1996 was the last time a democratic president was up for reelection. it was also the year this network began broadcasting, 15 years ago today, in fact. i was here then too and in the rewrite, you'll see my first day on the job. and later, the late night comedy writers explain better than i ever could what's really going ever could what's really going on in the debt ceiling talks.k one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime the inspiration hits you. even deposit checks right from your phone. just take a picture, hit deposit and you're done. open an account today and put schwab mobile to work for you.

time for tonight's rewrite.

15 years ago today at 9:00 a.m. from a news studio in fort lee, new jersey, where it shared a home with cnbc, msnbc began broadcasting. i've been on the payroll since that first day, which çnow, fo better or worse, makes me the longest man in running in makeup on msnbc. "hardball" was then a production of cnbc and would move to msnbc two years later. msnbc bought its way into the news cycle that first day as so many news organizations do during presidential elections by commissioning its own poll, which showed bob dole trailing bill clinton by 20 points in clinton's campaign for reelection. in that first hour of the network's life, i was asked to alpine on the new poll in a panel discussion that included input from tim russert who was

asked if there was any way dole could save his campaign by a selection of a running mate. >> well, the only one is colin powell, he's not going to do it. now bob dole has krused the field to governor of ohio, pennsylvania, former secretary of state, jim baker. but none of those candidates will give bob dole an immediate pop in the polls. bob dole is going to have to win the race on his own, lay out an agenda, a rational. he has to convince the country that he has a reason to be president other than it's just his turn. >> all right, a former congressional aide to mornahan. what's your take on all this? >> well, it is surprising to see dole losing republican support, no particular reason for that in the last three weeks, but tim's earlier point of this being a

snapshot is very important. let's just remember where the current president was at this time four years ago. he was running third.ç he was running after ross perot and george bush. this is a different dynamic and the gap between clinton and dole is really stunning at this point, but moving from 30 to 50 is possible. >> yeah, it's wicked weird for me to watch that too. it was a different world back then, and many of the familiar figures today were in different places then. pat buchanan was then the ron paul of the republican party, running hopeless campaigns for president that won him a lot more votes than ron paul could ever dream of. >> tim, did we factor buchanan into this at all? if republicans abandon dole, do they revive the buchanan candidacy? perhaps tim is taking a coffee break. that's okay. do you think buchanan can go to

the convention now and say i'm still here? >> buchanan is doing that. he's in the paper today says ross perot can take my voters. what he means by that is republican party better pay attention to me or my voters are going to go to ross perot. that's a strong argument at this point, and the republican party has to desperately figure out what to do with buchanan. >> pat is going to say wait a minute, if bob dole drops down in a throe-way race, what difference would a four-way race make? i don't think that will happen in the end. pat buchanan wants to be president of the united states, he's going to run in 2000, he doesn't want to antagonize people by being disloyal, but with bob dole perceived as a "weak nominee," pat buchanan is going to give him a tough time at the convention in san diego last week. >> tim was not taking a coffee

break. )e having technical problems on that first day. clinton once again did not get over 50% of the vote. in his election in 1992, clinton won the presidency with 43% of the vote thanks to a three-way race with ross perot and the first president bush who got 37% in his failed reelection campaign. in 1996, the combined dole and ross perot vote against the clinton reelection was actually 49.1%, just one-tenth of a percent behind bill clinton's reelection vote total. launching a new cable news network in the middle of a presidential campaign was good timing for msnbc, but we would have been luckier if we'd have had a presidential campaign where there was at least day of suspense in it. we've gotten a lot luckier since then. ♪ [ male announcer ] you like who you are...

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rupert murdoch, mr. and mrs. michele bachmann, and the debt ceiling gave the writers of the late night comedy shows everything they needed to work with this week. >> if this isn't good you guys, the u.s. is in serious danger of defaulting on our foreign loans,

explains why china showed up and broke the statute of liberty's kneec kneecaps. >> we are like children. that's why yesterday once again, dad, much to his chagrin had to come home early from work and give us a talking to about not cleaning our budget. >> we're going to meet every single day until we get this resolved. we're going to get this done by august 2. we might as well do it now, pull off the band-aid, eat our peas. >> who keeps peas under their band-aids? you know, you get the senseç obama is the first president in history that begins every press conference with a heavy sigh. just comes out and goes -- wait, i'm being told his peas mention was not a metaphor. during budget negotiations,

apparently, john boehner was literally not eating his peas. i didn't realize that was the case. >> seems a christian counseling clinic owned by michele bachmann and her husband is being accused of recruiting homosexuals into heterosexuality by praying away the gay. praying away the gay. their slogan, think outside the box. it was so hot in england, rupert murdoch was hacking eskimo phone calls. >> rupert murdoch has been tapping kegs. >> he runs his empire with his son. do we have a picture of rupert murdoch with his son? there we are. the irony, of course, he owns that. >> to get to the truth of this story, i hacked the messages left by rupert murdoch on his attorney's cell phone this week. >> jim, [ bleep ], henry, this

is rupert, this thing is gone out of control. i'm australian. call me back as fast as a walabee up a tree. i'm angrier than a blooming onion. i want to buy stuff. see if colorado is available. call me, bye. [ bleep ] call back. [ bleep ] i want a barbie. i want to borrow hughç jackman