candidates republicans could put forward. he is unacceptable to a huge amount of the party. personal flaws, political flaws. he is the only one left on the field who could possibly compete with mitt romney. every time new gingrich stands up he hits his head on the ceiling. this is the old newt we are seeing. every time he gets to the front of the pack he blows himself up. i think he will collapse before saturday or after saturday. then the game should be mitt romney's. >> why this something always pop up dax is it in the story of the last seven or eight months dax >> first one to publicly congratulate david on this. what i was here, there were two things that were lacking. one was any into sexual activity. the second was a rout out.

[laughter] >> i am actually late for something. >> the issue is mitt romney. i think he is a much better candidate. he is not like anybody you sort of know. i told the story, i followed him campaigning for years ago. he was of a central new hampshire and he was campaigning with his five perfect sons. he goes into the diner and he introduces his family. he describes the home he owned in their village. he goes around the room and on his way out he first made almost everybody he met.

that is impressive as a steady political skill, but it is not a natural political skill. there is always say invisible wing between him and voters. >> at the same time, he has been the canada pretty much all along. the white house has feared the most for him to get the nomination the whole way. consistently, the canada who has seen the most likely to be able to win in november. >> i sort of feel like he is the tallest midget. there is really no difference between mitt romney 2008 and romney 2012. he has tried to sound more conservative. >> he is more skilled than he was in 2008. what is this a quiet in effort in?discuss that inde i think his skills are looking

grim because they are being measured against newt gingrich and rick santorum. it really is a tragedy that he is ungoogle-able, but he is. if rick santorum were being invented today, maybe he could compete. but he comes from someplace. i think that is why mitt romney looks good. today in south carolina, he got into a red-faced screaming match with a voter on a rope lines in america is right and you are wrong. who are you just thinking back? when a child asked him what he wanted to run for president, he went into a lot the motion no. tell it has been difficult to work out with the state planning attorney which grandchildren get which millions of his fortune.

it has seemed like it is going to win. if i change my name to something else, would that be ok? i think that mitt romney is running to win. i think it is likely that he will win. i think it is largely by virtue of the fact that his competition sex. >> the least offensive to the white house -- the candidate that would be most able to make this election about barack obama on the republican side. >> right now? >> the person most likely is mitch daniels and is not running right now. [audience unintelligible]

>> you got your chance, let me get to -- >> >> do i take your election was not unanimous? >> ok. you have had your say. can we -- >> another undecided voter. >> ok. here is the deal. you have had your chance to say -- you had your chance. let me try to answer that question.

first of all, when you say he is the best candidate, the best candidate is not in the field. i think they had a lot of good and it's, mitch daniels, crisscrossed the. -- chris christie. with your first question about mitt romney, i will say this. when bill clinton basically had the nomination wrapped up, he lost connecticut big. i do not even read up the ups and downs because mitt romney will be the nominee. basically there is a buyer's remorse process. the problem for mitt romney is that happen before he was nominated. that tells volumes about or the chemistry is between him and voters and he has a problem connecting with them. unlike running for congress or

senate that is legislative. that is not insignificant. for a chief executive you have to create a relationship between the public and the can it. that is a very important thing. that will be a big problem for him. i do want to say this to my dear friend david axelrod. i am so proud that you were able to get this done because i know how important this is to you. you are going to enrich a lot of other kids lives in the process learning how to do negative ads. [applause] >> i just feel we are a little down on mitt romney as a panel. the impression we have just given on romney emphasizes the-. i think the reasons he is week is when to be the reason he is

strong in the general. it is against the republican electorate that once a brave heart. he will be the organization man for moderates and enter the general. i think he will be reasonably strong. i go back and forth about whether he is a slight favorite or underdog, but he will be a relentless pretty good campaigner. it is funny to watch him. he spent as much time after the speech shaking hands of people -- he seems to work like a dog. everyone else is off on the bus, he is still working and sweating. he is not an impressive as a candidate. >> i agree with you. i think he has gotten much better the past four years. it has basically been 316 debates with maybe two or three mistakes over all. he did not get touched until the last debate. that serves as something of a primary. assuming that he does get the nomination for the sake of argument, right now it is pretty

clear he will have to figure out how to deal with issues around his business background. the mitt romney campaign will say they are happy to be debating that rather than his record in massachusetts. it is still an open question whether his time at bain capital will end up being a plus or minus. how would you deal with it on the inside right now back? >> one of the surprising things seems to be how difficult he handles it. it is not the issue itself as how he has come across as somebody slightly embarrassed about being successful in making money. he starts off on the defense. look, if you can go out there as a republican candidate and the case that this is money i made, money i earn, money i paid taxes on -- now, let's talk about your money? the money that the administration is spending and revenue in debt. usually people do not really

care that much about other people's money, certainly and not as much as their own. there is a certain distance to romney from connecting with people and enter their daily lives. that is a challenge for him. i agree with david. and then to the general it may end up being a plus. i think the election that david wants and would love to have is a choice between a hot republican and a very polarizing democrat. the election you would not want is a referendum on the comment. mitt romney is hard to love and hard to hate. he is resistant to temperature change. he may make it. he does help put the spotlight on obama and enter the general. >> one thing that struck me as an open question about the republican establishment vehement response telling people to shut off about bain capital. almost literally telling newt

gingrich to shut up about it and rick perry as well. it was articulated as we do not want the country to be treated as criticism of capitalism. it was sort of an open question about whether or not they were trying to shut down the attacks because the attacks hurt. if that is the case and if the tach -- if the attacks hurt romney, are you protecting his glass jaw that will be exposed a denture october. he said i would rather have this now than have it in october. >> the feeling in south carolina is those attacks and not heard mitt romney. everybody is still looking for the anti mitt romney. newt gingrich had a bit of a dog moment in the debate and seized control of the agenda for about 10 seconds. >> the issue though is everyone knows about his wealth.

it did not need to be a surprise that this was coming. the way they handle it was a surprise. this was about the most telegraphed path that was coming across. we are going to talk about your money and how you make it. the fact that he has been rigid watergate was a crime in search of a cover-up. i had my own view about whitewater which was a cover-up in search of a crime. here was a guy that knew this was coming. they totally made a miss reenforcing everybody's negative perception of what is hidden behind the taxes. they have made a bigger than what they could have been. every question right now has been rehearsed in either a senate, congressional race. it is out there and is what he just gave. we can talk about my money or yours and how we work for it. >> the reason they wanted to shut down the attacks not is not so much the substance of the attacks but the fact they were coming from new gingrich and

rick perry. when it comes from a democrat, you just say it is class warfare. with new gingrich it changes the entire -- >> but it came in 2008 from john mccain, too. he used it as well. he be mitt romney in 2008. it is not new. i think the country is in a different place than 2008. >> there is no question about that. ?ow does obama responded da we saw a little preview in kansas where he laid out his lines of argument looking at this. if he were -- and this is his campaign document coming out on tuesday -- if he were to get back that middle of the country that he has lost over the last four years, what would you say

he needs to do? what's the first thing i would say is this economy is about national declines. if you go to a room and ask how many of you think your kids will have worse life prospects than you, every hand goes up. that is the subject. i guess the first thing i would say is do not give that speech you gave in kansas. i think that strategy, and the populist teddy roosevelt, anything about the occupied movement, that is a mistake. people want to talk about opportunity. >> inequality is a serious problem right now. >> i think if you frame than they do think that. i think it is a serious problem. i do not think the american people think it is the problem that relief -- that really frames them.

the first is jobs, the second is family breakdown. 40% of american kids are born out of wedlock and their life prospects are worse. if you look at working-class families, they have more to fear from divorced and unemployment. getting at the mixture of social anxiety and economic anxiety and giving an opportunity to talk is a lot better than basing your entire policy on taxing the top one%. the final thing, i think he has to be big. if it is about national decline, he has to have the policies. you have to have tax reform. i think he should have done since and bowls. he will not do that. you have to have a lot of the policies to tackle a big problem. i guess my fear is that an interested of the union, the policies will be like this when the problem is like this. >> which would you recommend? >> i agree and disagree.

i agree that people's sense of banks does not at the moment but is larger. politics is about choice. mr. fix it is not exactly a resounding call. this election is in many ways for the president. mitt romney is a policy based only on what does and does not happen, not because of mitt romney. that is the missing piece. people know in their 6 cents or that inflexion. as a country and their own lives are part of that inflection point. the president is more inspirational. he can give a vision in which mitt romney cannot do. mitt romney will say i am going to do this and that and i will move this piece over here. it does not address what people want, need, and think the

country needs. i think the president and the state of the union is your won decisive thing in the campaign. the one last time to put out the blueprint and architecture of what i will do a center the second term. in the first term, i inherited a miss. i did what i could destabilize it. here is what we are going to do. but the first term back and make it all about the future. elections are about tomorrow, they are not about the past. if you are looking into the rearview mirror, you have an accident. the one credit for what they have done. do not do it. get everybody's eyes focused on the future. who can lay that out and do it? it goes to a base that tells the other way. people will have an answer about this moment as a precursor to

the future. if he is big and as to his strengths as an inspirational leader, he plans to what are his more dominance trek -- traits. >> he does not want to see kansas again. i take it that would excite you, right? >> i do not know that i get excited. i do not know if i get excited about speeches. that is what i disagree a little bit with rahm emanuel. i feel like we are a little bit inspiration out at the moment. i feel like there is a little stylistic conservative backlash going on and then to the country. i do not actually believe in anything. i do not believe in anybody that says they can make things better. i do not have much hope for big visions. i sense that among my friends on the left and i sense that in the electorate broadly. i do not think that is

necessarily cause for despair among those of us who are involved and comment on politics because we let the inspirational side of it. i think people need to have their faith restored that government can do something useful. i think this is probably a time to talk about small, doable things that people can identify with the have not heard before. a pretty vision about what the future could be like that we can all agree on but we do not know how we will get there. we do not believe we can get there, i feel like we have done that. i am sort of ready to hear a cash for clunkers speech. >> i think i agree with part of what you are saying. you think of the state of the union as the one time he has the pulpit. the degree of difficulty this time around seems to be so much higher because he is in that chamber that everybody hates and that nobody believes is going to come together to get something done.

>> he knew the job was dangerous when he took it. his job is to be the president and lead. i find myself wanting to advise the president and also agree with the mayor of chicago. [laughter] >> whatever the mayor says i am in with. i would draw you to the next election. everybody see the bell curve? this is a country that has always ascended and always thought tomorrow will be better than today. now we feel we are slightly over the hump and staring down this perilous decline. it is a big election. this is about big things. you have the secretariat of hope and vision. this is the guy who does it better than anyone. he was elected on that. i think any campaign that is not about that denudes him of his greatest gift.

more importantly, it misses the big prevailing dynamic that people are hungry for left my eyes over the horizon again. tell me that this country is not headed over the process. there is a new global economic frontier out there. there is a threat from mars. if there is a threat from mars it is not hard to unite the people from earth. should have everybody saying, we have a new global all frontier out there. we have to compete out there. everybody sign up. that is as good an excuse as you can have for bipartisanship and all kinds of things. has he gone far to left in his campaign da? that is a political calculation the obama campaign has to make. >> if the republicans have gone and represented 20% of the country, then you should represent 80% of the country.

i see him representing the opposite 20%. i think what he needs to do is understand what moment we are in. he is in a moment were on trippet your ship is in decline. americans feel we have a country we are losing. they have a vague sense of that. they have a distrust that the government can get anything done. the one somebody to say that up. you run a campaign or use the i will take some from column a and some from column b.. i like democratic ideas about early childhood education, job training, infrastructure spending. you say i would jam all this stuff together. that is what teddy roosevelt would have done. >> talking about these concrete ideas as part of that. you want to show that you are not a polarizing person. we have heard, let's bring the country together. we have heard it is not about

red states and ballistics, it is the united states. show it. he showed it by concrete glandular ideas that do not make people hate each other. i think you have to be specific to do that. >> my take is, i think we are at an inflection point. you need an inspirational -- you are the president and a leader. i am not buying a ticket to a sponsors' speech. what is interesting, giving the governing the strategy, not the campaign strategy. governing is a filling out the pieces that fill up the mosaics. the problem for him is that running against the congress, i am accepting the checkmate were nothing gets done. it undermines the inspirational "here is what we are going to do."

that is the problem here >> do you think there is any option to run against the congress this year? what they are playing the role of stopping. in the state of the union you will get 57 million people. i would not make a cash for clunkers speech. i would make it about the agenda for the next four years. they have to know what your vision is. it is your one last opportunity on filtered. here you are walking in as president. you are not going to get that again. i would not make a walk away checklist. the governing party runs against the grain undermining what i think is going to be the rhetoric and in need of the campaign. they will have to figure out how to make congress to a few things to illustrate this vision of the second term so it will not feel like the first term.

that is going to be a difficult juggling act. >> i will ask you. >> we do finish each others sentences. >> i have a dear friend who you know from "the washington post." we both admire barack obama, but we admire different people. he likes the more liberal side, and i like the transcendent neighbor barack obama. >> i like the dance. [laughter]

>> i have come to the conclusion that you are right. >> i think your analysis is more about you and him that the president. that is number one. i think the president is exactly who you thought he was. i do not think he is at odds with the way you see it. i think it is what you draw from him in the same way -- i used to say this about president clinton. moderate voters walked in on him because they saw nafta, balanced budget and the based locked in on bill clinton because they saw a guy raised by a single mom on the other side of the tracks who got there. they all came at him for different reasons and answer different parts of him.

that is not different than ronald reagan who put together a coalition that never sat at the same table. every president has people from different takes walk in on them. i do not see that contradictory at all. i think it is the success of a good public servant. >> the base came back to bill clinton in large part because of his enemies. would that be enough to get the base of the democratic party excited again about barack obama in november? >> i think campaigns do matter. i think it depends on how mitt romney runs. i think if he runs the way he has been running in the primary, that will excite people. i talk to people who consider themselves to be based obama voters. i hear from them a lack of excitement. i talked to professional democrats and they say, we are not worried at all about debates. we are not worried about the excitement. that is not my anecdotal

experience. i do here -- i do not know if it translates into whether people will stay home. all of these things are intangible until you see what the turnout is like. it does not matter if there is much democratic enthusiasm if there is no republican enthusiasm either. >> on occasion, the excitement that the last campaign barack obama injected into this country, that is unique. that does not happen all of the time. the first black president of the united states. it is not nearly as exciting when you lose your virginity the second time. [laughter] we have done that. it is going to be very hard to

duplicate it, especially when the transcending guy is not taking you anywhere. when the ship is dead in the water and he is saying, we are running out of supplies. i have to take from you to get to me. the kansas speech as opposed to, hey, we will go over here and it will be a better place for everyone. he is not running an exciting campaign, it is a pessimistic campaign. >> can i go out of turn and talk again? i think the one thing we are not appreciating is how little it role politics plays in most people's lives. politics is not something most people do as a hobby. it is something that exists. an obligation or maybe a little bit of entertainment. part of what has happened and what we need to understand about how people here political messages is that the republicans and more specifically the

conservatives have won the framing and messaging battle on whether or not politicians are scumbags and whether government is worth anything and whether or not policy can do anything or can you expect anything from the work of public servants to make your life better. there is a deep cynicism that government can do anything. that affects everything that they hear from politicians on both sides. that is why i wanted granular, can-do, this will work, believed in it again. we have sort of given in to this idea that there is nothing good to get out of government. that needs to be contested by a democrat. >> that is why i think republicans think this is a big election, because this is about what kind of government we are going to have. we are running out of money, government isn't working well.

are we moving from the industrial age to the communications age where we have to reinvent this thing bottom- up? three smart guys in a room in washington, does government 20 years from now need to look more like facebook and less like the u.s. army? are we at a transitional time? that is the opportunity that obama is missing. work,broken, it doesn't it is old. if obama loses, it will be be cause he governed old. >> the guy getting 20% in that the primary is saying we should have no government at all. >> i think the case republicans haven't made well is that there is a better way. it can't look like this. we have to do push-power and money out. we have to reinvent this thing.

>> the problem that we have, part of this is valid to the governing. it used to be the world has changed and the conventional wisdom has not caught up. divided government would produce the stuff. the most productive government -- the first four years of george bush, incredibly unproductive. the notion when people say that divided government is what you needed, that has changed. if you want something to happen, you need a party in power. the public reacts against it as you see in 2006 and 2008, 2010, the public recoils from what they have done.

the timing day you get action is not run divided government fr - from divided government, but from a government with one party. >> there is no question that isn't true, but i wonder how -- >> we are heading into a new phase. if you look at the fact that there are three deadlines next december and january. that limit, tax cuts expire, there is no choice. whoever is in power, he will have to deal with all three at exactly the same time. i wonder if you almost needed divided government in almost to make this work because decisions have to be made. >> i think that in general, how

decisions have to be made from each party in the room cutting a deal and imposing it on everybody else. that is the only way that the decisions will be made because no party will do it on their own. the reason i am pessimistic and why we will have a big fiscal crisis, we don't have parties capable of doing that. american history in the last 50 years, we have democratic dominance and then the republican dominance, then tied, 50-50. political scientists had this theory that some party, there is always one that is the sun and lects its light. each partyth moons, represents 30%. internal cohesion is much more

important. the ability to compromise is much harder. the internal intellectual information flows are much more insular. all those things mitigates against the idea that you will have a grand compromise. i think that we can close to obama. >> you mentioned it earlier, you wish the president would have pushed, but isn't that what he did when he was trying to get a deal with boehner? >> in the secret room, he did. i spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was being offered. i have this other party representing 30% of the country, that means i have to be out there with the plan. i don't agree with everything here but i will travel around the country. we are going to hammer out

something like this together as americans, this is what i ran on, we know this is a problem. we know that growing debt is a moral shame on the country, and i am out there dealing with it. that is a 60% decision. >> come december, to add to complications of spending, debt limit, tax cuts, the decision in november, if they give a mixed decision. >> i think we can walk away right now, you can assume you will get a mixed decision over the house and senate which will be much narrower. i think the presidential will be closed and i think that -- i happen to think the problem will get solved. situations like that, nothing like focusing the mind because

you will have to. but the speaker is definitely losing seats because in 2010 they bought too much real estate and the public is recoiling. he will be liberated in a way he was not eight months ago. >> an image of boehner liberated. >> it is not as good as losing your virginity twice, i am trying to get my head around that. [laughter] [talking over each other] >> we are all here trying to help the university. not quite yes or no, but alex, you have hispanic vote for mitt

romney. it is hard for him to win unless he gets above 40% of the hispanic votes. he seems to have turned off a good portion, how does he fix that? arty as a whole has problems with hispanics. we seem to be doing well for a party that is doing so poorly. how do we fix it? a lot of it is done. romney, illegal immigration, it is a problem. it is a country with strong hands and bigger hearts. in 20 years, we will not have an immigration problem, we will be hanging help wanted signs on the border.

i have never been able to deal with the immigration problem, but when you get into the box, those people are taking your job, you can't litigate your way out of that. the only way to solve the problem is the way george bush did it, we will go together over here. it is a better place. that is what i think republicans need to do, say we are missing obama, missing that optimistic vision. that is why immigrants come here. >> should the president fear or welcome a third-party challenge? >> from the right or left? >> that is my question. >> i think the left would eat a live anyone that challenged obama. it would be somebody from right or somebody from space. like dr. paul.

[laughter] metaphorically speaking. when you talk about where ron paul's politics are in our existing, they are sort of from space, it defies left-right easy -- it is possible he will run third party, and i don't know which side he will take the most votes on. >> i agree with what you said, but the left will eat anybody. rip them limb from limb. if you think of the left is disenchanted from the president, they will rise to the battle cry. i think even what was on the front page of the new york times, independent voters, if you drove down there, it is not the same. the left is going to be with the

president because they know the consequences and price of this election. which is why your statement is correct. >> i think they will absolutely defend him, but i don't know if it is enough to get people who would otherwise go vote for him to do so. >> americans-elect will probably have ballot access in all 50 states, they are the upper- middle brow, if i were running a campaign, i would get younger versions the ralph nader and pat buchanan. for a down market, pull everybody home abroad and then conservatism -- >> the spring, something like that.

>> we should take americans- elected to give this country what it really needs, experienced leadership and will answer the phone at 3:00 a.m.. hillary clinton -- and just trying to help. [laughter] >> i still think a lot of this is less about met ronnie and more about the president. -- mitt romney and more about the president. there have been 1.7 million private-sector jobs creative. of the most since 2006. he has never had a long run, just spurts. you get four months, the surprise on the 200,000, this panel right now for months from now, consistent, above-average,

above-expectation. the fever will be broken and there is a consistency that gives a dynamic to the race. i think mr. fix-it as a message will fall totally flat. what he has missed is the level of consistency of good news on the economy. a big trouble is the economy and iran. he has a run here on jobs, on job creation. less about the unemployment percentage. if we have this panel four months from now, we will have a different discussion about the president. >> [inaudible] >> i think it doesn't mean it has to be, it has the biggest

impact on the economy. bring in foreign policy into a campaign will -- >> $3.95 a gallon gas. >> i don't want to say baked into the assumption, but europe is what it is right now. iran is a different situation, the europeans feel different about the united states. >> i want to get questions from the audience. there is one from the balcony. and you believe the audience is into televised presidential debates, does it deter from the debate and create better ratings for networks? >> as an occasional contributor, i think audiences are good and

we should have larger audiences. it is hard to have the good fight in the coliseum without an audience. this democracy is a little messy and ugly at times on both sides, but it would be hard to do it without people. on both sides, the people that moved primaries and caucuses on both sides are the extremes. you get intense passion from those folks. overall, the debates, though they have ground most of our candidates and to dust, except for newt gingrich and that is harder to kill than rasputin -- [laughter] they have been good for the candidates and for the republican party as a whole. >> you think there'll be a move to restrict them next time around. >> campaigns are about control, you want to control the

candidate, how he is understood, the law of the empty glass. he wants to control every drop of perception that is in there. this seems a lot to -- it leaves a lot of variables out there. it might be the golden age of debate, folks. the scary, isn't it? [laughter] >> do you have someone behind you with a question? go right there. got it. >> what was that? >> i don't know. >> can you come to the mic, please? thank you. come on, mutter mutter. let him talk. >> i wonder if you could talk about how you justify trade while you cut down -- how do you personally thinka bou about that and what will happen to the

health care workers? >> the city of chicago is the only city that has supervised a mental health. we will continue to provide it, it is just not the city government doing it. two, for the first time, we will offer a new benefit that we have never done before. $500,000 going to psychiatric care because of reforms we are doing. as you know, i fought for that tax cut because it is a big job producer and an economic benefit to the city. and i fought for a combination with the largest extension of the earned income tax credit for working families, single mothers prominently. we have a tax cut for a company that produces its and tax cut for mothers that have chosen workover dependency.

as long as we're providing a benefit for mental health, my goal is to give service, but not that i have to give that service. i have to make sure that they get that service, and they will get a new benefit. as i always said, in the campaign, this is not about the city payroll. it is about the taxpayers. i will not protect the way we did it in the past, make sure we do it in a new way that lets the government do it better and smarter. thank you. [applause] >> we had a question from the balcony. ." mind opent discussions rather than quiet back rooms. [laughter] >> in the most recent column, you agreed with the sentiment

that america had to go back and discover what we had while it makes for an incredibly backward-looking campaign. what does the resolution of this conflict look like? >> i think the country has lost something, i have a long theory that you don't want to hear all of. the short version is that we did have a cultural self with a cemeneffacement. nobody is better than me and i am no better than anyone else. they asked high school seniors, are you and in a very important person? -- are you a very important person. in the 70's, 12% thought that they were, had recently, 80%

did. there has been a growth of self- esteem. this has a lot of real-world consequences. if you think you are incredibly special, you spend a lot of money on yourself. if you look at personal consumption, it went from 43% to 133%. if you have a sense of modesty and you realize that you need people to disagree with you because of your flawed perspective, if you have the truth by the short hairs, they are in no way. it is no accident rush limbaugh's two schticks are self-grandizement and partisanship. i think we have to recover some of that. it is part of the past. nonetheless, when you go to the

campaign, every rally in new hampshire, iowa, south carolina, a bunch of middle-aged white people are saying the country is going down the toilet. you begin to wonder if people are planning for a country that will never come back. if the democratic party is not a government that nobody trusts, the republican party is a declining institution. >> can i add one more thing? one thing that is important for our party, people pose the most affirmative moment in believing in government -- people's most affirmative moment in believing in government is when we reform healed welfare. that is why our party can't be scared to make reforms about government.

and the sense of trust that we will be able to adapt and make corrections along the way. >> it is a little chicken and egg there. >> it worked because of eitc. you have health care provided when people work, transportation assistance because of the work and assistance that was given to help it work. >> and it was tragic that obama became president when the bailout became necessary. >> i think he would agree with you on that one. [laughter] he has been able to observe the obvious. [laughter] >> thank you for coming and sepakinpeaking with us. it was interesting and

educational. i was discussing with a friend of mine that was on the other side of the aisle, we were discussing the future of the republican party. when i look at the primary field right now and nobody is really enthusiastic about it, it reinforces the idea that the party is in the state of flux. you have to go through redefinition and a subtly that hispanics are up for grabs. -- and specifically that hispanics are up for grabs. how're you going to do it? >> i think that you just n aboutailed it -- about nailed it. nothing new gew under the shade of the bigotry. -- big bush tree. it may be in four years. we're in need of something the

democrats already dead, and that was the smartest political guys, the clinton folks. they found a way to take the democratic orthodoxy and move it to the middle. this is how i can work for you in the middle class. somewhere out there, there is a guy that is a new republican -- >> of is that what jon huntsman was trying to do? >> it is what he could have done. the democratic party to attract younger voters with socially progressive policies. at some point, we need to do the same thing. not abandon republican principles, but if you believe in freedom nationally and values locally, we have this new world

out there to concord. go to college students and to say that the government should look more like facebook or the u.s. army? let's get it out of their hands and interiors. -- into yours. that is an appeal that republicans need to make. i thought that was what obama was going to implement. >> your facebook and army metaphor, i think i hear it differently than you mean it. i don't mean to be sappy, but we've just eebeen through 10 years of war. i'm 38, people my generation and 20 years younger than me, there is nobody that is more impressive for accomplished than the people that have been in the united states army for the past 10 years.

the iraq and afghanistan veterans are not a cause, they are my greatest hope for the next 10 years. saying the army sucks -- >> you can say that, i did not. >> isn't the answer that you wanted to be like facebook? >> there is an old command and structure from top-down or people assume they have all the power at the top. that is with the army used to work, the catholic church used to work, institutions that were not designed to be very creative or allow a lot of diversity or tolerance. you had a mission, go do it. the army has changed, the vanquished power -- it could come back to be our greatest generation just like world war two. but there is an old way of doing things, and that is the point of

was trying to make, perhaps in articulately. haveuys at the top don't the information to deal with the billions of transactions that take place with the subtle interchanges of ideas and politics in a complex society in an increasingly complex world. her who i think your challenge as a liberal democrat is to represent the old industrial way of doing things. the republicans the opportunity and the new democrats is to say there is a better way to do that. obama has done a very good job on the school part. >> being an old industrial age is not the same as a democrat. i am just trying to help you as a metaphor, it comes off as c littlereepy a -- as a little creepy abou ttht the army.

facebook also gives people worries about large business institutions being unnecessarily intrusive. there is a downside to the interests of nature and the privacy concerns. it smelled a little bit with the -- it melds a little bit with santorum. ,n facebook versus the army i' i'd pick the army. i don't think it is a unifying argument. >> to your question, i think the republican party's problem is they took ronald reagan's philosophy and made it an ideology. until they figure out that -- ronald reagan raised taxes, he had positions on both gay people

and abortion that is totally different. he could not be nominated by the republican party today. he had a philosophical approach, but he wasn't rigid about it. the party today is rigid about approaching his philosophy. so there. and that said, it is almost impossible because over the party is today, for it to have a new republican in the way that bill clinton was a new democrat at that moment. until somebody finds the common lo and to theck between appealing -- combination to the lock. appealing to rhetorics and -- bill clinton was the perfect spokr.

rk. he got everybody right where they wanted him. you guys have ronald reagan as inspiration. everybody remembers george herbert walker bush as president. you have turned it into a rigid ideology and until you let go of that, in some way, return to what reagan was capable of doing, you will not be able to nominate a republican. >> the problem that republicans are allegedly faced, i think they would have reformed -- >> we left a lot on the table for the return of institutional politics. [talking over each other] hard ot sitto sit there for an hour.

[laughter] [applause] i just want to say, this was the panel of my dreams, you can see why. these are such a bright, committed, insightful people. i hope this gives everyone a sense of what the future can be with this institution at the university of georgia. you did a great job. i probably would have an la berman.ed dr. laura [laughter] thank you so much, all of you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> next, michael bloomberg talks about efforts to improve his city's education system. after that, remarks from presidential adviser david

plouffe, and mitt romney in south carolina. wase the conspirator's plan to have the street lined with their guys. part of whom would create a distraction, any police escort would be drawn away. they would murder abraham lincoln. >> 1861, allan pinkerton uncovers evidence about a possible plot to kill the president-elect. in disrupting the baltimore plot. at the cold war on lectures and history. and the presidency, the inner circle and their role in fighting in world war. this weekend on c-span 3.

michael bloomberg says he is moving forward with his plan to overhaul 33 struggling schools and replace half of their teachers. the mayor spoke at a conference in washington d.c., this is about 25 minutes. >> thank you for that kind introduction. it is a pleasure to be here, i hope all of you had a happy new year. personally, i have had a great time with a lady got at times square. i would tell you about it, but i never kiss and tell. let me start by dispelling another rumor, and that is that there is no truth to the speculation that the only reason i came here was to collect on

the that i made with green bay mayor jim schmidt on the packers-a giants game. i am the man to see about wisconsin cheddar. go, giants! the real reason i am here is to discuss an issue with all of you that i believe has reached a critical juncture in new york and around the country. that is education reform. it really is astonishing how little is being said about our schools on the campaign trail. i think everyone in the country knows education is a top concern. it is a top concern for parents and students. it affects them personally. it has to be a top concern for those of us who are not students

or do not have children going to school because it affects the country's future in profound ways. these are the people who will vote and take care of us when we are older. you cannot just walk away from what is going on in the schools. all of us have seen the reports on how american schools stack of against schools in other developed countries. when it comes to math and science, we are near the bottom of the pack. when it comes to literacy, the best you can say is that we are average. take a look at our economy. take a look at how many high skilled jobs are available today that companies cannot fill even though there are 13 million unemployed americans. the truth is they do not have the skills required for the jobs. look at what is happening to the middle class. real wages have been stagnating for years.

to many young people are unable to find a career path to lead them to the american dream. is there a connection between these three developments? i do not think there is any doubt about it. there is no doubt that if we're going to remain the world's economic superpower, we have to stop taking our success for granted. as the global economy continues to move from one driven by manual labor to one driven by knowledge and ideas, we have to move with it. we have to lead the change. we cannot do that without the outstanding public schools. when i was elected mayor, the

big city public school system of the york had been failing for decades. very little was being done about it. that was true for virtually every city in this country. over the decade, mayors and governors have led the charge for reform, overhauling dysfunctional school government structures, increasing the number of charter schools, helping parents get more information about schools, and holding schools accountable for success. mayors including rahm emanuel and kevin johnson, antonio in los angeles, and mayor booker, thanks to the leadership of these mayors and others, the number of students enrolled in charter schools has more than tripled. a good portion of that growth has come in new york city. we have opened 139 new charter schools in our city. we have created more than 500 new small schools that give parents, kids top-quality options. parents and students both

deserve that. school choice is an important way to hold schools accountable for success. when people vote with their feet, you know it is real and it is pretty obvious which direction they're going. i think it is fair to say we know we still have an enormous weight to go. work is only going to get harder. in new york and all run the country, the most promising and successful reforms are under attack from ideologues on the right and left. i remember a conversation i had with bill bennett, the former education secretary under president bush 41. and asked him why we did not have standardized, national testing. i have never forgotten what he said.

he said because the right will never accept anything with the word "national" in its and the left will never accept anything with the word "testing" in it. i think that is right. ideologues are blocking national standards. that is not allow for comparison with in the country or around the world. that is what accountability really is. i understand education is a local issue and localities should have flexibility in running the schools. to do that, we can still have national standards that hold everyone accountable for success and to let us see where we stand. if you cannot measure it, you cannot fix it. we have a saying in new york, in god we trust, but everyone else,

bring data. the good news is we're moving closer to that goal through something called common core standards. that is something almost every state is adopting and that the obama administration strongly supports. just as the ideologues on the right are resisting national accountability with testing, ideologue's on the left are resisting accountability through any testing. without testing, there is no accountability. without accountability, we're back where we were 10 years ago was schools failing and no one doing anything about it. some said they do not want students objected to high-stakes testing in schools. let me tell you about the high- stakes testing their about to face when they get out of school. in school, you have to make tough decisions. do you hang out with the gang or not?

get pregnant when you are and whether or not? do you do drugs or not? those are high-stakes tests. our kids are subject to those tests. they have to answer those questions every day. to ask them whether they can read or write is something that will not put undue stress on them. unless we find out whether they can do that, we cannot improve the quality of the education. we cannot help students with the things they need to focus on. there are ideologues that believe testing is ok as long as teachers cannot be removed from the classroom. we wanted race to the top funding because our state legislature passed a law requiring all teachers to be rigorously evaluated based on student achievement metrics. it was supposed to give us the

ability to identify ineffective teachers to help them become effective. if they cannot become effective, we could move them out. our school system has to be run for the kids and not for the people that work in the system. we are there to educate. [applause] our legislature passed that law. unfortunately, they put in a little thing, one giant roadblock there was anything but little. it was what made the difference. it gave the local unions the ability to veto any evaluation plan. here we are two years later, and not a single district has an evaluation program. instead, we continue to have a pass/fail system with a 98% passing rate.

our students do not have the luxury of pass/fail and neither do you and i who have to make a living. neither should our teachers. we have to raise the bar for them just as we are for our students. nobody thinks 90% of any group is in the top 30% or top 70%. we have to raise the standards. we have to help those at the bottom. if they cannot do the job, we have to replace them. the only way we're going to reform public education is by doing exactly that. i do not mean just tinkering around the edges. i mean really transforming it into a system of excellence and putting the needs of the students first. that has been my message in new york. it is the message our new governor is delivering as well. andrew cuomo has been governor

for a year. he could not have been more strongly in favor of making sure that we put an effective evaluation system in, help teachers that need help, and that those who cannot perform get moved out. the governor and i both strongly supports the right to bargain. i have said i did not agree with wisconsin. people have a right to organize. we have to decide what we're willing to do and what we're willing to not do. we should not be willing to have teachers who are ineffective in the classroom because we're leaving our kids out in the cold without the skills they are going to need to be self-supporting and without the education they need to participate in the great american dream.

our job is to do what is right for our children. i have yet to hear how it is good for children to make it harder to remove ineffective teachers from classrooms. i can promise you we will not sacrifice our children's future by giving in on that point. the system has to be run for the people we're here to serve. the attacks on education by ideologues on the right and left must be met and then it off by the sensible center. that is the people you are here with today, the mayors. mayors are pragmatists and problem-solvers. they do not have the luxury of being on both sides of an issue. they have to be explicit as to where they stand. they cannot say, i voted for it but did not vote to fund it. they have to go out there every day -- it is like saying i am pro-choice but not for women. [laughter]

mayors are where the action is. mare's pick up the garbage, educate the kids, keep calm down. they make their cities' economics work and increase life expectancy. they do all the things we want them to do. they are expected to make hard- headed decisions based on the facts and not special political interests. that is what the mayors have done on so many issues. that is what we have to do on education, including accountability measures like teacher evaluations and sensible plans to improve or find other careers for those teachers who are not getting their students to move ahead and get what they need to produce a paper in the great american dream. i spoke on martin luther king day and said all the battles are meaningless if our children

do not have the skills to understand and participate and be part of the great american dream. education is one of the basic civil rights. the reason teacher evaluations are so important is that all the best research tells us the single most important factor affecting a student progress is the effectiveness of the caution teacher. there was a recent study that got a lot of press about three weeks ago by harvard and columbia economists who found students with ineffective teachers are less likely to become pregnant, more likely to go to college, and more likely to get higher paying jobs. i think we all knew that intuitively. would anyone here want their child to be in the classroom with an ineffective teacher? of course not. we know how important great teachers are. we remember them from our own lives. great teachers make an enormous difference. if we expect the american school

system to rise to the top of the pack, the only way we will get there is with great teachers leading the way. the only way that will happen is if we do more to recruit, reward, and retain great teachers and replace ineffective ones. teaching is probably the most important job there is today. i have enormous respect for teachers and in the personal investments they make in their students. over the past in years, i have worked to invest in them by expanding professional development. we have raised base salaries by 43% in the last 10 years. a starting teacher in new york city now makes $45,000. that teacher can make well over $100,000. you have to put your money where your mouth is.

[applause] in the last 10 years, all of the agencies in new york city have increased their compensation by 32%. inflation was 33% during that time. teacher incomes have gone up 105% because our teachers were underpaid. we were losing them to the suburbs. i cannot think of any better investment we can make them to have a better teacher in front of every single child. many student graduating from college today have college loans that could lead them to cross teaching off of a list of possible careers. what we do to make more teachers apply to our school system? we cannot let it happen that they go elsewhere simply because they have loans to repay. we cannot let our top students who want to be teachers to decide they cannot afford it. one program we are in the process of instituting in new

york city is we have proposed an incentive to anyone who finishes college in the top tier of the class to come teach in the new york city public schools. if you commit to stay, we will pay off up to $25,000 of your student loans. our teachers deserve it and so do our children. that is the recruitment. we also have to worry about retaining the best teachers by offering them a big raise. teachers to they have lots of options. if you are a good teacher, you are worth a lot of money in the private sector in many careers. in washington, teachers were given a choice to decide for themselves if they wanted a contract that would pay them an extra $25,000 a year if they were rated effective. guess what they did in washington, d.c.? the teachers said yes. they wanted to be rewarded for their success, just like any other person in any other job. why is anybody surprised about that? i do not know. we all want recognition and

respect. it would also be nice if we could get some money to enjoy more things. the harder we work and better the job we do, a thing most people would say, the better you should be rewarded. teachers' unions have historically opposed merit pay. more teachers today are asking why. when they are given a voice, they say yes. by all accounts, the raises have been the essential to keeping effective teachers for moving out of the d.c. public school system. if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, mayor gray should be fired because we want to make the same offer to our teachers. we have proposed the following deal. if you are rated highly effective for two years, we will increase your salary by $25,000 a year. our teachers deserve that and so do our children.

it is something we have to bargain on with the teachers' unions. will they stand in a way of the most effective members being rewarded for their work? i think this is an idea whose time has come. i am confident that teachers are allowed to decide the matter, they will support it in new york city the way they did in washington, d.c. we have already won the most important battle ball. that is the battle for public expectations. 10 years ago, people said you cannot fix the schools until you cure poverty. the chancellor said to me that they had the wrong way. you cannot cure poverty until you fix our schools. too many people were resigned to the reality of bad schools just as they were once resigned to higher crime rates. in the 1990's, mayor's show the

world of high crime is not inevitable. you could make the streets safer if you used data-driven strategies and help people accountable for the results. mayor giuliani dramatically cut crime in new york city. we have cut it another 35%. today, new yorkers expect the streets to be the safest of any big city in the country. the voters will not collect any future mayor who's not 110% committed to the bowl. if you expect the worst, you get the worst. if you expect to do better, you can do better. thee willing to take on special interests who find comfort in the status quo. when i took office, education was about as bad as it could get. school crime was the norm. kids were promoted regardless

of whether they learned anything. promotion was often based more on political connections than merit. we refused to except what president bush once called the soft bigotry of low expectations. we expected more of our students. that meant expecting more of the adults in charge. working with the state legislature, we abolished the broken board of education and handed control of the schools to a chancellor appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the mayor. by raising standards and inject accountability into schools, we raised graduation rates 40% since 2005. that is compared to 8% in the rest of the state. all the kids in new york state took exactly the same test. we have cut the dropout rate

and school crime in half. we've increased the number of students enrolling in college. but almost any measure, students are doing better. our school system is heading in the right direction. today parents expect the schools to be first-rate. more parents are staying in our city rather than moving to the suburbs because of the change expectations. i realize many mayors do not control their own school system, but we do have voices. we have the ears of other politicians. we're all in this together. just as we have seen on many issues, when mayors stand together and speak together, we put problem-solving over ideology. we can make an enormous difference. if we stand together on school reform, we can make sure our

kids nationwide get the education they need to keep the american dream alive in this new century and beyond. let's go get it. thank you. [applause] >> also at that conference of mayors, and david plouffe spoke about the administration goes to focus on manufacturing and president obama's request to consolidate federal agencies. he also said that if needed, the white house will continue to look for ways to push its jobs agenda without congress's authority. this is about 25 minutes.

[applause] >> thanks, everyone. i will not sing any al green. only president obama can carry that tune. thank you for inviting me here today. many of use of the president in orlando florida making an announcement that will make it a lot easier for people to visit america. this is the type of action that we call "we can't wait." we unless the lot of people for things we can do on our own to help improve the economy and the country. something like this seems like a very small procedural details, but it will have a huge impact.

in communities large and small where people from around the world can spend money. if you are a small business owner, it means more revenue. more revenue might mean more jobs. for just about everyone in this room, we were losing a lot of business to other countries. this is not just an abstract policy decision, it will help those around the country get through some of the toughest times we can remember, certainly since the great depression. what was nice about talking to all of you, members of the administration had a chance to visit and with you, you are grounded in the real world that every decision we make in washington, that others may, these have direct impact on your constituents and the kind of

cities and towns that are going to be built for your residence in the coming years. when we talk aboutwhen we talk n education and reforming it, investing in transportation about how to create good, middle-class jobs, about how we become known again for making things that are sold all around the world, you understand how much these things mean to the people living in your cities. while you come from both parties, you know the debate in washington needs to be a lot more than about scoring political points. it needs to be about putting points on the board for you in american people. -- and american people. your communities and the the decisions we make have a real, direct impact. for many of your constituents, it has never been more important that government live up to their responsibility. what is happening all around the country is people know that you are living up to your responsibilities, having to make hard decisions. county government, state government, people running businesses small and large, having to make tough decisions. workers, family members.

but this -- they have weathered this recession. they have weathered this they have made adjustments. they have been super responsible, and they want to see that same response ability out of their institution, and they certainly need to see more of that responsibility out of this institution. that is certainly more of what we will see out of 2012. the president last month -- some of you might have seen the speech he gave in kansas where he talked about the kind of values that he believes -- and i think most people in america believe -- need to undergird our economy. that this really is a make or break moment for the middle class. we have to continue to create jobs, get grows up, bring unemployment down. but the central challenge facing the country and has been for decades is how do we have more people in middle-class -- how do we have more people in middle- class that are more secure about it? and the people fighting to get in middle class -- so many of you here in the room represent people who are trying to get in the middle class. it is their central goal in life. we have an economy and a government and a country that

is focused on that task at this make or break moment for the middle-class. that speech he gave in a small community in kansas -- but i think what is reflected there is what is happening all over the country, which is that for too many people in america now, they are not sure if they work hard and act responsibly if they are going to be rewarded, that no matter who you are or where you come from, you will have the same opportunities as people in previous generations, and that is something where too many americans have come to believe that the basic bargain may be in question, that it might be eroded. what we are seeing here is stagnation has obviously been a decades. problem again, going back the average worker has been falling farther and farther behind. there is a growing gap between

else. the wealthiest and everybody on top of that, it was crisis. exacerbated by the financial -- it was exacerbated by the financial crisis. even the people we're dealing with stagnation heading into 2008, less mobility, you put what happened in 2008 over, it makes the burden of recovering for these folks even more challenging. created overnight. the challenges we faced were not 2008. -- these challenges we face were not created overnight. they were not even created in 2008. these challenges have been going on for a long time. it will take a lot of time not just to dig out of recession but to build the kind of america where everybody gets their fair share, we play by the rules, and everybody gets a fair shake. it is a vision that says we are greater together than we are -- that we all succeed, and everybody plays by the same rules. i think that is true for our economy, but just as important as what it means for the economy is that is the kind of america that your residents and people all across america want to live in. a sense that there are the same rules in place for everybody, that their hard work is just as valued as someone else's. that if you are not accountable, there will be

consequences, no matter your station in life and no matter how powerful your legal team is. or your accountant and lobbying team. that is really what we have to build in america. we know with some certainty that there will need to be jobs created in your community to succeed going forward. we know that we have to have a manufacturing sector here. the good news is for the last three years, we have actually added manufacturing jobs. been a long time since we have done that. in communities all across america, you are beginning to see a manufacturing renaissance. accelerator. we have to step on the president -- we have got to step on the accelerator. and the president will talk about some ideas about how we can do even more. we know we have to have those manufacturing jobs that pay people $22, $24, maybe even that they can thrive. the remarkable thing we have right now in america is we have a moment where you are

beginning to see more companies make the decision that economically it makes sense for them to stay in america or relocate in america. because you are seeing rising wages in china and the cost of business increasing their, there is a window here. president had a conference -- some of you attended this -- a couple of weeks ago on in sourcing. companies came to talk about their story, the decisions they made to bring jobs back. think about that. we could have a moment in this country where we are bringing jobs back. they had some great ideas about what we at the federal government level could do. we have to seize this moment. because we are not going to have -- clearly, we are not going to get the job growth we need, but the kind of jobs we need will have to be a resurgence in our manufacturing particularly in high- tech manufacturing. we know much of that will be in clean energy, health care

technology, places not just here in the country, but where our technology and our workers can export all around the world. this is they really, really unique moment we have. over the country. you see what is happening all companies like ford are investing $16 billion in this country between now and 2015, bringing back to thousand jobs, -- to thousand jobs, -- 2000 jobs. and shifting production from companies like japan, mexico, and china, to states like michigan, ohio, and missouri. it was announced yesterday that once again, after a long absence, general motors is now the no. 1 auto maker in the world, and we should all be proud of that. [applause] another great example, from the great city of milwaukee, an american company looked at their numbers to the point and realized that their union workers were competitive with non-union workers in china, and that they are as exporting their products to china and europe. for the first time in 15 years,

capacity. they are up and running at full event. -- full capacity. i mentioned the insourcing the ceo of an i.t. company has -- it is called galaxy solutions, and they have a already hired 20 workers and the plan on hiring up to 50. we are going to lay out new ideas on tuesday, but how can we create the atmosphere, the policies, the incentives to make sure those companies are making these decisions -- they will stay rooted in your community. they will start in your community and add capacity in your community. last year was a very frustrating year here in washington. one of the really troubling moments was that at a time when the economy was already getting weaker -- we had a really good moment, and then because of the arab spring and what happened in japan and a variety of

factors in europe, the economy began to slow a little bit as we got into the summer. and then washington made it worse. it was a self-inflicted wound for our confidence in this country, to our economy, and it has taken us a long time to dig out of that. the debt ceiling debacle is something that never needs to be repeated in washington again. we are not naive. we understand we live in a very divided country, and we are heading into an election year, but the election is still 10 long months away. one thing i am sure of is and the view that might be in a new election year do not have the luxury of not focusing on the task at hand. each and every day. and there is a sense in washington -- some of the pundits are already saying this -- even some members of congress are saying is that it will be hard to get anything done this year. it is an election year. we will have to kick these debates and these problems down the field for 2013. please, i would implore you -- demand of republicans and democrats in congress that that is not acceptable.

we will have an election. there will be plenty of time to have the to and fro that that will result in. there is a lot of work to bedone right now. there is a lot of work to be democrats and republicans almost with unanimity at the may level -- at the male role -- at the mayoral level demanded tax cuts, for the middle class, and your voices were enormously important, and if you had not lifted up your voices, i think taxes would have gone up for everybody, but you force actions of the taxes -- so that taxes will continue to be cut this year, and that will have a profound impact on every middle- class family. people trying to get the middle class our businesses who need those customers. we still have a lot of work to do, so we need your help to make sure congress lands the plane, but that was a moment where the party was a little too late and a little too messy, but we finally came to get there. you have to help us make sure we do that, make sure we extend our tax cut. we will continue to make the

case that helping you -- putting teachers back in your classrooms is an important thing to do. traditionally. we have bipartisan support it needs to get, given the structure is you are facing at the local level. not to mention, we are in agreat competition now. not to mention that we are in a the last thing we could be doing -- not to mention, the last thing we should be doing if we are going to compete and our kids are going to compete is classroom. to be shorting them in the we -- to compete is to be shorting them in the classroom. have to be pushing the accelerator down, not putting the brakes on. that has to be in -- that has to be a central mission of this country, and we are going to help with that. there are job-producing ideas that traditionally have had bipartisan support that we think congress ought to work on. we may not solve all the great philosophical debates this year. but we can do some smart things

to help you. we can assist in the manufacturing sector, to make sure we are pursuing tax policy that helps the middle class and also helps small businesses. we can work on education and reform, maybe do some things around immigration reform. it is a long year, and i think it is important that you hold washington's feet to the fire that this cannot be just about a speechifying this year. we have got a lot of work to be done. we have got a lot of hurting people out there. we're going to pursue every opportunity to work with congress. we have had some success. we signed trade deals with colombia and panama and south korea. we will be selling ford and chevy is in south korea, not here. just having them sell hyndai we -- and not having them sell just hyundais here. had patent reform, which was a big deal for entrepreneurs and investors. we cut taxes, repeal don't ask, don't tell, did some things with republicans, and we have had more. some success, and we need a lot

more, we are not naive. we will continue work on every avenue where we can take action on our own. sometimes that will be because there is gridlock, that congress will not act. good idea. sometimes it is because it is a good idea. if you have ideas for executive actions we can take, we are all ears. you are going to have better ideas than we do because you are on the other end of this. honestly, seriously, if you have ideas, send them our way. we want to continue not just to scour the government, but ask people who are the partners of the government for their ideas because we are going to continue all throughout this year and the next four years after that to look at what we can do on our own to help communities, help our workers. your cities and towns, and help the president on tuesday is going to deliver the state of the union address. it would be foolish for me to preview it too much here and get ahead of him. he is working on it as we speak. but a little sneak peek is

that, as we mentioned, the president gave a speech in kansas where he talked about the values he needed to animate our country and economy, about fair play and everybody doing their fair share and everybody getting a fair shake. and about this make or break, for the middle-class and how we can create more good jobs for them. and for the first time in a long time, reverse wage stagnation and have a moment or more people are getting into the middle class. it is going to take a long time. what he will lay out on tuesday night is really putting some flesh on the bones there. and lay out his concrete ideas, his blueprint, if you will, for how we can build an america that is here to last, an economy that is built to last. at the end of the day, that is what people want. that is what the country needs. economic moment built on baubles -- bubbles or financial instruments. we need a durable economy and a

durable country, where the -- with a real sense of what our north stars are. what i the things we need to do in the not too distant future where in your cities and all across the country we are doing the right things in terms of education and skills? some of that, by the way, requires government reform. the president announced last week he is asking congress for the ability, with presidents have all the way up until reagan, to have what is called reorganization authority. it means the president has the authority to give congress an up or down vote ideas for how to make the government smarter and leaner and more efficient. we have a government -- you are surrounded here by a government that was built for the middle of the last century. it is not as efficient as it needs to be. it is not as strategic as it needs to be. it is not as customer friendly as it needs to be. we have made big improvements using technology, efficiency, metric measuring, and i hope

you have seen a difference, but we have a lot more to do. we gave some ideas last week and said if we had such authority, what would we do? we do a lot of consolidating and a lot smarter work around our exports, our small businesses. we want to be imagined and refashion and reform the government so it is built to provide you and your city and our business is the kind of century. government we need in this one -- that kind of government we need in this century. we get ossified. so one of the things we need to do is not just ideas and policies. that is important. we are going to lay it out next week in energy, manufacturing, skills and education, some of the reforms we need to our institutions. more responsibility throughout the country. but also, that needs to be directed here. we have to again have big ambitions about the kind of reforms we need to bring to this government, so it is a true partner for you at the local government level, and it is a true partner with the

private sector so that we can unleash the power of our people. this is going to be an important year. not for the reasons a lot of people are focused on, which is what happens in november. that will come, but we have an economy that is still far too challenged. now, slow progress. 22 straight months of private- sector job growth. over 3 million jobs in that time. 2011 created more jobs than any year going back to 2005, but given the deep hole we find ourselves in, it is not enough. and we have some of external challenges out there. there is some turmoil going on in the middle east. we still have a lot of instability in europe. we have both the expiration of the bush tax cuts at the end of the year and a sequestered in terms of how we will get another $1 trillion in the deficit reduction. hopefully, everyone in this town will do that in a smart way, it with a serves your city, serves our people, serves our businesses.

we cannot do anything here that would be again, another self- inflicted wound that would slow this economy. in fact, we need to do the opposite in smart ways. in the tough budget times we find ourselves in, what can we do in a collaborative way with you and our businesses to play the role government should to help put a little more acceleration on this economy. so the american people, your residents have been remarkable. they've dusted themselves off and went right back to work. they started new businesses. they have got new skills. they are saving. some of them have even had to

adjust their dreams in life, and they are doing it, and they are doing it without complaint. what they need is leaders. day. you guys are on the phone every you do not have the ability for much quantification and finger- pointing. this is more about our national leaders. they need to see their leaders here acting more responsibly, putting our nose to the grindstone. we have big debates within our party. they will not be stopped easily, but there is an area of common ground. i do not think the country wants us to wait to 2013 to make progress on our problems. i will humbly admit that the people on the ballot nov. would probably be better served if they were sure they could make progress. you always give us and our staff great ideas, great insights, a great criticism. please keep them coming. we need to be better partners with you. we need to be more innovative. all of you are doing remarkably innovative things in your city. some of them can scale up. some of them cannot. we want to look at all of them and hopefully, we can continue to make progress, make sure we economy that cities. does a lot for all of our thank you. thank you. [applause]

>> many of the initiatives that you have charted as priorities for the nation moving a forward are initiatives that we put together and our common sense jobs agenda of in september. they are extending for the s -- the rest of the year the payroll tax that you mentioned. investing in infrastructure and school construction. we supported the trade agreements and said that we need the several formed to promote tourism in this country. -- visa reform to promote tourism in this country. on a bipartisan basis, that things you have proposed this organization has gone behind. we are tired of the ideologues in both parties. we're looking for practical solutions. as you said, many of these

initiatives were initiatives that we went to republican and democratic think tanks and said, what are the things that will put people back to work, millions of people? and we came up with this set of initiatives and a dovetail quite perfectly with the issues that you raise. we will be their standing with you, standing with both republican and democratic leaders who want to put the nation first. so thank you so much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> next a mitt romney rally and south carolina. the newt gingrich and ron paul. rick santorum is appearance today on ""washington journal." >> if you have a saudi prince who is part of the royal family of saudi arabia who effectively bought one of the largest

franchisees and the world, you have to look at his motives. >> diana west talks about culture, politics, and the spread of islam in the restaurant or a peer >> if there is an argument to be made that he should have to register as a foreign agent, given the role of hezbollah and its corporate structure. and more with the editorial writer and syndicated columnist diana west on c-span sunday night. >> virginia gov. bob mcdonell has endorsed former massachusetts governor mitt romney for president. he went to south carolina and to campaign for him at this north charleston rally. nikki haley also spoke. now, republican presidential candidate mitt romney discusses jobs and the economy at this campaign rally at the charleston area convention center.

♪ [unintelligible] "born free" playing] ♪

[applause] ♪ >> it is great to have everybody with us. [applause] it is a great day in south carolina, we have guests with us today. show them what we think about south carolina and mitt romney. [applause] this is a real treat. because we have done a lot of work. we have talked to a lot of people, and tomorrow is the day. [applause] what i want you to know is, a

little bit about what i am hearing. a little bit about -- the governor has their feet on the ground and seeing what is going on. yesterday, we started getting calls. of a lot of people support perry ready to jump to romney. [applause] this morning, we started getting all these calls saying that he rocked it in the debate last night. [applause] we thought that was pretty good. we were excited about it. we have been around the state today, pouring down rain in lexington county, hundreds of people standing there to see mitt romney. [applause] [chanting]

>> go mitt! go, mitt! >> that's all for you. so this is what has happened. we have had people like ambassador david wilkins who used to be the speaker of the house jumping on board. people in charge of the military have jumped on board. you saw the treasurer, he is on board. we have all these people want in on the romney train. let me tell you why they want on. the coolest thing we could ever see is a jobs candidate go up against a government loving president obama. [applause] because in south carolina, what we care about jobs, spending, the economy. we don't care about any other distractions or anything else. we care about having a one-term president. [applause]

we know he has been in the private sector 25 years, he does that create jobs. this is what i know. over the past year, the hardest part of my job would be the unemployment rate. balancing the budget. making cuts that are important. what i did not know is that the hardest part was going to be the federal government. they have stopped me from doing my job every single day and you have felt it. what they did to boeing. -- the first time we felt it was with nlrb and what they did to boeing. boeing came in and give us the shot in the arm, thousands of new jobs and expanded to thousand jobs in washington -- to thousand jobs in washington -- 2000 jobs in washington state. president obama and the

national labor relations board said you cannot do that in a right to work state. we won that, we had them drop the suit and they are doing just fine -- we are doing just fine. the people of south carolina said they want to illegal immigration reform. we passed it and i signed into law. president obama and the justice department stopped it. >> boo! >> president romney will stand beside us and get that law passed in south carolina. [applause] and we said, if you have to show a picture i.d. to get sudafed, if you have to show a picture id to get -- to get into the debate last night, could get on a plane, why would you not have to show a picture i.d. to protect the integrity of the voting process? [cheers and applause] we listen to the will of the people. i signed a bill, the department of justice and president obama stalked us. -- stop us. guess what?

president romney will stand beside us to protect the voting process. we had probably just about enough of the federal government, and when it comes to health care, he says we can't afford it. he said, do not worry about it. day one i will repeal obamacare for our country. [applause] i am incredibly proud to let you know that we have the coolest first man in the room, michael haley is with us. you know we are a very proud of military family. i love watching him walk out the door in his military uniform loving his job. what we need is a president that understands that you strengthen our military, you don't weaken it and turn around and apologize for it. president romney understands that we need a strong military and hall will make sure no one ever challenges america.

you have heard me say this and i will continue to say this, we are going to take this election tomorrow. i need you to do something for me. it is not showing up at this rally, it is what you do when you leave this rally. we have an election on a saturday that we don't always do, people have no excuse not to vote. email people, tell them we support r turnomney, -- governor romney. we cannot afford the democrats raising any more money watching us go through this process. we also need you to get on the phone and say, we need you to get out there and vote. i will give you a ride if you need a ride, make sure they get to the polls. let's celebrate really loud tomorrow night when he comes in first place. [applause]

i have said my view, but michael and i are so thrilled because we have great friends in the house tonight. what you have seen across the country is chaos in washington. we don't want anybody that has ties to washington, we see what that does. we want someone that understands jobs, and right now, the governors get it. we are having to deal with the fights of our state. there is someone that is leading all of the republican governors had on saying that we are not going to take this from washington, we are going to fight back. we are fortunate to have the president of the republican governors association that wants to nominate mitt romney. it is governor mcconnell and his wife -- mcdonnell and his wife. >> thank you very much. good afternoon, south carolina.

it is a treat for me to come from the old dominion, the cradle of democracy to the whole matter as a state where i -- the state to endorse mitt romney as president of the united states. [applause] governor haley, you have done a great job standing up for the values that make america great. balancing the budget without raising taxes and standing up against the bureaucrats to protect your right to work laws. congratulations. [applause] it is a treat to be here with a the next first lady of the united states. as a lady of tremendous courage and character, a great wife and a great mother, she has done a

marvelous job and your number one asset. i am delighted to be here with my wife of 35 years, the first lady of virginia, maureen mcdonnell. i am delighted to tell you she is endorsing mitt romney for president. in virginia, we call that a two-fer. i am endorsing him because he is a strong leader, and he has the best person in the republican party could be barack obama in the debate and in the polls next november. [applause] you know what we need in america more than anything else? we need leadership, people of character that will lead this nation. i believe mitt romney is that leader. we talk a lot about surpluses

and deficits. we have a surplus of rhetoric and a deficit of results with president obama. we need somebody that will put aside sound bites and work on solutions, someone that will get results. he has a lifetime of achievement in the public and private sector in getting things done for the people of massachusetts and for the people that work for him. jobs, the top issue in the campaign. 8% unemployment for over 35 months, almost the entire obama presidency. people are hurting in america. why do we have? more spending, more rhetoric, and no creation of jobs or energy proposals to get america back to work. and don't you agree that it is time for change and we need a new president of the united states?

mitt romney knows how to create jobs, that is why i am endorsing him today. being an entrepreneur in the private sector, he understands that it is not government, but the private sector that creates wealth and opportunity. that is the america mitt romney believes in. he understands you keep taxes and you have strong right to work laws. you can get people back to work. just yesterday, the last couple of days, more of an attack on the energy industry. he won't support the nuclear industry and chills the keystone pipeline. that is not the way to create jobs.

spending and taxes, we need a president that gets it. it is not the governor's money, it is your money. we have the largest increase in the national debt under any president in american history. muchcan't get a budget, less a balanced budget. we need a change. mitt romney balanced the budget without raising taxes, he cut $3 billion in deficit spending, he cut taxes multiple times. obama has 19 increases in taxes, running up the debt to an unsustainable and a moral level to this country. mitt romney will run the finances of the united states like it was his own family money.

that is what you need. we need a president, you heard the governor say it so well. i am the son of a world war two veteran. i served 21 years, my daughter was a platoon leader. you must understand that you protect and defend the veterans that serve in these wars if you continue to attract the brightest young men and women to serve. [applause] president romney said it so well. i am getting ahead of myself. we will actually listen to the battlefield commanders on the ground to set military policy. that is what we need to do. this president continues to

advocate policies that will reduce military spending and decimated the greatest naval fleet in the entire world. mitt romney will keep america strong. that is the kind of leadership we need. don't you agree? we need a president of the united states that understand the traditional values of the american people. we need a president that understands that america is the greatest force for good. america is great because america is good. over the last couple of months and years, there were a number

of conversations with mitt. >> he as an incredibly decent, honest, and generous man who cares about his family and cares about his country. [applause] i had the honor of growing up right here near mount vernon on the land that was owned by george washington. i was raised 1 mile from mount vernon. in his first inaugural address, washington said something profound about the heart of this country and the dow use we need -- values we need in leaders. he said the smiles of have and cannot be expected to remain in a nation that this regard the internal rules of order and right.

in other words, character counts and values matter in our people and in our leaders. [applause] i am here to ask you to elect a man of decency and to make sure we elect mitt romney the next president of the united states. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, guys. you are the best. thank you. thank you so much. red sox back here. we have a red sox fan. there are probably more red sox fans than patriots fans. i appreciate your support. it is great for the mcdonnell to come here from virginia. your governor and her husband are fabulous.

they have been with me all over the state for the last several days. we have traveled all over new hampshire. today is an unusual day for your governor. she turned real old today. she turned 40 years old today. we are going to send her a birthday song. happy birthday to you. happy birthday to you. happy birthday, dear nikki. happy birthday to you. [applause] >> there we go. [applause] >> all i want is president romney for my birthday. we have to get him in the white house. >> i see enough plates to serve everybody here.

maybe quite not that many. we are going to get each of you a piece of this cake. what a wonderful governor you have. a strong, on wavering conservative who is making things happen in this state. she is the best you could possibly have. happy birthday. i love my country and my deep abiding faith in dodd. -- god. i also love this person i met in elementary school. she was in the second grade and i was in the fourth grade. when she was 16 i did. i went to a party at a friend's house and she was there. i noticed her in a big way. she had come to someone else -- come with someone else. i said, i live closer to her than you do. can i get her a ride home. we have been together ever since. my sweetheart, ann romney.

>> it is great to see all of you. south carolina, you are so generous and so warm. we love your hospitality. mitt and i have been married a long time. in the process of those 42 years of marriage, we have five sons. when they were let go, they were -- were little, they were not so wonderful. one of my sons is here. come up with my granddaughter. he was always the best behavior. and my oldest granddaughter, who is 16. [applause] when it was particularly difficult and mitt was traveling, it would be traveling quite frequently.

that meant i was home along with -- these naughty five boys. he would call home and he would hear an exasperated wife at the other end of the phone. he would remind me to hang in there and it would be ok. the cool thing was he meant it. [applause] it was great having that kind of support. the wonderful thing now as you look and see how great it is to have these boys is, it is a wonderful thing to have the grandchildren. the most joy i get in life is watching my grandchildren miss -- misbehave. i say to my sons, you deserve it. you know family is where our happiness really lies. it is wonderful that i see so

many families here and so many children. it is great to see that. we are in an unusual position to make a big difference for the future of this nation. one year ago, i asked mitt when we were thinking of running again -- i told him that years ago i would never run again. i said i would never have another baby after i had my first one. and that i would never do another pregnancy. after last year, i said, i would ask who you are going to run against. we are not 0.2 figure any of those things out. all i want to know -- we are not going to figure any of those things out. all i want to know is can you save america. he said he could. let's get him a chance to do that. >> thank you, sweetheart. move this table back for me, will you? there we go.

i want to get closer to you guys. this is a great state. what wonderful people. what a thrill it has been all but these last days and months to see so many friends here. this election is more than just about replacing one man. i am disappointed in our president. he was critical to president bush or building a huge deficit. is have been three or four times as large. he was critical of the downturn in our economy. he has been in office three years and has not been able to turn it around. he said, if i cannot turn this economy around in three years, i will be looking at a one-term proposition. we are here to collect. [applause] he is over his head. it is badly over his head. internationally, he has made extraordinarily bad mistakes. this is the slowest recovery we

have seen since cooper. -- hoover. the american people want a different course. the president has said he wants to fundamentally transforme america. that is why it is not working. we need to return america to the principles that made us great in the first place. [applause] the president has look at debt, he has looked at spending and debt. he put in place stimulus that did not create private-sector jobs. the course it would take us on is bigger and bigger government and bigger and bigger deficits. my course would be cut spending, eliminate programs, caps spending and balance our budget. [applause] he looks at something like

health care and said health care is not working terribly well. let's make it more like europe. that is the wrong course. the right course is to make health care like the consumer market. i will repeal obamacare and get america back to the principles of enterprise. [applause] this is a president that has watched as our credit rating has been degraded. this is a president who looks at his friends who have offered sabres, who raise money, or are associated -- who have offered favors, who raise money or are associated with some of his favorite groups. they can come up with decisions that push against right to work states. that kind of crony capitalism is wrong for america. i will restore a fair balance between labor and management and protect these rights of workers in this country. his approach to enterprise is

interesting. he thinks he is best at picking the winners and losers in our economy. how about putting $500 million into solyndra. think about what happens when government becomes a danger is. $500 million they put into solyndra. when we helped to start staples, do you know how much money went into that? about 5 million. instead of meeting in a glass palace, we use the back up and old shopping mall. we sat in naugahyde chairs and old furniture. the money was other people's money. i will get rid of chronic -- crony capitalism and returned to the free enterprise system -- get rid of crony capitalism and return to the free enterprise system.

the that the president has taken up -- taken on is one that believes america is in decline. the president seeks to appease other nations. he sent a note to mahmoud ahmadinejad. another pretty please note. the right course for america is to not have a pretty please president, but to have a president that will stand up to america and never apologized to america knowing this is the greatest nation on earth. [applause] the president has proposed cutting our military spending by $350 billion and another $650 billion on top of that coming down the road. his own secretary of defense has said those kinds of cuts represent a doomsday scenario. his secretary of defense said that. our navy is smaller than anytime since 1917.

our air force is smaller and older than at any time since the air force founding. he wants to cut the number of soldiers in the military and only half capacity since the first time since the second world war two only fight one war. this is a president who is pulling back on the capacity of our military. at the same time, the world is a more dangerous place. i will restore our navy. i will restore our air force. i will provide the care to our veterans they so generously deserve. [applause] this is an election about a different path. as i have just gone through those items -- i could go on and on. this president is taking america in a very different

place. i think he is taking his inspiration from the capitals of europe. i take my inspiration from the people of america. this president is transforming america into a european-style social welfare state. europe is it working in europe. it sure is not going to work here. [applause] the founders of this country were right. when they chose the worst -- the words of why we were parting from the nations that we came from, they said that we were in doubt with in alienable rights. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. our hard work, our risk taking, maybe a little good luck, our dreams. people in this country have achieved extraordinary things. their success does not make the rest of us poor.

their success makes the rest of us better off. that was the brilliance of the founders. that was what made america such a powerful economic engine. the average income of an american is 60% greater than the average income of a european. this is an extraordinary story. it is not a story based upon a government guiding our lives. it is based upon three men and three women pursuing their -- free men and free women pursuin g their dream. that must be restored to america. i love this country. i love its beauty. i love its people. i love the patriotism of the american people. i love the hems of our nation. -- hymns of our nation.

america the beautiful is my favorite. america the beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. oh it is low pour here rose -- beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strive for more themselves their country loved. do we have veterans or members of our armed forces? would you please raise your hands to be recognized? thank you. [applause] this is a veteran rich state. we salute you. there is another burst -- verse to let me mention. o beautiful for patriot's dream. that sees beyond tehe years. when the founders wrote to the declaration of independence and constructed the constitution of our nation, they were not just seeing a temporary phenomena. they were writing and acting for

an enduring and prominent -- permanent nation. those principles are the principles to which we must return. they are the blueprint. i know how jobs are created. it is not by pushing government deep and -- deeper and deeper into our lives. i love the constitution. i read here its founders. -- revere its founders. i will get america back to work and i will make sure we get back to being a shining city on a hill that ronald reagan spoke of. thank you. get out there and vote. ♪

♪ >> how are you? hi. how are you.

thank you for being here. thank you. hi there. how are you? thank you for being here. thanks for being here.

good to see you. good to see you. thanks for coming by today. ♪

>> the wrong way. i'm taking pictures of myself. >> thanks for being here. hi. how are you? >> good luck. >> thank you. you're sisters? how are you? appreciate you being here.

♪ oh, my goodness. good to see you.

♪

how are you doing?

♪

[chanting "mitt, mitt, mitt"] >> we came four years ago.

>> all the best to you, sir. thank you. thank you. hi. how are you? >> it's for my daughter. >> thanks so much.

good to see you. i'll sign that. looks good. >> i'm working on your campaign. >> best of luck tomorrow. >> thank you. thank you. hi there. how are you?

>> will you please come outside? ♪ >> how are you doing? good to see you.

>> so glad to have you here. battle always an uphill for me in south carolina. we're making progress.

thank you. hi, guys. how are you?

good to see you. there's one. thank you. thanks for being here.

thanks for being here today.

thank you so much. thank you. good to see you.

>> could you sign it willard mitt romney for me?

>> we have great aspirations for the people of poland. >> governor, may i get a picture with you? >> i have a cold. i cannot shake your hand. any republican who can govern massachusetts can do anything. my gift to you. i will come back when you are all elected.

we have created a monster. we should have introduced you, coroner. -- governor.

>> this is my daughter lucy. >> you must have married well. take care.

how're you doing? and goods to meet you. -- good to meet you. ♪ >> c-span's coverage shows you the candidate events leading up to the primary. >> the obama administration has

a policy that said she cannot teach abstinence. as a preferable way of avoiding out of wedlock births. and she cannot talk about marriage. she cannot talk about marriage as anything other than an alternative lifestyle. my question is, why? >> won the president adopts a stimulus package of hundreds of billions of dollars and nobody has read, and then discovers to his surprise that the shovel- ready were not shovel-ready, and the stimulus fails but leaves this deeper in debt, at some point he has to take responsibility. that was his plan, proposal, and it failed.

>> the meet with voters to get their message out. >> good luck. >> and after the polls close, we will show you the results from south carolina along with speeches and your phone calls. >> the candidates are making their final campaign stops in south carolina before the primary. newt gingrich told supporters that voting for him would be the first step in electing the next conservative president. he made these remarks for 45 minutes. ♪

[applause] >> thank you very much for being patient. i apologize we ran late. a couple of things happened in each of them added a few minutes. i also have to tell you how that speaking this -- with as many people behind me, really has me,

i want to look over back here. i trust the mayor but the rest of and, it is dangerous. i understand your agricultural commissioner and sank to you the national anthem. i appreciate you doing that. i am also delighted and that we have mike campbell here and he has endorsed me and has been active. i worked with his father for many years. it is great to have him here. of course the speaker is here. we finally decided that bobby and knew it would do. we're thrilled to be here. tomorrow is going to be an important day. with your help, and with the help of other citizens across the state, we're going to take the first step toward ensuring

that a conservative is nominated for president of the united states. [applause] now, let me --let me just ask you a couple of questions. i just realized that was another room. i thought at first it was one of those mirrors reflecting this room. there are that many additional people. hello, people. that is pretty astounding. i am very impressed with this turnout. i want to ask you a couple of questions. how many of you agree that the united states is very badly going in the wrong direction? [applause] how many of you agree that we have to defeat obama, but beyond that, we have problems with judges and bureaucrats and we have to fix all that, not just

the white house? [applause] how many of you agree that the left will fight us every inch of the way, even after we win the election? [applause] those three questions explain why i am running. our grandson robert is right over here. he is 10 years old. his sister is on the way. she is 12 years old. the question we raised, what kind of country will they inherit? if we do not profoundly change things, they will inherit a country that is weaker, more vulnerable, less free, with huge burdens where this generation of politicians spend all the money and left all the bills for the grandchildren. we decided that was just wrong. we knew when we decided we

would run, we knew there would be negative attack ads. we knew the media would attack us. i am not running to preside over the decay of being a normal establishment republican. i am running to change the whole structural power in washington, d.c. to move back to the principles that have made america historical great. [applause] i am happy for the academic left to, most of the elite media, and all the left-wing democrats. this campaign is about the end of their dominance of the united

states and the development of the new center of power called the citizens, in which we take power away from washington and returned back home. [applause] if you go to newt.org, you will see a systematic letting out a very dramatic changes in direction. let's take the issue of judges, some of them who have become dictators. we laid out in a 54-page paper, go back to the constitution, the declaration of independence, the federalist papers, the riding of -- writing of alexander hamilton, thomas jefferson, abraham lincoln, we laid out the case that there is no judicial supremacy.

it is a modern act of lawyers and law schools and arrogant judges. it was supposed to be a balance between the three branches. that means no one of them can be supreme. the supreme court is supreme inside the judiciary. it cannot dictate to the congress and cannot dictate to the president. that will be one of the major struggle starting in january. [applause] people ask, how fast can we turn around the mess that obama has made? i believe the recovery will start late on election night. [applause] the american people are so optimistic, it may start in

september or october. the basic principle is simple. we do not have a problem with the american people. we have a problem with government. that problem has been accentuated by the most radical and incompetent president we have had in our lifetime. he is the most radical president in history. [applause] this has a real human consequences. when you have a president, who in the middle of this kind of economy, with this level of unemployment, with the price of gasoline the highest it has been in american history -- 2011 was the most expensive gas prices in history. this president kills the keystone pipeline, which would have created 20,000 to 50,000

construction jobs, would have enabled oil to come from canada to houston it would have money processing the oil there. it would have been shipped out of the ports of houston and made money from the shipping. instead, in order to take care of some environmental extremists in san francisco, he stops it. it is wrong on national- security grounds, it is wrong on economic grounds. as an unintended consequence, it is hard to believe the administration understood. it is one thing to say that the white house cannot play chess. it is another thing to say they cannot play checkers. [applause]

if they cannot play tic tac toe -- [laughter] i think obama had no idea the canadians had an alternative. the environmentalists are not against the pipeline, they are against canadian oil. the prime minister of canada is a conservative in his pro- american. if obama wants to cancel going through the united states, which is the easiest route, i will cut the deal with the chinese to finance putting a pipeline across the canadian rockies to vancouver. we will ship it straight to china. the oil is still going to get out. we will have lost every single job and 30 to 50 years of processing and access to the oil. this is truly dumb. [applause]

in all fairness, i was reassured because the president, in a moment of decisive and courageous leadership, has announced that he is going to hold an invitation-only town hall meeting on main street in disney world. [laughter] we like to go to disney world. we like taking robert and maggie to disney world. i like the disney characters. i thought to myself, imagine the photo opportunity. when you have mickey mouse, the president, and goofy. [applause]

what are these people thinking of? i am told they will close half of the magic kingdom in order to have a ticketed events. we want to be fair so we are writing a letter to disney. we're asking them before the florida primary to host a town hall meeting outside the park, where it can be free, where anybody can come. we will take the risk of talking to normal people and listen to them ask questions. bthis fall, i will challenge the president. if you help me win tomorrow and

i go on to become your nominee. i do believe that if i win tomorrow, i will go on to be your nominee. i will challenge the president to seven, three our debates in the lincoln does list -- in the lincoln douglas tradition. i will concede in advance that he can use a telephone. if you had to defend obama space care, wouldn't you want to use a teleprompter? part of the reason we have these debates, because his very radicalism, he creates a wonderful opportunity for the american people to have a serious philosophical discussion about who we are. he is a disciple of saul lewinsky who wrote a series of

very radical books on how to trash middle american. i believe in the federalist papers and the constitution. the contrast would be terrific. i believe in american exceptionalism which is not just about you and me but we have inherited from the founding fathers and understanding of self-government which is exceptional, which has enabled people to come from anywhere on the planet and learn to be american in a way that no other society can do. it starts with the very opening phrase, we hold these truths to be self evident. they were not offering a philosophy, and ideology, they were trying to understand the truth about how humans can live together. they said that all men are created equal. we had slavery, women had a

secondary role. spent 200 years working to make this normal. at a time when you had kings and queens and emperors. they go on to say, this is the heart of the american experience, the number-one issue that we have to win in the next year, we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. this is at the heart of the american experience. god endows each one of you personally with sovereignty. the state never loans power to you. [applause] what does that mean? the reason the constitution begins, we, the people -- those rights are unalienable.

that means no government can come between you and god. those rights have come directly to you and cannot be taken from me. this is the founding political doctrine in the united states. it is the heart of who we are. among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. very important concept. happiness in the 18th century meant wisdom and virtue, not acquisition. the founding fathers believed that a virtuous people could remain free and foolish people would become part of a dictatorship. it does not guarantee happiness. the right to pursue happiness. there is no provision in the constitution for a federal department of happiness.

[laughter] there is no provision for happiness stamps for the under happy. if you had sent to the founding fathers, some politicians will say i want to take from the overly happy and redistribute to be underly happy. they would have thought he was crazy. it is the heart of obamaism. we should have a great national debate. do we want to remain american? do we believe in the declaration of independence? or do we become some new people? the right to pursue happiness implies pursuit or activity, which implies the work ethic. i had a very interesting dialogue monday night in myrtle beach with juan williams.

it seem to be a strange, distant concept. something worthy of study in an academic environment, but something not to be subjected to young people. i began collecting these stories. michael reagan called me and i was thrilled today when he endorsed me this afternoon. he said i was the candidate who was the most like his father and the most capable. michael called me, and he was laughing.

when he was 10 years old, he went to his mother and said, i really want a 10-speed bicycle. she said, you should earn it. he said, mom, i am 10. she said, i will find jobs around the house. we will talk to our neighbors. he said, i do not want to wait that long. >> she said, ok. she wrote up a contract and she loaned him the money to buy the bike. she said, you have to pay this. if someone would have said to obama, you have to pay it back. he would have understood the whole idea of modern finance.

michael reagan paid off his bike. that was at 10. we had a young guy in new hampshire, 11 years of age, he founded a doughnut company. he is now 16. his father is thrilled, because for the first time, he can drive himself to sell the doughnuts. to work, you have to have jobs. here is my proposal. i worked with governor reagan on developing an economic plan. i've worked with president reagan on passing the plan. when we needed to get one of every three democrats to vote for it. i were to develop a plan based on reagan's. the reagan and eight years led

to 16 million new jobs. the four years i was speaker lead to 11 million new jobs. by the end of my speakership, unemployment had dropped to 4.2%. because we took people off welfare, off unemployment, of public housing, of medicaid, we were able to balance the federal budget. when they went to work, they started paying taxes. you reduce federal spending and you increase federal revenue without a tax increase. the only time in your lifetime we had four consecutive balanced budgets. we know what works. it is the opposite of obama. [applause] we're for lower taxes. he are for higher taxes. we're for less regulation. he is for more regulation. we are for helping the people who want to create jobs. he wants to wage class warfare against the people who create jobs.

it is almost like it is an anti- jobs program. let me talk about the process. we have a series of tax changes designed to make our manufacturing industry the most modern in the world, the most productive in the world, so we can compete with china and india. we have a proposal to modernize unemployment compensation. you have to sign up for a business training program to learn new skills. we will never again give someone money for 99 weeks for doing nothing. [applause]

in 99 weeks, they could have earned an associate's degree. it is a human waste. you have a better trained workforce with better equipment and now you can manufacture. i am very much in favor of developing the natural gas that is offshore. there is at least $29 billion worth. you begin to develop the economy just by developing your natural gas resources. i want to take part of the royalties from offshore and use it to modernize the charleston and georgetown harbors. charleston has to be modernized because the panama canal is going to be widened in 2014. the next generation of ships are too big. the port of charleston -- every fifth job in south carolina is affected by the port. it is really important.

the next stage is to reform the corps of engineers who currently say, it will take eight years to study how to win prue support. i remind people that we won the second world war in three years and eight months. [applause] you can go to newt.org and to the right regulatory policy. we use energy to create jobs and energy to create improving the port. i want to come back and be at the port of charleston to watch the first large container ship carrying south carolina manufactured goods to china to be sold in the wal-marts in china. [applause] all this can happen and it starts tomorrow. tell all your friends and neighbors, if they are conservatives, the only effective conservative vote to stop in massachusetts moderates is to vote for me. if every conservative in the state decided to vote for newt gingrich, we would win a shockingly big victory tomorrow. that would be good. conservatism needs to come back. in the reagan tradition, we need to shock the country and in shock washington, and then put everybody back to work.

prove to the world that we are an extraordinary country. [applause] i apologize for running late. this is going to be a little tricky, but i would like to take some questions. do we have a microphone in that grim, too? how many microphones do have?

why don't you go into that room? why don't you find people here? that lady is right next to you, so she gets to go first. >> it is kind of long and that have cut in half. how you plan to convince generations of people who were born and raised on government entitlement that they have not and will not prosper when they settled for a democrats designed life of poverty forever dependent on one government tells them they can have? how can you get this growing group of americans to believe in themselves and not the government, to trust and their own abilities and not on all sam's, to work at a job earning a better salary instead of living at the mercy of some overstuffed faceless bureaucracy? thank you.

>> that is a good question. when he was about eight years old, he and his best friend got a job at the school. their job was to go in an hour early and to set all the tables for the cafeteria. in return for doing that, they got free food. they thought that was really cool. they could eat all they wanted, and they earned it. i ever talked about the idea that the very poorest neighborhoods, we ought to try to find ways for poor children to have worked at the school. if you take a new york city janitor, they are unionized, they pay more to the janitors than they pay the teachers. they could do lights janitorial work. i will be up front. i do not think pushing a mop or sweeping a broom is inappropriate work for an 11 or 12 or 13-year-old.

i do not think working in the cafeteria is inappropriate work. learning how did the dishes is a good thing. my mother told me that i had to do it. right? [applause] people like to be independent. people like to have their money in their pockets so no one can tell them what to do. i believe we can we 90% of the people the work currently dependent into independence. there'll be surprisingly few people to fight the idea that unemployment compensation ought to have an educational

requirement attached to it. if i cannot find a job, maybe i need to learn something new. this is also a fight we will have as a country. i want to create for the younger generation the right to choose a personal social security savings account, not a requirement. anybody who wants the current system is right there. if you are a young person in would like to be able to keep and save and invest the money and you realize in the two places we have tried it, the average person has two to three times as much money as they would get from a government program. the first time a 16 or 17 or 18- year-old works part-time, and we would let the them put their half in the savings account. the first time they do it, they will notice that it is growing.

this is going to lead them to go, savings as smart. i could have more money. a generation would start to change its behavior. they will see it in their own personal life. i am an optimist. i believe most americans -- my central campaign theme on economics is simple. you have the finest food stamp president in american history in barack obama. [applause] i would like to be the finest paycheck president in history. [applause] i will go into any neighborhood, i will go before any group, i will talk to anybody of any background. every part of america, more parents want their children to

earn a paycheck and be independent and want their children to be dependent. how about somebody over there? >> thank you for being here today. part of the provision of the bill was a direct lending, which consolidated federal student aid lending under department of education. when you are president, will you repeal the entire bill and allow student lending to go back to the private banks? >> the answer is yes. what they do not score in washington is the likelihood of fraud at the federal government runs the program. we know in medicaid, over 10% of all payments are fraud. my brother used to be a student loan investigator for the state of pennsylvania. when you had people who became doctors, who borrowed hundreds

of thousands of dollars, it was a challenge. that was part of his job. he will tell you that having the private sector responsible for it is dramatically cheaper than having a government bureaucracy responsible for it. >> federal student fraud investigation is what i do full time. >> am i right? >> 100%. [applause] >> any other reporters who would like to talk to him, he thinks i am 100% right. >> thank you. we only know what we hear and read.

i would like to know your stance on the national right to work law. >> i would sign a national right to work law. today, that you have a federal compulsory unionism lot and states can opt out. if you eliminate the federal law, states that want to could create a compulsory union in

their state. you would not have an automatic bias towards unionism. i suspect over half the states that have compulsory unionism would not adopt it. it is so clear that it kills jobs and there is a reason boeing came here. >> [inaudible] >> i would not prohibit a state that wanted to from adopting that the state level. i would eliminated as a national thing. >> i am a senior citizen. i am on medicare. i would like to know what are your plans for us to be able to continue to receive medicare and not have to pay such high co-payments? what is your stand for senior citizens? >> by repealing obamacare, we would return $500 billion to medicare, which has been taken from it in order to pay for obamacare. we would strengthen medicare that way.

i wrote a book several years ago -- over 10% of the medicare and medicaid payments go to crooks. that is $120 billion a year that we could save. i would apply the concept of the management system that both bmw and boeing is in order to modernize the things to reduce costs. we need to have the same driving cost reduction in the help system that we have in manufacturing. how do we take waste out? we were just at the children's hospital in charleston. they talk about how much time and energy they waste trying to get specific approvals for things that are totally obvious. it can take days to get the paperwork done. all that is an added cost. i am very much for tort reform. we did a study -- up to $800 billion a year is defensive

medicine that is done for the purpose of being able to withstand a lawsuit. that is absolutely ridiculous. what we have one or two more questions. >> mr. speaker, we of all heard how are big cost in medicare is killing the country. especially obesity is a problem we find in our national government. one way that i think could reduce this obesity is that all elected or appointed officials retiring from the government would not be compensated for their for the services they have received in any form.

would you support such a move or would you not? >> they should not have a pension? i think the pension they should have would be a defined contribution pension. they should put the money in. it should not be a pension that is paid by the taxpayers. [applause] >> thank you, mr. speaker. until recently, i was living in san francisco completing a master's in science. while i was there, i helped in several summer camps with high school students. about a quarter of the students in high school were illegal immigrants. you have before said that you believe there should be some sort of comprehensive immigration reform.

some way of distinguishing between people that were born here and then you're a long time and people that of recently emigrated year. if you were to become president, how would you implement this without creating two classes of citizens? >> they are not citizens, first of all. some people love been here 25 years, marriage, children, paying their bills and working. i am opposed to anybody who came here illegally getting citizenship. the only exception is if young people, or willing to join the american military answered the united states. in that case, they should be eligible for the same opportunity for citizenship. that is the only exception i would make. my position on immigration is very straightforward. i do not think it can be comprehensive.

bush could not pass a comprehensive bill. obama could not pass a comprehensive bill. it is too big. you have to take a series of steps. control the border. we're drafting a bill right now about what a way of all federal regulations and would assign a person to be in charge of getting the border under control by january 1, 2014. if you take the attitude and the drive we had in world war ii, you can get this done. of the 23,000 department of, and security employees live in washington, i would move half of them to texas and arizona. you control the border. you make english the official language of government, so it is clear. [applause] do improve the legal visa system so that it is easier to come here legally.

we make it really hard to come here legally and release easy to come here illegally. it should be the exact opposite. to make it much easier to deport people and they should not be here. if i find somebody who was a member of a gang, if they are not an american system, get them out of the country in two weeks. you want to make deportation easier. then you want to create a guest worker program. the economy does create opportunities, people could apply legally. once you set that up, you dramatically increase the penalty for hiring somebody illegally. we will not tolerate it anymore. at that point, you have created the environment that where it is difficult to get a job. most people who are here illegally will go home. the one group i was talking about are parents and grandparents, who may well belong to your church.

we ought to create a citizen review boards in every county. we ought to say, if you can prove you have been paying your bills, if you can prove you have family ties, if he attended an american family to sponsor you, rmit. if you want to apply to become a citizen, you have to go back to your own country and file. you would be exactly on that date, like anybody else, and you would wait as many years as a tip for your right to citizenship. in the interim, you would have a residency. i want to eliminate anyone in the united states being here outside the law. i think this system is doable. i know some of my friends want to support everybody. hhow likely are the american people to send police out to pick up grandmothers? i am trying to find an honest straight forward slightly complicated solution but i believe we could implement. on the very first day i am inaugurated, i would instruct the attorney general to drop the lawsuit against south carolina, arizona, and alabama. [applause]

[applause] i want to encourage states to help us enforce the law. i would move to cut off all federal funding to any sanctuary city which refuse to enforce the law. [applause] please tell your friends and neighbors if we did every conservative to decide that newt gingrich is the right person to stop a massachusetts moderate, we will win by a surprising margin. that will set the stage for us to win the nomination, and that will set the stage for the debates with obama. the debates with obama, you will enjoy it. because there are so many

people, and because we are already running late, it is very hard to take pictures or sign things. we would love to see you and shake your hand and talk to you briefly. thank you very much. [applause] ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪ only in america >> next, ron paul speaking at the south republican leader conference. and we will show you rick santorum on washington journal. then a forum on the 2012 campaign with rahm emanuel.

>> we gathered tonight at a promising time in our history and in the history of man on earth. for the past 12 some months a world has unknown changes of almost biblical proportions. even now months after the failed coup, i am not sure we have absorbent the full impact, the full import of what happened. communism died this year. >> find a state of the union address is going back to 1952 at the video library and watch president obama deliver this address live on susan -- c-span. it is washington, your way. >> now, ron paul speaks at the

southern leadership conference in charleston, south carolina. the primary takes place this weekend. his remarks are 15 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for coming out so early in the morning. i am delighted to be here. i want to introduce my wife. [applause] she and i will be celebrating our 55th anniversary in a week or so. delighted. i appreciate the opportunity to visit with you. the campaign has heated up. the debates last night were

interesting. sometimes distracting. overall i thought to the debate went well. people ask me, how did they go? i said compared to what. it can always be better and they can always be -- over the years, debates have always been a very helpful in promoting an emphasis on monetary policy which was mentioned in the introduction. this has always been encouraging once we support -- present our case for what we need to do. my views are different in the -- then the other candidates. although the rhetoric might not be different, it is because so often, we have candidates that

will talk about changes but still support the status quo. my position is we have to do more. the status quo today is ignoring the constitution. people ask me, what do we have to do? i do not think that is difficult to answer. we are in this trouble because we avoided fall in -- following the constitution. we should have people in washington who obey the constitution. that is what i think we should do. [applause] it is across the board. it is a lackadaisical attitude about following the constitution. and also reflects an educational system that has taught generations of americans the constitution is not to be a --

document. that is like saying in the bill of rights is not a -- document, or the 10 commandments. since we got careless with this, it does not mean a lot. when it comes to monetary policy, the founders were explicit about protecting against inflation because they suffered against inflation against the dollar. they put you could not print money. look at where we are. we did not change the constitution. if things have changed, and a central banking is secreting money out of a thin -- thin air, the people of this country should have changed the constitution. if we want the government to take over and control education, the constitution should have changed. there is no authority for the government to be running

education. we do not need a department of education. you can continue to go down the list. for example -- the executive branch of government. they write a lot of regulations. congress passes laws dealing with the environment, the epa and they write regulations on tangents. when you write a regular -- regulation, you are writing a lot. we need to challenge this. we do not need executive-branch writing legislation but we should not allow executive orders or signing statements or laws written by the united nations. we need to add here to their rules.

we have gotten careless in another area that i think is important because it contributes to our financial crisis in the ongoing activities overseas and oversee spending. one of the reasons we fought to the revolution was the encroachment on the military on the privacy of the colonists were the military would come into the homes and occupy the people fortax the fighting wars and they resented the fact the king could take people to war. it was explicit that the president cannot get up and go to war. we have lost that. both parties have been derelict. we go to war now at the president's insistence. does he come to the congress to

get involved in libya and the series countries? going into iran? if we have to go to war, does he get a declaration? pages go and do it. i do not think that is right. i think we should declare war. [applause] this means we would go to war more rarely and we would win them instead of stagnating in being involved for 10 years. another insult is having our presidents go to war under nato and not consult with the congress. we need to change that, obviously. a lot of times our debates will

be designed to talk about economic policy or social policy. last night there was not an emphasis on foreign policy but if you are interested in economic policy, you cannot not talk about foreign policy. our foreign wars have contributed to get an. that is money out of our economy. war, even when necessary, is a drain on the economy. especially when they've been there and you spend money is an insult to the economy at home. this money running debt which had nothing to do with our national security. i think it undermined our national security by getting involved. four trillion dollars is a burden.

the crisis we are facing is a debt crisis. they talk about the programs we're going to design to take care of the unemployed but they're not addressing this subject in a serious manner about the real problem, the debt burden. all of our productivity can barely pay to finance our debt. if you think of all that we zero, 16 trillion dollars. the national debt was raised by 1.2 trillion dollars. it was done by the president. the congress tries to prevent that from happening. it happens because it is on autopilot. our country is not productive enough to finance that debt. how do we get away? we still live with this and fiction that the world will forever trust us to print the right amount of dollars. a dollar will always maintain

value and we can print our way out in finance that debt. we are already suffering from that even know people are still taking our dollars. since 1971, when we lost the last link to gold, our dollar has lost 85% of its value. if you think that you do not want to speculate in the stock market, saving money and being frugal was a one time thought to be a good thing. if a person followed that and had a cd, they cannot keep up with the depreciation of the money. they have lost. depending on how much money they put in, if you put all your money away in 1971, $100,000, you would have $15,000 of purchasing power. the system we have is

destructive to the things we need in the economy. our problem is that we do not follow the rules of the marketplace. true capital comes from savings. we do not save as and substitute it with a printing press. they create money at of thin air. as long as people accept that, they will accept them a lot less. the problems we face are international. the dollar is the reserve standard of the world. we are exporting our dollar. we get goods and services at a cheaper rate. eventually the world will reject paper money. our credit has been downgraded. france has been downgraded. europe is in a mess. the spanish are in a mess.

every single day, there is another plan to take care of the debt. when the debt gets this big, there is only one way to resolve it, it has to be liquidated. instead of liquidating, the debt and, with a transfer it to us, the people owned the debt. this is why wall street is the bailout. they get the bail outs. the middle class is shrinking. people are losing their jobs. we have to change that whole attitudedebt has to be liquidated. that is why we are not having economic growth. [applause] there is nothing we can do in politics. the people have to understand a

very important issue. what should the role of government be? this is what the founders bought the revelation about. they decided the role of the king was wrong. the role of the federal government was designed to protect our liberty. no more complicated than that. to provide for a strong national defense and protect our liberty. [applause] that is what we are supposed to do. today, that has evolved. john adams warned if it ever evolved from a republic to a pure democracy, eventually, society would murder itself. in many ways, we are murdering ourselves with our spending. we still accept this notion which has to be challenged. entitlements are not right. you have a right t life and your liberty and their property.

but not entitled. [applause] nobody is entitled to somebody else's efforts. as long as that exists, a token change in washington will not make the difference. the good news is, the people's attitude is now changing. significantly. [applause] even those who are on the receiving end of the retirement system -- entitlement system is very frightened. the people paying the bills are sick and tired of paying the bills. this is why we're going to have changed. the people are starting to send this message. i am. encouraged, especially when i travel around the country and talk to the next generation, they know what is necessary.

they know what a proper national defense policy is. they know what a proper monetary policy is. they know the people are supposed to run the economy and the government is supposed to get out of the way. [applause] this has gained the support of those who know that government rules cannot mold personal behavior. economic liberty and personal liberty is one in the same. that is what we have to protect. i am very optimistic on the long run, on the short run we still have a lot of work to do. there will be a significant event coming up soon. i think it is tomorrow that may send a message to this country that we want less government and more freedom. thank you very much. [applause]

♪ >> talk to them and trade with them. like we should be doing with cuba. >> c-span's coverage shows you the candid it even some leading up to the south carolina primary. >> they had a policy that said she cannot teach abstinence as a preferable way of avoiding out of wedlock birth. and she cannot talk about

marriage as any other than an alternative lifestyle no better or worse than any other lifestyle. my question is, why? >> won the president adopts -- when the president adopts a stimulus package nobody has read and then discovers that the shovel-ready jobs were not shovel-ready, and the stimulus sales believes is deeper in debt, -- fails but leaves us deeper in debt, that is his proposal and it failed. >> after the polls close on saturday, we will show you the results from south carolina and

your phone calls. rick santorum was a guest on "washington journal" and spent 20 minutes taking calls. host: >> our goal is to get as many as we can in on this lasted a before voting. thank you for being with us. host: i am going to jump in on a question that came in from our facebook page. many returning u.s. veterans are in need of medical health as well as assistance to transition back into society. considering the debt situation, do you believe that veteran benefits should be excluded from cost cutting measure considering the sacrifices that these people have made on behalf of our country or not?

guest: the answer to that is yes. they should be excluded from any kind of reductions. these are men and women who have stepped forward to defend this country. this country has a special obligation to them. these are heroic people. they are signing up every day and they are reenlisting every day. i can tell you as somebody who grew up on a be a ground and my mom and dad men at the va after world war two. they lived on the post for the first 18 years of my life and i got a chance to meet veterans and work with them. i can tell you that there are a lot of problems in the v.a. health care system. there are a lot of problems with government-run medicine. we need to do a better job at meeting the needs when it comes to mental health issues these servicemen and women are dealing with.

you do not have an enemy lining up in n uniform against you, you are constantly on watch for whoever is around you. that kind of stress is very hard to readjust. we have to do a better job than we are doing. we cannot cut those benefits. >> senator santorum will be with us for about 15 minutes. he is on location with the campaign event will be today. we are going to get in your calls, your tweets, and your facebook comments. let's take a telephone call from phoenix. caller: hello, how are you doing. my advice would be to be very specific about your stance on things like the pipeline, jobs, things like that.

if you want to become the nominee, i really think -- that would be my advice to bypass all of the hoopla and get specific about what we are going to do about the pipeline. are we going to waste our money on renewable or are we going to get back to basics and make this country grew by doing what we do best. that is drilling, farming, mining and things like that. what do you think? guest: i could not agree with you more. i am absolutely for going into the pipeline. as i have mentioned many times, my grandfather was a coal miner. i have worked with mining companies and have believed strongly it is one of the keys to lower power costs. the obama administration's war on fossil fuels is hurting our country.

i am for eliminating all energy subsidies to let the market work. we need to get rid of the green energy subsidies. the best example of what we can do with respect to energy in the cost of energy is what we are doing in pennsylvania. the price of natural gas in the last seven or eight years has gone from $12 down to $2. we were drilling and we have created an increase in supply. we can reduce a lot if we open up and allow more production in this country. host: next question from facebook. -- wood cutting back open more manufacturing?

guest: i do not know what specifics she said cutting back, i would assume tariffs. i do not support terrace because -- taffifs because that is a tax. i understand it is a tax on foreign goods, it leads to retaliatory tariffs on our goods. we need to compete and we are not competitive with the major trading partners we compete with. labor costs are higher than most of our trading partners. we have to get the government out of the ways of manufacturers can actually compete and bring the jobs back from overseas. last that we were talking about apple that has thousands of people employed in china. they should be made here. i am sure they would be made here if we had the opportunity to do so on like competitive basis. that is what i want to cut it to zero -- cut in half for everyone else. for manufacturers and processors, we want the jobs here. we need to compete against china.

the tax is the limiting our ability to compete. you can go to our web site and see our entire manufacturing plant. it is a plan that will help blue-collar workers in small- town america be able to participate in this knowledge based economy by having those products made here in this country. host: steve jobs biography, he was asked about the factories in china, his response was one of the major problems was the u.s. educational system not producing the type of engineers. that was a larger problem than taxation. guest: yes, we do have a problem with respect to our knowledge in math and science. look, there are lots of

manufacturers -- with all due respect to steve jobs, there is a lot of manufacturing -- i was just at the bmw plant and the boeing plant. that is about as high-tech as you are going to get. we have process engineers. we can train them. the more jobs there are the more demand for the jobs. a lot of them are coming from people coming from overseas to come here. that is okay, too. we can and for that knowledge -- import that knowledge instead of exporting the blue-collar jobs. i suspect a lot of people working on apple products around the world would be very happy to have the opportunity to come here and do the same. >> did you support the initiative to bail out the tory, -- detroit, specifically gm? >> i did not. i called for a structured bankruptcy for the very beginning. i oppose the wall street bailout which was the funding source for the wall street -- gm bailout. i was the only one on stage that it on principle.

even though people said there could be a financial meltdown. the bottom line is, the greater bulk of over the longer time is having the government in check itself into the private sector in such a huge way, allow the capital system to work. that is what i believe in. the same thing with gm and chrysler. they could have gone through a structured bankruptcy. the only difference between those two companies coming out of bankruptcy versus the bailout is that the unions would not have a big owner should share of the company. the bondholders who were in line should have gotten a fair share. other than that, you would have had pretty much the same company and maybe even a better company because they would have been stripped of more legacy costs' that makes it hard for them to be competitive. host: i ask because this morning gm once again leads the world in auto sales. more than 9 million vehicles

investing toyota. let's go back to calls. aaron from salt lake city, utah. caller: good morning. i am concerned about the fact that the career republican candidates, with the exception of newt gingrich, have not clarified in positions regarding basic scientific and medical research in this country. it is important because it creates jobs. a return of $2 for every $1 invested and would be crucial to controlling the cost of health care. it is harder than ever for young scientists to get funding for research. guest: i would say this. i have always been a very strong supporter of science. i think it is one of the things that the federal government does a good job at which is basic science research.

i also supported at the time the doubling of the nih budget to help with basic medical research and improve our knowledge of the human genome project. not the second be done on the private markets for profit. basic understanding of science which obviously benefits a dollars based economy. having said that, i have to say that we are at a 1.2 trillion dollar deficit. we are spending 40 cents out of every dollar we are borrowing, most of it from china. to go out and say, we are going to increase funding at that level -- we are not going to be increasing funding at any level that i can think of. we have to look at government and enter a constrained resource environment. the best thing we can do for medical research is get the economy growing. if you get the economy growing, there can be pharmaceutical companies and others who are going to be sponsoring more research at colleges and

universities in addition to government research. the economy growing has to be the number-one priority right now. getting government under control will be a big part of that. i am not saying we should cut research, i am not looking at that area or any other area outside of our commitments to protect our country through national security to grow the size of government. host: senator rick santorum with us for five more minutes. a democratic caller named tony. you are on. caller: i love that you picked up about janitor motors beat -- general motors being the no. 1 automaker in the world. that just contradicted at your statement about bailing out the auto industry. i wanted to ask you two quick questions. do you and your family still collect health care from the big government? the last thing i want to say, you will not be president of the united states. that is a facade.

it will not happen. obama will be president again. stop lying to the public. be honest. guest: we will let the elected figure out who will be the next president of the united states. i do not think it has to do with honesty. gm and chrysler should have and could have gone through a structured bankruptcy process. that would have ended up with a company surviving with different owners and frankly would have been even more competitive than the current structure. it would not have to do things that the obama administration was twisting their arms to do as a result of the money that the government gave them. i stand by that. i cannot remember what his second point was. if you recall i am happy to answer it. host: i am going to move on to another facebook, because our time is short. --

guest: i do not support teaching creationism as a complement. i do support academic freedom. one thing that every child likes to learn about is who they are and where did they come from. how did the world come to be? how did they come to be? i believe as most americans do that we are creatures of god and god created the heavens and the earth. i think there is ample evidence for that in creation. there is a theory of their of evolution that is a legitimate scientific theory. obviously, it should be taught in schools. we should have a discussion about the issue of evolution and what we can learn and what we do not know and cannot know in many respects about that theory. also, the idea of whether we are in fact just a mistake of

natural law. over time, we just happen to come into place. a completely this ordered random process that created all of this that we see. that is just from a philosophical point of view. it is an interesting thing to argue what science can and cannot prove. it is interesting for children to be able to sort through that and have a discussion as to whether we are just random -- the application of time that traded this entire universe or whether there was somebody directing it. having that discussion is an important discussion of from a religious point of view but from the standpoint of science and what science can and cannot prove and show. host: our last call is from bloomington, illinois. caller: hello, i want to wish you good luck in your campaign. i like your idea about

eliminating income tax on manufacturers to produce their products in the key u.s.. my concern is that unless components are also produced here, job creation to be negligible. guest: hold on, every manufacturer. if you are producing the a part for anything you make, it is a 0 percent corporate tax. if you are processing the for example. if you are processing food products and you are taking soybeans and throwing it into soy oil, you are a processor. if you are manufacturing anything, anybody who makes anything and then try america is going to have a 0% corporate rate. it is for everybody out there. it will be a huge incentive to bring out not only final assembly like we have here a in

charleston with the boeing plant but also making the component parts that go into that dream liner. host: senator kent -- senator santorum is with us. what is your bottom line on results on saturday in order to continue to florida? guest: we are going forward. this recession is transformed itself in the last 24 hours. i am not sure how that will shake out and show by saturday. i have already won one of the two primaries. i feel good about the momentum that we have across the country. polls are showing we run second in florida right now. we feel good we can go down there and be very competitive. this is a long process. we were doing 700 or 800 town hall meetings. it has really been in the last week that we have had the

resources to compete in this race. now that the race has narrowed, people are starting to rally around us. we are getting funding to begin competing in the long term. we are starting to staff up around the country. we feel this is a race that we can and will be successful in. we are going to go on not just after south carolina but beyond. host: how significant is the story about new gingrich's failed message in the kind of -- failed marriage and the kind of voters you're trying to appeal to? guest: i think we all said these personal issues are very difficult. my feeling is your activities in public life are subject for scrutiny and people can look at them and make determinations as to whether these are issues of character. as to whether this is the kind of person you want to put into the office of the president, specifically when you do those

things in public life and while you are in public life. i think that adds an additional level of relevance as far as the specifics, i will not get into that. i think people will look at that as the well with everything else, assess that, assets when it was done, how long ago it was done, but the circumstances were in make the determination. i trust the american public that will make the right decision. host: our lines are all lighted up. i hope to see you again on the campaign trail. thank you for your time. >> tomorrow on "washington journal", chad connelly, adam green discusses the progress of strategy in the 2012 elections. tom tarantino from the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america.

washington journal live at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> next, chicago mayor rahm emanuel 6 part on the form of the presidential campaign. then michael bloomberg on his efforts to improve the city's education system. >> hoover argued a couple of things. he argued that american policy toward japan in 1940 and 1941 was rather provocative and perhaps in a juvenile way he said we are putting pins in a rattlesnake. eventually the rattlesnake will strike back. >> saturday night on "after words," the former presidents evaluation of decision starting

with the second world war right to the cold war. also this weekend, jeff charlotte on religion and the inter-american. and a sunday night at 8:15, understanding our constitution by looking at "the odd clauses." >> now, a discussion on the 2012 presidential race. chicago mayor and former obama chief of staff rahm emanuel were among those talking about the reelection campaign and the campaign for the republican presidential nomination. joining him is rachel maddow, david brooks, and alex castellanos. the even is moderated by george stephanopoulos.

this is about 1 hour 10 minutes. >> if everybody could please be seated. if we could quiet down i would be grateful. our panelists are ready. once again you will hear first from david axelrod. thank you very much. >> hello again. [applause] we want to put a panel together today to give you an advance look -- a preview of attractions to come. we have a panel that is second to none, i think in their

insights and their contributions to the discussion. let me introduce them one by one. first, i am so grateful to our moderator george stephanopoulos. i met him when he was made governor to president bill clinton. he became an essential person in that campaign and in the white house. he became a best-selling author and made the transition to journalism and has become one of america's most respected journalists. his sunday show is a must see four people enter washington for years. so much so it has now been repriced. he is back as he anchors good morning america. understanding what his schedule is, i am particularly grateful he is here today. [applause]

i have known our next speaker since he was 22 years old. he would pummel me with calls every day. he has been pummeling me with calls ever since. we had a chance to work together over the years. he is truly a force of nature. he does not really need an introduction. let me introduce the great mayor of the city of chicago, rahm emanuel. [applause] i mentioned in my remarks that i grew up 100 yards from our next panelist. we actually lived parallel

lives. he began his career in chicago journalism, i began my career in chicago journalism. we both went to the university of chicago. the only difference was he apparently attended class. let me introduce one of the great public thinkers in america today, david brooks. [applause] now, when i was at the white house, you may remember we had a little bit of a problem with an oil leak and then to the gulf of mexico. in the midst of that, we had a small luncheon for a few journalists. these things go on and on some times. our next panelist was there. she was quizzing the president on how we were capturing the oil and whether we were doing it

properly. i have read two books on this. the president said, rachel, you have read two books on this? onse who are aficionados' her television program and before that her radio program knows she draws down very deep on these issues. let me introduce rachel maddow. [applause] and finally, let me introduce somebody who is kind of my opposite number on the republican side. alex castellanos has been doing campaigns as long as i have been doing campaigns, only on the other side of the ballot. i have deep admiration for him as a person and as a professional.

for his passion for politics and for this country, he is exactly the kind of person who we want to include in our program as all the pro -- of the people on this cut from today. [applause] >> thank you for bringing us all here. congratulations on your new upcoming position. i wish i had your booking skills for sunday morning. what a great day to be here. one of the great things about politics. had we had this discussion last thursday, it would have started off in a completely different way. had we done this last thursday, we would be sitting here saying, mitt romney is looking like he is heading to three in a row. he won the first three primary caucuses unprecedented. you wake up this morning and it turns out he lost iowa. newt gingrich is surging in south carolina.

we do not know what will happen, but instead of being 343, he could end up being 143. what difference does that make and can he be stopped? >> i did work for mitt romney last time. i was hoping he would overcome at this time. a pleasure to be here. i am glad there was an opening in my schedule. as a republican, i want to point out that my marriage is not as open -- [laughter] i have never seen a year like this one. i do not think any of us have. the republican field at this point has entirely distinguished itself. mitt romney, i think is still

the only candidate who can with the republican nomination. i do not think anything has changed. i think he may get crushed in south carolina on saturday. he has run a very defensive campaign so far. he has run a campaign from the four corners. you have a lead in the sit on it. there really has not been much beyond jobs. i in the jobs guy. i am mr. fix it. i think that will be tested here. nevertheless, newt gingrich has a ceiling. he is one of the least popular candidates republicans could put forward. he is unacceptable to a huge amount of the party. personal flaws, political flaws. he is the only one left on the field who could possibly compete with mitt romney. every time new gingrich stands up he hits his head on the ceiling. this is the old newt we are

seeing. every time he gets to the front of the pack he blows himself up. i think he will collapse before saturday or after saturday. then the game should be mitt romney's. >> why this something always pop up dax is it in the story of the last seven or eight months dax >> first one to publicly congratulate david on this. what i was here, there were two things that were lacking. one was any into sexual activity. the second was a rout out. [laughter] >> i am actually late for something. >> the issue is mitt romney. i think he is a much better

candidate. he is not like anybody you sort of know. i told the story, i followed him campaigning for years ago. he was of a central new hampshire and he was campaigning with his five perfect sons. he goes into the diner and he introduces his family. he describes the home he owned in their village. he goes around the room and on his way out he first made almost everybody he met. that is impressive as a steady political skill, but it is not a natural political skill. there is always say invisible wing between him and voters. >> at the same time, he has been the canada pretty much all along. the white house has feared the most for him to get the nomination the whole way.

consistently, the canada who has seen the most likely to be able to win in november. >> i sort of feel like he is the tallest midget. there is really no difference between mitt romney 2008 and romney 2012. he has tried to sound more conservative. >> he is more skilled than he was in 2008. what is this a quiet in effort to discuss that in? i think his skills are looking grim because they are being measured against newt gingrich and rick santorum. it really is a tragedy that he is ungoogle-able, but he is. if rick santorum were being invented today, maybe he could compete. but he comes from someplace. i think that is why mitt romney looks good.

today in south carolina, he got into a red-faced screaming match with a voter on a rope lines in america is right and you are wrong. who are you just thinking? when a child asked him what he wanted to run for president, he went into a lot the motion no. tell it has been difficult to work out with the state planning attorney which grandchildren get which millions of his fortune. it has seemed like it is going to win. if i change my name to something else, would that be ok? i think that mitt romney is running to win. i think it is likely that he will win. i think it is largely by virtue of the fact that his competition sex. >> the least offensive to the

white house -- the candidate that would be most able to make this election about barack obama on the republican side. >> right now? >> the person most likely is mitch daniels and is not running right now. [audience unintelligible] >> you got your chance, let me get to -- >> >> do i take your election was not unanimous?

>> ok. you have had your say. can we -- >> another undecided voter. >> ok. here is the deal. you have had your chance to say -- you had your chance. let me try to answer that question. first of all, when you say he is the best candidate, the best candidate is not in the field. i think they had a lot of good and it's, mitch daniels, crisscrossed the. -- chris christie. with your first question about

mitt romney, i will say this. when bill clinton basically had the nomination wrapped up, he lost connecticut big. i do not even read up the ups and downs because mitt romney will be the nominee. basically there is a buyer's remorse process. the problem for mitt romney is that happen before he was nominated. that tells volumes about or the chemistry is between him and voters and he has a problem connecting with them. unlike running for congress or senate that is legislative. that is not insignificant. for a chief executive you have to create a relationship between the public and the can it. that is a very important thing. that will be a big problem for him. i do want to say this to my dear friend david axelrod.

i am so proud that you were able to get this done because i know how important this is to you. you are going to enrich a lot of other kids lives in the process learning how to do negative ads. [applause] >> i just feel we are a little down on mitt romney as a panel. the impression we have just given on romney emphasizes the-. i think the reasons he is week is when to be the reason he is strong in the general. it is against the republican electorate that once a brave heart. he will be the organization man for moderates and enter the general. i think he will be reasonably strong. i go back and forth about whether he is a slight favorite or underdog, but he will be a relentless pretty good campaigner. it is funny to watch him. he spent as much time after the

speech shaking hands of people -- he seems to work like a dog. everyone else is off on the bus, he is still working and sweating. he is not an impressive as a candidate. >> i agree with you. i think he has gotten much better the past four years. it has basically been 316 debates with maybe two or three mistakes over all. he did not get touched until the last debate. that serves as something of a primary. assuming that he does get the nomination for the sake of argument, right now it is pretty clear he will have to figure out how to deal with issues around his business background. the mitt romney campaign will say they are happy to be debating that rather than his record in massachusetts. it is still an open question whether his time at bain capital will end up being a plus or

minus. how would you deal with it on the inside right now? >> one of the surprising things seems to be how difficult he handles it. it is not the issue itself as how he has come across as somebody slightly embarrassed about being successful in making money. he starts off on the defense. look, if you can go out there as a republican candidate and the case that this is money i made, money i earn, money i paid taxes on -- now, let's talk about your money? the money that the administration is spending and revenue in debt. usually people do not really care that much about other people's money, certainly and not as much as their own. there is a certain distance to romney from connecting with people and enter their daily lives. that is a challenge for him. i agree with david. and then to the general it may end up being a plus. i think the election that david wants and would love to have is a choice between a hot

republican and a very polarizing democrat. the election you would not want is a referendum on the comment. mitt romney is hard to love and hard to hate. he is resistant to temperature change. he may make it. he does help put the spotlight on obama and enter the general.

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we feel like this is a race we can and will be successful and. we are going to go on. >> how significant is the story about the failed marriage? guest: look, we all said these personal issues are difficult. my feeling is your activities when you are in public life are subject to scrutiny. people can make determinations as to whether they are issues of character, this is the person you want to put in the office of

the president. when you do those things in public life, that has an additional level of relevance. as far as the specifics, i am not going to get into the specifics. people will assess that, when it was done, how long ago, on what the circumstances are and make the determination. i will trust the public to make the right decision. host: i hope we will see you again on the campaign trail. thank you for your time. >> today, republican party chairman shad c -- chad connelly previous day program -- previews a program. and tom tarantino talks about

high unemployment among returning veterans. >> now, ron paul speaks at the southern leadership conference in charleston, south carolina, calling for more limited government. the primary takes place this weekend as remarks are about 50 minutes. -- 15 minutes. [applause] ♪ >> thank you. thank you for coming out so early in the morning. i am delighted to be here.

i want to introduce my wife. [applause] she and i will be celebrating our 55th anniversary in a week or so. delighted. i appreciate the opportunity to visit with you. the campaign has heated up. the debates last night were interesting. sometimes distracting. overall i thought to the debate went well. people ask me, how did they go? i said compared to what. it can always be better and they can always be -- over the years, debates have always been a very helpful in promoting an emphasis on monetary policy which was mentioned in the introduction. this has always been encouraging once we present our case for what we need to do.

my views are different than the other candidates. although the rhetoric might not be different, it is because so often, we have candidates that will talk about changes but still support the status quo. my position is we have to do more. the status quo today is ignoring the constitution. people ask me, what do we have to do? i do not think that is difficult to answer. we are in this trouble because we avoided following the constitution. we should have people in washington who obey the constitution. that is what i think we should do. [applause]

it is across the board. it is a lackadaisical attitude about following the constitution. and also reflects an educational system that has taught generations of americans the constitution is not to be a rigid document. that is like saying in the bill of rights is not a -- document, -- rigid document, or the 10 commandments. since we got careless with this, it does not mean a lot. when it comes to monetary policy, the founders were explicit about protecting against inflation because they suffered against inflation against the dollar. they put you could not print money. look at where we are. we did not change the constitution. if things have changed, and a

central banking is secreting money out of a thin air, the people of this country should have changed the constitution. if we want the government to take over and control education, the constitution should have changed. there is no authority for the government to be running education. we do not need a department of education. you can continue to go down the list. for example -- the executive branch of government. they write a lot of regulations. congress passes laws dealing with the environment, the epa and they write regulations on tangents. when you write a regulation, you are writing a law. we need to challenge this.

we do not need executive-branch writing legislation but we should not allow executive orders or signing statements or laws written by the united nations. we need to add here to their rules. [applause] we have gotten careless in another area that i think is important because it contributes to our financial crisis in the ongoing activities overseas and oversee spending. one of the reasons we fought to the revolution was the encroachment on the military on the privacy of the colonists were the military would come into the homes and occupy the home's and tax the people for fighting wars and they resented the fact the king could take people to war. it was explicit that the president cannot get up and go to war.

we have lost that. both parties have been derelict. we go to war now at the president's insistence. does he come to the congress to get involved in libya and the series countries? going into iran? if we have to go to war, does he get a declaration? pages go and do it. i do not think that is right. i think we should declare war. [applause] this means we would go to war more rarely and we would win them instead of stagnating in being involved for 10 years. another insult is having our presidents go to war under nato

and not consult with the congress. we need to change that, obviously. a lot of times our debates will be designed to talk about economic policy or social policy. last night there was not an emphasis on foreign policy but if you are interested in economic policy, you cannot not talk about foreign policy. our foreign wars have contributed to get an. -- to debt. that is money out of our economy. war, even when necessary, is a drain on the economy. especially when they've been there and you spend money is an insult to the economy at home. this money running debt which had nothing to do with our

national security. i think it undermined our national security by getting involved. [applause] four trillion dollars is a burden. the crisis we are facing is a debt crisis. they talk about the programs we're going to design to take care of the unemployed but they're not addressing this subject in a serious manner about the real problem, the debt burden. all of our productivity can barely pay to finance our debt. if you think of all that we zero, 16 trillion dollars. the national debt was raised by 1.2 trillion dollars. it was done by the president. the congress tries to prevent that from happening.

it happens because it is on autopilot. our country is not productive enough to finance that debt. how do we get away? we still live with this and fiction that the world will forever trust us to print the right amount of dollars. a dollar will always maintain value and we can print our way out in finance that debt. we are already suffering from that even know people are still taking our dollars. since 1971, when we lost the last link to gold, our dollar has lost 85% of its value. if you think that you do not want to speculate in the stock market, saving money and being frugal was a one time thought to be a good thing. if a person followed that and had a cd, they cannot keep up with the depreciation of the money. they have lost. depending on how much money they put in, if you put all

your money away in 1971, $100,000, you would have $15,000 of purchasing power. the system we have is destructive to the things we need in the economy. our problem is that we do not follow the rules of the marketplace. true capital comes from savings. we do not save as and substitute it with a printing press. they create money at of thin air. as long as people accept that, they will accept them a lot less. the problems we face are international. the dollar is the reserve standard of the world. we are exporting our dollar. we get goods and services at a

cheaper rate. eventually the world will reject paper money. our credit has been downgraded. france has been downgraded. europe is in a mess. the spanish are in a mess. every single day, there is another plan to take care of the debt. when the debt gets this big, there is only one way to resolve it, it has to be liquidated. instead of liquidating, the debt and, with a transfer it to us, the people owned the debt. this is why wall street is the bailout. they get the bail outs. the middle class is shrinking. people are losing their jobs. we have to change that whole attitudedebt has to be liquidated. that is why we are not having

economic growth. [applause] there is nothing we can do in politics. the people have to understand a very important issue. what should the role of government be? this is what the founders bought the revelation about. they decided the role of the king was wrong. the role of the federal government was designed to protect our liberty. no more complicated than that. to provide for a strong national defense and protect our liberty. [applause] that is what we are supposed to do. today, that has evolved. john adams warned if it ever evolved from a republic to a

pure democracy, eventually, society would murder itself. in many ways, we are murdering ourselves with our spending. we still accept this notion which has to be challenged. entitlements are not right. you have a right to your life and your liberty and their property. but not entitled. [applause] nobody is entitled to somebody else's efforts. as long as that exists, a token change in washington will not make the difference. the good news is, the people's attitude is now changing. significantly. [applause] even those who are on the receiving end of the entitlement system is very frightened. the people paying the bills are

sick and tired of paying the bills. this is why we're going to have changed. [applause] the people are starting to send this message. i am. encouraged, especially when i travel around the country and talk to the next generation, they know what is necessary. they know what a proper national defense policy is. they know what a proper monetary policy is. they know the people are supposed to run the economy and the government is supposed to get out of the way. [applause] this has gained the support of those who know that government rules cannot mold personal behavior. economic liberty and personal liberty is one in the same. that is what we have to protect. i am very optimistic on the

long run, on the short run we still have a lot of work to do. there will be a significant event coming up soon. i think it is tomorrow that may send a message to this country that we want less government and more freedom. thank you very much. [applause] ♪ >> voters in south carolina go

to the polls today for the presidential primary. we will have the results tonight along with speeches and your phone calls, live on c-span. virginia governor bob mcdonnell has endorsed massachusetts governor mitt romney for president. the move to south carolina to campaign for romney. and governor also spoke. now mitt romney discusses jobs and the economy at this rally at the charleston area convention center.

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>> have a great to have everybody with us. it is a great day in south carolina. show our guests what we think about a south carolina and mitt romney. [applause] this is a real treat because we have done a lot of work. we have talked to a lot of people and tomorrow is the day. [applause] what i want you to know is a little bit about what i am hearing, they have to know what is going on on the ground. all of a sudden yesterday we got

all of these calls. they were a lot of people who supported perry who were ready to jump to romney. [applause] this morning we started getting all of these calls saying he rocked it in the debate last night. we thought that was pretty good. we were excited. guess what, we have been around the state today pouring down rain. hundreds of people stood in the rain to see mitt romney. >>:! [applause] [chanting] that's all for you.

so this is what has happened. we have had people like ambassador david wilkins who used to be the speaker of the house jumping on board. people in charge of the military have jumped on board. we have all these people want in on the romney train. [applause] let me tell you why they want on. the coolest thing we could ever see is a jobs candidate go up against a government loving president obama. [applause] because in south carolina, what do we care about? we care about jobs, spending, the economy. we don't care about any other distractions or anything else. we care about having a one-term president. [applause] we know he has been in the private sector 25 years, he does that create jobs. this is what i know. over the past year, the hardest part of my job would be the

unemployment rate. balancing the budget. making cuts that are important. what i did not know is that the hardest part was going to be the federal government. they have stopped me from doing my job every single day and you have felt it. the first time we felt it was what they did to boeing. boeing came in and give us the shot in the arm, thousands of new jobs and expanded to thousand jobs in washington state. president obama and the national labor relations board said you cannot do that in a right to work state. we won that, we had them drop the suit and we are doing just fine. the people of south carolina said they want to illegal immigration reform. president obama and the justice department stopped it. president romney will stand

beside us and get that law passed in south carolina. [applause] and we said, if you have to show a picture i.d. to get sudafed, to get into the debate last night, could get on a plane, why would you not have to show a picture i.d. to protect the integrity of the voting process? we listen to the will of the people. i signed a bill, the department of justice and president obama stalked us. president romney will stand beside us to protect the voting process. we had probably just about enough of the federal government, and when it comes to health care, he says we can't afford it. day one i will repeal obamacare for our country.

[applause] i am incredibly proud to let you know that we have the coolest first man in the room, michael haley is with us. you know we are a very proud of military family. i love watching him walk out the door in his military uniform loving his job. what we need is a president that understands that you strengthen our military, you don't weaken it and turn around and apologize for it. president romney understands that we need a strong military and hall will make sure no one ever challenges america. you have heard me say this and i will continue to say this, we are going to take this election tomorrow. i need you to do something for me.

it is not showing up at this rally, it is what you do when you leave this rally. we have an election on a saturday that we don't always do, people have no excuse not to vote. email people, tell them we support governor romney. we also need you to get on the phone and say, we need you to get out there and vote. i will give you a ride if you need a ride, make sure they get to the polls. loud celebrate really tomorrow night when he comes in first place. [applause] i have said my view, but michael and i are so thrilled because we have great friends in the house tonight. what you have seen across the country is chaos in washington. we don't want anybody that has

ties to washington, we see what that does. we want someone that understands jobs, and right now, the governors get it. we are having to deal with the fights of our state. there is someone that is leading all of the republican governors had on saying that we are not going to take this from washington, we are going to fight back. we are fortunate to have the president of the republican governors association that wants to nominate mitt romney. it is governor mcdonnell and his wife. [applause] >> thank you very much. good afternoon, south carolina. it is a treat for me to come from the old dominion, the cradle of democracy to the whole matter as the state to endorse mitt romney as president of the united states. [applause]

governor haley, you have done a great job standing up for the values that make america great. balancing the budget without raising taxes and standing up against the bureaucrats to protect your right to work laws. congratulations. [applause] it is a treat to be here with a the next first lady of the united states. as a lady of tremendous courage and character, a great wife and a great mother, she has done a marvelous job and your number one asset. i am delighted to be here with my wife of 35 years, the first lady of virginia, maureen mcdonnell. i am delighted to tell you she is endorsing mitt romney for president.

in virginia, we call that a two-fer. i am endorsing him because he is a strong leader, and he has the best person in the republican party could be barack obama in the debate and in the polls next november. [applause] you know what we need in america more than anything else? we need leadership, people of character that will lead this nation. i believe mitt romney is that leader. we talk a lot about surpluses and deficits. we have a surplus of rhetoric and a deficit of results with president obama. we need somebody that will put aside sound bites and work on