intended to do. i have one question for you, mr. president. why didn't you call me? why didn't you ask me whether the massachusetts plan was working or not? what parts didn't work? what things you shouldn't do. i know this, obama-care would bankrupt the nation. >> all right. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday. good morning, everyone. june 3rd, welcome to "morning joe." with us on set we have the chairman of deutche incorporated, donny deutche. what happened? someone cancel? >> i think prefers irwin corey cancelled at the last moment. >> i thought it was that. >> willie, i'm of course -- >> harold's here. >> i appreciate it. harold ford, jr. and in washington, msnbc political analyst, pat buchanan is here. >> i'm on the tour where we go out, it was my turn to go out and raise money for the orphanages, a good cause, as i'm clutching a young orphan in my hand, telling him it will be okay, i get a desperate call on my blackberry -- they tell me -- i had to tell the orphan, i'll be back, this is more important. i heard that donny wore tight pink pants yesterday. >> oh, god. >> i cannot say with certitude those are my pink pants actually. >> all right. >> a serious problem, no socks. these are the things that i wear. it's disturbing enough. but when you wear it -- >> donny got almost universal props for those pants except for one man, the gentleman sitting in washington this morning, pat buchanan, not a fan of the pink trousers as it turns out. >> i think pat, a, was jealous and usually has his modrous pants on and i was trying to do the martha's vineyard thing. >> can we just do some news. >> and the nantucket thing. >> i would like mr. ford's opinion on that because i know you are a fashionista. >> what do you think about his tight pink pants? >> i'm wearing gray pants this morning. >> hey. so last night, we will get to it in sports, but last night, man, dirk brought them back. it was like over until it was not over. >> i think miami wins this series at the end. they will not have as easy a time as chicago as these guys. nowitzki wants this championship, knows it's his last time it a with this team, an older group. lebron and wade played well but nowitzki showed he was the number one last night. >> one of the things about being disconnected this week -- >> i was away two days and, boy -- >> she totally missed this story you're holding in your hand. >> i don't want to hear anymore. >> it says battle of the "new york post" -- battle of the bulge, hard time, which by the way, yesterday, the news had the better headline, weiner's pickle, you know me, this is the stuff you guys call me in on to talk about. >> what's wrong -- >> i actually am going to say it one more time. i'm the only naive one. i will still vote for this man. it does not affect my view of him as a very competent congressman. so what? he has a picture of him in his underwear on his own blackberry. >> seriously. go back in this history books. >> check out your blackberry and i understand why you feel that way. i've seen what's in donny's blackberry. >> daily news frankly dereliction of duty here, not even on the front page. inside on page 3, they do have beener will -- weiner will groin and bear it. >> you do realize, silly as it is, it is news, though. we can't thumb our nose at it. >> i think it will be forgotten in about three hours. >> everything is forgotten in three hours. it is news when one of our highly -- >> if he develops a pattern -- >> if you were working, you would not even cover that story? >> i guess i would mention it. you all are obsessing over it. >> we would put it in "news you can't use." >> in your absence, we did not bring it up. >> pat buchanan, voice of reason, please. >> if i were weiner, i would not have had five or six interviews about this. couldn't explain what was in the picture. he drove it right into the headlines. "new york times" usually ignores stuff like this and forced to cover it and yesterday he shut it down and ordered the police to grab some cnbc reporter. he's doing a fine communications job right here. >> you don't call the police until you want to arrest a reporter. that's just not a good move. watergate move. so you're going to get to the news. on front page, moody's- >> that's there in. that's big. >> this is big, big news. >> that stuff is not news we were just talking about other than the orphanage stuff and pink pants. big news, front page of the "new york times" who got themselves a new editor, jill abramson. >> that's exciting. >> b editor of the times. moody's warns downgrade for u.s. credit. the united states, almost all economists whether liberal, conservatives, will tell you when your debt becomes 90% of gdp, when your debt consumes 90% of your country's economic growth, that's the tipping point. that's when the drag starts on the economy in a very serious way, that's when a vicious cycle begin, that's your first step towards being greece. if we have a double dip recession this year, and you look at housing those reports that came out, pathetic jobs numbers, we are holding our breath at 8:30. let's pray to god for americans out there out of work that we have better job numbers this friday when they come out. if we have a double dip recession, we will be the 90% debt of gdp possibly by next year. this is not a generational problem anymore, harold. you used to always say, we've got to cut the budget for our grandchildren and -- no, no, this is for us! >> how about for right now? >> for right now. we may be a year away from an epic debt crisis, if we have a double dip in the recession. >> this article is interesting because it suggests the debt ceiling ought to be raised even without concessions on cuts and entitlement reform and how we spend. i hope all my former colleagues and our friends have read it closely because the job numbers are important, if the country starts growing again and people start working again, you will change some of this out look and formula going forward. 8:30 this morning is important. my thinking all along has been and increasingly in the past several weeks, if i were the president, i'd give them a deal on this, i'd give them some cuts, this information this morning should help democrats get a deal. i heard you yesterday morning, with governor rendell talking about this. i'd give them a deal and come back late summer early fall and say we want a jobs bill now. if you want politics on your side, the president can force republicans to make a decision about this. if job numbers or unemployment numbers remain elevated, you can't have the strongest most important greatest nation on the face of the earth, credit being threatened because a group of republicans and democrats in congress can't come to agreement of raising the debt ceiling. it's absurd at this moment. >> i couldn't agree, harold more. why don't we launch into some news and talk about mitt romney and other candidates that were out and about yesterday. >> after months of informally campaigning, mitt romney announced he's officially running for president and attacked president obama on the economy saying he is the only republican with the experience to fix the nation's problems. >> barack obama has failed america. [ applause ] >> when he took office, the economy was in recession an he made it worse and he made it last longer. three years later, over 16 million americans are out of work. three years later, foreclosures are still at record levels, three years later, the prices of homes continue to fall. these failing hopes make up president obama's own misery index. it's never been higher. turning around a crisis takes experience and bold action. and for millions of americans, the economy is in crisis today. unless we change course, it will be in crisis for all of us tomorrow. >> now, some may say romney is a little contrived and not dynamic enough, but he's not stupid. he served his wife chili to the crowd. ann romney, she can cook. remember she cooked? >> she's great. >> he said if he elected, he will repeal obama-care. while making a stop in boston yesterday, sarah palin attacked romney for enacting a similar health care plan when he was governor. any mandate coming from government is not a good thing. so obviously, i'm not saying what you say so, there will be more the explanation coming from former governor romney on his support for government mandate, even on a state level and local level, mandates coming from a governing body, it's tough for a lot of us independent americans to accept because we have great faith in the private sector. >> this is a crazy world we live in. >> poor guy. >> john kuszak and serendipity and kate bell accidentally fa a into each other in a part. pat buchanan, 50 states, i'm not good at math and can't tell you what the percentages are but the serendipity of sarah palin being in the same state, little tiny state -- >> happened to be new hampshire. >> what are the odds? >> it is literally 1700-1. >> 1700-1. by the way, she lives in alaska. that's a long way from new hampshire. if she ends up in the same exact state that mitt romney's end, that's crazy. what's going on here, pat? >> that happens when you go to rolling thunder, joe and start north on a day trip through gettysburg. this is a real trampling on tradition to sucker punch a guy on the day of his announcement. not only did sarah palin do it, rudy is up in new hampshire clipping him and rahm paul from somewhere in america let him have a shot, too. what it tells me is mitt is the front-runner. >> not only is mitt the fro front-runn front-runner, interesting, we were yawning as he was giving his speech. >> please. >> let's fast forward to 8:30 today when the job numbers come out, the very thing working against him is he's bland and boring, is the perfect antidote, when things are scary, if you are 90% unemployment, we don't want another loud voice, we've had spicy food. you know what, the human behavior, knee jerk reaction is go back to something that will not scare me. >> what do you mean we've had spicy food? >> we have a president, bold, taking us down paths we're not used to. i don't mean that in the negative sense of the word. the reaction when you're -- you tried something adventurous, you don't go to bachmann, sarah palin, newt gingrich, i know it's boring -- >> it's comfort food. you have been on the road a couple days and come home and want comfort food. when things are challenging, to donny's point, you want comfort food, i know this, may be a little bore, not the number one restaunt in town and not the hottest, i will go back to what i know, there's truth to that. >> it's comfort food. >> as you say, with the economy in tough shape, i'm thinking -- >> i'll try it this way. >> yes. >> so the obama people from day one have branded him a rock star. they did. >> president obama. his people branded him a rock star. >> i thought he was a professor. >> president obama's people on the campaign trail have branded him a rock star. >> okay. for the sake of this discussion, he's a rock star. >> president obama's people from the beginning have tried to brand him a rock star. if he is a professor who wrings his hands when he's trying to figure out whether to turn on the hot water faucet or cold water faucet, that's the reality, but his people have tried to brand him a rock star. to donny's point, when all hell breaks loose, you don't want a rock star, you want an accountant. willie geist. not comfort food but a boring accountant sitting across the table -- we've done this before, we're pulling our hair out, been a long weekend, the dogs and ponies didn't go the way we expected, you needs to sit down with the most boring guy and say, get us out of this mess. >> on the other hand, sarah palin is the rock star is what you're suggesting. she has the spicy food. >> that was a crazy night out, that was great but back to -- >> let's check donny's black berry and see how crazy that night was. >> i talked to mark halperin and woke him up for "way too early." he watched the newscast, the lead story on the newscast was sarah palin's here. what did sarah palin do today? is she going to get in or not get in. so pat's point, she really stomped on mitt romney's big day. >> she stomped on him. i tell you, it may be mitt romney wins in the end by keeping his head down, being boring. there are a lot of times where you don't want to be the top headline, just stain the game. >> joe, being boring and being responsible and being romney-like is a general election strategy. some of these tea party people and social conservatives where there's a huge vacuum over there, they don't want boring, they want conan the barbarian. that vacuum is going to be filled by someone with fire and energy. there's a huge segment of the republican party now, gigantic, romney is at 16, 17, 18, 19%, looking for someone strong and a leader and they want passion, fire, energy, direction. so i'm telling you in the general election, the romney strategy what he's doing now, exactly right, go after obama, you be responsible, the guy that can really get things done but in the primary you better watch yourself with that kind of calm cool demeanor. >> therein lies the problem for the republican party, therein lies their problem in winning a general election, what will work in primaries is not going work in a general election. >> it worked with reagan, was red hot, see, and george bush was responsible. george h.w. bush. sometimes it fails. bob dole won in '96, i mean, ronald reagan won in 19 -- it depends. that is the problem in the republican party. >> give me one spicier republican candidate electable, none, zero. >> i think huckabee might have been. i think he might -- he'd have been a tough sell to the nation as well. >> come on. >> i think he might have been. >> the wheels are coming off. nobody's going for mike huckabee, that's not the alternative, they'll stay with obama, he is less scary than mike huckabee. >> acceptable candidate for republicans, i think he can win. >> let me tell you this, donny deutche knows one thing for sure, the pete pants caucus, they are not mike huckabee voters. by the way, mike huckabee doesn't want votes from grown men who wear tight pink pants. >> you're the one that keeps adding the tight adjective, which is scary. >> that's what i saw yesterday. >> tailored. we like to call it east coast tailored? coming up, arianna huffington will be here, also the "washington post," david ignatius, congressman from texas, jeb hensarling and tim tebow. >> tim tebow! >> your favorite. >> he's a sweet boy. joe, you will say many nice things about him. >> i will. willie, guess what? our lights are going to be changed today. you spend five minutes with tim tebow. is that a fox news reporter that said that? >> tom bren fla mnaman. >> thom brennaman. new developments after governor chris christie got a lift on a helicopter to his son's baseball game. >> what's he doing? >> was he multitasking? up next, "politico"'s top stories in washington. a check on the weekend forecast with bill karins. >> good morning, everyone. the weekend forecast should be pretty nice around the country with the heat. too early for that. 90s in memphis and tennessee, heat advisories in memphis and louisiana and stump -- stuck in a horrible heat wave, beautiful new york to boston. areas in thread, you're in this 90s today. they will spread to st. louis and kansas city today. as we head to your week, saturday, still very warm in the southern half of the country, nice day in the mid-atlantic. sunday, i can't promise you a nice day. chance of showers and storms d.c. to boston. beautiful friday. beautiful day by starbucks. 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[ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ house republicans succeeded in blocking the democrats attempt to raise the debt ceiling. >> they blocked the democrats debt ceiling bill so devious, it was actually introduced by the republicans. thankfully the republicans, like congressman dave camp bravely stood up against themselves. >> this vote, a vote based on legislation i've introduced will and must fail. >> stirring words. one is reminded of patrick henry's courage cry, give me liberty and i don't want liberty. >> 24 past the hour. look that shot of new york city, as the sun comes up. the "philadelphia inquirer." governor christie reimbursed the state for two helicopter rides he took to his son's baseball game. addressing the controversy head on thursday, the governor said the rides were justified, appropriate and legal. he also said this. >> i don't make a political calculation. i was dealing with the realities of my life. perception matters. if so by writing this check today people feel better about the fact that by going to my son's game i wrote the check to pay for it, great. >> perception does matter, donny, right sflmpgt. >> contrast the way weiner handled this situation, i hid it. i will make it go away. you see a human being reacting, he made a mistake. don't see this guy's dishonest. weiner, it was me, i sent it to my wife, we were away from each other, i know i shouldn't do that. move on. >> was he planning on paying for it but did the media scrutiny. >> of course, the media came to him and didn't go, this abomination, said this is reality, what i will deal with and i will write the check. you look at a guy, understand what was going on there. i think the american public, when people shed their skin and show human frailties breaking the law and doing something heinous, this would have moved on. >> when blummi iblumming that blumingthal said i messed up on his record. >> he should have paid for it before it came out. >> he said i made a mistake. >> we're talking, it's how you respond to a mistake. >> okay. >> you want to kick him in the face again? >> no. >> he screwed up. >> here's happy news. "new york times" jill abramson will become the first executive editor for the first time in history to become a full time editor of the paper. when you read "the times" like i do and fan of "the times," you can't say enough nice things about bill keller, a guy who took this paper at a terrible state, kept his head down and quietly worked day in and day out to restore the honor and integrity to the times and also bring peace to a newspaper even the best of circumstances is hard to manage. a lot of great writers and egos there. bill keller was the perfect pick for the time. i almost made a political analogy. i don't know bill keller. i have never met him. i hear he's a very good guy. i was about to say, bill keller may take this as an insult. >> then maybe don't say it. >> no. >> do say. >> it's kind of like gerald ford after richard nixon. richard nixon had so torn apart the country.