they are. that s the difference between activism and news coverage. it s the difference between organizing and interest. i think a good example, if i have a quick second, is the way you pursued on the air, for example, the don t ask, don t tell issue and all the other people that were involved in that, they would not let that go. and then something big got done. that s really important. bob herbert, columnist for the new york times and smart guy. i should say i want to be clear. we know so little about what happened with this event on monday. we don t think it was a foreign terrorist. we don t know if the fbi s pursuit of these white supremacist groups is going to lead to anything. we know so little at this time. but if it can be a constructive part of a continuing discussion about violence, as you re pointing out, i think we will learn a lot more than just about
in general, which i think is a profound problem, and in the continuing problems of race hatred, anti-semitism, anti-muslim hysteria, and that sort of thing, which we try in our denial to pretend we have made great strides, but we try to pretend that those problems are still not very big problems. they are. that s the difference between activism and news coverage. it s the difference between organizing and interest. i think a good example, if i have a quick second, is the way you pursued on the air, for example, the don t ask, don t tell issue and all the other people that were involved in that, they would not let that go. and then something big got done. that s really important. bob herbert, columnist for the new york times and smart guy. i should say i want to be clear. we know so little about what happened with this event on monday. we don t think it was a foreign terrorist. we don t know if the fbi s
short-term optimism is up, fewer people are worried about where this country is going to be five years from now. so, kate, does this help him going into the state of the union? absolutely. so that will be is it a different state of the union speech than he would have given after the shellacking and before they made some progress, for example, during the lame duck session and then his approval ratings started going up. two questions. yes, one, it is a different speech had the shellacking not occurred and they did get a lot done in the lame duck session. obama said i am moving forward and the democratic-controlled congress got things done. we made some compromises with republicans, he may compromise on taxes, of course. tax cuts. he may compromise or he got the don t ask, don t tell repeal passed. all sorts of things, all sorts of accomplishments he can point to. kate, governor, congressman, stay with us. we have more to talk about. we have news about tucson.
breaking their promises. john boehner s big day. the honorable john a. boehner is duly elected, speaker of the house of representatives. john boehner becomes the 61st speaker of the house. it s still just me. as soon as nancy pelosi finishes celebrating her four years as speaker. the historic honor of being the first woman speaker. the first italian-american speaker. the largest ever commitment to making college more affordable. enacted wall street reform with the greatest consumer protections in history. repeal of the don t ask, don t tell policy. and then, nancy pelosi dared the new republican speaker of the house to try and repeal her crowning achievement. a strong patients bill of rights. young people can stay on their parents policy.
enacted wall street reform with the greatest consumer protections in history, and passed a strong patient s bill of rights. it means that children with pre-existing conditions can get care, young people can stay on their parents policy until they re 26, pregnant women and cancer patients can no longer be thrown off their insurance, our seniors are paying less for their medical prescriptions, taken together it will save taxpayers $1.3 trillion. thanks to you, thanks to all of us, we advanced the defining american cause of equality for all. from the first days of the congress with the passage of the lily ledbetter fair pay act to the last days with the repeal of the don t ask, don t tell policy.