partnerships. i'm back on the road safely. more on this as we follow this and i saved you money on brakes. throughout the day and the week. jumping to thursday, george that's personal pricing. clooney is holding a high-end fund-raising at his l.a. home for president obama. they are expecting to raise $12 million. also on thursday the olympic flame will be lit in greece. the games start in london on july 27th. joining me is ohio's former and we saved the best for last, governor, democrat ted sunday, of course, is mother's strickland, and republican tom davis, a former virginia day. that will do it for me. have a wonderful sunday, congressman. gentlemen, thanks both. everyone. governor, let me start with you, and i want to put up an ohio quinnipiac poll recently if the newt leaves the field but election were held today. president obama, 44%. may need practice as a team player. president -- sorry, republican nominee romney 42%. today, newt gingrich on the fall it is essentially a tie in a campaign and his tepid endorsement of mitt romney. state which has a fairly good >> i'm asked sometimes is mitt unemployment rate at this point, about 7.5%. that's not great, but it's below romney conservative enough, and my answer is simple, compared to the national average. why is the president having trouble there? barack obama? >> well, i don't know that he's >> hello, virginia. having trouble, candy, but ohio >> thank you, ohio. and battleground politic was is a battleground, and no former ohio governor ted candidate and no party can ever strickland and former virginia take ohio for granted. congressman tom davis. so this is going to be a very then gauging the power of

close election. but i think the president's the taliban, al qaeda, and the afghan government with the pretty well-positioned. chairs of the senate and house his saving of the auto industry is a big deal for ohio. intelligence committees, democrat dianne feinstein and >> sure. >> there are hundreds of republican mike rogers. thousands of people working plus the anemic recovery and the today in ohio because of the auto industry's recovery -- election with the national >> that's why i asked why it's so close. journal's major garrett and janice rivlin. i'm candy crowley and this is why why "state of the union." that's why i asked it's so close. republican leaders and >> i think it's close because of the nature of ohio. we are a microcosm of america. former rivals are gathering around mitt romney's candidacy, the country is divided, and the but the coalescing lacks a certain warp and fuzzy feature. electorate in ohio is divided as >> compared to barack obama i well. it was close the last time. would trust mitt romney 100 it will be close this time. times over. it's always close in ohio, but i >> he's the guy. he called and i called him back. we kind of traded some voice think the president's well-positioned because he's got mails. a good team on the ground >> he's the person that is going to go up against barack obama. already. they've organized throughout the it's pretty clear. state of ohio, and i think his and we need to win this race. >> i am joined by the latest message is resonating. i think it did yesterday as he candidate to exit the race, former house speaker newt talked about why he deserves a second term. gingrich. thanks for being here this >> let me -- i want to turn to morning. >> good to be here. >> my question is these have not virginia and just get the lay of the land there before i get you been warm embraces. both in a more general it was a tough campaign, and i discussion. would it help if rob portman

get that that's a tough step to take, but do you think that it's were on the ticket with mitt time now to try to bring those romney. who would follow you and say, would it help him in a close race in ohio? listen to me, i do embrace this >> i think it may help guy in a whole manner, because marginally, but i don't think it would guarantee that mr. romney he needs to move on, doesn't he, to get into the fall campaign? would carry ohio. >> right. >> i think what he did this >> rob portman i described as a weekend is exactly right. very conservative guy with he needs to draw the contrast wonderfully good manners, but i don't think he has the kind of with barack obama whose campaign lunch i thought was an standing throughout ohio that would guarantee that he would absurdity. >> why? >> well, this is a president who carry the day for mitt romney. talked about hope and change. what are the changes? >> enough standing anyway to make him the sitting senator, but we'll get back to that. more americans lost their jobs i want to show some virginia than since the great depression. more americans lost their homes than any time in history. polls here for you, congressman. more americans are in poverty if the election were held today, than any time since the great president obama, 51%. depression. higher gasoline prices. mitt romney, 44%. these are the changes under barack obama. >> okay. let me just -- you know that the virginia up until the last presidential election was a president's team is going to conservative place. say, listen, we have, you know, added jobs to this economy that what's happened? >> well, a couple things. we were hemorrhaging when he first of all, president obama skewed the turnout level by just started, which is a fact.

i mean, they were hemorrhages jobs when he took over from bringing african-american voters out in drives driving it from george w. bush, and he has added 14% of the electorate to 18%, jobs, not enough jobs, which 19% and the college town turnout they concede but he's added jobs, and people are being a little more bullish on the across virginia, even radford and harrisonburg, both came out economy, and that's where this election is decided. so doesn't he sit pretty well? >> i think he sits very badly droves for president obama. >> so it got more democratic. once the facts are out because more people came out to vote. the truth is the unemployment >> absolutely. all those college students are rate -- if he had the same gone and they got to reregister number of people in the workforce that we had on the day he was sworn in, it would be them. you don't have the same level of enthusiasm. i think the african-american over 10% unemployment. what obama has succeeded in turnout will be there for him. in northern virginia he ran doing is actually driving people out of the workforce. overwhelmingly last time carrying 233,000 votes. so unemployment is down because that's part of the wealthiest there are fewer people looking for a job. part of the country. he's not going to do as well but there's a deeper part. there is no recovery since world there this next time, but it's going to be a battleground. war ii that is as weak and as virginia is going to be a genuine battleground at this lacking in jobs as this point, and northern virginia is recovery. going to be key for governor now, if he wanted to campaign in romney, but, remember, this is 2010 and say it was george w. part of the wealthiest part of bush's fault, that's one thing, but after four years, can you the country when you start putting a bull's-eye on people imagine ronald reagan in 1984 making over $200,000, $250,000 a saying, oh, it's all jimmy

carter's fault? year, that's where they live and i think it's going to be some problems for the president >> i want to move on because i moving down the line. >> the march unemployment rate in virginia was 5.8% which want to ask you about mitt compared to a lot of other romney, but it is true that he came into a situation that no states is great. i'm assuming that may help modern u.s. president has come into. >> and he has made it worse. president obama. i want to -- >> let me ask you, is there >> it does. i think it's a credit to our governor. you know, who has brought a lot anything that mitt romney could of jobs in, and the fact that do for you that would make you the federal government continues to spend money and in the support him publicly more northern virginia suburbs, that's where the economy is. wholesomely. >> well, i thought the other day it's with government. when i gave my speech suspending >> i want to read you something from our james carville. he's a democratic strategist. the campaign i was pretty clear -- >> you said he's better than the he told the richmond times dispatch, we, meaning democrats, president. >> but that's the first thing you want to say to people is, can lose virginia and still win look, this is not some magic but if we win virginia, we win the presidency. show. you're either going to get barack obama or you're going to it is a must-win swing state for get mitt romney. republicans. if obama wins virginia, call the now, i don't see how any dogs in and fee on the fire conservative given that choice could end up favoring barack because it's over. just a little colorful james obama, and that's what it's carville there for you all. going to come down to. mitt romney has many strong do you agree that virginia is a things. first of all, he won. you know, i didn't win. linchpin without which the rick perry didn't win. romney campaign collapses? michele bachmann didn't win. >> i don't, but i think governor rick santorum didn't win.

you have to have some respect romney will carry virginia. for a guy who spent six years of i think you just have to take a his life, put together a serious look at the demographics and the national campaign, made the voter turnout model that the president brings out in virginia case. in the two debates that were driving up particularly decisive, frankly, he beat me. i beat him in a lot of other african-american and minority debates but when it got to the crunch and he had to do it or die, he did it, and so i have turnout that in a presidential great respect for him. year democrats do much better there. i think that the -- and i'm not it's contrary to ohio and colorado and some of these other quite sure what the magic words states. as you all in the media want out i think governor romney will carry it at the end of the day. of me so let me say this. >> governor strickland, i want i believe that mitt romney will to read you back something you be a dramatically better hold "the huffington post" a president for the united states couple years ago at the end of 2010. i think there is a hesitancy -- than barack obama. i believe that he has earned the you're talking about the right to represent the democrats at this point -- i think there is a hesitancy to republican party and he's earned it the hard way. he has fought his way to the talk using populist language. i think it has to do with a sort nomination. nobody gave him an inch. >> and do you want something of intellectual elitism that considers that kind of talk is from him? somehow lacking in sophistication. do you want to speak at the i'm not sure where it comes from convention? but i think it's there. there's an unwillingness to draw do you need help with your debt? a line in the sand. i just want to remind our is there any kind of that negotiation going on? >> no, no. viewers that you lost your election in ohio as did i think there's no negotiation. if they think i'm helpful five u.s. democratic congressmen speaking at the convention, i'm glad to do it. i've done lots of conventions in who lost their races in ohio in

my career and as we're proving this morning i can get on tv a republican sweep. has the party changed vis-a-vis fairly often with or without its language. >> oh, the president's message speaking at the convention. obviously i'd love help from is right on target right now as anybody paying off the debt. far as i'm concerned. he's talking about women. obviously president obama is not he's talking about students. going to do it. i have been ak at this as a he's talking about a fair tax republican since 1958 when i was between my fresh man and code. and as i said, you know, he's sophomore years in high school. talking about manufacturing, and i believe the republican party's he saved the auto industry. very important to our future. what i want mitt romney to do is so the president's message is help us achieve a victory in the resonating right now. i think not only in ohio, but senate, the house, and the across the country. presidency, and then i want him to give my grandchildren a i think when the voters see the better future than they're going to get under barack obama. that's all i ask out of him. comparison between mr. romney's agenda, which is basically going >> do you have a date set to xap back to the bush era approach to wi campaign with him. >> we're talking about several dates and several major events the economy and president we're going to do together. obama's active approach in i have said to the campaign i moving us forward, i think the will be available at their convenience to do anything they want me to do because they're in preside charge. this is their campaign. they've got to win it, and i have got to be there as an president's got a good message associate, but i'm not the right now. he's strong, he's confident, leader. mitt romney is the leader. >> would you be number two?

>> i can't imagine it. and, quite frankly, i think people are responding to that. you've known me for years. >> and finally, congressman, to would you pick me to be number you. two? >> that's a wholly different you spoke to news channel 8 here story. let's deal with the reality of in washington recently in early it, would you be mitt romney's number two? >> i think romney is going to march, and you had this to say look for somebody who is about your nominee. younger. i think he's got somebody like >> you may not shall able to kelly ayotte in new hampshire, rob portman, marco rubio. feel your pain and empathize you look at a suzan martinez, m with people but do you want that or do you want somebody who is going to take tough decisions. that's the narrative of who he daniel. is and who he has to be. >> pretty big field. >> you said if he had a fire >> we have a deep bench. >> you brought up the senate. side chat he'd put the fire out. i want to ask you about a you're a smart politician. particular senate primary race in indiana. you know that understanding and it's the battle of richard feeling the pain of voters and murdoch, a tea party backed candidate, senator dick luger showing, i get, it i'll do who has been in the senate for something, is just almost as key decades. i mean, i think at least six as the policies. elections. how can he possibly win voters so in the senate that's decades. it now appears that luger is ten in virginia or anywhere else if he is that aloof of a person as points behind. our latest poll showing 38% dick you describe. >> well, he's a very accomplished person. he worked with a democratic lugar, 38% richard mourdock.

legislature in massachusetts accomplishing some great things. people are looking for bipartisanship at that level and >> mourdock has been campaigning people solving problems, not very hard. just making speeches and he representing the tea party charis change momentum. charisma. my hunch is he is going to win. my point was this is an accomplished person two turned i think it's one of those place where is people want more change around the olympics, turned around massachusetts, turned and they're not comfortable -- around companies. i think people are looking for and they have a governor who has answers -- brought tremendous changes. >> but you have to have some they have a real model of juice to campaign, don't you? >> yes, but what you've seen on change. >> are you a supporter of the other side is nothing but juice and nothing but rhetoric. mourdock? >> i have not gotten involved in primaries. four years ago they were running >> if the seat in indiana comes against bush, against the wars. against a bad economy. in play in the general now they've had four years to election -- >> oh, it won't. whoever wins will win the -- govern. the narrative is completely different. i think governor romney is the right person at the right time. i mean, we'll see, and i think >> i will have to see you on these primaries have been a good that. do you think -- i want to talk training ground for him. about the tea party in general. but he's hitting his stride now. they have not had -- mitt romney >> former congressman tom davis, former governor ted strickland. was searcertainly not their bigk thank you both. i think we'll be talking about

for the republican primaries. ohio and virginia for many months to come. i hope you will come back. it looks like orrin hatch in thank you. the enemy in afghanistan utah will survive what was a much stronger showing for the tea party when it came to a emboldened by u.s. forces bad behavior? previous senator who was unseated. >> they concern us because our do you think the tea party has lost power? enemies will seek to turn th we're also looking at polls showing that people have a less favorable view of the tea party them -- these incidents in their now. >> i think the effort to attack favor. the tea party has had an impact. at the very moment that they are my experience of the tea parties losing the war. has been overwhelmingly, they're >> and president obama's plan to serious. they study the constitution, the get out of afghanistan relies on declaration of independence. afghan forces taking over. will they be ready? find them to be very serious ♪ citizens everywhere i go in the country and i think the tea parties have added a lot, and i think you will see in certain races they are still very, very important. >> they seem to have faded a bit. >> they don't have passion ned in 2010. partially i think out of [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... frustration with having won the house and not seeing the scale and our communities... of change they want. america's beverage companies i mean, this is a very complex have created a wide range of new choices. form of government and it takes developing smaller portion sizes longer to get something done than people would like. and more low- & no-calorie beverages... >> i want to -- there was an adding clear calorie labels

editorial in "the l.a. times" so you know exactly what you're choosing... today from former california and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks governor arnold schwarzenegger with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, and in part he said an inclusive party would welcome the party's america's beverage companies are delivering. most conservative activists right alongside its most liberal activists. there is room for those whose views, i think, make them sound like cavemen and there is also room for us in the center with views the traditionalists probably think make us sound like progressive softies. do you have a problem with being inclusive? because most people do look at republicans going they are a conservative bunch of white guys who want to protect big oil, and now you're even hearing republicans saying it's not big enough, we haven't opened up the sorry. sore knee. tent door. >> you should probably get blast of cold feels nice. somebody like tim scott or allen west to talk about being a bunch of white guys since they're both why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. african-american congressmen, gives that instant cold sensation. but i would just say -- or marco

that's chilly. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. rubio or martinez. >> it's not as diverse as the and it lasts for hours. [ sigh of relief ] [ short breath ] democratic party. [ longer breath ] >> although the democratic party [ short breath ] has no room for a right to life speech at the national [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. convention. >> unless we get off topic -- freeze and move on. >> but i think it's important. lack of diversity in the [ roger ] tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... democratic party is ignored because they define diversity [ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...allstate. really? one way. the fact that the republican i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. party has rudy giuliani, who is [ kyle ] nope, i've got... i think one of the most widely [ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. admired people in the republican it's their most affordable car insurance -- party and who clearly is far and you still get an allstate agent. more moderate on a number of i too have...[ roger with voice of dennis ]...allstate. issues than mitt romney or [ roger ] same agent and everything. certainly than rick santorum. [ kyle ] it's like we're connected. i think we have very broad range no we're not. of people that we're proud to yeah, we are. no...we're not. have as republicans and there's not an automatic litmus test, ♪ the allstate value plan. although we are largely a dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. pro-life party and we're definitely is pro-balanced budget and pro-smaller government party. >> former speaker newt gingrich, former presidential campaigner. next chapter to be determined. thank you so much for dropping by. appreciate it. virginia and ohio, two swing states on the candidates' minds.

>> virginians are not going to be fooled. >> ohio, this election will be even closer than the last. greetings from the windy city of chicago. people here sure are friendly but some have had a hard time understanding my accent. so to make sure people get every word of the geico savings message i've been practicing how to talk like a true chicagoan. switching to geico could save you hundreds of dollars on car insurance... da bears. haha... you people sure do talk funny. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

i'm joined now by the heads of senate and house intelligence committees, senator dianne feinstein and senator mike rogers. they are both just back from afghanistan. thank you for joining us despite what might be some sleep deprivation. i was really struck by the defense chief, leon panetta, instructing some troops that were about to go over to afghanistan and saying, you know, behave yourselves. here is a little of what he had to say. >> i need every one of you,

every one of you, and all of your fellow service members to always display the strongest character, the greatest discipline, and the utmost integrity in everything you do. >> i know that eisenhower was not defense chief, but i found this highly unusual, and it made me think that the damage done by the accidental burning of the koran, which was not done as a men behaving badly, but then you had, you know, the urinating on the bodies of dead afghans, of posing with body parts. there's been time after time of just really bad behavior. has this taken a toll, and part of why i ask is we now have another incident in afghanistan where someone dressed in an afghan government uniform, a military uniform, has apparently shot someone with the nato

troops, the cool nation trooali. i wonder if things have gotten so bad they have to say behave and we're having real problems over there. >> i think there's damage. there's no question to that. there's damage to our integrity. you are forgiven if you there's damage to the military think the 2012 election campaign began months ago, but the obama and there's damage to the mission. there's also no question that the overwhelming bulk of our re-election team said it officially kicked off yesterday. >> hello, virginia! military are real professionals, and i think the people there see it. it is good to be back in ohio! we talked with general allen, >> ohio and virginia have 31 and he pointed out he went into the area and expected the electoral votes twens thembetwe leadership to talk with them and say how upset they were. along with political and instead, what they talked about economic landscapes that make them battlegrounds. was we hope you'll stay. ohio unemployment has been we need you. we hope you'll stay. dropping for eight straight months, but voters there say when it comes to the economy the so i think it's a mixed bag. i think that secretary panetta presumptive republican no, mami is absolutely right in what he said. it's got to be listened to and would do a better job than the president. the president has visited there it's got to be adhered to. >> does it just strike you as 21 times since taking office,

unusual that we have to tell more than any other state that grown men and women going doesn't neighbor washington. overseas behave yourselves, virginia is just a trip across don't do these sorts of things. gee didn't really say behave the bridge for the president, and he take that is trip yourselves. as a young army officer it's always instilled to you about frequently. mitt romney will be a regular as well. >> you're going to hear it all integrity, the military ethos of right here in virginia. respect and discipline and acting correctly. this may well be the state that i think he was reinforcing that decides who the next president and in the military, and that's what sets us apart from every is. >> at the moment romney trails other military in the world, is obama by seven points in we pride ourselves on that good virginia. not only is the ground game discipline, on that good order, and on our good success. already at full tilt in both states, the air war is under way as well. i think what you saw was >> mitt romney stood with big reiterating, hey, this is who we oil for their tax breaks attacking higher mileage are as a military force. standards. >> he said i don't care how long that's why we're so good. it's going to take, we're going those incidents are unfortunate, to find her. he set up a command center and but as the senator said, they are a small part of who our searched through the night. the man who helped save my daughter was mitt romney. united states military footprint >> former virginia congressman is. >> you were just over in tom davis and former ohio afghanistan. you did speak with president governor ted strickland on battleground politics next. karzai. first, i want to ask you how does he assess the relative strength of the taliban? i know and you the president

have different visions of whether the president thinks they're weaker, you think they're stronger. i want to get your opinion and ♪ then find out what president karzai thinks. >> well, president karzai believes that the taliban will not come back. i'm not so sure. the taliban has a shadow system ( whirring and crackling sounds ) of governors in many 3r06 vinces. they've gone up north. they've gone to the east. man: assembly lines that fix themselves. attacks are up. >> so they are stronger now. the most innovative companies >> the number of people are doing things they never could before, attacking, they have killed over by building on the cisco intelligent network. 500 of our people. so there is a strength. let me say something about that strength because this is where pakistan enters the equation. the pakistani radical madrazas are fueling a new insurgency. we were not able to go to pakistan. i think that was a huge mistake

for us because if we had the chance to talk to the pakistani leader, to say, look, we want to make things better. two, we need your help. we need your help on the ied factories. we need your help to see that the haqqani in north waziristan is stopped. we didn't have that chance. >> do you think comparing it to i tell you what i can spend. when the surge came in i do my best to make it work. afghanistan, when the president sent more troops in, is the taliban now weaker or stronger? >> i think we'd both say that what we found is that the taliban is stronger. >> yeah. >> so how are we going to ever leave -- you both agree with this. i'm assuming you both have information that i don't have, and i'm wondering, a, why the president has said they're weaker now, and, b, what that means for u.s. withdrawal. >> well, we have to decide, and we're going to have to have a hard conversation in america. are we willing to leave and have a safe haven reform in

afghanistan? we have to remember, this is tied -- >> by reform you mean reh dashr form. >> exactly. maybe the negotiations with the taliban have worked against what our end game is. war is when one side wins and one side loses. if we don't get to that c calculation you're not going to get to the place where you res assured you come home and a safe haven does not re-establish itself. remember, this was about u.s. citizens having to decide to burn alive in a building or jump to their death. that's why we're in afghanistan. it is in our national security interests and we better align or policies, that's what we both saw, we need to do a better job of aligning those policies to say the first priority here is to deny safe haven.

that means a strategic defeat of the taliban and we have to defeat the safe havens in the tribal areas. >> the two good things i think we saw was, one, the professionalism of the afghan military is increasing dramatically. >> will they be ready by next year? >> that is the belief and general allen spoke to us for some time, and i was really impressed with what he had to say. the second thing were young girls in schools. about 40% of the school population are young girls. and as you know, taliban threw acid on them to prevent them from going to school. the taliban while we were there tried to close schools in one province, but as you drove in, you saw young girls in their white scarfs holding hands walking down the street coming from school. that is wonderful to see. >> i have to close this -- >> we abandoned those girls if we don't get this right. in sharia law is allowed to come back under the taliban, these girls are at risk. that's something we have to talk about. >> at the same time we're

talking about we're trying to get the taliban in to have conversations with the government, you're telling me that the taliban is stronger and you're worried that we will leave and they will have the strength to re-form. >> and the taliban has not been designated as a terrorist organization by our government. >> because we're negotiating with them, right? >> and the haqqani. >> i meant to say the haqqani. >> and we both agree that the next important step here in this equation is to designate the haqqani network as a terrorist organization and take aggressive steps to disrupt their ability, and the senator is right, they've killed nearly 500 u.s. troops. they have outposts along the pakistani border. they fuel ieds and other activities. this is something we've got to be very aggressive to put an end to. >> congressman mike rogers, senator dianne feinstein. come back because too much has been invested in this not to get it right. >> good to see you, candy.

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time for a check of today's top stories. french voters are deciding whether president nicolas sarkozy will keep his job. he's in a runoff with socialist candidate francois hollande who had a small lead in pre-election polls. five 9/11 suspects were arraigned in guantanamo bay. the next hearing is in june. a body has been found at the site of the kentucky derby. louisville police say the body was discovered early this morning at a barn at churchill downs. it was the 138 th running of th derby that was run by i'll have another. if you had a clear sky last night, you might have been able to see this, super moon. nasa says it's about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full

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for an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. joining me, economist douglas holtz akin, alice riff ly -- rivlin and major garrett. new numbers this week on the economy, they weren't what they were supposed to be. barack obama says these are better, we have to work harder. mitt romney says they should be much higher than this. who is right? >> they should be much higher than this. this was a bad report. it's a continuation of some trends that i find very troubling. even when we get a relatively large number of jobs, inside the reports we've never had uniformly strong news. we're not seeing wages going up, hours going up, not seeing incomes going up for the americans who have jobs. the raproblem is not just jobs.

>> does that continue, that trend? >> nobody knows. there's good reason to think this was an unusually poor report. to way to make it a great report, about you they did revise upwards the numbers for february and march, and it's quite possible that the bad show in april was partly that we had very good weather in february and march and we did much better there than we usually do. there's some technical things, but the economy is chugging along. it's not doing well. it depends what you expected. if you expected a roaring boom -- >> you didn't get it. >> you didn't get it. but no one should have expected a roaring boom after this kind of a recession. a deep and bad recession that affected housing particularly. >> let me throw something in the conversation i wrote about last week in my column. uncertainty. about 12 items that congress can deal with right now. extending the bush tax cuts, debt ceiling, sequestration, passing spending bills that it's not doing, and the president seems to be okay with that.

so washington is putting off until the lame duck after this election about 12 huge items, and i have talked to economists, wall street, white house. if you take up the cumulative economic effect of these 12 things being held to a very short lame duck session of congress, it could have three percentage points of gdp points on this economy. one thing i would like to inject in this conversation is washington intentionally injecting unwanted and harmful uncertainty into this economy. >> and uncertainty has been the problem for -- when you talk to businesses who hire, they say we don't really know what's going to happen. >> you don't mow what the dividends tax rate is going to be,

>> the president is not okay with it. i assume that the republicans aren't okay with it either. we have gotten ourselves into a situation where the parties aren't even talking to each other, and the reason the president isn't pushing very hard on the congress is he knows he wouldn't get anywhere, and he has other things to do, like get him re-elected. >> he does have other things to do, and i think there you have your answer is that nobody wants the advantage that they think the other guy would get if they did something. >> let me ask this. >> this is a big problem. the numbers are what major said, and it is a moment when you can acknowledge that the election is important, but the larger leadership goal should be to say, okay, let's take the current policies, extend them for six months so that we don't have this hanging over everyone's head at the end of december, and then whoever wins the election, rightfully gets to -- >> let me ask you. it seems to me that we always go back to that ronald reagan question. are you better off -- in an election, are you better off now than you were four years ago? maybe this year we say should we

be better off now than we are? which one of those questions rules this election? >> we haven't decided that yet. that's going to be up to the voters. the president wants you to look at that question in a larger context. you look at a seven minute video this week forward. now, candy, i used to be in television. i pay a lot of attention how to time things out in a video. the first 38 seconds of that seven-minute campaign video is what president obama inherited. forward starts in reverse. looking backward at what he inherited. that's the frame for the campaign. you may not be satisfied, but you could be a lot more dissatisfied. i face an enormous problem. mitt romney says things are bad, you're in charge, and you are to blame for the badness. >> let me ask you another question. just interesting to me. whenever you talk to people, they say watch what happens overseas. we now have this election going on in france. it looks as though the socialist who has promised a 75% rate on

anyone making -- tax rate on anyone making $1.3 million or over, and they say the marginal rate is actually closer to 90% and who wants to put back in place the cuts in government service. if that should happen and if he should win, what does that do, if anything, to the u.s. economy? >> well, first place you have two elections. you have another one in greece next week, and it seems likely that both of them are a referendum on austerity, on the bad things that have been imposed, on the economies of both countries, but especially greece, in getting out of this dilemma, and the voters are not happy with having austerity. economists shouldn't be happy with it either, and it ought to be a lesson for us. if you cut spending drastically, it's not going to be good for your economy. >> i get it. i got to know, bad or good for the u.s. economy that quickly? >> drawing the wrong lesson is worse. we do need to fix our

entitlement programs. we do need to fix our tax code. there's a difference between austerity and reform. >> have i to go. i would have you all stay here forever. thank you. only one candidate can win a presidential primary. the others follow a tried and true outline of the exit speech. we'll break it down on the campaign trail. it's the little things in life that make me smile.

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>> i am confident that the democratic party will reunite. >> we must go forth from here united. >> the vision of progress we share and for the country we love. in the campaign game it's important to know not just when to fold 'em, but how. the gingrich withdrawal from the presidential race this week was 23 minutes of pure newt, but followed a well warned template of political exits. fist, lighten the mood, theirs and yours. dmroo my wife has pointed out to me approximately 219 times give or take three that the moon colony was probably not my most -- >> when he lost a governor's race in new jersey, we were

nosed out by a landslide. >> remember, it wasn't just your campaign. >> i also want to thank calista's mother. >> i want to thank everyone who has worked so hard. >> thank you all very much. god bless you. >> then make it official. cut the cord. >> today i'm suspending the campaign. >> i will suspend my candidacy for president of the united states. >> i am no longer actively pursuing the presidency. >> then grit your teeth and say something nice. >> if you look at romney's pledge to cut spending, creating private sector jobs, something i would suggest governor romney knows about 60,000 times more than does president obama. >> i have tremendous regard for john, have always had tremendous regard for john. >> i congratulate president carter on his victory here. >> now reset. calista and i pledge to create

new solutions, new opportunities so that the 21st century will be the third century of freedom in american exceptionalism. >> i will continue fighting to defeat the president's agenda of socialism. >> i will continue to stand strong with you every time, every place, and every way that i can. >> in politics it is often easy come, but not so easy go. thank you for watching state of the union. i'm candy crowley in washington. find today's interviews, some analysis, and web exclusiveives