endorsement of mitt romney. >> i'm asked sometimes is mitt romney conservative enough? and my answer is simple. compared to barack obama? >> hello, virginia. >> thank you, ohio. and battleground politic was former ohio governor ted strickland and former virginia congressman tom davis. then gauging the power of the taliban, al qaeda, and the afghan government with the chairs of the senate and house intelligence committees, democrat dianne feinstein and republican mike rogers. plus, the anemic recovery and the election with "the national journal's" major garrett and janice rivlin. i'm candy crowley and this is "state of the union." republican leaders and former rivals are gathering around mitt romney's candidacy, but the coalescing lacks a certain warm and fuzzy feature. >> compared to barack obama? i would trust mitt romney 100 times over. >> he's the guy. he called and i called him back.

we kind of traded some voicemails. >> he's the person that is going to go up against barack obama. it's pretty clear. and we need to win this race. >> i am joined by the latest candidate to exit the race, former house speaker newt gingrich. thanks for being here this morning. >> good to be here. >> so my question is these have not been warm embraces. it was a tough campaign, and i get that that's a tough step to take, but do you think that it's time now to try to bring those who would follow you and say, listen to me, i do embrace this guy in a whole manner, because he needs to move on, doesn't he, to get into the fall campaign? >> i think what he did this weekend is exactly right. he needs to draw the contrast with barack obama whose campaign lunch i thought was an absurdity. >> why? >> well, this is a president who talked about hope and change. what are the changes? more americans lost their jobs than since the great depression. more americans lost their homes than any time in history. more americans are in poverty than any time since the great depression.

bigger -- higher gasoline prices. these are the changes under barack obama. >> okay. let me just -- you know that the president's team is going to say, listen, we have, you know, added jobs to this economy that we were hemorrhaging when he started, which is a fact. i mean, they were hemorrhaging jobs when he took over from george w. bush, and he has added jobs, not enough jobs, which they concede, but he's added jobs, and people are being a little more bullish on the economy, and that's where this election is decided. so doesn't he sit pretty well? >> i think he sits very badly once the facts are out because the truth is the unemployment rate -- if we had the same number of people in the workforce that we had on the day he was sworn in, it would be over 10% unemployment. what obama has succeeded in doing is actually driving people out of the workforce. so unemployment is down because there are fewer people looking for a job. but there's a deeper part.

there is no recovery since world war ii that is as weak and as lacking in jobs as this recovery. now, if he wanted to campaign in 2010 and say it was george w. bush's fault, that's one thing, but after four years, can you imagine ronald reagan in 1984 saying, oh, it's all jimmy carter's fault? >> i want to move on because i want to ask you about mitt romney, but it is true that he came into a situation that no modern u.s. president has come into. >> and he has made it worse. he has made it worse. >> let me ask you, is there anything that mitt romney could do for you that would make you support him publicly more wholesomely? >> well, i thought the other day when i gave my speech suspending the campaign, i was pretty clear -- >> you said he's better than the president. >> but that's the first thing you want to say to people is, look, this is not some magic show.

you're either going to get barack obama or you're going to get mitt romney. now, i don't see how any conservative, given that choice, could end up favoring barack obama, and that's what it's going to come down to. mitt romney has many strong things. first of all, he won. you know, i didn't win. rick perry didn't win. michele bachmann didn't win. rick santorum didn't win. you have to have some respect for a guy who spent six years of his life, put together a serious national campaign, made the case. in the two debates that were decisive, frankly, he beat me. i beat him in a lot of other debates, but when it got to the crunch and he had to do it or die, he did it, and so i have great respect for him. i think that the -- and i'm not quite sure what the magic words as you-all in e media want out of me, so let me say this. i believe that mitt romney will be a dramatically better president for the united states than barack obama. i believe that he has earned the right to represent the republican party and he's earned it the hard way. he has fought his way to the nomination. nobody gave him an inch.

>> and do you want something from him? do you want to speak at the convention? do you need help with your debt? is there any kind of that negotiation going on? >> no, no. there's no negotiation. if they think i'm helpful speaking at the convention, i'm glad to do it. i've done lots of conventions in my career and as we're proving this morning, i can get on tv fairly often with or without speaking at the convention. obviously, i'd love help from anybody paying off the debt. obviously, president obama is not going to do it. if they want to go to newt.org, i'm grateful. i have been at this as a republican since 1958 when i was between my freshman and sophomore years in high school. i believe the republican party's very important to our future. what i want mitt romney to do is help us achieve a victory in the senate, the house, and the presidency, and then i want him to give my grandchildren a better future than they're going to get under barack obama. that's all i ask out of him. >> do you have a date set to

campaign with him? >> we're talking about several dates and several major events we're going to do together. i have said to the campaign, i will be available at their convenience to do anything they want me to do because they're in charge. this is their campaign. they've got to win it, and i have got to be there as an associate, but i'm not the leader. mitt romney is the leader. >> would you be number two? >> oh, i can't imagine it. you've known me for years. would you pick me to be number two? >> that's a wholly different story. let's deal with the reality of it. would you be mitt romney's number two? >> i think romney is going to look for somebody who is younger. i think he's got somebody like kelly ayotte in new hampshire, rob portman, marco rubio. you look at susannah martinez, bobby jindal, mitch daniel. >> pretty big field. >> we have a deep bench. >> you brought up the senate. and i want to ask you about a particular senate primary race that is coming up in indiana. it's the battle of richard

murdoch who is a tea party-backed candidate, senator dick luger, who has been in the senate for decades. i mean, i think at least six elections. so in the senate, that's decades. it now appears that luger is ten points behind. our latest poll showing 38% dick lugar, 38%, richard mourdock. >> i have known them both a very long time. mourdock has been campaigning very hard. he representing the tea party change momentum. my hunch is mourdock is going to win. i think it's one of those place where is people want more change and they're not comfortable -- and they have a governor who has brought tremendous changes. they have a real model of change. >> are you a supporter of mourdock? >> i have not gotten involved in primaries. >> do you think that if this means the seat in indiana comes into play in the general election -- >> oh, it won't.

whoever wins will win the -- >> i will have to see you on that. do you think -- i want to talk about the tea party in general. they have not had -- mitt romney was certainly not their big pick for the republican primaries at the presidential level. it looks like orrin hatch in utah will survive what was a much stronger showing for the tea party when it came to a previous senator who was unseated. do you think the tea party has lost power? we're also looking at polls showing that people have a less favorable view of the tea party now. >> i think the effort to attack the tea party has had an impact. my experience of the tea parties has been overwhelmingly, they're serious. they study the constitution, the declaration of independence. i mean, i 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 se,e in

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 frustration with having won the house and not seeing the scale of change they want. i mean, this is a very complex form of government and it takes longer to get something done than people would like. >> i want to -- there was an editorial in "the l.a. times" today from former california governor arnold schwarzenegger. and, in part, he said, "an inclusive party would welcome the party's 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."

it was about a couple of folks that had been republicans and couldn't stand how closed the tent was in the republican party. 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 tent door. >> you should probably get somebody like tim scott or allen west to talk about being a bunch of white guys since they're both african-american congressmen. but i would just say -- or marco rubio or susannah martinez. >> it's not as diverse as the democratic party. you concede that. >> although the democratic party has no room for a right-to-life speech at the national convention. >> lest we get off topic -- >> but i think it's important. lack of diversity in the democratic party is ignored because they define diversity one way. the fact that the republican party has rudy giuliani, who is i think one of the most widely admired people in the republican party and who clearly is far more moderate on a number of issues than mitt romney or certainly than rick santorum. i think we have very broad range of people that we're proud to have as republicans and there's

not an automatic litmus test, although we are largely a pro-life party and we're largely -- 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. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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what we achieved here. what we learned here. and what we pioneered here. all goes here. the one. the accord. smarter thinking from honda. you are forgiven if you think the 2012 election campaign began months ago, but the obama re-election team says it officially kicked off yesterday. >> hello, virginia! it is good to be back in ohio! >> ohio and virginia have 31 electoral votes between them, along with political and economic landscapes that make them battlegrounds. ohio unemployment has been

dropping for eight straight months. it has tracked below the national average. but voters there say when it comes to the economy, the presumptive republican nominee would do a better job than the president. the importance of ohio electoral strategy, the president has visited there 21 times since taking office, more than any other state that doesn't neighbor washington. virginia is just a trip across the bridge for the president, and he takes that trip frequently. mitt romney will be a regular as well. >> you're going to hear it all right here in virginia. this may well be the state that decides who the next president is. >> at the moment, romney trails obama by seven points in virginia. not only is the ground game already at full tilt in both states, the air war is under way as well. >> mitt romney stood with big oil for their tax breaks, attacking higher mileage standards. >> he said i don't care how long

it takes. we're going to find her. he set up a command center and searched through the night. the man who helped save my daughter was mitt romney. >> former virginia congressman tom davis and former ohio governor ted strickland on battleground politics next. [ female announcer ] introducing a match made in skin heaven.

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joining me is ohio's former governor, democrat ted strickland, and republican tom davis, a former virginia congressman. gentlemen, thanks both. governor, let me start with you, and i want to put up an ohio quinnipiac poll recently. if the election were held today, president obama, 44%. president -- sorry, republican nominee romney, 42%. it is essentially a tie in a state which has a fairly good unemployment rate at this point, about 7.5%. that's not great, but it's below the national average. why is the president having trouble there? >> well, i don't know that he's having trouble, candy, but ohio is a battleground, and no candidate and no party can ever take ohio for granted. so this is going to be a very close election. but i think the president's pretty well-positioned. his saving of the auto industry is a big deal for ohio. >> sure. >> there are hundreds of thousands of people working today in ohio because of the

auto industry's recovery -- >> that's why i asked why it's so close. that's why i asked it's so close. >> i think it's close because of the nature of ohio. we are a microcosm of america. the country is divided, and the electorate in ohio is divided as well. it was close the last time. it will be close this time. it's always close in ohio, but i think the president's well-positioned because he's got a good team on the ground already. they've organized throughout the state of ohio, and i think his message is resonating. i think it did yesterday as he talked about why he deserves a second term. >> let me -- i want to turn to virginia and just get the lay of the land there before i get you both in a more general discussion. would it help if rob portman were on the ticket with mitt romney? would it help him in a close race in ohio? >> i think it may help marginally, but i don't think it would guarantee that mr. romney would carry ohio.

>> right. >> rob portman i described as a very conservative guy with wonderfully good manners, but i don't think he has the kind of standing throughout ohio that would guarantee that he would carry the day for mitt romney. >> enough standing anyway to make him the sitting senator, but we'll get back to that. i want to show some virginia polls here for you, congressman. if the election were held today, president obama, 51%. mitt romney, 44%. virginia up until the last presidential election was a conservative place. what's happened? >> well, a couple things. first of all, president obama skewed the turnout level by just bringing african-american voters out in droves, driving it from 14% of the electorate to 18%, 19% and the college town turnout

across virginia, even traditional republican towns like radford and harrisonburg, both came out droves for president obama. >> so it got more democratic. more people came out to vote? >> absolutely. of course, now all those college students are gone and they got to reregister them. you don't have the same level of enthusiasm. i think the african-american turnout will be there for him. in northern virginia, he ran overwhelmingly last time, carrying about 233,000 votes. that's part of the wealthiest part of the country. he's not going to do as well there this next time, but it's going to be a battleground. virginia is going to be a genuine battleground at this point, and northern virginia is going to be key for governor romney, but, remember, this is part of the wealthiest part of the country. when you start putting a bull's-eye on people making over $200,000, $250,000 a year, that's where they live and i think it's going to be some problems for the president moving down the line. >> the march unemployment rate in virginia was 5.8% which compared to a lot of other states is great. i'm assuming that may help

president obama. i want to -- >> it does. i think it's a credit to our governor, you know, who has brought a lot of jobs in, and the fact that the federal government continues to spend money and in the northern virginia suburbs, that's where the economy is. it's with government. >> i want to read you something from our james carville, as you know, he's a democratic strategist. he told "the richmond times dispatch," "we," meaning democrats, "can lose virginia and still win but if we win virginia, we win the presidency. it is a must-win swing state for republicans. if obama wins virginia, call the dogs in and pee on the fire because it's over." just a little colorful james carville there for you all. do you agree that virginia is a linchpin without which the romney campaign collapses? >> i don't, but i think governor romney will carry virginia. i think you just have to take a look at the demographics and the voter turnout model that the president brings out in virginia driving up particularly african-american and minority turnout, that in a presidential year, democrats do much better there. it's contrary to ohio and

colorado and some of these other states. i think governor romney will carry it at the end of the day. >> governor strickland, i want to read you back something you hold "the huffington post" a couple years ago at the end of 2010. "i think there is a hesitancy --" you're talking about the democrats at this point -- "i think there is a hesitancy to talk using populist language. i think it has to do with a sort of intellectual elitism that considers that kind of talk is somehow lacking in sophistication. i'm not sure where it comes from but i think it's there. there's an unwillingness to draw a line in the sand." i just want to remind our viewers that you lost your election in ohio as did i think five u.s. democratic congressmen who lost their races in ohio in a republican sweep. has the party changed vis-a-vis its language? >> oh, the president's message is right on target right now as far as i'm concerned. he's talking about women. he's talking about students.

he's talking about a fair tax code. and as i said, you know, he's talking about manufacturing, and he saved the auto industry. so the president's message is resonating right now. i think not only in ohio, but across the country. i think when the voters see the comparison between mr. romney's agenda, which is basically going back to the bush era approach to the economy and president obama's active approach in moving us forward, i think the president's got a good message right now. he's strong, he's confident, and, quite frankly, i think people are responding to that. >> and finally, congressman, to you. you spoke to news channel 8 here in washington recently in early march, and you had this to say about your nominee.

>> he may not be able to feel your pain and empathize 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 is and who he has to be. >> congressman, you said if he had a fireside chat, he'd put the fire out. you're a smart politician. you know that understanding and feeling the pain of voters and showing i get it, i'll do something, is just almost as key as the policies. how can he possibly win voters in virginia or anywhere else if he is that aloof of a person as you describe? >> well, he's a very accomplished person. he worked with a democratic legislature in massachusetts accomplishing some great things. people are looking for bipartisanship at that level and people solving problems, not just making speeches and charisma. and my point was this is an accomplished person who turned around the olympics, turned around massachusetts, turned around companies. i think people are looking for

answers now as government gets so gridlocked. >> but you have to have some juice to campaign, don't you? >> yes, but what you've seen on the other side is nothing but juice and nothing but rhetoric. four years ago, they were running against bush, against the wars, against a bad economy. now they've had four years to govern. and the narrative is completely different. and i think governor romney is the right person at the right time. i mean, we'll see, and i think these primaries have been a good training ground for him. but he's hitting his stride now. it's gonna be a close race. >> former congressman tom davis, former governor ted strickland. thank you both. i think we'll be talking about ohio and virginia for many months to come. i hope you will come back. thank you. the enemy in afghanistan emboldened by u.s. forces bad behavior? >> they concern us because our enemies will seek to turn them -- these incidents in their

favor at the very moment that they are losing the war. and president obama's plan to get out of afghanistan relies on afghan forces taking over. will they be ready? we ask the leaders of the congressional intelligence committees who met this week with afghan president karzai. last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years. in florida we had more sun tans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water.

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i'm joined now by the heads of senate and house intelligence committees, senator dianne feinstein of california and senator mike rogers from michigan. 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 apparently in afghanistan where someone dressed in an afghan government uniform, a military uniform, has apparently shot someone with the nato troops, the coalition troops. i wonder if things have gotten

so bad from these things that, a, the pentagon chief has to say 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. there's damage to the military and there's damage to the mission. there's also no question that the overwhelming bulk of our military are real professionals, and i think the people there see it. we talked with general allen, mike, and he pointed out he went into the area and expected the leadership to talk with them and say how upset they were. instead, what they talked about was we hope you'll stay. we need you. we hope you'll stay. so i think it's a mixed bag. i think that secretary panetta is absolutely right in what he said. it's got to be listened to and it's got to be adhered to. >> does it just strike you as unusual that we have to tell grown men and women going overseas, behave yourselves, don't do these sorts of things? >> he didn't really say behave yourselves.

as a young army officer, it's always instilled to you about integrity, the military ethos of respect and discipline and acting correctly. i think he was reinforcing that and in the military, and that's what sets us apart from every other military in the world, is we pride ourselves on that good discipline, on that good order and on our good success. i think what you saw there was reiterating, hey, this is who we are as a military force. that's why we're so good. those incidents are unfortunate, but as the senator said, they are a small part of who our united states military footprint is. >> you were just over in afghanistan. you did speak with president 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

of governors in many provinces. they've gone up north. they've gone to the east. attacks are up. >> so they are stronger now? >> the number of people attacking, they have killed over 500 of our people. so there is a strength. now, let me say something about that strength because this is where pakistan enters the equation. the pakistani radical madrazas are fueling a new generation of fighter, so an insurgency, which one can expect to burn out after a time will not burn out because there's new recruits. 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 need your help with shah.

we didn't have that chance. >> do you think comparing it to when the surge came in 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 the taliban is stronger. agree? >> 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 back -- >> by reforming you mean re, dash, 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 calculation of the strategic defeat of the taliban, you're not going to get to the place where you are reassured 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. and that means a strategic defeat of the taliban and we have to also defeat the safe havens in the tribal areas of pakistan. >> 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. if 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, regardless of the afghan troops. >> 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 -- excuse me, 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, both heads of their intelligence committee. come back because too much has been invested in this not to get it right. >> good to see you, candy. >> thanks so much. the two presidential candidates draw different conclusions from the same jobs report. >> our businesses have now created more than 4.2 million new jobs over the last 26 months. >> as a matter of fact, only 115,000 net new jobs are created. that was well beneath what it was expected to be.

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time for a check of today's top stories. vice president joe biden today said he supports same-sex marriage. >> the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and homosexual men and women marrying are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil right, all the i civil liberties and quite frankly, i don't see much of a distinction beyond that. >> president obama doesn't officially support gay marriage. he has said his position is evolving. 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. voters in greece are heading to the polls. the election could decide the fate of the country's budget crisis. greece is struggling through a 50-year recession. results are expected late tonight. five 9/11 suspects were arraigned in a military court at guantanamo bay yesterday. the men refused to answer the

judge's questions causing a 13-hour courtroom session. their next hearing is june. louisville police suspect foul play in the death at the site of the kentucky derby. the body of an unidentified hispanic male was found early this morning in a barn at churchill downs. a disappointing job's report and the presidential race and then the art of the exit. ghbac. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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nobody likes surprises. [ click ] [ chuckles ] we totally thought -- [ all scream ] obscure space junk falling from the sky? we cover that. moving on. aah, aah, aah, aah. [ male announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers ♪ bum, ba-da-bum, bum, bum, bum ♪ joining me, economist douglas holtz akin, alice rivlin and major garrett. new numbers this week on the economy, they weren't what they were supposed to be. barack obama says, oh, my goodness, 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,

our goals aren't very high right now, 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 problem is not just jobs. it's that we're not getting enough income and growth. >> does that continue, that trend? >> nobody knows. there's good reason to think this was an unusually poor report. no way to make it a great report, but 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 in "national journal," 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 all of these 12 things being held to a very short lame duck session of congress, it could have three percentage points of gdp effect 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 know what the dividends tax rate is going to be, capital gains, bush tax cuts.

>> walks is broken it is gridlocked it is dreadful, the president is not okay with it. i would assume the president isn't okay with it either but 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 getting re-elected. 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 -- >> 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 you 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 pick the path. >> 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 to 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 senses 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 because that's going to affect us. 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? >> if europe melts down it is bad for the u.s. economy but 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. >> i have 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. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit

to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible.

and then treats day after day... well, shoot, that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc. and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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-worn template of political exits. first, lighten the mood, theirs and yours. >> my wife has pointed out to me

approximately 219 times, give or take three, that the moon colony was probably not my most memorably comment in this campaign. >> 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 exclusives at our website, cnn.com/sotu. fareed zakaria "gps" is next for our viewers here in the united states. this is "gps, the global public square." welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. we have a great show for you today. we will start with theco