0 branch of government shut down major parts of the government. all because they didn't like one law. this republican shutdown did not have to happen but i want every american to understand why it did happen. >> our special shutdown coverage kicks off today with nbc's krist kristen welker at the white house and luke russert on the hill. what is the perspective coming from the administration? >> reporter: good afternoon. i can tell you this administration continues to dig in its heels. you got that sense from the president's remarks earlier today in the rose garden and based on some of my conversations here, i think that the administration officials believe ultimately republicans will blink because they are divided and if you look at the polls, it shows a majority of americans agree with the administration on this point, disagree with shutting down the government over the issue of the president's health care law even there's still a number of americans skeptical about the president's health care law. you'll see the president continue to do what he did today which is to hold these public events, urge congressional republicans to act, to pass what is called a clean cr bill. he's going to hold another event at the local construction company. that is a tactic he has taken in the past during the payroll tax cut fight. it has been effective but i can tell you jay carney during his briefing just answered a lot of questions about how much ownership president obama has over the shutdown. he acknowledged the fact that of course he is the president but they are still trying to put the blame squarely on republicans. will the public continue to buy that in the coming days? we'll have to wait and see. but i think that is the strategy right now coming from this white house to continue to press republicans publicly. i don't know we'll see a whole lot of meetings going on between the president and congressional leaders. back to you. >> and luke, that really goes to the reporting you've been doing up late at night watching this all break down. as a matter of constitutional government, i think people have a general understanding that congress has to fun t i the govt not fund congress didn't do it yet. but specifically, the role of john boehner who you spent so much time with following this, he said as recently as march that he was against using obama care to shut down the government. how does that play into his reception on the hill, the fact he's completely reversed himself and taking a position the opposite of what he said was a good idea? >> reporter: it's certainty interesting to see how the gop leadership evolved on ugsing the health care law as a negotiating tactic to get the government funded during the summer, this idea was brought out by some of the more hardliners, ted cruz, guys on the real conservative element of the house, gop conference. i can tell you from conversations i've had with leadership aides, they laughed it off, said it would not happen. they were going to make the senate take a tough vote on the health care law but continue to fund the government. what you saw from the ted cruz wing of the republican party they snowballed and became the drivers of the message and drivers of the energy. so much to the point where democrats are not going to bail out john boehner with any type of solutions that perhaps -- the vote or a medical device repeal, something like that, they were sort of going to let him drown with the tea party element. what you've seen over the last few days is that play out. there's a lot of folks in the house republican conference angry about this. a clean cr bill if it were on the floor tonight would pass. after they cross this bridge, they are remarkably calm. this morning they had a photo-op, they sat at the long table, and tonight they are going to fund a bill to fund the national parks and put moneys towards the va backlog and give d.c. the ability to operate so trash collection, et cetera wouldn't be affected. that's what they are going to do today. they don't know what they are going to do tomorrow. negotiations are not ongoing between the house and john boehner. from where they are right now, the public fallout hasn't hit to the point where they can pass a clean cr. this theory that has been circulated by some of the left and circulated by someone in the leadership, the longer this goes on, it's certainly bad and looks bad and hurts a lot of federal employees, the easier it will be to raise the debt limit because if this plays in for two weeks, which is now a possibility, i never thought i would say that but from conversations i had this is certainly a possibility. this runs up right against the debt limit, it's awfully tough, awful tough for the republicans lot from constituents. where is the pressure going to come from that would actually force a deal here? >> well, it's a great question. you know, mark twain said history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. you see a lot of the themes and a lot of self-delusion in this republican rum p, that you saw in the house republicans back in 1995 and 1996. they were sure then that government was so unpopular that the public would cheer the idea it was shut down. i don't think they are quite as expecting that as they are thinking that the political market has almost priced their craziness into it. they are used to the dysfunction of government and used to the hyper partisanship and polarization. so they think they can sort of live with the cost. i think that it's not so much the tea party hopefuls and faithful but those conservative but less staunch republicans who will feel the pressure. maybe this is all a way to get the really utterly catastrophic prospect of the debt ceiling not being raised to make it easier to do that. this would be john boehner's secret public service that we're just seeing unfold without realizing it. >> you're saying one party of the caucus will have to take power back from the other part, part of that will come from pressure from the american people and from the president out earlier today, with the message that was both tough and funny. >> they don't get to hold the entire economy hostage over idealogical demands. apple rolled out a new operating system a couple weeks ago and within days they found a glitch so they fixed it. i don't remember anybody suggesting apple should stop selling iphones or ipads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn't. >> if you were writing for the president what would you want him to say? >> i still haven't upgraded because i want my google map. that whole example confused me. i think -- you know, people in the den of events don't listen to the presidential bully pulpit the way they might have in earlier decades but when there's a crisis they do. it's rare to have a crisis about domestic politics. this is a chance for him to talk to the public and be heard more than he might otherwise. today was a little bit of a funny -- necessarily funny mixed message because he was launching obama care and affordable care act and exchanges. he was sternly saying they shall not pass and shut the government down then surrounded by ordinary citizens saying by the way health care is still open. it looked a little bit like the cold opening on "saturday night live." it looked like another generic health care event. i think he needs to keep at not just saying i'm the grown-up in the room and people should stop shutting the government down but make the broader point about the role of government and idealogical extremism. the white house could be too sanguin if they believe the blame could fall on republicans. if you look around the newseum website, they are all sort of saying gridlock, congress shuts down government and half attentive member of the public wouldn't necessarily realize how extreme, how out of the ordinary this is. so he needs to be stern and a little bit of battle stations. i wouldn't be too far from the white house during a moment like this. >> say more about that. people say, well, first draft of history is the press. sometimes the first draft of history is the big addresses by presidents. to your point, a lot of newspapers and narrative defaults back to saying, well, gridlock, no compromise, they are not talking. the "washington post" has had some articles to that effect and better ones i should mention. how do you bridge from that as a presidential communicator back to the underlie facts of the disagreement, number one that there is a majority to fund this government it boehner would allow a vote. number two, as we mentioned, boehner himself has said it is a terrible idea, what they are doing today he's against. and number three, health care is law, deal with it. >> it's a bit challenging, when i was doing this work with president clinton as his chief speechwriter during the shutdowns, he would go into the briefing room and say what his demands were and newt gingrich would hold a conference down pennsylvania avenue and say what the response was. congress passed a budget, the president vetoed it and there was a broad ideal logical disagreement. the challenge is how does he make that idealogical case when there's nobody to negotiate with, when he's just got the caucus of the house to address. i think he's got to keep this line over and over, vote to reopen the government, vote to reopen the government. don't target the craziest of the crazies, target the reasonable members. >> michael, was going on behind cloegsed doors at the white house? we mentioned it's relatively calm on the hill. someone in the thick of things in the last shutdown that lasted 27 days with president clinton, walk us through what is likely going on behind those doors? was their demonizing, was there panic? first of all, as history knows, they send a lot of staff home and a lot of work was done by interns so things got as it turned out more interesting probably than any of us realized. it was a small group and there was a lot of realization that the strategy in what he said was really a big part of negotiating in public. but you also have a lot of pressure on any president to really try to stand up for and take care of the american people. even with clinton, now we look back and say that was a huge political triumph. it wasn't clear at the time it was a triumph. and inside the white house there were meetings i remember where vice president gore and leon panet panetta, the white house chief of staff had been up negotiating. there was a lot of concern about the real people who were being hurt at the time by the shutdown. i think now though there's got to be less pressure internally to make a deal because there's no deal to be made. then there was we'll take this tax, this spending cut and split the difference. there's no way to split the difference as far as i can see with what's going on now. it's not exactly the same but i'm sure there's a lot of late nights and caffeine fueled writing sessions. >> at least this time we're unlikely to have the same sort of intern problem. michael waldman, thank you for your insights. up next, when all is said and done, who will get the blame for this? 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