number four, so number 1, energy. number two, the skills we need to succeed. number three, trade. number four, this is an important one as well. you're not going to have entrepreneur -- >> welcome, i'm neil cavuto. you are looking live at mitt romney addressing supporters in powell, ohio, wrapping up remarks just after vice presidential candidate paul ryan did, a state in which the gop ticket is dead even with the democratic ticket of the president and joe biden. this coming at the same time we're seeing a storm barreling down on florida. we're going to have the latest on that storm, the latest on the convention plans and the very latest on this gentleman and how he is preparing for all of that. now back to mitt romney in ohio. >> welcome. we never know when speeches are going to pop up. so we took that. >> there is one more.

that is number five, champion small business. help small business. help entrepreneurs. help innovators. [ cheers and applause ] look, big businesses are able to accommodate in some cases all the regulations that get thrown on them because they have all the lawyers and the scale. they can even sometimes handle the big tax rate, highest taxes in the world on corporations here because they have businesses all over the world, big companies like ge as you saw, paid no tax a year or two ago. that's because of all the operations they have around the world. but if you're in a small business, if you're in a dry cleaning operation or starting a taxi business or you got a small software company, let me tell you, those regulations and those taxes are crushing the small business. the president wants to raise the tax on small business from 35% to 40%. that's the income tax. by the time you pay the state tax, which is just a little under 6% and then you pay sales tax and gasoline tax and real estate tax, you find out that

the government is taking well more than half of what you make. so people decide, i'm not going to begin my business. that's why we're at a 30-year low in this country for new business start-ups. i want to make sure that we help entrepreneurs and innovators. i want to speak to the women of america who have dreams, who begin businesses in their homes, who begin businesses out in the marketplace, who are work at various enterprises and companies. i want you to be successful. our campaign is about making it easier for entrepreneurs, women and men, to start businesses, to grow businesses. we will champion small business because we know that's where our jobs come from. we know that if we get this economy going with energy that's abundant, by getting the skills people need, by opening up new trade and cracking down on cheaters, by finally getting us to a balanced budget and being a real champion of small business, america is going to surprise the world. we're going to stand out as a shining city on the hill in part because of our extraordinary

economy! [ cheers and applause ] this is a choice. >> usa! usa! usa! usa! >> this is a choice. paul began by saying this is a vote about the soul of america. what kind of america are we going to have? we have laid out an america that's based upon the skill, the capacity, the dream of each individual and a government that protects their rights and encourages them to be able to realize those dreams. that's our vision. the president's vision is one of a larger and larger government, taking more and more and trying to provide more examine more to you. it takes us down a road to europe, or worse, california. just kidding about that. sort of. [ laughter ] i don't want to become europe. i want america to remain america. the hope of the earth, the

shining city on the hill. we know how to do that and we'll bring it back. we know how critical it is. look, this is important not just for us, for our generation. it's critical for our kids. we can't pass on trillions of dollars of debt to the coming generation, for things we paid for for ourselves. we can't do it! i know the president's going to go to that convention. he's going to have all sorts of marvelous things to say. i can almost read his speech now. it will just be filled with promises and tell people how wonderful things are. of course, they'll have to contrast that with what they know they're experiencing. as he lays out all these wonderful things he's going to do, people are going to stop and say, but how are you going to do something different than last time? they've experienced the last four years. they know if they reelect him, they'll get four more years of the same. it is not his words that people have to listen to. it is his action and his record and if they look at that, they'll take him out of the office and put people into the

office ho will actual lea get america going again! [ cheers and applause ] so paul and i, we made our commitment to you. with every source of our energy and passion and becoming president and vice president, we will endeavor to make america stronger. we'll endeavor to protect our freedoms and our rights, to encourage the dreams of individuals. we'll do our very best with all of our energy to assure that america is stronger, stronger in our homes, stronger in our values, stronger in our economy, stronger in our military, a military from america must be so strong, no one would ever think of testing it! [ cheers and applause ] i love this country. i love what it stands for. we are unique in the history of the earth because of our founding documents and our

commitment to freedom. we're going to bring america back by reasserting and reaffirming and restoring those principles. we're not going to become europe. we're going to stay america. we're going to remain the shining city on the hill and ohio is going to help us win the white house! thank you so much! thank you! ♪ footloose ♪ . >> you have been watching team romney-ryan making a big pitch before the republican convention in the battle ground state of ohio. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto coming to you live for a very person cost of freedom where politic, where storms, where big developments that accompany called apple perhaps getting to be richer than it already is. all of this happening all at the same time and there is even more signs of rancor within the democratic party over the comments of joe biden, now two weeks ago. we've got florida congressman allen west with us on what he makes of this race and

particularly what's going ton in that battle ground state of ohio. we'll get to your state, florida, soon, congressman. but in ohio, it's almost dead even. what do you make of the pitch that this team is making before coming to tampa? >> i think their pitch is about what the fundamental values should be of this country, especially fundamental economic values. we have to once again have tax and regulatory policies and access to capital policies to say that the united states of america is open for business, for our small businesses, as well as for our corporations and businesses. that's not what we're seeing here from this administration. when you talk about raising taxes on just those top tax brackets, right now 33%, it will go to about 36, 37%, and the 35% bracket that will go to 39.6%, that affects your small business owners. when you put on top of that the things that are coming from the health care law, such as fines if you grow your business above 50 employees, we're not promoting their success. we're not promoting the expansion and the growth and the

start-ups of small businesses. when you look at what you will get if you just increase the taxes on those top two brackets, it's only about $85 billion per year. with the spending frenzy that you well know we have in washington, d.c., that only funds the government for about ten days. so it's just a political gimmick. this whole thing about raising taxes does not do anything for this country at this point in time when our gdp growth in the second quarter was 1.5%. that's anemic. when you compare this to where ronald reagan was back coming out of that recession, he was at 7.1% gdp growth. it's all about the right tax and regulatory policies. they know that in ohio. we know that down here in florida as well. >> congressman, you mentioned the statistics and the numbers and economic argument for republicans very well, as does governor romney and paul ryan of the the thing that the? the proverbial likeability. we hear about that. i often think too much. but it must explain why the

president is even despite all these economic concerns and the issues raised because on that score, americans favor him, polls indicate, two to one. more likeable guy. does mitt romney have to make a case on that front next week? >> of course he does. i think that it's very important that he introduces himself to america and defines himself. let's be very honest and let's put in a different way, if you're feeding a person a crap sandwich with a smile, it's still a crap sandwich. i think that's what you see coming from president obama. he fed america just a load of you know what and it is not done anything for this country than increasing our unemployment, increasing americans in poverty, increasing the food stamp rolls, and we're heading in the wrong direction. when you look at the budget that they produces and talks about a balanced approach, raising $1.9 trillion of new taxes, but never balances. as a matter of fact, all it goes to is 53% growth of the federal

government. so i think it is very important that we win the image war. there is no doubt about that. the personality, the persona. you have to define i couldn't have yourself. but you have to stay on message, on track because the american people are suffering under these failed economic policy. >> do you think, this is always -- that this ticket needs to get badly out of this convention, typically it could be five points or so in the polls because of the proximity of the next convention? it's no more do they have the wind behind their back, we hope not literally with the storm, than the next convention. so he needs to score a poll gain very quickly and it's got to be substantial. do you agree with that? >> yeah. if you want to put it in a baseball terminology, you got to go deep center field out of the park, hit a grand slam because you want so much momentum that you do overshadow the democratic convention in charlotte which if it's going to focus on war on women and social issues, that's

not what american people are talking about at their tables. they're not talking about mitt romney's tax returns. they're not talking about working at bain capital. they're talking about how do they survive. when you look at the simple fact that on inauguration day, gasoline prices in america were 1.84 on average. now we have gasoline prices closer again to 3.71. those are the simple type of things we have to be able to articulate with the right type of image and say, look, this is the vision that we have for our country, to make us once again get us to grow energy independent, develop the full spectrum of our energy resources, to once again talk about individual sovereignty and industrialism, which promotes the entrepreneurial spirit that made this country what it is in 236 years. that's the important thing that we have to articulate so that we get way ahead of the democrats because they don't have a message. it's all failing. it's liberal progressive socialism that they're prying to promote is really taking this

country into a doll drum. we haven't even talked about our national security. >> congressman, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> carl cameron with the romney and ryan. i heard a little of you didn't build that pitch. i also heard about the economic argument that congressman just raised. is it registering? in that state, the polls look even. >> absolutely it is. there is no real doubt, lots of polls that indicate that since paul ryan joined the ticket, mitt romney has closed the gap in some of these battle ground states. the race between barak obama and mitt romney is essentially been tied in the polls for a year and a half. almost never, in fact never, has the gallup poll gap between barak obama and mitt romney been more than seven points. it's been that close the entire time. so ryan has a lot of enthusiasm. one of the things we saw today, paul ryan opened up the speech and he got the crowd going immediately with do you want

four more years of a weak economy? do you want four more years of unemployment at 8%? et cetera. and the crowd synchronized, screaming of no, over and over and over again. then a few minutes later, my mitt came and repeated virtually the exact same lines and got louder applause. it's a testament, it's direct illustration of why the romney campaign, having picked ryan for the team initially said look, we're not going to campaign with him until the convention. but today is the fourth time they've reunited since the ticket was unveiled 2 1/2 weeks ago. they really see a lot of bounce from ryan. they're going to take it into the convention now. they're trying to build up all the hype for it. that's really what this week has been about, the economic message, preparing for the convention next week, neil. >> all right. thank you very much. carl cameron in ohio. isaac is moving in and now workers on a lot of those oil platforms of the gulf are moving out. are those prices at the pump about to move way up? after this.

s. >> neil: hurricane warning in effect for not just the florida keys, but it could cover a wider area. parts of the state's southwest coast as isaac barrels toward the u.s. maria molina with the latest on its track. >> hey, good morning. we are looking at those hurricane warnings in effect across the florida keys and also across southwestern parts of the state of florida. we could see a storm surge of five to seven feet above normal tide levels as the storm system begins to approach that area as we head into tomorrow and into early tuesday morning. right now the center of the storm system has exited haiti where it could dump up to 20 inches of rainfall, still producing tropical storm force winds across haiti now. and the center is 95 miles to the southeast of cuba. it's just a very large storm system where tropical storm force winds extends up to 230 miles out of the center of

the storm. it's important not to just focus on where the center of the store will move over. but you'll see some of the tropical storm conditions further off toward the west. we also have a hurricane watch in effect for the miami area and areas south of that. otherwise a lot of heavy rain, up to ten inches or more across parts of south florida and also florida panhandle. >> neil: thank you very much. evacuations are underway in the gulf of the a lot of oil companies telling their employees to get out. five major producers clearing platforms. former shell oil president says drivers should be taking note. this does have a psychological hit right away, right, on the knee jerk reaction as prices go up. they have gone up. how long do you think that lasts? >> well, it depends on the severity of the storm. fortunate lyrics the companies have a very orderly process to safely shut down the wells, take care of their staff, and leave

the facility in a way in which they can start it up again provided there is no damage as quickly as possible when the storm passes. but you're right, there is a psychological impact because people have known in the past that with a storm and damage from that storm, the infrastructure that supports oil and oil products all the way up the east coast, from the gulf of mexico, really to washington, d.c., that infrastructure is quite vulnerable to the supply source. so people tend to, in worrying about a storm as they should, fill up their tank, and as they fill up their tank and they continue to drive normally, you'll see prices go up and as those prices go up, people rush out to buy more before the price goes up further. so what we do is we feed the fear and anxiety, even when there may be no damage. we don't know that yet. but if there is damage, then it gets even worse. then you get all kinds of spot shortages, even higher spikes in gas prices. again, the system feeds on

itself. so what we need is really people to understand the situation. but we also need a more redundant, more robust, more continent system of oil products throughout the country. >> neil: now, before this storm we had oil prices running up, gas prices running up after we had a period of them going back down. which is accurate? what's happened over the last 30 days, what happened to 30 days prior when they were going down? what do you think will be the case for the remainder of the year? >> well, as we get out of the peak driving season, which is the summer, and as people return to their normal lives in the fall, school and football and the other things that we all do, there is still this ongoing demand for continued supplies of oil. if people are worried about whether those supplies are really robust, they're going to see continued upward pressure on

prices. don't write off the fact that china is having a slower growth year. they're still selling new cars. the same with india. the whole world suffers declines in the production of oil every day. that happens every day. so we need new oil. so when you don't have a plan for the world's largest economy, when the administration has ignored the advice of experts for the last five years, even before they were elected, they ignored the advice, you get what you get. americans will pay more for gasoline this year than ever in their history thanks to the lack of concern about where our future energy is coming from. >> neil: we'll watch closely. thank you very much. meantime, no go joe, the obama campaign says the vice president, joe biden, and his tampa trip is off because isaac is barreling down. but is that the real reason? >> the vice president said and he's going to put y'all in chains.

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>> neil: republicans might be dodging a big storm when they kick things off on monday, but that doesn't mean samsung will. did you hear what apple did to them last night? they won a billion dollars judgment against them last night. that is how much a federal court jury demanded samsung pay apple for essentially ripping off apple. at least when it comes to the look and teal of iphone and ipad devices? some of samsung's own tablets and phones. that would be a huge win for apple if it stands and on monday, potentially a huge boost for its already soaring stock.

one that effectively doubled over the last year. and in case you're counting, it's grown more than six fold since the financial sector melt down four years ago. by comparison, we did the math, if the dow were to have done the same exact thing, it would be north of 40,000 today. news flash. it's not. we're going to keep an eye on all of this from tampa. one wing we won't keep an eye on is joe. he was supposed to crash the party, but apparently isaac is getting in the way. so joe is staying out of the way. but is it coming because of his controversial remark not going away? >> the vice president said, and he's going to put y'all in chains. was he talking about slavery? you bet your (bleep) he was. was he using a vernacular? yes, he was. did he think it was cute because they were in new york? yes, he did. was it something stupid to say? you bet your life it was stupid.

and it is something that if a black had said it, we would have been laughing because we would know that they may be beating the hell out of us, but they wouldn't think about putting us in any chains. >> neil: congressman charlie rangel, the latest democrat to slam joe biden's remark. former democratic governor of virginia, doug wilder was the first. he joins me now. good to have you back. thank you for coming in on a saturday. >> always good. thank you. >> neil: what did you think of charlie rangel's comments? >> well, charlie is always going to say things his own way, but i was more intrigued by what you said relative to the dropping in on the convention that invited the vice president to take the shots or call for shots. that's been revised. but one of the things that i think you've been speaking of on a regular basis, and i think the american people want to hear more of it. and that is the money problems

of this nation, the economy, and how do we get it together. which ever of these parties and candidates comes to address that, and not to assume the people are stupid, not to stomach they're fools, not to assume they don't understand prices of gas, joblessness, and other things that are affecting them, if they continue to believe they can feed them the pablum of we're the good guy, they're the bad guys, the nation suffers. >> neil: is this ticket suffering because of joe biden? >> well, it didn't just start. i don't think it's suffering because of biden. i don't think biden brings that which you would like to had with the ticket mate. that didn't just start. you know that. there is no need to keep beating up on him, as i said before when i was on your show and other shows, that the president needs positiveness. no party is going to be able to

resolve the problems of this nation by itself. we've got to work together. we've got to come together. we've got to resolve our differences. people are saying, well, we need to talk about what clinton did. what did clinton do? clinton worked with the republicans! to say, how can we get welfare reform, to get some of the things we can do to balance the budget and to reduce the cost of government. he couldn't do it by himself. that's one of the things that this ticket suffers from. not having someone to be able to reach out across the aisle and bring some degree of cooperation. >> neil: governor, i know you're always a modest man. you're a former governor and an average citizen now. but obviously when you mention the comments did you on your first appearance with me, it resonated, became a dominating subject the next day in the white house. press briefing. it got a lot of