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fixodent and forget it. >> in his weekly address today. president obama took on partisan gridlock in washington. some are seeing it as a strategy to put himself on the side of the public, the people in a deeply unpopular

congress. in a new fox poll, 33% of voters are hopeful about the direction of the country. 64% are not. is this part of the president's 25012 campaign strategy and should it be? doug schoen, former bill clinton pollster and a fox news contributor and david president of go-pac. good to see both of you gentlemen. >> good to see you, jamie. >> jamie: doug, preying on the fact that folks are not hopeful or happy. and is that the president's best and winning strategy? >> i think it's part of the overall strategy. he's going to decry partisanship all the while attacking the republican congress for effectively blocking his program and blaming george w. bush for getting us in the mess we're all in today. so, i think it's basically a deflect strategy and also, suggests that he had ideas that if only the republicans didn't block the country would be in better shape. >> before i go to david, which

policies specifically would he say he wants to place, he got health care. >> sure he got health care and didn't get the deficit reduction package and didn't get the overall reforms and most of all tax increases that he wanted and it may not be popular, but his point is if we'd done balanced deficit reduction in extending the debt limit. i think his argument, we wouldn't have been downgraded by s & p and we'd be a more happy and nation. >> jamie: thank you, david role will the increase limit. downgrade. job situation play for the republican party? >> well, it highlights the failed leadership of president obama. you know, this strategy that we're talking about here reminds me of homer simpson quote teamwork is essential if it allowses you to blame someone else.

this president loves to blame others for essentially his failure in leadership and his ideas that aren't creating jobs and giving consumers confident and making the s & p for the first too many to downgrade our credit worthiness. these are policies under barack obama and when voters who want to like this president. they still want to like this president. the problem is, he doesn't give them any reason to say he's doing a good job. and when they go to the polls in 2012, ultimately they're going to have to decide is this a guy that can get us out of the economic doldrums that we're in and the reality is, he can't. >> jamie: doug, you're a pollster and a democrat. with the percentage numbers that we're seeing of disapproval of the job the president is doing. would you classify them as dismal, disappointing, where do they go from here? >> somewhere between dismal and disappointing. and the bottom line is, the president doesn't have a strong enough record to run on, on his own, so he's got to blame the republicans, he's got to make the case that it

isn't his falt and those polls that you were citing, people don't blame him. he's playing off those, and outline as he did in michigan his ideas for job creation, and hope that's enough for the 47, 48% approval to get him over the finish line with a victory. >> jamie: david, how specific do the g.o.p. candidates now that the race is expanded somewhat, how specifically do they have to be about how they will do all of this better? >> well, republicans are by and large going to agree that of the general recipe. look, what we have to do is we have to make sure that small business owners and those who create jobs have confidence, that this economy and the government is going to stabilize in their policies so they can create jobs, which means keeping taxes low, getting, spending under control. and look, here is part of the problem for the president. in running in a strategy that blames congress, we have to keep in mind.

half of congress is controlled by the democrats, and so, for all of those u.s. senators, bennell sons and clare mccast cals and the debby stabenows, they're going to have to run in an environment where the president is saying, look, it's those guys that are the problem. you need to get rid of them and here they are trying to win reelection. it's a divisive strategy and almost laughable that this president talks about a new washington and getting rid of partisanship when he, his rhetoric is some of the most partisan divisive rhetoric we've heard out of the white house in decades. >> doug, 15 seconds, got to let you respond. >> what the president is doing, attacking the republicans for excess partisanship, being partisan when necessary and preaching unity when appropriate. it's a tough strategy, but at this point he's in the lead so it's at least partially working. >> jamie: and an incumbent. we'll be watching closely, obviously. thank you, gentlemen. good to see you today. >> thank you, jamie.

you don't have to miss one minute of the iowa straw poll. because our coverage is continuing throughout the day and we're monitoring everything and keep you updated and including later on, bret baier is coming in taking over at 5 p.m. eastern, a special installment of special report, live from ames. he's followed by huckabee, they are live, also, the governor at 8 p.m. eastern and then hannity, sean hannity, he is also in ames, that's live at 9 p.m. and keep it here on fox news channel for all the excitement in ames, iowa. kelly. >> kelly: certainly a lot going on and pakistan, kidnapping of an american in that country is raising new concerns about islamabad's ability to end radicalism there. at least eight gunmen stormed past security this morning and ab subjected warren weinstein from his home in the eastern city. and the u.s. pledges billions to help pakistan grapple with islamic militants and prevent incidents like these from occurring. is that all of that aid

actually making a difference? a former state kept senior advisor and principal joins us now to shed light on what possibly is unfolding in pakistan and christian, as we know, first of all, it's good to have you. as we know, the situation in pakistan is very, very tense and u.s. citizens are in harm's way. and in this particular situation, we understand that these guards actually offered the-- his guards, rather, the people who overpower them actually offer the guards some food that they would have occasionally before ramadan. with that, they had some of the guys go in the back and then abduct this man from his home. what do you say of this? >> well, it's another reminder, as if we needed one, that pakistan, which is really america's most dangerous allies, also a very dangerous place for individual americans, and workers, it's unclear at this point if mr. weinstein was kidnapped for political reasons, ie, by terrorists who want to make a political point or by bandits

who just want to make some moan or a combination of the two, but clearly, another sad development in what has been a long and sad relationship between pakistan and the u.s., and it looks like mr. weinstein was doing some good work, he was trying to help the people, trying to create the middle class jobs, but frankly, you know, if you look at our overall aid, it clearly is not doing the things it's intended to do in pakistan. >> yeah, what you're talking about with mr. weinstein was actually there to happen, it just happened to be there to actually help with the development in microfinance small and medium sized business development and help build that middle class there, but our relationship with pakistan seems to be on the decline, has been on the decline. how do we wrestle that and get it back and protect our citizens who are there to help the pakistanis move forward? >> it's been unclear at this point if we can, i think, because there's really not will on the part of the government of pakistan. perhaps the people of pakistan have that desire, but look at

recent activities and this is the last in a long stream of negative development and the biggest that we caught america's number one enemy within the borders of pakistan and disagreement as to how much the pakistani government knew and the instinct of the american people at that they knew enough i think is correct and that factor combined with the fact that you can't coordinate our foorn aid with any developments in pakistan should call for a fundamental rethink of our approach. >> quickly, christian, you're talking about the killing of osama bin laden, the ahead of al-qaeda and remazed by al zawahiri, the number two guy, now number one and he's already put out a threat to u.s. citizens living abroad and calls them western targets, soft targets. i don't want to really raise any suspicion that al-qaeda has something to do with this, since they haven't claimed anything, but that alone should be ominous for people living in pakistan. >> that's right. and you know, i think it goes to show that frankly, you have president obama saying the

tide of war is receding, but again, that message never made it to the terrorists. you have this broad islamic, islamist political movement and pakistan is part of it, so is iran and we've used the u.s. military i think very well to attack and control the end stages of this when the terrorists actually take the fight to us. we still haven't addressed the intake of that political movement. part of it might include creating middle class jobs in places like pakistan and mr. weinstein was probably doing a good job of that. all in all, u.s. aid funds more corruption and things like that. >> we thank you for your insight and wish we had more time to talk about pakistan, afghanistan and relationship going on over there. thank you for joining us and shedding insight on this story. jamie. >> jamie: voting is going on right now in the iowa straw poll. $30 all it takes to get your vote cast. the candidates are still stumping though, tim pawlenty is going to be taking the mic and we'll bring that to you

live. also, a navy destroyer, sanction to the bottom of the ocean, not tragic though. part of the plan. we are going to have a live report on a new tact for the u.s.s. bradford.

>> the u.s.s. bradford, might be retired, but the work isn't over yet. deliberately sinking 28 miles off the coast of delaware and has a new and final mission. julie banderas. >> eight years to plan the sinking of the destroyer as the environmental reef program. in three hours, gone. 130 feet below the waters of the coast of new jersey, delaware and maryland after

they allowed water to begin the flooding process and radford quickly and quietly beneath the surface in less than one minute, a few water spouts and then disappeared, setting off applause and years, aimed for the chief of staff under eisenhower. it spent 26 years in active service beginning in 1977 and traveled the world to places like panama and oman and beirut in the first gulf war and ex-crew members are happy they weren't scrapped, but seeing her go was bittersweet. >> and sad to see her go in this way, in the way, but it's also glad to see her go, now i know i'm not going to be drinking out of pepsi cans made out of her. >> it's interesting that we're here to watch her be sunk when we spent so many months making

sure that she wasn't sunk in other ways, but, she now has a early continuing. >> and in total the project cost almost 1 million dollars and 14 months for the whole structure that floated before the sailors. >> julie, thanks so much. survived through rain, sleet or snow and looks like the postal service may be on the ropes, why one of america's oldest you gos. >> kelly:s is facing serious guts that could bring some big changes to post offices around the country. ♪ . [ gnome ] ahh... [ male announcer ] this is what it's like

getting an amazing discount on a hotel with travelocity's top secret hotels. the easy way to get unpublished discounts of up to 55% off top hotels. harpist not included. ♪

. . >> jamie: fox news alert.

let's get you right bab to ames, iowa. presidential hopeful tim pawlenty at the mic. >> signed the economic recovery act into law. and it ignited in that time of challenge for our country massive revenue growth, massive job growth. massive economic opportunity for the american people, and as we face similar challenges today, we know what to do, don't we? >> yeah! we know what america needs, but unfortunately, barack obama has absolutely no clue. he is like a manure spreader in a wind storm. (cheer (cheers) >> about hour years ago, barack obama came through iowa and convinced the democrats of this great state to catapult him toward the white house and

they did. but today's the day that republicans in iowa, independents in iowa and conservatives across this country send the message that barack obama's got to go. [applaus [applause] >> he's been talking a lot about the full faith and credit of america's debt and barack obama should put his full faith and credit in the american people. [applause]. now, the way forward may not be easy, but it's not complex. and as we look over the history of this great nation, we know what works. we can see the lessons of america's greatness and bring them forward to the challenges of our time. and here they are.

and let's be a nation that puts its trust in god, first and foremost. [applaus [applause]. >> number two we know that, don't we, we can't expend mother than we take in. [applause] >> and we also know as we watch him going across the world, apologizing for america, desighing or ignoring america's exceptionalism that we need to make sure that the president, and when i'm president i'll do it, we will maintain the peace by maintaining our strength. [applause]. we're going to send a message from iowa here today all across this great country and it's what we hear as i travel the country from hard working and concerned americans who are experiencing the heavy

handed economic results of barack obama, the message for him today from us and from all across this country, is mr. president, get the government off our backs! [applaus [applause] >> let's get a start on that agenda, first, mr. president, repeal obama care. (cheers) >> number two, mr. president, please come before the country and tell us why you upold a constitutional amendment to balance the suggestive. we want it, the country deserves it and you should support it. >> jamie: governor tim pawlenty is the third speaker there in ames, iowa and there are three more to go. you will hear from congresswoman michele bachmann who will be taking the stage later this afternoon,

congressman thaddeus mccotter also on the straw poll, and herman cain, the businessman who says he's the best choice because he is a businessman and hasn't been to washington. you'll get to hear what everyone has to say. that's coming up because we have continuous coverage, kelly not just you and me for the last two hours. >> kelly: when we look at it almost like batter up, who is next and of course the iowa straw poll has a winning effect and you were hearing from governor tim pawlenty, former go rn from minnesota. has a lot at stake and not lose some funding that he's seen as he moves ahead. >> jamie: keep it right on fox and also go to foxnews.com, but we have more coverage coming up be up. rick fulbaum and heather childress. >> you're in good hands on fox.

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>> heather: fox news alert. first test of the 2012 presidential race is underway right now. you are looking at pictures of the straw poll gioms on in is ames, iowa a major proving ground for republican candidates. good afternoon. i'm heather childers. >> rick: i'm rick folbaum. gop hopefuls have been crisscrossing the state for weeks trying to make their case and now it's time to find out who might be the heavyweight in the battle for the gop nod