montana governor brian schweitzer and potentially so many others. we know the nomination is open, but you need not apply. at the table this morning, perry bacon jr., senior political reporter for nbc news, democratic pollster margie omero, ritchie kim and amy goodman, host and executive producer of democracy now. perry, i know you just wrote a piece on this for nbc news yesterday. what is the rush? if you re a party, what you want to do is get behind somebody people in your party like. hillary clinton is very popular among democrats and democratic party people really want to see what they want to see is hillary runs by herself and they want to have this and also the other thing you re seeing too is people who endorsed obama early last time, particularly claire mccaskill, are making sure to get on the good side early on. i think that s tactical as well
you saw mary landrieu make the same kind of statement. they ll distance themselves from the president on this issue. there is a fig leaf for this. or might be a more legitimate reason why they had to delay this. there s litigation in nebraska. the clearances for this pipeline are not all in place. and so there are some substantive reasons to delay this. what it does indicate to me, though, is that the chances of this being approved long term have gone down significantly. i would expect i don t have any inside information on this. it s clearly a decision that hasn t been made. i think the odds of the president approving the pipeline after the election have just gone down. okay. perry bacon jr., jonathan alter, always good to talk to you. in office politics, what you didn t know about tamryn hall and something that pays tribute
the point is, the repealed debate is and should be over. i know people don t want to spend the next 2 1/2 years refighting the political battles the last five years. president obama earlier this week highlighting the 8 million people who have now signed up for health insurance through state and federal exchanges under the affordable care act. let me bring in msnbc contributor perry bacon jr. and msnbc political analyst jonathan alter here in studio it jo. jonathan, the president saying the debate about repealing obamacare is over, is it? these debates are never over, alex. after social security was passed in 1935, 50 years later, ronald reagan and republicans were trying and failing to gut it.
which is dominate bid conservative republicans. as a result the premier annual political event in virginia, the one known as shad planking is changing with the times too. perry bacon jr. and ann thompson travelled to virginia this week to file this exclusive and fun report. jimmy, bring another board please. the secret is you eat before you come. it s true. drinking a beer and shaking hands is better. i m not just saying that. it s kind of like a political pulse in the commonwealth of virginia. years ago when the bird machine was in power and this thing first started, it was only white males here. in the 70s, ladies started coming, people of color and that s all inclusive. how has the event changed?
state exchange program called connect has been a huge success so far. the website has worked since day one and hundreds of thousands of kentucky residents have signed up. kentucky s rate has dropped by at least 40%. still, though, 49% of kentucky voters said they want to repeal the law. there seems to be a big disconnect there. mitch mcconnell and allison grimes, probable democratic challenge he, what is the takeway? joining us now from louisville is al cross, a columnist for the courier journal and director for rural journalism at the university of kentucky. here in the studio perry bacon jr. and kentucky native still with us you, msnbc contributor v victoria difrancesco. i was looking forward to the segment, talking about the battle for control of the senate this year and you have two of