Morning joe. A wake for kevin ward is being held today after being killed by a car driven by tony is expecte update on his wife, nancys condition. Shes being treated for the ebola virus. Thats going to do it for this edition of way too early. Morning joe starts right now. Good morning everyone. Its wednesday, august 13. Welcome to morning joe. With us onset morning joe contributor jon kyle man. Former Communications Director for president george w. Bush, Nicolle Wallace. Washington we have columnist for the Washington PostDavid Ignatius as well along with willie, joe and me. Did you read the papers . Nicolle is going to be on the
view. Were republicans. We know everything in the paper is not true. It is biased. It is biased. You republicans think that about everything. Is it not true . Its not true. I think there are definitely shades of it. Thats a fantastic conversation for dinner, friends in the media. Unbelievable. Extraordinarily biased. Do you believe everything in the paper . No, of course not. I like to see who im reading, who im listening to, i look at their world view and i see within that what theyre talking about. But thats not ral. Okay. Those clintons and obamas. This is so good, i cannot take it. I think the bigger question is will there be a hug, like a
hughug. There will be a hug picture. Not sure what youre getting at. The dr. Pierzynski hug. So cynical. We have a couple of things to get to. Lauren back ba call passed away. Still learning new details in the death of Robin Williams. Investigators in Northern California confirmed early indications that the comedian and actor hanged himself. It apparently happened sometime between sunday night when his wife last saw him alive and late monday morning when his body was discovered by shis stand. There are suggestions the actor was troubled over his financial situation. His estimated net worth was nearly 130 million. In an interview with parade msh magazine, robin cited his two divorces as a source of his final woes saying, quote, divorce is expensive, i used to
joke they were going to call it all the money but they called it alimony. And they rip your heart out through your wallet. Its way too much. Abc news had to apologize. They had aerials of Robin Williams home. The family asked for privacy. They had the screen grab that says family asked for privacy and to draw an arrow to the top, that were buzzing the house with helicopters. I refused to watch the coroners report, graphic with all this detail. Was that necessary . Its public information. Im not sure how you have to read it outside. The media can find themselves and vet it. But on television they went through every last detail of what happened. You had to look away from it. A helicopter over the house. Why . Peoples time of complete mourning. Last night, though, there was an emotional tribute. Jimmy fallon offered his tribute to the great Robin Williams. Before we get into the show we, like all of you, were shaken up a bit last night when we learned genius xheed your and actor Robin Williams. One in a million. He was unbelievable. If you dont know his standup you should youtube it right now and watch it. He was amazing. He was funny and he was fast. He would weave in and out of characters. He would get shakes speern. What the hell going on there. Martha, ball and chain and kick and yes, thank you. [ cheers and applause ] youd watch him and you would
cry laughing, and you would think im never going to see anyone like this human ever. Just amazing. His brain was always thinking ten steps ahead of what he was saying. He was like the muhammad ali of comedy. For the taste of divine madness, here is a clip of robins first ever tonight show appearance with johnny carson. A man who know himself but yet not touch himself. What is that from . Mid Summer Nights dream. The self abuse soliloquy. Look, come be hither. No. Thou has forced me to wear designer jeans for no reason
[ cheers and applause ] oh captain, my captain, you will be missed. That was the way to do it. That was beautiful. Also this morning, a star of what is considered hollywoods golden age is being remembered this morning. Lauren bacall passed away on tuesday at the age of 89 after suffering a stroke. Known her her sultry voice and a look, she was a model. Heilemann has the look. Not like that. Might be a different look. Made more than 40 movies. Owned tonys for her broadway performances and penned two auto biography. For two dozen years she was married to humphrey bogart. Speak of horses, i like to play them myself. I like to see them work out
first. See if theyre frontrunners or comefrombehind. Find out what their whole card is, what makes them run. Find out mine . I think so. Go ahead. Id say you dont like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open a little lead, take a little breather in the back stretch and then come home free. Dont like to be rated yourself . Havent met anyone that can do it. Any suggestions. Heilemanns look is more do you have any wings . The hunger in the eyes. How about the voice . The look is one thing, but the voice, until the end. So seductive. Political news. An interesting dynamic happening today. Hillary clinton is hoping to patch things up with president
obama. Its often important to patch things up, joe, after a clash over Foreign Policy. The dust got started when the former secretary of state took some nottosubtle digs at the president in an interview with the atlantic. She said . Part this, quote, great nations need organizing principles and do not do stupid stuff is not an organizing principle. Clintons comments drew a sharp rebuke from David Axelrod in an apparent reference to clintons such port of the iraq war in 2002, axelrod tweeted, quote, just to clarify, dont do stupid stuff means stuff like occupying iraq in the first place which was a tragically bad decision. It all goes back to whats described as the president s Foreign Policy doctrine. Last month the New York Times described the credo with a baseball analogy, you hit singles, you hit doubles. Every once in a while we may be
able to hit a home run. In private conversations the president has used a saltier variation of the phrase dont do stupid stuff. Clintons comments criticizing the comment drew a lot of attention. Her camp is trying to end the back and forth. A Statement Issued yesterday reads in part, quote, earlier today the secretary called president obama to make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him. Blah, blah, blah. His policies or leadership. Were not stupid. Who thinks were that stupid. I wasnt finished with the statement. It was an attempt to attack barack obama. John heilemann, you obviously lived with both of these campaigns in 2008. People forget how much hatred, how much animosity, how much rage there was between these two families. At one point the obama camp suggesting that bill clinton was a racist in South Carolina. The bitterness runs deep. It looks like its spilling out. It does. People do forget. Hatred is a strong word. I dont know if i would go that far. Certainly bitterness, a lot of acrimony in that campaign. You had the Clinton Campaign and people around them suggesting publicly that barack obama had not just been a using of drugs, but a dealer of drugs while in college. Hillary clinton privately wanting to push that out into the media. President obama, then candidate obama provoking the clintons in nevada by suggesting Ronald Reagan had been a better president than bill clinton. Bill clinton then acting out in South Carolina. The Obama Campaign sending a truth squad to follow president clinton around South Carolina and make those insinuations. President clinton playing into that by suggesting obama winning in South Carolina had been like Jesse Jackson winning in South Carolina. Later, trying to prod the media
into investigating whether Michelle Obama had used the fraet whitey on a videotape someplace. This was an incredibly bitter, fast Stay Campaign which made the fact that they were able to come together after the campaign was over so extraordinary. Both barack obama and Hillary Clinton seemed on a personal level to kind of let that go when she joined up to be secretary of state. The animosity between the camps is still there. Now were in a new phase and Hillary Clinton is distancing herself from obama, a lot of the olden mes on both sides are bobbling to the surface. Nicolle, everything they said about the history is true. Do you think its strategic for Hillary Clinton to put herself out there way in opposition . Jeffrey goldberg raised the phrase dont do stupid stuff. Do you think she thought through saying shes going to set herself from obama. Its hard to think of clintons as spontaneous. This is delicious. I remember as a republican watching the democratic primary in abject dismay at the treatment of Hillary Clinton, not just by the obama camp but by the media. It was a total pile on. It was shocking. As a woman he was shocking to see her, she was still winning primaries and the media was dancing on her grave. You talked about a lot of things that the clintons did. The obamas did plenty of things to fuel that, too. The deliciousness of this feud and the twitter will fade away. Well be talking about Something Else next week. What will endure is Hillary Clinton making perfectly clear not just to democratic primary runners who we think of as her audience but to a squlen voting public and to the world that she will take a very different posture on global affairs. There is a hunger for that. Anyone who thinks there isnt is
delusional. At the end of Hillary Clintons statement it says like any two friends who have to deal with the public eye she looks forward to hugging it out when they see each other tomorrow night. The event is a Birthday Party at the home of fernan jordan. I like when Hillary Clinton uses an ari gold phrase. Hug it out . Yes. I dont think barack obama and Hillary Clinton may be many things, but good friends i wouldnt put that on the list. But theres no doubt that Hillary Clinton is doing David Ignatius, exactly what nicolle just said. You have barack obama who has now defined himself and he did during the 2008 campaign as the antithesis of eight years of Foreign Policy failures in his eyes. Now here we are six years in to it and actually Barack ObamasApproval Ratings on foreign
policy even lower than george w. Bushs at this point which is even after the 2006 sunni uprising. So now she is doing the same thing to barack obama that barack obama did to george w. Bush. And you have bush people going around using the terms delicious and i mean george w. Bush must be loving this. But a freud moment. To a bigger, more important point, there obviously is going to be a readjustment in Foreign Policy after six years of Barack Obamas lay say fair approach, lead from behind approach. One thing that strikes me as interesting about this latest frack between secretary clinton and obama, i reviewed her memoir, hard choices. One theme of that book is she got Foreign Policy issues right earlier than the president did. Its on page after page. I collected a whole list of them. Guess what . The white house was really upset and thought this is unfair to us, this comparison between the two. So this theme has been around. She dug it a little deeper in the interview with jeffrey goldberg. But she was pitching the book and the books theme is i get Foreign Policy better than the president does. I think your point, joe, that were going to be having a debate about how to get a different kind of Foreign Policy is absolutely right and shes getting out early. Were focusing on what Hillary Clinton said to jeffrey goldberg. You also need to look at what barack obama said to Thomas Friedman where he basically said Hillary Clintons argument on syria was fantasy. A lot of people would disagree with that. Its going back and forth, both ways. I always sort of ever since that exit interview which i think we have the sound bite
of where she left as secretary of state and they sat awkwardly next to each other, the whole thing spoke to me as a deechlt theyre both unwilling prince pants in the deechlt ron fornier writes in the national journal, clintons risky hedge against obama. Im reading the public correctly. Americans want somebody they feel they can be proud of who puts them first and keeps them safe. They want what obama promised to be. Clinton may be aiming for that sweet spot between bushs bell lidge rens and obamas neglect, i could think of safer more calculated of going about it than stiff arming the Democratic Base. In her memoir hard choices, clinton apologized for her support of the iraq war but made no secret of her interventionist streak, she wanted more troops in afghanistan than obama, for example and was not swept up in the drama of the arab spring
like other younger white house aides. Call me naive, but maybe clinton is simply being honest. After all thats really what americans want in a leader. Willie or john, ive always said shes more of a neocon than 50 , 60 of the Republican Party. John mccain and Lindsey Graham may talk more loudly and be on every single show every week, but theyre in the distinct mine now. Shes always been morale lined with john mccain than her own party. If this is all calculated, its calculated around a premise and the premise is shes going to go unchallenged effectively in the democratic primary. If thats the case what does this give you . Ezra klein yesterday, josh marshall. A lot of influence with people
on the left saying hold on a second, suddenly shes not looking quite so here is what i dont understand why not . Because shes for doing more than nothing on the world stage . Thats preposterous. Barack obama is catching flak over iraq from the left and the right. Theres an element in the Republican Base and the Democratic Base that is for this i want to call its lagsist, that it is not for aggressive military intervention around the world. And she i think as i said, i think the premise of this is a general election kind of strategy, the broader country will be more in favor, she can take the Democratic Base for granted. Maybe she thinks more of the base, not for doing nothing. But it does open the door. I think those commentators yesterday are right. There already have been people who thought her closeness with
wall street opened the door. This will only entice if there are democrats out there who want a challenger, shes opening herself up what you said, what weve been saying around the table for months, the close ties to wall street, her neocon streak her breadth of experience also poses it also sets up a possibility, depending on who the republican nominee is and if Hillary Clinton does decide to run where the republican can be more dovish than the democrat or more isolationist. Run against wall street and a decade of occasions and war, Hillary Clinton would be to the right. Did you hear what rand paul said about Chris Christie . Well talk about that later. David ignatius since we have him chained to a raid iter in our washington bureau. It hurts. It hurts. Im not going to let him go until he answers this question. Were talking about whats hatching in washington, d. C. , my god, in bagdad, maliki, it looks likes yesterday hes going to have a coup, not only barack obama but the iranians say enough. It looks like maliki will back down. I guess, david, was it because of the iranians . With enemies like the United States and iran joined at the hip youve got to figure this guy doesnt have long for the world. I think we are now seeing the process of transition that the u. S. Has been aiming for for the last three or four weeks. President obama eats basic line has been im prepared to help iraq provide weapons, provide air strikes so long as you get a new broadly representative government. Getting maliki, the worlds most stubborn Prime Minister at this point out of office has been difficult. He lost the support of the
shiite ayatollah assistant any weeks ago. They thaef made official their opposition to him and still he hasnt gone. Talking to iran kis over the weekend, theyre expecting it will happen soon. One question as always with dictators is where are they going to go once they leave. Theres not a lot of places that would want maliki. A discussion of various destinations in the gulf. Once upon a time he would surely