d57216

it's the economy stupid has become the most off quoted and politically accurate slogan of the last 20 years. whoever comes out ahead on the economy usually comes out ahead at the ballot box. president obama continues to

focus on mitt romney's time at bain. >> i was suddenly 60 years old. i had no health care. and that's scary. when mitt romney did that he -- he made -- he made me sick. >> not to be outdone, karl roves gps hired larry mccarthy to produce its latest hit piece. >> i supported president obama because he spoke so beautifully. he promised change but things changed for the worse. >> but the economy isn't just a problem for president obama, a new poll shows it should be a concern for romney as well with the candidates essentially tied when it comes to economic issues. romney leads by only 1%. the candidates are dead even when it comes to who would create more jobs. has the romney lead on the economy evaporated just like the

workers who's companies were bought by bain capital. joining me now campaign advisor, ford o'connell and democratic strategist and former senior advisor to senator harry reid, penny lee. your guy had a substantial lead in the economic domain. what happened? has he blown it? where has that narrative gone? >> i don't think he has blown it. i think what happened as the poll shows if essentially the economy doesn't improve, president obama is going to be out of a job as mitt romney can paint himself as a plausible alternative on the economy. he is still lacking that personal compelling narrative. only time is going to tell but this poll over all is not a good sign for president obama. and that comes from abc news amy walter. >> every time you are on the show you keep saying he has got to paint the narrative and tell the narrative. when is he going to do it?

this game only goes unfortunately for some of us 167 more days. >> that's absolutely right. this is why he is going after bain, because if mitt romney cannot defend his record on bain, the totality of it being having saved more than lost, then president obama is going to win this argument can mitt romney actually defend his record and say because of what i have done as a governor and successful businessman, i am better on this economy. we're going to find out. this bain bain bain argument will be the entire campaign fight. >> i agree. all right. penny is bain a decoy? at some point the president has got to do something positive. he has been in charge. i have heard enough about bain. >> one thing you are seeing in that poll is you are seeing people are more hopeful than anxious. they are saying the economy he inherited was horrible but that

they are moving forward and seeing positive growth and that is the first time we have seen it. and that place to the president's advantage. because mitt romney doesn't have a record to stand on. >> look i don't know where the optimism comes from. >> they are not where they were where they were losing 750,000 jobs a month. the unemployment numbers have come down and mitt romney when he ran last time as a bain capitalist, he ran as governor of massachusetts 47th out of 50. >> i don't think the president is telling it any more effectively. where is the president's affirmative story going to come from? why doesn't he compare gm to bain? >> you are seeing that narrative come out. you are starting to see it day after day. that was the whole point of what

the last couple of ads have been about. and don't forget what we did for gm. it was mitt romney wanted them to go bankrupt. we actually saved its economy. >> if i were giving advice to the president i would be tempted to say, president obama i'm a better private equity guy than you are. myth i lead the gm bailout, match that buddy. how would he respond to that? >> that the president has not created one net job in his four years in office that will be the real hard banger for president obama. one of the things that president obama is really worried about is the situation in europe. right now he is preparing for the worst and trying to take a page out of karl rove's book and a page out of barbara boxer's book. they are trying to take the fight to them. >> one thing about the swift vote ad they were false.

>> you are assuming people know these things. [ laughter ] >> penny you wanted to jump in. what are the numbers about jobs -- i don't think ford was accurate. >> no, the president is starting to see a net positive. now they are starting to see an add to the net positive. >> look even an objective reality the job losses in the first couple of months when we were in a freefall. since then you are argue causation, but we have added 4-plus million private sector jobs. whether you want to get credit to the stimulus or not. ford i am correct that is where the numbers are. >> but it still hasn't brought us back to even. people on main street right now are basically jobless and given up hope, and unless they feel their lives have improved president obama is in trouble right now. >> okay.

i want to pivot for a second. i want to ask you real quick each of you. ford how does your candidate, mitt romney respond if the supreme court says the health care law is unconstitutional? how does he react? >> the base is going to react for him, because they are going to say it is a federal overreach, and you can't do that. actually if i think it was upheld as constitutional mitt romney's base is going to be even more fired up than he will. >> all right. penny what does the president do if they find it unconstitutional? >> again, it riles up the base to say we actually probably need to go to single payer. >> okay. one step beyond that. fascinating we'll have to wait and see. mccain campaign advisor, ford o'connell, democratic strategist and former senior advisor to senator harry reid, penny lee, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you, eliot. >> sarah palin is

break the ice with breath-freshening cooling crystals. ice breakers.

still to comment some performance advise for mitt romney from the imcomparable james lipton but first the viewfinder when it doesn't fit anywhere else. >> here i am in a karn gan sweater sitting here in new port rhode island. >> thank you, al for alwaysening your weather reports for what is happening in your neck of the woods. >> it's a drizzly booze day tuesday, everybody, but we can't care. >> what was your least favorite seinfeld episode? >> there was one where a guy had a stroke and we were feeding

him on the couch. >> i look at this whacko who has no talent whatsoever going around doing all sorts of things, and really abusing people and somebody ought to whack him and he'll never do it again. >> and launch of the rocket as nasa turns to the private sector. >> someone leads gop operatives shawn they seem to have the fighting instinct of mr. snuffellugus. >> i wish i could bat a thousand. i can't, but i'm basically in the industrious hall of fame. >> what would a romney presidency be like? day one, president romney approves the keystone pipeline and issues the order to begin replacing obamacare. day two, he is reminded that he lost to president obama by a landslide.

[ laughter ] >> all right. mitt romney needs help acting human. we all knew that maybe if you have copd like i do you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down?

ask your doctor if spiriva can help.

i have said it many times before in fact twice last week alone, mitt romney is the most awkward politician i have ever seen. after observing that mr. romney could use some help james lipton, took it upon himself to give the candidate some advice on how to act more like a human being. >> since politics and performance have become pretty much fused, and since you have been criticized by some for not coming across as authentic by your public maybe we could work on that today. you have this portrait of yourself as a common man. sir, i don't think you are a

common man. my advice to you, sir, and you can reject it of course it is just advice is that you don't try to go with what you haven't got. >> joining me now to discuss what mitt romney could do to about more human is bravo's inside the actor's studio, james lipton himself. can it be taught? >> to whom? >> to somebody like mitt romney? >> acting is very hard to teach in any event. you have to bring to it a certain talent but, yeah it can be taught. >> but you look at a guy like mitt romney and for those of us on this side one of these hated cable new types i used to be on that side he is so easy to make fun of is there something

genetically missing in his makeup that would even take you out of there -- >> i'm not the top teacher, but -- look we teach our students -- one of the things that we teach them is to learn to access themselves, to be at ease in their skin. we teach them to relax. that was the -- the [ inaudible ] of acting. and we -- we -- we have a whole bunch of exercises that train them to be able to access themselves. their real selves not the phony selves, and not to put it on but to bring it out. >> what are you are saying is so fundamental. when somebody is at ease you sense it. and ronald reagan had that to a tee. >> totally. i directed ronald reagan and bob hope in "new lincoln bedroom." >> what were they doing there, i dare ask?

>> telling the filthiest jokes of their lives -- they started telling jokes, and none of them are repeatable here -- >> come on. sure they are. it's cable come on. >> no no no. but he was totally himself. what is more he was a sad-card-carrying member of our fraternity who never took a duel rule. he was content to be himself, and he did it brilliantly. he was ant common man. as i said romney is not a common man. reagan wasn't but he was a very good actor and very comfortable with himself, and he was able to convey that to the public. >> we have a tape here of what may be one of romney's more awkward moments. >> just something very special here, the great lakes but also

all of the little inland lakes that dot the parts of michigan. i love cars. in the 50s and 60s if you show me one square foot of any car, i could tell you what the model was. i still know the american cars pretty well. >> you almost cringe i like the big lakes, the little lakes, the tall trees -- >> i'm from michigan. i know those lakes and cars. there is a an expression of what we call flop swag. because he knows he is dying. a director once said relax you have got the job. >> and did the performance get better? >> well, sure. but he is constantly selling, selling, selling. >> that is part of the problem he doesn't have a job. he feels such a degree of text and anxiety that every word will be parsed. can he ever get comfortable in

his own skin? >> maybe too late. he should watch reagan and palin. when she is just making a speech she is a model of ease. she is living in the moment. watch her [ inaudible ] use of the art, she is so graceful and relaxed -- >> sometimes ignorance breeds that. >> i'm not suggesting that. you said it. >> yeah. >> but the fact is that she is very easy and relaxed in her skin and he is not. >> we have time for one more clip here which i think is again, mitt romney trying too hard. >> okay. >> we have in this room some -- some real young ones there is a little one in yellow. i would take a guess as to gender but when they are in yellow i can't tell. is that a boy or a girl? that's a girl. she is beautiful. >> that laugh is a killer.

he is not the least bit amused. if you freeze the frame of that you'll see no amusement there. i get it. i understand it. we are on the same wavelength because of a joke but he is too busy selling to share anything. the result is that that laugh comes out like the hah hah hah of the balloon in a cartoon. >> right. >> people think that crying is the test of an actor. laughing is the test of an actor. >> that's why -- a good comedian brings us into it right? and somehow we're enveloped in the sense of -- he thinks it is so funny or she -- >> it if the joke tells us something we didn't know we say, i get it and then relaugh. humor is a sharing. that's not the specialty of this fellow, he may have great

virtues but he is not a good sharer. >> we have been kind of harsh on governor romney -- >> it has nothing to do with his politics. >> does president obama have that skill that you seem to admire so much? >> i recall a year ago in the white heat of the white house correspondence dinner where he did what we call in our procession kill the crowd as he was simultaneously killing osama bin laden. that's cool. >> he impresses you. >> that impressed me. my god when i learned the next day that what was really on his mind -- that was a great performance. >> that was compartmentalization on a grand scale and grand performance. and then being alive in the moment and able to -- actually able to convey to us what he was

really honest to goodness thinking at the very same time his mind must have been racing elsewhere. that's -- that's a good performance. >> the host of inside the actor's studio james thank so much for your time and wisdom tonight. >> thank you. >> defending thehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe with jennifer granholm. >>i am jenniffer granholm and you are in the war room. it's a beautiful thing. >>jennifer granholm on current tv. >>i'm a political junkie. this show is my fix. >>in politics, she was a gutsy leader. in cable news, she's a game changer. >>be afraid, be very afraid. now, the two term governor from michigan is reshaping the debate with a unique perspective and a forward-thinking approach. >>our goal is to bring you behind the scenes with access to stories that you've never seen before. >>she's a trailblazer determined

to find solutions. >>one of the key components of a war room is doing a bit of opposition research. >>driven to find the thruth. >>i'm obsessed with the role of govenment. >>fearless, idependent and above all, politically direct. >>part of the mission here in our own war room is to help these candidates stay on track. make your voice heard. while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me your friends showed up with this awesome bone. you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate. i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib.

it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners, or if you have kidney problems especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take any planned medical or dental procedures and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. having afib not caused by a heart valve problem

increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk with pradaxa. i'll ask charles ferguson the author of the outstanding new book predator nation next. but first let's check in with jennifer grandholm. what is in "the war room" tonight, governor? >> we're all about the right to vote. and to stop those gop lawmakers to restricting students and seniors from exercising the right to vote.

and we'll be talking politics. and joined by sully, one of america's most famous here rose. >> spectacular, he is a real hero. ask mark mackinnon. that's going to be ♪ can we fix america's financial services by bringing one law back to life? no. but could behelp the banks by reviving a system of laws? you bet. especially if that system is the one that gave us more than 60 years of banking stability. after jpmorgan chase reported losing more than $3 billion, a

lot of people said bring back the glass sea gal act. we have been trying to put that back in place with the voelker rule. but andrew ross sorkin pointed out that glass-steagall alone would not have saved lehman brothers and bear stearns. a glass-steagall reenactment might not mean that much. but i think andrew misses the larger point. reveal of glass-steagall was merely one part of a larger flaw in our thinking. we cut virtually all of the rules and regulations that kept our banks solid and credible for six decades, next thing we knew leverage ratio spun out of control, capital requirements shrivelled up, government and bankers believed in the myth of self regulation and they were wrong. glass-steagall was one critical part of a structure that made

sure no bank was too big to fail no entity was grand enough to crush the entire system and no single wave of bets could wipe out the whole economy. so andrew you are right, glass-steagall alone wouldn't do it but as part of a larger structure, the voelker rule could provide our conversation is with you the viewer because we're independent. >>here's how you can connect with "viewpoint with eliot spitzer." >>questions, of course, need to be answered. >>we will not settle for the easy answers. unwrap your paradise. soft, sweet coconut covered in rich, creamy chocolate. almond joy and mounds. unwrap paradise.

[ male announcer ] this is corporate caterers miami, florida. in here, great food demands a great presentation. so at&t showed corporate caterers how to better collaborate by using a mobile solution in a whole new way. using real-time photo sharing abilities, they can create and maintain high standards from kitchen to table. this technology allows us to collaborate with our drivers to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ ♪ >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) former two term governor,

jennifer granholm, is politically direct on current tv >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. [ female announcer ] e-trade technology can help make you a better investor. our new e-trade 360 investing dashboard shows you where your money is, live. e-trade pro is so usable you'll actually use it. and our apps are the ultimate in mobile investing. become a better investor at e-trade. really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... [ man ] there's never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn't it? but that won't happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline, anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn't traveling hard enough? ow! [ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? uh, it's ok. i've played a pilot before.

charles ferguson enraged us all telling the true story about how large-scale criminality nearly crashed our economy, and those who did it remain unpublished. the book is "inside job on steroids." ever since the 1980s, ferguson writes much of the financial sector has been krimallized, and i quote:

joining me now is oscar- winning director of "inside job" and author of "predator nation," charles ferguson. which i think is important in terms of understanding how you can in fact understand so well and expertly what goes on annual street. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> and please if you haven't seen the movie, see it. this new book one of the things you go into here as well as in "inside job" is how academia has been taken over. >> yes, many people who saw the film found that to be the most shocking thing. starting about 30 years ago the same important companies and industries that have put so much money into the political system also began putting money into the academic system in effect

buying prominent academics as consultants, members of the board of directors and this has had a serious effect. >> explain where that matters. where does -- i completely agree with you, and i said harvard should go through an crisis because they were essentially bought, but why does that matter? how does that help business effectuate its policies? >> well we look to the economic discipline and law schools and business schools public policy schools for objective, impartial expert advice about how to manage this country and what are appropriate policies with regard to the financial system and other parts of the economy? and it turns out that now very high fraction of the time, if you see a prominent economist testifying in congress or

writing an op-ed article in the "new york times" or speaking in the media, there's a very high probability that that person is being very well paid by somebody with a big stake in the outcome. >> it's almost as though the doctors who tell us what drugs to take have been on the payroll of big pharma and we haven't known it. >> that's exactly what it is like. >> we look to academia to validate what we'll being told and to define the parameters of our political discourse, and for years we had those saying yes tax cuts will create jobs. folks saying that were being paid by big business. >> yes, and they also were saying you can and should deregulate the economy and the financial system because these anies and these industries will take care of themselves. >> and that -- that was a burr under my saddle and i waged that battle with so many academics

and then you say for whom are they consulting? you realized so much of their revenues actually came from the companies that would benefit from the advice they were giving. >> yes. >> this is one theme that runs "predator nation," which is a brilliant book. you just kind of get enveloped by it. what with question do to turn harvard business school and others into more neutral arbitrators? >> i hope this book will have an effect in this that regard. we can insist that universities have the same time of disclosure and conflict of interest requirements that we expect of youralists. if you work and write for the "new york times," you can't make money from the people you write about. >> right. >> and we need to get rules like

that back into academia. >> and if doctors were weighing in on the appropriateness of prescribing certain medications you would want to know who is paying them. the lack of knowledge that we are denied or the information we are deny sod we can critique the advice we are being given is what we need to know about the academics, doesn't it? >> yes, that's absolutely right. i think we should go further. i think we should place elements on the amount of outside income that professors can have. if they want to start a company or write a mystery novel fine. but if they are experts on finance, they shouldn't be allowed to take large amounts of money from banks. >> the role that capital and those who control capital has

played has become a sen central point in this campaign. you were an entrepreneur you started a company, did extraordinarily well and proven yourself so adept in so many areas, do you think that is fair game for discourse and are they painting bain in inappropriate or appropriate light? >> i think it is totally fair game for discourse. and i don't know as much as i ought to what mitt romney did when he was at bain capital. but for the book and the film i looked at the private equity industry. and in many ways it is a quite unsavory industry. and it's profits depend primarily on legal loopholes and subsidies. >> so it is not as though these investments would necessarily be that effective on a neutral playing field. we have to stop there. we are going to