Obama reaches out to GOP leaders

>>> call it a pr move or call it bipartisanship long last. whatever you call, it president obama breaking brady with republicans this week. joining me now, good morning.

>> good morning, alex.

>> what do we know about the events, the dinners and the luncheons this week. anything substantive accomplished?

>> we know that the president actually discussed wanting to have a grand bargain by the end of july. that's something that came out a day that far. some republican senators were, i guess, surprised that the president laid out some specific potential entitlement cuts that he'd like to see that they say they hadn't seen from leadership. now whether or not this actually means something there-l get done is a higher hill to climb because john boehner , mitch mcconnell , both said that they don't want to have any more revenue, any additional revenue, regardless of the fact that the president met with these folks. the other difficult thing here, you know, president obama coming in, this was one of his deficiencies. he didn't have these established relationships with most of these folks on the hill . that's one reason joe biden was brought in, because he'd been there so long. had the relationships built up. the president himself never had those relationships and some of those nebs of congress may have resented the fact, why not me, i've been here a long time. this guy's only been here a few years and now he's starting to run.

>> another interesting dinner of which i would have loved to be a fly on the wall . that's the one with the first lady and the clintons. three hours there in the private dining room in the white house , right?

>> yeah, that's what we've heard. look, they are an important power couple. whether or not you're thinking about 2016 and what the democratic legacy is going to be. around whether or not president obama wants to figure out in his second term how he can deploy the clintons. he's brought bill clinton into the briefing room to help him a little bit. maybe he can figure out what exactly hillary clinton wants to do now. we know that she's going to be doing the speaking tour. we know that she's going to be take something time off. thinking about whether or not she's going to make a run in 2016 . but i think we'll see whether or not president obama can somehow deploy the clintons in pr effort to help push back against some of the attacks.

>> well, you know, i know the dinner with the clintons was billed as a private farewell, thank you, for the administration. you've got to think, bill clinton , three-hour dinner, you know he was dispensing advice and experience, that's just presumed.

>> bill clinton likes to think of himself as the democratic chief strategist. he's his best political adviser. and i think there absolutely had to be conversation about message messaging. how to reach out to folks on the hill . at least in a pr way to show you're making a little bit of an effort. you know, president obama started to take a hill in the polls on the approval rating. yes, sequester is to blame, but he's the president and too tough of a cut.

>> dough minnickco, always a pleasure.