much crime and too much grime. magaziner of harper's said first fix that taxes, which i thought was a splendid idea, because the visitors and those of us walking in the street get something from it taxis. what other two cities were the most distinguished taxis on earth? london with big black boxes that can turn around in almost their own at length. the great art decker masterpiece in london, that is how they came to that very tight turning circle. and then new york, which for the longest time had their own a taxi car. it came out of michigan, but they wear distinctive it. an english writer said he did not like the little black boxes in london. he like the bright yellows in new york. there is good news for new york. finally, they are having a new car designed for this is a purpose of being a taxi. these new cars coming out, they are going to be hybrids it. it looks as though the winning model may be from turkey. whoever heard of a turkish cars? i am sure they will be a delight. i have a wonderful program coming up. we will be right back with that. >> "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with whut, howard university television. now, your program host, nationally syndicated columnist llewellyn king, and co-host linda gasparello. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> thank you so much for coming along. special guests as always hit. we begin with linda gasparello. we have a new guest, adam belmar of sirius xm radio. welcome to the broadcast. you have a distinguished career in television as a producer and director. >> i have spent a little bit of time behind the camera on abc news. i have also been a journalist across the fence to serve in the white house with the bush administration, george w. bush, as the deputy communications director. >> robert schlesinger is back from u.s. news & world report. another new guest, davon gray of potomac news. you served in the two white house visit. >> i served in the clinton administration and i also served on the john mccain campaign. i have the best of both worlds it. >> robert, what is the state of play in washington after the election, where we have democrats going around with black armbands, and triumphant republicans? how is this going to play out? >> democrats are forming their post-election firing squad. republicans are trying to figure out how to move forward, trying not to seem to triumphant, but at the same time, they want to please the people who just let them into office in the majority in the house. it will be interesting to watch, not just the first couple of months, because there is a ritual of the president -- he came out and said he was willing to compromise with republicans in the first, say, 100 days. the president will make a big deal of the towing them, and then we will get -- once the initial, traditional stuff is over, how do we proceed forward from there? >> we had the president -- you and i went over to the white house to the press conference, and the president was very humbled and very conciliatory, but all the words coming from republicans are anything but conciliatory. >> i think he should have stood back for a couple of days, just waited to let the te dust settl. republicans came out with fire in their belly. i wanted to see a man saying, this is what we stand for, this is what we are going to go for. it was already predetermined that mcconnell was going to say they were going to fight them everywhere. >> mitch mcconnell does not have that turn of phrase. >[laughter] >> that is the translation. >> it was disappointing. >> i think the president was well served by holding the press conference the day following. i think it was important -- >> it was a great speech, wasn't it? >> i found president gave both in visual fashion and in his own accountants the sense he heard what the american people were saying. he was often making and metaphor 'r' for or drive, backwards. he needed to say, i hear you. that press conference was, a little bit more of, i need to be myself him. there was not the slanted pieces of glass that so often the president bounces back and forth between. ultimately, i think he would have been poorly served without being able to get out there and frame his own account. >> i think it lacked a clear and strong declaration of what he had done that is working. >> i agree. >> i think he assumed the mantle of the critics, or the criticism. >> i think he needed to take a moment to let people know we did something wrong. you cannot start by automatically saying that people got it wrong and we are on the right track. they always used to say about bill clinton he was there with the people. that has not been the case with president obama. >> they said clinton could feel your pain, and obama has or read about it. >> the president spent the last month or month and a half, two months, on the campaign trail making strong declarations of what he had done which was right. his side got been pretty badly. one press conference a relationship with congress make. he will have opportunities to make strong declarations it. >> he needs his polling to go up so that congress consider taking him seriously. >> part of that was sending the message, that we have to make adjustments. a wise man once said elections have consequences, and this time, his side did not win. he will have his chance to find common ground. >> democrats continued to control the united states senate, and this legislative process is one that is going to be at least counter waited, the most liberated body on earth and one that will not be anything more of a road block for him then perhaps the house would be. >> i think the republicans have promised something they cannot deliver, and that is smaller government. they can cut this and that there by defunding. one person's extravagance is another person's bread-and- butter. when you start looking at the so-called bloated budget, there are so many things that the populist demands of the government and expects the government to be able to deliver. remember the reaction when the oil spill team and they will probably have something to deal with with oil spills, and it grows that way, demand after demand, all of this large, complex country. >> if the economy does not improve at a more rapid pace, which is not likely to do, we will still be demanding more government. these republicans who have said they want his mother government will have to account for the fact that if they get the government they want, they will not be able to deliver what the people needed. >> that have been -- that has to happen very, very soon. >> what if they threaten to filibuster it? that would get rid of any sympathy for republicans very quickly when the social security checks did not arrive, when the disability did not come, and when parents started worrying about whether their children who are troops in afghanistan it and in iraq, with a getting the supplies they needed because the government was not functioning. this would be a dangerous thing. >> they have got to now back up everything they said. the bad part about it is only in the house is where they have the majority. they have to worry about getting the majority in the senate for the next two years, so there is a contrast that has to be dealt with it pretty quick i think the best thing to happen to republicans was not getting the senate, because a controlling the senate is a myth at this point. thanks to filibuster abuse, unless you have 60 senators, you do not control it. >> you can bring forward your it blocked. to get a bloc >> politics of the united states for people of the united states. the audio for this program is broadcast at 9:30 eastern every saturday morning. we are, myself and linda gasparello, adam belmar, robert schlesinger, and davon gray. the program is "white house chronicle." >> we just finished a broadcast called, "the midterm report." we were trying to dig down and get to know the candidates in so many of these races. it has been fascinating that even just today we are hearing the concession in washington and some of the final recounts including in virginia where you have gerry connolly versus a very animated republican, not quite yet done yet. >> we know the country is in trouble, robert, but you never hear the word, "sacrificed." i don't remember a time where there was that much stress that somebody was not talking about sacrifice. >> a politician's favorite phrase is the american people want this, the american people demand that it. i wrote a book on presidential speech writing. i remember looking back at when jfk was the president, i bring a set of promises to the american people. we are going to -- obviously, this is a democracy so listening to the american people is important. there are times when you need to ask for sacrifices it. it is not in vogue. >> i wonder whether many americans who have tried to weather the recession and have lost their jobs said we have already sacrificed, so therefore how much more do you want us to give a? >> i think she has hit it right on the head. the president spoke at that press conference about letters that he reads from folks or family members of those who lost their lives in service much larger than themselves. i would submit to you that the sacrifice that we saw took place on the altar of american politics on tuesday night. the democrats who knew their vote on health care was one that may spell the end of their political career stood by it and did it for a reason, and they did it for something grander than themselves. that, i think, is some what heroic of american politics. >> i would probably say, a lot of times we talk about sacrifices. i think this is one of the situations -- the economy -- we can talk about the wars that have been going on, but they have been seen only on television other than those who have served or have lost somebody in the war. it is not like 50 or 60 years ago with rations being taken. between the economy, and then 9/11, they pretty much had sandwiched what the american people have seen as a sacrifice. >> people feel like, wait a second, i have either sacrificed or have experienced depredation, so why has -- >> it has not been accepted as much as it has in the past regarding the war, but everybody in this country knows someone or is related to someone who has lost their job or is in fear of losing their job, and unemployment is an undeniable reality of this nation right now. >> when we are talking about what the banks have done, he showed them that he is fixing this thing. there was a place for him in that press conference to say, "i have done a lot of things that are going to improve your lives. i want you to bear with me and look at the bigger side of what i am trying to do, instead of some of the petty things that really came up in the campaign." >> you mentioned was the country is in this situation. the health care reform? it is going to take effect. right now, the american people are saying i am not seeing anything. >> it is not immediate. >> to what extent, davon, has the republicans painted themselves in a corner? they have said no tax increases and shrink the government, and they are going to do these other things. even the omb director under ronald reagan has said you cannot get from here to there that way. you are going to have to increase taxes and cut programs. what do you think of that? are they in a corner? is this going to hurt them? you never raise taxes, apparently, ever. >> i think that will hurt the tea party. >> if you are trying to get in charge of the government, isn't that going to hurt you? >> soon-to-be speaker john boehner is a smart person. you saw the president throw them an olive branch the other day. he may be willing to compromise on taxes. >> as a solid plank of taxublicanism, thae increases for all are not in their vocabulary. that puts them in a very difficult position. if you come up and say what you will not do, that does not give a lot of flexibility. >> if you look at the exit polls of the house, the biggest republican positive margin was among people 65 age and older who were driven at least in part that the health-care plan was going to cut their medicare. so this is a key constituency right now for them. at the same time, there pledge budget and fix the deficit, and you cannot do that without addressing entitlement reform. >> i think mitch mcconnell gave him the perfect out when he addressed the nation from the heritage foundation. what he said was in order to accomplish the things that you point out so rightly, that one must put someone in the white house who will not be towed these things. it is still aspirational, these goals. moving in that direction will need or require a republican president. >> one of the things we heard a great deal about was it principles. a lot of them seem to be more slogans than principles. what is a principle? does it have to have moral content or is it just a political position? >> yes. >> thank you. [laughter] could you explain what the president is going to do in asia? >> he is going to be happy to get out of the country. he is going to remind people that he is the president. >> he is not going to apologize to the united states of america on this tour. that is one thing he is keenly aware of. >> also, he is going to be quite welcome because the rise of china and many unknowing ways, the clash with japan, other issues, the ambitions in the south china sea, etc., suddenly are looking quite frightening to asians. what is there one defense? the united states can contain it china in many ways, militarily, but also we are their market. >> i think he will make the republican constituency very happy when he assures the south koreans that we may signed a free-trade agreement with south korea, and also the huge indian market that's out there where we have made tremendous inroads. this is going to be a source of joy. >> india is going to be one of the great stories of this century because india is hugely talented and is democratic. and through bad policies, after its independence in 1947, it failed to realize any kind of economic development. suddenly, when they realized -- they took down the tariff barriers, and india has been nonstop since then that critics now we have quite a few indian americans in american politics. >> i also think we have quite a few indian american billionaires are around the world, too. >> i think it is interesting that he is going to begin the second half of his economic recovery plan out of the country. i think that is a very interesting thing that we will see, that he is going to be out of the country talking -- he is going to be following that back up when he gets back to congress. >> overseas, closer in britain, there is an austerity program on the table that is a draconian. it has not been yet implemented. conservatives in america believe this may be a guiding light. on the other hand, it may be a disaster that hurts the economy more so than it helps. it is indisputable issue. what do think the affects of the british example will be on american policies? >> i don't know how suede americans are going to be about what goes on in britain, but i think american politicians are taking a keen interest in it. also, when it comes down to the tough choices that americans have to make in regards to this austerity program that is being proposed and implemented in other nations like greece, in france to some extent, where you have a need to look at retirements and benefits and for a country that is largely making new jobs out of government jobs, this is part of the problem. when you talk about the retirement age in this nation, that is what they say is the third rail of politics. >> any thoughts? >> number one, if you are a government worker in this country, -- i think i heard somewhere where they are talking about 500,000 government jobs? the idea of slashing your entire government workload that much -- >> on help organize the british unions, which are much more pervasive than the unions in this country. even as we are doing this broadcast, the bbc is on strike. britain may be brought to a standstill by strikes. >> a lot of people in this country are watching as an example but also watching -- britain is one of our closest allies in terms of security, and they are slashing their military. how is this going to affect our efforts in afghanistan if they are making these drastic cuts it? this is what people on the hill are keeping a close eye on the printer >> what comes now? high points and low points, go. >> the supreme court allowed all the money in this year's midterm elections. it is just horrible. >> i wish i owned a local television station. >> as a high point, election day brought more than just a new blood to the united states congress. i discover that mcdonald's has reintroduced the mcrib sandwich. that was the high point for me this week. >> the pork gets it again. >> you assume there is actual meat in that sandwich. [laughter] >> the only time i actually go to mcdonald's is one item in europe because i want a big american coffee. i would not eat the food. >> low point -- the concession speech between christine demanding her victorious opponent, to carl palomino. what happened to the gold if they governed as well as they ran we would be in good shape? >> it is also a reflection to the lack of general stability in the society. there is really not a lot of it around. >> concession speeches have gone the way of mcribs. [laughter] >> for the first time potentially in 50 years, a write-in candidate may be reelected. >> you better hope americans cannot spell li-sao mark costly projects that is a fascinating situation. that is our program for today. you concede this program and others in the series online. you can also read my articles there and see a list of stations that carry this program. i think we are nearly up to 400 now. we will see you at the same time, same station, next week and hopefully even a couple of new stations. all of the best, cheers. >> "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with whut, howard university television. from washington, d.c., this has been "white house chronicle," a weekly analysis of the news with a sense of humor featuring llewellyn king, linda gasparello, and guests. this program can be seen on pbs stations and cable access channels. to view the program online, visit us at whchronicle.com. to view the program online, visit us at whchronicle.com.