we'll be watching as well and we'll report to you next week. that's it for this edition of "reliable sources". if you miss ad program you can now go to itunes on monday and check out our audio podcast. join us right back here on sunday morning 11:00 a.m. eastern for another critical look at the media. "state of the union" with candy crowley begins now. two conventions, two visions, two months to go. today, mitt romney vacations in virginia. >> i have a plan to get america working again, and i know it is going to work. for me it is not something i studied in school, but something i did for 25 years. >> barack obama pushes through florida. >> this is a choice between two fundamentally different paths for america and two fundamentally different visions for the future. >> the could be sequences of tough choices with california governor jerry brown. and also we will speak to newt

gingrich, and also revving up the economy, we have carlos gutierrez and carmax founder austin ligon. homestretch politics with peter baker of the "new york times" and a.b.stoddard of the "the hill." i'm candy crowley and this is "state of the union". >> democratic governor jerry brown sad out this year's convention was back home grappling with his massive state budget. a $16 billion deficit, he cutback what he didn't want. this fall the governor wants voters to approve a tax hike for the wealthy and increase in the sales tax. the outcome could have implications for spending mettles in washington and state capitals across the country. joining me is governor of california jerry brown. thank you, governor, for joining us. let's talk a little bit about where we are as a fall campaign begins. we just got another lackluster jobs report and a lot lower of

job creation than folks thought it would be, and can president obama lose this election? >> well, obviously, anybody can lose or win an election. these things are not absolutely determined, and this is a close election, but i would say that the contrast of the difference is reasonably clear. romney almost reminds me of thomas dewey and i was rather young, but i remember that campaign, and he symbolized the wealthy east and then truman was fighting more for the common man. i am not trying to compare obama with truman, but i do think that he represents and he expresses more of the ordinary american and the struggles that the ordinary american is going through, and the plan of focusing on the jobs an investment and building things and bridges contrasts with romney.

if you look at his jobs plan, it lowers the tax on the rich even further and despite the fact that the wealthy have doubled their share of the american income over the last 30 years. >> but what i wanted to talk to you about is when you looked over the course of the three days of the democratic convention, did you hear a compelling case for why the next four years would create a better job production, if you will, than the first four years? >> i look at this thing in a contrast and since i have been not only running for president, but have been a governor, you know, i'm now in the tenth year, finishing the tenth year, and so i know about this story of the jobs. jobs are a function of many things, the world economy, monetary policies, taxation, investments -- all sorts of things. what i heard at the republican party is mostly bashing the president and talking about how

they are going to, you know, lower taxes which is primarily going to help the very wealthiest. when i heard president clinton with president obama, with michelle, a real commitment to build the stuff that makes america. we are not going to just by giving somebody a tax break that they can invest in macao or china or other investments which is different than teachers and policemen and high speed rail the kinds of things that takes government. and yes, government needs revenue. so in terms of the jobs, they are going to put americans to work, and i heard a difference between the democratic convention and the republicans. >> did you hear within the democratic convention is my question, within the democratic convention, did you hear a compelling case for why americans should believe that the second four years will somehow produce more jobs than

the first four years? >> well, like maybe i know too much about this stuff, but we are in a recovery, slow recovery, and it will keep recovering with any luck, and if the republicans would get out of the way and let, you know, the stimulus and the investment go forward such as the democrats have proposed, we will be better off. the opposite is to have faith in the supply-side stuff where you lower the taxes on those doing very well, and they say it is going to be on everybody, but it is disproportionate on those who have the capital. but i'm telling you that money where the corporate profits go now is offshore. and the biggest bang is to invest in the teachers, you know, in ordinary workers and bridges and roads, and in the kind of projects that -- and that is the theme. now i'm not looking for a blueprint or some kind of a recipe, but it is thematic, and this is the way that elections

are decided both how do you feel about the two candidates and what is the theme. i say that the theme is a very honest guy who is trying to do his best after picking up a horrible mess from the last guy. >> and that is certainly was also the theme of the democratic national convention. let me talk to you a little bit about tax hikes. you have put on the ballot proposition 30 coming up where you want to increase the sales tax as well as increase the taxes for those in the upper incomes, and the very top as i understand it, california at this point is in the top three states in terms of state income tax. it has the highest state sales tax in the country, and yet there is still this deficit. so, doesn't, doesn't it sort of play into the republicans' argument that raising taxes does not spur the economy? >> well, here's what it does. and this is just math now. if the people vote no, which

they certainly can, then there is going to be automatically cut $5.5 billion from the schools and the community colleges, and that is three weeks of school, and it will take half a billion from the colleges automatic. we have cut medi-cal, and cut the prisons 20%. and so do you move the money from the top income bracket and put it in schools and colleges or really take from the schools and the colleges? i know that we are a high tax state, and it has happened under ronald reagan and my father and schwarzenegger and happened a long time and california has created twice as many jobs at twice the rate as the country as a whole. so we are a real engine out here in terms of the silicon valley and hewlett-packard and apple and the things we're doing. it's a choice. that is a wonderful choice that

at the end of the day the vote and the people is the voice of the people and the voice of god and take the money from those who have more than we can imagine and give it to the schools or not and whatever it is, i will manage it, and we will make it work. one way is better, but whatever the way that the people decide is the way we will go and that is the way it should be. >> i know i might not be asking this precisely, so yes, california has faced deficit problems before you. it has had money problems before you and i guess that my point is that if you are looking at a state that already has the highest state sales tax of any in the country and in the top three of the state income taxes, and you want to raise it again, isn't the fact that you have had the deficits to contend with show that you are not growing the economy with sales hikes which is essentially, sales tax hikes or income tax hikes which is what the republicans are arguing that they are counter productive to the economy?

>> no, it is the opposite, because the economy is doing better than the rest of the nation. and states like new jersey where they are talking about cutting taxes or some of the other states, california is actually doing better. we are getting more than 50% of the new venture capital investment, and getting more than half of the investment in new renewable energy projects and so we are not perfect -- >> how come you are so in debt? >> we are so in debt because the people i got here before cut our car tax by almost $6 billion and gave a huge tax breaks to out of state corporations which is another billion and they didn't cut the expenditures. and i have cut and when you talk about cuts, this is not pretty. the blind and the disable and the medi-cal and the prisons and you name it reduced ongoing at $15 billion a year. if the people think that we need to cut more, we will. but i am telling you as a guy who has been around for 40

years, what i am proposing on balance makes more sense. >> two quick questions, what should we make of the kind of feud going on between you and governor christie? >> well, i would not say it is a feud. he basically just was warming up, you know, throwing red meat to the republicans from california. so he said that i was a retread. he was 14 when i was running against jimmy carter back in the new jersey primary in 1976. and ergo, i should not be here, i'm old. but i will be 74 next month and so hopefully some wisdom and i got warmed up in one of the speeches and i said, okay, governor christy, i challenge you to the three-mile race and some chin-ups and push-ups. >> so you are essentially saying he is overweight? >> no, it says that this old

re-tread can beat you any day of the week. >> okay. and are you finally having enough fun in the governorship to run again? >> well, i am not slowing down so i don't want to predict where i will be, because we have pitfalls potential over the next year or two, but as obama says, we are fired up and ready to go. >> you sound like a governor. thank you so much for taking the time this morning. i appreciate it. >> okay. thank you. bill clinton goes to bat for the president. >> one of the main reasons we ought to re-elect president obama is that he is still committed to constructive cooperation. >> the man who led the opposition during clinton's presidency, former house speaker newt gingrich is next. with alzheimer's, not a day goes by that you don't have them. questions about treatment

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i am joined by former house speaker and former republican presidential candidate newt gingrich. mr. speaker, good to see you. >> good to be with you. >> coming out of the conventions, the democrats were basically, we're all in this together but mitt romney's philosophy is you're on your own. and the republican convention basically was the president thinks government is the answer

to everything. who was more effective? >> i think in the long run the romney convention was more effective. you had this a little bit with jerry brown this morning. if you ask the american people do you want a bigger economy with more jobs but a smaller government with fewer services, or do you want a bigger government with more services, but a smaller economy with fewer jobs, it's about 70-16. the challenge that the president and the effect on friday morning was reminded once again, his plans aren't working. four americans dropped out of the workforce for every american that got a job in august. at any rate people one in order to be your brother's keeper you have to have a job. you need an income. >> wasn't the governor correct in saying that elections are thematic. the theme coming out of democratic convention, middle class, middle class, middle class, we all have to help one

another and that's how we do it and most the rich and the theme coming out of the republican convention again was too much government. so, if people vote thematically, do you think the whole message of the middle class and all of us being in this together has more power? >> about the young person sitting in their bedroom looking up at the grange poster for obama as it faded away sort of captured it. the president wants you to be gainesville you can stay on your parent's insurance through 26. we would like to you get a job so you can go out on your own. the president wants you to be grateful that he's extended your payments for student loan. we want you to have a job so you can pay off your student loans. tom brokaw captured it perfectly. he said romney will say, in essence, we can't afford four

more years of this economy and obama will not defend the economy he'll say romney is worse. and the country has to make a decision. do you want to take four more years of the worse economy since the worst depression or sthoift the republicans and see if they can do a better job. >> let me bring in the clinton factor here which i found fascinating, not just how he was at the democratic convention but the republicans reaction to it. listen to paul ryan. >> bill clinton was a different democrat than barack obama. he worked for welfare reform and worked with republicans to cut spending and he did not play the kind of political games that president obama is playing. >> i want to review the '90s here, because the '90s described are not the '90s i remember and i was up on capitol hill when president clinton presented a budget that no republican voted for in his first term and there were two government shutdowns because the republicans and the

white house could not get together on spending and what a budget should look like and when there was an impeachment process. so this is not some kumbaya time. >> no, it was very tough. >> and very tough time and yet the americans are embracing bill clinton and basically why? >> well, if you are paul ryan you did what i did in the 1990s come up with a serious plan and try to get to a balanced budget and you are invited to a speech where he attacks you publicly, you can't defend yourself. clinton and i fought a lot. the government was shut down twice. we passed welfare reform twice, but it was defeated twice. he signed it on the third occasion. the difference was, when the democrats lost in 1994, bill and hillary clinton brought in dick morris and they said, you know, if we don't learn something from this experience we will be beat in '96. i thought that parts of the clinton speech were eerily anti-obama.

if you listen to the sub text. and he said, i worked with welfare because i worked with the republicans, but you didn't president obama. i had the longest growth in history, and you didn't, mr. obama. you can take the speech and spin it not much and it is a condemnation of the fact that obama learned nothing. bob woodward's new book indicates that he learned nothing out of the 2010 election. >> can bill clinton move votes for president obama? >> well, he can temporarily move votes. i would say that the bounce that obama is getting coming out of the convention is 80% bill clinton. he is a popular figure for a practical reason, the economy worked. people had jobs. we reduced children in poverty by 25% through the welfare reform and balanced the budget for four years and you look back and say, i think that what it does is shrink obama, and then

you have a real president and then you have this guy who is a pretender. >> you talked about the unemployment figures coming out and the worst recovery since the great depression. why isn't romney running away with this? >> this is slightly better than where reagan was than at this point in 1980. people find it very hard to fire a president. the president is in the home every night and this particular president has a nice family and a sense of gee -- >> but none of that is going to change. >> no, the swing vote is going to be disappointed and not angry. the angry vote is already there. romney is getting all of the angry vote, and the difference is the swing vote. it's the person who says, you know, i would like to try but i can't stand the cost of four more years. if that person comes down and says they can't stand the cost of four more years, then i think obama is gone. if they come down and say, gee, i'm not sure about the republicans, then obama could survive. there is a new movie out called

"the hope and change" which has 40 former obama voters each explaining why they are against obama. all of them have this sense of sadness, not anger, disappointment. they wished he had worked and wished he was able to govern but they won't vote for him again. >> the president said to jessica yellin, he thinks the next four years will be different because republicans will be more willing to work with him. you're laughing, so, no? you don't believe that? >> that is perfectly obama. he didn't say i'd be willing to work with the republicans. >> he did say he would try to make more of an effort. everybody had to make more of an effort. but the question is do you think that the republicans will be significantly different in terms of how to approach the president? >> i don't contemplate a second obama term, so i can't answer the question. my entire commitment is to help mitt romney win. >> well, we will ask that you after the election.

>> by the way, ask the democratic house and senate if they are willing to work with governor romney if he wins. >> it is a deal. i will. thank you so much. good to see you. democrats trying to tap into the middle-class outrage saying that mitt romney puts profits over people. does that make the democrats continue to look anti-business? and later the real people strategy employed at both conventions. this country was built by working people.

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on this much, they agree. a $16 trillion debt is too much. a jobless rate at or near 8% for four years is too high. a nation where the percentage of the population and the labor force is at the lowest level since 1981 is too low. and this election is about jobs. >> we can help big factories and small businesses double their exports. and if we choose this path, we can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years. >> unlike the president, i have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. >> and not even they could argue with one another's goals, but what they argue about and what

the election is about who can make it happen with what plan? president obama supporter and carmax founder austin ligon and former bush secretary carlos gutierrez hash it out.

joining me is former bush commerce secretary and romney supporter, carlos gutierrez and also the founder of carmax, austin ligon. >> i want to play you something that elizabeth warren now a candidate for the u.s. senate said at the convention. >> the system is rigged. look around. oil companies guzzle down billions in profits.

billionaires pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries and wall street's ceos, the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs still strut around congress with no shame demanding favors and acting like we should thank them. >> let me start with you. do you understand why businesses think that the obama administration has been anti-business. >> well, you have to differentiate between wall street and businesses. wall street is concerned that we put regulation back in place, and they caused essentially the financial collapse and we don't have a regulatory system to solve that yet. in enormous numbers the finance industry has been against the president this time, because it is in their interest. broader business is much more

evenly spread, and -- >> and yet we hear all of the time that businesses don't, or that there is all of the uncertainty, and that businesses are not hiring, because they don't really know they feel overregulated and they feel like they don't know what is going to happen when the obama care kicks in fully. that is not so? >> you won't hear that from a lot of the ceos of operating companies. you hear it from the political pundits and -- >> so not true? >> i have worked under george bush and bill clinton and george w. bush and under obama, and the u.s. is still the best place in the world to do business and people on the board of seven start-up companies and we don't spend any time talking about this. it is never a conversation. >> so business isn't worried about -- >> well, that is a different country, because i talk to business people everyday and they are terrified with what this administration is going to do with a second term. you take, for example, oil

exploration, and we have been focused on wind and solar and it is about this big, and the president has talked about green jobs. he has not given permits to oil companies to drill. we could be the saudi arabia -- >> but the production is the highest it has been. >> yes, the production is high on the private lands and that is what the president uses to brag about the energy policy, but on federal lands, no production in 90 days. >> why do we need to do more on federal lands? >> because we want to be independent. governor romney has set a goal to be energy independent in america in 2020, and we can be the saudi arabia of natural gas in 10 years, but we haven't done anything and to hear the abstract notions of the millions of green jobs. where are they? >> let me ask you about this, because it is all on the same subject. this came from a man who worked at an indiana company that bain

acquired, but eventually the company went out of business. this is what he had to say. >> i don't think that mitt romney's a bad man. i don't fault him for the fact that some companies win and some companies lose. that is a fact of life. what i fault him for is making money without a moral compass. i fault him for putting profits before people like me. >> don't businesses by definition go into business for profit? they are not about helping people's lives as wonderful if they do, but do you think that the bain criticism -- >> so i'll make this comment. i have worked at large people employing companies and merit and circuit city and carmax and you have to be both. a great ceo has to be a profit person and great people person.

without great people, you won't be a great company and without profit, you cannot sustain yourself. so you have to do both. my criticism of mitt romney is not so much the moral turpitude and i would not make that comment. and he is a fine family man and probably a fine man. the biggest company he's ever ran had 400 people. question, does he fundamentally have the qualifications for the job. >> and neither has president obama. >> well, president obama has been the president of the united states for the last four years and the best training to be the president of the united states is to be successfully the president of the united states, which he has been. >> then we should always do away with the second term and say, let's go on for eight years. do you agree that fundamentally -- >> no. we wouldn't have these unemployment numbers and now 360,000 people have given up and

if they stayed in the workforce we would have 8.4 unemployment and 47 million people on food stamps and heading for the largest rate of poverty in the last 50 years. household income is down $4,000 and how can anyone say that we are better off, and by the way, a number not talked about enough is the deficit is 7.6%. that is equal to greece. we have a deficit the same as greece. >> so taking that deficit number, and let me put some other figures up for the audience. in the economy right now, and gas prices are high. we are $16 trillion in debt, and there is, there are 43 months of unemployment over 8%. how do you sell that? >> so, look, i think that the first thing that you do is to remind people what republicans would like you to believe is that the world started on the 20th of january 2009, but it didn't. when barack obama took office what he had was a president who

had inherited a 2% surplus, and left behind a 2% structural deficit that then exploded as the economy collapsed. when barack obama took out, the economy was not going down, but it was plummeting. people would go to bed at night and we were losing 700,000 to 800,000 jobs in a month. and you didn't know anywhere in america if you had a job the next day. my sister sold what was a high-risk technology stock and invested in aig, and you didn't know. there was no security left. within nine months barack obama not only stabilized that, but he restructured and not bailed out the largest industry in the united states, the automobile industry, and 20% of retail sales that was on the verge of collapse and republicans like mitt romney said let go. he restructured the business. >> i want to give you a chance to defend mitt romney. first off all, mitt romney did not say let's liquidate the auto industry, but he said, let's

have a structured bankruptcy that would then, and they would get rid of what is, the overhead and make themselves smaller which is exactly what happened -- >> that is exactly what happened. >> but it is a huge talking point. >> and let me make one comment on that. >> somebody has to be in charge of that and putting the bankruptcy and i can tell you that the auto industry is a integrated business that people were terrified and the reason that ford and toyota and nissan were coming forward is that they cannot go unmanaged, because they did not believe that a bankruptcy court judge could deal with it. you needed stronger leadership than that, because you had to fire management, and it was incompetent management at the head of gm and chrysler. >> you want the president of the united states firing managers? >> once every 80 years, when you have the largest collapse, you have to take unusual measures. he had the courage to do that, and both companies are profitable now, and saved the industry. >> and carlos, 20 seconds on that, because i have a real

quick question i want to ask you on the auto industry and also the bush administration originally said that, here's -- you gave him a sort of bridge loan, actually? >> yes, a bridge loan for $15 million, and what we didn't want is a disorderly bankruptcy, because that is where they were headed, so we actually started the plan and the president made the decision that we are going to help them get through an orderly bankruptcy, a managed bankruptcy. president bush. so it was just, that this is something that was inherited that is not talked about very often and good point. >> and i think that president bush's last six months were the best and he helped start that the designate was not willing to make that the management was not competent in the companies and needed to be removed. >> i need a yes or no, the federal reserve board is meeting this week and should they do something to stimulate the economy or leave it alone? >> personally i believe they should, but i will leave it to ben bernanke.

>> there is nowhere else to go, and it has to be fixed fiscally by the white house and the congress. >> thank you both. from the convention to the campaign trail next.

time for a check of today's

top stories. >> promised to repeal obama care but he embraced the most popular parts it. >> not getting rid of all health care reform there's a number of thing i like in health care reform that i'll put in place, one is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. two assure the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. i also want individuals to be able to buy insurance, health insurance on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax advantage basis through their company. >> romney claimed his plan to cut taxes and regulate spending would balance the budget by the end of his second term. romney also criticized republicans who voted for the 2011 bipartisan debt deal which has led to the fiscal cliff that congress now stands on. one of those republicans is romney's number two. >> you know why i voted for it?

because i was working to find common ground with democrats to get a down payment on deficit reduction. i worked with program to find common ground. it was a step in the right direct. >> just a few moments ago, in florida president obama reiterated his convention line of attack on republicans' plan to fix the economy. >> tax cuts, tax cuts. got a few regulations. give some more tax cuts. tax cuts when times are good. tax cuts when times are bad. ed tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds. tax cuts to improve your love life. >> the president has one more campaign event later today in florida. it's not just a two man race. will third-party candidates have an effect on this year's presidential election? that's next. provided for their every financial need.

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we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country. in fact, over the last five years, no other energy company has invested more in the us than bp. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. today, our commitment to the gulf, and to america, has never been stronger. here with me to talk politics is new york times white house correspondent peter baker and a.b. stoddard associate editor for "the hill" newspaper. thank you all for being here. and set the template for me for fall, because basically this is now the fall campaign and where are we?

are we any different than the dead heat race? >> well a little bit different with obama coming out of the convention with a small but noticeable lead after a static race where nobody was moving. and it is only 4%, but it is not that meaningful in the context of huge swings. >> any themes coming out of the conventions that you can see playing well and moving that, and that is still within the margin of error, correct? >> yes, close enough. >> for moving this race? >> well, i believe it is 46% to 47% until the end. and more consequential will be the debates. nobody can open up a huge lead. obama is happy with the four points and he is doing well in the battleground states and the ones where he needs to win on the margins and for such an unpopular president that is good news for him. and the themes from the convention, i thought that the republicans, you know, embraced,

are you better off than you have been four years ago and they will continue to do that. but what was interesting about the democratic convention is that former president clinton said it does not matter whether you're better off, because not me or any of my predecessors could have gotten us out of this mess in four years and so you have to stay on the path. and president biden said don't let them tell you on the path of decline and doubt, don't let them tell you that. because you are bringing the economy back and so you have two different opinions of where we should be and how to get out of it. >> and they garbled it. we had a spokesman for the president saying that is not the question, are we better off and then the answer from the convention was well, yes, you are. my question about bill clinton who gave -- i thought michelle was the most effective but none they the less the former president gave a terrific speech. but does it translate? can he be helpful to bring votes to obama? >> well, one speech won't do it. and two months from now, people won't be talk about the conventions, and you have early

voting so the stuff matter on the margins, but if bill clinton gets out and campaigns in the fall, and you may see the bill and barack show more. broadly, i think the other themes coming out of this convention, interesting, was that mitt romney and republicans trying to say to disaffected obama voters it's okay that you're disappointed. it's okay that you like him. but you can go -- and obama's responding and clinton especially responding, no, you know, you still have to believe in him. michelle obama. i still love him, she said over and over. the message being you should still love him, too. >> in fact, it's -- i still believe that this is more of a turnout election. they all are to a certain extent. but people talk about how these two different roads -- i'm thinking, no. they both spoke to their base primarily within -- there were messages to the middle class and to swing voters. but primarily, aren't they out there now just pounding the bushes for every vote that's naturally theirs? >> yes. i mean, what you see is romney

doing a general message. a general election, national message. look, you guys, we're not better off. we gave them a chance. it's okay to dump him. we've got to do this to save the economy and the country. obama's going around and doing targeted messages, much more of a micro effort to get those numbers on the margins in the states that matter. it's students and latinos. women and some veterans. and he's going to try to move those numbers -- and seniors. and i think president bill clinton going to miami and orlando, going to these certain places, he actually said it a nice way, but he said you cannot let the republicans be stewards of this economy again. not at this moment. and i think he's going to say it in the same terms over and over again. >> let me ask you about third parties on this ticket. particularly you've got virgil goode in virginia and gary johnson, libertarian, on the ballot in some of these states. factor, not a factor? >> of course it's a factor, you think 1% doesn't matter. talk to florida -- think 1% doesn't matter.

talk to florida ralph nader -- >> bad factor for romney. >> and virgil goode is a conservative former congressman in virginia. if he takes 1%, 2% in a state that romney needs to win, that's important. gary johnson cuts both ways. strategists saying he could cut from obama in oregon and places. he could cut from romney -- hard to factor exactly. they're paying a lot of attention, tried to get him off the ballot, in a number of states. >> maybe last question. on election eve, do you think we'll still be sitting here wondering who's going to win? >> probably not. but it is -- it is possible. it is possible. maybe the debates open up a kind of a lead that makes things more clear. but we could be looking at 46-47 -- >> especially the election debate. vital. >> absolutely. october 16. right. amy, peter, thank you for being here. >> thank you. mitt romney and president obama try to solve two different problems with the same solution. that's next. ♪

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and finally this sunday, ever since conventions became less about nominating a candidate and more about staging

a party infomercial, politicians have filled their big show with cameos from what washington calls real people, meaning people who aren't politicians. people other people might believe. bonus points for casting middle-class real people. the democrats' production used a procession of real people to portray a president who often seems aloof as an advocate and protector of the aforementioned middle class. they were called as eyewitnesses to obama policy. take, for example, the student. >> there's just no way i'd be able to pay for school without the pell grant funding president obama doubled. [ applause ] >> the iraq war veteran. >> president obama did the right thing by ending don't ask, don't tell. [ applause ] >> the small business owner. >> we may not have ever gotten to yes if it wasn't for president obama and the sba loan program that he started. >> the mother -- >> obama care provides my family security and relief. >> and the vietnam veteran --

>> supporting our effort is president obama's actions, increasing the v.a. budget to $140 billion in 2013. >> for mitt romney, the goal was to give life to a candidate rivals have portrayed as a bloodless corporate raider and to humanize his sometimes robotic personality. they served as character witnesses, many from his church. >> mitt provided food and housing, rides to the doctor, and companions to sit with those who were ill. he shoveled snow and raked leaves for the elderly. he took down tables and swept floors at church dinners. >> in 1979, a tragedy struck our family when our youngest son, david, was diagnosed with hodgkins disease. >> david, knowing mitt had gone

to law school at harvard, asked mitt if he would help him write a will. the next time mitt went to the hospital, he was equipped with his yellow legal pad and pen. >> it was when our daughter, kate, was born 3 1/2 months early, however, that i fully came to appreciate what a great treasure of friendship we had in mitt. i will never forget how when he looked down tenderly at my daughter, his eyes filled with tears, and he reached out and gently stroked her tiny back. >> the conventions are a wrap, and the witnesses have stepped down. the jury is out. 58 days until the verdict comes in. thank you very much for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley in washington. head to cnn.com/sotu for analysis and extras. and if you missed any part of today's show, find us on itunes. search "state of the union." "fareed zakaria gps" is next for our viewers here in the united states.