we have an msnbc contributor, jonathan capehart and editor for the huffington post, sam stein. mike barnicle along with willie geist. i guess all of you have seen the flurry of polls out. the usa today/gallup poll, on the front page of usa today, which i m sure millions of you will, you see the headline, two in three say a better economy is ahead. there is some positive news. you would think that benefit would accrue to the president. right now, it s not. 71% rate today s economy conditions as poor. 29 say the economy is in good shape. the poll shows americans are optimistic about their financial future. 6 in 10 predict the economy will be good one year from now. i guarantee they are not saying that in europe. 56% say the economy will get better if mitt romney were elected. 9% less. 46% say president obama would improve it if he gets a second term. when asked their opinion of the two presidential candidates, mitt romney is closing the gap on president obama with 50% of the
you. if this was you and you were thinking of running for office, what would you do? nobody has to tell haley barbour what to do. because he s haley barbour, he will back off this statement. because he is as smart as he is, he knows this morning he has put himself in a position where he has to defend something called white citizens council. that won t win the philadelphia suburbs if he runs for president and not win over suburban moms and swing elections in 2012. haley barbour, judging by people very close to him, he wants to run for president. he wants to be president andrea, if that s the case, he has to back off this very quickly, isn t he? that would be the politically advantageous thing to do. he has to now visit an issue i thought he had put behind him because he has a very good record as a governor, a national leader. after katrina, his record was
leaving the governorship. he doesn t read braille. bill clinton didn t know how to use an atm or something when he left the presidency. but he could walk across the street without help. bill clinton gets secret service for life. i remember frank sargent republican governor defeated by michael due dak kiss for reelection, a wonderful guy even though a republican and the next day, went right through the tollbooth and no idea how to stop. unbelievable. let s go right now to john harris. he will give us a politico playbook update. chief of politico. let s start with no regrets nancy. tell us about it. nancy pelosi sat down yesterday with david rogers, a dean of the capitol hill press core and somebody who has known pelosi many, many years.
a black student would come into class and the white students would all turn their backs and refuse to have anything to do with them. for him, it was no big deal. what s the impack politically and i ve always said and talked about it on this show, it s bad enough the presumption that will be against a southern governor, like haley barbour, from his generation, if he runs against barack obama in 2012. god, the national press turned bill clinton and hillary clinton into racists. remember south carolina? i don t know how, if this keeps churning, i don t know how he s a viable candidate in 12. there are a lot of things i don t know about that. i haven t read the piece. i don t know what he said. i trust gene s reading of it and trust andrea s assessment of it.