text:
My youngest daughter had her first date on Saturday night.
My youngest daughter had her first date on Saturday night.
She didn't alert me it was going to happen; maybe she wasn't sure it would or what I would say.
After taking your child to school on her very first day, the first date is the next sign that the reigns are loosening and there is nothing either of you can do about it.
Actually, it was a blind date, so we were both taken aback when he arrived because he was older than my daughter. A lot older.
His name was Duke Jones. He was very polite, a little nervous, but what guy wouldn't be when confronted by my daughter's menacing father and her protective older siblings?
Her older sister took a little more interest in Duke than her brother.
I wasn't sure what that motive was since Duke is a nice-looking guy and a lot closer to her age than to her younger sister's age, so my sharp glance told her it was time to say sayonara.
My daughter's older brother quickly disappeared since he saw that Dad was there, so there was no need for him to take on the role of centurion of maiden virtue.
It was obvious that Duke came from a good family.
He exhibited good social skills by looking around and showing respect for our house.
My daughter and Duke went into the backyard; she showed him her special plants, and they lounged on the patio until they got thirsty and the mosquitoes chased them inside.
My daughter offered Duke some snacks and asked Duke if he would like something to drink.
Duke declined to eat but did accept a drink of water.
At his age, I suspect Duke might have preferred something stronger but he probably wasn't sure how that would impress.
And after a while those snacks started to look awful good, and he did enjoy a couple with his water.
I busied myself around the house so as not to appear to hover.
I didn't want to make either of them uncomfortable or embarrass my daughter.
I surmised that Duke lived several streets away and that he had walked to our house.
That impressed me since nowadays the word "walk" envisions an Asian cooking pot.
It also made me know he was smart enough to realize that he was not getting my daughter into a car or any other confined space on the first date ... or second ... or 30th.
As a single parent, raising two girls and a boy, you have to draw lines in the sand.
Duke had arrived just before dark.
I called out to my daughter that "Saturday Night Live" would be on shortly as a gentle hint that it was time to wrap up the visit.
Duke indicated that he liked SNL and that he was waiting for his family to call to give him a ride since he couldn't get into the house until they got home.
Well, as a parent, I wasn't going to send anyone's kid out walking in the dark without a place to go, so we all settled in — me hoping that Duke's family would call soon and not sure what to do if they didn't.
Sure enough, about halfway through SNL, Duke's mother, Jennifer Jones, called to get directions and said they were on their way. Duke's mother, sister, Anna Claire, and brothers J.J. and Lane arrived soon.
Jennifer explained that she and Duke's father, Jason Jones, had gone to Nicholls' homecoming and apologized for not calling earlier.
They were so excited for Duke and wanted to know if everything went OK.
I assured them that everything was fine and that Duke is a great guy and would be welcome anytime.
As long as he walked.
But Mrs. Jones said that Duke probably wouldn't be dating soon since he will be grounded until the underground electronic fence is fixed and he gets fresh batteries in his collar.
Charles Mosley, a former head of the Lafourche NAACP, lives in Thibodaux. You can contact him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Hugo (Jay-Z / Roc Nation New Artist) - 99 Problems
Jay-Z signed new brittish artist "Hugo" to his Roc Nation
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text:
Rock Point, Arizona Hotels & Motels
Find top rated hotels in Rock Point by giving us a call. Find discounted hotel accommodations in or close to Rock Point, AZ for your personal leisure or group travel. We provide the best Rock Point, Arizona motel and hotel rooms. Give us a call to get the whole list of Rock Point area hotels to find the perfect lodging!
Best Western Hotels Near Rock Point
"Best Western Hotels & Resorts, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is a privately held hotel brand with a global network of 4,200+ hotels in more than 100+ countries and territories worldwide."
Rating: (4.5 / 5)
Candlewood Suites Hotels Near Rock Point
"At Candlewood Suites hotels we offer a more casual kind of longer stay, where you'll always feel at home, at your best and really productive while on the road. All of our locations throughout the Americas are easily accessible and we're always opening new hotels."
Rating: (4.5 / 5)
Crowne Plaza Hotels Near Rock Point
"At Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts we believe business travel should work better. In every market in the world, business has changed, and so has work. It's more digital, more flexible, more mobile, more connected."
Rating: (4 / 5)
Even Hotels Near Rock Point
"At EVEN Hotels, we know that many travelers, like you, wish there were more options to stay healthier and happier away from home. That's why we're equipped with a wellness-savvy staff, a best-in-class fitness experience, healthier food choices and natural."
Rating: (3 / 5)
Hilton Hotels Near Rock Point
"As the most recognized name in the industry, travelers all over the world have been saying "Take me to the Hilton" for almost a century. And because of our innovative approach to products, amenities and service, Hilton continues to be synonymous with hotel across the globe."
Rating: (5 / 5)
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"At Holiday Inn we believe the joy of travel is for everyone. We pride ourselves on delivering an affordable, enjoyable hotel experience where guests are always welcomed warmly."
Rating: (4 / 5)
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"At Holiday Inn Express® hotels we keep it simple and smart. As IHG's fastest growing hotel brand, we're first choice for the increasing number of travellers who need a simple, engaging place to rest, recharge and get a little work done."
Rating: (5 / 5)
Hotel Indigo Hotels Near Rock Point
"With hotels in culturally diverse locations all over the world, no two properties are the same. Each is part of the pulse and the rhythm of a place, drawing on the story of its local area to inspire every aspect of the hotel."
Rating: (3.5 / 5)
InterContinental Hotels Near Rock Point
"At IHG, we're committed to delivering True Hospitality for everyone. We believe in making you feel welcome and valued, wherever you are in the world. That's because we truly care about people and the communities we serve."
Rating: (4.5 / 5)
Staybridge Suites Hotels Near Rock Point
"As an extended stay brand, we at Staybridge Suites® hotels make sure every space features a sense of community, comfort and convenience, so guests can feel at home while on the road."
Rating: (5 / 5)
Hotels Near Rock Point
More About Rock Point
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If you can't get the hotel you want in Rock Point, or everything is all booked up, don't worry. We can help you find tons of nice and cheap hotels in Arizona! No matter where you are or where you'll be going, we'll be right there to help you find a room.
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The Euro-What Impact Will It Have on European Labor Markets: Perspectives on a Global Economy
- Authors:
Publication Date:
February 1999
Unlike the United States, Europe experienced reductions in the number of hours of work as well as lower proportions of the total population in the work force in the 1990s. These adverse developments take on new importance with the launch of the Euro. Most commentators agree that a common currency will reduce transaction costs and intensify trade across Europe. But the introduction of the Euro also restricts the range of policy options open to individual European countries and places more pressure on national labor markets. This report discusses patterns that appear likely to emerge, with particular focus on labor markets.


text:
By default, the EJB container loads the state for all persistent fields (excluding relationship, BLOB, and CLOB fields) before invoking the ejbLoad method of the abstract bean. This approach might not be optimal for entity objects with large state if most business methods require access to only parts of the state.
Use the fetched-with element in sun-cmp-mappings.xml for fields that are used infrequently. See fetched-with in Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1 Application Deployment Guide.


text:
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama faced immediate demands for bold action to stem deportations Tuesday, a day after declaring immigration legislation dead and announcing plans to act on his own.
At the same time GOP opposition to the president's go-it-alone strategy mounted, setting up an election-year clash with no certain outcome.
It will play out against the backdrop of an unfolding crisis on the Southern border, where unaccompanied Central American children have been showing up by the thousands, fleeing violence at home — an unforeseen development that both sides are trying to use to score political points. Obama says the flood of children at the border argues for the need for overhauling immigration laws while Republicans claim Obama's policies caused the problem.
At a panel on immigration at AFL-CIO headquarters Tuesday, the labor federation's president, Richard Trumka, told supporters their next task is to spur Obama to act expansively to curb deportations, which have reached record highs under his watch.
"If we stand together and we act boldly I believe the president will act boldly, and that bold action, my brothers and sisters, will lift our economy while making our country more just," Trumka exhorted. "Brothers and sisters, we have much work to do, I suggest we begin."
Panelists also pledged to punish Republicans politically for inaction on broad immigration legislation that passed the Democratic-controlled Senate a year ago but stalled in the GOP-run House.
"We will make sure everybody knows that the accountability lies directly at the feet of the House Republicans and Speaker (John) Boehner," said Janet Murguia, head of National Council of La Raza.
But in a sign of how difficult it will be for Obama to satisfy advocates' demands, Trumka and Murguia called on the president to provide work permits to everyone who would have been eligible for citizenship under the Senate immigration bill, which would have extended relief to many of the 11.5 million people already in the country illegally.
Administration officials have weighed expanding a two-year-old program that gave work permits to more than 500,000 immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths, but may be reluctant to extend it as broadly as advocates demand. White House spokesman Josh Earnest wouldn't say whether Obama is open to the proposal from Trumka and Murguia, but suggested advocates with high hopes are likely to be only partially satisfied.
"Any sort of unilateral, executive actions the president can take are not as powerful as reforms that could be put in place through legislation," Earnest said.
And Boehner and House Republicans, who already have announced plans to sue Obama over his use of executive actions, served notice that more moves by the president on immigration would only stiffen their opposition.
"If the president insists on enacting amnesty by executive order, he will undoubtedly face a lawsuit and will find himself, once again, on the wrong side of the Constitution and the law," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas.
Meeting with his Cabinet secretaries Tuesday at the White House Obama said his preference on major policy issues would be to work with Congress and pass legislation. "Whatever we do administratively is not going to be sufficient to solve a broken immigration system," he said.
But the president contends he has little choice but to act alone. "If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours," Obama said Monday in the Rose Garden.
Seeking to slow deportations while simultaneously stemming the flow of young people across the U.S. Southern border presents Obama with a knotty set of policy choices.
He asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder for recommendations by the end of summer on the types of executive actions he could take. Among the steps he could consider would be to focus deportations on people with serious criminal records, something the administration has already tried to do, with mixed results.
For now, White House officials say he will refocus resources from the interior of the country to the border.
Dropping by a White House gathering of immigration advocates who were meeting with his senior advisers Monday, Obama promised he would take "aggressive" steps, according to some participants, but cautioned that he could not match on his own what broader legislation would accomplish.
At the same time, Obama asked Congress for more money and additional authority to make it easier to deport recent border crossers, including the unaccompanied youths from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, and to hire more immigration judges and open more detention facilities. Those proposals found little support in the White House meeting, signaling to Obama and his aides the difficulty he could face managing the labor, business, religious and Hispanic coalition behind the push for an immigration overhaul.
Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Panama on Tuesday where he asked Central American nations to work with the Obama administration to curb the influx of unaccompanied children. Meeting in Panama with the presidents of El Salvador and Guatemala and the foreign minister of Honduras, Kerry said the crisis has reached a "critical time" and urged immediate steps to address poverty and crime, thought to be underlying causes of the phenomenon.
"Tens of thousands of young children are being exploited and are being put at great danger and it is a challenge to each of us," Kerry said as he met the officials before they all attended the inauguration of Panama's new president. He called it a "very complicated issue" exacerbated by crime, violence and poverty but blamed criminal gangs and human traffickers for encouraging naïve families to send their children north.
AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this article from Panama City, Panama.
Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn and Erica Werner at http://twitter.com/ericawerner


text:
This started me thinking about uncommon surnames. Just for fun, using Twitter, I offered a prize to the first genealogist to search my Web site and find an unusual name from their family tree. Within minutes, Kerry Farmer (a researcher, instructor and blogger who makes a huge contribution to family history in Australia) announced that she had found entries for her FAZACKERLEY and ETHERINGTON.
The Twitter experiment was so much fun that I decided to take it one step further. To set the scene, I should explain that my Web site lists over fifty thousand names from my indexes to archival records (and a few certificates, photographs and headstones). Although most of the sources are in Australia, many of those 50,000 people were born and/or lived in other countries. I am therefore issuing this challenge to genealogists worldwide:
- Think of an unusual name (surname or given name) in your family tree. If none of your names are unusual, choose someone who is a 'brick wall' in your research.
- Search for the name using the Google box (top right corner) on my Web site.
- If you find the name on my Web site, write a comment on this blog, mentioning the name that you found and the index in which it appears.
- You also have the option of ordering (via me) a copy of the original source. Just follow the instructions on the Web page where you find the name.
This offer will remain open until further notice, and you can participate every month if you wish. Happy searching!


text:
Constructed using the Google Chrome V7 JavaScript engine, Node.js has been endorsed by both Microsoft and Yahoo!, who have backed its suitability for building data-intensive real-time apps that need to run across distributed devices. With an event-driven non-blocking I/O model, Node.js was conceived and built by Joyent developer Ryan Dahl, who sees the software supplanting Java's position in the server space.
Backing Node.js as a suitable development language for use on the Azure cloud platform, Microsoft VP Scott Guthrie said that we are going to see all of the features of Azure having integrated Node.js libraries — and that this is going to happen very soon.
In November last year, Yahoo! showed its support for the technology by introducing cocktails — a mix of HTML5, Node.JS, CSS3, and JavaScript. At the time of launch the company stated, "We are announcing two Cocktails: Yahoo! Mojito, an environment-agnostic JavaScript web application framework, and Yahoo! Manhattan, a hosted platform for Mojito-based applications."
Yahoo! says that Mojito is an "evolution of existing web standards" and web technology. It builds upon standards where those exist as well as on proven technologies, and YUI for cocktails provides the necessary environment abstraction, scoping, packaging, etc. that allows Mojito-based applications to run equally well in a web browser, in a hybrid native/web runtime or in a server using Node.JS.


text:
In the bathroom of 315 Bowery, in New York City's East Village, a picture of a picture of a rock club hangs. The original was taken some time after the club closed last decade, an impression of a time when it had already lost modern relevance, reproduced so that even the faded memory it captured would be lost in a dimly lit hall of mirrors.
Outside of the bathroom, an attendant of John Varvatos tells me that the store policy is to not allow photography of the store. I tell him that it isn't the store I'm taking photos of. The chagrin of my own borrowed nostalgia is forgotten in the shadow of his callowness. He becomes heated and directs me to an area by the door. Here, a farcical museum has been erected. Stickers and gig posters are gathered here, organized for optimum viewing behind a pane of glass, under-lit to provide an efficient area to gift wrap Italian-sewn men's jeans.
Two doors down, I meet the former director of the Amato Opera in front of his old digs. He has seen me capturing the For Sale sign attached to its facade, and he illuminates the changes the neighbourhood has seen since the beginning of its decline.
It is a day of oral histories, one that leads me west of the village to the home of one of its forebears.
He noodles insatiably… country, samba, metal… mainly metal. The detritus of the apartment is rich with history, originals of album art, photos begging for backstories. We settle into the moment and begin the work.
He tells me how it all started, whose siren song he answered to arrive in the city, whose kept him there… Joey Ramone, a teenage Beck Hansen, Jim Jarmusch and Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Todd's Copy Shop, Patti Smith in Creem magazine and the birth of hardcore.
His solo is fierce and transcendent. When he shocks with a suspenseful burst after it ends, we jump and quickly recover with laughter that builds as we regain ourselves.
A generation and a geography removed from his experience, I delight in the first-hand account, the continuation of a noise, the perseverance of a restlessness.


text:
Road trip
CSB and SJU students head to prison
April 18, 2012
By Jill Yanish '13
Sometimes powerful moments come in small ways. For senior Aimee Hein, such a moment came in the simple act of revealing one's name.
Hein volunteers weekly at a prison. Most prisoners keep their names secret in an attempt to remain anonymous. After months of meeting with a prisoner, he told her his name.
"That was a big moment. I felt like we had built trust," Hein said.
Hein is one of 30 CSB and SJU students who volunteer at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud every Monday night as part of CSB and SJU's Prison Ministry Program, which is operated by the Volunteers in Service to Others (VISTO) program.
The Prison Ministry Program aims to provide prisoners an opportunity to celebrate Mass and talk with students. Student volunteers set up for Mass, greet prisoners, participate in the Mass and visit with prisoners afterward.
Brother Joseph Schneeweis, coordinator of the Prison Ministry Program, believes the program is important because prisoners are a marginalized group who are often shunned by society. Schneeweis says Bennies and Johnnies are a source of hope to the prisoners that they haven't been forgotten by society. Bennies and Johnnies are also a sign that society is willing to give them a second chance.
"You can see it in their faces — they light up when they see Johnnies and Bennies who are willing to take the time once a week to engage with them in conversation," Schneeweis said.
First-year student Chris Heitzig volunteers with the Prison Ministry Program. Heitzig plays piano during Mass at the prison. A pivotal moment for Heitzig came in a humorous form during the prayers of the faithful portion of Mass. A male prisoner said, "I want to pray for the brothers of Minnesota." At first, Heitzig found this to be comical but then realized the message.
"Everyone is brothers, and we are all one," Heitzig said.
Hein has also learned much from volunteering at the prison. She realized the importance of not defining prisoners by their crime — they're still people who need to be loved.
"I just want to show them that they haven't been forgotten," Hein said.
Another important element of the Prison Ministry Program is the chance it gives to prisoners to participate in the weekly Eucharist. The prison offers no other Mass. Six priests from Saint John's Abbey volunteer with the program and perform the Mass every Monday. Schneeweis believes that celebrating Mass with students gives prisoners a sense of the Christian community.
"It's a notion that, regardless of what they've done, they're still part of the Christian community," Schneeweis said.
The VISTO program is sponsored by Saint John's Campus Ministry. VISTO has approximately 240 students and 11 different volunteer sites. Last year, the participants had a combined volunteer service of 7,518 hours.


text:
Browsing Department of Strategic Management and Globalization (SMG) by Title
Previous Page
Now showing items 125-144 of 161Next Page
Process Models and Advanced Services Offshoring to IndiaØrberg Jensen, Peter D. (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper addresses a recent strand of offshoring research that concerns the processes of evolution and change that appear in offshoring partnerships after the launch of offshoring operations. Based on longitudinal case studies of offshoring of advanced IT and engineering services from Danish firms to Indian firms, I identify a process model with three stages that captures the evolution of the initial 1-2 years of the offshoring partnership. Overall, the data portray a rapid development of the Danish-Indian offshoring partnerships which show that once trust is established and offshoring firms gain experience, the offshoring firms will increase the sophistication as well as expand the range and volume of advanced work done offshore. The dynamics of the process therefore suggest that at a broader scale, advanced services offshoring will increase in the coming years. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8946
Files in this item: 1A_Passage_to_India.pdf (115.7Kb)
Bucciol, Alessandro; Foss, Nicolai J.; Piovesan, Marco (www, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Extant research offers conflicting predictions about the effect of pay dispersion on team performance. We collected a unique dataset from the Italian soccer league to study the effect of intra-firm pay dispersion on team performance, under different definitions of what constitutes a ''team''. This peculiarity of our dataset can explain the conflicting evidence. Indeed, we also find positive, null, and negative effects of pay dispersion on team performance, using the same data but different definitions of team. Our results show that when the team is considered to consist of only the members who directly contribute to the outcome, high pay dispersion has a detrimental impact on team performance. Enlarging the definition of the team causes this effect to disappear or even change direction. Finally, we find that the detrimental effect of pay dispersion is due to worse individual performance, rather than a reduction of team cooperation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9072
Files in this item: 1Bucciol_Foss_Piovesan_PlosOne2014.pdf (978.1Kb)
An Industry PerspectiveAndersen, Torben Juul (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Multinational enterprise in control of dispersed overseas resources and capabilities has been linked to strategic flexibility that allows the firm to take advantage of opportunities and manage exposures imposed by changing environmental conditions. This paper analyzes the implied performance and risk management effects in a comprehensive sample of public firms and finds supportive evidence for the proposition that multinationality can enhance performance across industries. However, the ability to exploit upside potential and avoid downside risk is industry specific. The positive effects of multinationality are found particularly pronounced among firms operating in knowledge intensive service industries while firms in capital-intensive primary industries display the inverse relationships. Keywords: Strategic flexibility, Real options, Risk management URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7473
Files in this item: 1cbs forskningsindberetning smg 30.pdf (479.6Kb)
The Performance of Business Group Firms During Institutional Transition: A Longitudinal Study of Indian FirmsKumar, Vikas; Pedersen, Torben; Zattoni, Alessandro (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: Institutional and transaction costs theories highlight the idea that group affiliated firms outperform unaffiliated firms in emerging economies. The persistence of superior performance for group affiliated firms is, however, questioned by the fast and recent development of markets and institutions in these countries. In this article, we explore this link between firm performance and the evolution of institutional environment. Research Findings/Insights: The setting of the empirical investigation is India in the postreform era (post 1990). We test for effects of business group affiliation on firm performance over a 17 year time period from 1990 to 2006. Our findings show that (i) the performance benefits of group affiliation erode with the evolution of the institutional environment; (ii) older affiliated firms are better able to cope with institutional transition than younger affiliated firms; (iii) service-sector affiliated firms are better able to cope with institutional transition than manufacturing-sector affiliated firms. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our findings both support the institution- and transaction costs-based theory of business groups, and extends it by incorporating a dynamic and longitudinal component. They also demonstrate – in line with recent works - that the benefits of group membership differ for different types of member firms. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The article has implications for both managers and policy makers. Managers of business groups should timely adapt their strategy to the evolution of the institutional environment. Policy makers should, instead, devote attention to the consequences of their policies because they may undermine the efficiency of large national companies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7430
Files in this item: 1smg wp 2008-25.pdf (191.1Kb)
Hashai, Niron; Asmussen, Christian G.; Benito, Gabriel R. G.; Petersen, Bent (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper expands entry mode literature by referring to multiple modes exerted in different value chain activities within and across host markets, rather than to a single entry mode at the host market level. Scale of operations and knowledge intensity are argued to affect firms' entry mode diversity across value chain activities and host markets. Analyzing a sample of Israeli based firms we show that larger firms exhibit a higher degree of entry mode diversity both across value chain activities and across host markets. Higher levels of knowledge intensity are also associated with more diversity in firms' entry modes across both dimensions. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7445
Files in this item: 1smg wp 2007-003.pdf (676.1Kb)
The Sensing of Frontline Employees Against Executive ExpectationsHallin, Carina Antonia; Andersen, Torben J.; Tveterås, Sigbjørn (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The literature suggests that important strategic initiatives can derive from employees within the organization as they respond to needs and opportunities observed in daily operations. This seems to indicate that employees have a good sense of the firm's operational capabilities observed through direct interactions with colleagues, customers and partners. Executives make their own judgments about the corporate capabilities from discussions with various managers, other executives and industry specialists. But, the information gathered by executives may be qualitatively different from the conditions sensed by the employees. So, we arranged a contest between operational capabilities assessed by employees and executives and the relationship to subsequent firm performance. Based on more than 400 individual data points collected from two medium-sized organizations over a period of eighteen months, advanced distributed lag time-series analyses show that the sensing of front-line employees (surprisingly) is a better medium-term predictor of organizational performance than executive judgments. These results have implications for the way organizations set up their management information and communication structure. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8471
Files in this item: 1
The Role of Mentalizing for Reward Design and Managenemt in Principal-Agent RelationsFoss, Nicolai J.; Stea, Diego (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Agency theory is one of the most important foundational theories in management research, but it rests on tenuous cognitive assumptions. We combine classical agency theory with a realistic theory of the intrinsically imperfect human potential for interpersonal sensemaking. This allows us to systematically show how the principal's ability to mentalize with the agent influences value creation in principal-agent relations, and to link this to organizational sensemaking instruments. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8624
Files in this item: 1Foss_Stea_SMGWP2013_1.pdf (1.149Mb)
Ledelsesmæssige udfordringerArlbjørn, Jan Stentoft; Wæhrens, Brian Vejrum; Johansen, John; Pedersen, Torben (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7979
Files in this item: 1SMGWP2009_11.pdf (210.8Kb)
Review of Anders Christian Hansen´s Uden for hovedstrømmen - alternative strømninger i økonomisk teoriFoss, Nicolai J. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: For tre til fire årtier siden var der i fin overensstemmelse med tidsånden megen tale om økonomisk teoris krise. En række alternative, »heterodoxe«, »non-mainstream« retninger blev etableret eller taget frem af gemmerne og støvet af som alternativer til den formodet monolitiske, neoklassiske hovedstrøm. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7453
Files in this item: 1smg wp 2008-22.pdf (157.8Kb)
Andersen, Torben Juul; Oliviero, Roggi (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Corporate failures, periodic recessions, regional debt crises and volatile financial markets have intensified the focus on risk management as the means to deal with turbulent conditions. The ability to respond effectively to abrupt environmental impacts is considered an important source of competitive advantage. Yet, surprisingly little research has analyzed whether the presumed advantages of effective risk management are associated with superior outcomes. Here we present a comprehensive study of risk management effectiveness and the relationship to corporate performance based on more than 33,500 observations in 3,400 firms over the turbulent 20-year period 1991-2010. Determining effective risk management as the ability to reduce earnings and cash flow volatility, we find that both have significant positive relationships to lagged performance measures after controlling for industry effects, company size and financial leverage. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8697
Files in this item: 1Torben Andersen Roggi.pdf (135.5Kb)
The Role of External Knowledge Sources and Organizational Design in the Process of Opportunity ExploitationFoss, Nicolai J.; Lyngsie, Jacob; Zahra, Shaker A. (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Research highlights the role of external knowledge sources in the recognition of strategic opportunities, but is less forthcoming with respect to the role of such sources during the process of exploiting or realizing opportunities. We build on the knowledge-based view to propose that realizing opportunities often involves significant interactions with external knowledge sources. Organizational design can facilitate a firm's interactions with these sources, while achieving coordination among organizational members engaged in opportunity exploitation. Our analysis of a double-respondent survey involving 536 Danish firms shows that the use of external knowledge sources is positively associated with opportunity exploitation, but the strength of this association is significantly influenced by organizational designs that enable the firm to access external knowledge during the process of exploiting opportunities. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8680
Files in this item: 1SMGWP2013_6.pdf (545.6Kb)
The case of the Resource-based viewFoss, Nicolai J. (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Does the RBV represent a case of scientific progress? And has it emerged as the dominant approach to the analysis of competitive advantage for this reason? Conventional criteria for scientific progress, notably those of the growth of knowledge literature, are not particularly helpful for understanding this. Instead, it is argued that in order to understand why the RBV is an instance of scientific progress, we should begin from the notion that reduction is at the heart of progress in science, and that many scientists implicitly or explicitly hold this view. The RBV is a case of scientific progress because it identified theoretical mechanisms at levels lower than those that were usually investigated in strategy research prior to the RBV. Unfortunately, the micro-emphasis of the RBV gave way during the 1990s to more aggregative modes of theorizing (i.e., the capabilities approach). Thus, the RBV represents an "unfinished revolution" as there is still considerable potential to dig deeper in the deep structure of competitive advantage. Keywords: Resource-based view, mechanisms, reductionism, competitive advantage, transaction costs, property rights. JEL Code: L2, M1 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7481
Files in this item: 1cbs forskningsindberetning smg 31.pdf (531.8Kb)
Tie Formation in the Sector of Service Intermediaries in ShippingNowińska, Agnieszka (Frederiksberg, 2018)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The aim of the dissertation is to shed light on the complex determinants of tie formation. Extant research has linked similarity and dissimilarity (respectively homophily and heterophily) and different proximities types to the likelihood of tie formation in a linear way. However, there are significant differences in how ties form depending on 1) tie characteristics (formal vs informal), 2) group belonging (female vs. male), 3) types of proximities involved and their interplay, 4) temporal dynamics. Therefore, to fill gaps in the literature, this dissertation addresses the question on how the likelihood of tie formation is correlated with 1) the interplay of geographical and industry space proximities in formal inter-firm ties over time, 2) organizational and geographical proximity in case of formal employer-employee ties after organizational failure 3) gender homophily for females and males in case of informal employee-employee ties. I use the empirical setting of service intermediaries: shipbrokers and bunker traders, in the international shipping industry. My methodological approach includes mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods and a quasi-natural experiment. The dissertation comprises three empirical studies that address the research questions outlined. The dissertation's main contribution lies in demonstrating the complexity of tie determinants. The first chapter explains the premises, gap, empirical setting, methods and contribution of this dissertation. The following chapter (Chapter 2) analyses the role and interplay of geographical proximity and buyers' types (such as competitors) for the tie formation in formal inter-firm transactions in shipbroking. I find that the effect of geographical proximity does not significantly correlate with tie formation between the focal shipbroker firm and the buyers, it however positively moderates the lower likelihood of dealing with competitors. This finding is explained with co-opetition (simultaneous pursuit of cooperation and competition) in local clusters of service firms. Chapter 3 studies the unexpected and exogenous organizational failure following a fraud and its effects on the status change of displaced employees transitioning into new employment. While there is no generalized stigma in the studied setting, employees organizationally and geographically proximate to the pivot of the failure are more prone to a status loss in guise of lower level jobs or jobs at lower status firms. The mechanisms that explains such a systematic pattern of status loss is blame. Similar to stigma by its spillover effects, it operates however less spread therefore, in contrast to stigma's "wide brush", the blame taints with a "pointed brush". Further, Chapter 4 analyses the differential effects of gender homophily for females and males on the likelihood of co-mobility: while male dyads are more likely to be co-mobile, female dyads are less likely to be co-mobile. By further investigating possible underlying mechanisms, the chapter finds a strong support for labor market discrimination driving the results for female dyads. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9655
Files in this item: 1Agnieszka Nowinska.pdf (1.699Mb)
Implications for New Organizational FormsFoss, Kirsten; Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Two of Herbert Simon's best-known papers are "The Architecture of Complexity" and "The Structure of Ill-Structured Problems." We discuss the neglected links between these two papers, highlighting the role of decomposition in the context of problems on which constraints have been imposed as a general approach to problem solving. We apply these Simonian ideas to organizational issues, specifically new organizational forms. Specifically, Simonian ideas allow us to develop a morphology of new organizational forms and to point to some design problems that characterize these forms. Keywords: Herbert Simon, problem-solving, new organizational forms. JEL Code: D23, D83 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7431
Files in this item: 1cbs forskningsindberetning smg 28.pdf (508.4Kb)
Felin, Teppo; Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Organizational scholars have recently argued that economic theories and assumptions have adversely shaped management practice and human behavior, leading not only to the incorporation of trust-eroding market-mechanisms into organizations but also unnecessarily creating self-interested behavior. A number of highly influential papers have argued that the self-fulfilling nature of (even false) theories provides the underlying mechanism through which economics has adversely shaped not just social science but also management practice and individual behavior. We question these arguments, and argue that there are important boundary conditions to theories falsely fulfilling themselves, boundary conditions that have hitherto been unexplored in organizational research, and boundary conditions which question the underlying premises used by organizational scholars and social scientists to attack economics. We specifically build on highly relevant findings from social psychology, philosophy and organizational economics to show how (1) objective reality and (2) human nature provide two important boundary conditions for theories (falsely or otherwise) fulfilling themselves. We also defend organizational economics, specifically the use of high-powered incentives in organizations, and argue that self-interest (rightly understood) facilitates in creating beneficial individual and collective and societal outcomes. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7466
Files in this item: 1smg wp 2008-19.pdf (394.8Kb)
Insights from the Autrian School PerspectiveIshikawa, Ibuki (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to identify the source of competitive advantage in the resource based view of strategic management literature. In particular, it is argued that the source of competitive advantage is rooted in entrepreneur judgment. In this argument, this paper consists largely of three parts: firstly, a brief survey of the theoretical framework of the RBV of strategic management, particularly to identify critically the resource conception in the sense of what RBV scholars understand; secondly, to argue the significance of exploiting the Austrian perspective, especially focusing on Lachmann (1947,1956), Mises (1946) and Knight (1921) to improve the RBV framework; thirdly, to apply the Austrian perspective to the RBV and demonstrate that the source of competitive advantage is derived from entrepreneurial judgment per se, not the resource per se, and to discuss some possible future research avenues for further development. It becomes clear through this paper that a strategy is mainly seen as the quest for the entrepreneurial judgmental rent. The major insight of this paper is that taking the entrepreneur insight from the Austrian school of thought is the fruitful way to understand the source of competitive advantage. Jel Code: B25, D21, D81, M13 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7460
Files in this item: 1cbs forskningsindberetning smg 45.pdf (3.691Mb)
Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: While (managerial) beliefs are central to many aspects of strategic organization, interactive beliefs are almost entirely neglected, save for some game theory treatments. In an increasingly connected and networked economy, firms confront coordination problems that arise because of network effects. The capability to manage beliefs will increasingly be a strategic one, a key source of wealth creation, and a key research area for strategic organization scholars. KEYWORDS: Interactive beliefs, coordination, network economy, common knowledge. JEL CODE: D84, M30 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7439
Files in this item: 1smg_2007-006.pdf (167.7Kb)
Klein, Peter G.; Barney, Jay B.; Foss, Nicolai J. (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Strategic entrepreneurship is a newly recognized field that draws, not surprisingly, from the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship. The field emerged officially with the 2001 special issue of the Strategic Management Journal on "strategic entrepreneurship"; the first dedicated periodical, the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, appeared in 2007. Strategic entrepreneurship is built around two core ideas. (1) Strategy formulation and execution involves attributes that are fundamentally entrepreneurial, such as alertness, creativity, and judgment, and entrepreneurs try to create and capture value through resource acquisition and competitive posi-tioning. (2) Opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking—the former the central subject of the entrepreneurship field, the latter the central subject of the strategic management field—are pro-cesses that should be considered jointly. This entry explains the specific links between strategy and entrepreneurship, reviews the emergence and development of the strategic entrepreneurship field, and discusses key implications and applications. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8514
Files in this item: 1Klein_Barney_Foss_SMGWP2012_3.pdf (457.4Kb)
A dynamic perspectiveNielsen, Bo Bernhard (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper focuses specifically on interfirm strategic collaboration as a vehicle for knowledge management across firm boundaries. Drawing on the widely accepted exploitation/exploration dichotomy, this article contributes to research concerning alliance dynamics by combining elements related to alliance formation, negotiation and outcomes. By integrating the exploitation/exploration arguments into a set of knowledge-related strategic motives for alliance formation, the main arguments focus on the influence of governance mechanisms on the relationship between strategic fit and outcome in terms of knowledge. This paper integrates the emergent knowledge-based theories of alliance formation (and outcome) with existing theories related to governance and coordination in an attempt to explain how the knowledge outcome of collaborative relationships may be determined by the strategic fit of partner motives, influenced by the mix of contractual and procedural governance. A series of testable propositions are derived in order to answer the following question: Do combinations of contractual and procedural coordination, given specific strategic fit, explain performance differentials? URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7479
Files in this item: 1smg wp 2008-09.pdf (437.4Kb)
Strategic Orientations of Internationalizing Firms: A Comparative Analysis of Firms Operating in Technology Intensive and Common Goods IndustriesAndersen, Torben J.; Joshi, Mahesh P. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The strategic orientations of global integration and local responsiveness (the I-R framework) continue to dominate analyses of internationalization strategies and identify the basic strategy typologies of multinational enterprise. Much effort has been devoted to verify the generic strategies established within the original I-R framework but few studies have investigated their implied performance effects. In conformity with the foundations of the I-R framework we characterize the strategic orientations by their implied corporate decision structures and strategy processes and analyze their performance associations in two distinct industrial environments. The evidence from this analysis contradicts predictions in the conventional I-R framework. We explain this conundrum from a resource-based perspective as firms operating in technology intensive environments outperform when they have access to diverse multinational resources whereas firms in common goods businesses gain economies from global product standards. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7428
Files in this item: 1smg wp 2008-11.pdf (370.4Kb)
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Guests: Ken Strickland, Scott Cohn, Richard Engel, Mike Viqueira, Richard Haass, Melinda Henneberger, Jonathan Martin, Rachel Swarns, Jodi Kantor
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: An endless war?
Let's play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I'm Chris Matthews in Washington. Leading off tonight:
Which way out? When we went into Afghanistan eight years ago, it was to route the Taliban, which had supported the people who killed us on 9/11, al Qaeda. But can we ever eliminate a group of Afghans that were strong enough to throw out the Soviets? What stops them, the Taliban, from regrouping and rebuilding, and most important, recruiting as soon as we leave, no matter how long we stay? So what do we do? Stay, leave, or attack from the air and sea? We'll ask NBC's Richard Engel what's being considered.
Also: What's up with health care? Let's get past the gas and find out the truth of where this baby stands and whether it's going to get born, after all. We will get a report from inside, a recon report, from our two Capitol Hill reporters.
And the best story of the day may be what was in "The New York Times" front page today about first lady Michelle Obama's family roots in slavery. It's a fascinating, intriguing and uniquely American tale, and we've got "The Times" reporters here to tell us what they found.
Plus: Are the shots at Speaker Pelosi getting downright sexist? Let's get to that one and get it straight in the "Politics Fix."
And the governor of New Jersey's got a new ad that says his Republican challenger is too fat to replace him. Wait until you see it. That's what they're saying, too fat to replace him. That's in the HARDBALL "Sideshow."
Let's start with Afghanistan. Richard Engel is chief foreign correspondent over—he's with NBC, of course. He's doing a documentary on the Afghan war, "Tip of the Spear." It airs Sunday night at 8:00 on MSNBC.
Richard, thank you for joining us.
RICHARD ENGEL, NBC CORRESPONDENT: It's a pleasure.
MATTHEWS: Is the government in Kabul, the government we've been standing up all these years since 2001, worth defending?
ENGEL: Well, right now, there is no government, and that is the problem. There's a complete vacuum of power. There are still allegations of corruption, and the United States has chosen to sort of look the other way because there's such a military mess on the ground.
There is a time bomb ticking in the government of Afghanistan. If any of the regions, particularly in the north, decided they don't want to accept the mandates that come from Karzai's central government anymore, well, technically, they would be right in doing that because there is no constitutional basis for this government right now. It is just being accepted as it moves along, as the voting process is still being sorted out. So there's a real, real crisis of governance in the government—in Afghanistan right now.
MATTHEWS: OK, if we don't have a legitimate government, let's go to the simple question of numbers. Would a majority of the people in Afghanistan want us to stay, if they could vote?
ENGEL: The majority of people don't want us to stay, but they don't want the Taliban to return. They don't want to see American troops anymore. They don't want American troops interfering in their lives, and they certainly don't want to feel protected by American troops in their homes. But only 6 percent of the people believe that the Taliban should come back to power.
So they have a bit of an indifferent relationship with the Americans. And a lot of times, it's not hatred, they just have no confidence in the Americans anymore. After eight years have gone by, people think that the war has been forgotten, that the Americans aren't doing anything, while this country is now waking up to the war because there are so many casualties.
The people of Afghanistan haven't forgotten, and they've seen that eight years have passed and they say, Well, what are you going to do differently now than you've done over the past eight years when not much has been accomplished?
MATTHEWS: How much of the fighting against the Taliban are the Afghans fighting themselves?
ENGEL: They—not very much because they don't feel directly threatened by the Taliban, and that is the big difference between Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, there was a civil war. Civilians were involved. You remember, every day there were major car bombings and bombings on buses and marketplaces and 50, 60, 70 civilians were killed every day. I remember going to work and stepping over bodies in Baghdad.
That isn't happening in Afghanistan. The Taliban are mostly targeting NATO forces, U.S. forces, Afghan security forces. So the people don't feel threatened, so the people aren't going to go out and fight the Taliban because they think while they're there fighting the foreign forces, Why should we get involved?
MATTHEWS: You know what this sounds like to people watching right now, number one, we have no legitimate government in Kabul.
ENGEL: There's no government.
MATTHEWS: Right, there's no government. Number two, the people seem to be of mixed mind about. Generally, they don't want to think about us. They don't want to see us. They don't want really us in their face. And they really don't want to do the fighting because they're not sure why they should. They don't like the Taliban, but they're not willing to risk their lives to fight it. They want us to do it. That's not exactly a happy invitation to give up American lives, is it.
ENGEL: No, it isn't. And I think a lot of people now are trying to figure out how to get out of this war. And that is what is ultimately on the table right now. Even the generals who are recommending a longer-term strategy—and some of the commanders on the ground in Afghanistan say this will take 10 years—are ultimately saying, How long is it going to take to get out of the country?
The one approach being lobbied by the commanders on the ground is that we should try the surge strategy, win hearts and minds, convince the Afghans to sign up with Americans, and they think that will take maybe 10 years. And people in this country don't seem to have the political will for that and are looking for a much shorter timeframe.
MATTHEWS: Let's talk about our fighting forces over there, men and women carrying the burden over there and getting hit and killed at such incredible numbers now. What's their morale like in the fighting every day, when they have to go out on posts and these outposts? It's almost like those old French Foreign Legion movies, it seems to me. You're out there in fixed positions, defending forts, you're building, you're surrounded by people who are moving in on you, closely moving in, in the cold, risking and giving their lives to get to you. What a horrific situation to be in.
ENGEL: That's what's it's like in the east. In the east, you have mountains. And the geography is incredibly important to understand the fight in Afghanistan. The east is covered in mountains, and that's where you have these tiny little outposts, like little lily pads that are defended by small numbers of troops, and occasionally, the militants will try to overrun these bases. And a few times, they've been almost successful in doing that, with deadly consequences.
In the south, it's a totally different kind of fight. It's IEDs. The solders and Marines are driving around on roads because the south is flat desert. It's hot. And here they just get—they hit the IEDs. They blow up. Sometimes they're killed. Sometimes they survive. And they never see the people they're fighting against.
So the morale in the south is one of—you're nervous when you're walking around. You're trying to walk in a soldier's footsteps because you don't know where an IED is.
ENGEL: In the east, you're on a tiny little outpost and you're worried about being overrun and you're patrolling on foot. So it is a—it is a very unnerving situation in either place, and both of them are very dangerous.
MATTHEWS: On behalf of a nonexistent government, on behalf of people that are indifferent to you, and in fact, don't want to see you.
Here's a clip from your documentary, Richard, "Tip of the Spear."
It's going to be on Sunday night on this network. Here it is.
ENGEL (voice-over): The Taliban, in squads of three to five men, keep moving in.
(on camera): Second time in less than 24 hours this outpost has come under attack. Some of the incoming rounds were so close, we could hear the (INAUDIBLE). Now they're putting out suppressive fire to try to push back the attack. They've also called in mortar fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left 100 (INAUDIBLE), over.
ENGEL (voice-over): The mortar teams fire wherever they think the Taliban might be. After about 15 minutes, this attack on Restrepo (ph) is over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold fire!
MATTHEWS: Well, that's your documentary that's going to be on, "Tip of the Spear." It airs Sunday night on this network at 8:00 PM eastern.
Let me ask you, was that the fighting in the east you were describing, the outpost fighting?
ENGEL: Exactly. This documentary tells the story of one of these little outposts and what it's like to be on this fort, going out on patrols on foot that can last from four hours to 24 hours. They're difficult to resupply. If someone is injured, it's very hard to get medical supplies in. It's hard to get the wounded out, and it can be very primitive.
Most of the time, we think of the U.S. military as being completely sophisticated. Everything works. When you're out in these mountains, it is guns versus guns, and the U.S. technological superiority is evened out. And in this particular valley...
MATTHEWS: Yes, I wondered.
ENGEL: ... there are about 200 U.S. soldiers and about 200 Taliban fighters and they're slugging it out.
MATTHEWS: That's the way we're reading it. Thank you so much. Your documentary, Richard, is "Tip of the Spear." It airs Sunday night on this network, MSNBC, which is proud to carry it, at 8:00 PM Eastern on MSNBC this Sunday night.
Now let's go to Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Richard, you were listening to that. I mean, That was a pretty sorry assessment of our geopolitical situation. No government in Kabul we're defending after all these years. The people are indifferent. They're not willing to carry the fighting. They want us to do it, but they don't want to see us.
I mean, who wouldn't want a deal like that? You get protection from people you don't have to deal with and you don't have to lift a finger or risk a limb.
RICHARD HAASS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, these are among the reasons that the administration is going through the kind of real review they are. I think this—you know, several months ago, things were kind of going almost on autopilot, Chris, and the bad election in Afghanistan shook things up. And people around the president, led by the vice president, began to ask some fundamental questions about, What is this government we're helping? Will actually putting in more forces amount to anything? Will, if you will, an investment yield results? Why do we care so much about Afghanistan? In any event, there's nothing special about the real estate.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
HAASS: The terrorists can set up shop anymore. It's not even clear that Afghanistan is in any way critical or fundamentally critical to the future of Pakistan, which really does matter. So it's the reason you've got this big rethink.
MATTHEWS: Well, let's imagine—just set this up as a play because I think people need to get this dramatically. And you're good at—you've been in so many of these rooms in your life with presidents. I'll play the president. And the public will hear this (ph) same way. We'll both be the president, me and the public watching right now.
Give me the McCrystal argument, and then give me what we assume could be, for example, the Biden argument. First of all, the McCrystal argument is, Beef up 40,000 more troops, we're there to stay. What's the case?
HAASS: Well, the case is that Afghanistan matters. It is a potential place where al Qaeda could once again mount operations. It could become a sanctuary for the use against Pakistan, which is the place where, among other things, you've got dozens of nuclear weapons.
U.S. prestige is on the line. We care about what happens in this country after eight or ten years of being involved. And people like General McCrystal genuinely believe that a counterinsurgency campaign, where we protect the population, is possible. It could work if only he had more U.S. troops and more resources for several years. He essentially thinks this is doable.
MATTHEWS: OK. And his case would be, if the president pressed him, we will be able to leave in a number of years, having changed Afghanistan to a self-defending country.
HAASS: Right. We can set them on a trajectory. It will never be Switzerland. But on the other hand, it won't be Somalia. We can set them on a trajectory, he would argue, where we could buy time and space to train up the police and military forces of that country to look after most of the challenge.
MATTHEWS: And they could face down and they would be stronger and more ferocious, this new government and army we set up, than the Taliban, which is extremely ferocious.
HAASS: Well, he thinks that by building up the "good Afghans," quote, unquote, many of the Taliban would switch sides because they would see which way the wind is blowing, that if we can change the momentum, he would argue, we can make some real, you know, benefits.
MATTHEWS: OK, let's look at the Biden case, which is to basically go to counterterrorism, basically don't go with an increase of 40,000 troops, don't go anywhere higher than we are. What's his case?
HAASS: His case is it's simply not worth it, given the fact that the U.S. military is overstretched, given that we need to repair it, we need to commit it, potentially, to other places around the world. He's not sure that Afghanistan is all that important, either to the global effort against terrorism, or as I said, to Pakistan.
Instead of putting in more combat forces, he would say let's train up the police and the military. Let's also not put all of our eggs in the basket of the central government. Afghanistan has never been centralized. Let's build up some of the warlords. Let's try to bribe many of the Taliban away.
And also, he probably had one other thing. Don't assume that all the Taliban are necessarily against us or the Taliban would necessarily bring back al Qaeda. I think there's a growing school of thought that we shouldn't equate or assume that the Taliban and al Qaeda are ultimately one and the same.
MATTHEWS: What do you make of this middle-of-the-road position the president—quickly, I only have a couple more seconds—but this idea he won't give the general, General McCrystal, the 40,000 troops he's asked for in addition to what he has, but he'll give him, like, 10,000? It seems to me intellectually, that's dishonest because if he does need 40,000 for a particular mission, he ought to get them because he knows the ground, and that the other guys are right and says we don't need to conduct ourselves with a counterinsurgency strategy, we shouldn't give him the extra troops. Is there any case for giving him more troops but not buying his mission?
HAASS: I don't think it's so much more troops, but it's changing the mix of the troops, far more trainers. But I do think there's a strong case for the middle ground. Essentially, you want to match what we do with the stakes. I don't think there's a strong case for increasing U.S. troops by 40,000, but I do think there's a case for staying around but changing the way we do business there, aiming perhaps for something less ambitious but something that's good enough.
MATTHEWS: Do you believe that if we leave Afghanistan next year or five years from now or ten years from now, it makes any difference, when we leave, that it'll basically go back to what it's always been, Afghanistan?
HAASS: I think it's pretty much going to be Afghanistan. It's going to have a weak central government. You're going to have a lot of warlords. It's not going to be a paradise for young girls or anybody else, Chris.
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you, Richard Haass for joining us, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Up next: What are the chances the Democrats get health care reform? We've got an on-the-ground report. We've got two guys doing recon up on Capitol Hill. No more BS. Hard reporting coming here. No political argument. Tough assessment. Is this bill going to get passed? And what's it going to look like?
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. Well, the latest word is that the Senate Finance Committee's going to actually vote on the Max Baucus health care bill this Tuesday coming up. So then what? Will Senate Democrats find those 60 votes to pass the bill? Will House Democrats pass a bill that's looking—or lacking the public option? How's this going to happen?
MSNBC congressional correspondent Mike Viqueira knows the House and NBC News correspondent Ken Strickland is over there in the Senate. They are Viq and Strick.
MATTHEWS: Guys, I want to know—I mean, you got to stick your neck out a little bit for me here. This is HARDBALL. This is politics. No BS, no ideology, just pure, cold assessment right now about how this looks, without any sentiment or heartness (ph). You first, Mike, with no heart, no sentiment.
MIKE VIQUEIRA, NBC CORRESPONDENT: OK. Yes, sure. I mean...
MATTHEWS: Is this thing rolling toward a bill by the end of the year? Is it rolling towards a positive conclusion in terms of a signing of a health care bill that moves public health—the national health consensus further?
VIQUEIRA: I think it—I think the odds are that it will, although I'm going to hedge it, Chris. I'm going to say it's not a guarantee by any means. Immunity, basically, all this matters—all it comes down to at this point is what will get 60 votes in the Senate, and what will progressives and liberals in the House be willing to swallow because it's very unlikely that they're going to get the public option, robust or otherwise, that they're looking for here.
Nancy Pelosi is doing her due diligence with the base of the party. She's putting forth a public option in the House version. Look, here at the White House, and some elements within the leadership in Congress, Democratic leadership, would just as soon that the House take up whatever the Senate is able to pass. And Strick can speak to this, but it appears that they're not going to pass anything with a public option, at least not something that liberals want.
She is putting forth a public option in the House version.
Look, oh, here at the White House and some elements within the leadership in—in Congress, Democratic leadership, would just as soon that the House take up whatever the Senate is able to pass. And Strick can speak to this, but it appears that they're not going to pass anything with a public option, as least not something that liberals want, perhaps some sort of compromise that's been talked about now...
VIQUEIRA: ... put forward by Senator Carper of Delaware, where the states can opt—states can opt in or opt out of a public option. But that's the way it's shaping up right now, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Well, Strick, you know, it seems to me—I worked up there. You have been working up there all this time, and you know the Hill. And everybody gets so confused about this, especially people who never worked up there or covered it.
KEN STRICKLAND, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Sure.
MATTHEWS: You need both houses to agree to something. It ain't complicated. Both houses count. The House is a little faster. The Senate's a little slower. Damn it, that's our Constitution. It's been around since 1876 -- 1776, basically -- 1783 or whatever. That's the way it works.
VIQUEIRA: Eighty-nine.
MATTHEWS: From the—from the—OK. OK.
MATTHEWS: I know. When they first got elected, OK, I know. OK.
MATTHEWS: Boy, you guys are doing it to me.
Now the question is, haven't we known for months, despite what happens on this network or anywhere else, there ain't going to be a Senate approval of a public government-run plan? It's not there. The numbers were never there. We always knew it. So, what are we—so, how is this going to go forward?
STRICKLAND: Let me—you mentioned the public plan.
And—and something just happened maybe three hours ago that's very telling. A hand—a large number of Democrats are sending a letter to Harry Reid and telling the majority leader we want a public option in this bill that is merged from the Finance Committee, which does not have a public option, and the Senate Health Committee, which does.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
STRICKLAND: Only 30 Democrats signed this letter.
Chris, you know you need 60 of anything to pass anything controversial in the Senate.
MATTHEWS: Right.
STRICKLAND: Only 30 Democrats put their names on this letter. Now, leadership people didn't put their names on the letter because, in theory, you don't need leadership signing letters to leadership.
I will give you six more for that. So, basically you only have 36 people who are willing to put their names on a sheet of paper that says, Mr. Majority Leader, we want a public option on the bill that comes to the floor next month. That doesn't mean the people who haven't signed it aren't for the public option, but that's where things stand right now anyway.
MATTHEWS: So, even in the Democratic Caucus, it's split about even?
VIQUEIRA: Yes.
STRICKLAND: It's more than split. There are 60 people in the Democratic Caucus. There are 60 people in the Democratic caucus, counting the independents. Only 30 have put their name to this letter. Throw in six—throw in six leadership people. You're still 24 people short of having 60 votes for the public option.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
MATTHEWS: So a lot of this has been...
MATTHEWS: Yes, OK. So, a lot of this has been talk.
So, Viq, you pick up on this. Given the fact that the Senate is not going to approve of a public option because they can't get anywhere near 60...
VIQUEIRA: Right.
MATTHEWS: And, by the way, I'm wondering were they ever going to get 50?
VIQUEIRA: Yes.
MATTHEWS: And all these guys, oh, we're going through reconciliation.
We're going to ram it through.
They never had 50.
VIQUEIRA: Right.
MATTHEWS: OK. That's just my hunch, my belief.
VIQUEIRA: Right.
MATTHEWS: So, now we go to the fact. There's going to be a conference between the House and the Senate. There's going to be a rupture here. The House liberals will want to get what they do. They will get it out of the House. They will go to the Senate bill. What's going to happen when those two meet?
VIQUEIRA: So, the question becomes in both the House and the Senate, what are liberals willing to accept? What are Jay—what is Jay Rockefeller willing to accept? What is Ron Wyden willing to accept? What are rMD-BO_Lynn Woolsey and Raul Grijalva and the rest of the liberals, the liberal leadership in the House, willing to accept?
The liberals, it's widely believed, in the House of Representatives, are not going to leave a $900 billion bill reforming health care, something that many of them have dreamed about all of their careers, have fought for all of their careers, they're not going to leave it on the table.
They're not going to walk away. They will take as much as they can get, but they are going to not live or die by the public option, notwithstanding all of the letters have been written about a robust public option, about the Cadillac plans and their opposition to the Cadillac plans, attacks on the plans that are worth more than $8,000 for individuals.
That's what it's going to come down to, Chris. And it's going to happen in the—probably before Thanksgiving in the next five or six weeks.
MATTHEWS: Well, let me go back to—let me go back to Ken on this question.
I want to know something I used to know. And I want to know if it's still true. Do you feel the strength of our president up there on the Hill? Do you feel, when you work up there and you talk to the members and the staffers, do you sense the strength of Barack Obama or not? I know that's a tough question.
STRICKLAND: I think you can say that you can in certain areas. I mean, nothing moves a member more than a phone call from the White House saying the president is on the line.
But, at the end of the day, it comes down to votes. And for a lot of these senators, especially those who are up for reelection, especially those who are from red states, it comes down to getting reelected.
Yes, some people do stand on principle. But let's be—let's be—let's not be naive about this. For some people, it comes down to reelection. One Democratic senator who was talking to me in confidence kind of put it this way. It's either—the president's going to either have to choose between his liberals or his moderates.
And, at some point, it's going to come down to votes. The votes are probably there for something that is not the public option, maybe a co-op, maybe something that Viqueira talked about regarding the Carper proposal.
And, so, this—this Democratic senator explains it this way. The president is going to have to reach out to those liberals and say: Look, maybe it didn't go the way we wanted it to go, but I am going to get reelected, and we can go back and get the public option later. But, if we don't do this now, we are not going to get anything.
That's the way he kind of sees that it might play out.
MATTHEWS: I gotcha.
STRICKLAND: We don't know that.
MATTHEWS: ... so inside.
STRICKLAND: Right.
MATTHEWS: I really appreciate it.
So, it comes down to fact, can the bring this deal together by convincing the liberals, you will have a better chance later if we get this now—right, Viq?
VIQUEIRA: Oh, well, you know, their fortunes are going to rise and fall on the fortunes of the president, their political fortunes.
And, to the extent that the White House can make that case, they are going to have a success. Clearly, if this goes down in flames in the Congress run by Democrats, for how—for how many years, Chris, did they make the argument to Democrats, to their voters, to their constituency, give me 60 votes and none—all of this will is going to be taken care of...
VIQUEIRA: ... whether it was the Iraq war, whether it was health care or whatever? No excuses now. If it doesn't happen, they crash and burn, and they're going to pay a price in the 2010 midterms. And that is the case that they're going to make here.
MATTHEWS: And I agree with that assessment, as journalists, from you two fellows, and I also agree it's a political assessment by Bill Clinton. It's the same assessment. And I would argue, if you're going to be the party that believes in government, which the Democrats do believe more than Republicans do—they believe in positive government—you have to be able to govern and prove that you're effective at governing.
And, if you blow it, you can't say you believe in government, because you have failed at government.
Thank you very much.
MATTHEWS: That's a little redundant, but I think I made my point.
Thank you very much, Mike Viqueira, Ken Strickland. Thank you for the
the hard facts on this one.
MATTHEWS: Up next: Is New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine making a fat joke about his opponent? Has it come down to this? Are we scraping the bottom of political debate, that one guy is engaging in a schoolyard taunt? "Hey, fatty." And that—wait until you see this ad, because that's what it is.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL. Time for the "Sideshow."
First—it's a great "Sideshow" tonight—"You're fat." That schoolyard taunt is not from the bad old school days of high school. It's the latest attack message of the governor of New Jersey.
Fighting for his job, Jon Corzine's making the case—wait until you see this ad—that his Republican opponent Chris Christie, is too fat to be governor, too rotund, if you will, for the rotunda.
Savor this sugarplum from the Corzine's camp TV ad that supposedly is aimed at the fact that his opponent is a ticket-fixer.
NARRATOR: In both cases, Christie threw his weight around as U.S. attorney and got off easy. If you didn't pay your taxes, ignored ethics laws, would you get away with it? Chris Christie, one set of rules for himself, another for everyone else.
MATTHEWS: You get it? It's not complicated, throwing his weight around and that close-up on his white shirt and his stomach. I think we get it, Governor. So, that's your case.
So, is Christie too fat to serve? Is that the point? Let's take a look at this guy. He was our 27th president. There's William Howard Taft. He was about 400. He was so overweight, he needed to bring into the White House a custom-made bathtub.
Anyway, I don't know what to make of this stuff. Voters are going to have to weigh the issues, as well as the candidates, obviously.
Next up: one for the conspiracy theorists. Regular Bill Ayers? He's the radical—former radical, actually, '60s Weatherman who made waves during the presidential campaign for his loose Chicago ties to Barack Obama.
So, catch this. Ayers was recently ambushed by a conservative blogger at an airport, where he decided to have a little fun. Ayers told the blogger, the right-wing blogger, that he was actually the ghostwriter of President Obama's memoir "Dreams of My Father."
In fact, Ayers said to the guy, Michelle Obama asked him to be the ghostwriter, to write the book for her husband. Well, the blogger's tidbit quickly went around right-wing circles, who bought it up, who were—they were only too happy to spread the word that the president's a fraud.
When contacted by The Daily Beast, however, a legitimate Web site, Ayers wrote back: "You have all lost your minds. Best of luck in the Twilight Zone."
Hey, Bill, let me tell you something, Bill Ayers. We had you on this show. You're a good guy in many ways. Small minds don't get sarcasm. They don't get it, particularly when it's more useful not to get it. So, tell it straight the next time. Don't make jokes about being a ghostwriter, because the fools out there love it.
Finally, taking his bow—Mr. Tom DeLay dropped by Jimmy Kimmel the other night after dropping out of "Dancing With the Stars" this week due to the fractures on both his feet.
Well, after being brought out on stage in a wheelbarrow—there he is
wearing orthopedic boots, the former House majority leader was asked about his post-"Dancing" career in a tougher interview than he's used to.
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Do you think you will continue dancing?
REP. TOM DELAY ®, FORMER HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: Of course I am. I have got a daughter and a wife and...
KIMMEL: Do you think this will inspire other indicted politicians to dance?
DELAY: Hey, it keeps you out of jail. That's...
KIMMEL: But, if—if God forbid, you wind up in jail, it's not going to be a good thing for the inmates to see on reruns.
DELAY: Probably not.
MATTHEWS: That is really funny, when you see those dancing pictures.
Anyway, very funny, Jimmy Kimmel.
Now for tonight's "Big Number."
We got a peek into the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's appointment book, and it looks like he's been making a lot of time for big Wall Street bankers. Mike Moore's going to love this tidbit. In his first seven months as secretary of the treasury, looking out for you and me and our economic interests, how many times has Geithner, our guy, spoken to the heads of Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Citigroup?
Eighty telephone calls back and forth. So, is this good that he's got an insight on Wall Street or bad that he's so close to those folks he's supposedly watching? The U.S. treasury secretary keeps in close contact with the top heads of Wall Street, 80 exchanges so far this year. You decide. Well, we report, you decide. Somebody says that—tonight's "Big Number."
Coming up: America made history when Barack Obama was elected president, but now new revelations—this is a great story—it's really good—about first lady Michelle Obama's ancestry showing her family's journey all the way back from slavery in the mid-19th century. They have got the whole roots all the way, going back through five generations. Fascinating stuff. It's American history, and we're going to get to the story with two "New York Times" reporters who did—who covered the story.
Great story here.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
SCOTT COHN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I'm Scott Cohn with your CNBC "Market Wrap."
Stocks advancing today on a better-than-expected jobs report and signs of recovery in the retail sector. The Dow industrials added 61 points, the S&P 500 up almost eight points, and the Nasdaq gained 13 points.
The number of workers filing new unemployment claims fell to a nine-month low last week. Analysts are expecting that number to improve even more in October.
Retailers rallied, with most of the big names beating expectations on September sales. A tepid 0.1 percent increase is still the monthly—the first monthly gain, that is, in more than a year.
And wholesale inventories fell again in August. Sales increased by 1 percent, the biggest gain in more than a year. Economists hope that depleted inventories mean a ramp-up in factory production is on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Alcoa kicked off the earning season in fine fashion, posted better-than-expected profits and revenue.
That's it from CNBC, first in business worldwide—now back to
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
An amazing story tonight, one we're not used to covering. It is so new. A "New York Times" examination of Michelle Obama's family tree shows a lineage that, in just five generations, goes from slave to first lady, of course.
In this 1852 slave owner inventory, Michelle Obama's great-great-great maternal grandmother is valued at—well, there it is, $475. That's what salves—that's how they did, like—like property.
"New York Times" correspondent Rachel Swarns and Jodi Kantor wrote this story. They reported it, a fabulous story.
Rachel, tell us what got you into this. What was your lead that this would be a great story worth putting all this effort into finding the roots of Michelle Obama?
RACHEL SWARNS, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, a genealogist had done some preliminary work on Mrs. Obama's family for a piece that my colleague Jodi wrote earlier in the year, in January.
And, after that story ran, unbeknownst to us, she spent several months digging, digging, digging. And, in September, she came back and said, "Look what I found."
And we all went to work.
MATTHEWS: Let me go to Jodi on this.
They have nailed it. There's no doubt—when I look at the genealogies, I always wonder, could there be a mistake somewhere? Is this documentary? Is this something you can really nail down and say, this is definitely who her great-great-grandfather was; this is definitely what happened back in the mid-19th century?
JODI KANTOR, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, that's why the story took a while to publish.
We spent a lot of time checking the documents. You're right that genealogy is a very tricky science, but this was like a treasure hunt. And in one of the steps in the treasure hunt, Rachel flew to Birmingham and not only was able to go to the churches that Dolphus founded and to see his headstone, but she actually found a couple of people who knew Dolphus they were children.
And the information they gave us matched what we had on the documents. Also, we had a lot of redundancy in the documents when we were establishing lineages.
MATTHEWS: Good. Let's take a look. We are going to put up on the screen. This is Dolphus Shields, who was of mixed race background. His mother was African-American. His father was one of the slave owners.
Let me go back to Rachel on this. What's the emotional content of this kind of information? I thought it was so great to pick up the Times this morning and read it at 7:00 this morning, and realize Michelle Obama's reading this, too, today. And she's picking up the paper. And she's finding out her roots.
It's pretty interesting stuff and it must have an emotional piece to it. What is the emotional piece of realizing that way back when, your family was created by the relationship—the sexual relationship between a slave owner and a slave?
SWARNS: Well, first of all, you know, a lot of families, a lot of African-American families, including Michelle Obama's family, often have stories about this kind of thing. And in the First Lady's family, there were these long-standing rumors about a white ancestor.
Now, having that kind of rumor and having this kind of documentation is a totally different thing. And I should say, though, that we don't know whether it was a slave owner who was the great, great, great grandfather. What we know is that he was a white man. He may have been a slave owner. He may have been one of the sons of the slave owner. He may have been someone who was passing through or also worked on the farm. We don't know that.
But for a lot of people, this is emotional territory. This is—you know, it's one thing to kind of know in a general way, but it's another thing to really think about what this kind of relationship—or its hard to even describe it that way necessarily—what this kind of liaison was like and what it was like for this young slave girl.
MATTHEWS: Was there a feeling of invasiveness or invasion or a sense of, well, I come from both sides of this world in the United States? What is the feeling, do you think?
KANTOR: Well, we worked with the First Lady's Office, kind of behind the scenes on this story. We kept them apprised at what we were doing. At no point did they say to us, we think this is inappropriate, or it's making us really uncomfortable. They didn't have that much to add. But they were very interested in our findings.
And we were able to get some of the documents to Mrs. Obama ahead of time, because we wanted her to have a chance today digest some of this before it went public.
MATTHEWS: What was her feeling about it?
KANTOR: You know, she—
MATTHEWS: There's her mom there with her.
KANTOR: She didn't choose to comment. But Robert Gibbs at the briefing today was very complimentary. He said he thought it was fascinating. He said the information actually only becomes more of a treasure as time goes on.
So the feeling we've gotten from the White House is that they think this is fascinating and important, too.
MATTHEWS: You know, it's amazing because a lot of us whose families came from Europe—and mine came from England and Ireland, mostly Ireland -- you always wonder, why did they come over? And you always wonder, there are some embarrassments back there that led them to make those decisions, horse thieving and things like that. You never know.
In this case, Michelle Obama knows about her parents all the way back to the 1850s. It's a great piece of reporting. I think it's so positive to know our American story this way.
Thank you so much for this story. Rachel Swarns, thank you very much for this reporting. I mean, I mean the Times every morning. I love that paper. It's my French Roast newspaper every morning at 7:00. Jodie Kantor, thank you for joining us.
KANTOR: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Up next, what do we make of the National Republican Congressional Committee, some staffer over there saying that the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is, quote, "needs to be put in her place." What's this guy's place?
Hey, times are changing. You can get away with anything these days.
That's next in the politics fix. This is HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Time now for the politics fix. Joining me PoliticsDaily.com's Melinda Henneberger and the "Politico's" Jonathan Martin. A couple heavyweights here for something of a slight conversation, but it is going to be fun, because we can all understand it.
The National Republican Congressional Committee—that's the committee that gets Republicans elected to Congress—it's not officially part of the government—put out this release the other day, titled "General Pelosi"—sounds like Rush Limbaugh—I sound like him—"knows better, Slams McChrystal."
It reads, quote, "if Nancy Pelosi's failed economic policies are any indicator of the effect she may have on Afghanistan, taxpayers can only hope McChrystal is able to put her in her place."
Well, that is it. Today, the speaker responded to those. And here she is with her comments. Let's listen to her response.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's really sad. They really don't understand how inappropriate that is. I'm in my place. I'm the speaker of the House, the first woman speaker of the House. And I'm in my place because the House of Representatives voted me there.
But that language is something I haven't even heard in decades.
MATTHEWS: I don't get all of those flags. Are we all in this pack nest mode here? But her point.
MELINDA HENNEBERGER, POLITICSDAILY.COM: Well, what a gift to the Democrats for them to use such archaic, outmoded language.
MATTHEWS: Half the voters are women.
HENNEBERGER: More than half the voters are women. Put in her place, that is a gift. That's back to the t-shirts of the '70s that said "A Woman's Place is in The House and the Senate."
MATTHEWS: Who is this Jack off the wall staffer who got away with it? And who approved it? Let me go to a male participant on this panel, Jonathan Martin. Were you as in tune to this impropriety as others were?
JONATHAN MARTIN, "POLITICO": Chris, I had the same thought as Melinda. That is, how did this thing cleared Customs. You would think that somebody—you would think that somebody over there in that building, one of the principals or one of the senior staffers, would have seen that and said guys, we have to tweak this language here.
Obviously, not what you want to say about the speaker of the House, the most prominent in American politics today, and third in line to the presidency. Not where you want to go.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about this—you call it archaic language. Do you think the Republicans have decided, to some extent, that the president is hard to hit? He's a very distinguished guy. He came up the hard way and he's done almost everything right in terms of personal behavior. There's no way to go after him personally. He has a wonderful family. He's hard to hit.
In fact, I have looked at the numbers on him. People like him. Pelosi, on the other hand—yes, she represents liberal San Francisco, seem to be gay San Francisco, too liberal in many, many ways, bi-coastal Democratic party, maybe looks too elite. Let me ask you Jon, because he seems to be on to this bait here: why is she seen as an easier target for Republican personal shots? And they are personal.
MARTIN: Sure, Chris, because of all those cultural things that you just mentioned. The fact is that she's not nearly as popular as the president is, and her national poll numbers are, frankly, pretty atrocious. So she's an easier target.
And also I think she hurts herself more than the president does. She's not the sort of gifted politician that President Obama is. And she does sort of, you know, commit more gaffes. And she's not as smooth of a politician as Obama is. So she also provides more opportunities.
Is there a double standard here with a man versus a woman? I'm not sure. You have to ask Melinda about that.
HENNEBERGER: She's a great fund-raiser for the Republican party. They do well attacking her. But it's how that matters. This one didn't work for them. There are Republican women who would be very turned off to this manner of attack.
MARTIN: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: Do you think the Democratic party suffers from the fact it's such a bi-coastal party. It does represents the big cities, the ethnic groups. It has more African-Americans in leadership, certainly Charlie Rangel and others, and Conyers in top positions. It's got, you know, Barney Frank, who is openly gay. It has this image. Is it so bi-coastal that the country's heartland has a good time shooting at it, basically? And they exploit the heck of that. The Republican staffers do that by these kinds of personal focuses on the speaker?
They know what they're doing, in other words. Even though they take shots from people worried about sexism, they say, we still win if we make her the issue.
MARTIN: Right. The cultural issues, think back to the '04 race. Think about John Kerry, calling him French, portraying him as a white wine sipping snob, who summers on some coastal island.
MATTHEWS: You mean the island where I have a house? I'm just kidding. Go ahead.
MARTIN: That was exactly the campaign, Chris—you recall from '04 -
that they ran against him. And it frankly played well in a lot of Heartland states.
Look, they tried doing the same thing against Obama in 2008. The problem they had was, when the economy collapsed, it was about a consequential issue. It was about a clear issue. And the personality driven stuff didn't have the same resonance.
MATTHEWS: I think we have a cultural war going on in this country. The two coasts are liberal. In the middle, it's not. We'll be right back with Melinda Henneberger and Jonathan Martin for more of the fix. We're talking about America here. You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: We're back with Melinda Henneberger and Jonathan Martin for more of the fix. We were just having a little off-stage argument here. My argument is that Barack Obama is being hit from some of the people who helped him get elected, in fact got a lot to do with getting him elected, on sort of shaky grounds. I don't believe when he ran for president he said we're going to get out of Afghanistan. In fact, he said—I don't agree with him, by the way—but he said, that's the good war, the necessary war; we're going to stay there.
So don't say he has betrayed the left and all this nonsense, because he has never promised he was going to get out of there.
On health care, he said I'm going to reform health care. I'm going to do all the right stuff. But he never came out for some government-run health care plan. I want to go to Melinda first, then you, Jon.
HENNEBERGER: He never said he was going to have a government-run. He would never put it that way.
MATTHEWS: Public option run by the government.
HENNEBERGER: He did say that there was going to be some public competition to keep the private insurance honest.
MATTHEWS: He did?
HENNEBERGER: He did.
MATTHEWS: How many times did he do that? Find that speech. I'm sorry. Are you sure. We'll check that out. I'm not sure he did.
HENNEBERGER: He did say that. And he also—I think you're right on
the point that he never said we were going to get out of Afghanistan. In
MATTHEWS: Why are the net roots out there jumping up and down, saying, gee whiz, he blew it. He said he would do it now.
HENNEBERGER: He said we were moving out of Iraq.
MATTHEWS: But we're doing that.
MATTHEWS: Your thoughts, Jonathan? Be the umpire between me and Melinda here. Is the president doing what he promised to do or not?
MARTIN: This president is somebody who during the campaign was what you wanted him to be. He was a living, human political Rohrshaq (ph) test. And the fact is, if you wanted him to be a doctrinaire, down the line liberal, then you could find sort of that. If you thought he was a sensible centrist kind of guy, then you could sort of see that too.
But the fact is, when it comes to Afghanistan, if you are a liberal, then, Chris, I agree with you. The fact is, he never said he was going to take troops out of Afghanistan. In fact, just the opposite.
I think health care—
MATTHEWS: The opposite.
Let's go to the area we want to fight about, health care. Do you remember, Jonathan, him making any strong campaign pitch for a public option, a government-run option? I don't remember him saying it myself. Everybody, including my colleagues here, remember hearing him saying that. I don't remember it. Maybe they will go find a tape now, which is our business. But I don't remember.
MARTIN: It was never a Kucinich guy for a single payer system.
MATTHEWS: Kucinich was for the social Democratic plan. He was for a national health care plan.
MARTIN: That was never Obama. look, I don't recall this president making a central focus on the public option during the campaign. What I do recall is that the debate, guys, during the primary about who was going to be mandated—or who was for the mandate and who was not, that was the central debate.
MATTHEWS: I was with Hillary on that. Hillary is for the mandated—individual mandate. He was against that. He wasn't even that far over. Melinda, my point.
HENNEBERGER: No, that's true about the mandate. We had a piece today that I thought was interesting from a woman, Wendy Button, who wrote health care speeches for John Edwards, for Hillary Clinton, for Barack Obama. Who now is saying she can't get health insurance, much to her surprise, in Massachusetts—
MATTHEWS: Anyway, thank you. That's the plan up there. Good arguments here. The nation is arguing. Jonathan Martin. Right now it's time for "THE ED SHOW" with Ed Schultz.
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Watch Hardball each weeknight
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Transcription Copyright 2009 CQ Transcriptions, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research.
User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's
personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed,
nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion
that may infringe upon MSNBC and CQ Transcriptions, LLC's copyright or
other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal
transcript for purposes of litigation.>
Watch Hardball each weeknight at 5 & 7 p.m. ET