facility. to say we should have let detroit go bankrupt 1 850,000 jobs in ohio are dependent on the auto industry related demonstrates how callously insensitive obama en -- not insensitive mitt romney is. ann romney economics for the middle-class. it says it does not matter if everybody played by the same set of rules or everybody has a fair shot. the to just making sure -- the trickle-down will help the rest of us. president obama belize we should pass -- believes we should continue with the tax breaks he pushed through. we should make sure we give college aid so there can be more opportunities for folks to get an education so everybody has an opportunity to be successful. we have made quite a bit of progress the we have a long way to go. not only do i disagree with

marker -- with margaret. i am not sure where she is getting her facts from. >> we have not asked about the comment by mitt romney on friday when he was in detroit commenting on his own birth certificate growing up in michigan. he called it a joke. did you think that was a political swipe at the president? what i was clearly a political sideswipe at the president. i am not sure what is funny about that. what is funny about questioning the president's heritage, his birth? the only reason that would be a joke is in reference to extremists in the tea party questioning the president's origin and this place of birth. -- and his place of birth./ mitt romney says out loud he believes president obama was born in this country. what is funny about joking that he is not?

whistle it's a dog the extremists in his party. it was in poor taste. it was another example of how out of touch mitt romney is with everyday folk who simply want to make sure we have a president who is there, understanding we have to have someone swinging for the middle-class and working family so everybody has a shot to be successful. >> a caller from dallas, texas. thank you for waiting. >> i am calling because i want to express a deep point of mine. i actually voted for president obama. it was a feeling of a revolution because the whole country was not happy with the direction we were going. i voted for him. after looking through the past

three and a half years he has been in office, i can honestly say i have not seen much change at all. i have been very disappointed with some of the promises he made he has not kept. i am just not happy at all. i am a young man. graduated from college. as far as him mentioning he debt in -- he'd cut the half and it has increased by the time he has been in office. it amazes me with the special interest groups and the corporations. and the corporations and special interest groups. come to find out, his major contributors [inaudible]

the economy cannot live within a president. the reason why it is so bad as it is is because of the federal reserve which is a private corporation destroying our country. rex thank you very much for the call. let me go back to what you were saying and get a response from the chair of the party. that is one of the issues the obama campaign has been dealing with. >> one thing i can tell you is that we are running the same kind of campaign we always have run. a door-to-door, neighbor to neighbor campaign. we have committed to look over the largest most significant grass-roots campaign for the president in history. i beg to differ with the gentleman. this president made a commitment early on before he became a candidate for president to not accept contributions to his campaign. we do not accept them at the dnc from federal lobbyists.

we do not accept pac money from political action committees. our average contribution is about $50. 98% of our contributions are less than $250. compare that to mitt romney's campaign which is corporate and fees, special interest fund it and has a much higher average contribution than the president's. that is simply not accurate. when it comes to keeping a promise, this president committed as candid it to bring our troops home from the war in iraq and did. he committed to make sure we get a handle on our deficit. and the affordable care act, that has begun. we have begun to reduce our deficit. we added eight years of solvency to medicare. make sure that when it came to reforms that the affordable care act, a short insurance companies cannot deny you are dropped for

previous conditions. we made sure we have on wall street reform so that never again could big banks run over consumers. those are things that if mitt romney were able to become president, he would repeal. roll back wall street reforms to that once again customers can be taken advantage of. i cannot disagree with the caller more. president obama has been a transformational president. we need to make sure we continue to move forward, not go back to the failed policies that got us into this mess. >> what is your job next week at the party chair and overseeing the convention? what would you be doing? >> i will make sure that our delegations are fired up and ready to go look and injuring the trains run on time and making sure that our speakers are in place where they need to be. we have staff that will be doing a lot of -- a lot to make sure those things happen.

essentially our job is to nominate president obama, make sure that we have our women's caucuses and hispanic caucus and all the different moving parts of the dnc so we can send out president obama as our party is nominee into the fall campaign and make sure we put a lot of momentum behind him. that is the kind of activity i will be involved in. i am really excited and looking forward to it. >> charlie christ endorsed president obama. what will he play next week? >> i think that remains to be seen. we truly appreciate the endorsement of former governor christ. he is an independent now. i can tell you having worked with him when i was in the state legislature, we were elected at the same time. he is someone -- i have

respected that he's been willing to writ -- reach across the aisle. there's so much of vitriol in the political process right now. we need to make sure we follow president obama's lead and continue to reach out across the aisle. hopefully we will have colet's on the other side of the aisle that will reach back. right now the republicans and mitt romney seem only concerned about one job -- barack obama. we are concerned about american jobs. we are concerned about continuing to get the economy turned around. we need to work together to do that. republicans were not so focused on defeating barack obama and were willing to sit down and work together, we could get even more accomplished. i look forward to that after president obama when's the second term. >> what about the issue of security and demonstrations? we have seen some already in

tampa. how charlotte preparing for that? >> they are prepared. the host committee and the city wil be all ready to allow people to fully express their first amendment right which is one of the hallmarks of our constitution and our american democracy. >> , to this convention will be watching this week -- how much of this convention will you be watching this week? >> i expect i will see a little bit of it but i have quite a bit going on. i expect to be in tampa to enjoy it with them. we have set up a war room in tampa. i invite you to come over. we will be making sure that the folks to attend and those watching understand the dramatic contrasts so we do not allow

mitt romney's campaign to get away with what we expect to be at a -- an attempt at a convention reinvention. he has been committed to focus economic policies on help -- helping millionaires and billionaires do better. that would be a detriment to the middle-class and working families. in my state, medicare is important. he was to turn medicare into a voucher system. and a vice presidential candidate who is committed -- i have had a front row seat to their approach which would increase taxes on the middle class by $2,000 per family to pay for budget tax rates for the wealthy. we will be making sure that folks attending the convention as well as those watching at home understand that there is a big difference in the choices that voters will have or the next 71 days. >> we will have our cameras in the war room. we will also be covering republicans as they gathered.

thank you very much for being with us. >> we will go back to the floor. >> we have two guests down here. the mayor of tampa just walked by. >> i am not twitching. it is a good thing. it is a huge economic development opportunity for us. >> are you done with tropical storm isaac? >> we think so. we've been linked there will be some bands of other -- we think there will be bands of weather.

it turned out to be ok for the city. we dodged the bullet. it will inconvenience some. for the most part, it will be a great day tomorrow. folks will get about their business. >> were you the mayor and 10 but decided to go for the convention? >> i was not. i was a lucky guy who had to do it. the previous mayor was on the selection committee. >> i supported the whole way through. was happy to embrace it once i became the mayor. i have been actively involved. hand in hand with the rnc all along. for folks who want to make this a partisan issue, it is not for me to read what it place inside the building will be partisan. with six outside the building -- what takes place outside of the building is tampa coming out for the world. we were lucky.

we struck a hard bargain in the beginning. we did not have to put much cash out. the federal government came to the table with $50 million. the same is true in charlotte. that cover our security costs. the host committee raised another $50 million. i have probably three or $4 million in but it is largely on infrastructure that i was going to do anyway. this was an opportunity to push so much stuff through the pipeline of the bureaucracy to get it done in advance of the rnc. i got stuff done that it would take me three years to get done during a normal situation. >> they will let you go. you will be on "washington journal" tomorrow. we appreciate you stopping by. joining us is somebody who runs a website and love the people will be checking out, pol itifact.com. >> it is a fact checking web

site where we take statements by elected officials, everybody from the mayor to the president of the night states and we rate them on -- president of the united states and we rate them on truce. >> we are interviewing debbie wasserman-schultz. i wrote them whenever quotes. is this something you would track. that the republicans are having a special interest corporate and used, close convention. >> we allow hyperbole emmy cannot fact check opinions. that is largely an opinion. we have a fact check congress on -- congresswoman debbie wasserman-schultz a lot. we have raided her on many things. she has gotten some true ratings, some false readings. i even think she got some pants on fire raising -- ratings. your viewers hear a lot of these

messages. they hear these talking points from both parties and the wonder is that true? that is what we are all about. our goal is to answer curiosity and tell people whether something is true or not. >> if people go there now, they will see a lead story about house republicans and whether they kept their promises. what is the result? >> is mixed. -- it is mixed. we have two features, the gop 0pledge -- pledgepmeter. we found they had made some progress on things. they have particularly -- they have the bill promises where they run into trouble is the senate. the democrat-controlled senate has blocked a lot of the republican initiatives. likewise, our other feature like that is the obamameter. it race the present -- the

promises president obama has made. he is about 30% of 500 promises. he has spoken about 15% of them. why so many broken promises? because of the republicans in the house. we have a divided congress and with republicans in the house, democrats in the senate, the republicans cannot get their agendas past and likewise, president obama since the republicans took over, has been unable to pass a lot of his promises. we monitor that in addition to fact checking statements. we are very busy. >> he also backed checked the -- you also fact chec the pundits. >> -- dozens of commercials from campaigns, from anyone who puts out a radio or television ad. even fliers and print advertising.

we give a lot of truth and half true ratings to campaign ads. they are not all false. the perception is they are all false. there are a lot of things in them that are accurate. however, a lot of the main points lately have been false. we have given false readings to both campaigns for some high- profile messages recently. that is keeping us very busy. if you see an ad and are wondering if it is true, politifact is the place to go. we have a new app called settle it. >> polis surprise when in website. i will take advantage -- pulitzer prize-winning website. this is a tampa bay times forum.

it used to be named -- >> the safety times form. this was a hockey arena. we renamed it the first of the year when we changed the name of the newspaper to brand the paper the way we had been for years. this is the newspaper of tampa bay. we are the largest newspaper in florida. it is a really special news organization. ould by the poynter institute which is this a real commitment -- owned by the pointer institute. >> bill, thank you para >> thank you very much. joining us from the floor of the tampa bay times from is the former chair of the new hampshire republican party, the former new hampshire republican governor and former white house chief of staff and the father of

former senator john sunun. john sununu, thank you for being here. the man asked about new hampshire. it used to be a solid republican state. now it is a battleground. what changed? >> in it too -- in 2010, we swept the vermin out and it is now solid republican state. we took hold of everything and won back the two congressional seats. one the senate race -- won the senate race. the governor got 52% of the vote but this november, there will be a republican governor in new hampshire. >> the president has been spending a lot of time. the obama campaign thinks they can win new hampshire. why is it so competitive? >> is now a state 00 it is -- it is now a state where the

registration is one-third. the independents are around one- third now. it is a new england state. we have vermont on the west, maine on the east. massachusetts in the south and quebec in the north. we are an island of conservative sanity in an area that is otherwise light blue if not dark blue. what is the mitt romney that you know? many people say he is not billy -- he has not really expressed his family and personal life. tell our audience who he is. what would he do as president? >> mitt romney is the kind of guy you would love to have as a neighbor. he is smart, compassionate, he is generous. he is mr. fix it. if you have a broken fence, he will fix it for you. but we all know of his public successes. he has a great family.

he has a wife that is truly his partner. by wonderful -- 5 wonderful sons and 18 grandchildren. this is a man who has success in the private sector. the democrats like to make fun of the amount of money he has made. you do not make money like that by accident in america. this is a man who has created jobs and created success for people. in the public sector, he went -- left immediately as he was called to fix the olympics in utah which were in disarray and falling apart. he made a huge success of that. when he got elected governor in massachusetts again, he fixed it. he inherited a huge deficit. he turned it into a surplus with a $2 billion rainy day fund. he did that without raising taxes. he cut taxes and most importantly, people have to

understand that he did that with a democratic legislator that was 85% democratic. if anybody in america can cross the aisle and do things on a bipartisan basis, mitt romney as governor of massachusetts proves that. this is the right man for the right time. this country is hurting. we have 8.3% unemployment. we have 25 million people unemployed or underemployed. it needs fixing. we need mitt romney to come fix it. >> i want to pick up on a question that chris wallace oppose -- propose. it has been a sideshow story that was unnecessary by the bombing campaign had a planned further in advance to release more tax information because it is something being talked about around the country. >> with all the respect, it has been made a sideshow story but in my opinion, anybody's taxes

can be nitpick into a dozen sideshow stories. the more pages to put on the table, the more sideshow stories you create. even if they are innocent investments. it is not too hard for a dishonest and deceptive obama campaign to twist the facts around and make the best of issues, even if they are charitable contributions, they will make them look insidious. >> those are some strong words, governor. but let's talk about this on this. the other day we did you know of the game they played try to does own the -- disown the ad that accused mitt romney of being composite in a woman's attracted death of cancer. having been part of the preparation of the individual in the ad, the obama campaign denied knowing anything about it. that is dishonest. the campaign went on television

and try to tell america that they in the last 27 months by creating 4 million jobs created more jobs than ronald reagan did in his recovery. ronald reagan in the two years of recovery after the carter failure created 7 million jobs. 7 million is bigger than 4 million. ronald reagan in his eight years created and -- almost 17 million. they are either not very bright and do not know that 7 million is bigger than four or deceptive and dishonest. you pick it. >> we will go to a caller from mel bourne, florida. good evening. thank you for calling. are you there? please go ahead. >> hello. i have three points i would like to speak to warts -- towards.

i'm sorry, i have the delay on my phone. >> go ahead and ask your question. >> i have a comment. three comments quickly. regarding the likability of mitt romney, the media keeps portraying him as the unlikable candidate. if we were going to marry the guy that would be an issue but he is running for president. all the care about his qualifications, his executive experience and i see that he's been very successful and very good father. in a very decent husband. i do not understand the bias of the media trying to portray him otherwise. regarding the media bias for president obama, we treated him with all respect. i voted for -- i did not vote

for him. i voted for mccain but the more i see that he is dividing america more than anybody else in. i have been here in this country. i migrated here 32 years ago. i have never been watching anything devices -- divisive as much as president obama. he's making the rich sound like they stole their money. we all came here to this country. we worked hard. we made our money with a decent wage. i do not say -- see it is right if he said if you have your business, you did not do that. i have never seen anything. >> i will stop you there. we're short on time. thank you for the call. we will get it response. >> i have to complement the lady on her perception. i find it fascinating that people want to talk about likability as a reason to vote

for a president. i have used the analogy today, as he had a leaky pipe in the kitchen and you have a choice between two plumbers, 1 with a bubbly personality but absolutely incompetent and another one who may be a little drier but knows exactly how to fix it, which one are you going to call in? confidence over bubbly personality. america is going to vote for the guy that can fix the problem that was treated by the guy with the bubbly personality. >> let's go back to 1988. you're a supporter and that it became chief of staff of president george bush. the speech he delivered became a game changer in the election. your thoughts about that speech in 1988 and what you think mitt romney needs to do. >> it was a great speech. the president delivered a great speech. it takes two things. somebody has to help put together a great speech and

frankly the candidate has to deliver a great speech. it had a lot of substance in it. what mitt romney has to do -- let me give a temporal context. i believe campaigns are like basketball games. in basketball, the last two minutes have most of the action and impact. in political campaigns, particularly presidential campaigns, it is the last two months. historically in america, that part of the campaign does not get started until the kids go back to school just before just after labor day. that is the time and we are looking at here. i think mitt romney will launch us into this last two months period with a clear definition of what he wants to do for america. i think it will be a positive speech although i have not seen it or heard much about it. if i were trying to help him

crafted, i would urge it would be positive and uplifting predict uplifting and talk about how we reaffirm the values that made america great in the past that have been eroded over the last four years. that we talk about what america has to do within as the leader to fix our country and to get people working again. and what america has to do with -- with him as a leader in reaffirming the strength of this nation as an international leader. when i hear silly phrases come out of the white house like leading from behind, i feel governor romney has to make it clear that is not a good strategy for this nation. >> have you talked to former president george bush? will he be watching the proceedings this week and as he wished he was here? >> i know he will be watching it. he is one of my great heroes. he was a great man to work for as chief of staff. if anyone understood the world and what we have to do

internationally, it was george h w bush. i know he'll be watching tonight. i talked to him a few times over the campaign and they are extremely concerned about where this country is. we have that conversation. they are concerned this country needs to be fixed. they are absolutely confident mitt romney is the right person to do it.

>> i want want to let those folks know, if he's a republican, you will lose in south texas, you can bet. >> thank you, wendl. what about the issue of campaign governors? >> look, that's a depult obama campaign thing. it is wrong and it is purely emotional without facts. if the gentleman thinks i cited a fact that's incorrect, he can say. the obama package took $700 billion to fund obama care.

the fact is the only people talking about how to constructively protect security -- social security and medicare are the republicans, mitt romney and paul ryan. it is clear that the seniors of america are beginning to understand that the inaction of the last four years has put medicare in particular on a bankrupting path. what we need is somebody with the courage to speak about this issue and the courage and discipline to propose solutions, even though they may be politically uncomfortable. >> the latest abc news "the washington post" poll remains a dead heat. what does that tell you about the political advertising? it has not yet moved the needle for either side. it is a toss-up.

>> well, it is a toss-up. when president carter was running and ronald reagan was challenging him. at the republican convention, president carter was at least 10 to 15 points ahead of governor reagan who was challenging him at that time. the fact that mitt romney has even maintained things ahead of that path which eventually was the landslide for ronald reagan. but let's talk about the end. the obama team really wanted to live up to the strategy that a story was written in "politico." at the time the story was "kill romney." they laid out a strategy of what they were going to do to destroy mitt romney's reputation. they made no bones about it. i think the author of the story was ben smith. if people want to find it, they can lool look it up on the political web sites.

frankly, they spent about $150 million in the june, july, early august period to try to accomplish that kill romney's reputation with horrible ads. most of which the president even disavowed. i think it is amazing for mitt romney, who frankly was a little strapped for cash at that point in time, because he could only spend primary known. he had fought tough primaries against a worthy and strong opponent, he did not have the cash to spend. so the fact he was able to withstand that onslaught and had the discipline even beyond the inability to do that, the discipline to hold back the spending, means that come the end of this convention when he is the nominee and ask spend what is called "campaign money," you are going to see a tough campaign, and i believe a campaign focused on issues coming out of the romney campaign. i don't think this

administration, which has nothing positive that they have done in the last four years to run on will withstand that kind of a message communication process with this campaign will undergo. >> can i ask you a nonpartisan question. you are living in new hampshire. you see all these ads. virginia is a battleground state. is there an overkill to the ads? >> sure. >> is there a point of diminishing returns? >> there is. >> you see this volley back and forth. >> and -- there is. and if you want me to talk in a nonpartisan way, let me do so. i find it amazing that the media, television and radio, that benefit from all this spending are the biggest complainers. i can tell you how to cut the campaign rates in half. cut your tv rates in half. do you think they would do that? of course not. i would like to address a personal pet peeve. i can't stand the hypocrisy of the mainstream media and

particularly the networks that take all the money for the advertising, who take all the spending on these ads and put it in their pockets and decide all they are going to let the american public see are -- both the republican and democratic conventions -- is one hour each night. that, to me, is hypocrisy. they are not serving part of their role as being licensed as public television stations using the public frequencies they have been allocated. i can't believe all they are going to televise is one hour of each convention each night. >> we'll talk about conventions in a few minutes. let's go to pete in tampa. >> hi. how are you doing. that's a result of g.o.p. reganomics, bush i, bush ii,

failed, failed, failed trickled down economics. and one more point. the only reason romney -- he didn't tell a soul about the israeli war machine like the rest of these traitors in washington. they deserve to be hung from trees. >> we'll get a response. governor sununu. >> again, i find it amazing that the obama supporters want to come on with such vitriolic comments. i'd rather let that call just pass and move on to something more constructive. >> what do you think mitt romney will do? >> i think what amitt romney is

going to do is lay out a positive agenda of where he's going to take america and what he sees as the solution to america's disastrous economic position is. i think we're in a period of time when the polls are going to move. you will see it moving down on the obama numbers and moving up on the romney numbers. i think it will be a strong romney win in november. >> another final nonpartisan question. for those watching at home, never been to icon vention. i want to give our audience a sense of what it is like to be at these conventions.

>> look, the most important part of the convention is you get to meet people. you get common messages. you prepare yourself for what i call the last two minutes that the last two months represent. and you really define what is the campaign for most of america. they used to get much more coverage on television. but it also had a more generous coverage that allowed some. -- not only the current stars of either the republican party or the democratic pert to speak, but there was much more of an opportunity for young speakers to be heard. as you know, bill clinton got a

little bit of a launch. although it seemed like his speech was extra long when he gave it, got a little bit of a launch giving a speech at the convention before he ran for president. the same thing happened to president obama. these are important conditions. i do think in light of the way they are being reported and in light of the way of how complicated they have become in terms of security and frankly how expensive they have become, i think we will see a slight evolution of this process. there has been an evolution. i think that evolution will continue. i can't tell you where it is going to end up. i really do feel that in 2016, 2020, 2024, the conventions for both parties will look extremely different from what they are today. >> regardless, we will be there to cover them. governor, thank you for being with us. we appreciate your time. >> you have been a great asset

to american discourse over the last -- what seems to me 100 years. it may not be that much, but we appreciate what you do. >> thank you for being with us. we appreciate you being here on c-span. >> what is normally an ice hockey rink is now a political stage. here is how it unfolded over the last few weeks. ♪ 6 ♪

>> a sports arena turned into a political stage. this is, if nothing else, a television production. we will learn more about how this is all coming together and who is watching at home. >> this is a reporter from "u.s.a. today." he joins us from the convention hall. mr. courtney you wrote a letter -- an article called "why do we have conventions?" >> they really mattered.

you would have candidates -- we have a primarynd a caucus. it's a huge infomercial for each of the parties. to be sure, they are not -- ratings are not what they used to be in the golden age of the 1960's or 1970's. they have rebounded lately. in 2008 they bounced back to where they were in 1992. it is incredible considering how many channels there are to watch and how many entertainment options people have. one hour, prime time bl -- prime time, where they have millions of people watching. they get to make their case without being edited, without the media culture.

>> how many federal dollars go into the conventions? >> there are millions in security for each convention. it is easily in the hundreds of millions of dollars. >> what are you working on today? >> i am looking forward to the paul ryan speech. he has a big speech on wednesday. today it turned out the sun came out and there was no hurricane. but it is a chance to get

acclimated what i felt at 2:00, there were a lot of delegates anxious to get things going. >> and before this interview you and i were talking, virginia, wisconsin, michigan, new hampshire, et cetera, but then we saw a -- saw a swing state all the way in the back here. why is nevada all the way in the back? >> the caucus states have a good number of ron paul delegates. while congressman paul seems to be playing nice with the romney campaign lately, his delegates have a lot of passion and feel strongly about the issues they believe in. i can only speculate that the romney campaign didn't want them

too front and speaker in case they had other ideas. >> well, gregory korte of "u.s.a. today" we look forward to checking in with you later this week in tampa. >> we planned to cover gavel-to-gavel coverage in the sessions today. we'll hear from another former presidential candidate, rick santorum. as always our phone lines will be open. we will be getting your reaction. we will also get your reaction via social media. and we want to remind you, you can follow the convention on our hub, c-span.org.

>> talk, tweet, and facebook your comments to c-span. >> republican vice-presidential candidate paul ryan gave a speech today in his own hometown of wisconsin. this is about 20 minutes.

>> look at this. thank you! thank you. wow.

wow. look at this. man. it is good to be home. it is good to be home. you know, i think i recognize just about every face in this room. this is my family over here. i'm related to half of them. you know, now you know i'm one of the less articulate members of the ryan family. thanks, hope. i really appreciate it. and let me say on behalf of my family, we want to thank everybody here in the community for their amazing out pouring of

support. it means so much to us. i have spent a lot of time in this jim nasme. -- gymnasium. i never was this close to center court. most of my stuff was outside on the track. but this stuff means so much. it is so familiar. it is like all the things around this country. it is that kind of -- while we take stock of our community, i think we should right now put in our minds the victims of those -- of hurricane isaac and those who still stand in the path of a storm. i also want to thanked

janesville police department. [cheers and applause] these guys are great. they have been phenomenal. you saw my priest, father randy. thank you, father randy. i want to thank chief dave moore. i want to thank our neighbors on court house hill for indulging all of this. we -- and for their patience. we really appreciate that. i know this has put a lot in janesville. i want to tell you how proud i am to come from janesville, wisconsin. [cheers and applause] i see aunts and uncles and cousins here. we think we had 67 cousins here

in janesville. our family story is not different than most americans' family stories. you know, back in the 1850's, the potatoes stopped growing in ireland, so our great, great, great-grandfather, with the shirt on his back made his way to boston, worked his way on the railroad to get enough money to buy a farm. and that brought him to the outskirts of janesville, wisconsin. he looked around. it was summertime. and he said this was just like ireland. then came winter. but they made a go of it. there was6ut they made a go

>> america is not just a geography, it is an idea. [applause] >> you know, it is the only country founded on an idea. please, have a seat.

if you have seats, great. i don't want to make you stand the whole time. that idea, we believe in free speech. [crowd chanting u.s.a.] >> thank you. that's right. thank you.

each jen generation passes on a better country. i remember sitting here watching -- and guys i went to high school, the miller brothers. my buddy is coaching over at parker. we live together in freedom. we look out for one another. that's what is so special. echo food bank. can-do industries. [cheers and applause]

we have crisis pregnancy centers. community nursing homes at st. elizabeth. people come from all around. point house of mercy. we have a wmca, we have a wyca. [applause]

>> what is important is 0 that our government honors thfment that our government works for the people and not the other way around so that we can do this. >> you know, we have been hit pretty hard here. we have been hit hard. we got a hard knock. but we are hearty people, and we will recover from this. i got a lot of friends that lost their job at the plant. one of them got a broadcasting degree, and now he has a great career, and he's happy. another one of my buddies lost his job over at leer. he went to white water and he's

on a path to a brighter horizon in a promising career that is going to be there for him for the rest of his life. that's the kind of thing we need to do. pick ourselves up, help people in need so people can get back on their feet. that's exactly what the romney plan for a stronger middle class is all about doing. [cheers and applause] friends, family. this is a defining moment for our country. this is not an order election because it is not an order time. we have a big choice to make. we are not just picking the next president for a few years, we are picking the pathway for america for a generation. [cheers and applause]

mitt romney and i pledge to make sure that you get to choose what kind of country you get to have. what kind of people do we want to be? it comes down to that because the stakes of this election are so high. we've seen what the president has offered. we have seen the path he has placed us on. is the nation in debt? is the nation in doubt? is the nation in decline? we can choose a better path. get people back to work. give people the american ideal of prosperity back on track. that's exactly what we're going to do. [cheers and applause]

let me tell you about the man that asked me to join him in this quest. mitt romney -- [cheers and applause] thank you. let me tell you about this man. [cheers and applause] this is a man of faith, a man of honor, a man of family, a man of telingt and achievement. you know how many limb yickeds in the late 1990's? remember all the corruption and the embarrassing scandals? sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? they asked this man in boston from utah to go and turn it around, and that's exactly what he did.

[captions performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] when people are successful in business, that's a good thing. [cheers and applause] we're proud of that. we lift that up. [cheers and applause] that's what creates opportunity and prosperity. he turned around small business. he created companies like staples, bright horizon, sports authority. i look around this room and i

see a entrepreneur here, i see a entrepreneur there. i see a job trader here, i see a job trader there. there's one there, too. everywhere i look, i see friends, i see community members, i see family members that get up early in the morning, who take risks, who work hard, who sacrifice. they don't know if it is going to work. but they work hard. they don't need the president telling them that the president gets the credit. they need to know that we know that they get the credit. [cheers and applause] that's how jobs are created. [cheers and applause] look at the contrast between where we are with president obama and what mitt romney achieved in his four years as

governor. under president obama the u.s.' credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in american history. under president obama 23 million americans are struggling to find work today. nearly 1-6 americans are living in poverty today. it is the highest rate in a generation. unemployment has been above 8%. household income in america has gone down per family for an average of $4,000 in the last four years. when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts, unemployment went down. he reached across the aisle, he didn't demonize democrats, he worked with democrats, and he balanced the budget without raising taxes. [cheers and applause] that's the kind of leadership we need.

every now and then the president in moments of candor tells us what he really thinks. he kind of reveals his thinking and his philosophy of government . it's the economic rule of thought, the belief that the pie of life is somehow thick, that the economy is static. that's not the government's job. the government's job is to set the conditions for economic growth so that everybody in america can get their vision of the american dream. [cheers and applause]

remember whether he was speaking in san francisco? he said people in the midwest, people like us, that we like to cling to our guns and our religion. this cathic deer hupter is guilty and proud of that. [cheers and applause] that's freedom. when he's talking about small business credits, it reveals why

we are stuck in the rut we are in. here is my point. it is not too late to get this right. it is not too late to treat other people with respect. it is not too late to get our spending under control, to get our budget under control, to get people back to work. to have an energy policy, a job training policy, bad spending cuts. small businesses growing and thriving. it is not too late to get people back to work! it is not too late to fix this country's problems. we can do that! [cheers and applause]

here is our commitment to you. everywhere i look, i see so many familiar faces. i love you, too. we want to know that the values that built this country have going to stay in this country. we want to know we are going to reclaim those ideas and fix these problems when they are still within our control. here is the commitment that mitt romney and i are making to you. we are not going to duck the tough issues and kick the can

down the road. we are going to leave. [cheers and applause] -- we are going to lead! [cheers and applause] we are not going to spend the next four years blaming other people for problems. we are going to take responsibility! we're going to honor the best that this country was created on an idea by our founders. our right comes from nature and god and not from government. [cheers and applause] our founders secured this.

we thank them for that! [cheers and applause] and the way we will honor their sacrifice, their legacy of our forefathers who did everything to make it so we could have the opportunities that we have. my dad, a lot of you knew him. he said, son, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution. but the solution is, we're not going to try to transform this country into something it is not going to be. we'll reapply our founding principles! that's what we'll do to get this country back on the right track! [cheers and applause]

that's how we reserve the american legacy. friends, we can do this. we can get this consumer. we can turn this thing around. i simply want to say to you, together we will get this country on the right track. we can do this. thank you so much. god bless you. thank you so much for coming out. we love you all. thank you. [cheers and applause]

>> i like it because it is immediate, it is real, it is -- it is not spin unless of course the typical speakers maybe sitting in a hearing, but usually it is truth. it is real research, experts talking, or it is congress in action and inaction. that's what i like about it. it is more real than other media. >> c-span created by america's cable companies in 1979, brought to you as a public service by your television provider.

>> every morning during the republic and democratic conventions. earlier today we heard from karl rove. he's interviewed by mike allen. this is about an hour.

>> you planned president bush's re-election in 2004. what do you think changed after mitt romney's convention? what do you think is true now that you can say this convention is a success? >> this is president obama's re-election campaign coming up. in a way this is more like 2000 for mitt romney. as we saw today in the abc/"the washington post" poll, we have been in this process for some time. particularly those people in this room following following it closely like junkies, we have all the problems of addicts. we think everybody shares our experience. but the people are going to make up the final traunch of voters really don't know as much about mitt romney as they know about

barack obama. so the key thing is for mitt romney at the end of this convention, i know something about him personally that i didn't know about him beforehand. there is more we know about these kets, particularly obama about the issue side of it, that we might expect. but the personal side of it escapes a lot of people. frampingly it is in part the nature of the process and -- people are up for grabs in this election. they organize it less systematically. they will start to get more serious about it. >> so you once had a column channeling david axelrod, what

would he do? >> actually i'm writing this column for thursday. there is some law of physics that allows people to listen in. the state of the union, this week i have been hit with -- this is my thursday column for the wornl. this shows the desperation of a columnist. anyway, look, i am completely mystified which by -- mystified by the obama camp paper because the campaign has dominated the presidency and not the other way around. that's what my column will be

about this week. he has a bad economy, lousy ratings on the number one issue and can't kick himself above 51%. the other guy is going to get better known and more accepted. >> how do you know romney will get more accepted? >> it is the nature of things. how many people have had a lousy convention? george mcgovern in 1972. but a convention for a challenger, with through exceptions, is aven advantage for them. people will find out things about mitt romney from a personal perspective. we saw yesterday in chris wallace's interview. there was the candidate flipping pancakes and then having an exchange with his wife talking about when she was particularly ill, and he was running the olympics, what he did. people saw a side of him they didn't see. that matters to the people up

for grabs. they hear a lot about tax cuts and they have mick economic plans and medicare reform packages and so on, and that matters a lot to them. but they also want to know who is this person that is asking me to give them their vote? >> we welcome c-span viewers, we welcome politico.com viewers. we will take your questions. >> not a single state john mccain carried is in question. he put away inindependent, which is one of obama's -- if he's not put away, on the edge of putting away north carolina. i think he's well positions to take virginia and north

carolina. we have a couple of states in play that should be in play. having a wisconsin night p. make that an easier state to win. in iowa, more money is being spend spent per cap capita than any other state in the country. it is absolutely up for grabs. colorado, new hampshire, nevada, new hampshire. all these states are in play. >> mitt romney's chances of winning pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, ohio?

u.s.a. today ran a story on the battleground states. they said look at this, obama has a narrow lead. 37-44. well, context matters. if you look at those states four years ago they were won by obama, all 12 of them, and won by a 55-45 margin. you think that would be a fact worth mentioning in the coverage. if you are in the battleground states and you are barack obama and you are running 8.5 of your performance four years ago and your opponent is running one point behind where your opponent ran and you are the incumbent and you can't get above 50, that's a problem.

if i could remember their name, they might give me a free pair of cufflin crfment ks. you can get them there and free advertising on c-span. [laughter] >> you are famous for being an architect. you are famous for something in the "wall street journal" for something called 3--1. -- 3-2-1. >> there are many paths. i wanted to sketch out for republicans what the most obvious path was. the most obvious path was, start with the mcdane states. if you only win those, the electoral college gets 12 votes closer. massachusetts, new jersey, new york. georgia. but there are three historically republican states which obama

took -- indiana, north carolina, and virginia. they together have -- excuse me. 37 electoral college votes. 74. indiana is gone. obama has no chance of carrying indiana having dealing with mitch daniels. is there a white democratic south of annapolis that's supporting indiana? indiana is gone. north carolina is gone. they will play like it is not gone and they will keep spending hoping against hope. you can't pull out of the state where you are holding the convention. when you have 27% of the people voting for someone other than barack obama and the state voting for traditional marriage 2-1 and the party there in disarray and the republican party on the move, there are a

lot of independentents that -- moderates who said this would be really good for our country, let's put the issue of race behind us. this time they are sitting around saying, i like them. he did a lousy job in the economy and he is not a fiscal conservative. they are not going to be voting for him. feeling increasingly good about virginia. these are all going to be battles. i don't think any of these are settled. those three i think are going to pull pull back. >> the two are ohio and virginia. ohio and florida. here's the nation as a whole in 2004. here's the nation in 2008. here are the states in 2008. that is to say the swing for ohio was less pronounced than the swing for the nation as a whole. he has problems in both states for a different reason. >> and won. >> and won. if you win those five states and romney wins those five states,

it depends. there is the neighborhood, new hampshire. there is the home state, michigan. there is the gambling state, nevada. there's colorado, iowa, wisconsin. pennsylvania. just one. twitter questions in just a minute. we're going to go to this extreme weather gear from good morning america. >> we are getting a multieye question. thank you. you have to work on timing. i have read standards of practice, and that is not right. >> i was doing hurricane reporting this morning. so the tie, you know. mault rose recently said that he thought president romney would be like president paul. and i know nobody knows more about presidents than. help me out.

president paul, what i kind of know is that he clashed with abraham lincoln when he was in the house h -- house. >> congratulations. >> how much will it cost? >> first of all, he will be like polk. polk couldn't get elected in his home state. the last president that got elected didn't carry his own home state. well, it depends, what home state? how about virginia?

this is an attempt to undermine my credibility. you may be the smartest guy in the room, but i just one-upped you. he was not born in new jersey. he might carry the state he was born in, michigan, but he won't carry the state in which he lives. >> i think there may be some similarities. polk is one of the greats. here is a guy that ran, and he said he was going to do four things. he said he would reform the treasury, restore the independent treasury, get rid of jackson's cutbacks and the political banks. he was going to dissolve the war against britain, which was a huge dispute, and he was going to cut taxes. he did all four.

so he did those four things. he came in with a clearly defined program of significant reform. tarriff reform which had been one of the huge issues in the american political scene or which had dominated the u.s.-british relationship for 15 years and was getting worse. and it was a contentious issue. if you resolve the war again, you were going to do something for the slave states. both the north and south were nervous about having these things being resolved. if you were a southerner, you were fine with the war not being solved. if you were a northerner, you

were distinctly uncomfortable. >> thinking of big things and going about achieving them, this is a methodical -- he has a list of actions that i need to achieve, and i need to achieve them. >> a new breakfast format here. i'm going to ask you a question. the question is, my favorite color is blue. the closest to this was? >> we don't know it was 198 o -- 1980. you could make a case where this is an incumbent who is challenged with a sense of well

meaning individuals of failed policies. the question is, does the challenger reassure the american people. >> 1980 it is. 191980, james earl carter junior. this was a close unpredictable race. look, it is 2012. >> the obama people hope this is 1996 and 2004. as i recall, you were involved in that in some significant way. is it like 2004 and in what respects is it not like 2004? >> first of all, bush was seen as a strong leader. obama is not. there was a republic poll many which two-thirds of the people

said obama was a weaker leader than they thought he was going to be. only 20% said he was a stronger leader. 49% say not. that's low for a city president. with bush, whether you agreed with him or not, people thought he was a strong leader. people made a comment about the past and also the future. and also about his opponent. mike and i were talking about this. i went and got the speech at the convention. it says it all. after acknowledging everybody, including his parents p. a presidential election is a con dute for the future. tonight i will tell you where i stand and what i believe and where i will lead this country in the next four years. bhm has not done that. this campaign has not been about here is what i have done and here is what i will do.

his campaign is about this is a weird guy who will steal your money. this has not been a campaign, look at my record, i'm proud of my record, here is my vision for a second term. i think the dynamic was different. talking about skrt, tax reform, the next step in energy policy. this was not just in a one speech. this was the weave of the campaign fabric. do you miss the operative role? >> i enjoy it.

it is a day in business. i do pay a higher tax rate than president obama, and i do make more charitable tricks than either he nor the vice president. that is not hard when it is compared to vice president biden. i think he is getting his tips on charitable contribution from hillary clinton pre1994. give the underwear to good will. yeah, look p. i really enjoy writing for "the wall street journal" and fox. they are not the most lucrative part of my existens. the most lucrative part of my existence is debating carl dean. it is not lucrative, but i do relish that.

that was james carville. i used to debate dean a lot, but i think he got tired of it. we're going to meet in san francisco here for four speeches. so the sponsor for the group put it in a format that makes it possible for dean's stomach being in the same room with me. rather than starting off pummeling ourselves, we look at our stomachs and talk about the arc of our lives. >> i'm concerned about long-term. the republican party can't do with a growing part of the electorate what it has done with

the african-american vote. that is where we get 5% we consider ourselves fortunate. 14%, we're ecstatic. it is also important because the latino vote is naturally ours. we're talking about strongly pro-family, incredibly trep neural group. informed by a deep love of this country. they volunteer for military service higher than any other demographic group in america. in this election, i think we will for the first time in modern history see the absolute number of latino voters where -- flat-lined, where it was in 20 08. i think that's because segments of the latino community have been impacted more than other

elements by the economy. they are saying for five years we have been listening to your promises and it hasn't worked out for us. the other thing that is interesting, the latino community is deeply skeptical. we had some interesting focus groups among latino voters whose principle language in the house was spanish. these are people who are beds in hotels, digging ditches. we're talking not yet fully integrated into the american experience but on the roo -- road to do it. they were less likely to -- it was sort of like, things are bad and we wrish wish they were better. as opposed to things are bad and i know who is responsible.

one way in which they showed an enormous amount of information was immigration. it was president obama told us he would take care of us. this was going to be something he would do. and he had the ability to get it done. i mean, they were telling us, well, he had 60 votes in the senate. that's all he needed. he had the votes in the house. he could have done this. it was president -- it wasn't important to him. he had his chance to do something about it. he was more interested in deporting us than getting it done. i think that eventually works its way out by latino turn-out being depressed compared to what it ought to be. >> the demographics of the electorate in 1980 were what they are today, ronald reagan would not have been elected. a very structural barrier. >> the argument is, if neither

the demographics of 2008 voting as they did in 2008 applied in 1998, you could make some case. this was made by james carville in a book in 2010 which forecast the 30 year dominance of democratic party. i don't know, there was a little bit of a bump on the way. demography is not necessarily destiny. this is particularly true for latinos. you may have seen this controversy about josh qua what tribino. he has a latino last name. i'm not sure he's considered by the census bureau to be latino. what is his mother? i have a nephew. his father is a liberal democratic and his mom is mexican american, and he was president of the -- about as

avid a republican as you can imagine. his father sure as heck is not a republican. but he's latino. so the question is, how do these groups -- how do they play out in the american future? in canada, for example, you have a significant slice of the asian population who are republican. >> you split your time between austin and washington. i hear you were recently married. congratulations. >> "yes, dear."

i think your selection on the door knobs is excellent. >> yes. >> works every time. traditionally texas republican primaries have been inhospitable to anyone with a last name who was hispanic. alberto ran for re-elections where he ran television ads so he could be identified as being deported by bush, and sitting on point supreme court. when he ran on tell virks he tended to lose. that race is out the door. secondly it shows being an active campaigner like ted was matters. it also shows the difficulty of running negative ads in a primary examine and a run-off. i met with some people.

you would have expected this couple to be completely establishment in orientation. i said how did you feel about the president? well, we supported -- he said we voted for ted cruz in the run-off. i said, why? they said because we got sick and tired of the negative ads and we decided to give the young man a chance. this says so many good things about the strength of conservatives and tea party conservatives in general. it also says something about the negativity of the campaign.

>> is the tea party waxing or waning? >> both. look, here's the tea party right here. we have two elements of it. we have the element that wants to be an adjunct to the republican party and wants to be the king makers. they want to make the endorsements and pick the candidates. this is about this much of the tea party movement. here is this much. they say we don't want to be an adjunct. we want to influence both pearts parties and hold their feet to the fire. we want the second amendment movement, the pro-life movement. and by the way, we want to affect both political parties. this group is having difficulty

figuring out how to become durrable. this group is sort of finding its way. this group is waning a little bit. this group is waxing. we have a tea party candidate, i'm a tea party guy. tea party victory. sometimes that's over-stated. i think richard murdoch, he won more because he was a two-time state treasurer. he went to every lincoln day dinner that he could go to and had a great schtick. he would show up for the lincoln day dinner. he would have a seven-minute speech about lincoln and something that you have never heard before and each one would be different.

on the other hand, one guy was supporting the primary. the last lincoln day dinner he went to was in the 1980's. he was registered to vote in a house he sold in 1983 and he never went home. one of the ranking members of the committee told me she had never met luger. she had never met him. murdoch had. we spend too much time looking at the movement. it's still there. it is big, it is powerful, and it is driving a lot of this election. and particularly among interestent voters who sort of won't go to a tea party moving, but these concerns about deficits and debt and where the country is headed and the

economy and obama care and is government too big? that's what's driving it. we're spending foo much time looking at the movement and not enough time looking at the senate. >> go ahead, sir. >> i'm ron lieber from tampa. paul ryan may be a heartpeat away from the presidency. what are two great messages from paul ryan and what are three not so great messages by the romney campaign about the selection of ryan for vice president? >> first of all, romney i not conventional. he's going to go bland, comfortable, people thought. instead he chose a guy that he had come to know when he was writing his speech last november about reform that he asked paul

behind-the-scenes to give advice on. nobody paid much attention to his speech. it is a pretty good speech. i think in the process, he took the -- everything we know about him is he didn't succeed by saying, what can we do here. he wanted to exemplify what he wanted to make his presidency about. he said i want this to be about bold reform of the government before these social safety nets. i can't think of much bad about it. i think they went about it in a pretty awful way. they put a lot of effort into

thmplet i hear the criticism he should have made the announcement here. i think they did it absolutely right. they did it before the convention so they could milk some ink out of it. and also in this instance so they could have a healthy and robust debate about medicare not in the notes before the convention but before the convention. let's not kid ourselves. we will have a debate about medicare. the debate, if we didn't haven't want to have it, would be conducted by late-night phone calls. i would rather have the discussion now. the american people are ahead of the competition when it comes to entitlement reform. what the republicans have is a sense of thoughtful ideas from

the democrats. >> we have a question here in the front. >> looking at some of the tv ads on air here this week, talking to some noncommitted voters, it is so much about romney's tax rate. you probably paid a lower tax rate than him. how does governor romney get past that? what does he need to say to put the tax rate away? >> look, he's not going to put it away. if you deeply care about the fact that he abides by the laws of the united states and der arrives his income from investment and as a result pays a lesser rate on wages and you want to vote against him for that reason, there is not going to be much you can say or do to convince him otherwise. many it says something about the president of the united states

if that's what he's reduced to doing. is he attacking warren buffet as being somehow unamerican because he der arrives his money from investments and capital gains? if he really wants his secretary to pay a lower tax rate than he is, he ought to give himself a big stock rather than salary. that can be one of the ugly things about the balance of the campaign. i think it is one of the reasons that obama is going to lose. people are desperate for a president to offer them more than just that. >> you said you think obama is going to lose. if he wins, it will be what? >> an utter disaster for the country. look, if he were to win, and i don't think he is, but if he were to win, he would come in for a second term as ill-prepared as any single president in the history of our country.

>> we went out and talked about 2004, energy reform. we got 1-4. we got the energy bill in 2005. but we tried. this guy has not laid a predicate for anything other than the buffet rule which will generate $7 billion over the next 10 years. there by solving our enormous problem. wait for my thursday column. it is brilliant. >> i am greg unger from "vanity fair." >> yes, of course you are. >> i also have a new book coming out next week. >> go ahead, unger. >> on fox news and the "wall

street journal" you were critical of donald trump, rick santorum, and gingrich. were you doing that intentionally to lep romney's chances? did you discuss it a at all with roger? >> no, and no. i was complimentary of some of those same people at different times. for example, when donald trump went out and embraced the berger issue, i was critical of him. unger has an interesting book. i'm responsible for the murder of mike o'connell. >> i did not say that. >> he comes close to that. he also depends on a nut named dana joe simpson who claims i personally got her to investigate governor siegleman. if this is another interesting work of fiction, i wish you all the best with it.

>> what does its amazing success say about current american politics? >> first of all, i left the white house in september. my final day on the payroll is the middle of september 2007. crossroads was not founded in 2008. >> first project after the presidency. >> correct. >> you know, it says something about -- well, i don't know. it is tough to decide what it says. i do know this. republicans were tired of the democrats beating us by having this phalanx of liberal groups and republicans -- talking to us and beating up our guys and gals, and they were looking around for a vehicle to support. perhaps it was a little bit different vehicle. because of that it garnered some support.

it raised millions, and i think we will reach our goals this year. >> spending more than the campaigns in the party. we added the republican side, outside groups including yours, are going to spend a billion five. >> i think that number is high. >> what do you think the number is? >> i don't know. i think on elections or issue ad casty -- advocasy it will be slightly less than that. we know from the unions they spent $450 million on behalf of obama in 2008. in 2004 i did@add it up. -- i did add it up.

we were out-spent. that did not include the unions. we don't have a good number for the unions for that year. it was probably closer to $600 million that we were out-spent in 2004. our object is to sort of even-up the playing field. >> the outside spending as a real quens -- consequence. >> they are not beholden to anybody -- how can you beholden to a -- >> the leadership -- >> i don't know if they do or not. we'll see. the leadership has its own groups out there. at least on the democratic side. >> i'm jenny rogers of "the washington examiner." my question is do you think that the candidate spouses have any

chance of making an impact on the vote? >> no, they do. they have a big impact. people look at the picture that they see of the candidate and his or her spouse and make decisions about it. look, michelle obama i thought was a very effective advocate in 2008 that forced people to recognize, and that is she was in charge of out-reach to military families. so you go to pay a bill in north carolina, you go to jacksonville, florida, you go to some of these battleground states in the military communities, and she had covered the waterfront or the air field or the landscape pretty well. it was a powerful impact. but, look, the president is a little different than almost any other office in that we know we are going to have to live with him in our future in our lives for four years, so we want to know a lot about them, and one of the things we want to know about them is their spouse.

sort of the out-spokenness of barbara bush was a plus. the sort of common man and common woman of eleanor roosevelt was a plus. all of these things have been of great utility in some cases. >> do you think spending is good for our country or not? >> it is what it is. all i know is the democrats have been doing it for years, and i got sick and tired of playing with one hand tied behind my back. i don't remember this angst when americans coming together funleded by george soros and five of his pals were beating up bush. i don't remember anybody writing a frantic editorial pages in the "new york times" when the naacp received a $14 million contribution from an anonymous donor in order to run an ad attacking bush as a racial bigot. i love the fairness now that

conservatives are doing it, but it reminds me of the hypocrisy of some of our great liberal news organizations that they hype ventilate about one and they didn't hyperventilate about the other. this is a news crew. [laughter] when we set out to do this, we wanted to have something durable and the right model. we have a board of directors in political leaders and we want this to be the place when you are the former finance chairman or the former such and such official of the party that you

might get swept up into this in order to continue your service to the party and give it the kind of sensible leadership that groups like this ought to have. we want to be transparent with our donors so they know how the money is spent. we want to be transparent to them. >> i am going to go to the back next. but first i want to ask you, has the president in obama's position, is it possible for him to overcome this? >> sure it is. i don't think he will. tune in thursday. tune in thursday. this is really going to be a good one. i still have to finish writing it. but presumably there will be other news on the day than the column, so. >> have you talked to some activists in the conservative

group of the party is there pressure on the establishment in washington and how race may have had the effect of rallying pastors to aiken's side? do you have any regrets coming out so hard to get him out of the race? do you think republicans will eventually need to back him to get majority? >> the approval rating in the mason dixon poll is 17%. 50% of the people say they are voting for todd achen in the poll said they wanted to withdraw. a plurality of republicans wanted him to withdraw. the only people that wanted to have him remain in the race are democrats. i don't think they have the best interest of the republican party at heart. what he said was indefensible and the matter in which he handled it was worse. this is a program he taped. and obviously he saw nothing wrong with it in his taping.

his responses on tuesday evening were in the form of a television ad. he can say sorry, but who are the voters of the state of missouri going to believe? a television viewed by journalists who passing himself off in questions where he says in legitimate rain a woman has ways to shut it all down or a television ad? he can see it. the guy was ahead by 10 points after the republican primary, and a week later is behind by 8 or 9 or 10 and sinking. i know todd. he's a good man. he has a good heart. but he said a really, stupid indefensible thing from which there is no recovery. if he really cares about the values of conserve tism then he will not go down to defeat with the biggest loss by any republican candidate in the modern history.

>> how soon does he have to get out? >> he has until september 25. i think -- if the republicans nominate a credible candidate, they can beat mckasgil hand i will -- handily. i have talked to republicans that say, it is unfair. well, it is unfair, but it was almost incredibly wrong. it would be one thing if he made a minor misstatement, but this is pseudo science and more, pin defensible. -- indefensible. >> as we look ahead to covering charlotte, what was your strategy for president bush coming out in the convention? >> let him have a couple days off. let the democrats have their convention. i know president obama is going to do his college tour this

week. it is a sign of his concern about the youth vote. i think they are making a mistake. first of all, i think it is so unbecoming -- i think stephen hess had a great line. it was something to the effect that they asked him about president obama campaigning during the convention and he said it was a sign of disrespect of the civility that we ought to accord in modern american blicks. -- politics. but look, the president is exhausted. he's tired. >> you think he's over-scheduled? >> yes. .

. .

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> so he is still engaged enough so that he will even in the state of the campaign initiate the process? what's it will happen less and less, but people are sending stuff, the world is still going on even though it is so busy. something will keep his interest and he will turn to us for these opportunities. that is the reality of social. it is ever present. so it is in your life. and he gets involved in his life. and his five boys are always part of the process. they are very socially active. >> i did promise to open this up to the audience.

if you have questions, raise your hand. >> this question is for zack. i am wondering, what i have seen my and social media in reporting is that people seem to engage with something they disagree with them something to agree with. you think that results could be flipped and the obama campaign would be saying more engagement the new? >> the thing about the supreme court is that it is the one that very sides reaching both sides are very active on a. that is one that things occurred. i will not expect the obama people damascus on vp day. the debate is going to be the one time when you really see it. it is the head to head. it is the one point we are all

building toward. that is driving a lot of it. i do not know that that would have moved them to 1.7% to 27% engagement. i feel like a broken record. everyone wants to talk of these massive lists. if there was more engagement going on, i would be far more nervous. that is why i am not worried about this number. but how we see what people are doing. the supreme court rolling any different, i think many things would change. but i cannot change that. >> right here. >> also -- social media relies on a free speech and freedom. but those are under attack around the world, and domestically by special interests, and bipartisan government. having the different campaigns, both campaigns are addressing their support and freedom? >> was a great question. i think we all agree that is an

issue of. and googled takes freedom of expression very seriously. we have many discussions going on, talking to different folks about it. it isn't issue that is very -- it is an issue that is very personal to google. many areas to read the world are threatened. we have a thing called the transparency reporter in every six mothers so we have requests made from google to take down of certain information. and what is interesting, it is not always the countries or the places that you think are the obvious ones that are requesting for information to be taken down. it could be a united states, the twuk. for us it is an issue to talk about. whether it is hippa. it is an issue that is front and center.

and we are ready to talk about it. >> we think the open exchange of information has a positive the effect on the world. that has led to the idea that the tweets must follow. a perfect example is during the arab spring in egypt. we have partnered with google. after the data networks were shut down, we built what we call tweet to tweets. so the book could call out and did take a tweet by calling a phone number. and still be able to get that reach out to the public. we have also been publishing similar reports on the types of requests from foreign governments and media companies. and i think we will continue marketing in that direction. >> we are really a platform for other people to really use us as they needed to. has been very powerful. we alone are not strong enough, we want to open it up to

everyone. like the arab spring. we just want to give people the tools to give people what they need to do. >> from a campaign perspective, we really strive to not take town any stowe's. we try not to engage -- sometimes it can come back and hurt us. because the press will see it and report on it and then creates conflict. on face looks terms would dictate whether or not we take omething down -- face lookboo's terms would dictate whether or not we can take something down. that is not something that we are willing to happen. we found that to the marketplace release of regulate. if something comes out and says the bank, we of nine people will come an response on our behalf. very rarely does it need to come to our level. but really, we find that the marketplace or the community

self regulates and they have those conversations. but people do say some things on our page. >> we talked a lot about the content you have been posting on facebook, twitter and google. have you been buying any ads? >> yes. you always want to extend the reach. that is what everyone here wants to do. whether it is responded to retreat, a story. we are always going to good resources toward that. that is where people are spending their time. is a huge part of our team here it is an era where we have the strategic advantage. in an area where we felt very strong in the. so, that is a reality. >> why do give you have an advantage there? press i feel that being isething doesn't mean --

something that is constantly evolving. you have to be at the forefront. that is an area that we feel we have seen online, how we measure our success, that is where we see we are good at. we made advertising a core component of our overall campaign strategy. we sat down when we first launched and had a strategy. and still now and every time reiterating it, technology gets better. but it is a core part of what we are trying to do. that is strategic for the campaign to say we are going to take money off of television and five people and not watching television. all of our ad units are so that when they expand, you can treat them, you can post them to

facebook. it is them sharing with their 150, 190 friends. you get a far larger rate on line and they are becoming our advocates. gregg's and this election cycle there are unique ways -- this election cycle there are unique ways. we are thinking about consumers. and somebody doesn't watch more than three seconds, there's no payment involved. i think of is important to people who are doing these and consuming them. we are acknowledging, we know that you are watching this. we want to make sure this is relevant to you. these are the magic numbers that you can get back and see that level of engagement with what people are doing. it is not just so they could on something, so they watch the entire campaign video. it is terrible to say we know they are watching, and we know how many are watching. >> one of the questions -- with

all the generative content above the campaigns and in the system to of created, what are you seeing people critically coming up with it to find surprising or delightful? >> things better visual. you are going to see a lot more videos. videos seem to go in many denver the directions. things like instagram. or people creating graphics. people are generating so much data. i think that is what we have seen that is an interesting part of this. someone put a statement out there it does not go anywhere. you have to give it some kind of context. that is why you are saying instagram being so successful. they are generating content.

and that is the content we are seeing that you for this --. >> i disagree. everyone has rigidly of -- everyone has a phone now. and take some really good pictures. people, whether they are volunteering, whether they are at a rally, again one of paul ryan was announced, as many friends on my news feed your down there at the announcement snapping pictures. and even you guys are much richer, stabbing pictures on the boss of the kids running up and down. it is giving you behind the scenes experience. it is your friends that are there. never before have we had a point in time where you have delegates will be allied trading, putting things up on google and facebook, giving people a new point that they have never gotten a before. >> if you look historically, we have only ever had cameras in the hall for about 60 years.

we have only allow the cameras on the floor for just under 20. and now, for the first time, people will not be singing convention exclusively through a very regimented tool shop on every single network. but there will get to experience the convention through the eyes of a member of their community, who is doing it from their perspective, and actually putting that user of twitter, facebook or googled in dca. those are the most delightful moments. can bring you closer. you build on a relationship around that the venture. and they treat something with a picture of that. you have your own roving eyes in the hall. and i think it is a real opportunity at the conventions.

is a great opportunity for the candidates in the campaigns that dissolves. imagine claire mccaskill earlier. there was someone who treated a picture earlier, saying i just saw my senator and walmart. and she wrote to back, why did not you say hello? and the person was able to go up and say hello. and they had a conversation and the person was tweeting about it. because there were living vicariously through the person. and it is things like that -- increase engagement not only on those more fun of moments, but on the actual policy discussions. that you have changed from doing the candidate as this boxed in talking head on television to actually being a real person who has real conversations to shops where you shop. and that is a delightful.

>> and the barriers are coming down in so many ways. live strumming both conventions so you look and see what is happening. with regards to google+, i am working with our google+ hang out studios based here. and i am doing a vs one at 3:00 p.m. one of the things i have talked about with regards to 2008, people were taking flipped cameras and going around and shooting a video and of loading it. it was a broadcast moment. what we are hoping to do with the google+ is to have the two way conversation and bring people in here. that was not possible. in this way before. we of the blue joining from other parts of the country, not just here in tampa or charlotte. and with regard to mobil, which recently announced that you can join a hang out on the air.

you could literally be walking around with your phone and participating in a video conference with other people in a country our summer house in of the world and have that live for anyone to say. who knows where we will be. >> the thing and is interesting about 2012, we are a convention -- the primary destination during the week of convention will not be the gop convention 2012 website, but the youtube channel. you can watch the events occur on the youtube channel. can watch it live, you can watch videos made on youtube. hannigan have a social media engagement. we are calling in facebook, twitter. there are blinding conversations occurring on the youtube that

will replace this. is it pretty seismic shift. your and raising the fact that video will be driving. but social will keep it moving forward. --u will see a huge >> this is not just about taking this out of the hall. it is about bringing the voices back into the hall. and the convention team has been doing a good job this week and trying to bring some of that back into the hall onto the floor and allowing someone sitting at home to be an active bridges and in the event. that is transformative. on the other side, obama a couple months ago was on his way to a speech in iowa. before he goes on stage, he said -- when i am done, i will

take your questions on twitter. he types of a few trees, and they opposed the video to youtube. -- think about that. >> they ask a question. the present replies to the question and there is video of the president reading and replying and thinking about the question a. that is absolutely transformative of. when any citizen at the end of the country can do that with the president of the ad states or the republican nominee. >> will you consider, also during this conversation at that happened in social media during the convention, bringing some of that information to paul ryan or the governor and incorporating that into big speeches. >> i think that a lot of the

conversations of will occur, especially when you go in to events like when the congressman is going to any event, a lot of times that will be what people are talking about. the different entry points into the overall discussion. i think we are a bit away from people going to the convention. but i think you are seeing it more and more. you are saying, this is what people are talking about on a twitter. they might want to talk about something different. you looked at national papers to headlines, and it looks very different from the regional papers headlined. that is another point we take .nto consideration a period o >> i want to go out to the audience one last time. any more questions? >> [unintelligible]

on usa today -- obama supposedly has 28 million followers? >> the first law on th[unintell] they try to secure at what is a real person or not. it is very difficult. we continue to work on edge. as one aside, 40% of the people who log into twitter every day do not tweet. people use it every day as a pure function experience. and they find it is delightful. and we welcome mat. the new york times is never willing to call you up and say, if you have been a longtime subscriber, but you have not written anything, so we are shutting you off. what is anave to look at

active accounts. >> again, we had a slight issue a couple weeks ago where we reached out to twitter. and we said there is nothing we did. we were clear about it. i heard that number as well. the 70%. i have not seen at written about as much. but i mean, it is a reality. i do not think any campaign minds back. no one is actually doing a digital director's job. but i do think that the challenge would become if the people are not engaging, that is the issue. but twitter and these others, you have to be careful. it is like facebook. are all of your followers in america? they cannot vote for you if they

are not. we see a lot of traffic come to our section. it could be someone and brazil. it is interesting. but there is not much we can learn and do. >> do not for get, that one thing we talked about, there were only 30 followers. it was a jew and a cat with tens of millions. and it was sent to end an account with tens of millions. >> you mentioned vanity. i clearly called off 58,000 of my twitter followers.

[applause] >> thank you all of you for attending a. this is one of the most informative panels i have listened to. tomorrow, same time same place. we have a terrific group. we have cbs. and ed will be here. i encourage you to join us tonight at our viewing party tonight. watch it to night. there's not much to watch tonight. and last but not least, we have an event at 2:00 p.m. on the help the city's. if your interested, please join us. with that, thank you everybody. [applause]

>> all we, c-span of entrepreneur guests from the playbook breakfast. today, roy blunt. and we will bring you the daily briefing. "washington journal" the dance at 7:00 a.m. eastern. and then following the political play breakfast, our first guest is steve the capital bureau chief. then after the national journal daily briefing we will speak to dennis, the lead sponsor of the stand your ground law. and bob buckhorn. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> paul ryan spoke at a sendoff

rally in wisconsin on monday. his accepted the nomination at the republican convention. this is about 20 minutes. >> man. look at this. hey, guys. thank you. you can go ahead and have a seat. thank you. wow. [applause] man. wow, look at this. man. it is good to the home. -- to be home.

so good. i think i recognize just about every face in this room. this is my family over here. i am related to half of them. hello. it is good to be home. [applause] you know, now you know, i am one of the less articulate members of the ryan family. i really appreciate it. and let me say on behalf of jana and our kids, we just want to thank everyone in the community. for their amazing outpouring of support. it means so much to us. i have spent a lot of time. in this gymnasium. i never was this close to center

court. most of my time was outside on a soccer and track. gym means so much. it is just like all of the june around the country. and while we take stock, i think we should put in on lines and prayers, the people how have been victims of hurricane is sick and those who still stand in the path of the storm. -- hurricane issac , and those who still stand in the path of the storm. i want to thank the police department. these guys are great. they have been phenomenal. you saw my father, randy.

i want to thank chief dave more. and eric love it. -- eric levitt. i want to thank everyone in the broader community. i know this has put a lot here. i want to tell you how proud i m two, from wisconsin. how proud ifi am to come from wisconsin. when i see and, on goals, cousins. -- we think we had 67 cousins right here. story is not different than most american family stories. you know, back in the 1850's,

the potatoes stopped growing in ireland. our great grandfather, with the shirt on his back, made his way to boston, worked his way to the railroads to get enough money to buy a farm. that brought him to wisconsin and. he looked around, it was summertime, and he said, this looks just like ireland. and then came winter. but they made ifa go of it. and lots of immigrants came in at those years. we have lots of immigrants. it was everyone. we all made a go of it. we are fifth generation natives.

[applause] it is not a unique story. it is an american story. and the reason our family came here and the reason everyone else's families came here is because of what this country stands for. america is not just a piece of geography. it is an idea. [applause] it is the only country founded on an idea. that idea is crashes. that idea, i do not want to make you stand the whole time. please, have a seat.

that idea, thank you. that idea is so precious. that idea, we believe in free speech. >> u.s.a.! >> that is the idea. >> thank you. >> u.s.a.! [applause] >> awesome. [applause] >> man. it sounds like we just went to state.

each generation passes on a better country. i remember sitting here watching the days. the millow brothers, my buddy coaching at parker. we lived together in freedom. and what we do in our committees, we look out for one another. that is what -- that is what is so special. that cannot be replaced. think of the charities we all worked so hard to raise. echo food bank. guest[applause]

we have a crisis pregnancy centers. community nursing homes. we have rotary gardens, he will come from all around to see. we have the house of mercy. we have health net. we have a great boys and girls club. we have a say wyca. these are the things that bring us together. to help our neighbors in need. they call it civil society. i call i jamesville, wisconsin. [applause] and what is important is that our government respects this. and our government honors this. that our government works for the people and not the other way around so that we can do this.

that is what this is all about. you know, we had been hit pretty hard here. we used to say, had gm goes, so goes jamesville. we are hardy people. and we will recover. i had a lot of a friend to lost their jobs at the plant. now he is doing a great job, as a great career. another one of my buddies lost his job. he went to whitewater, and his wife have to a greater horizon and a promising career. that is the kind of thing we need to do is pick ourselves up, and help people in need.

flourish entrepreneur hours and small businesses so people can to get back on their feet. that is what it is all about. friends, family. this is a defining moment for our country. this is not an ordinary election. it is not an ordinary time. we have a big choice to make. we are not just picking the next president for a few years. we are picking the pathway for america for a generation of. [applause] and what mitt romney and the

pledge is to make sure that you get to choose what kind of country do we want to have, what kind of people in do we want to beat. it comes down to that because the mistakes -- the stakes in at this election are so high. it is a nation in debt, and nation in doubt, and the nation in decline. or we can choose a better path. we apply those founding principles and get people back to work. that is exactly what we are going to do. this is why we need leadership. let me tell you about the man who asked me to join him in this

quest. mitt romney -- thank you. [applause] let me tell you about this man. this is a man of faith. a man of honor. a man of family, integrity and achievement. remember the olympics in the late 1990's? remember all of the scandals, corruption's? it sounds kind of familiar. they asked this man in boston to go and turn it around. that is exactly what he did. if he served in a beautiful way. he invited the olympics in that time. that is leadership. [applause] it is a man who created tens of

thousands of jobs. and by the way, when people are successful in business, that is a good thing. that is not something to present. be proud of that. that is what makes america grow. that is what makes us tick, that is what creates prosperity. he started small business. he created the companies like staples, bright horizons, sports authority. i look around the room and i see an entrepreneur or there, i see and onto kronor there. i see a job a trader there. everywhere i look. there is one right there, and to. everywhere i have looked.

i see friends, community leaders. i see family members to get up early in the morning to work hard, take sacrifices, they do not know if it is going to work, but it does because they work hard. they do not need the president saying that they get the credit. they built their businesses and they get the credit. [applause] that is how jobs are created. just look at the contrast between where we are with president obama and what mitt romney achieved during his four years as governor. under president obama, a united states credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in history. under mitt romney, the credit turning was increased. under president obama, 23

million americans are struggling to find work today. nearly 1 in 6 americans are living in poverty today. the highest rate in the nation. unemployment has been above 8% during household income in america has gone down $4,000 in the last four years. when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts, unemployment went down, household incomes went up $5,000, and he reached across the aisle, he did not to demonize democrats, he worked with them and balance to the budget without raising taxes. that is the kind of leadership that we need. [applause] every now and then, the president in moments of kantor,

tells us what he really thinks. he kind of reveals his thinking and his philosophy of government. do you remember when he was talking to this guy named joseph? he said we just need to spread the wealth around? is this economic school of thought. this belief that the pie is somehow fixed. at the time he is static, and that is the government's job to redistribute the slices more equitably. that is not their job. we need to grow the pie for everybody so that every body in america can get their vision of the american dream. [applause] remember when he was talking to a bunch of donors in san francisco. he said people in the midwest.

people like us. [applause] all i have got to say, from a guy who goes to st. john, over about 6 miles in that direction. proud of that. [applause] that is freedom. [applause] the last one is the most -- when is talking to small business people, that they do not get to the credit, that the government does. it shows us why we are stuck in the deep rut that we are in it. here is my point. it is not too late to get this right. it is not too late to treat other people with respect.

it is not too late to get our spending under control. to get our budget under control. to clean up the mess in washington. to have a job training policies, spending cuts. it to have a small businesses and growing and thriving. it is not too late to get people back to work. it is not too late to fix this country's problems. we can do that. [applause] >> u.s.a! >> here is our commitment to you. everywhere i look i see so many familiar faces. it is just very moving. and, i love you, too.

[applause] we want to know that the values that built this country are going to stay in this country. we wanted to know that those little things in life that tie us together are going to continue to tie us together as a community. we want to know that we are going to reclaim those principles with respect for one another and of the country's solutions to fix these things while they are still in our control. here is the commitment that mitt romney and i are making to you, our fellow citizens. we are not going to duck the tough issues. we are going to lead. [applause]

we are not going to spend the next four years blaming other people for problems. we are going to take response ability. honor the facto on ou that the country was created by our founders. our rights from, nature and god and not from government. our founders secured those and every generation of veterans, and so many of them i see here, they are the ones that gave it to as to preserve this. and we thank them for that. [applause]

and the way we will honor their sacrifice, their legacy of our ancestors, of our forefathers, who did everything to make it so we have the opportunities that we had, for my dad, a lot of you knew him, he said we are part of the problem and a part of the solution. he said that to me when i was being part of the problem. but the solution is that we are not going to try and transform this country into something it was never invented to leave. we are not going to replace our founding principles. we will reapply are finding principles. that is what we will do to get to the country back on the right track. that is how we preserve the american legacy. friends, we can do this. we can get this done. we can turn this thing around.

together, we will get this country back on the right track. we will get this done. thank you so much. data bless you, god bless this country. god bless wisconsin. we love you all, thank you. [applause] >> the coverage of the republican convention starts today at 2:00 p.m. eastern with the democrats falling next tuesday september four. all live on c-span, c-span radio and on line and asked c-

span.org. ann romney will speak tonight. wednesday at 8:00 p.m., 2008 gop presidential candidate john mccain. and at 10:00 p.m., paul ryan. and thursday evening at 10:00 p.m., florida senator marco rubio introduces mitt romney the. use our online convention the . all at c-span.org. as we bring you coverage this week and next of the republican and democratic convention, here is a discussion on campaign spending by the obama and romney campaigned. bill burton and charles from

restore our future. this is one hour 10 minutes. >> thank you very much. is so nice to be here. i think all of you for coming. i have a special, personal thanks. from david. i am glad that you all are here. i am going to introduce you -- we are going to have a fine panel. i know this is harvard. i know this -- that is not why you are here. you think is going to be the thiller in manilla. we are really going to get into going. we will see. we are going to talk about the larger issue that david is talking about.

and we can expand into other areas. let me introduce them one on one. first is bill burton. the co-founder for priorities usa. a barack obama super pac. i first met him in a bar in wisconsin in 2004. we had a wonderful relationship. he has told me that if we publish the story it would be the most irresponsible story of all time. and i said worse than the chicago tribune? the worst. we are delighted you are here. charlie spies is the treasurer of a mitt romney superpac. he has a history in campaign finance law. he was governor run the's council in the 2008 campaign. charlie has an impeccable

republican conservative credential except that he is a graduate from georgetown university. just a little bit soft. next is mike murphy. mike is one of those guys, he has worked for the bushes, john mccain, mitt romney, a lot of republicans. i think he has just as many friends on the other side of the aisle as he does on his own. he really loves the business. mike had a great epiphany a couple years ago. he discovered what his friend bill discovered 25 years ago. if you move to california, there are gold in those hills. there are more media markets there than there are states in the united states. if you are a campaign consultant and media person, california is great. finally, the last person is jill abramson. dill was recently voted one of

the five most powerful women in america. i want to know who the other four were. she would get my vote. she is the first woman editor of "the new york times." it is very hard for me to introduce jill abramson because she rules out so many things that i cannot say. i am not allowed to tell the story of how i hired her in the middle of a hiring freeze. she says she is border that story. i am not allowed to point out her career as a newspaper editor, not allowed to talk about male body parts. i cannot do that. i have never known a better journalist. she is even a better friend. she is really an extraordinary legend. and she has covered money and politics as a reporter, has directed coverage for a long time. so we have a great panel. we may get into the thriller in

manila potentially but who knows? let's start off by setting the groundwork for this campaign. it will be a campaign which will spend at least $3 billion, maybe up to $5 billion. the super pacs have already raised $350 million. a quarter of that has come from 10 very rich people. there are people that argue this is bad for the system. there are others argue this is good for the system. let's start with that basic question, jill. >> it is neither good nor bad. having a profound effect on this race. what we do not know is whether the money from the people who are funding the superpacs, the people that frank rich in a recent article called the sugar daddies of this election,

whether all that money will mainly fund negative tv ads from the democratic side to tear down mitt romney, vice versa for the other party, whether that will seriously change the tone of politics and perhaps even add a certain point the turnaround in the fall. we do not know pier we have seen a lot of really negative advertising so far. a ton of money being spent by the superpac. what is interesting about this convention is the people that run the super pacs are converging here, along with stalwarts of the republican party, the top people in the mitt romney campaigns. i think the romney campaign and the party, to some degree, would like the super pacs to control. they are not able to constrain the message. the danger, i think, is the message goes all over the place

and becomes really sharply negative, more so than either side wants. what effect does that have won voters? we do not know. >> mike murphy? >> i am torn about it. money is the big game in politics. i thought it would be the big game in the convention, and after the convention, i find that it is through overtime. 1500 police pedaling around on bicycles on sunday. the issue is the money is a process issue. the process question of volume of money i do not think -- and the courts back this up by labeling political money speech. the bigger problem is the content. i am less worried about the public than the quality of the water. yes, it can be -- if there is a

vulgarity to it -- but you have to the context. every year we talk about more money than ever. this year the ankle is super pacs. the truth is, this is a huge country. 328 people i think voted in the last presidential election. if you were to take the current estimate of my expertise, advertising spending, voter context, advertising, the best estimate is $1.25 billion. 131 million voters. that is about $9.33 per voter. if you go to the movies, popcorn, diet coke, about $17. for almost half the price we give you a two-year show. i am not sure if it is the volume of money in a big country. we can increase the political advertising money and we could match l'oreal cosmetics for what they spend.

mcdonald's is in the billions. the junk mail industry is in that $40 billion a year in marketing spending. we're trying to get to $1.3 billion and there is shock and horror. the number has the shock value, but my view is to fix the content, the quality of the discourse. trade running ads that treat people like idiots. quit running ads that are two- thirds untrue. when i was doing as, there were only one-third untrue. it was the golden days. [laughter] we did not throw the murder thing around much. >> that is because of willie horton. >> we did not accuse the candidate of doing it. finally, it is up to the voters. if they punish spending, it would not be an issue.

>> i thought was interesting on a presentation about the disparity between conservatives perception and the media and more liberal perception of the media, and even on this panel, with respect, i notice in 2010, you, al, and you, jill, wrote apocalyptic words about how citizens united would be the downfall of the country, using watergate references. i would suggest that it is not that different if you go back to 2004. you had $150 million being spent by groups. $23 million from george soros. this is not a new phenomenon of money and politics. if people do not like it, they would -- i would also suggest that we go back to look at the mccain fine gold law as the cause of the spirit is not a citizens united problem, it is a mccain-finegold problem.

you constrain the parties and you push it to outside groups and you end up with this more negative discourse from the unaccountable outside groups. >> yes, all this money in politics is that. what might says is interesting. if you compare to the number of people that by cosmetics or dog food, or editing like that, that is irrelevant. the issue is there are a small number of people who have the power to contribute to campaign organizations. someone like sheldon adelson is buying his seat at the table. the reason he travels around the country with mitt romney. there is a reason that the first fund-raiser that paul ryan did was at the casino of sheldon adelson. there was a reason he was in israel with mr. romney. and not everybody can do that. when the numbers get so big and corporations can give unlimited sums and individuals can give unlimited sums, no disclosure of what they're doing, the

voices that get drowned out are the folks in the middle-class. you get to a point where the $25 donations make less of an impact than they could otherwise because the numbers are so extraordinary. if mitt romney wins, it will basically be an affirmation of the system. yes, you can buy your way through this process. a lot of people talk about all the super pacs through the primaries. one person who has rarely benefited from superpac is mitt romney. he would not be the nominee today if it was not for charlie and the hard work he was doing at that super pac. the difference in this race, i think, is that president obama looks at the system as it is and as a need dramatic reform. mitt romney looks at the system and thinks, this is my path. >> charlie, do you want to respond?

>> i will not take the rest of the time going point by point, but just a bit of fact checking to my knowledge, sheldon adelson had never traveled to mitt romney -- with mitt romney. the money he has spent is not -- it is fully disclosed. you know give money to new gingrich's pac. he gave more in the primary that he has now in the general. on the prairies usa, which does not disclose their donors, the reason you know about sheldon adelson's contributions and a large owners to restore our future is because we do disclose our donors. that is in no way a secret. my understanding -- i have seen governor romney talk about campaign finance. he has said he would let