DOUBLEHEADER -- July 22, 2011 at 6:51 PM EDT

The Doubleheader: Debt Limits and NFL Lockouts

By: Hari Sreenivasan


It has been a rare feat in recent times due to summer schedules, but we managed to get another episode of the Doubleheader with syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks recorded Friday afternoon. We stopped taping a few minutes before House Speaker John Boehner called off the debt talks and the president held a news conference, calling on congressional leaders to come to the White House Saturday morning.

We did, however, manage to speak about certain elements of the debt talks -- whether the town-hall style appearances the president made Friday afternoon at the University of Maryland really do work to his advantage, or are merely part of political theater. Topic two was whether the president's liberal base really needs to be comforted, considering some of the deep cuts that may occur as part of any potential debt compromise.

Oh, and we managed to sneak in a bit of pontification on the NFL lockout, where players have yet to ratify an agreement that the coaches have put forward to end a very long strike that could make for a short season of America's fall sports fascination.

Video was shot and edited by Quinn Bowman Follow Hari on Twitter or like him on Facebook.

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