking about is coming out of what the white house proposal was. Theres three efforts now moving through the senate. Feinstein effort, hard line gun control assault weapons ban that everyone says has a little chance of the senate let alone the house. Theres a big democratic bill which you mentioned with a number of these provisions in it and then a third effort, a bipartisan effort, which we havent yet really seen the outlines of to focus on the background check area which is really where there is emerging bipartisan consensus at this point. And were going to see over the coming months exactly where it all how it all shifts out. Michael, mayors against illegal guns put out a paper today talking about 43 Mass Shootings, at least 4 People Killed in 1 time, 43 Mass Shootings since january 2009. Thats more than one per month. And you see the amount of Energy Behind the attempt to create gun control is waning even after newtown and shocked america and you have to wonder, are we as a nation getting too numb to actually get to a place of gun control . Well, what we know about Mass Shootings is theres actual remarkable and rather depressing consistency. For decades now averaged about 20 Mass Shootings a year. And a mass shooting is defined as four or more killed. Obviously, there are a lot more shootings like Mass Shootings that dont involve four or more killed. Random shootings and workplaces and things like that. The problem isnt worse but had a number of high profile Mass Shootings including newtown, so unspeakable in the details that it really did galvanize the country. I mean, what struck me about this debate, just in three weeks, is every time theres an event that i cover about the nra testifying or another speech here or another proposal, the news on msnbc and other networks is breaking to school in kentucky or a school in california. This is the reality of our lives. I think the polls show theres increased sensitivity to this issue. There is more interest now than there was. I mean, for most of the 2000s, polling showed the American People not interested in revisiting this issue and both parties were not. I think the polls now shifted somewhat. Doesnt mean that you can go back to an assault weapons ban right away or the point of 90s with krim crime as an issue for more americans. But i dont think the rage and frustration is going away and i think the president knows he has enormous soapbox and clearly showing hes willing to use it. So theres more of a popular sentiment to do something on gun control than in two decades. Another difference between now and the past two decades, we saw, played a clip a funt ago. In the super bowl last night, the bloomberg group, mayors against gun violence, 100,000 for an ad in washington. Wasnt national. Its a lot of money and speaks to the fact that especially with bloomberg leaving office this year, and devoting himself more to efforts like this, there could be some real serious money sort of coming in from the outside as this goes forward, as the legislative process goes forward. I wonder the role you see in bloomberg specifically and mayors against gun violence shaping what comes through congress. A huge rule. Maybe not this cycle but the future sig cycles. We put biden, bloomberg and giffords on the cover. Bloomberg because hes, you know, worth dozens of billions of dollars. And said he eeg willing to spend substantial sums of money and targeted races around the gun issue. Giffords said her effort and mark kellys effort to raise about 20 million. I think bloomberg could match that or go further. He said he wants to get members of congress on the record on these issues so that next cycle we can come advertise either for them or against them and issuing a threat right now to congress to say, look, big money is here. We have super pacs. We can spend this money in your race, in you district, you have to know that there is both backup for you if you take a difficult vote and a possible threat coming at you. The question is, what the impact will be long term. One of the myths of the National Rifle association is main power is ability to spend money in elections on tv and they really have never been heavy hitters in most cases in television. They have a lot of grass roots campaigning, a huge membership in a lot of districts. Their real impact is that the people that care about guns tend to vote on that issue whereas the people who are more for gun control dont usually decide their vote based on that issue so if you go on the record especially in some of the purple states or red states as a democrat, saying youre for more gun control, you run a real risk of turning out voters otherwise who would agree with you but on the gun issue, they like all of your other policieies but vote r you coming after the guns. Thats a great segue of a problem potentially of harry reid to face in nevada. He took down the sportsman for harry reid website which you can still find, you know, screen grabs of online. It features very prominently an endorsement of Wayne Lapierre on the top and reads senator reid led efforts to create the worlds finest shooting range right here in our state and staunchly opposed to the socalled assault weapons ban, played a Critical Role in passing a law to protect gun manufacturers from junk lawsuits, et cetera. Where does he go in the National Conversation . You mentioned some proposals flying around. What does he do about this . I think hes been pretty clear in trying to carefully stake out the position. The history here is hes definitely a proguns Second Amendment guy from a progun state in nevada and the views didnt change. Whats maybe changed is that his relationship with the National Rifle association is a lot worse. Hes found himself running against them and even though the votes are totally pro nra if you score him. The nra putt up money against him and really burned that bridge with him. I think what hes going to be doing over the coming months is going to give a vote to dianne feinstein, probably wont vote for that. Going to allow try to get votes on the democratic package and i think going to work to try and build, you know, 60vote plus super majority in the senate to try to get something over to the house. I think he is determined to do that. And all signs point to that. I think it is short of an assault weapons ban, probably wont include magazine limits but as you heard the president say today, at the top of the speech, i think really most important part of the speech saying even though we cant agree on everything, that doesnt mean we shouldnt try to do something. It is not an all or nothing deal for me. This is what i want. Lets negotiate and work on this and make sure something happens. Harry reid is on that same page. Before this latest push, the one item that the president had spoken out about before was the assault weapons ban and as youre basically saying, thats the sort of most politically fraught and challenging piece of this. Feinsteins bill unlikely to pass and the other two approaches probably nth senate wont include that. Is the assault weapons ban a must have for the white house or willing to let that go . I think its a must push for but not a must have. I think its something that obama has always been for, a lot of democrats have always been for it. The white house wasnt publicly pushing for this. Theyd be fighting against their own basin stead of focusing on the issues where they want to focus. You saw even during the process of coming up with these proposals, Vice President biden very clearly in public statements drawing this up didnt mention the assault weapons ban but other parts of it. Early on, the white house setting the stage for this bifurcation. You can push for the assault weapons ban and signal to really the moderate democrats in the senate who dont want that vote that its okay for them not to go along with the assault weapons ban but dont give up on the rest of the package. Lets get something done. I think thats the situation we have right now in the senate. All right. Michael, thank you very much. Thanks a lot. Much more ahead. Lets take a moment to acknowledge the death of an american hero, someone that made a deep impression on the staff of this show. Chris kyle did five combat tours in iraq, known as the deadliest sniper in u. S. History, an advocate for veterans mental health. He and a friend were shot and killed in texas. Another vet who it appears they were trying to help through Mental Illness is in custody. Last year, kyle spoke about the dedication to former service members. There were several different times we thought that this might be it. But thats what you signed up and you basically wrote a blank check up to the price of your life that youre willing to get for the country and nut that situation then you just fight as hard as you can and hopefully you come out but if you dont then youre dying in honor of your country, especially for your brothers on the right and left of you. Whole grain, multigrain cheerios mom, are those my jeans . [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who dont. Multigrain cheerios thats not much, you think. Except its 2 every year. Go to etrade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs. Spoiler alert its low. Its guidance on your terms, not ours. Etrade. Less for us. More for you. For one National Conversation to another, last nights super bowl gave us plenty to talk about. We had the game itself. Boring. Where a [ laughter ] i kid, i kid. A 49er comeback stalled out. A blackout paused the game more than half an hour. That was boring. There was the halftime show that the whole world settled to watch. You were great, beyonce, by the way. And then finally the commercials and the new american tradition of shushing people in breaks in the game to hear whats being said by corporations. Nice. So im sure each of us has a favorite moment and getting to the game. But first i want to whoa. What just happened. Steve, did you do that . Momentums been completely changed now. Momentum its completely messed up now. I hope there are no lip readers because toures about to lose it. Im out of here. Yeah. So there was the blackout which was obviously bizarre and i think gave rise to potentially some great harbaugh family practical jokes in the family like at the first family dinner since the super bowl, jack goes and cuts the power as a joke. Love that. Light the producers just did. Exactly. Great guys. Thanks. But it also made me think of it was like a super bowl brought by stefan. It has everything. Brothers. Beyonce. Blackouts. Ray lewis. Destinys child. Right . Yes yes yes yes yes. It was so great and weird. But all in all interesting. Something to watch i think every, you know, every quarter. Something for everyone. Something weird happened. There was, those are those memories and thought there was one other professional sports team with a blackout before. Giants. No. It was the Boston Bruins and the oilers 1980. The old Boston Garden and the ice would melt during games. Initial watching this during the game and then happens in a super bowl. I thought we had advanced. We dont worry about those problems. This is a major sport. Well, the stanley cup finals, but anyway, talking about the super bowl, i was talking friday i was not excited for the game and i found myself for most of it, the reins all over San Francisco. I was cheering for San Francisco to come back and found myself reverting and cheering for the rai ravens again. Clearly the blackout seemed to be the turning point. Yep. 286 at that point. The reins just run back a kickoff for 108 yards and then San Francisco just completely turned around at that point. I found interesting and kind of baffling was, you know, san fran with the first and goal at the 70 yard line with 2 or 3 minutes left in the game. Theyve got this the big turning point in San Franciscos san was harbaughs decision to switch the quarterbacks. Smith sort of a conventional quarterback for ckaepernick and then that quarterback. Five yards. Second and goal. Three shots at the end zone and run alex smith passes. Three passes. Well covered. Maybe Michael Crabtree or holding there in the lals play. Well never know. The flag that never was. We had the same conversation. It was wow. A decision to switch quarterbacks. Krystal texting me all night last night. I cant believe this defense theyre running. Youre right. They should have put more running. On the last bit. But overall, i have new respect for joe flacco. I thought that he was an average nfl quarterback. I got to move him up. Maybe not top ten just yet but darn close to it because he was great last night. Precise. Strong. Short throws. Long throws. But ray lewis and a goal line stand at the end, to get his final, final championship trophy, grateful and very hollywood. She saw it coming. She is the only one that picked the ravens. I have to say and i was right about beyonces hair. Just saying. Did call curly. I love, steve, how you always vote you always root for the underdog. Always. Yeah. Well no matter who it is. And will change midstream. Who wants to watch a 2816 even when its but even when it was 286, we thought that the 49ers could come back. Just like just like we know that america when it is down can come back. Thats right. Paul harvey commercial for dogs when theyre talking about the power of the farmer and god made lets watch a little bit of that. That was my favorite commercial of the night. God looked down on the planned paradise and said i need a caretaker. So god made a farmer. God said i need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows, go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school. Thats a farmer. I loved hearing his voice once more. Very cool. Michelle tweeted watching the super bowl with family and friends. Beyonce was phenomenal. Beyonce is the best singer and dancer. Gretchen says she blew a fuse. And the lights did go out soon after. Get in on the conversation. Up next, we shift gears and get a rare look inside the world of extreme smuggling. The plots to transport weapons, drugs and exotic animals around us without anyone being the wiser. A daring filmmakers brings us stories from the underside of the business in the guest spot. Justin owns city aquariums in brooklyn, new york. His unique designs and personal attention to the customers fish gained him a celebrity client e clientele, a company base to call any time day or night if they need help. 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Elaborate underground Trafficking Networks are moving goods right under our noses all the time. They can get you whatever you want, drugs, guns, even a pet kommodo dragon. That sounds kind of cool. A series giving us a look in to the lives of smugglers who are working right in the heart of the underground and the guest spot today, our personal sherpa of illegal back alley business, filmmaker Mark Allen Johnson producer of extreme smuggling airing tonight. Mark, welcome. Thank you. How are you doing today . Good. I want to talk about drugs and what are some of the most innovativ innovative, surprising way people are getting drugs in to this country . I mean, if you watch the series you see theres crazy things people do. Some of them you havent heard of. The interesting thing is a network of individuals who smuggle things in to our country unbeknownst to themselves. Meaning, say you had a grandpa and you were from we peru and they pay for the grandmas ticket to visit the family members and getting there her only deal is to bring goods back with her in to the country. She places orders all the time herself with this service to have her favorite cakes, soaps, anything brought to her. So its something that shes used to. So when she brings back the goods, she doesnt inspect them. Its a human currier business and bringing the smaller components and who would thinking looking at a small grandma, i guess . So thats what fascinated me the most. Grandma is sort of an unwitting participant and wondering about the masterminds. You had to have some cooperation from them first of all in finding out how their world works and i wonder how could have gotten cooperation how its illegal, their activities are, and i just want to wonder who they are and what are they like . I cant give you too much information but any time i go in to a situation thats dangerous, i have to go in at the top. Any of the layers below youre going to run in to a problem and something bad happens to you. I have to start at negotiating with someone in a really high level. There are people just like you and me but they just operate in different countries, they have families. They have kids to go to school and same concerns we have. They just make a living at something differently and thats transporting at least talking about peru episode, transportationing cocaine. Theres like i think cocaine its very different than we are. Yeah. Really . Really. What is it what would attract i work here and i need a paycheck. Maybe thats the reason i do it. Desperation that drives them to do cocaine and not anything snels. Are you talking about the user or the smuggler . The smuggler. A lot of things you can do that are not this illegal. Thats easy judgment to place on a guy making a lot of money and sitting in the chair with the good stuff going for him. Imagine if you were raised in the jungle and your family raised you to grow coca and processed it and just tape it up, wrap it up and ship it away and allowing you to have the toys and cars and cyst tore have the wedding and there wasnt even any Violence Associated with that so when thats what happens and your mom is old and dies and you take on that and no other education, its kind of hard to get that person to step outside of the life and so for me thats the interesting component. Now, is me being able to step in to the peoples lives and can i rationalize what they do . Its hard because i have this Greater Knowledge but for them they live in a very insular environment and that insular environment is one that dictates to make a living and put food in their mouth and just what theyre doing and kind of the problem that we have here. Theres a demand in the United States for the drugs and theres a demand over there for them to survive and so thats the big picture. Well, you know, we mentioned drugs and weapons. But what about exotic animals . How big is that industry and how can toure get a dragon . I cant help him facilitate anything illegal. Come on. Talk to him after the show. Yeah right. Okay. I mean, the thing is, i didnt realize how big the illegal animal trade is but the crime syndicates just as big if not bigger than the biggest drug syndicates in the world and all over in Southeast Asia and things do trickle back to here but talking about the animal trade, it is really a cultural thing. Chinas one of the main consumers of these products and what happens is like i went to cambodia, laos, thailand, all these places. These people are raised culturally to eat some of the products and maybe bear or bear bile or a tiger and because they think it makes them more of a man and more of a smaller care and maybe on special occasions and so on and is forth but with a growing population in china, a main cause of the problems and more and more of this culture that thinks that you need this, theres more of a demand so it goes back to the poor peasant, the poor farmer and person that doesnt have the ability to survive. Theyre hunters and gatherers still in the environments and a guy comes in town and goes, i can make you a fast buck if you get me this little animal. They go, oh, we have them everywhere. They grab them, they collect them, they hand them to the next guy. They have their money and they keep going. What they dont realize is the degradation to the environment and to the whole system of the animals and so on and so forth so its an educational thing. We like knee jerk reactions in the United States to hell no, well shut this down. This is a problem. Slap someone on the wrist but unfortunately, speaking what i saw is people getting slapped on the wrist are the poor guy at the low level. Right. The ramifications for grabbing the animals and doing those things that strikes hard at the small guy but its really hard to stick it to the bigger organizations. I thought that was pretty compelling. Problem solving here in the u. S. You focused on illegal gun smuggling. I wonder if you found anything out about that operation that our legislators should keep in mind as we move forward in this debate on gun control. I mean, i dont want to get in to a political conversation. The thing i will say thats surprised is how easy it is to get an illegal gun. If you know the right person, i could have a gun in an hour. I could place a phone call right now. I do know the right person and i can put in an order. Also, guns, the people that sell guns might have been people that transition from guns to drugs and when you sell drugs, you have people that show up to the house. They might be on edge. They might i dont know. Theyre just a little bit more sketchy to deal with. Gun sales guys said a little more upscale . I mean, i dont know. I dont want to say its upscale. Im saying the gun has a tangible value. If i purchase the gun, theyre purchasing guns to put in work as they say, do work on the street and probably do harm to someone. Once they do that, ty turn around and sell the gun again and they get the money back. They only lose like 20 value on that shift. So its kind of an easy thing to move around the streets and theres always a need in the streets for a gun. I mean, you have to protect yourself so i thought that was really fascinating. Mark allen johnson, ill call you after the show about the dragon. Okay . Well get you on that. All right. Republican versus republican. I like where this ones going. Karl rove and american crossroads launch an initiative to take down extreme candidates. How will it impact the party and the democrats chances against them . Hello how sharp is your Business Security . Can it help protect your people and property, while keeping out threats to your operations . Its not working yes it is. Welcome to tyco integrated security. With worldclass Monitoring Centers and thousands of qualified technicians. Weve got a personal passion to help your business run safer, smarter, and sharper. We are tyco integrated security. And we are sharper. So if ydead battery,t tire, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geicos emergency roadside assistance is there 24 7. Oh dear, i got a flat tire. Hmmm. Uh. Yeah, can you find a take where its a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah . Yeah i got it right here. Someone help me i have a flat tire well its good. Good for me. What do you think . Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Otherworldly things. But there are some things ive never seen before. This ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. Which is good for business. Because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. Suddenly, faraway places dont seem so. Far away. We have talked a lot on this show about where the gop will move following the 2012 election and they there may not be a clear answer for a while. One possibility is a civil war in the next round of primaries in 2014 between the establishment and conservative true believers and over the weekend that possibility advanced with the news of a wealthy group of establishment types led by a super pac and associated with karl rove launching the conservative victory project. The idea to prevent the party base from nominating the todd arins and Richard Mourdocks with head leans and squandered races republicans otherwise would have won last two elections. Lets back spin on this. I guess theres a lot we can say here but i do think were kind of heading toward a civil war moment of the republican party. Sure. To explode in these congressional and really Senate Primaries in 2014. Because you have sort of irreconcilable differences here. What i think rove you can say things personally about rove but what i think rerepresents is a wing of the party to win. That, b, isnt particularly interested in a lot of cultural stuff, culture issue type of stuff in the last few years and business oriented, finance oriented, new york oriented, a lot of new york money i think and bottom line oriented and looking at todd akin and Richard Mourdock and said we could have the Senate Without these guys and Christine Odonnell and theres a lot of money coming in to the primaries i think in 2014 and not just the primaries but to spot them way in advance and stop and nip them in the bud the way they didnt in the last two times and then conservative groups reacting saying, hey, bring it on. Club for growth, Senate Conservatives fund. Freedom works. They raise a ton of money and raise a ton of money saying the establishment looks down on you, dont respect you. You have to fight and only help them raise more money, i think. Big money from both sides and i think just bring i can see it already in iowa, georgia, alaska. Primaries are already starting to take shape and may be a twoyear story. There are a lot of donors because i have spoken to them disappointed in what happened over the past year with american crossroads and looking for other places to put their money so im not sure karl rove will have the same luck raising that whopping figure amounting in zero wins as last year and the three years ensuing. Crazy. That proceeded that. But the other thing that really bothers me is if you remember back to that moment on fox news Election Night and karl rove refused to cede and that was emblematic, refusal to recognize reality. Absolute refusal. And what bothers me is that people like karl rove think they deserve another shot at this. Right. Didnt even ask but presumed that hell get one. Well, i dont think hes going to be as lucky as he was. As youre pointing out, i mean, the problem for mainstream candidates is not that they dont have money but now these crazy out there candidates do have money so i think karl rove or whoever it is throwing more money at mainstream candidates, that wont solve the problem. Look, if they wanted to put some money behind a reform to make sense, you have the safe republican districts, republicans trying to get to the right of each other and win the primary. One potential reform is what theyve done in california. The top two primary system where theres essential two rounds in the first round, everyone can vote so not just partisans and in a republican district, you would likely have two republican candidates to get the top two number of votes in that first round. They would then go on to the general election so you would likely have the mainstream candidate and maybe a crazy candidate or someone else going on to november. Get behind that reform and the other thing to say is, look, groups like karl rove and others spent four years trying to convince the country that the president was a socialist intent on destroying america. And they rode that wave as long as it was good for them. They did not convince the country of that. Is it a surprise to convince the base of that and wants to nominate people in line with that view . They need to moderate the tone overall and hopefully make a difference. Not just the tone but policies hostile to black, brown, gay and women. Right. Thats not going to work long term. Americas getting browner. All right. A news icon that knows about news. Jane paulie joins the cycle. Thats up next. Day. So will bounty selectasize. Its the smaller powerful sheet. Look one selectasize sheet of bounty is 50 more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. Use less, with bounty selectasize. When i first felt the diabetic nerve pain, of course, i had no idea what it was. I felt like my feet were going to sleep. It progressed from there to burning like i was walking on hot coals to like a thousand bees that were just stinging my feet. I have a great relationship with my doctor. He found lyrica for me. [ female announcer ] its known that diabetes damages nerves. Lyrica is fda approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. Lyrica is not for everyone. It may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. Or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, changes in eye sight including blurry vision, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or skin sores from diabetes. Common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, and swelling of hands, legs, and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those whove had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. Having less pain. Its a wonderful feeling. [ female announcer ] ask your doctor about lyrica today. Its specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. To hear more of phylliss story, visit lyrica. Com. So i used my Citi Thankyou card to pick up some accessories. A new belt. Some nylons. And what girl wouldnt need new shoes . And with all the points ive been earning, i was able to get us a flight to our favorite climbing spot even on a holiday weekend. Things are definitely looking up. [ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your Citi Thankyou points to travel whenever you want. Visit citi. Com thankyoucards to apply. Good night, mr. Goldblatt. Good night. Who says kids have all the fun . That, of course, one of the favorite super bowl ads showing a young at heart posse sneaking out of the retirement home far wild night. Might not be an exact depiction theres no denying that the generation is reinventing what it means to get older. The boomer generation is 80 million strong making them the strongest not to mention the most prosperous and highly educated generation in american history. Next guest hosts an Initiative Exploring life after 50. With us is legendary tv journalist and proud member of the boomer generation, jane paulie. Boomers 2. 0, a generation reimagined and the rethinking 50 plus town hall airing this thursday. Check rl. Tv for exact times. Thank you for being with us. I think 8 00 to 10 00 is an exact time. Its a thrill to be here and i hope its obvious people having fun in the taco commercial are probably a generation a little past. Beyond me. Yes, absolutely. Glad you pointed that out. Certain. The youngest boomers are going to be turning 50 but the youngest boomers arent even 50 yet. Thats right. Is this a generation you think is misunderstood overall . It doesnt matter. There are so many of us. We have run everything for so long. Yes. And still are. Only by virtue of our size. Yes. We did not choose to be born, you know, units of 4 million. But we were. And there are 80 million of us and we have 70 of the wealth in this country. And that means impact. Yeah. And well theres also i think an interesting myth that baby boomers are not tech lodge cll savvy by theyre 20 times more likely to buy a tablet an number one purchasers of a tablet and advertisers and others missing an opportunity with this group . I think theyre beginning to figure out so. One of the researchers of one of the networks pointed out that the 18 to 49yearold demographic is shrinking every year. And he says, why would you continue to aim your programming at a group that you know is getting smaller . When the 50plus demographic is only getting bigger and bigger. And has the money. One of the advertisers in our town hall said, you know, baby boomers are in a phase where they are not just making money theyre now spending it. And as i said before, 75 of the wealth in this country. There used to be a myth and to a degree that baby boomers have no one but themselves to blame thi that we were brand fixated like our parents were, but we didnt do anything like our parents did. Thats very, very different now. My son, youngest, is 26. He has a friend who has a business, appeared on another network to talk about it, and wanted my critique. He wanted toms moms critique. And that is thats kind it really says a lot. Not merely that i knew something about television, but intergenerationally the diversity of the electorate, i mean the election opened eyes to the power of a diverse lector yacht as if those big numbers of voting blocs were there but we noticed them when they have impact. I walked by your studio and noticed a lot of age diversity, you know, over there. Yeah. There are young, im not surprised at that, but there are people my age as well. The 50 and 60plus demographic of which i am comfortably a part is we like to call them the power years. We are aspirational and this is good news for you because we were changing the way everyone will ever look at aging because im at a stage in life where i have time and money and knowledge and experience, some independence. Right. Not everybody has all of those things at the same time, some of us got hammered with the recession sure enough, but the idea you can be 50 or 60 to finally do what you want to do, to have independence, not to have a boss, is aspirational. Oh, yeah. We are there, were redefining it and once we have done it, it will be taken for granted, so thank you. Thank you for reinventing it for us. Thanks for joining us jane pauley. Good luck. Thank you very much. With the program. Up next, the city says goodbye to the peoples mayor, ed koch. He had a big brain but he had a bigger heart. 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My epitaph written by you. Was written by me. He fiercely defended the city of new york, and he fiercely loved its people. The doc is called koch and its an intimate port trrait ofe most complex figures. His spirit will forever be a part of this city. One of the most obvious ways is times square which was one of the rotting core of the city filled with peepshows, porn, crime, and the homeless. He condemned, revitalized times square. But now its clean and brings millions into the city. Less visible to tourists but just as important is the 5 billion he spent on creating Affordable Housing which helped change the bronx. At funeral today, bill clinton spoke which is fitting because its hard to find two politicians more nakedly in l ld of being loved. Where clinton is a smooth operator who approaches america as if it were a lovely lady he would like to pick up, koch was brash and opinion yat yated. He is like Chris Christie who tell it is like it is. In the doc koch says you can only get the people to follow you by being bigger than life, and he refers to politics as theater which makes sense because he was good at that. He was good at all sorts of theater. Im going to tell you who youre doing, youre doing terrible. Thats why im going to jump off this roof. Its all right. Its all right. Its me, mayor koch. Jump, jump whats wrong with the city . Dirt, noise, mugging, stabbing, rape, roaches, pigeon mess, horse mess, people mess. Eddie murphys character is representative of the mayors deep troubles with new yorks black community. For somebody who needed to be loved he was polarizing to and unafraid of angering new yorks blacks. In reportthe doc a reporter say lacked a sensitivity. Perhaps its fitting that new yorks racial troubles in the 80s were a part of his political undoing and his successor was the citys first and only black mayor. David dinkins was gentlemanly mayor. Mike bloomberg has been a cold business manage mother thought he was a king but none could match koch as the embodiment of the city which often seems at war with itself. Both new york and koch are larger than life. Both have massive egos. Both have things theyd rather hide, and both are an essential part of the fabric of america. And now for another essential part of the fabric of america, martin bashir. Thank you very much, toure. Good afternoon. Its monday, february the 4th, and the president says we dont have to agree on everything, but we must agree to do something