>> it went well. this is great. i enjoyed it. >> enough caffeine, able to get through it. >> i keep a couple of tunes in my head, go through it. >> see, what the viewer doesn't know we have music rocking out in the studio to keep us going. great having you here. >> bottom line starts right now. thanks for watching. no matter how many hours you spent watching the democratic convention this week, i promise you, you didn't hear this. i'm about to tell you the three big mistakes the president made that could cost him his job. good morning, everyone. i'm christine romans. almost four years after the last presidential election, the economy is still struggling. we know president obama did not cause the economic crisis but is he fixing it. remember, regardless of what political party you associate with, how much money you make, where you live, any social issues you feel passionately about, barack obama is your president. last week i showed you how gop-backed policies helped run up the debt.

this week i'll show you the three mistakes president obama made that could keep him from another term. first, underestimating the economic crisis. the most important issue to voters today is the same as it was four years ago, jobs. in the summer of 2008, then candidate obama, he held a significant lead over republican nominee john mccain on this issue. 57% of voters said obama could better handle the job situation. three months later president obama was elected. fast forward to "today," 46% say the president will be better able to handle jobs in the economy. more people, 48% favor mitt romney. the second mistake the obama has a messaging problem. you know what, the president knows it. >> a mistake of my first couple of years was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. and that's important. but you know, the nature of this

office is also to tell a tore to the american people. >> speaking of messaging and telling that story, the democrats had a moment. they controlled the house, the senate, and the white house. what did the president do? >> barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. he didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically, no, that's not how he was raised. he cared that it was the right thing to do. >> many of you would agree it was the right thing to do. some of you don't. it addresses a very serious issue in the country. the president spent all of his political capital on this one issue. today more than 12 million americans out of work. former "new york times" columnist, senior fellow. robert samuelsson is a columnist at the "washington post."

borks i want to start with you. i asked if i could call him a liberal. he said put in proud. do you defend the economy without using bush, romney or ryan. >> sure, i can defend it. we have to remember and you touched on this in your introduction. when barack obama took office, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. the gdp, gross domestic product was plunging and we were on the verge of a great depression. he and his policies stopped that, prevented that from occurring. now, we've had a recovery, but everybody knows it's a weak recovery, and i think the president did not do enough. in fact, you mentioned liberal. i think the policy should have been more liberal. >> robert samuelsson, you gave the president this week a c plus on his economic report card. a plus avoiding the great depression, after that you gave him lower grades.

why? >> you have to realize this recovery has been about half speed of the normal post world war ii recovery. we've been growing at about 2% a year. average for post world war ii recovery is about 4%. i agree with mr. herbert that the administration's policies in cooperation with the federal reserve probably prevented us from going into a much deeper downturn, conceivably a great depression. i would give the president an a or a minus after that. >> after that you say there are mistakes? >> well, precisely what you said earlier, that he diverted his attention to other things, mainly health care and lost focus. i would say contributed to the excessively contentious atmosphere in washington and the sort of sequence of showdowns between the white house and congress. >> you think he contributed to that? the narrative from the democrats is that it's the republicans that have caused all these showdowns and this is the

conciliator in chief until two years into it when he had to get tough on policy. you think the president helped cause this impasse? >> i absolutely think the president is the country major political leader. has he to work with the opposition. when you pick health care as your main legislative goal, getting universal coverage, you know that is going to be polarizing. you know it's going to evoke an enormous opposition, that's not a fight you want to be looking for. >> talk about the construct this week, framing this election at least for the week, about this are you better off. this whole argument, it's a bumper sticker, that feeds into politicians and people that believe in bumper sticker politics. a flashback to four years ago, not when the president took office. lehman collapsed september 15th, the economy shrunk by 3.7%, lost

1.1 million jobs between august and october that year. think back to then candidate john mccain saying he was going to suspend campaigning for a moment to come back to washington because we were on the brink of something so horrible. the back room conversations between both parties, the fed, treasury secretaries, titans of business saying what is happening here. robert samuelsson, are we better off than we were four years ago? >> well, it's interesting. if you take a snapshot of the economy now and a snapshot of the economy when obama took office, they are almost identical. payroll employment is $133 million now. it was $133 million when he came into office. the unemployment rate is 8.3% now. it was just about 8.8% when he came into office. if you look at per capita incomes and adjust for inflation, there's basically been no change. the same is true of hourly -- average hourly wages. i would say we're not better

off, not substantially worse off. i think the major difference is psychological. when the president came into office, people were terrified. they didn't know what was going on. they feared for the worst. that, i think, is gone. but it's been replaced by a kind of quiet fatalism, insecurity and stagnation have become our permanent economic clock. >> that's interesting. >> i would say we are not any worse off than we were, but we're not much better off. >> bob herbert, terrified versus fatalistic. i can't remember what he said. they both sounded bad but they are different. >> you know, people talk about what america was like in the post-war world and they compare it to the way it is now. we're much better off now than we were in the 1950s and '60s. but one of the big differences, i always say, is in the '50s and '60s people thought we were moving in the right direction. people thought they could handle

their problems. the reason i think people feel sort of the way they do now, it's almost like a psychological depression is that they feel we're either stagnating or going backwards. they don't feel we have a handle on our problems. that's a big difficulty. >> bob herbert, robert samuelsson, both give the president a c plus. the president himself gave an incomplete. i think voters will give him the final grade in november. gentlemen, thank you so much. coming up -- >> they believe in teachers unions. we believe in teachers. >> can you support teachers but not teachers unions? we'll ask the country's biggest teachers union praer later nba superstar dwyane wade's other job. his advice to other dads and what he tells his kids about money. [ pilot ] now when you build an aircraft,

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pop quiz. can you love your teacher and hate their union? the president and his opponent both support paying teachers for their performance not seniority. they both support charter schools. both parties want education reform. the gop is more likely to say unions are standing in the way of that reform. i wonder wt the president of the nation's largest teachers

union thinks about that. the president of the nea joins me now. good morning, sir. thanks for joining us. dennis -- >> thank you for having me. >> are you losing sleep at all over the thought of a president promises? >> well, you know, governor romney has a very different for america than president obama disenfranchisement -- president obama does. our educators believe in president obama's vision for america. when you listen to prime minister romney he believes students should have all the education they can afford or if you're having trouble with higher education, ask your parents for a loan. he's really disconnected with most of the families we deal and students. >> this is a tough time for education. 300,000 education jobs gone since 2009, you disagree with part of the program raise to the top, particularly expansion of charter schools and tying teacher compensation to student

performance. president obama has even endorsed firing teachers at an underperforming school in central falls, rhode island but you're still endorsing the president. is the question the candidate you least like most? did i say that right? >> it's definitely about the candidate we believe in and like most. absolutely we've had disagreements on policy statements, but that is not a problem for me. see, we believe in his vision for america. we believe where it ought to go. he believes in access for all students. he believes in the continuum from early childhood through graduate school. he supported pell grants, increasing those. he changed the student loan program. so we believe in what he's done, believe in his vision. i would much rather disagree on how to reach a commonly held vision than argue about where we want to go. with governor romney, we don't believe in his vision. we don't believe it solves the problems of education.

>> we know both parties have talked about more vouchers -- charter schools, not vouchers. republicans are vouchers. charter schools, more choice for students. republicans hammered school choice and voucher. take a listen to what the former florida governor jeb bush recently said. >> there are many people who say they support strong schools but draw the line at school choice. sorry, kid, giving you equal opportunity would be too risky and it would upset powerful political forces we need to win elections. >> dennis, that's you, the powerful political forces to win elections for the president. he says voters can help unions or voters can help students. it's one or the other. what's wrong with allowing parents to choose their child's school. >> i just don't understand why in america we want to find a solution that solves the problem for some students. the richest and most powerful nation in the world, i want the mental model, i want the vision to be we provided for every

student in america no matter where we live, who your parents are, what their economic status. when we're working together to find solutions, let's define a solution that works for every single child in america. president obama understands the need to do that. he supports that vision. that's why the members of nea, over 3 million of them, who work in classrooms from early chide ho -- childhood we believe they need president obama for four more years. >> powerful union, nea spent $7 million lobbying. i want to show you a new gallup poll that show 29% of americans want labor unions to have more influence. 41% want labor unions to have less influence. why are they wrong? >> well, you know, i started teaching many years ago. i was a high school math teacher for 23 years. my first year of teaching, i thought if i cared enough and worked hard enough, i could deliver for my students. i soon realized i couldn't

because too many decisions were made outside of my classroom. i wanted a voice. if i'm teaching every day all day, i needed someone to be advocating for me and my students and that was my union. in this day and age, unions are needed more than ever. i want that voice heard of the people who spend their professional life with students. so i absolutely believe we cannot only there is a need to be there, we need to play a leadership role in defining solutions for kids. >> supporting the president, you're there in charlotte, supporting the president for another term, on the campaign trail, clearly education something being hammered by the romney camp. thank you for joining us. come back again soon. >> you bet. thank you for having me. up next, he's been appointed by the president to teach fathers to become more involved in their kids lives. >> someone said back to me you have the money to do that. i said it doesn't take money to sit across the table with your son and help him with his map until he gets it. that takes time. that takes dedication.

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got two full-time jobs, basketball and fatherhood. and when you talk to him, it's pretty clear how passionate he is about both. wade was recently appointed by president obama to help lead a program that encourages fathers to be more involved in their kids' lives. it's something important to wade, who was a dad by the time he was 20, while a sophomore at marquette university. he has had a remarkable ten years since, both on and off the court, and being a father is the center of it all. >> obviously, you know, i'm not going to discredit what basketball has done for me and my family and how important the sport is, but you know, it's a little something that's a little bit more important, you know, to me, and it's being a father, and it's really understanding that.

and i think once i understood that, i think i was happier in life. you know, when you're young, basketball's everything, basketball's everything, but when you find something outside of basketball that you really love doing, and for me, it's being a father, you know, it makes losing -- you can take it a little bit easier. >> how old is zayeer? >> he's 10. >> and his favorite player is lebron. >> well, his favorite player is lebron, but he likes k.d. now, too. in the finals, i was like, who are you going to root for? you have me, lebron, k.d. >> does he krit creates you? >> he's my toughest critic. >> really? >> he's worse than any media can be. he watches it, he's a fan. he enjoys the game. it's sick. it's sickening. >> tell me about "man time." >> man time. >> i love it. >> yeah, that's when all the boys get together. it's just us. >> right. >> you know. and we have so many parts of our lives and so many people in it, but that's the moment where it's just me and we're all together

and we do different things. some man time is about sitting across from each other, it's asking each other questions, you know, questions about life, you know, questions about anything they want. sometimes it's going out, hanging out, going to get ice cream or just going out, just being with each other, getting in the car, going for a drive with the top down. they like to ride on the expressway with the top down. just anything when it's just us, we call it man time. and when i come home, they'll be like, man time? i'd be like, let me put my bags down. >> there's a picture of you at marquette university, you've already got a baby. you're only 20. you went on to an amazing ten years of fame and great talent and fortune as well, but there are a lot of young men that age who aren't going to have the money and the fame that follows them. what's your advice to young men who are young fathers and what they need to do? >> well, you know, i always like to say is everyone has their own path. and just because you don't have the fame and the fortune that someone else has doesn't mean that you can't, you know, be successful in life, doesn't mean you can't continue to have a

great parent. i get sometimes when i talk about my kids, someone said back to me once, well, you have the money to do that. i say it doesn't take money to sit across the table from your son and sit there and help him with his math work until he gets it. that takes time, that takes dedication, that takes one to see him succeed. money that's nothing to do with that. so, there's other ways to be an unbelievable father without having a dime. >> the president recent ly pointed you to a program helping fathers get more involved in their kids' lives. how are you working with the white house on that? >> first of all, it's an honor. i got appointed in 2011, so before i even got custody, and i think that they saw the efforts of me focusing on being a father and how important it was for me to be appointed to be one of the voices of it, to sit, you know, in the room full of fathers and kind of talk to them and kind of be the one to say this is how i do things, not telling you guys how you should do it, but just sharing my experiences and also letting them know, listen, it's

time for us to take our place back in the household and what's important in our kids' lives is they need fathers in their lives just as much as they need their mothers. they need their fathers and fathers are very, very important, your voice are important. so, kind of being a guy whose voice has been heard in that space, it's truly an honor for me that they would even look for me to be involved in it. >> i know you've played basketball with the president, you've been a supporter of the president. he's got such a reputation as a great father, but it's an election season. people criticize his leadership. do you think he's been a good president? >> i think he's been a good president. i mean, i couldn't imagine being in his shoes, you know, and to deal with the things you have to deal with. so, i think he's done a good job. i mean, obviously, everyone wants and needs more time to really complete the task at hand, so you know, hopefully, he gets that. but you know, he's an unbelievable person, and i think everyone feels like they can, you know, that you can sit with him and have lunch. >> really? >> you can sit with him and have a conversation, you know, and just be like one of your

friends. it's not someone you look at like he's untouchable. you know, he's just like the rest of us. he just has a lot more knowledge on a lot of different things, but you know, he's a great guy. like i said, i plad basketball with him. that's a dream come true. >> is he any good? >> he's actually not bad. >> he's not bad. >> he's not bad. he's a point guard, and to his teammates, he's a lefty and with the midrange shot, so he's not bad. >> he may be only 30 years old, but the all-star nba champion and gold medalist has a lot of wisdom to share, especially for young fathers. coming up, the parties are all over in tampa and charlotte as the conventions have come and gone, and now voters want to hear straight talk from the president and his opponent. will we hear real plans that address the standard of living for america's struggling middle class? let's hope so. to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. with our award winning apps that allow you to transfer funds, pay bills or manage your finances anywhere, anytime.

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let's look one last time at the closing scenes of both conventions. largely choreographed, few surprises, except for that empty chair. oh, yeah, and a fight among democrats over god and jerusalem. but the closing arguments are next, the debates. maybe at's where we'll find out information we've not yet heard from the candidates but will decide the standard of living for america's middle class. what happens, governor romney, to the mortgage interest deduction? i've read your 59-point plan. i'm not quite sure. what is the risk to americans if china's booming economy comes back down to earth with a crash, mr. president? oh, and our biggest customer, the our joe zone, falls deeper into recession. neither man can stop it, but why are they ignoring it? oh yeah, and the fiscal cliff and almost certain recession next year, but what are you hein