bush as well to open up offshore drilling. offshore drilling would not lower gas prices today, it would not lower gas prices tomorrow, it would not lower gas prices this year, it would not lower gas prices five years from now. bill: where are we today? the white house may have a way to quiet environmentalists against this drilling policy, the epa set to release tougher standards for new cars and trucks. >> what do the standards look like? >> they're expected to give automakers less time to get more fuel con fe out of their cars. currently our companies have until 2020 to get their average fleet standards up to 35 miles per gallon. the associated press reports the obama administration's announcement will require companies to hit that target and a little more elbow 2016 and the administration wants to get more hybrid and electric cars on the road as quickly as possible. this will force automakers to deliver sooner. >> what do the automakers say about this, a bad -- a bad idea or good idea? >> they argue they cut into proves and

the george w. bush institute hosting an event on that topic this week as they remain very active in humanitarian issues in afghanistan. gregg: u.s. warplanes pulling back from libya right now. nato taking up the lead in this offensive. if this is not the end of our role why is the pentagon pulling this move now? martha: wild weather whipping across the sunshine state, cars crushed, air planes tossed around like toys, look at that. >> i couldn't believe it. we were joking yesterday about the wind, and the rain, not knowing my whole roof was gone. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. martha: wild weather ripping across the florida area, tearing down trees and ripping air planes around, that's where an air shore was set to take place. a dozen people took shelter under a tent there which then collapsed. in another case a woman's roof came crashing down in the middl

we heard from former president george bush breaking his silence. what he had to say about the economic policie policies of the current house. herman cain is in the house and he will react live to all of that. martha: we look forward to that. the maryland lottery raising new questions now about the true winners of the record-mega millions jackpot. boy, those people's lives are changed forever. more coming out about them after this. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear. they are but this is important too. [ man ] the receivables. [ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their f

bush. who loved dealing with, you know, the foreign policy stuff, and, didn't quite get the whole economy thing. it will be devastating for them and they've already got plenty of problems and don't need to compound it by ignoring the economy, and focusing on things like this. martha: we'll see. a lot can change between now and november and you never know what will be the focus, charlie, good to have you with us, sir, thank you very much, on a sunny day in washington, d.c. charlie hurt. gregg: the retirement of supreme court justice john paul stevens setting up what could be a major battle. this summer in the u.s. senate, democrats promising to fight for president obama's eventual nominee and republics promise to make their case for a more mainstream candidate and there are ten names right now being floated about. and these three are said to be on the short list. look, judge diane wood, a clinton0, point e, currently serving on the chick 7th court of appeals and former colleague of president

bush. she said a very similar thing against laura bush. it created a huge fire storm as well and she had to retract it and apologize. i think there is, there is an underlying battle that goes on between -- in the race for first spou, first lady in all of this. and i think it's very significant in terms of who this person is and what they bring to the table in terms of creating that people that americans look at when they decide who they are going to vote for, and that, you know, was not lost clearly on david axelrod and jim messina who came out right away. they disowned this and backed off of this statement in a big way. let's take a look at what they said in response. this one is from jim ma seen a. he says i could not disagree with hillary rozen any more strongly. her comments were wrong and families should be off limits. she should apologize. david objection elrod said also disappointed in hillary roads even's comments about ann romney, they were inappropriate and offensive. why do you t

george bush was nothing if not a staunch and strong leader. this guy is anything but. >> you know, you can't have it both ways. bill: so i can let our viewers know. >> i think i can in this case. bill: we're waiting for the president -- >> two different leaders with two totally different public perceptions, barack obama is soft on terrorism and doesn't really seem to totally grasp the global risk that we are presented with every day, by people like china and their policies. so, we're you can -- >> how can you -- >> two different world leaders. >> how can you say that when we're sitting here now watching this first nuclear summit because the fact is, if al qaeda got a nuclear weapon, god, heaven forbid and used it we'd all pay the price. bill: absolutely, absolutely -- >> cleaning up after the last 8 years of the leadership of the country. he should be given all the credit in the world -- >> let's turn this conversation over, in 1996 senator richard lugar started a presidential campaign, talking about the risks loose nuclear weapons presented t

george bush paid 28 percent, but democrats make an issue of tax fairness in that race. >> there's always this sort of hypocrisy going on, and it's really nothing new, but is is the hot issue today, and this is what people are focusing on, and the white house is going to drive this issue all the way until november. >> reporter: so the president's message is that the wealthy of course pay a lower rate than the middle class but the white house's own numbers released yesterday show on average that is not accurate, heather. the middle of the middle class pay a 14 -- 14 percent tax rate whereas the top 1 percent pay almost double, 26 percent. heather: always very interesting how they can always spin those numbers. thank you very much, william la jeunesse, live for us in l.a., thank you. gregg: trayvon martin's family says they believe the justice system will work in the case against accused shooter george zimmerman. but after a month of media frenzy over the unarmed teenager's death, will zimmerman be able to get a fair trial? >> it's almost a burden on you, though. i don't know how you're goi

now, new comparisons of george bush to an iconic president of years past. martha: interesting comparison there. we are waiting to hear from the people you see on the middle of your screen. sarah palin is going to have a busy day, the former alaskan governor set to speak moments from now as the tea party express moves into what some call its own town, in town, boston, massachusetts. captioning performed by mediacaptioning. com flush martha: happy wednesday morning, this is all party of the nationwide floor, rallies are being held across the country, tomorrow and today, they're kicking off today, they're protesting the direction that america is heading. we have interesting polls we're going to show you by the way, and also talking about tax day, which if you didn't know is tomorrow. we've got work to do tonight, maybe? today, former alaska governor sarah palin is expected to address thousands at that rally, set to kick off next hour. keeping an eye on that. bill: grab the green tea, the black tea, the chamomille tea. dick morris is one of the three speakers i

gregg: it's a girl for former first daughter jenna bush hager. former president pw- george w. bush announcing the birth. it's margaret laura, hager. she was born in new york city. both mother and daughter are doing quite well. heather: congratulations. here ace question for you, can a company patent human genes? that is the question that the supreme court is trying to answer today. a gene patenting is a multi-million dollar industry and the court's decision could reshape medical research and the fight against certain types much cancer. joining is now is doug burns a former federal prosecutor. he'll provide some more insight for us. i was amazed to learn that the u.s. pat want and trademark office has been awarding patents on human genes for more than 30 years now. >> yes. heather: as we said it's a multi-million dollar business. >> yes, they've been awarding thousands of them. it's really amazing. some of the commentary i read said it was kind of a bad idea that has now been embedded in cement. you know what i mean? to break this down real simple the southern district of new y

bush but took this long to wind its way through the court. here's what judge grab had to say, i understand some may disagree with the conclusion and consider it a criticism of those who pray, that is unfort. it is not a determination that the message itself is harmful, unimportant or undeserving of dissemination. people on the other side say look, no one is requiring prayer, the government isn't making people go pray, they are just seting this day aside for folks who do want to pray, saying may sixth, that's the national day of prayer. bill: we cover that every year. what does it mean for next month's day of prayer as it stands today based on this ruling, caroline, will it happen? >> it will happen. it looks like things will go on as planned. we know from a white house tweet that president obama plans to recognize this year's event. as i mentioned it's on may sixth. last year the president didn't participate in any of the large services butdy send out a proclamation, so no effect on the events this year. bill: how much are we learning about t

loreta doan, former gsa administrator under president george w. bush. thanks for being with us. not just las vegas. we're learning hawaii, south pacific islands, nap at that valley, palm springs. my goodness. the list goes on and on. do you think these people at gsa, especially commissioner jeff neely who is immortalized now in this famous hot tub picture with a couple of glasses of wine, do you think these people are using government money as their own personal piggybank? >> it became absolutely clear that is what happened but what is really sad is the money that they're using is not just taxpayer money. it is also the stimulus money which was intended for shovel-ready infrastructure projects. which was intended to create jobs and it didn't happen. what the three hearings proved that management, the poor management started at the very top of gsa with the political leadership appointed by president obama. gregg: well this week we learned of alleged fraud, theft, misuse of federal taxpayer money. even kickbacks and bribes according to the inspector general. >> yes. gregg: neely's

joining us now to talk about it, allan cooms, brad blakeman, former assistant to george w. bush. brad, if a president with abysmal approval ratings is still beating any potential gop contenders, doesn't that say that the field is pretty weak? >> absolutely, the field is weak, and we're seeing the president could very well win by default, despite his many policy deficiencies and failure to lead. what it tells me, no serious republican has announced yet, no serious republican is being talked about, and what you're seeing now is the polls are really irrelevant because i believe that none of the seven that you've discussed so far with people who are selectable by the party, therefore, not electable by the people, because they'll never get past the convention of the primaries. gregg: allan, let me put on the screen how the president matches up. he does his best among the gop candants -- or mitt romney does the best among the candidates, getting 45 percent, compared to president obama's 49 percent, and president obama does his best, 55 percent, when matched against sarah palin, just 38

dana per ino is former press inspect for george w. bush. thank you for coming, good to have you. >> thanks for having me. martha: i want to play this sound bite from darrell icea and we'll get your thoughts on it. >> first of all the sec released during the trading day, that complies they were trying to pick a time to maximize the press rather than to minimize the impact to the market. secondly, it was the same day as this 151-page, scathing report about the quick hits that have been the dominant rule of the sec, going after the easy enforcements, rather than ponzi schemes, like stanford. march so there you have it, rahm emanuel said look, we have no heads up the sec was about to file these charges against goldman sachs, darrell issa says he thinks the thing is strange, if nothing else, the timing. what do you think dana? >> reporter: having worked there so long i find it a little hard to believe that nobody in the white house knew but it could be that nobody in the white house knew, but it might be a little irresponsible for somebody like

trump, donald trump can run his campaign any way he wants and if he wants to run down george bush and ask for the republican nominee i don't think that is a winning strategy and if he wants to base his campaign upon whether or not barack obama was born in the u.s., that is his privilege and i think it is a losing strategy and i think it is beneath him. alisyn: he said it's a losing strategy and it is beneath you. >> there is a real question, 75% of the republicans, really think there is a question about it and 35% think he just wasn't born here, period. there's a real question, i know the numbers, i know the documents. what i see is not exactly good. so, i'll just keep going, i don't have to listen to karl rove. i'll keep going, a lot of people listened to karl rove and you know what he did, he gave us obama, because he gave bush advice and look what happened, abraham lincoln couldn't have beaten obama or any other democrat after what happened with karl rove. he doesn't have to give me advice. alisyn: you say you will keep going and you have sent investigators to hawaii, to try to get

bush, for some time, the question is, when is that time up, when do people say that barack obama, as the incumbent, has to take responsibility for this economy? bill: well, it's april, it's 15, 16 months in. the first goes back to your answer, juan, what's the potential threat to our country's future, big business or big government, 57 percent say big government. i think that number is up about ten points from when we asked that same question a year ago. >> yeah, it's interesting, because now that all the pressure, all the heat is on wall street, and what we saw yesterday with president obama there to give his speech, all the talk about increased regulation, despite all of that, now most americans are swinging back and saying you know what, given what happened with health care, given what's happening with unemployment, i'm worried about the government, i'm worried about government not being a good steward overall and it's interesting because jobs are still the number one issue in the polls but they're saying listen, the government has to do its part, the government has to take up the

joined by karl rove, former campaign adviser to george w. bush and a fox news contributor. good morning. >> good morning. martha: when you look at republican numbers and the republican chances which have really been pinned largely on the need to turn around the economy, does that concern you? >> just a little bit. i mean, remember, the numbers that you saw there, most of them were above the national average of 8.2%. and let's also keep in mind that part of the reason for the drop in the unemployment rates in these states is that people have got even so discouraged they are no longer looking for work. we have the largest number of americans ever who are not part of the workforce, and if you had the size of the workforce was the same as it was when we went into this difficulty, the unemployment rates would be about 11%. but the biggest problem the president faces is, do people give him credit for whatever good is going on out there in the economy? and i thought there was a very interesting poll recently in which they said, all right president obama's policies, have they hurt

bill: jon, thanks, see you in 18 minutes, a book from former president george w. bush. set to hit store shelves on the 9th of november. the book titled would decision points" and the former president says he's been working on it pretty much every day since he left office, 15 months ago and the book expected to reveal how decision were made by the president in offers and on a personal level, including what was going on in the days right after the 9/11 attacks, and his decision to quit drinking on his 40th birthday. also the former first lady, laura bush has her own book coming out next month. she beats him about five months. martha: we'll see if they match up on their stories. bill: yes, we do. martha: all right, this is a fascinating story, the nearly identical twin brothers poland's late president announced that he will run for the seat vacated with the death of his brother to continue their mission. lech kaczynski was killed on april 10th when his plane crashed in brother, yarislov, is the former prime minister of poland's opposition party and he says now he'll run to

there is no difference between governor romney and president george bush. how would you react to that? >> first off, governor romney as scribes to what president ronald reagan called peace through strength. if he wants to talk about policies of the past and peace through strength versus the weakness he's shown we are happy to talk about that. first off making sure our military is strong. governor romney wants it to be so strong that no one would even think about testing it. on the other hand, president obama has made almost a trillion dollars in cuts to our military, which is devastating. bill: they are claiming that your camp has no specifics, and that governor romney has been -- he's been not entirely all over the map but he's changed his view on iraq, and you just heard the charge from the obama team that he would keep us in iraq for ten to 20 years if not further. i imagine governor romney is going to respond to all of this. i guess the question is, what does he lay it out? >> well, governor romney has talked about his foreign policy. he did so at a spe

even heard somebody speaking on the o'reilly factor, saying can you imagine if george w. bush came out and said we need white people, evangelists, started ticking off people who had been supporters ef his campaign, and what the reaction to that would be? >> well, i would be surprised if that kind of stuff hasn't been done, and certainly in the outreach to senior citizens, there's been outreach to evangelicals and people who have been asked to vote. these are people that voted for him. i don't have any problem with it and i think that in fact it's a smart political strategy, the fact of the matter is, i think the immigration debate, when it -- when it gets to these extremes i think it works against the republicans. i just don't think it's where americans are. i can remember in the mid-term elections, all republicans telling me oh, this is going to be the defining issue, americans are mad about it, and of course, you know, democrats came into power. so i think the republicans are really misreading this and i don't think there's anything wrong with obama reaching out to his

on the road with president george w. bush. there he is former president right in the center of a screen. he is about to go on a bike ride with some wounded troop members part of this amazing event about to get underway. day two. we'll hear from former president george w. bush coming up. bill: siegel got a good gig, didn't he? martha: sure did. bill: nice. new developments on the story of the sobbing toddler. we love this, for the right reasons. the couple vilified for grabbing a baseball away from the little guy here. what the two said are saying what happened inside that ballpark and how the boy is doing today. ♪ are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. rip thanking our servicemen and women for the work that they do. i know marc siegel has been with him. we'll hear from mark in just a moment. let me know when he is ready, guys. mark, come on in. the pre

bush, to secure the border and now she's the head of the department of homeland security charmed with securing the border and says it is better today than it was when she was governor and the only thing i can surmise is they are playing politics with immigration. bill: you can go back 20, 30 years on the issue. >> 1986, for sure. bill: doug, what about this, i'm not sure what the white house does, and he's getting a lot of heat from hispanics, saying do something about it and i have an article from august, 2009, and obama says early 2010 starting immigration reform and you see where that went, doug, nowhere. >> and i think, we can basically see from president's comments he'd like a bipartisan bill to offer a path to citizenship for those immigrants who are here and would like to move forward. under our rules. i think it is clear, given what is going on, right now, that that is virtually impossible. if not absolutely impossible. and the president is right. and i think the conflict we have seen over the arizona bill, as you alluded to in your comments, earlier, suggests that any debate

bush nominees and on and on. bill: the base would love that, would they not, sally. >> no. >> the base would love that, also more than that, bill, this is what progressives really believe. they have not, they have ignored marbury versus madison for a long time which says congress is not allowed to pass a law that impeeds the constitution. as justice marshall said, if you don't uphold this why even have the constitution at all? bill: the reason why the supreme court was set up and not elected to make sure they were not influenced by voters or playing to any particular group. sally, would you like to make a comment. >> let me say andrea is misrepresenting progressives. progressives believe deeply in the constitution and i. and, tossed out as not representing the constitution but the president is a constitutional scholar. let's give him a little credit on that one. bill: why does he go on record the way he did? i mean, the question is, pretty simple, are you okay with this or not? >> i'm okay with him making the poi

now, you look at the timing of this announcement, it's not so atypical, george bush announced his reelection in may of 2003, but look, this is a president who has been accused of being on a permanent campaign since he won back in 2008. i mean, you saw his first address to the nation when he spoke to the country. he actually used the term we're in this race, we're in this race, and the race was long over. he's also managed to keep a very robust grassroots network, which he uses to advance his agenda. so i think this guy has been on a very long campaign. this could plague him, martha, if people believe that he is not focused and he's detached and distracted from the issues at hand. martha: let's talk about the content of this, christopher hahn. when i watched this first campaign, this video that came out, it's regular folks, they're talking clearly, president obama's people know that they need to energize the type of people who came out for him last time around, many of whom may have lost interest. we've seen his numbers fall with independents, we've seen the numbers come down in ohio, the num

bill: george bush almost won wisconsin. in the 15 seconds i have left, if you are victorious, the outcome of the recall, does it suggest something about the november he flexion your state? >> it does. we are a deeply purple state and very passionate about our politics here. it bodes very well for the gop nominee if we see victory in wisconsin in this recall election on june 5 so we need help. bill: we are two months away and the country will be watching. martha: waking up in a disaster zone. more than 600 homeowners. where do they begin to dig out this morning? that's the big question. they confront a new storm threat today. bill: living up on the taxpayer dime. there is fallout after a report showed the feds hired cloud and a psychic for a convention in vegas. martha: a women's basketball team doing something no team has ever done. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smooth

brad blakeman, former deputy assistant to president george w. bush and jay sekulow, chief counsel for the american center for law and justice. gentlemen, welcome, good to have you here. >> good morning. martha: good morning to all of you. i want to start with you, jay. when you look through some of the comments that are said in this eric holder letter which we all remember was requested about by the fifth circuit judge who basically said he wanted a three-pain paper on what the president had said. give me your response to the letter and i want to you ask in detail about it. >> well, you know, of course the attorney general had no choice but to respond. the fifth circuit had the authority to ask for a letter brief on a topic raised by the administration. that was whether the court could strike down a law as unconstitutional. the president seemed to be questioning that. so the department of justice wrote that letter brief but they hedged it. they didn't back away from the president's position. they basically tried to put it in a different context

bush -- by president george h. w. bush. we have conservatives votes in alito and roberts and my guess is whoever this president nominate will end up, if she or me is -- insure is confirm dollars a reliable vote on the court. martha: it seems a reflection of capitol hill in terms of reaching across the aisle and working votes that we haven't seen in a long time that were so partisan as we've become used to, particularly in this health care reform environment. >> new york city i'm just actually ming about this whole -- thinking about this whole process and what's going to happen and usually it takes a month from the time the sitting justice retires until his replacement is named, then it takes about 70 days from that until he is confirmed. so we're going to have, as you say, a hot summer. we'll have a long process of hearings, we know how that goes, and of course, a lot of it is going to depend, because sonya soat my euroo sotomayor was a fairly easy nominee. if the president goes to the left, as arocity of the lft-winged bas

bush and fox news contributor. hi karl. >> good morning, how are you? alisyn: i'm well. let's talk about what debbie wasserman schultz said. obviously, no one wants to see their fellow americans struggling, okay, but politically speaking, does she have a point, that it gets harder for republicans to run against president obama as the unemployment rate continues to drop from 8.6 to 8.3, to now 8.2? >> well, look, first of all she can't make the positive argument, she can't say look, the stimulus worked and economy is in the strong shape -- i mean, early this year the president said the economy is back, america is back and got a lot of brush back from it. she can't change the subject. she was being asked a question about the economy, so it's sort of difficult to change the subject, so the last tactic you've got is to sort of try and brush back the opposition. the problem is this, is that republicans, you've got 12.7 million people who are unemployed, you've had 38 months of 8 percent or greater unemployment, you have the so-called u6 unemployment rate, that's people who ar

i have the arguments with progressives, and, they say, yeah, obama is being just like george bush, and i have to remind them, no, he's not, he had to do what he had to do and had to compromise because of the obstructionists on the right. bill: the question is, why are they ticked off at the white house? what are they not doing that has democrats in a tizzy. >> their complaint is when you negotiate you don't start in the middle and you start on the left and right and meet in the middle but obama starts in the milled and not only gave up single payor, the yieidea of medicare all and public option was supposed to be in the center and, he gave that up and looked further to the right. bill: and the man on the left, what about that -- >> i think it is great and at the end of the day, mark, we agree, obama is no george w. bush, and, bill this is the fallout because obama is trying to be all things to all people and he did not start in this middle. we started to the far left and he was a candidate that said he promoted change and the only thing that he has done is changing like a chameleon on

president george bush served. >> yeah, he served, all right, whatever. the keg stands he was doing in the national guard was real service. rick: let's talk about 2012, guys. >> the bottom line is there is going to be negative campaigns, and negative ads work when you can define your opponent through those negative ads. when they speak to what the people perceive the opponent to be. obama has been very successful in continuing the dialogue that started during the g.o.p. primary where they basically painted romney as like a cross between richie rich and gordon gecko and that will continue through this election, and romney hasn't been able to shake it and he hasn't put forth any real ideas. how long h really wants to do is complain about the negative campaign. rick: brad, can governor romney afford not to go negative, when you see some of these ads that are being run against him by these proobama super packs, how can he or his su surrogates not respond in way that hits hard at the president? >> they should respond. i'm not necessarily saying that mit romney

. >> and what does the other side have -- >> in the case, it is apparently george bush. >> he's -- >> he left office two years ago. >> you have jon cornyn of texas and senator -- and, getting republicans elected saying people are missing george w. bush and we have to think about what bush did and you you have republicans talking about going to the bush years and having buyer's remorse. bill: the strategy, you know -- >> if they stop talking about it. >> do you think it works is a strategy. >> i think it will work, people need to be reminded. people have short-term memories in politics and need to be reminded about the shape the country was left when obama took over. bill: and we remember a deficit with 3.5 trillion as opposed to -- and an unemployment rate, not supposed to go above 8%. >> and, bush left the place in shambles with two wars, one of which is thankfully, finally coming to an end, it seems and he said mission accomplished, 4-5 years too early and people need to be reminded of what was inherited. bill: and republicans would argue that you cannot run from one issue. and that

george bush in 2000, bob dole in 1996 won the straw poll, won the caucus, won the nomination. more often than not the person who wins the straw poll doesn't win the caucus or the nomination. and i think one thing you can't lose sight of, there are only about 10,000 people who are going to vote here. so, you know, first place could be 4,000 votes and third place could be a couple of hundred votes behind that. you really ask yourself, why are we making such a big keel -- deal of this? the answer is, i don't know, but we, the entire media, will make a big deal out of it. bill: chris, thank you. best of luck to you and your team. >> reporter: me too. bill: chris wallace live in iowa, only on fox that debate later tonight hosted by bret baier, sponsored by fox news, washington examiner, iowa republican party. live in ames, 9:00 eastern time here on on the fox news channel. alisyn: rick perry will not be on the stage. he has not yet declared himself a candidate, but that's not stopping ron paul from taking aim at him. here's what the texas congressman said during a campaign event in

we are 23 months earlier than george w. bush's first visit in june of 1999. bill: why is it this early? >> i have a theory. the political system makes a judgment as to when you are going to turn a page on the pathr president in his second term. the sooner i start to turn that page the more that activity ramps up. we have joe biden who will focus on his 2016 hopes. the senator from minnesota is going to make an appearance in the state. i'm thinking the political system is starting to say, president obama, you are in our second term and you are going to become a lame duck and it looks like it will be sooner than later. president bush's approval ratings in 2005 were slightly above were president obama's are today. but he was engaged in the system and the system was moving. the congress had passed thus far in 2005, a trade agreement with central america, the first energy policy bill in decade, a multi-year highway bill. it was the last time the president and the congress had a multi-year funding bill. bill: you are argue he was active and relevant. >> you mention

they have voted twice for him -- for george bush in the past. there is some sense and that they want to get max baucus' attention by going there, and montana is ground zero for health care reform, because that is where he is from. we have already seen people lining up to get tickets to the event. bill: there is a gallup poll out today that says independent voters are moving in a certain way. 35% are more sympathetic to the views of the protesters, opposed to 16% who are less sympathetic. how are these numbers being received? >> in the briefing yesterday, we heard robert kids say that some people were somewhat disappointed that he did not get a tougher response in new hampshire. he constantly talked about the food fight of the debate and have cable news is feeding on this, but clearly from the gallup poll, independents are starting to become sympathetic with these people protesting. certainly not good in terms of public opinion. bill: thank you. megyn: do you remember the other day when we showed the arlen specter town hall and one of the partici

he actually voted for every single one of george bush's budgets. this is something he discovered after barack obama became president. that is something he will have to answer for. he has helped add plenty to our deficit and, plenty of out of control spending by the government. gregg: yeah. >> i do what think what you raise is the most important thing. how can he do with independents? third way, a centrist think tank had done polling on this issue shd, independents want all of the above approach. that is not paul ryan's approach. paul ryan is approach to have tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. that's not what independents are looking for. >> ford, quickly, i'm out of time here. is it possible seniors and those nearing retirement in the all important battleground states especially florida and ohio will be wary of paul ryan's plans to modify or overhaul the entitlements, especially things like social security? >> that is absolutely right. that is exactly what the ryan-romney ticket have to worry about. kirsten is trying to define paul ryan. what mitt romne

former deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush. good morning, cal, good to see you. >> good morning martha. how are you? martha: i'm fine, thanks. how do you think the budget debate is shaping up and the challenge paul ryan has to overcome people's fears about what they're being told he is all about? >> i thought that was a great response from governor romney yesterday. short, pit think, direct the and flipped the issue back on the president in ways ordinary people can understand. i have the whiteboard, martha. medicare, this is how he is supposed to be extreme? today, this year the budget will spend $503 billion on medicare. under the ryan plan, notion alley endorsed by governor romney, in 10 years we'll be spending 855 dal billion on medicare. that is a 70% increase. that is just 3% less, 3% less than president obama proposes to spend. how can that be extreme? how can that be ending medicare as we know it? how can that be devastating seniors? what it does, the two principle differences between romney-ryan, barack and biden, r2 ve

there is fascinating material in it and he talks about his relationship with george w. bush, the former president and former texas governor, his predecessor as the chief executive of the lone star state and makes the point while he went to yale, he went to texas a&m and he's an aggie and night carbon copy and not all texans are the same and drew distinctions with the former president and talked about president obama and said he intends to make a loud call at the straw poll for a moratorium on regulations. he suggested president obama lacks the support and confidence of the military, as the commander in chief, and, tough stuff, we'll show it to you as the day unfolds at the fair. martha. martha: all good information to get from rick perry and it will be interesting. a lot of folks will say he has to beat michelle bachmann on her home turf there in iowa if he wants that kind of momentum to move forward and take on mitt romney in new hampshire and into south carolina. getting exciting and, it is good to see you there, it means things are fired up. and we have been asking y

i remember seeing the same thing in the bush administration. george w. bush will bring out laura bush at key moments. look, the first lady can add a softer touch to the president's hard edged rhetoric out here on the trail. also she is just a popular figure out here. it helps like i say, bring in bigger crowds. the fact of the matter he is fighting for the six electoral votes. he won iowa pretty big four years ago. right now he is locked in a 50/50 battle in if you look at local polls with mitt romney. in a close race where you're egg trying to get 270 electoral votes. even the state's six electoral votes warranted for the president to be here tree days. martha: a lot of campaign time spent there. there is history there is awe point out. people tend to like first ladies better than they like presidents. what can i say. ed, good to see you. great job in iowa. gregg: funny how it works like that. me meanwhile governor mitt romney is going on the offense, speaking out in an interview among other topics congressman ryan's budget plan. take a listen. >> we're

bush, george bush, in the oval office for eight years. is it really a fair comparison of the two men? karl rove, who better to ask that question to? he's going to join us on that moments from now. >>> as you know, fox news is the front row seat for politics. log on to foxnews.com/politics, you can get all the latest and boy, things are fired up this morning! go to foxnews.com and get everything. bill: while we're on the air, we know a lot of you are on the computer. check out the news site. another fox news alert, a tough sign of the times, our military rethinking its pension system, the department now composing the largest overhaul of the military retirement system we have seen in 50 years. kelly wright has seen the report. what does it recommend? >> reporter: in july, the business board actually called this presentation modernizing the military retirement system task group, it concludes the entire system is out of date, unfair, unaffordable and inflexible and expensive, totaling $24 billion for fiscal year 2011, and that future liabilit

he worked at the white house under george w. bush. he said ultimately, though, the burden is on the white house. here is what he had to say. >> the obama white house developed their own website. they are in charge of white house.gov. they are responsible for monitoring that. they are responsible for making sure people can't misuse whitehouse.gov. from that point they failed. in that respect the explanation is not thorough. in my view, place blame where it shouldn't be instead of pointing in the mirror and looking at third parties. >> we'll continue to go after the third parties to get some answers about what they knew and how they could have played a role, possibly. bill: shannon bream live in our d.c. bureau in washington. megyn: the windy city is running out of money and something has to give. what happens when a major city completely shuts down? you're about to find out live in chicago. bill: also, what was bob dylan doing in back of a police cruiser? wouldn't you like to know? cheti) ( whooshing, riders cheering ) gathering dust,

wish bush. there's a lot going on, a lot of talk about the message, when you've got jon stewart and also a story coming from arianna huffington which foretells some of what's going to be in her book. mark, when you've got these folks who have been supportive of the president slamming him primarily over this mosque issue, you got something to deal with. >> well, i don't know that they're being unsupportive. they're pointing out that he took a very clear stand on principle, saying there's an absolute constitutional right to build a mosque or an islamic cultural center anywhere that they're zoned to do it and that's exactly what the president said, if you can build a church there, you can build a mosque there, but he didn't weigh in on the -- he put principle over the polls. martha: i'm not sure why he didn't put the two comments together. he could have said we know they have the right to do it and in front of that crowd at the white house that evening he could have then added but i'm not sure it's

former assistant to president george w. bush brad blakeman. as you know states have individual rights to confer certain benefits and privileges and i just named a few of them but has the president now created by executive fiat a status for these people that is so vague and ambiguous that it is really left the states in a situation where they have to cobble together or craft rules that are inherently inconsistent? >> absolutely, gregg the you know as a lawyer and i know as a lawyer that the executive order that the president issued on immigration is a trampling of states rights. the states are not going to put up with it. we saw what governor brewer did of arizona. she issued her own executive order. there will be no driver's licenses to create a status for people here illegally. remember on 9/11. how did the hijackers got on planes? they used driver's license. they weren't here legally. you create a whole quandary of props for people that intend bad acts against americans but also trampling of states rights where they have to follow a vague la

bush, but the american people are tired of hearing about george w. bush, they want to hear about the polices of barack obama and so far his polices haven't worked. bill:y told after labor day we're going to hear new ideas. doug schoen, former pollster for bill clinton and fox news contributor, good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. you say he needs direction not a vacation. what do you mean? >> i mean with the jobs situation in crisis today, the futures are dramatically down, jobless claims are way up, inflation, moderately up. this is a crisis, bill. he doesn't need two weeks on martha's vineyard. he needs to meet with the republicans, develop a bipartisan plan to create jobs, because basically, we can't wait. our country is facing -- >> bill: it looks like the vacation is going to go forward, despite what you say or anybody else. >> that's right. bill: this is the likely proposal after labor day, payroll tax credits, unemployment insurance benefits, infrastructure improvements, said to be very specific and fresh ideas. >> right. bill: do you t

. >> reporter: like bill clinton and george w. bush. martha: thank you very much. our religion correspondent with that story. bill: is the u.s. sinking deeper into debt? how bad is the budget? how bad is the economic outlook? breaking news on that. we'll bring it to you at the top of the hour. martha: we have a top democrat weighing in on this mosque debate. what howard dean is saying about plans to build at g at ground z. the latest fox news updates will go right into our inbox. go right into our inbox. how a once daily medicine about that.glyza, used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to your current oral medicine may help reduce after meal blood sugar spikes and may help reduce high morning blood sugar. [ male announcer ] onglyza should not be used to treat type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. tell your doctor if you have a history or risk of diabetic ketoacidosis. onglyza has not been studied with insulin. using onglyza with medicines such as sulfonylureas may cause low blood sugar. some sympto

times then and now, much more turbulent and, a better comparison might be george bush h. w. bush, who, as you know, paid a price in 1992, for his vacation time, in maine and so it is tricky, the optics of it but we have to point out he has had far less vacation time than some of the other presidents. gregg: ed henry on martha's vineyard. thanks so much. martha: look at this video. an 8-month-old baby in the stroller in the back of the pickup truck, one way to get from point a to point b and one simple question, what were they thinking? gregg: they weren't. martha: no, apparently not. gregg: and congress voted no and the white house is saying, yes, we can. does the new policy change on immigration provide back-door amnesty to illegals? a fair and balanced debate, straight ahead. martha: and one 15-year-old -- look, that is how big he is compared to what he hauled in there, folks, record-breaking catch, the summer of the shark! we'll be right back. medicare. it doesn't cover everything. and what it doesn't cover can cost you some money. that's why you should consider an aar

>> i remember when i was on campaigns and george bush was at a very low number there were a lot of scheduling conflicts that came up and i think this election cycle you're going to see even more scheduling conflicts with obama. it's not surprising, georgia is typically a state that's red, so it's not surprising that barnes wouldn't want him to come. the question, though, is, martha, all barack obama seems to be able to do now is raise money, like bob pointed out. when you look at states that we've already had mid-term election necessary like new jersey and massachusetts, obama was able to go to these states and campaign but it didn't do any good and i think that points to a fundamental question that we asked once he was elected, he was elected with a huge coalition, all this energy, but could that translate, then, to other candidates, could barack obama be able to help other candidates -- cab candidates or just himself, and i think we're seeing now that obama is only able to help himself, he only seems concerned with helping himself, that's why he's campaigning. there's a time to campaign and

former senior advisor to president george w. bush and karl, good morning. good to see you. >> i'm fine. how are you? martha: how do you feel about the fact that medicare has become so central to this debate? >> there was going to be a debate about medicare. the question whether it would be on the republicans terms now, out in the open or whether it would be on democrat terms with late night phone calls to seniors in the closing days of the campaign and really ugly mail pieces scaring the heck out of seniors about republicans taking away their medicare. republicans want to have the debate now and want to have it for one very important reason. they have something they can hang their hat on. president obama, as part of obamacare, took $716 billion out of medicare in order to fund obamacare. he took the basically, used, the medicare as a piggybank to pay for obamacare. the reductions primarily in two areas. $415 billion cut from payments to doctors and hospitals. now this is going to be a real problem. first of all we have 14 million people that work in health

former white house deputy chief of staff, senior adviser to president george w. bush karl rove will be joining us very shortly here on "america's newsroom." ♪ martha: well, a only out-of-court settlement is reportedly in the works in a civil lawsuit against the blade runner as he is known, otherwise known as oscar disto have yous. he was indicted yesterday, very dramatic video in court. he is there, of course, on charges of murdering his model girlfriend. her family says that they were financially dependent on her, and they've filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit. a local newspaper report says that attorneys for disto have yous want to settle that suit before the criminal trial begins in march. ♪ ♪ gregg: vice president joe biden admitted to a texas hospital after a dizzy spell. a spokesperson for bo biden saying that he got weak and disoriented while driving on a family vacation. his dad, joe biden, had accompanied him to a houston-area hospital. bo biden will undergo a series of tests there. martha: and a new twist in the edward snowden nsa leak case. what

former george w. bush advisor karl rove saying on fox news sunday he is betting she is in. >> not much of a gambler but i put more money that she gets in than she doesn't, because, the schedule she has next week in iowa, it looks like that of a candidate, not a celebrity. gregg: john fund is the senior editor for "the american spectator" and joins us live. john, good to see you. karl is a pretty smart guy and he says she's walking and talking like a candidate, must be a candidate. what say you? >> i think carpal is a smart guy but i'll take the other side of the bet. i think sarah palin has such contempt for the media she wants to play them for suckers and i think she's pretending to run for president and she's going to surprise everyone next week by saying i'm not running, but, i'm still going to help change america and this is what i plan to do with my future. gregg: so this has been an elaborate tease, maybe driven by vanity? or, truly driven by ideology? she wants to contribute? >> no. look, i thi

george w. bush and dick cheney to cancel their addresses that day. this was the second most destructive storm of the '08 ++p martha: president obama listens to one person above all others. who is it and does that cause some problems. you do this every morning? it's the only way to get fresh coffee. not in my house! this new flavor lock pack from maxwell house helps seal in freshness. wow! that is fresh! am i still yelling? [ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. always good to the last drop. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. . .. it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. to me

bush. they may not have a lot in the arsenal to throw out at this point. gregg: point well taken and another point was made in an op-ed in be "washington post" by steven stromberg: the bush defense is getting less effective, around 2008, anger at bush was so deep and widespread his mere mention would short circuit unpleasant conversations that now, rightly or wrongly, most have moved on and it only works on liberals. but, you know what, erin maybe that is the point, maybe the "blame bush" strategy will excite the liberal base to get out the vote in the midterm which democrats desperately need and maybe that is the real strategy. >> is that the strategy? and if it plays out, it doesn't hurt democrats and obviously they need people to go to the polls and the get out the vote effort is... they have stiff head winds before them, but, you know, as we know democrats have been in charge of the congress four years and obama now, two, and it is hard to argue that they are not responsible or are not in charge because they are. gregg: yes. >> having said that, gettin