say so myself. >> we wanted in the last three years to do what was different and let you hear the views of me and others, whether you agree or disagree, it is best that americans talk and discuss and raise the issues to a level where we can try to find common ground to make a better nation. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. killers at the gate? let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with a grum killing of 150 soldiers. isil had them stripped to the underwear, trooped them through the desert barefoot and executed a lot of them. they are soldiers enlisted, taunted and executed by the terrorist force controlling much of syria and iraq. a group that beheads and crucifies those who fall into its hands. it is the blood lust of members including increasing number of recruits who join for the hatred it embodied and the opportunity to kill which it offers. today the prime minister of britain said it is taking the killing spree westward. >> this is not some foreign conflict thousands of miles are from home we can hope to ignore. the ambition to create an extremist caliphate in the heart of iraq and syria is a threat to our own security hear in t-- hee in the uk. >> as i mentioned yesterday isis released a propaganda video showing what appears to be the massacre of well over 100 syrian soldiers. there they are. the men are humiliated first, stripped to their underwear and forced to walk in the desert while being taunted by isis fighters. later, bloody bodies are piled up in the desert. another horrific video showing captured kurdish soldiers in orange jumpsuits. one is later beheaded. you see the set-up to that. evan coleman, this is what we are up against. is it regional? does it have a global reach? >> it has a global reach. in the latest video where they beheaded a kurd there was a message issued to barack obama saying we are coming for you. we are going to kill your soldiers, et cetera. this is the consistent message. it's difficult to understand people don't see what a threat isis represents. isis has been open about it for a long time. two years ago baghdadi threatened terrorist attacks inside the u.s. homeland. we can choose not to believe him. as far as isis is concerned the u.s.'s adversary is looking to carry out terrorist attacks in western and european countries including the u.s. it believes it can do that if it recruits western operatives, individuals who speak english, carrying are british and american passports. if you look at the numbers, 500 to 600 british nationals have traveleded to syria. 900 french nationals. 100 american nationals. these are numbers that dwarf anything we have seen in afghanistan, yemen, any other conflict that al qaeda or a jihadi group established a base. we have never seen these numbers before. >> an open invitation to war. if isis, the state of islam pulls a dozen deaths or more, by doing it in name don't they invite us, make it irresistible to go in there during the president's direction and kill tens of thousands of them? don't they know it's coming? it's ease morally and politically. once they strike us there is no more debating about what to do with the band of killers. eel kill them. >> you could read it either way. you can say there is a chance they will show restraint if we show restraint. i agree. they are already a big threat. the weight of evidence suggests they are already coming for us. they are certainly coming for our regional allies. if there was a doubt their attempted march into kurdistan showed they are not trying to unify the arabs, sunni arabs of region immediately contiguous to where they are. they are trying to expand. the notion of a caliphate is to rule where muslims have been in power before. jordan will be in the cross hairs. other parts of iraq. certainly saudi arabia if they had a chance. this is an ambitious group. i'm not suggesting they will be successful. it's up to us to make sure aren't. >> the good news is if they are going to do that, they know they will do that. will we be able to recruit implicitly a coalition against other neighbors? >> i think we will. i think the kurds are already on our side. we saw it in the mosul dam. the jordanians have to worry about hunkering down, taking care of their territory and refugees spilled to their territory from syria already. i'm not sure they can help us out a lot. certainly kurds and i think the iraqi army has to be our number one ally. they have to do their own surge. i supported the surge seven years ago but i'm not supporting we should contemplate that ourselves. we have to help them empower themselves, reconstitute their own forces to go on the offensive and do their own surge in the sunni-arab parts of iraq. >> do we have the fire power the jordanians, kurds, iraqi army, do we have enough firepower to overwhelm isis even if they enjoy this morale advantage in the sense they want to kill and kill whereas the other countries are trying to defend their lives? >> the only way to defeat isis is convincing sunni iraqis and syrians that they do not have a common cause with the group. we have to convince insurgent groups and syrian rebel groups to actively fight and disparage and get rid of isis. the problem is we have been talking about it now for over a year. we have been talking about trying to empower the iraqi army, trying to empower the sunni community. none of this is working. whatever we are doing it's not working. at a certain point we have to consider what happens the if we can't do this. do we go it alone? do we not do anything at all? the problem is right now we are waffling. we are not doing anything. >> what was the president doing yesterday in the press conference? he seemed to be muting the talk he was going to announce an attack. a lot of us thought he was going to announce an attack yesterday afternoon. what was he trying to do besides say to dempsey and the rest, cool it, we are not tighting for the homeland yet, cool it. when he said i don't have a strategy do you mean he doesn't have a way of getting these countries to do the what we'd like them to do in attacking isis? >> politically speaking i understand attacking syria isn't the number one most popular thing in the american public. i understand the idea of trying to wrestle together a regional or international coalition isn't going to be easy when you have countries like saudi arabia and qatar providing money and weapons to al qaeda's official branch in syria. how do you organize those forces together? i appreciate this is not easy for the president. i appreciate that philosophically he's opposed to trying to get back into the quagmire of iraq. we have to ask at a certain point, it's been a year. we talked about launching air strikes in syria a year ago. we still don't have a strategy. we don't know what to do about isis. >> you're conflating here, talking about airstrikes. they were talked about a year ago aimed at assad. >> not all of them. we were also talking back then as well about potentially targeting jabar al nusra, al qaeda in syria, with the understanding assad was only part p of the problem. suicide bombings in civilian areas was a part of the problem. i don't accept that we don't have a strategy. i don't think that's realistic. we have part of a strategy but the problem is the strategy is limiteded to military options. the president seems reticent to use military option s now in syria in the absence of some other med thod -- political means of pushing sunnis toward fighting alongside us or pushing regional actors to stop supporting jabad al nusra. the question is do we sit on our hands and do nothing? i don't think that's an answer. >> i want to get back to michael. hab you know the answer. what was the president's hesitancy about yesterday. he called a press conference many of us thought would announce air strikes in syria. then he announced, we are getting the cart before the horse and used other metaphors to say we are ahead on our skis. clearly he was trying to pull back somebody -- whether it was dempsey or chuck hagel talking about attacking and he didn't want to attack. what was going on inside do you think? >> it's a great question. i think he should have given himself a wee bit more credit for the iraq strategy. maybe evan and i disagree here. but the last few months of iraq's strategy have been moving this the right direction. you need a political consensus and a government of national unit to get the army to obey their commander in chief. that part i'm happy with. we have to use more military tool thes in iraq than we have been willing to acknowledge yet. the political strategy piece was good. on syria and what the president said yesterday, getting to your question, if the president is trying to reign in hay gel and dempsey, doing it on live national tv is a funny way when they work for him. doesn't look for him to go public with internal debates. i like to want to believe it as a moment of brutal honesty, recognizing the syria policy hasn't worked and he's in need of a new one. that's the best interpretation i can give. >> that's a lenient interpretation. i want to ask you a simple question, starting with evan are. if we told the iraqi government it's now constituted, shia dominated. take the air force equipment you've got now, put every fighter or bomber plane in the air and hit isis everywhere you can. we'll give you the gas and spare parts, back you up, replace your equipment if you lose planes. go on the attack. would it have success? >> it might have the reverse of oh success. there is every reason to believe the iraqi air force would bomb the wrong people. they have little intelligence and they are sectarian. they might bomb sunni insurgent factions that we need to go against isis. i don't have faith in the iraqi military whatsoever. it's a good thing al maliki is gone. we haven't seen any turnaround in the iraqi military. they are still losing ground, even with our air strikes. >> 11 years has given us kaput, nothing. >> very, very little. >> michael, your assessment. could iraq, if we gave them everything -- backed them up with everything they had could they give a knock-down punch at least to isis? >> not without their army performing well on the ground. we had more air power in iraq in the period before the surge than the iraqis will have in the foreseeable future. we couldn't do it with air power and drones. this is inherently an undoable proposition from the air, especially in the cities isis controls. the only way to root them out in places where are they are already rooted in is to use ground forces to go in and do a search, to police neighborhoods, get intelligence sources from people you then protect, to raid demots, go after leaders that are transitory. you have to go with the army that believes in the mission. the iraqi army may not. they have not in recent months. we have to hope a body can rebuild their confidence and support. it will take quite a bit of doing. >> i guess this explains why the president said he doesn't have a strategy yet. you have been lenient on him. thank you so much. we get to find out monday where it stands. next, the president is making it clear we are not on the verge of a new war in syria. critics are knocking his wording but his intent was to dial back rhetoric from those in his own administration. that's the way i read it. plus the smelly burger king deal moving over the border to enjoy a lower tax base in canada. is this tip of the iceberg? can washington to anything? they are leaving the country to sell here and not pay taxes here. and a veteran producer on "the tonight show with jay leno" gives us an inside account from hugh grant's apology for you know what to interviewing me. finally there was something about the press conference yesterday that got people talking. it's not what he said. it's what he showed up in. that's in the sideshow, where it belongs. this is "hardball," the place for politics. toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. let that phrase sit with you for a second. unlimited. as in, no limits on your hard-earned cash back. as in no more dealing with those rotating categories. the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase, every day. don't settle for anything less. i'll keep asking. what's in your wallet? senator rand paul took a shot at hillary clinton at the koch brothers americans for prosperity summit. he said this. >> there will be a discussion over the next four years whether or not hillary clinton is fit to lead this country. is hillary clinton fit to be commander in chief? if she wants to be commander in chief and she cannot protect our embassies, i don't think that she should or should be. it precludes her from ever being considered as commander in chief. [ applause ] >> you don't have a brain, just keep saying "benghazi." senator paul sounds like a man running p for president. that was feeding time at the zoo known as the koch brothers summit. we'll be right back. to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. during the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. at night and when it's cloudy, we use more natural gas. this ensures we can produce clean electricity whenever our customers need it. ♪ eachwon't have a claim.wners that's why allstate claim free rewards gives you money back for every year you don't have one. and why if you're part of the other 5%, allstate offers claim rateguard. so your rates won't go up just because of a claim. no matter what comes your way, your home protects you. ...protect it back allstate home insurance from an allstate agent. that's why i always choose the fastest intern.r slow. the fastest printer. the fastest lunch. turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastest elevator. the fastest speed dial. the fastest office plant. so why wouldn't i choose the fastest wifi? i would. switch to comcast business internet and get the fastest wifi included. comcast business. built for business. as a strategy develops, we will continue to consult with congress. i don't want to put the cart before the horse. we don't have a strategy yet. >> welcome back to "hardball." words from president obama yet certainly ignited the herd. the president's message was clear to dial back some of the hawkish sounding language that had been coming from people in his administration. comments like this one from general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. >> this is an organization that has an apocalyptic end of days strategic vision which will eventually have to be defeated. to your question, can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization which resides in syria, the answer is no. that will have to be addressed on both sides of what's essentially at this point a nonexistent border. >> chuck hagel's comments on the threat we face from the islamic state. let's listen. >> they are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it's this iraq or anywhere else. >> or this tweet from secretary of state john kerry, isil must be destroyed, will be crushed. with language like that bouncing around many thought the president called yesterday's press conference to announce bombing strikes in syria. i did. today white house press secretary josh ernest put comments about not having a strategy into what he said was the context. listen. >> the president was talking specifically about military options for countering isis in syria. the president hasn't yet laid out his specific plan for military action in syria. the reason for that is that the pentagon is still developing the plan. he's still reviewing them. it would be putting the cart before the horse to talk about what sort offal authorization would be required for a plan that hasn't been put in place yet. >> joining me now is washington buy rerow chief from mother jones, david korn and the great eugene robinson, both msnbc political analysts. gene, i'm trying to figure out. i thought the president was pushing back. i think we are looking at the bay of pigs when you have le may saying hit them. obama saying, they will be there when we leave. there are problems. you don't get rid of someone because you don't like them this the middle east. >> it sounded like that. dech dempsey, hagel, kerry, their hair is on fire. they are saying this is an imminent threat we have to deal with. we have to crush them, destroy them. that means going into syria. so one did expect the president to say, okay, the outlines, here is what we're going to do or something. he said, we don't have a strategy yet. >> what do you make of that admission? >> well. >> say the herd, the pack went after him. >> i got phone calls after that saying, what the president meant to say -- >> from the white house. >> exactly. it sounded like -- >> i will make the point in my own little way at the end of the show. >> agree with you now. >> i think presidents whether it's eisenhower when we kept us from using a nuclear weapon like nixon wanted to do and kennedy with the bay of pigs saying, wait a minute, i'm not getting dragged into something because i don't know how to get out once i get into it. >> people obsessed about the use of the word strategy. he meant to say we don't have a specific plan yet about what to do in syria so i won't talk to congress about it as of this moment. >> does he are have the pieces of a plan? >> the president is deliberative. when i wrote my book about him covering the libya operation, he spent weeks while everyone was running around saying we have to do something now. he went back to the pentagon a couple of different times for plans that were sometimes more aggressive and robust than what he had before. he wanted to though, a, can we do this. b, what would have a positive impact and not have more costs than benefits. >> he wants to know how we come out. >> while everybody is saying what they are saying, i don't think he disagrees with their appraisal of the situation. but he wants to say, listen, take a deep breath. isis won't be taken care of with an attack, within a week or a couple of months. as the long-term game. this guy play it is the long game. >> last week when we saw james foley who is an appealing guy, a reporter, a good guy. he gets behead fd in front of the world wabasically. he could have gone to the ramparts saying let's hit them with everything we have. back to the golf game and all that stuff. here's the question. he said, i know i can strike with all the heat now, but i don't want to. i want to think about this. >> clearly he didn't want to strike immediately. he is nothing if not dlib are a ty. he wants to know the ramifications of everything he decides to do or decides not to do. not doing stuff has consequences. my biggest question after hearing the speech and digesting it is why isn't he talking to congress? >> to what effect is this. >> look -- >> what does he say to them? >> he went to congress. >> they said no. >> air strikes in syria. they said no. >> i want to follow your thinking. explain to everybody watching, including me, the advantage in consultation now -- gene, follow the thought. >> well, just in this specific situation. they didn't give him the authorization. >> assad. >> right. if he does air strikes in syria, that becomes the question as to whether or not the country is behind this. >> you think the first necessary condition is the country needs to get behind them. >> he needs to have congress on the hook. expanding operations beyond iraq, he can do it with a resolution -- >> wait a minute. he says i'll do it myself if you don't do it. >> he can say it at the end of the day. he can decide to act. he should have john boehner, mitch mcconnell in saying, guys, what do you think? i'm developing a plan. what do you want to do? >> do they know what he knows? >> they can't take the same potshots. if he wants to build a political support in a highly divided, polarized country -- >> an ideal world tomorrow morning when we wake up and hear jordan, egypt, saudi arabia, the iraqi government have joined together in a massive arab attack on this cancer called isis and we'll help them. how do you get that to happen? >> well -- >> we did it in the first gulf war. if we don't do it a bunch of white guys coming from the west saying we killed your bad problem. it builds up again. >> that's one of the things you think about. the president calls in harry reid, call this is john boehner and the relevant committee chairmen on both sides and sits them in the roosevelt room and says, look, half of you hate me. the other half aren't sure. but we have a situation here. we have big decisions to make. what we do or don't do has consequences. here is how i see it. i want to hear speeches, your views. >> for the reason you said, hook them. >> exactly. >> get them involved. >> it's their job. >> they think their job is to get elected to the senate. >> this is their job. >> more important than that. >> thank you, gene. you're ahead of me here. thank you, david. i want to think about us not fighting another arab war with killing arabs on international television while other arabs watch us do it. i don't think that's a winning strategy. up next, president obama's summer suit causes twitter to twitter. is khaki the new black? this is "hardball," the place for politics. 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or if light could seek out the dark? what would happen if that happens? anything. then you don't know "aarp".e trip when you think aarp, get inspired with aarp travel. plan and book your trip online and get hot travel tips from the pros. find more real possibilities at aarp.org/possibilities. back to "hardball." time now for the sideshowment while president obama's press conference yesterday may not have left much of an impression by way of foreign policy strategy, one thing did stand out to the viewers of the q & a session -- his khaki suit. twitter erupted with commentary on the wardrobe choice recording over 4,000 tweets during the course of the presser itself. some were so distracteded from the topics they weighed in on the fashion sense. exactly lander fitzpatrick said not sure tan suits him. it was called the audacity of taupe and philip klein says this is what happens when obama bypasses congress to purchase a suit. garrett quinn added imagine if obama wore a tan suit after labor day. that would be grounds for impeachment. the internet's reaction or overreaction in this case was much ado about nothing. president reagan wore tan suits all the time. what's the big deal? next up, governor nathan diehl of georgia landed in an embarrassing situation on tuesday. four students stood up to ask the governor about a board of regents policy which prohibits illegal immigrants from attending certain schools in the state. the governor assumeded the students addressing himm were i the country illegally. >> there is a fundamental problem that can only be solved at the congressional level. and that is to deal with the issue of children. and i presume you fit that category -- >> i don't. i'm not an illegal immigrant. >> oh, okay. >> i don't know why you thought that i was undocumented. is it because i look hispanic? >> you made the statement. you stood up. i'm sorry if i insulted you. i did not intend to. >> next up, burger king's corporate flip to canada. they found a way to get out of paying taxes. you and i still have to. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. you owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends. three jobs. you're like "nothing can replace brad!" then liberty mutual calls. and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. where the reward was that what if tnew car smelledit card and the freedom of the open road? a card that gave you that "i'm 16 and just got my first car" feeling. presenting the buypower card from capital one. redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet, buick, gmc or cadillac - with no limits. so every time you use it, you're not just shopping for goods. you're shopping for something great. learn more at buypowercard.com here's what's happen ing. at a fund raising event president obama said russia is choosing to look back instead of forward. on an emergency meeting nato is taking part in direct military operations in ukraine. joan rivers is hospitalized in new york. her daughter said her condition is serious. the ebola outbreak has spread to senegal. a student who slipped over the border is now in isolation at a hospital. back to "hardball." >> welcome back to "hardball." when burger king, home of the american whopper executed a merger this week a corporate maneuver unfamiliar to most americans was suddenly getting attention. burger king was merging with a canadian company and moving its corporate are headquarters to canada which lets burger king pay far fewer taxes in the united states. today in her column trish regan said there is a new reason corporations are merging. it's more akin to a mail order bride arrangement. in these loveless transactions, american companies are buying foreign counterparts to get a new passport and enjoy the lower corporate taxes that come with it. something about the deal doesn't smell right to me or many americans. trish is a columnist at usa today and anchor of "street smart" on tv. and we have columnist every man here. trish, you're an expert. a beautifully written column. almost to the point where i think you know more about this than i do. spring it out here, my friend. what about this deal doesn't smell? most americans have to pay taxes because they live here. if burger king is going to have a billion outlets and sell a zillion hamburgers here in what most people think is an american transaction, shouldn't they have to pay american taxes? just a thought. >> the problem, chris, is that we have the most in the way of taxes of any country in the world. 35%. burger king is looking at this saying to themselves, hmm, if we are headquartered in canada we could i pay 20%. think of the savings if we go there. you are seeing a lot of companies do it. we have seen 21 companies do this since 2012 which is a huge uptick. 51 in total have done this. to see 21 in the last couple of years is significant. they are doing this because every other country around the world is offering a better deal for them. compared to what we are charging in taxes. >> can i give the progressive response? we pay for the highways, national defense, transportation and communications. every bit of infrastructure that benefits every time we stop along the road to buy a burger from burger king. they have a lot of benefits from us. they don't seek to want to pay a penny for them. your thoughts. >> i hope i can be as brief as you. the thing is about the deal, this is a good issue these inversions. good discussion. finding out about the burger king deal is it may not be inversion. they are denigh it. >> of course. >> they don't pay 35% now. they are paying 27%. they will probably gain 1% or 2%. >> why missouri tove corporate headquarters there? >> other reasons. canada has rules to make it easier for them to move their headquarters there. even though the personnel won't move in any appreciable sense but the inversion issue is a good one. this is getting attention because everybody knows burger king's name. they don't know pfizer or other more obscure companies. >> when there was scandal in britain in my day it was denied. the girl in the case said of course he would. of course they will deny they are doing it for tax reasons. of course. >> you're absolutely right. >> you do the analysis. >> it is for tax reasons. they are going to save money and there is a lot of pressure for companies to be as profitable as they can. what we might think about doing though, chris, is reforming our own tax codes so we are not driving american companies away. at the end of the day we are losing out on the tax revenue. when you see every other country has a better tax structure. what is it we are doing that's not really favorable for our businesses here? >> so the solution, according to trish, and krauthammer today, lower the rates for corporations to operate here. >> close the loopholes. >> the republicans want the lower rates. democrats don't like loopholes. why can't they get anything done? >> president obama greaagrees, >> why not embarrass them from doing it so they can stop hamburger companies from running away with the profits. >> it goes back to the tea party. you have democrats and republicans who want it. you have tea party folks in particular who say, we are not giving the corporate people a break without giving the little guy a break. >> they won't touch it. >> compromise. >> was it the perfect is the enemy of the good? is that it, trish? unless they get everything the way they want it they won't agree to fix the corporate thing you mentioned. >> this is a government that can't seem to get anything done. when it comes to tax reform this is complicateded stuff. there is a lot of loopholes in there. there are a lot of incentives for people around the country, politicians to keep the loopholes in there. it's politically really difficult. it's also a difficult sell. when you're out there talking about tax inversions, people's eyes glaze over. from a political standpoint. >> if i can handle it, the viewers can. i'm not that complicated. i said last night you can't get a decent hamburger outside this country unless it is made by an american company and i have been to canada, niagara falls. you can walk across. it's the stinkiest hamburger ever. i don't know what was in it. if it was hamburger helper, that would have been okay. some kind of meat that as you eat it you say, i'm going to get sick. ♪ blame canada ♪ blame canada >> it's one thing we have a monopoly on -- how to make a good hamburger. >> this will rat chet it up. this is a deal about doughnuts and burgers. burger king is seen as american. the idea that an american company is now going to canada where they will get a more favorable tax rate. this really pushes the issue much more to center stage. >> ten seconds. what's the synergism between burgers and donuts? you won't see them in the same store. >> you know the fast food places where you see a number of different doughnuts, burgers, pizza. >> i know. >> you can get people for breakfast, lunch and dinner. >> dance with the one that brung you. burgers stick with burgers, doughnuts stick with doughnuts. my corporate brilliance. thank you. up next, we stayed up late with jay leno for 22 years. now we'll talk to one of the producers who worked the late shift with him. this guy knows what happened. fascinating stuff. i saw some of it myself. we'll be right back with the place for politics. [ male announcer ] it's one of the most amazing things we build and it doesn't even fly. we build it in classrooms and exhibit halls, mentoring tomorrow's innovators. we build it raising roofs, preserving habitats and serving america's veterans. every day, thousands of boeing volunteers help make their communities the best they can be. building something better for all of us. ♪ wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters shopping online is as easy as it gets. and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list, now it is. we've made hiring anyone from a handyman to a dog walker as simple as a few clicks. buy their services directly at angieslist.com no more calling around. no more hassles. start shopping from a list of top-rated providers today. angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. visit angieslist.com today. mitt romney may be considering another run for the white house. p if he does, the latest polling in iowa has him at the top of the pack. according to a usa today poll p of iowa voters romney would be the first choice. 35% of the vote now. at a distant second, mike huckabee who won the iowa caucus in 2008. followed by chris christie and rick santorum tied at 6. look at that. 35% for romney. okay ladies, whenever you're ready. i got this. no, i'll get it! let me get it. ah uh, i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat. what about a tip? here's one...get an allstate agent. nice! switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-788-0900 now. hold on man, is that a leak up there? that's a drip. now that's a leak. that is a leak! and if you don't have allstate renters insurance... game over. protect your valuables from things like water damage for as low as $4 a month when you add renter's insurance to your allstate auto policy. call 866-788-0900 now. and, if you're a safe driver, you can save up to 45%! just a few more ways, allstate is changing car insurance for good. call an allstate agent and get a quote now. that, my friends, is everything. and with the quicksilver card from capital one, you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase. not just "everything at the hardware store." not "everything, until you hit your cash back limit." quicksilver can earn you unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you could possibly imagine. say it with me -- everything. one more time, everything! and with that in mind... what's in your wallet? we're back when jay leno stepped down from hosting "the tonight show" in february he ended a 23-year career. he spent almost two decades at number one. beginning with his interview with hugh grant after the actor was busted with a prostitute on oh hollywood's sunset boulevard. leno asked this unforgettable question vaulting "the tonight show" to the top. >> let me start with question number one. [ laughter ] >> what the hell were you thinking? >> yeah. yeah. um, well, it's not easy. you know in life pretty much what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing. i did a bad thing. there you have it. >> okay. yeah. >> well, there's a new book out by leno's long-time producer dave berg called behind the curtain, an insider's view of jay leno's tonight show. i joined jay 29 times. i was a news guest. the kind of booking that dave berg was known for bringing to the tonight show. often mixed up with other celebrities on the touch in 2010. i was there with chelsea handler after the disastrous bp oil spill in the gulf. look at what happened when i was talking about dick cheney's energy policy. >> cheney was head of hall burton. he was vice president and the oil company gave him a $34 million signing bonus to become vice president of the united states. cash for $34 million. think they had an interest in him? he began holding secret meeting with the oil company. no press. bp, private meetings all along the way. an interesting deal there going on. it's a joke. they do not regulate the oil industry. you know, you're beautiful. if you concentrate, you can keep up. >> oh, yeah! yeah! yeah! [ cheers and applause ] i should have done that five years ago! thank you, chris. >> i gave him that line backstage, by the way. >> joining me now is the author of behind the curtain, dave berg. thank you for giving me that moment. if i had known she was a big deal i wouldn't have been such a wise guy. she was interrupting me. tell me about working with jay. i was struck that jay is the same guy backstage, before the show, during the show, after the show. not to knock on the other guys but he's what you got. he was what you saw. the guy we're looking at. >> you're absolutely right. i don't know if i can add to that. he was asked by a reporter if you could be any engine in your garage you want -- he has an extensive garage -- what would it be. he said i would be a steam engine. not too fast, not too slow. that's what jay was. it was the same guy. >> what was your favorite, biggest get, as we say. the one you were proudest of getting on leno that you did the job and brought her in. >> i would say that's an easy answer. it would be barack obama as the first sitting president ever to appear on a late night show. that was on his 59th day in office in 2009. until that time it was considered unpresidential for a president to appear on a late night show. i had worked on the booking for about five years going back to the democratic convention >> who was the biggest pain in the butt? who was the worst to deal with that you said, i can't believe this celebrity is such a jerk? >> well, i won't call the celebrity a jerk, because he happened to be a dear friend of mine and he still is, but probably the most difficult guy to work with was dennis rodman, because dennis, as sweet a guy as he was, he was perennially late. i used to send a memo to his house, he lived 50 miles away in orange county and he was late all the time and i figured, i can't afford to get a heart attack at this age, so i started sending a lem mimo, then a helicopter to a nearby airport. he got in the limo late and helicopter late and continued being late. >> who surprised you the most? you and i meet people who are different on television than are in life. who was the most different? >> i would have to say other than chris matthews that the most surprising guest was john f. kennedy jr. it took me six years to book him, by the way, because he didn't want to come on the show because he didn't think he was good enough. he did not think he was "tonight show" material. and i think that's just humility beyond belief. >> and you had him on with seinfeld. >> absolutely. once again, once he found out that seinfeld was going to be on the show, he almost dropped out. just a few days before. because he figured after seinfeld, who would want to hear anything he had to say? >> well, i got to thank you for all the times i was on that shosho show. 29 times. i don't know if it was near the record -- >> number one for the news guy. >> thank you very much. you also wrote about late -- the late robin williams, a master of improv. when the lights went out -- accidentally one time during one of his appearances on the show, williams turned a technical glitch into comedic brilliance. let's take a look. this is magic. >> it's really a fun film. how's it going to look -- the power is going -- >> it's the comet again. >> there we. >> that's our power outage. >> the mother ship came. >> how do you count for that? you can't book that. that's robin williams acting like, what was it, third -- close encounters of the third kind, or e.t., whatever it was, he's going back to the mother ship because the lights flick off. how do you know somebody is going to do that stuff? is that "star trek"? what do you think of him as a guest? >> i think robin williams was such a gracious, wonderful person who was always on at the show, always positive and always putting on a show. it didn't matter where. it might have been backstage, during the commercial breaks. he would go into these high energy blues songs. he would join the band and be dancing all over the stage and come back after the commercial break and totally out of breath, he was always on. always entertains. but always in a positive way. >> jimmy carter wanted to know where the little boy's room was. >> yes. and it was sort of -- it was strange for me because it was the first time i had ever booked a, you know, a former president. i was very nervous about it. and as you know, he can be a little gruff sometimes. anyway, i went in the dressing room with him, and he said, where's the little boy's room? he goes -- i said, well, it's right over there, mr. president. i'll just step out. he said, no, no, you can stay here. i thought, i don't know how appropriate this is. should i be listening to presidential tinkle? it sounded the same. >> to your astonishment, how normal it all was. thank you so much. your book's called, well, it's called "behind the curtain," right? >> that's right. >> an insider's guide to an insider's view of the "night show." i'm telling you, this is a great book. i always thought somebody would write a book, david, about the greenroom where you go to wait to go on the shows and the stuff that goes on, the nervousness, they used to drink a lot. now they don't drink too much. they talk about stuff, they're on green mile before they're about to be executed, some people. you're always there with them. it's great stuff. i read a lot of good stuff in the book. i think people ought to buy this book just for sheer beach reading while there's still some beach out there. david berg, you're a good guy. thanks for having me on all those times. we'll be right back. >> thank you. did you know, your eyes can lose vital nutrients as you age? [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. ocuvite. help protect your eye health. why let erectile dysfunction ocget in your way? this is the age of knowing what you're made of. talk to your doctor about viagra. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain... ...it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age... ...of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. if energy could come from anything?. or if power could go anywhere? or if light could seek out the dark? what would happen if that happens? anything. let me finish this friday by defending president obama. i start with a bit oaf relevant history here. think of the bay of pigs, the time in the spring of 1961 when president kennedy refused to okay air cover for the invasion of cuba. had he done so, the united states would have found itself in an all-out war with fidel castro. at the height of his popularity. would have found ourselves tucked into a war against a people defending itself against a superpower. the cubans loyal to castro would have been david, we would have been goliath. i'm not saying we would have lost that war, but we would have paid dearly for a victory. it would have been bloody block by block and field by field and we would have been the aggressor, to the world watching, the bad guy. worse yet, we would have engaged in battle face to face with the soviet military in cuba. no knows how that might have escalated. it's very possible we would have taken our two countries and the world to abyss. we managed avoid two years later in the missile crisis. like kennedy before him, and president eisenhower before that when he, ike did, refused to two into indo china in 1954, this commander in chief saw those around him pushing for war and called a halt. there is no doubt the islamic state now nestled in syria is evil personified and no doubt getting rid of it is not something the u.s. military can do, certainly not by itself, and if it tries, it will have to do it by itself because no other country or force, not the iraqi government, not the saudis or egypt or jordan will jump in on our side. they will watch us do the dirty work and hope we get it done well. the only way to rid the mideast of isis is for the moderate sunnis to do the job. it has to be defeated in its home. why? because we will be coming in and when we do, isis will blossom again and when we leave, they'll do the same, just as the taliban did when we left afghanistan. we leave, they stay. the only way to kill isis is for those who stay to it. find a strategy to encourage