reportedly pushed out by president obama. in a move that further consolidates national security decision making in the white house. and raises questions about the direction of the administration's foreign policy last two years. for more, i'm joined by "wall street journal" columnist and deputy editor, dan hen ger, brett stevens and matt. many on the right and the left in talking about hagel's resignation, basically say the problem with obama's foreign policy isn't hagel. wasn't hagel. it's in the white house. >> the thing is, chuck hagel's really a nonentity as chief in the pentagon. he started out badly as a member of his confirmation hearings, could never articulate the policy and after he was thrown over, wasn't really up for the job. of course, they picked him for the job in the first place. that's the white house spin. but is that fair or is the real problem the white house wanted to make all the decisions, they hired him -- maybe our policy needs to change and he's representing the generals who didn't like the foreign policy. >> how much support at the pentagon, he was really not going to go down as one of the stronger secretaries of defense. but yet, he was in immaterial to the failures of the foreign policy because the foreign policy is so centralized and in fact, i think the reason why they pushed him out is because he was not the yes man the thought they were putting back. he was frustrated, but had no influence. probably not. >> he said how he spoke up and said with martin dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs that isis was a bigger threat. he pushed back and policy lax lacks clarity, going to succeed against isis and certainly didn't like that. >> that's absolutely true and i guess you can give them points or two for finally sort of seeing the light, but let's face it. this was an competent seg tear of defense and then you have an incompetent national security process in the white house and the two simply didn't get along. this could be an opportunity for the president to really pivot on defense issues, really pivot on national security. choose a strong, capable secretary of defense in the mold of some of the previous two like panetta and gates. my guess is what the president is going to want is another in the pentagon so he can continue to run defense policy out of the white house. >> confidence is not high. but that is going to, that kind of pivot is going to -- >> confident is not high anywhere in the world about obama foreign policy. there's sort of an irony here. one of the criticisms that came out of the pentagon is that the white house insists on micro managining policy, but the pentagon said they could not get decisions out of this white house, that their ability to make decisions is very weak and you know, that's what you hear in the capital's all over the world. the saudis would say to people, what is obama's strategic policy in this region because we'll get visited by a secretary of defense, secretary of state and they're all coming in with different ideas about what they should be doing. >> we're not making this up. everybody who comes, from any country, europe, the middle east or something, they have the same message. what is the policy? >> the policy of the obama administration is to have less foreign policy and to hope to offshore our problems or strategic problems to some other countries except when it really matters to the administration. for instance, iran. so, there is this shrinking, the sense of a shrinking american footprint and allies from japan to israel to baltic states and poland. asking themselves, where's the united states. >> sorry, is there a sign of a larger shake up here. >> john kerry of state, susan rice seems like is going to stay and put as the national security advisor. also in the obama administration, i keep hearing washington. >> insider. >> clearly not worked for them. if you worked on a team when things are not working out, even president obama might have -- this is not what have the dog and pony show, shook hands in the white house. this was several weeks in the making. this didn't just happen overnight. the president didn't wake up and decide to fire chuck hagel. what b i don't is why don't they have a replacement? that's not an office you want to leave unfilled. >> but who would want to take the job. >> you can't unless you're willing to be a yes man. do what the president wants you to do. john kerry got that climate deal with china. he's now pursuing the agreement with iran. chuck hagel started to push back, he was out of there. who were they going to find who just says yes? >> michelle flournoy was one of the favorites. she took herself out i think for precisely that reason. it would not be a job that would be easy to take. problem is, we've still got two more years of this administration. when we come back, more time for tehran. the administration agrees to extend nuclear negotiations until june, so, does it give us a real shot at striking a deal or iran seven more months to build a bomb? mr. clean's grandmother was stronger than people twice her size. and that strength inspired his liquid muscle cleaner. it lifts tough dirt so you do less scrubbing. and it's nozzle stops by itself so less is wasted. sure made grandma proud. mr. clean liquid muscle. we don't want just any agreement. we want the right agreement. time and again, from the day that he took office, president obama has been crystal clear that we must ensure that iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. period. >> secretary of state john kerry, indiana, announcing monday that the u.s. and its partners have agrees to extend nuclear talks with iran for months. so, since that announcement, a lot of talk in the media. and by the negotiators, including the french, saying a lot of progress here. that justified the extension. how do you read it? >> yeah, the gaps are narrowing because the west keeps making concessions to iran. the gaps are only narrowing in one direction. not as if the iranian are coming our way. the real problem is that you'll hear from john kerry that we've frozen the iranian nuclear program. what we've mostly frozen is that part of their program they've perfected, but we hear from the director general of the atomic energy agency that they're stone walling about -- >> so-called u.n. inspectors. >> right, so, the iranian keep doing that what they want to do to perfect the technologies they haven't yet perfect ed, the weaponization side of making a bomb and they've agreed to enrichment aspect and they can start at any time. >> here's what the administration would say. isn't that kind of freezing even that better than calling the talks off? in a break out of what could be a sprint by iran to get a weapon? >> iran could -- process of deceiving ourselves that we have frozen a program that is by no means frozen. iranian keep making progress. by the way, they're in mind we've only frozen a part of the program they've declired, but they have a 20-year track record of deceiving the west, the international community and maintaining a part of their program in a covert fashion, so this is part of the problem. we are imagining we're seeing the whole hoff their program, but we know from past experience there's always something else. >> anybody here a little more optimistic take on this? >> the thing that the administration seems to forget or liberals won't reck nike is that the iranian revolution is a message yannick id logical revolution. legitimacy is defined by getting nuclear capable the tity. they have spent billions to get to this point. the idea they're going to negotiate that sets all this aside is simply a pipe dream, but liberals like john kerry and barack obama won't recognize reality. >> but if you put inspectors in there, b if you get them to reduce the amount of uranium they enrich, don't you at least reduce the chances of a breakout capability? give us some time. maybe kerry keeps talking about a year, where if they did move towards getting a bomb, we could at least take some action? >> they know this is actually not -- >> is that question not right. >> that's a good question, but the way for iran is not a negotiation. it's basically, they understand that we are giving them time by starting this process, we lifted the military pressure and economic pressure put that pain stakingly over several years with the sanctions. the economy's gotten a lot better in iran. on the military side, that threat of any military strike in the west is off the table. no one believes president obama is going to go even near there or make that credible threat happen, so, for iran, they're saying let's buy time to get the sanctions going and progress on the problem bomb seven months, 12 months. this is why, what i don't get. why don't the iranian take it. they can get right up to the cusp of having a bomb, as you describe it. maybe keep a covert operation on the side and yet, they'd get the sanctions to vanish and they'd help their economy. >> there are a number of reasons. one, they probably think they can get a better deal by continuing extensions because it's the west who makes concessions, not the iranian. but dan's point is fundamental. it's an idealogical issue. it's about acquiring a nuclear capability, whether it's a weapon or a breakout capability. that puts them on an equal footing because what they've observed is that once a country has a nuclear weapon, it has strategic opportunities that count countries without nuclear weapons don't. north korea, pakistan, india, these are countries that we by force have to respect and can't really -- >> but is there an implication, military force is the only way to stop them? >> either that or o sanctions that are so crippling that it really puts the iranian to a fundamental choice. their regime or the bomb. >> all right, gentlemen, when we come back from his foreign policy failures to his go it alone gamble on immigration, is president obama dadamaging hilly clinton's chances in 2016? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm... amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. now with the you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. well, from his foreign policy woes to his first midterm move to the left and recent high risk gamble on immigration, is president obama hurting hillary clinton's chances in 2016? pollsters pat and doug argued that quote, as a candidate, mrs. clinton would likely inherit a damaged party and as a former member of hissing administration, she would struggle with the consequences of mr. obama's go it alone government. we're back with dan, jason, kim, also joined the panel. so, kim, is barack obama hillary clinton's biggest obstacle to the white house? >> yeah. here's hillary clinton's problem. she's going to inherit a party that's not just damaged, but damaged because it's been increasedly dominated by thanks to obama, is liberal faction. that are not popular with the vast majority of americans. i'll give you a couple of exampl examples. keystone and national security agency. keystone pipeline and also, this question of national security. if you go back to 2008, those would have been probably pretty easy calls for hillary clinton because remember, she ran as the democratic candidate who represented the white working class. she was always about middle class incomes doing well, but has been very careful, she has made no opinions on statements about whether she support paus keystone or wants to keep things like the nsa program in place. she was very -- -- her point was strong on foreign policy. she hasn't touched those because those have become symbolic issues that you cannot be pure and support those things and so, she's stuck in between these two issues and she's just saying nothing. >> but she did embrace the president's immigration executive order right away. if obama is such an obstacle to her, why to that? >> she thinks that will help. he thinks that will help her as well, so, they agree on that. but ken is right. hillary clinton needs barack obama to move to the middle and he has decided to double down on his policies. that the midterm election showed to be unpopular. with the most of the electorate, even if they are popular with his base. obama's approval rating is only 40%. in fact, below 40%. so, this is not a president with a whole lot of political capi l capital. hillary clinton does not have his charisma, his campgn skills, so i think it makes thi things difficult. >> she did try to separate herself on foreign policy saying, writing she had a different point of view on syria, for example, would have done more to intervene earlier to help the moderate opposition. how else does he separate herself from obama? >> i think that the main area, she's have to talk about foreign policy. and i think probably voters would give her a little bit of a pass on that foreign policy as kind of one of these -- where you just buying -- b. >> even though she was his secretary of state? >> you know -- watched it that closely. i think it's domestic policy where she's going to have to separate herself from obama, but her problem is that the democratic left is the group that defeated hillary clinton in those primaries and barack obama was their president. he has been the embodiment, i think, of the left's policies. you cannot get elected president, i don't believe, by simply running to the left, so how does she scaquare the circl by holding them in place? >> you have any advice for hillary clinton to do that? >> what would you pick? >> foreign policy should be one. she's got a legacy that's going to be b difficult. but look at things like energy, for instance, and keystone. those should be easy calls. she nearly won that primary in 2008. but getting what our people call clinton democrats. folks that have been unhappy with the movement the party has made to the left. you go out, support more drilling. connect that to an agenda which democrats claim to have of helping middle class voters. those are things that she could separate herself on. whether l she do it? i don't know if you can because the environmental left dominating the party so much now thanks to obama. >> i want to raise another issue where she might have a problem. listen to chuck schumer, new york senator talk iing this wee about obamacare. >> but unfortunately, democratics blew the opportunity the american people gave them. we took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem. health care reform. now, the plight of uninsured americans and the hardships caused by unfair insurance company practices certainly feeded to be addressed, but it wasn't the change we were hired to make. >> whoa, nelly. the wrong problem health care reform? . >> it illustrates how hillary clinton won't be able to run on obama's record because there isn't much of one and what he considers his accomplishments are being denounced by his own party. >> is schumer front run ining hillary clinton? i'm going to attack obamacare and basically, pave the way for hillary clinton to be able to separate herself from obamacare. >> i think he is in her camp and would do what it takes. >> the white house already -- >> oh, yeah, it's -- >> but he also said the democrats are the party of government and we have to make it clear how government works. >> we have to take one more break. when we come back, hits and misses of the week. to come together, even when we're apart in stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and more, swanson® makes holiday dishes delicious! mr. clean's grandmother wpeople twice her size. and that strength inspired his liquid muscle cleaner. it lifts tough dirt so you do less scrubbing. and it's nozzle stops by itself so less is wasted. sure made grandma proud. mr. clean liquid muscle. motor trend's 2015olf car of the year. so was the 100% electric e-golf, and the 45 highway mpg tdi clean diesel. and last but not least, the high performance gti. looks like we're gonna need a bigger podium. the volkswagen golf family. motor trend's 2015 "cars" of the year. time for hits and misses of the week. >> this is a miss for the rioters in ferguson who are setting police cars on fire and looting. also for the media, who continue to refore to these as protesters. >> kimberly. >> irs commissioner insisting for six months that his agency cannot turnover to congressional investigators e-mails from lois lerner because they said her hard drive had crashed and those e-mails had been destroyed, so this is a huge miss for him on the back of the news that the treasure bry inspector general had found those e-mails, surprise, just sitting on a back up tape which the irs didn't bother to look at our purposely ignored. >> imagine that. dan. >> ted cruz of texas and al franken of minnesota who are having a fight over get this, net neutrality. i know a lot of people find it confusing, the idea of whether the government should regulate the internet. ted cruz produced a youtube video explaining that and it's a prototy good video, so i would say by the standards of washington discourse, this is definitely progress. >> but who's going to win? >> ted cruz is going to win, believe it or not and i think we should just throw him a bouquet for once on this. >> i wish i could agree. i think president obama may side with franken. just a guess. remember, if you have your own list, tweet it to us. that's it for this week's show. thanks to my panel and all of you who are watching. hope to see you right here next week. ferguson protesters unfazed by officer darren wilson's resignation. welcome to america's news headquarters, i'm heather childers. the mayor of ferguson saying wilson will not receive a reverence package. saying the 28-year-old resigned because he wanted to protect his fellow officers. this hours after two people were arrested in a protest outside the ferguson police department. steve is live for us in ferguson. steve, are the protests still going on?

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