The Ed Show for Friday, June 1, 2012

Guests: Van Jones, John Nichols, Mike Papantonio, Susan Del Percio, Dr. James Peterson, Diane Ravitch

ED SCHULTZ, HOST: Good evening, Americans. And welcome to THE ED
SHOW live from Minneapolis.

Bad job numbers means Christmas in June for the Republicans.

This is THE ED SHOW -- let`s get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), MAJORITY LEADER: These job numbers are
pathetic. And, you know, the American people really deserve better and I
think under the right leadership, we can do better.

SCHULTZ (voice-over): Mitt Romney and the Republicans are reaping the
rewards of three years of obstruction.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Cooperation worked. Constant
conflict is a dead bang loser, and you need to get rid of it.

SCHULTZ: The former president lights up Milwaukee after Tom Barrett
lit up Scott Walker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a police department that arrests felons.
He has a practice of hiring them.

SCHULTZ: Early voting is through the roof in the Badger State. John
Nichols has the latest.

And public teachers in Philadelphia refuse to go down without a fight.

TEACHERS: Save our schools! Save our schools!

SCHULTZ: Former assistant education secretary Diane Ravitch on the
national war on public education.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight, folks. Thanks for
watching.

The latest job numbers are bad news for the economy, and Republicans -
- well, they are thrilled. They root against America as long as it helps
their election prospects. The numbers are not good. You can`t paint it
any other way. It`s the worst month for jobs in a year.

Only 69,000 jobs were gained. That is well below expectations.
Unemployment rose 8.2 percent. The economy only grew by 20,000 net jobs
when revisions of the past two months are factored in.

President Obama tried to find a silver lining in a dark cloud today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy`s growing
again, but it`s not growing as fast as we want it to grow. Our businesses
have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months. But as
we learned in today`s job report, we`re still not creating them as fast as
we want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Of course, the president is getting no help from an
obstructionist Congress. He told Republicans they need to work with him if
they really want Americans to get back to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: My message to congress is, now is not the time to play
politics. Now is not the time to sit your honor your hands. The American
people expect their leaders to work hard no matter what year it is.

The economy still isn`t where it needs to be. There are steps that
could make a difference right now -- steps that could serve as a buffer in
case the situation in Europe gets worse. So, right now, Congress should
pass a bill to help states prevent more layoffs, so we can put thousands of
teachers and firefighters and police officers back on the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: But the Republican leaders in Congress are not interested in
working with the president. They want to use the job numbers to their
political advantage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANTOR: These job numbers are pathetic. The American people really
deserve better, and I think under the right leadership we can do better.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: If they would have
taken our advice and work with us, the economy would be better. More
Americans would have better jobs. More Americans would have better
incomes. That`s clear to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Mitt Romney is another guy who is loving the economic
hardships many Americans are going through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is very bad news for
the American people, and the president is always quick to find someone to
blame. First, it was George Bush and then it was Congress, ATM machines,
Europe. He`s also got someone.

But the truth is: the job of the president is to get America back to
work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: There is no doubt Romney had great timing today. The job
numbers came out this morning, and so did a brand new TV ad for Mitt
Romney. It tells voters Romney will make the country feel good again
regardless of his policies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, ROMNEY CAMP POLITICAL AD)

AD NARRATOR: But there`s something more than legislation in our new
policy. It`s the feeling we`ll have that our country`s back -- back on the
right track. That`s what will be different about a Romney presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: President Obama has tried to do more to make this country
feel better. He`s done a heck of a lot more. He`s tried to do some
things. Nine months ago, he actually proposed a plan to put millions of
Americans back to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right
away. It`s called the American Jobs Act. There should be nothing
controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the
kind of proposal that`s been supported by both Democrats and Republicans.

Let`s pass this bill and put our teachers back in the classroom where
they belong.

If you pass this bill, then right here in this state, tens of
thousands of construction workers will have a job again.

If you want construction workers back on the work site, pass this
bill. If you want teachers back in the classroom, pass this jobs bill. If
you want tax cuts for middle class families and small business owners, pass
this jobs bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: The American Jobs Act was a response to a slow economic
growth in 2011. The $450 billion plan would have created 1.3 million jobs
and as many as 2 million. But Republicans weren`t interested. The full
bill was introduced in the Senate on October 11th, 2011. A partial bill
created for jobs for teachers and first offenders was introduced on October
17th. A bill focused on infrastructure spending was introduced on October
31st. All three bills failed to receive enough support from Republicans to
proceed.

The public wants action on jobs but the Republicans filibustered all
these bills. Now growth has slowed again and Republicans pretend they
don`t have anything to do with it. It`s all President Obama`s fault.

Manufacturing was on the rise this year. But this month, only 12,000
jobs were added. An infrastructure spending bill could have helped of a
lot. No question about it.

Republicans had a chance to do something about jobs. Instead, they
did nothing, because they are more concerned with defeating this president
than with putting Americans back to work.

You know, seriously, this is the day the GOP has been planning for,
for a long time, ever since January of 2009. This has been their strategy.
This is the execution of Mitch McConnell`s stated goal to make President
Obama a one-term president.

But we`ve got to get back to the basics. If you obstruct everything
the president wants to do, the financial sector has been following the
Republicans. No doubt about it.

Lending is still very tight in the private sector when it comes to
small businesses. Access to money, which I used to hammer on this show
about a year ago, is basically where it was a year ago. It`s tight out
there. You have to go through so many hoops to get money to be the
entrepreneur to get the chance.

The president, as we have documented in the last few moments in this
broadcast, has tried three different things. The Republicans have said no
to everything. And for John Boehner to go to the podium today at a press
conference and said if they had taken our advice, we did take their advice.
You know what President Obama and the Democrats did? They caved in the
lame duck session of the Congress and said, OK, we`re going to extend the
Bush tax cuts because we can`t raise taxes on the job creators.

Well, we didn`t raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and look where
we are right now. It takes two to make this happen. It takes
bipartisanship to make this happen. That has left the building in
Washington.

This economy isn`t going to add a whole lot of jobs between now and
election day because the financial sector is with the Republicans. They
don`t like this president. Money is tight. People are just going to ride
this storm out.

It really is amazing that we have added private sector jobs for 27
straight months in this country with the climate that we`ve got. I never
thought I`d say it, but maybe that stimulus package just wasn`t big enough.

Get your cell phones out. I want to know what you think. Tonight`s
question: will Republican obstruction on jobs cost the president re-
election? Text A for yes, text B for no, to 622639. And you can always go
to our blog at Ed.MSNBC.com. We`ll bring results later on in the show.

I`m joined tonight by Van Jones, president of Rebuild the Dream and
the author of the just published book by the same name, "Rebuild the
Dream."

Van, good to have you with us tonight. These are not good job
numbers. It`s not a bipartisanship type atmosphere whatsoever. I think
we`re going to see more of the same in this stuff.

But give us an insight of what you think the Obama team is saying
tonight behind closed doors.

VAN JONES, AUTHOR, "REBUILD THE DREAM": First of all, you`re being a
good patriot by saying these are not good job numbers. That`s because you
care about the American people. These are great numbers for the happiest
people in the world right now, people like Romney`s and other people.

This is the result of their conscious plan. While the whole world was
cheering, crying at the inauguration, they were scheming. They were
dreaming of this day when all of their skullduggery would pay off for them
and pain for the American people.

The question the American people have to ask tonight is: Are we going
to reward betrayal?

This is betrayal. We could solve these problems in this country. We
could put people to work. We could have teachers back in the classroom.

We don`t for one reason, not because the president doesn`t want it,
but because you have a political party that has decided that if political
fortunes are important than what`s going on at the kitchen table across
this country, they would rather see construction workers sitting there idle
while our bridges are falling down, while our roads are torn up, than to
put people back to work and possibly help this president.

And so, we have to make a decision tonight, are we going to reward
this kind of betrayal?

SCHULTZ: Well, what do you think the Obama team is saying? Where do
they go from here other than to go back to the American people and tell the
story?

JONES: Well, look, I mean, here`s -- let`s just be honest. Look at
these numbers. These are terrible numbers for this month, but look at the
overall picture. We have 27 months of consecutive job growth. 4.2 million
jobs. That`s better than any 27 months for Bush and way better than
anything than Romney did.

So, at some point, you got to say, if you don`t like the number, do
you want to give it back to the people who made it bad in the first place,
and never had the 27 months that we`ve had?

But here is the other thing you have to look at. How are you going to
be a Romney or a Republican and stand up and say the American people have
been drowning now for three years? The life guard, Obama, is trying to
throw them a rope. We`ve been throwing them an anvil, but give us his job.

We`ve been throwing the American people an anvil every day. We will
not do anything to help. In fact, we`ll do things to hurt them, but we
want the life guard`s job. I don`t think the American people are that
stupid.

SCHULTZ: Doesn`t this prove that the economic plan for the
Republicans really doesn`t work? These numbers prove that the bush tax
cuts, the Bush tax cuts have not done what they said they were going to do.

Now, granted we`re adding jobs but you have got a financial sector
right now that is tight with a dollar. It`s hard for small business person
to go out there and get the kind of money they need to get into this
economy the way they want to.

JONES: Well, that is why the president`s to-do list -- the president
has now boiled this down to five simple steps that even my son who is in
second grade can get his mind wrapped around. And it`s what you just said.
Why don`t we just go ahead and stand up for our small businesses? The
president is trying to push tax relief for small businesses today, and the
Republican Congress won`t do it. They won`t do simple things.

The president is trying to stand up to China and say, we`re not going
to reward companies that send our jobs overseas. The Republicans won`t
stand up with him when he`s standing up to China, but they want his job.

This is the thing we have to be clear about with the American people,
if you don`t like the job numbers, you saw this president out there day
after day, month after month, saying pass this jobs bill. They wouldn`t do
it. Why? Because their gain is more important than the people`s pain.

Is the American public going to reward betrayal? That`s the question,
because what you`re looking at is betrayal at the top of the Republican
Party designed and planned for while the rest of the world was cheering
America.

SCHULTZ: That is the bottom line. Van Jones, great to have you with
us. Appreciate your insight on this. Thanks so much.

Remember to answer tonight`s question at the bottom of the screen and
share your thoughts on Twitter @EdShow. We want to know what you think.

President Bill Clinton shows up to stomp for Tom Barrett and last
night`s debate made for some heated moments between the candidates. "The
Nation`s" John Nichols has the latest from Wisconsin and Mitt Romney says
President Obama deserves an F in foreign policy? But then says the killing
of bin Laden was terrific in the same interview. More flip-flopping from
the Romney team later in the program.

Stay with us. We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Coming up: Bill Clinton fires up the crowd in Wisconsin and
we`ll have the highlights from last night`s debate between Tom Barrett and
Scott Walker.

The Department of Justice tells Florida Governor Rick Scott to stop
the voter purge. The governor is responding.

And protesters in Philadelphia take their fight against education cuts
to the streets. But they aren`t the only state fighting the Republicans
war on education. Author Diane Ravitch joins me later on this program.

Share your thoughts on Twitter using #EdShow. We`re coming right
back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW.

Four days to go until the recall election and the battle is raging in
Wisconsin. A great shot in the arm for the Democrats today. President
Bill Clinton campaigned for Tom Barrett in Milwaukee today. He painted a
clear contrast between Walker`s bogus record and what Tom Barrett has
accomplished.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Who`s got the best record on dealing with this budget
crisis? Tom Barrett. He dealt with the biggest budget cut in the city of
Milwaukee in its history from the state and how did he do it? With shared
sacrifice, shared responsibility, not breaking the union.

Who`s got the best plan for education? Tom Barrett.

A decision was made to cut taxes for some people and have 73 percent
of Wisconsin school districts lay teachers off.

Tom Barrett`s plan is fairer to the teachers but far more important,
it`s better for the kids and the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: The former president went on to hit Walker for attacking
unions and his divide-and-conquer strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: If you believe in an economy of shared prosperity when times
are good and shared sacrifice when they`re not -- then you don`t want to
break the unions. You want them at the negotiating table and you trust
them to know that arithmetic rules.

So to have a divide-and-conquer strategy is nuts. Cooperation works.
Constant conflict is a dead bang loser, and you need to get rid of it.

You tell them no. You tell them Wisconsin has never been about that,
never will be about that, by electing Tom Barrett governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Bill Clinton also stressed the importance of this election
not only for Wisconsin, but for the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: For 100 years now, people have looked to Wisconsin from all
over this country to see a place of small town and vibrant cities. And
now, they look at Wisconsin and they see America`s battleground, between
people who want to work together to solve problems and people who want to
divide and conquer. This is about what`s best for you and your kids and
your future. But it`s also about America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: President Clinton validated everything that we have been
talking about on this program for months on end. If Walker wins,
Republican governors will have more power than before to carry out their
attacks and agenda on the middle class.

Meanwhile, there`s more big news out of the Badger State today. Last
night, the second and final debate between the recall candidates took
place. There were some heated moments when the John Doe investigation was
brought up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TOM BARRETT (D), MILWAUKEE: Others in his office have been
charged with crimes and it all surrounds a secret illegal computer system
that was 25 feet from your office. You`re the only governor in this
country that has a criminal defense fund.

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: The reason the mayor wants to talk
about this is because he`s not winning on jobs. He`s not winning on the
budget. He`s not winning on the reform and wants to keep coming back
hoping that something will click, and even though there`s no basis for it.

BARRETT: I`m raising this issue because it`s goes right to your
trust. I`ve been in public life for 28 years and no one on my staff has
been charged with a crime. I`ve never had a criminal defense fund.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Funny how Walker turns to the same old lies when put in a
tough spot. He knows the John Doe investigation could have major impact on
Tuesday`s vote.

For more on that let`s turn to John Nichols, Washington correspondent
for "The Nation" magazine, and author of the book, "Uprising," and it is a
great read.

John, great to have you with us tonight.

Couple of things -- first of all, Bill Clinton`s visit to Milwaukee
today, very strategic place. It`s where Tom Barrett is the mayor and it`s
where the Democrats are going to have to have a strong turnout. How do you
see Clinton`s visit helping?

JOHN NICHOLS, THE NATION: It was a huge deal, Ed. You know, they had
less than 24 hours to organize it. And that`s genuine. They really didn`t
know for sure whether it was coming.

And yet, Pere Marquette Park down by the river in Milwaukee was
absolutely filled today with thousands of people, a multiracial crowd.
Black, Hispanic, white working class, middle class. And these were the
people who are going to have to go out on Monday and Tuesday, especially,
and drive those vans, knock on those doors, bring people to the polls.

I literally had hundreds of people walk up to me. Folks that have
seen me on the show or around the state say this is what we need. So, it
was a very big deal.

SCHULTZ: Barrett is upset about a commercial that Walker is running
that shows a dead baby. What is the back story to this? It made for
another heated moment in the debate last night. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRETT: He`s running a commercial that shows a dead baby. The
person who killed the baby was arrested by the Milwaukee police. But you
know what they did wrong? After the baby died, they didn`t change the
code. It was a bureaucratic mistake.

I`ll tell you right now I had nothing to do with that. Look at that
commercial. You should be ashamed of that commercial.

WALKER: No, but --

BARRETT: I have a police department that arrest arrests felons. He
has a practice of hiring them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: John, how big was that moment, and will it stick with
voters?

NICHOLS: That was a really big moment, Ed. I was in Milwaukee
watching local Milwaukee television. That sound bite where he said the
governor should be ashamed was the wall to wall sound bite on Milwaukee.
And I understand TV across Wisconsin.

It`s a very big deal. The ad was so grotesquely unfair. As the mayor
says, there was a bureaucratic mistake. Things were taken care of.

And that bureaucratic mistake didn`t endanger anyone. And yet, the
governor refused to back down and that was a very powerful thing, because
some people have said over the years that Tom Barrett, he isn`t that
tougher guy. He`s not somebody to throw a punch.

The governor made Tom Barrett angry. And Tom Barrett didn`t back
down. He pushed on this issue in that debate. You could feel it in the
room last night.

I was there, the room was hushed when Tom Barrett was going after him.
And after that happened, that governor never really got his bearings back.
It really gave the debate to Tom Barrett.

SCHULTZ: There`s a new report out showing that the John Doe
investigation was started because Walker was stone-walling investigators.
Here is Walker`s response from the debate last night. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: What the quote says is that the question of unwilling or
unable. I mentioned when you first asked me about that that our office was
unable to get information from an individual outside of our office who was
a volunteer from a veteran`s organization. That led to our frustration.
My chief of staff at the time, with my blessing, took that to the district
attorney and we were continued to be in a position where we were unable to
get that information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: John, how does that answer play, you think?

NICHOLS: That was a deeply dishonest answer. The line in the story
is that the district attorney`s office decided they were going to have to
press a John Doe because Scott Walker`s office was either unwilling or
unable. Bottom line was: they were not getting cooperation from the then
county executive, the now governor.

And so, Scott Walker tried to turn that issue toward his advantage.
But the fact of the matter is -- again, that was one where Mike Gousha, the
host of the debate, really called the governor out.

SCHULTZ: All right. Well, Wisconsin says over 180,000 absentee
ballots have been cast, already been issued. That`s a huge number. It
looks like it`s going to be a big turnout. John, we will see you tomorrow
in Racine, looking forward to it.

NICHOLS: We will.

SCHULTZ: John Nichols, Washington correspondent of "The Nation" with
us tonight here on the issue, thanks so much.

The Department of Justice tells Florida Governor Rick Scott to stop
his voter purge. Mike Papantonio joins me next for all the legal
ramifications. When it comes to foreign policy, Mitt Romney says President
Obama deserves an F. Susan Del Percio and Dr. James Peterson will weight
on that, and so much.

Stay with us. We`re right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW.

The Department of Justice has told Governor Rick Scott in the state of
Florida to stop or else. Governor Rick Scott`s attempt to purge voter
rolls in Florida violates two different laws according to the Department of
Justice. The 1965 Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration
Act of 1993.

The letter said, "Please inform us by June 6th of the action the state
of Florida plans to take so the Department of Justice can determine what
further action, if any, is necessary."

The Florida Secretary of State`s Office said that they are reviewing the
letter. And Governor Rick Scott still claims that he isn`t doing anything
wrong. Scott says his administration is absolutely not targeting
minorities with the voter purge.

"The Secretary of State`s Office is doing the right thing," he said.
"We want everyone to register to vote. We want people to vote, but we want
fair elections."

Congressman Ted Deutch of Florida welcomed the action by the
Department of Justice. He said "as more and more legitimate voters
throughout Florida find their voting rights in jeopardy, I applaud the
Department of Justice for calling on Governor Scott to suspend this
outrageous voter purge."

I`m joined tonight by Mike Papantonio, attorney and host of "The Ring
of Fire" radio show. Mike, great to have you with us tonight. The state
of Florida, if they don`t comply by June 6th, what options -- and it`s just
like Rick Scott`s personality not to comply. What options does the Justice
Department have? What actions could they take?

MIKE PAPANTONIO, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, they can actually enjoin
the process. Look, in Florida, we fall under -- we fall under a special
class. That is the 1965 Act. We fall under a class where we`re more of a
suspect classifications.

It`s called -- it`s Section 5 of that act. It says under that act,
the U.S. Justice Department has a lot more power. Their power is they can
enjoin. they can bring people down from Washington to enforce their order.
As a matter of fact, that`s what they had to do in Alabama, if you recall,
when this -- when this first surfaced, they had to actually bring in
marshals and say, you will do that.

It`s more than just a mandate. It`s more than just a writ of
prohibition. It`s more than just a temporary restraining order.

Listen, there are people -- this is what Rick Scott is missing here.
There are two cases that he needs to take a serious look at. One is U.S. v
Hanes. In that case, people went to prison -- they went to jail for a
conspiracy to undermine the process. In U.S. v Townsend, same thing --
Townsley -- people went to prison for this.

If I`m an election supervisor, Ed, and I`m not sure of this character,
Rick Scott, you can bet one thing. When the U.S. Justice Department gets
down here and rattles the sabers that they can rattle -- and you`re going
to take a chance and you`re going to side with a guy like Rick Scott who
obviously is ignoring the law.

Look, this week, you had a judge, Judge Hinkle (ph) in Tallahassee,
federal judge. He took a look at what was happening with these new voter
I.D. laws. He made it clear, Ed. He made it clear that what he thought
was going on was something that is in clear violation of 1965 Voter Rights
Act. That ought to scare anybody in the election process.

SCHULTZ: OK. So the Justice Department -- the Justice Department has
got some pretty wide sweeping authority here to come down and make this
thing right in Florida. One other thing, since the primary is coming up on
August 14th, the 90-day rule seems to stop all of this all the way through
the November election. Is that correct?

PAPANTONIO: It does, exactly. There`s two parts to that, Ed. Sixty
-- the right to do this has got to be approved 60 days before it occurs.
Then after that, in addition to that, they can`t do anything within a
window of 90 days before the time this does occurs.

SCHULTZ: That makes it so Rick Scott is in clear violation of federal
law. So now it`s time for the Department of Justice to play hardball with
this Florida governor, and set an example for every other governor in this
state. What about that?

(CROSS TALK)

PAPANTONIO: You know how they do that, Ed, is they start talking
about cases where people have gone to jail for the conspiracy of trying to
undermine voting. That`s how they accomplish it. They don`t have to
accomplish it in the end. But if you`re a supervisor of elections, you`re
not going to take a chance like that.

As a matter of fact, the statewide supervisor of elections said we`re
going to start complying with what the Justice Department says. They`re
freaked out by it. This governor apparently doesn`t have enough sense to
be freaked out. He should be.

SCHULTZ: Well, June 6th is going to be a big day, June 7th a bigger
day to see how the governor of Florida responds. This is clearly a shot
over the bow to every other radical governor out there on the Republican
side that thinks that they can put together a list and go after citizens
who have been voting for years.

Mike Papantonio, great to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.
There`s a lot more coming up in the next half hour of THE ED SHOW. Stay
with us. We`re right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What grade would you give president Obama?

ROMNEY: An F, no question about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Mitt Romney doesn`t have a clue what he`s talking about on
foreign policy. The big panel weighs in on Romney`s report card and the
president`s cyber attack on Iran.

Public educators in Philadelphia are standing up to their radical
governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Save our school. Save our school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Tonight, former Assistant Education Secretary Diane Ravitch
on the war on public education, and why Scott Walker needs to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. The death of Osama bin Laden,
crippling al Qaeda, bringing the troops home from Iraq, leading a coalition
to overthrow the Gadhafi regime in Libya, repealing Don`t Ask Don`t Tell,
which was a campaign promise, supporting democracy in Egypt, the new START
Treaty -- I mean it goes on and on.

Despite all of these achievements, Mitt Romney still believes
President Obama deserves a failing grade when it comes to foreign policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What grade could you give President Obama?

ROMNEY: An F, no question about that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Across the board?

ROMNEY: Across the board.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even despite the killing of Osama bin Laden.

ROMNEY: I look at what`s happening in the Middle East. The Arab
Spring has become the Arab Winter. That`s hardly a success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Romney clearly doesn`t want to talk about Osama bin Laden.
So it`s a little confusing when in the very same interview, Romney gave
this response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has President Obama, in your view, done anything
well?

ROMNEY: I`m sure he has. I appreciate, for instance, the decision he
made to go after Osama bin Laden and to make sure he was executed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Yet Romney still gives President Obama an F?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I happen to believe his positions in foreign policy have not
communicated American strength and resolve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Republicans have tried desperately to paint this president
as weak across the board. And time and again, he proves them wrong. On
the heels of Romney`s baseless remarks, here is what the "New York Times"
reported today: "from his first months in office, President Obama secretly
ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run
Iran`s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding
America`s first sustained use of cyber-weapons."

An F in foreign policy is what Mitt Romney wants to give the
president? Let`s turn to Lehigh University Professor James Peterson, and
MSNBC contributor Susan Del Percio. Susan, I got to ask you first, is this
grade of F, does it warrant any merit whatsoever? Your thoughts on this?

SUSAN DEL PERCIO, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: I don`t think the president
deserves an F for foreign policy. I do think there are certain issues I
have a problem with, but a lot of things that you mentioned at the top are
true. And he`s done those things well.

I think, at the same time, when you live in an environment where Corey
Booker is taken out for saying something and can be misconstrued, that a
candidate also has to be careful in what they say. Because again, if he
would have said -- let`s just say he would have given him a C, then he
would have been -- the commercials would have started from the Obama camp
saying, even Mitt Romney agrees I did a good job.

So you have to be a little careful when it comes to that.

SCHULTZ: We`ve gotten to the point where we can -- we`re very
concerned about the nuclear capability of Iran. This, of course, has been
a big issue, how far do we go? There`s evidence now that the president of
the United States has gone right into cyber weapons and really delayed what
they have been trying to do. Yet, Mitt Romney says that`s an F. All for
political purposes?

DEL PERCIO: On that particular thing, there is a big problem. I
think what he did as far as coming into office and continuing that program
that started under President Bush was good. It seems like it was something
very wise to do. The problem they have now is that story should have never
leaked.

That is a security concern. That`s separate and apart from what
actually was being done on counter terrorism. That`s a big leak and that`s
something that needs to be investigated.

SCHULTZ: But it still gets the president an F, even though we have
made some progress.

(CROSS TALK)

SCHULTZ: He shouldn`t have. But he did it for political purposes.
James Peterson, your thoughts on this.

JAMES PETERSON, LEHIGH UNIVERSITY: I think it`s an interesting
situation. I think the Romney camp is somewhat disingenuous here, because
my first question is what would you do, right? Tell us what you would do
differently than what the president has done up to this point. Without
giving us a real honest and more nuanced sort of assessment of what the
president has done or hasn`t done, and without telling us exactly what he
would do in those same issues, he`s really saying nothing here by giving
this F grade.

To me, it`s an invalid assessment, based upon the fact that Romney has
not done a good job at all of letting us now what kind of decisions a
Romney presidency would have made in those same situations, and what kinds
of decisions is he going to make going forward. The kind of things that
he`s been saying about China and some of the other countries and some of
the other foreign affairs leaps that he`s made I think show us that Romney
probably doesn`t have the best sense about the ways in which foreign
affairs work in the world.

SCHULTZ: Well -- Susan, that brings me to this point. This is not a
gotcha question. I want to give you a chance to answer this. Has Mitt
Romney really explained to the American people what his foreign policy is
and what he would do?

DEL PERCIO: I think he`s -- he`s shown what he believes need to be
done in the broad strokes. He hasn`t gotten specific. As President Obama,
when he came into office, was an anti-war, anti Gitmo, anti-drone, against
everything that the Bush administration was doing. And yet the most
successful policies that he`s touted were previous Bush policies.

SCHULTZ: What about that James?

DEL PERCIO: Until you`re behind that seat, I don`t -- you really
don`t know what the job is.

PETERSON: There are a couple things. One thing, I think the Obama
administration has been a little bit more transparent than the Bush
administration was. He has maintained a lot of things, which, by the way,
that shows his courage and strength as a politician.

Remember, there were so many people within his own party and people to
the left of Obama who support him, who do not support this kind of hawkish
and aggressive foreign policy. So -- so I think that shows more political
strength than anything else here.

DEL PERCIO: It should be what he`s doing is `s best for the country
first and then political.

PETERSON: Clearly, he`s doing it. Again, we have to go back to what
is Romney going to do. What would he have done in these specific
situations? He`s not let us know that.

SCHULTZ: I tell you what, he`s got some lofty goals if he`s going to
give President Obama an F for the things that he`s accomplished in three
and a half years.

Let`s talk jobs. James Peterson, the numbers came out today. What`s
the future?

PETERSON: The future is we`ve got to make some of the tough
decisions. Remember, the people -- part of the reason why the jobs numbers
are so bad is because we still have it in our minds that we want to release
public workers. We`ve got to reverse that trend. We need to hire back
teachers, continue to hire more police officers. We`ve got to do the kind
of things that the government can do in this kind of economy.

SCHULTZ: What`s wrong with adding 4.2 million jobs in 27 months of
private sector job growth? Some months are going to be better than others.

PETERSON: There`s nothing wrong with that, Ed. That`s a great
policy. That`s interesting that that -- we can sort of get around that and
be galvanized around that. But we need to also think about the fact that
this administration has let go of about 600,000 public sector jobs. A lot
of them are teachers, Ed. We have to bring those jobs back.

SCHULTZ: Susan, why don`t the Republicans get behind the jobs bill?
They had three opportunities to do so, and they didn`t do it. Do they bear
any responsibility at all for this economy?

DEL PERCIO: Just because it wasn`t the president`s bill doesn`t mean
that they haven`t made proposals. I believe there`s about 30 of them
sitting in the Senate that they won`t bring up to a vote. Both sides are
to blame on this. They are at gridlock.

Unfortunately, until this election is decided, we`re not going to see
much movement because businesses don`t trust either side right now to say
what is going to be our future. So that`s --

PETERSON: That`s tragic.

SCHULTZ: Susan Del Percio, James Peterson, great to have you with us
on this Friday evening. Thanks so much.

Just ahead, the war on public education, the fight in Philadelphia and
the Bush administration expert who changed her mind about whose side she is
on when it comes to education. She might change yours too. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. It`s a big weekend in
Wisconsin this weekend. Before the recall election, tomorrow I`m going to
be covering rallies in Racine, Wisconsin, Burlington, and also tomorrow
night in Baraboo, Wisconsin, looking forward to that.

On Monday night, we are going to be broadcasting at the Manona Terrace
in Madison, right by the fountain. We`ll be live there, local time, 7:00
PM. We invite you to come out and watch the show.

On Tuesday night, we`re going to be live from the Great Dane on Doty
Street. We`ll be there from 7:00 until 10:00 local time with returns and
results from the election. We`d love to have you at both shows. I`m
looking forward to it.

Tonight in survey, I asked will Republican obstruction on jobs cost
the president re-election. Twenty nine percent of you said yes; 71 percent
of you said no.

Up next, amazing video of Pennsylvania voters fighting back against
Tea Party Governor Tom Corbett`s Draconian public education cuts. Stay
with us. We`re right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: In the Big Finish tonight, Philadelphia is on the front
lines of the war on public education. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSS TALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We passed a budget that we still can`t pay for.

We`re going to borrow money for this year`s budget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s just a sad, sad day for Philadelphia`s kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: It`s a sad day for Philadelphia`s kids because the school
board is borrowing 218 million dollars just to cover expenses. They`re
going to go into hawk to pay for bare bones public education. Parents and
teachers packed a meeting last night. It didn`t do a bit of good. The
board said yes to borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars just to keep
the lights on. They say they don`t know what else they can do.

They`re not alone. School districts across the country are in the
same fight. Parents and teachers have rallied across the south and in
Midwest and back east this week. Just today, the state of Louisiana
shifted tens of millions of dollars out of public schools to pay corporate
owned charter schools and churches to educate kids in their state.

In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker wants to increase class size,
close libraries and cut essential services to needy kids. He`s crushing
teachers by killing collective bargaining.

But someone who used to push for school vouchers is launching a
counterattack in the war on public education. Diane Ravitch was assistant
secretary of education under George H.W. Bush. In today`s "Journal
Sentinel," Ravitch said Scott Walker should be bounced out of office for
his attacks on education. It`s time for a change in Wisconsin. End the
attacks on public education. End the attacks on teachers.

I`m joined tonight by Diane Ravitch, author, historian and research
professor of education at New York University.

Diane, great to have you with us tonight. Why has public education
become the whipping post of every budget across the country by all of these
radical governors? What is happening, in your estimation?

DIANE RAVITCH, AUTHOR: What you`re seeing right now -- and it`s
happening across the country, in city after city and state after state, is
a fierce right wing attack on public education. This has been years in the
making. But because of the election of 2010, where so many very
conservative governors were elected, people are taking out the budget woes
on the schools.

In this case, they`re actually inflicting these deep budget cuts and
then they say, well, the schools aren`t making it, therefore we have to
privatize them. We have to turn them over to corporate owned charter
schools. We have to have vouchers. The state of Indiana now has a voucher
program. Louisiana passed a voucher program.

More than half the kids in the state of Louisiana are eligible for
vouchers, even though there are only 5,000 seats available, which is kind
of ridiculous. But a lot of this -- the church schools that have said they
will take kids in are these tiny kids. In one case, a school with 14
children is going to take in over 100 new students as voucher students.

SCHULTZ: We are going in the wrong direction in this country. We are
limiting opportunity. And it`s all going to the wealthy. Why does Scott
Walker need to go? I was interested in your comments in your piece. Why
does he need to go?

RAVITCH: He`s been a bully towards the public sector workers, in
general, but specifically to teachers. The schools have seen budget cuts.
Librarians are being laid off. Elementary teachers, special education
teachers -- the kids are suffering. They have larger class sizes.

And teachers no longer can get any kind of salary boost for having a
masters degree. In effect, he`s encouraging lower standards for teachers
and also demoralizing educators. There is definitely in Wisconsin a war on
public education. This is a moment in American history, Ed -- I say this
with great seriousness. I`m a historian of education.

There has never been an attack on public education like the one we are
seeing today. It`s very, very well-funded. In Wisconsin, it`s funded by
the Koch Brothers and by various right wing billionaires who see a moment
where they can really strike a blow for vouchers and charters and any kind
of privately controlled education.

SCHULTZ: Do they just want education for the wealthy in this country?

RAVITCH: I think what they`re talking about is, first of all, getting
the government out of education. This has been a goal for many decades,
going back to Ronald Reagan`s day. Reagan was a strong proponent of
vouchers. And the voucher idea seemed to be dead for a long time, because
every time it comes to a vote, people vote it down.

People love their public schools. But now we have a national campaign
to go through the legislatures and through the governors. None of these
statewide programs that have been enacted have been through referendum.
They have all been through the governor, the legislature acting without any
referendum at all.

People in America love their public schools. This is a moment that I
would call wake the town and tell the people. Public education is in
danger.

SCHULTZ: Diane Ravitch, I appreciate your time tonight. We want to
have you back, because what`s happening in Pennsylvania is absolutely
unbelievable. They seem to be rising up more than other states. You`re a
great resource to us. I think we`re on the same page in a big way. I
appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.

RAVITCH: Thank you for having me, Ed. Thanks to all my Twitter fans
who brought me here.

SCHULTZ: You bet. Thank you. That`s THE ED SHOW. I`m Ed Schultz.
"THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW" starts right now. Good evening, Rachel.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC ANCHOR: Good evening, Ed. I want to thank you
for being willing to stick around tonight on a Friday night to be my guest.
I`m going to be seeing you again in just a bit, Ed. Thank you.

SCHULTZ: I`m Looking forward to it. Thank you.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END

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