elections, will investors do nothing up till monday when some of the dust clears? speaking of doing nothing, president obama had nothing new to say in his economic speech today. more tax the rich to pay for all his government spending. but here's one positive note. obamacare going down. his biggest failure could be our best success for the economy. let the job creation begin when obamacare is knocked out by the supremes. i'm larry kudlow. "the kudlow report" is moments away. >> we don't trade on rumors. we invest in facts. and the facts from some of the ceos i talked to are saying, jim, i'm giving up. i can't find why my stock should go down because of spain, italy or greece. there's always a bull market somewhere. i promise to find it for you. i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow! hey, larry, what do you have for us tonight? >> jimmy, facts are hard to come by. people should do nothing until

this european craziness begins to clear up next week. do nothing. good evening, everybody. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." our top story tonight, battleground ohio. president obama and mitt romney hold duelling speeches on the economy, jobless claims are rising to a worrisome number. he doesn't listen to the good advice of bill clinton on advising tax cuts or clinton advisers who want a new message. it's the same old same old. the stump speech has been said to be in the works for weeks. anti-investor, anti-business. oh, my gochltd we have seen it for three and a half years. dueling speeches tonight. breaking news, the markets shot like a rocket in the last hour of trading. the dow closed up 156 points. the nas, 18. the s&p up 14. our own brian shactman will tell

us what happened. >> there was an unconfirmed report that european central banks would coordinate for liquidity. statements by central banks of england, japan, canada. but our federal reserve was quiet. the ecb saying nothing. things are moving fast. i'll have more on this in a little bit. for now, back to you. >> thanks, brian. also this evening, besides all the central bank craziness the white house is bracing for the supreme court to throw out obamacare. could be as early as monday. contingency plans are drawn out. spin doctors at the ready. businesses also have contingency plaps at that time ready. the plan, start hiring. we'll tell you how banishing obama care is bullish for business. we begin tonight with the dueling campaign speeches in ohio. president obama using a stop in cleveland to re-energize his base and restate his economic

message. mitt romney countering the president's proposals during a campaign stop in cincinnati. our own cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us with all the details. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry. in a race this close you've got a serious cat and mouse game being played by the candidates. president obama schedules a speech in cleveland. mitt romney in cincinnati. accelerates the timing so he speaks before president obama, a prebuttal, if you will. he said to voters it's easy to judge this president. think about the last three years and look at the record. >> now you may have heard that president obama is on the other side of the state and he's going to be delivering a speech on the economy. he's doing that because he hasn't delivered a recovery for the economy. and he's going to be a person of eloquence as he describes his plans for making the economy

better. but don't forget. he's been president for three and a half years. talk is cheap. >> mitt romney had a clear motive for going to ohio. the president has a lead of just a little bit over 1 percentage point. his argument to voters he made in cleveland was in favor of the tax increases you talked about earlier. he said he's the only candidate in the race proposing an economic plan that has the balance america needs. >> governor romney and the republicans who run congress believe if you simply take away regulations and cut taxes by trillions of dollars the market will solve all of our problems on its own. i believe we need a plan for better education and training and for energy independence. and for new research and innovation, for rebuilding our infrastructure, for a tax code that creates jobs in america and pays down our debt in a way that's balanced.

i have that plan. they don't. >> the president opened the speech by poking fun at his gaffe last week when he said the private sector is doing fine. he said that's the stuff that will occupy the press but the real choice americans face is the one he outlined in the speech. he says this is the opportunity for american voters to break the partisan stalemate in washington. we'll see what the verdict is, larry. >> many thanks, john. appreciate it. what i heard from the president today, just a whole lot of the same old big government tax and spend solutions. no pro growth policies. nothing to help us get out of the recession their tax cliff. fiscal cliff. mr. president, what are you doing? just spending our money and trying to tax rich people and small business owners to pay for it. i don't get it. let's talk. cnbc contributor and former vermont governor howard dean will have something to say about this and and bernie marcus, cofounder of the home depot will have something to say about this. howard dean, even the press is

blogging what a lousy speech it was. the same old big government. greece came to ohio today. obama doesn't read the newspapers, he doesn't get it. soon the fed will have to pour liquidity into ohio to bail us out. >> wall street liked it, didn't they? mitt romney just proposed a $5 trillion deaf sichlt bush 3 economics. he's going to cut taxes and not pay for them. that's what george w. bush did. barack obama proposed a balanced budget. spending has gone unless under barack obama than under any previous president since before ronald reagan. that's a fact. i think the president is doing great. he's going to win ohio and the presidency. >> that's not a fact, by the way. >> it is a fact. >> not even remotely a fact. >> it's absolutely true. >> bernie, welcome back to the show. >> hi, already rlarry. >> obama said to president clinton who suggested they restore and extend all bush tax cuts. obama says, no, to distinguish

democratic strategists who say the message isn't working because the economy isn't working. is this guy so tone deaf and far to the left and his advisers are so far to the left that he just won't listen to anybody as his polls are worse and worse? >> well, number one, i read the speech. larry, it took an hour to give the speech. i will tell you that barack obama is one of the great orato r rs i have heard. he can make something out of nothing which happened here. he talked about nothing. if i didn't know better i would think he's running for office and has not been the president for years. he never brings up the fact that he had a congress made up of democrats. both the house and senate. he could have passed legislation. he could have done all the things he wanted to do. he never did it. in addition to that he talks about his plan and his budget. he came out with the budget. he presented it to congress.

the democratic congress, the senate turned it down. the house turned it down. i don't know what he thinks he's doing. i don't know if he thinks the american people don't have a clue what's going on. he talks about jobs he's created. he's talking about stimulating the economy. again, the buzzwords. there are so many buzzwords and meanwhile the economy was stimulated. he wasted the first two years of his presidency passing b -- >> more spending and taxing doesn't work. >> that's what he talked about. >> howard, what blows me away is the clinton wing of the party is trying to tell this guy, a, nobody believes his argument that the economy is getting better, so b you better change the message. c, from clinton himself who was a terrific economic president, clinton said, just extend the bush tax cut. stop blaming bush. already signed the extension in

2010. stop blaming the republicans in the house. sign it and get us out of the recession. and obama will not listen. he is, in my opinion far left liberal. way too liberal to be re-elected. >> i appreciate your opinion. don't you belong on fox, the right wing propaganda network? >> i'm a free market guy on this channel. >> mitt romney has a $5 trillion deficit in his economic proposals. obama is moving toward balancing the budget. that's a fact. >> no. >> that's a fact. he's willing to raise taxes. we ought to pay bill clinton's taxes. we were a lot more prosperous when clinton was president before we started the deficits. i think you can't dispute that. so the fact of the matter is we need to balance the budget. barack obama's budget is closer to being balanced. we need to do something to shore

up the middle class in this country. romney doesn't give a damn about the middle class and never has. >> all he talks about, balancing the budget, all obama talks about is spending more money. he's going to tax rich producers and entrepreneurs like yourself in order to spend more on teachers. if you ever look at a chart in the last 20 years the volume of teachers has gone up threefold and the volume of students is flat. it's nonsense. >> i think the problem is that he's surrounded by people that know less than he does. i don't expect more of the president. he never worked in the real world. he doesn't understand how a business runs or survives. he's surroundeded himself with people who know less than he does. to hear governor dean talk about he's balancing the budget, what i heard from him is he's going to spend more money because he believes in spending money he thinks is going to turn the

economy around. we learned nothing from what happened in the previous years. the billion dollars he spent did nothing for the economy. he wants to spend more money and where is the balance of the budget? i don't understand how you can be balancing the budget while spending a trillion dollars more. if somebody can explain that to me, i'm only a business guy. i don't know anything. maybe the economists, the politicians understand this. i don't get it. i don't understand it. >> lots of tough questions there. >> why turn the economy over to a guy who invests in the cayman islands, has a swiss bank account and is advocating doing the same things which recked the economy giving the wall street guys free reign to do whatever they want. i think the idea that mitt romney will be the next president given the record of wall street and creating this mess is laughable. >> bernie, your reaction? >> howard dean, let me say something to you. i'm a businessman. i have created millions of jobs

in my career. home depot has 330,000 people. i think i understand the business world. i can tell you the policies that this government is following now is a total disaster. it has been a disaster. we have 20 million people out of work. if those people don't get back to work we cannot turn the economy around. if you think taxing the rich does it, you can tax me for all the money i have. you're not going to solve the 15 or 16 trillion -- >> we pay the same amount of taxes we paid when bill clinton was president. i would be a happy guy and the budget would be closer to balanced. you cannot give away money whether you give it to rich or poor people. that's what george bush did. >> excuse me. >> trillions of dollars. you can't do that. >> excuse me. giving away -- you have to understand you're dealing with my money, not yours. the government doesn't own my money. i earn my money and nobody has a right to take it. >> you made a lot of money because you live in the united

states of america. >> you bet. >> we owe something to the government to grow up in this great country. i'm tired of hearing people in the private sector talk like they don't owe the government anything. we do. this is a great country because we all pay into it. it's about time we all pay into it. >> howard, stop this nonsense. >> it is not. you're damn lucky to live in america. you ought to pay the bill for it. >> howard. let me tell you something. you've got the wrong guy. all i'm doing is giving my money away. i give away millions a year. the makeoney i earn through the free market capitalist system that created home depot and i created millionaires all over the united states which is a good thing because they had a high school education, not college. we created wealth in this company. i created an industry that has helped the consumer and -- >> you did it while you were paying bill clinton's tax rates. why not pay those again? >> no, no. >> you sure did. >> listen. >> i think it's great.

i'm a capitalist, too. the biggest problem with capitalist today is the wall street capitalists are screwing it spup. you're a politician. i'm a businessman. i say when you raise taxes it will -- >> i'm a politician who balanced 11 budgets in a row. i know about money. >> excuse me. the money you know about is public money. it's public money. you work in the public. >> i also worked on wall street and ran my own medical office for ten years. >> i worked in the real world all of my life. i'm telling you from a business standpoint these policies that we have today and the ones proposed by obama are not going to work. we're not going to create jobs. >> we have created a ton of private sector jobs and lost public jobs because of republican policy. >> oh, howard dean. >> i just want to say one thing. the idea that the rich don't pay taxes. the top 1% pay 40% of the income tax. >> i didn't say they don't pay taxes. why continue bewe go back to clinton tax levels?

we were better off. >> i will make you a deal, howard. then i will see if bernie marcus. bill clinton raised taxes in the first term. in his second term which you conveniently forget he cut the capital gains tax. >> yes, he did. >> i'm not against that. i want to balance the budget. >> if you create an entrepreneurial boom by lowering investment tax rates, bernie, isn't that what risk takers worry about -- dividends, capital gains, estate taxes and things of that sort, all of which obama wants to raise to the middle 40%. that's what obama is saying. >> he can't -- look. this is a campaign and he's trying to. >> this is class warfare. we know it. everybody knows it. he does also. it's deliberate. it's absolutely deliberate. the truth is raising taxes is not going to create jobs in america. lowering corporate taxes will

make us competitive in the world. in his proposal he went up 25 or 30% on private income. 70% of the businesses in the united states are small businesses. these are businesses that pay ordinary income tax. he's basically going to raise the taxes on 70% of the people that create the jobs in america. how nuts is that? >> we're going back to paying when clinton was president and the economy was better. >> by the way, world tax rates have come way down since clinton. >> look at the world economy, larry. my god. >> and obama wants to have much higher tax rates than bill clinton had. >> that's absolutely not true. untrue. >> it is true. >> it's the top rate he proposed. >> larry, you have to be truthful of the facts. >> howard dean, including obamacare. >> that's what they do on fox, not cnbc. >> the top rate of 44.7%.

that's higher than anything. >> nonsense. the best thing we can do for small business is have obamacare and they would be out of the health insurance business. >> we'll get to obamacare in a minute. howard dean, thank you. >> appreciate it. >> next up on kudlow, on one of these fine days the supreme court will hand down the obamacare decision. it could happen in a week. no way it will hold up. the white house is drafting contingency plans. businesses, too, have plans to hire. has obamacare been responsible for the summer stall on jobs and will the end of obamacare be bullish for business? that's next up. don't forget, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. open the regulatory door. stop taxing the rich. you will see a booming economy like we deserve.

a year ago the chamber of commerce did a survey of some 1,500 small businesses. of the small businesses, three-quarters, 75% said obamacare made it less likely for them to hire people. >> that was governor mitt romney railing against obamacare.

basically saying it's a stranglehold on business and the economy. now all eyes are on the supreme court decision expected any day now. the white house has backup plans. one of our next guests says the end of obama care will create a hiring boom. the other guests thinks there could be a compromise for the pre-existing illness coverage. let's see if we have common ground. here now is former labor secretary and cnbc contributor robert rice, the author of "beyond outrage" and betsy mccoy author of the obama health law. betsy, i read your notes. i love this. obamacare goes down and employment job hiring boom goes up. >> that's right. when the supreme court strikes down the individual mandate it is likely they will strike down a big chunk of the law that also includes the employer responsibility provision. this extremely burdensome

provision would cause the biggest increase in labor costs in american history. it would push up the cost of an employee by $1.79 an hour every hour of the year. in new york and new jersey where health plans cost more it would increase the cost of labor by over $2 an hour. >> is that why the firms haven't been hiring and it's getting slower? >> that's right. as romney pointed out in the march 12 u.s. chamber of commerce survey three-quarters. this provision has struck fear in our hearts. >> the way i read it, robert, is if president obama's greatest legislative achievement is struck down it will be the most bullish thing to happen in the economy. do you agree with that? >> i don't agree, larry. i think the supreme court is likely to -- actually, you know, my kind of assumption here is that the chief justice is so concerned about the public's perception of polarization and

parse san ship in the court after bush v gore and citizens united that he may with justice kennedy and the liberals on the court. and actually uphold the constitutionality of the entire law. let's assume, for the sake of the argument, that betsy is right and the court overturns the least popular provision which is the individual mandate. at that point the insurance industry will be all over capitol hi capitol hill because they cannot pay for a popular provision of law which is their requirement to ensure and cover pre-existing conditions. congress, because the provision is so popular congress won't be willing to drop the provision. so there will be a little bit of a negotiation. there is going to be an opening for some political compromise. >> who then will pay for it? you're saying the insurance companies won't. who, robert reich, will pay for

this? >> ultimately the public pays one way or another as they are paying now. the question is not who is going to pay. right now we are paying through the nose for health insurance, not only for ourselves but for people who use emergency courtroorooms because they don't get preventative care. the question isn't are taxpayers paying or are we going to pay through insurance bills or individually, the question is how are we going to get down the long-term trajectory of increase in health care costs. with regard to this pre-existing condition that's so popular i think there is going to be the following compromise. i would be interested in betsy's response. i think the insurance companies will say, all right. we will support the public option which came pretty close if you drop the requirement that we provide -- >> i disagree. some states have already eliminating pre-existing conditions. new york is one of them.

that's why new york and new jersey have the highest insurance rates in the country next thomas mass which has also done this. in other words, once you eliminate the ability of insurance companies to say, you have come through the door, you're already sick. you have to pay more. the rates go up and the healthy people drop out. the key is that the employer responsibility provision adds as much as $2 an hour to hire someone if you haven't previously covered them. but for employers that provide coverage it takes away the flexibility. retailer, fast food companies. >> i understand that. just on the narrow question of the pre-existing illness coverage robert reich is talking about can't there be risk pooling? >> there is in many states. many states do that. >> does medicare at the end of the day, robert writes in "the

christian science monitor" medicare should pay for it. i thought they were broke. >> they shouldn't pay for people under 65. it's having must have of a problem for people over 65. >> robert, you suggest medicare is one way to pay for the pre-existing condition insurance. >> a public option, that's right. look, larry, let's be clear. the administrative costs of medicare are low relative to private insurance. >> that's because -- >> wait a minute. no, no. betty is underlying problem with medicare is the problem of the entire economy with regard to health insurance. health insurance is now 18% of gdp. health insurance costs are increasing. >> no. the problem is not with the health industry. the problem is the portion of the health industry paid for by government. that's what we must shrink. >> do we need, robert, and i know you will answer affirmatively. >> why ask. >> right. you want it.

bet betsy, do we need it? >> it's popular. but various states solved this problem. >> on the state level with risk -- >> correct. >> everybody pays interest. >> i don't want anybody denied insurance. >> i have to get out. >> i don't think there is that much disagreement here. that's what -- this is what the public option could be. >> we'll have more i promise as soon as the supremes knock down obamacare. >> and a shot in the arm to the economy. >> appreciate it. up next, monitoring the situation coming out of europe. new reports of a coordinated liquidity pumping binge effort allegedly to prevent a global melt down this weekend. i would like to say this. no stock market investor should make a move until we find out about the greek elections and the liquidity. wait until we are well into monday. this is a weird and bizarre

story. there is no rush. we're going to come right back and talk about it. [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac

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us with the details. good evening. >> larry, thank you. 72 minutes of global news whipsawed the markets today. it makes sense to make a little bit of sense of it. starting with 3:00 p.m. eastern time, dow up 95 points. a little bit off session highs. 3:05, reuters reported if the greek election shocks the markets central banks will provide enough liquidity to stabilize the markets. in three minutes the market rocketed up 200 points. within the next 30 minutes, things eased. at 3:45 england says it's prepared to make sure its own markets are protected from shocks on the continent. 15 minutes later king mentions the case for easing is getting stronger. japan says it is ready to defend the yen. canada says everybody needs to get their act together. these may not be reacting to each other, but that's a lot of

action in an hour's time. look at the dow to see what happened. we are losing a little bit of steam before the headlines broke. you see the spike at 3:00 p.m. pretty incredible ride after that, larry. back to you. >> i have to tell you. i know what they're doing. i'm not going to say i disapprove. it is an emergency. this crazy whacked out far left guy might win in greece blowing up the european banking system. i get that. but there is a fiscal bankruptcy going on in southern europe and elsewhere. >> right. >> it's not a monetary question. the fed and ecb haven't been heard from. do we expect to hear from them tomorrow? are they going to add to it? the fed is giving dollars to the ecb. >> i don't know about the ecb. i think the fed will be quiet and see what happens next week. there are nuances i want to point out. seems like a lose-lose for greece. if the pro bailout wins they

have the economy not growing and need another bailout down the road. if anti-bailout wins you don't know what will happen. adds to volatility. people who talked, england, japan, canada, they have their own currency. they don't have the dollar or the euro. they are defending their turf. >> that crowd. i love the canadian loonie. >> they know how to get it done. >> with the 15% corporate tax rate. thanks to brian shactman. is this enough? is it going to put a tourniquet on the turmoil in europe or is it a bandaid on a bullet hole? we'll talk stocks and i'm super totally cautious. stay with us. people with a machine.

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all right. all right. welcome back, everyone. a late afternoon report of a possible coordinated effort of the central banks to help stabilize european markets sent our markets way higher. the dow ended up 156. the nas up 18. the s&p up 14. now, the report came out after the european markets closed. we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see just how they react to that just days before greek egyptian and french elections.

joining us now from athens is michelle caruso-cabrera. good evening. i guess it's still evening where you are. look, there's a lot going on late in the day here. no one is sure who's doing what to whom. first of all, g-20 leaks about massive injections of liquidity. we had confirmation from the bank of england. we had confirmation from the bank of japan. i have not heard from the ecb or the federal reserve. what can you tell us? >> well, those are the two key ones we would have to hear from to know for sure it was going to happen. it did seem awfully ironic, larry, within 15 minutes we heard three statements about liquidity injections or efforts by central banks to stabilize the markets in advance or in case of what happens in athens this weekend there is clearly worries among financial leaders of the world about what will happen with the greek elections and how the greek people will vote.

are they going to vote for the party that supports the bailout and austerity measures or the party that wants to fight austerity programs and bailout measures and yet try to stay in the euro zone? in other words, will they try to get more out of the european partners? seems unlikely. >> if guy wins how long before greece drops out of the euro currency? i don't know about the euro zone, but the euro currency. in other words, how quickly should i pull out my drakmas from the '80s? >> if the leftist candidate wins he has said he absolutely wants greece to stay in the euro and with the euro though all of the things he says he would do suggest that they would be forced out. we would see a long back and forth between him and the yeg yay tors at the european union level. however, that all assumes that policy makers in the end are in control.

what happens in situations like this, we saw it with latin america in the 80s. it's not up to policy makers. it's up to the people. if we see massive runs on banks not like so far. that's rich people moving their money to the uk or the united states or germany. if we see people lining up to take money out of banks then everything is off the table. all of the decisions get moved forward. it will be up to the people of greece for what to do with their money. >> if the bank runs intensify are we talking spanish bank runs? are we talking italian bank runs? how far can this thing go? i assume that's why the central banks are pouring in liquidity. i further assume the federal reserve is swapping more and more dollars into the european central bank because the demand for dollars will be huge. my question is, is there going to be a contagion in terms of a run on banks in southern europe?

>> that's the fear, larry. if people see greece leave the euro do they question the sanctity of the euro itself? right now we see people moving their money into german banks but what if the euro isn't safe and they move into u.s. dollars or the uk. that's why there is so much concern. let's be frank. greece is a small country. 11 million people. the situation is heart breaking but the european union cares about the union staying together. if greece has to do you can be sure they will let it. spain and italy, uh-uh. those are three and four. those are two of the biggest four of the european union when it comes to the size of the economy. they need to save those countries. >> that may be custer's last stand in spain and italy. i'm mixing historical metaphors but you make a great point. many thanks, michelle caruso-cabrera. >> thanks, larry. >> i don't care how much money

the central banks pump in. first of all, the world economy has a recession feel to it. the potential for nasty bank runs in southern europe and elsewhere, there may be an exit from the euro currency by greece or who knows where and what will happen in the election? nobody knows. you can't invest until the dust starts to clear well into monday. even then it might be too risky. let's talk to jeff orlando, jim urio from tjm institutional services. phil, just the threat of more bank runs, of contagion should be enough to keep every sane investor totally on the sidelines for a bunch of days. >> well, that's right, larry. that also begs the point that we've got to have a serious policy response out of the ecb. one of the things that we're looking for, expect iing is som

sort of fdic-type guarantee across the euro zone like we saw in the depths of the u.s.'s great recession. there has to be a situation where the ecb, the troy ka protects against that in europe. >> they should guarantee the deposits, the interbank loans, the debt of the banks but they haven't. they're not going to start tomorrow. people will be nuts to i vest on the thought that they may. >> they will be nuts today and tomorrow. it's likely we wake up on monday in the face of a 25, 30 handle break in the s&p because of what could happen in greece. if that happens then we'll get stronger policy responses. all the things you said about a crumby global economy can be absolutely true but the governments can pump in enough

liquidity to drive asset prices up. the stock market -- >> it stopped working a year ago. >> i agree with you 100%. it hasn't stopped working for the stock market. >> every time we do it, it works less. >> i agree. there is nobody waiting on the sidelines for lower rates. >> the problem is -- phil, the problem isn't there is not enough money. there's money like nobody's tomorrow. there's money everywhere. there's money in the usa. the fed is giving dollars to europe on a daily basis. the fact is it's a fiscal problem. they spend too much and their tax rates are too high and nobody wants to invest in europe. that's what bathers me. >> you're right, larry. the first item of agenda is there needs to be a fiscal union here. while the government austerity is necessary in places like greece there needs to be offsetting stimulus to create growth to offset the drag from government austerity. we need to have the deposit insurance situation. there needs to be a strong

policy response and depending upon the vote on sunday night we may see the beginnings of the policy response on monday. >> by the way, we're out of time. i'm sorry. you're both great. you have two straight months of falling retail sales in the usa. two straight months of falling factory orders. three straight months of declining jobs growth. i wonder about our situation here. i'm worried. you guys come back. we'll talk about it. phil, jim, thank you very much. up next on "kudlow" president obama destroys the evening rush hour in new york. thousands affected and frustrated. why? it's all about the benjamins. "the kudlow report" will be back to tell you how. it's very important to understand

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defraud i defrauding. he apologized but maintained he was not a thief and never defrauded anyone. activist hedge fund starboard value swallowed a bitter pill today. aol re-elected the eight-member board despite the push to unseat three of them. aol shares closed down over 5% amid fear it is hedge fund will sell its stake. nokia plunged 15% on news it will cut 10,000 jobs and close three facilities by the end of 2013, that's 19% of the work force. the latest country to get a downgrade, france. it goes from a minus to triple b plus. it is expected france will be pressured by the evolving euro crisis. the president blocked up traffic in new york. transit was shut down for a secret hollywood fundraiser by sarah jessica parker and matthew brodrick at their west village townhouse. also at the $40,000 a plate

dinner, vogue editor anna wintour. i don't know if it will raise more than he did on the west coast with george clooney but you weren't at either one. >> no, i wasn't. that vamping wintour woman, i'm glad i'm not there. i like sarah jessica parker. nicely dressed, good actress, nicely turned out. i'm so disappointed she has bad judgment over president obama. i'm crushed. i'd like to talk to her about supply side economics because i believe she would get it. so well turned out. she's got supply side potential. >> maybe they're having a cocktail now, sitting on the couch and president obama is saying, that larry kudlow, great ties, but i'm not going to his fundraisers. >> these people drive me crazy. you're not one of them. up next, why is mitt romney getting unsolicited advice from other big name republicans? hey, folks, stop picking on romney. my view, he's doing just fine, thank you very much.

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welcome back to "the kudlow report." just today, mitt romney unveiled his first attack ad of the general election. take a look. >> the private sector is doing fine. the private sector is doing fine, doing fine.

>> all right. what's wrong with that? he's out there with a factual attack on president obama. that's the way the game works. fellow high profile republicans sound like they want to see more from mitt. they're always whining and complaining. friends of mine, congressman paul ryan from wisconsin, he's great. scott walker, he's great. they echo the same refrain. somehow romney must be more than simply not obama. all right. we have cnbc contributor harry melver from the nation magazine, radio host jason metera, author of hollywood hypocrites and the founder of power line blog. jason, romney is surging in the polls. gallup's got him ten points ahead on the economy. he'll cut spending, put the keystone pipeline up, lower taxes. what do they want from romney? why are they belly aching and whining? they're good guys. what's up with this? >> i don't know. i agree, larry.

mitt romney has had a terrific start. it's his job, duty, responsibility to point out that obama has wrecked this economy and that obama rather than kovrning and changing his face, he'd rather be the fifth kardashian and rub elbows with hollywood's elite. i can't find fault in what mitt romney has done, certainly with that ad. >> john, romney made it so clear obama is the big government-centered guy, the grease guy, the european welfare state guy. romney is the free enterprise, probusiness, opportunity society, work hard, low taxes. the contrast couldn't be bigger. what are these republicans whining about? >> i agree with you, larry. i don't know why anybody would be whining. i think mitt romney is giving the voters the same choice reagan gave the voters in 1980. do you want a government-dominated economy or free enterprise, individual initiative, a dynamic public sector? i think it's a stark choice.

i think mitt romney is doing a great job. >> do you know harry, one of the reasons i think rom uh any is doing it right is today barack obama in his speech which i think took an hour and got bad press reviews, but in the speech he said there is a stark choice. so why are the republicans saying there is not a real choice? >> i brought you a number, larry. 67% of independents say we are in this economic mess mostly because of bush. 51% say it for obama. that's gallup, a new number today. they need more of the ads if they want to pin this on obama. the public is smart, follows the 401(k), they remember the hit first took place under the bush administration. >> bush -- >> help me out here. jason, the gallup poll -- i'm sorry. the rasmussen poll likely

voters, 252 -- 52% for romney. he can't be that bad. he's got a lead of likely voters for economic management. >> ari is right. voerts see obama has been in charge three and a half years. they see the net worth evaporate. they see their 401(k) down. they see unemployment above 8%. that's supposed to be the new normal? obama has to take responsibility for something. fine. if you say the first deficit is above a trillion was bush's fault, what about the subsequent three years of $3 trillion deficits. at some point the buck stops at his door. i think mitt romney, it's his job to expose it. >> john, we love paul ryan. i love him. we all love scott walker. john, why are they nit-picking? just because they are in front of news -- all about it? >> i'm not sure they are nit-picking, larry.

mitt romney needs to present a strong contrast, be bold and specific. then he said, i think romney is doing those things. >> oh. >> i don't think he's as fall off the reservation as you think. >> that's wishful thinking. >> we're short on time. i appreciate it. that's it for tonight's show. thanks for watching, everybody. me? i don't know. i think romney's doing just fine, thank you very much. cut spending and tax rates, grow the economy, get rid of obama care. this is america. we can do it. [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha!

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