0 obama administration here. i wonder what you see them doing, going forward here. because this seems to be just one more example of, you know, the second term that the president had hoped that he would have, these great domestic policy achievements he wanted to implement, immigration reform, gun control, et cetera, colliding with the second administration -- second term that he actually does have. >> well, obama 2.0 meets reality. it's what we're seeing at home and abroad. i think the turbulence in egypt is inevitable and appropriate follow on of their revolution. i peen, you know, they are going to experiment with different governments and it will take a while to get it right. i don't find that distressing to u.s. interests. i found it interesting the new secretary of state, john kerry, has invested so much time and passion, personal commitment, in going back to the obamas's first goal in the middle east which is a settlement between israelis and palestinians. he appeared to come very close over the weekend to getting the basic deal that will allow negotiations to start which is an understanding about israeli security, if there's a palestinian state, and a reciprocal understanding about what the borders of that state would be. he was very close to having that. so obama's going back at this intractable problems, but the toughest area we'll talk about it later maybe is syria. i still see his policy drifting and a lot of people dying. >> you were getting very poetic in your piece in "the washington post" this morning, writing centuries of theater goers have puzzled why it took shakespeares hamlet so long to act once he set his mind to it. the arab world has the same question about president obama's delay in implementing his policies in syria and elsewhere in the middle east. the military situation in syria is slipping away as the president ponders. presidents cannot make promises of military assistance and watch their allies be crushed. egypt another example of bootless obama administration policy in the middle east. what is the obama administration's position? you would think, surely, it would remain neutral in the face of broad-based opposition to morsi and the brotherhood, but the administration policy is so unclear that many egyptians think the united states is backing morsi in the face of public rejection and they wonder why. >> i can listen to you read the phone book. >> katty, would you read all of my columns. >> i thought that would just be a little too much too early in the morning. harold ford jr. >> based on katty's comments and your comments and her wonderful reading of it, david, the rewriting of the constitution, economic stagnation, the concerns about political domination by the muslim brotherhood, all the things you suggest in your column, implicitly, what can administration do to promote those kinds of reverses, meaning helping them to write a better constitution and understanding the economy is so critical, when you have so many young people out of work, living on the equivalent of food stamps in egypt, how can the administration do these things and promote these things? >> harold, i think the single thing that would make the most difference is if the united states said that economic assistance to egypt, be which really is the heart of the matter, this great big, 80, 90 million person country, is going bankrupt, that economic aid should be conditioned not on imposing austerity measures, which what is we were saying last year and was the wrong one, but should be conditioned on outreach, the ability to create a real government of national unity that has all egyptians together. i would love to see the imf say that to egypt, us back it strongly. that's the right course to go. it's obvious looking at the tv pictures how polarized egypt is. of 30 with 25% unemployment. it's an opportunity for jobs and growth. >> and an opportunity for strength. >> and an an opportunity for that kind of thing to. >> domestic policy and leigh, i want to get you in on this. republicans may be tipping their hand when it comes to 2016 strategy. the headline in the new york sometimes got paints clinton as old news for presidential election. in the article writer jonathan martin points out that some republicans have hinted that hillary's age and experience in washington, could work against her. she'll be 69 at election time. hear are what some top republicans are saying. romney strategist, she's been around since the '70s. >> last time he won. >> mitch mcconnell, called the democratic field a rerun of the golden girls. people would wouldn't be saying this about men. karl rove, we're at the end of her generation adding the argument for a change in leadership will be compelling. leigh, i read that piece, it's a real bind that hillary clinton is in. when she ran last time around she got slammed for how she looked, what kind of a woman she was, was she too threatening in some ways. this time around she's been painted as being too old. >> i have a pretty -- my bar for sort of feminism is pretty high and i read this piece and i thought, they wouldn't be saying this if it was a man. and -- >> clearly. >> i don't often jump right there but i really felt that way. and, you know, the other part of this argument is sort of, you know, i don't necessarily want my president to be a fan of jay-z or, you know -- i don't really care if, you know, about that stuff. there's a lot of talk in the piece about how marco rubio is -- everyone is trying to be hip. i don't want that in my president. i don't want my president to be 30 years old. i think this smacks of they're going to attack her for anything. >> what if she turns this around and uses it to her advantage, remember the line ronald reagan the zinger from his debate, saying i would not hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him. you don't know how this is going to play out two years from now. >> republicans have been critic critical, wrongly of president obama, saying he lacked a certain level of experience when he came into office. now you have undeniably, nancy pelosi said it best, hillary clinton, if she enters the race which i hope she does and is successful, in the last 50 years you can't point to a presidential candidate or someone who would have won the office with more experience on the foreign policy, and global front. republicans can't have it every which way. these issues are one that the clinton team will have to address and be able to address successfully. >> jonathan martin is a terrific reporter and he's a terrific writer. >> and a good guy too. >> i would submit he had to soak his face in cement from having to stop laughing when he was writing that piece because -- >> probably. >> if you read that piece, you notice a couple things. there's not a single republican woman mentioned in the piece. >> right. >> there's no reference to their opposition to immigration, to gay marriage, to sort of like what happens on the street of any 21st century city. so if they're going to run against hillary clinton based upon her being as old as she is or from a decade that she was supposedly from, the '60s or '70s or whatever they're going to do, good luck to them. >> i get the optics she may be running up against somebody like marco rubio and you've got an older white woman running against a young cuban guy. it's -- this is something that the republicans would like to see out there. they would like to be able to present themselves as that contrast, they would like to be able to say we're the future. if you go for the clintons you're going back to the '90s. we've had all of that. >> it wasn't bad. >> kind of liked it. >> they're going after her because she's a woman and linking back to age and it's about the way she looks. >> after all the problems -- >> yes. absolutely. after all the problems that the republicans had with women in this last election is this really the question they want to be raising. >> right out of the gate. >> with swing voters. >> jonathan does mention that this old pushing forward of the youth, the hip and the republican party may be more he calls it a symbolic side step more than anything else. it's interesting. >> think about this contrast, we discussed it last week on the show, mike, you've been a part of this, some republican governors advanced job growth issues, their state and local economies moving in the right direction balancing the budgets and so forth, yet still a national chorus of republicans led by those that have not won races in a long time, suggesting the real test for democrats is can they nominate someone who is young and not a woman. ronald reagan was elected at an elevated age. by all accounts did a pretty good job depending where you may sit. i disagree with some of the things, but the country by and large liked it. to suggest her age is a problem spells out clearly -- >> it's a little desperate. >> you can help amplify this point for me. >> it does. it feels a little desperate, that strategy. >> i think so too. it reminds -- but what it also reminds me, we saw a little bit with the benghazi stuff, when she's run there's been a slight revisionism of hillary clinton, great approval ratings, everybody loved her, she has these strat fearic opinion polls, they are going to go after her every possible way they can. >> benghazi is the perfect segway as we close out this block, a comment from the oracle in washington, d.c. >> should we go to the oracle. >> is the oracle still there? are you still there? >> i am. i don't answer to that name. >> what do you think? >> hillary, jonathan martin's piece, and the republican strategy against her? >> i think the republicans are flailing. if that's the best they can come up with right now, it shows how empty their kit is. hillary clinton as secretary of state showed just what an active and dynamic personality she is and campaigner she will be. and, you know, if they're going to stick with that oh, she's just too old theme, and don't have anything else, they're going to get hammered. >> i agree. >> it's going to be a good race. >> we don't have anything else, we'll go for her age. >> david ignatius, thanks for joining us from washington. >> thanks guys. >> richard haas will be here, we'll be discussing those protests in egypt, those incredible pictures coming out of cairo, plus from the new republic, frank foer reveals what the magazine calls a second term recovery guide and later director dawn porter discusses her film on the criminal justice system. up next the top stories in the politico playbook. todd santos with a check on the deadly heat out west. we've seen the ravages already. >> just some insane numbers. when talking about near record temperatures in the southwest this time of year, imagine we're talking extreme even still continuing the next couple days. back towards vegas the 117 would tie again the all-time highest number they've seen in vegas. we had it yesterday. they may be close to it again. notice the fire there in through western arizona that is just let's say to the east of where some of the excessive heat warnings are in place. you're talking for the fire fight, temperatures again around the 109 degree range, could see gusty winds if we manage to fire up thunderstorms later today. 98 degrees in vegas, it is 3:11 in the morning. you get the idea. that's the starting point. northeast, that's one of the areas we could see showers, and thunderstorms. airline wise notice a few southwest of philly, through northern jersey as well. maybe a chance for lightning and a look at at least later this afternoon be ready for pop-up thunderstorms, have an umbrella with you. more "morning joe" coming your way next. 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