yard in search for fresh water and food. gretchen carlson joins us. >> gretchen: lot was vowels. lay away? >> she's always so great at this. >> gretchen: i am a shopper. >> thank you, gretchen, have a great show. "fox and friends" starts right now. see you later. ♪ >> gretchen: we do start right now. it is september 5th, 2012. i am gretchen carlson live in charlotte. the democrats went on the attack last night. will they are better luck talking about mitt romney instead of their record. >> steve: the democrats don't have a debt clock on the convention floor.

this is why. the united states pushing that 16 trillion mark yesterday. what does that mean for a president who wants a second term. we'll discuss and dismiss the debt like they do. chris christy said what is wrong with washington? well nancy pelosi. >> she is part of the problem. it is true. listen, any of the leaders are up there if they are not trying to make a difference. >> brian: chris christy sounded off and sang a bit with jimmie fallon. we'll bring it out because you were probably nodding off when he was talking to chris christie. all next for the 2012 election . ♪ ♪ "fox and friends".

>> >> gretchen: good morning. i needed that election surge to get me through hump day. i needed that election. thank you for making my day. >> brian: we are wednesday and two more days left of the convention and we'll know here until friday morning. yesterday it was clear, we need more time and we are off to a great start and need more time. >> steve: plus we might need more umbrellas. supper time, it was coming down. >> brian: i didn't notice that. >> gretchen: right. >> steve: apparently the united states will walk through the bank of america stadium right here in charlotte. >> brian: it is just a walk through. >> steve: no plans to move it elsewhere. in the words of dick from south carolina. if it work for woodstock.

>> gretchen: bring out the ponchos if you are planning to attend that. now for your headlines. extreme weather in new jersey. a rare funnel cloud caught on camera near belmar. strong wine and brought down large trees and power lines and several people saw it come down from the sky in a matter of seconds. >> everything was sucking away from you into the funnel itself. watching the leaves and debris go into it and sounded leak a train. >> it was a tornado because of the trees flying up in the sky where we were. >> gretchen: some homes were damaged and several thousand people in the dark. crews at work trying to clean up the mess. zero time. that's how many times the dnc platform mentioned the word god. it was mentioned one time in the 2008 sharp contrast for

the republicans who mentioned god. another part of the dnc platform failing to say that jerusalem is the capitol of israel. mitt romney called the slight shameful. debby wasserman-shultz said israel's ambassador to the united states accused israel dangerous. i categorically deny that. and bipartisan support is parra mount interest to both. talking about new jersey. chris christy joining jimmie fallon. and envoked a familiar thing about compromise when talking about nancy pelosi. >> she's a big part of the problem.

it is true. because -- listen, in any of the leaders are part of the problem if they are not trying to make a difference. you can't say we talk to each other and you are a leader, you have to make a difference. >> gretchen: governor christie ended a tribute to the man bruce springstein. ♪ >> gretchen: of course that is thunder road. governor christy, how many ringstein concerts has he been through? y >> brian: mantatory. >> steve: instead of pledge of allegiance they have produce. >> steve: they had tornado warnings. where are the flash lights again? i told her where they were. those are out of batteries.

>> brian: that's what went on in new jersey. >> steve: last night here in charlotte it was night one of the democrats. and as they kicked off the three-day convention last night was crafted to appeal to women hence the first lady and latinos hence the mayor of san antonio. >> brian: you had democrats embracing obama care and it is good and bringing up individual circumstances to say it saved me and i think it is a huge, huge risk. all of the polling numbers show in america it is not a popular program. it is major accomplishment for the president but the other theme was embrace government. >> gretchen: they say government is the only thing we all belong to. we will talk about that. one other name was front and center and somebody who is not

here. any guesses. mitt romney. >> simply women in america kent cannot trust mitt romney. >> if mitt was santa claus he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. mitt has so little economic patriotism even his money needs a passport. instead of investing america they hide their money in swiss bank accounts and ship our jobs to chin a. >> mitt romney was willing to turn his back on ohio. >> mitt romney talks about the things he fixed. i can tell you massachusetts was not one of them.

>> when it comes to getting the middle class back it work. mitt romney said no. when it come to respecting women's rights, mitt romney said no. mitt romney just doesn't get it. >> gretchen: i guess that is if you think it is all about contraception argument. that seems to be front and center there. women in general have a lot of other issues they think about when they cast their ballot. >> steve: yesterday it was all about abortion rights here. all over town. we just heard a variety of the democrats bad mouthing mitt romney. last night michele obama did not mention mitt romney's name. the first half of her speech could have been from a conservative because it is personal responsibility and

the second half about her husband and why shoohe should have the key to camp david four more years. >> so many people had a hand in our success. from the teachers who inspired us and the janitors who kept our school clean. barack refused to lits lis to folks who told him to leave health reform another day and another president. he didn't care whether it was easy to do politically. that's not how he was raised and i hear the determination in his voice he tells me. you will not believe what folks are going through. it is not right. we have to work to fix this and we have so much more to do. >> brian: i think she was strong. she was poise and delivered a great message and the delivers

the young family growing nup the white house and needs more time. i thought one thing everybody talked about the mayor of san antonio. julian castro and i think when he came out with his speech. yeah, i think he read marco rubio's speech and tried to do it i am a success story and i want to make it a success story for more than one american . one thing that struck me. when they made him they broke the mold. he looks like an identecal twin. >> steve: so where was obama's speech? they watched mom on television. they were up and watching. that photoprovided to us by the white house. >> gretchen: it is funny how time goes by. their oldest daughter is

starting high school. they started school yesterday and that's why they were not here. in the meantime a video played for the delegates in the time warner center and had a lot to do with government. this is an idea lodgical difference whether or not you vote democrats or republican. the government is the central theme. in the video it said this quote. can government is the only thing that we all belong to. >> brian: i tell you what, if that is indeed the case, you have a distinct opportunity on election day. it is not that they are saying the same thing. both parties seem to have blended. no. no one brought up the deficits and how much it costs and who will be paying for it. if you are a nice person, you will pay for everybody to have

everything want. >> gretchen: who is going to pay for it. it gives an message that you can get it for free. bottom line somebody is paying for it and that's the part of the message you didn't hear. >> steve: they will message it that we are all in it together. mitt romney was out there watching in tv land and he tweeted this regarding the government and democrats. we don't belong to government, the government belongs to us. >> brian: and then senator portman said let's get back to practicing. >> steve: something embarrassing for the democrats, the u.s. debt officially hit 16 trillion. last week the republicans had the debt clock up in tampa. they don't have a debt clock here. it surpassed $16 trillion.

somebody dug this up. 16 trillion dollars. how much money is that. you would have to spend $907,000 every hour since jesus christ was buried to accumulate 16 trillion to have that much money. >> gretchen: it is the year 2012. we will forge ahead. we are talking about mitt romney for not addressing afghanistan. what does the american veterans say about that. >> brian: sometimes the man in the solyndra scandal runs to the elevator away from the news media. ♪ ♪ it is by the light. ♪ she got down, but she never

thought she was going to make it through the night. ♪ she's going to make it -- >> live from the dnc elizabeth warren talks economic policy in the convention . former president bill clinton joins the party. -[ taste buds ] donuts, donuts! -who are these guys? -oh, that's just my buds. -bacon. -my taste buds. -[ taste buds ] donuts. how about we try this new kind of fiber one cereal? you think you're going to slip some fiber by us? okay. ♪ fiber one is gonna make you smile. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing new fiber one nutty clusters and almonds.

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time line where we have differences was opinion is political time tables for troop size . we feel the commander theater ought to have the resources in the fighting season to make sure the counter insurgency operations are done with the amount of - troops needed. to be done as safely as possible. >> gretchen: concerned veterans of america joins me on the stage. you were disappointed in romney/ryan in the plan. >> i don't like the fact we are sticking to a hard deadline. we'll not remove all troop in 20 14, but the minute you set the deadline you incent vise the enemy. the story of the outcome of afghanistan was writen a long time ago but base it on >> gretchen: you find it

interesting that romney and obama are not talking about afghanistan? >> it is politically complex and not popular. we have 80,000 troops fighting a war and you don't hear anything about it. i wish we . >> gretchen: an adfor by concerned it is ises mesh. >> we hit 16 trillion in debt and interest in our debt will exceed our defense budget and what washington doing about it? chop the defense budget rather than reforming entitlement programs. they have grown two and half times faster than the defense budget and that's what we need to talk about. >> gretchen: military cuts would come because that was part of sequestration. >> yes, the so-called super committee and gave us five

billion in automatic cuts. they don't address the debt and deficit. concerned vets say we have to reform government in the department and enment programs that. is driving the future debt and deficits . most debt was accrued under president obama. we'll have an adult conversation and not washingtonesque. >> gretchen: we'll look at the difference between defense and entitle spending. entitlements 2.2 trillion . defense 700 billion. and your analysis as a former vet and looking at it from an economic perspective is what? >> you balance the budget on the back of the defense. you cut 700 billion that is one-half of one year's deficit . you can reform but it is medicare and med cad and

social security. you don't tackle and take them on. you will not fix the trim lines. >> gretchen: always good to get your perspective. you heard it over and over from the president pay your fair share . now newark corey booker piling on saying it is not class warfare, it is patriotic. what do you think? start your engines. we are live in the nascar hall of fame . ready to take on brian, who will win this one? ♪ ♪ on the highway to hell. ♪ on the highway to hell. ♪ highway to hell. [ mother ] you can't leave the table

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>> steve: taxpayer in massachusetts are footing the bill for a murderer's sex change. the federal judge rule nothing favor of his case. he lived as a woman in prison since killing his wife. the surgery could cost $20,000 . a warning if you use apple products. 20 million id's may have been stolen. they swiped it from an f.b.i. laptop. the f.b.i. said that is absolutely false. right now over to the pit crew. >> brian: my blackberry is looking better every day. folks here in nascar have been wonderful hosts. they gave us the keys to the car in the charlotte motor speed way. they are here with more.

>> my home town is known near a lot of things. banking being one of nascar another. i think the latter is more sexier. i headed to the talk to the president and ceo smith. and take a car for a spin, let's take a look. ♪ it is a six billion dollar industry annually? >> it is. when you have such a big industry and sport like nascar and every race team is right arowd the charlotte region we have over 20,000 people who call nascar their job. >> talk about the dnc coming here. >> i had "fox and friends" on this morning, it was cool to see live from charlotte, north carolina. charlotte is a fantastic city and i look forward to seeing

everybody back here for a race. >> i have a need for speed. can you help me out. >> we have a car waiting for you. >> can you sign this for me. >> signing my life away. ♪ that is back ward. ♪ this is like halloween but better. ? no. we are doing this, too? oh, my gosh. trend sitter. here we go baby. what is the proper technique on getting in one of these boys? squeeze. precious cargo here. can i get out of here please?

wow. note ♪ ♪ well, the good news is, i didn't lose my lunchh. this is a driving. >> don't go in first and don't wait the green before you leave and left foot brake. >> who is racing me. >> i am on the clock but how about this guy? ♪ kilmeade? keeiman. >> where duget that suit. >> brian: i am official. shake and bake. >> shake and bake. >> brian: what did that do,

did that blow your mind? >> what is this bad girl turn? ♪ (road noise) >> steve: and who is the winner? >> ding, ding, ding. >> brian: she beat me. >> i almost wimped out. i was i little bit nervous. >> brian: she averaged 89 miles per hour and i was 75 miles per hour. she played possum and complaining it was too wet and i am saying to myself . i will make it close. and she comes out 190 miles per hour and slowed down in the end. >> i thought he was playing a joke and i was like want a

rematch? >> gretchen: usually he cheats. >> brian: i was willing to cheat but it was too quick. >> steve: but mother nature said you are not going to go fast today and they brought out the jet engine. >> right. they were squeeze edging the concrete. i was nervous. the guy was like i would trust my wife. >> brian: turns out he was single. she beat me fair and square . thanks to greg bivele who let us borrow the fire suit. >> gretchen: got that off your bucket list. coming up next, she stole the show in the dnc and didn't say a word. how san antonio's mayor's daughter upstaged her dad. >> steve: he lost half pillion of your money and why is the man in the solyndra scandal

getting the red carpet in the dnc. we have the answers, kind of. >> brian: bob newhart is now 83. ♪ ♪ one fine day. ♪ ♪ oh, yeah. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] you can always measure the growth of your children by the way they clean themselves in the bathroom. try charmin ultra strong. with a new duraclean texture, charmin ultra strong helps you get clean. plus it's four times stronger than the leading value brand. and you can use up to four times less. good news for even the biggest kids in the family. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra strong? a body at rest tends to stay at rest...

while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis sympto. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benets with theisks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease risk factors suh as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach a intestine problems, such as bleeding and cers, which can occur without warning and may cause death.

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based on this chart, who would you choose ? wow. you guys take a minute. verizon, hands down. i'm going to show you guys another chart. pretty obvious. i don't think color matters. pretty obvious. what's pretty obvious about it ? that verizon has the coverage. verizon. verizon. we're going to go to another chart. it doesn't really matter how you present it. it doesn't matter how you present it. verizon. more 4g lte coverage thaall other networks combined. >> now they are also having a special guest. you heard an inspirational speech from michele obama and

then bill clinton follow would by honey booboo. hone booboo. she's getting a lot of people talking about it? >> brian: people are pushing for betty white to bruce the president. >> gretchen: don't you just want to know what the actual people running for president have to say? >> steve: in a way. she is funny. could she be the clint eastwood counter? >> gretchen: someone else here was mayor corey booker. you know he's from newark new jersey. he came out and said attacks on private equity made him nauseated. he apparently changed his tune. he did that day. but he was talking about the whole fair share argument and along with strick land. listen to >> when yourr country is in a costly war

with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation is facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share, isn't class warfare it is patriotism. bark obama is an economic patriot. mitt romney is an outsourcing pioneer. >> steve: that is good to know. is it patriot i think to lose federal money after one failed green energy investment after another? so far to dates. 16 projects that received federally guaranteed loans. they wentble you up. >> brian: losing 69 million. and solyndra, 445 million

dollars . a1 123are being million . they didn't produce the jobs and they didn't forward the push for green energy. this is one of the big evaluate critisms of the president. he used the stimulus to foc ouson his own green agend a. take the stimulus idea and push for drilling. >> gretchen: one of those people who helped him with that the guy who was the former energy official in the solyndra disaster. he was here in the dnc. and received red carpet treatment and when the cameras were there and wanted to talk to them. he ran away from the cam ras. his name escapes me. he was one member that wrote the e-mail. we got to green light the solyndra as fast as we can. it is important to the president and vice-president. >> brian: you know you are

doing something bagged when you are going on the dnc in the obama reelection campaign. and by the way. the streets are clean where we stood . all of the sudden when abc came up with the cameras, he broke into a jog to get away. when you are jogging away from the press, you know you did something bad. >> you - on >> gretchen: you don't want to talk about it. a local reporter grilled president obama about the so-called terror kill list. the president's reaction may surprise you. >> the list of folks targeting for assassination have been u.s. citizens not afforded a trial like al-awlaki. how do you and any person utilize the power to assassinate u.s. citizens. >> you are basing it on reports on the news that are never confirm would by me and

i don't talk about our national security decisions in that way. >> gretchen: so the president neither confirming or denying the kill list. several of his cabinet members have spoken freely. it is believed that the white house leaked the information intentionally to make him look tougher on terror. >> steve: quickly moving to settle a lawsuit and alleging discrimination in the immigration and enforcement agent. the head of new york ice sued janet napolitano claiming he was passed over for a job that went to women and he was punished for complain suszanne barr made lewd comments to employees. she quit last week. >> brian: switching gears.

vermont man getting too close to nature. watch. wow. that say reality show i don't want to be on. a moose. he thought it was pretty and the moose was not buying it his opinion changed after the moose charged at him four separate times >> first charged me and i freeze frame he's almost stopping when i reacted. i was scared then. i was scared but it was still something i never seen before. >> brian: you have to hit them low. he was able to run inside and the moose kept charging on the front door. it was determined that the moose was sick and decided to

put it down. there is nothing worse than being run over by a sick moose. >> gretchen: how many times have the moosed at your door? >> not enough. >> she stole the show in the dnc and never open happened her mouth. this three year old daughter of san antonio mayor and key note peeker caught a glimpse of herself as her dad told the story about the first day of preschool. she flipped her hair and admired herself on the screen. >> brian: the president should have a kill list. the reason that reporter is alive because of a kill list. that guy who is an american citizen is not getting a trial. we don't kill him in yemen he

blose things up here. tell the families was fort hood. we shouldn't take him out in a drone strike. the president had every right to do that in my mind. >> gretchen: agine seeing your own obitary in florida and now taking his own condollence calls. >> brian: did you know the city's mayor of tampa is a democrat. he is live with us and pulling double duty . you are following us. >> great to see you. >> gretchen: we know each other. yeah. thank you. we'll ask you questions ♪ note ♪

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>> brian: tampa sits high in hosting the republican national convention and did you know that tampa's mayor is a democrat? >> steve: he's here in charlotte voting as a delegate in the democratic national convention. mayor bob buckhorn. good morning, bob. >> good to see you again. >> steve: you wanted tampa to be fantastic because you are the mayor well and same time you are in charlotte where your party is and you would like them to win. >> it is interesting. i foal like a tourist. my inclination is grab the police radio and take charge. >> steve: you can. >> charlotte is doing a wonderful job and we were proud of the event we host the fact we came out with any two arrests speaks volumes. >> brian: do you have a number yet on how much tampa profited from the rnc.

>> we think $150 million. long-term benefit and residuals will go in the tens of millions. you couldn't buy that for us anywhere. >> gretchen: you are coaching the police here in charlotte about some of the thing that is you learn friday your experience. can you tell us what you are telling them this week? >> they were embedded with us and what i would tell the may are on, you got to be flexible. and these events are fluid . protests are spontanous . deescalate the tension and you have to understand they want their moment in the lime light and they will do silly things and by and large if you give an opportunity and tel them clearly what they expect, by and large they react appropriately. >> steve: in tampa you had a larger frozen zone.

it is the area on lock down, it was gigantic around the tampa bay times forum. it is less restricted here. >> gretchen: it is indeed . i have seen the protestors get nose to nose, but that didn't happen in tampa >> chris: it happened a block from here. >> i watch today and we didn't allow this to happen. it was better. >> brian: mr. mayor, i thought about you. people say we got to help everybody. you are the one, mayors and governors saying where is the money for the programs? you can have a great objective if we tax too high people leave f. we discontinue and can't run in deficit. what are your thoughts when people talk about giving back? >> there is no give and waste. we can't kick the can down the road and push debt out.

i have to look in the eyes of my neighbors and folks that hired me. they expect mayor to do the job. if mayors ran the country, the country would be in better shape. we don't have time for the politics. our job is to get stuff done. >> gretchen: hewhat is your advice to president obama? >> he's ben official to us as mayors. those investment in infrastructure and investment in the road and bridges to a mayor makes a difference. if he continues down that path and stay away from the larger issues and i understand the controversy about you know, building your own business and all of that, but you know, for mayors, the president is good for us. >> brian: you can't say give me money and knowing that we are run nothing a deficit. he's not acting like a mayor. and giving you money. >> we couldn't have done

without it 50 million. but those investments create short-term yobs and long-term stability for us as mayors. i would suggest for a congress person to be a mayor a day and see what it takes. you as a mayor wouldn't be right writing the check. >> i wouldn't be spending beyond my means. >> steve: good to see you. >> gretchen: coming up on "fox and friends", democrats taking god out of the party platform and the top party leader can't explain why it happened. >> steve: dr. larry sabeto and the christal ball. >> gretchen: that is right. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of people are choosing advil® for their headaches.

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>> steve: we are only 62 days away from electing our next president and mitt romney is falling behind the race for the electoral votes. but larry said one way romney can win them back. dr. sabito who predicted every presidential election. nice to have you here. >> thank you. nice to be here. >> steve: for the folks who are watching. in the general election mitt romney is up and down, it is down to the electoral votes. you need the 270 to win. >> they built an organization over five years and those critical battle ground states and there is some that mitt romney has to have. there is no way to get florida without florida. >> steve: there is a number of toss up states. and you feel they are the most

important thing. >> out west nevada and colorado. in the midwest, it is iowa and ohio and wisconsin with the addition of paul ryan . midtick dick and south. virginia plus florida and new hampshire and that's it. that is where the electionn is. some people think michigan or pennsylvania but not yet. >> steve: karl rove talked about the 3, two, one. if you wind up with indiana and north karl color and must win florida florida or ohio. the bottom gray column win any one and mitt romney is president. do you buy karl's theory. >> as a theory that would work. virginia is tight as a tick . ohio is slightly leaning obama and pennsylvania and michigan and they are likely to go to obama.

>> steve: it looked like mitt romney wound up with a bounce. and there is a brand new washington poll show that the president is losing with women. >> that would be critical if that is born out f. that is born out, that would be revealing. his strength is with women. 133 percentage points is what he won the women by in 2008. men tied between obama and mccain. and the entire strategy for obama in 2012 is women and hispanics. that's what you saw last night. >> steve: according to the poll, i think romney went up five or six points in likeability with women and mr. obama has gone down 6 or seven. >> yeah. it makes sense. you can't have a convention like the republicans had in tampa without having an affect

on public opinion. it would be more if there was network coverage. but it was negible. ? >> steve: they know that the cable broadcast more . they are only doing one hour. >> that is their excuse. >> steve: and unfortunately, the parties get to shape the message they want by one hour to define the party. >> yeah, it is not enough. you get two speakers in the hour. and that is useful dependog who the speakers are. but look at cable. 10-12 20 speakers in the day and you learn more and that's the way it used to be when people watched gavele to gavele. you are hold enough to remember that? >> i am. i think you did a commercial for fox news channel. thank you for dragging your

christal ball out from to charlotte. democrats losing god from the platform. why? top party leader having trouble answering that question. chris christy revealing what happened behind the rnc scenes that had him shaking in his boots. i am want to hear that. ♪ ♪ ♪ it happened on the sidewalk. ♪ i am going to dance all night. ♪ ♪ [ acoustic guitar: slow ]

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you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is wednesday, september 5, 2012. i'm gretchen carlson. i've in charlotte, north carolina, thanks for sharing your time. democrats kicking off their convention examine not exactly taking the high road. >> if mitt was santa claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. >> gretchen: yikes. but the first lady laid off mitt romney and went for women instead. we've got new information that shows women may not be for obama as they once were. >> brian: the first lady was great. democrats taking god out of

their platform and a party leader has this answer for why they would do that. >> god out of the platform, why do that? >> basically i can tell you, if the narrative that's being presented on your station and through your channel examine your net work, the democrats are godless people, they ought to know better. >> brian: does that make any sense to you at all? so why can't senator dick durbin just answer the question? we're going to show that you sparring session which was a real embarrassment. >> steve: chris christie shaking in his boots. that's right. he reveals what happened behind the scenes in the rnc last week in tampa that had him doing just that. all right. "fox & friends" hour two live from charlotte on a wednesday starts right now.

>> steve: live from the nascar hall of fame here in the heart of downtown charlotte, it's "fox & friends" live for day two officially of the dnc that kicked off last night a couple of blocks from where we are sitting where they really are focusing on latinos and women. >> brian: right. i thought that was one thing. the other theme was for the first time i can remember, they're really embracing obamacare, saying what an accomplishment. they're talking about the president's record and what he achieved. the other thing was embracing government. saying government is the thing that's working. not much about the private sector. that might be something you want to hear. if you did, you weren't really happy. great performances. patrick was really strong, cory booker no surprise. the first lady was charming. >> gretchen: very much so. but there was one other name of somebody that they talked about quite frequently. he was not in attendance, no doubt watching. who was it? mitt romney.

>> put simply, women in america cannot trust mitt romney. >> if mitt was santa claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. mitt has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. >> instead of investing in america, they hide their money in swiss bank accounts and ship our jobs to china. >> where mitt romney was willing to turn his back on akron, dayton and toledo, ohio, the president said i've got your back. >> mitt romney talks a lot about the things he would fix. i can tell you, massachusetts was not one of them. >> when it comes to getting the

middle class back to work, mitt romney says no. when it comes to respecting women's rights, mitt romney says no. mitt romney just doesn't get it. >> steve: the first lady of the united states, she was very passionate. she was very powerful, not surprising. and she did not mention mitt romney. but she did talk a little bit about her own father who struggled with ms. he was a city employee and she talked about barak obama's grandma who worked in a bank and how they both were able to benefit from student loans and also the affordable care act. here is michelle obama on that. >> he didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically. no, that's not how he was raised. he cared that it was the right thing to do. he believes that women are more than capable of making our own

choices about our bodies and our health care. that's what my husband stands for. >> gretchen: i'll say it again as far as the women. it was obvious they were appealing to women and latinos last night. but i think most women would tell you they have more issues that they think about when they go to vote for president of the united states than just abortion or contraception. i think women are thinking about the same issues to a certain degree that men are with regard to the economy and their pocketbook and whether it's thicker or thinner this time around and they're answering that all important question, are we better off now than we were four years ago? >> brian: i remember when mitt romney walked out after ann romney thought and i thought this might be a time for the president, if he was around, to walk out and surprise the first lady. but he wasn't there. but he was watching. >> steve: he was. we got a photograph released by the white house so you can see the president and the girls watching mom and she did a good job live from charlotte. >> gretchen: they started school yesterday.

so their eldest daughter was starting high school. that's why they were not able to make the trip. it's my understanding the president will be here today doing his walk through over at the bank of america, big stadium where he'll be speaking on thursday night. >> brian: what is the weather? if it is raining, i know they'll be able to cover the podium, but you can't cover the stadium. >> steve: there were some talks they were looking at moving it into the convention center. but apparently they're not because -- >> gretchen: rain or shine? -- >> brian: rain or shine? >> steve: exactly. they're prepared to bus 70,000 people to be in attendance. >> brian: last night, not to make this too much about me, but i walked, steve had the great umbrella. you pack light, but you remember to bring an umbrella. it was a downpour. i said, i could get two blocks without getting soaked. i was so soaked, i said, it's worth me walking back and getting a new shirt. i lost my blacks with berry somewhere on the jog through the rain and i had to come back. >> gretchen: you eventually found it. >> brian: i got it back. >> steve: i sat at the table. half an hour waiting.

i'll place the order. >> gretchen: big speaker tonight will be bill clinton, the former president. still he has not turned in his speech yet. it's our understanding he'll turn in maybe a few hours to be vetted. wendell goler is outside the arena to give us an update. hi, wendell. >> hello. president obama has chosen the former president to headline the list of speakers to try and cash in on some of mr. clinton's popularity and remind the country that a democrat was in the oval office the last time there was a budget surplus and the country enjoyed full employment. a lot of people focus on the chilly relationship between the former and current president during hillary clinton's campaign. aides say the two have gotten closer. they understand their fortunes are intertwine to do a certain extent. some analysts are doubtful mr. clinton's popularity will transfer to mr. obama and some critics are hoping bill clinton will provide a clint eastwood

like segment. he tends to go off script sometimes. mr. clinton has been raising money for mr. obama. he also reported an ad -- recorded an ad that praises the president's call on the osama bin laden mission. >> he took the harder and the more honorable path. when i saw what had happened, i thought to myself, i hope that's the call i want to make. >> mr. clinton may see the reelection as good for hillary clinton in case she wants to run for president again in 2016. ordinary vice president biden would be speaking, but since democrats have decided to let mr. clinton basically own the evening, the vice president will speak before the president tomorrow. gretchen? >> gretchen: very interesting. wendell goler, we look forward to the speech tonight. >> steve: on abc's home page right now, there is a headline that reads simply, for democrats, there is no god in 2012, at least as far as the party's platform is concerned. nor is there a jerusalem. back in -- we're going to show

you how the platform committee has taken god out of their platform. back in 2008, this was part of the language where they had jerusalem in it. jerusalem is and will remain the capital of israel. it should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths. fast forward to this year and it says president obama and the democratic matter maintain an unshakeable commitment to israel's security. gone are three sentence which is previously identified injuries almost as the capital. >> gretchen: and also the word god is gone. there was one reference before. the republicans had 12 references to god. the democrat high school at least one and that was taken out now and the argument was this has nothing to do with religion. we talked about religion in other places of the platform. but still, some democrat high school a hard time really explaining why that word was taken out. >> god out of the platform, why do that? >> i could basic leave tell you, if the narrative that's being

presented on your station and through your channel and your network is that the democrats are godless people, they ought to know better. god is not a franchise on the republican party. >> no, no. >> most of us believe in god and those of us who dedicated ourselves to helping others in the name of god don't want to take a second seat to anyone ho is suggesting that one word out of the platform means the democrats across america are godless. >> no, no. i don't think that's what's being said. we're reporting what's in the platform. in 2008, god was mentioned once. in 2004, it was mentioned seven times. in 2000 god was mentioned four times. the question is why take it out? >> i'm basically saying you're trying to draw some conclusions that democrats are godless, present your evidence. >> i'm asking the question. why was the word taken out? >> i'm telling you you're harping on a trifle. both parties are divided in this country. both parties are god fearing

parties. let's get on with the issues of america. >> brian: it's unbelievable that he gets defensive and starts taking on the network when he can't even answer the question. then he says, the democratic platform, the republican platform of the two least read documents on the planet. why even write it to begin with? your argument is no one reads it anyway? >> gretchen: he's hoping nobody would notice it. >> brian: i watched another network who asked the same network and robert gibbs had no network, but he didn't denounce the network. >> steve: right, abc. we started the segment where i quoted what abc said. for democrats there is no god in 2012 as far as the party's platform. he's got some explain to go do because he headed up the platform committee. ex governor of ohio, head strickland, was part of the drafting committee. those are the guys who really need to be asked. why exactly did you take god out and why did you take jerusalem out? >> brian: i can't wait to talk to congressman ryan about that, as well as what happens over in

israel. not only did you mention jerusalem not being the capital, mitt romney made a big deal over that, number two is hamas. they didn't denounce hamas like they did in 08. and number three, they also talked about the right of return for palestinians. where do you stand on that? that's all of a sudden gone. >> gretchen: it's easy to sum up with two letters, pc. it's time to do some headlines now. the national debt now officially topping $16 trillion and counting. the embarrassing milestone coming less than one hour before the first speaker took the stage at the dnc. that amounts to a staggering $135,000 for every family. the deficit has increased by more than $5.4 trillion since president obama was sworn in. that's more than an increase in eight years under president george w. bush. to give you an idea, $16 trillion. i know it's hard to compute and understand, but it could buy 9400 space shuttles. you could also buy the new york yankees 8600 times or the company apple 25 times. it's more than the entire

economy of every country in europe combined. more bad economic news, the number of americans using food stamps now at an all-time high. new report shows nearly 47 million americans receive food stamps in june at a cost of $6.21 billion to taxpayers. spending on food stamps has doubled in the nearly four years since president obama took office. the house budget plan sponsored by gop investmential nominee paul ryan aims to cut the spending over ten years. some extreme weather to tell you about. we had rain yesterday, but new jersey, they got pummeled, too. look at this funnel cloud caughten near bellmar. the winds brought down trees, power lines. several people saw it come down in a matter of seconds. >> you felt everything sucking away from you into the funnel itself. you watched all the debris washing into it. the sound was like a train coming down. >> i said, there is a tornado

because why are the trees flying up in the sky where we were? >> gretchen: some homes are damaged and a hotel was temporarily evacuated after it was struck by lightning. crews already at work cleaning up the big mess. those are your headlines now. >> steve: tornado warning at our house last night. straight ahead on this wednesday, talk about 'til death do us part, a man fakes his own death as part of a wedding proposal. would you say yes to that guy after that? >> brian: then after the convention comes the debates. chris van hollen said to play paul ryan. and he's here live next. now they're going to be on our stage. chris, get up here ♪

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yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ >> gretchen: with the election 62 days away now, can you believe it? candidates are beginning their prep for next month's debates. so who is going to help joe biden, the vice president warm up in the bullpen? democratic congressman chris van hollen is the guy and he works with congressman paul ryan and he's my guest this morning. good to see you. >> good morning. >> gretchen: so you're going to warm up joe biden in the bullpen. some people would say that could be a tough job.

>> listen, joe biden knows these issues very well, from the domestic policy, foreign policy issues, i sit next to paul ryan every day in the budget committee. i know how he likes to present the arguments. i hope i can be of some use to the vice president in that area. >> gretchen: would you admit since you know paul ryan, that he is a good debater? >> i think paul is a good debater. the question is the use of facts on the budget. i think we'll hear a lot more about that as we know in his acceptance speech, there was a lot of fact checking going on the next day. so i think it's going to be important to hold people to the facts as we go through these debates. >> gretchen: many the counter to that is joe biden's gaffes, which he has a propensity to do. i want to play a snippet, because i wonder how you might coach him on not doing that. let's watch. >> (bleep) thank you, terry, and thank you, dr. pepper, and thank you chancellor -- dr. paper. speak softly, and carry a big

stick, end of quote. i promise you the president has a big stick. they're going to put y'all back in chains. america is better off today than they left us when they left. if it weren't so hot i'd go into detail why. >> gretchen: just yesterday, congressman, he said, if it weren't so hot, i'd go into detail. isn't this the time and place to be getting into details and how you help him not make those mistakes? >> you're going to hear lots of details. the vice president has been through lots of debates in his life. obviously he served in the senate. he's run for president. he knows how to debate. the issue is making sure that he has a sense of how paul ryan likes to present the other side of the argument. look, vice president, as he has said himself on occasion misspeaks, but he's always trying speak from the heart. people like that about him. he's a genuine guy, he speaks

from the heart, and in fact, people relate to him because of that. >> gretchen: how will you prepare him for these two things? this will be pretty much the gop's two main things. you didn't build that examine -- and are you better off now than four years ago? >> let's start with the second one, there is no doubt we're better off. let's just think about the time the president was sworn in. we were losing 800,000 jobs alone. people's retirement savings it collapsed by one third. so you fast forward to now, we've had 29 straight months of private sector job growth. we've also seen people's retirement savings not just restored, but increased. so i don't think anybody wants to go back to the days the economy was in free fall. anyone would acknowledge that we need to continue making progress. you don't do that by going back to the same set of economic policies that caused the mess to begin with. >> gretchen: we got to wrap it up there. you have a big job in front of you. you'll be playing congressman paul ryan and he's coming up on our show. >> i'll get an academy award. >> gretchen: good to see you.

if the president had to give himself a grade, he said it would be an i, incomplete. will that help him buy more time? we'll report and you decide. then we're letting steve loose on the streets of charlotte, north carolina. not everyone was feeling the love. wait until you see what else he found [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy,

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>> brian: look at this, fox news alert coming your way. you're taking a live look with us. at the international space station, it's my favorite space station. two astronauts, one american and one japanese astronaut performing a very important space walk right now. they're trying to replace a power switch that failed a few days ago. right now they're saying, would you like to do something. by the way, there was a problem with the electricity source. so they got to replace the switch. they're using what looks like a toothbrush. that's steve's words, to clean

the switch's bulbs. they tried to repair the switch last week, but had some problems, according to gretchen. fortunately, there are five other power sources that are still working just fine. today's space walk is expected to last nearly nine hours. after eight hours, they get time and a half. that's when they really start collecting. >> gretchen: thank you for making me a neurosign -- no, astro. >> brian: focused on science. >> gretchen: thank you for that. >> brian: i don't know what to do now. >> gretchen: i'm supposed to read this. sorry. i just talked to my kids, they're going to their first day of school and i'm a little distracted. >> brian: they both want to cut and you're trying to convince them to go. >> gretchen: my son was sick last night and mommy is not there and it's a little hard for me. folks are here for the convention and just like tampa, we brought along our own special ride, the whole suite of fox news vehicles. >> steve: once again, i hopped into the fox and "friends" vehicle, the producers gave may

set of keys. i hit the road to find out how well the delegates know their candidates. kind of a trivial test drive. ♪ what candidate was known as billy from kindergarten? >> bill clinton? (buzz). >> steve: ear currently not running, or is he? that would be mitt romney. >> really? >> steve: by the way what is that thing you're eating? >> this is a turkey leg. i need the protein. >> steve: can i have a bite? >> no. >> steve: can i turn? i'm just going to go. which of the candidates is an avid fisherman and a catfish

canoedler? >> of the presidential? >> vice presidential or vice presidential? >> that's interesting. i would say obama (buzz) sorry. it's paul ryan. he's a catfish kanoodleer. >> he's a catfish, i'll give that you. >> steve: there is something fishy about him? >> very, very fishy. >> steve: of the guys running for president or vice president, which one used to work the grill at mcdonald's? >> mitt romney. (buzz). >> steve: sorry. it was paul ryan. >> oh, man, i was close. >> steve: kind of. which of the guys running for president used to work at basken robins. >> i'm going to go with barak obama. >> steve: you are correct, sir! for $25. do we have $25? okay, we don't have $25.

for appearing smart on tv, way to go. i'm going. spin the wheel. twenty-five dollars. which of the major party candidates, his favorite recipe is shrimp linguini. >> mitt romney? (buzz). >> steve: sorry. barak obama says he likes michelle's shrimp linguini. >> oh, i am such a flop. >> steve: no, no, no. your a winner in our book. who collects spiderman and conan the barbarian comics? >> one of the capped dates collects them? >> steve: really. >> i don't know! i would say -- my first guess would be paul ryan. mitt romney? (buzz). >> steve: it's our current president, barak obama.

>> really? >> steve: yes. >> wow. if i had known that, i'd be easier on him because i collect them. >> steve: i brought america a little closer together! jonah goldberg. >> gretchen: how did you run into him? >> steve: he was sit sitting there, out and about. >> brian: that was awesome. thank goodness paul ryan is in the race. he's got a diverse background. who else kanoodles for catfish? >> steve: we were trying move around in traffic, and at one point we're sitting in that vehicle, i'm behind the wheel, and we hear, boom! they've got light rail here in charlotte and one of those cross arms came down on top of the vehicle. >> gretchen: i thought you were going to say something else. >> steve: i had to go straight ahead rather quick. >> gretchen: wow. i'm glad he didn't ask us those questions. 'cause i remember some of those from last week and i still didn't know the answers. [ laughter ] >> brian: good job. >> gretchen: coming up on the rundown, a teen with down syndrome kicked off a flight

because he's a security risk? we'll tell but that story. >> steve: then chris christie revealing what happened moments before he took to the stage at the rnc that had him dare i say shake not guilty his boots? >> steve: plus, our small business owner panel standing by. do they think the economy is headed in the right direction? we're going to ask them as they appear in a pita pit ♪ [ construction sounds ] ♪ [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. ♪ got the coffee. that was fast. we're outta here. ♪ [ engine revs ]

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specifically who he bumped into moments before taking the stage. >> down hall comes mitt romney and he stopped and he said to me, you're going to be good tonight, right? and i said, yeah. i'm going to be really good. he said, all right. i'm going to stay then. and he decided to stay fort speech. in case there wasn't enough pressure with 20 million people, now mitt romney hanging for the speech. >> gretchen: the governor obviously gave his speech last week and did a nice job. we all know he's a bruce springstein fan. >> brian: he took some heat for that speech. i thought it was good. it was typical of governor chris christie. i thought they were playing bruce springstein's track, but jimmy fallon sounds so much like bruce springstein, it sounds like he was singing with the boss. >> steve: yeah. former governor bill clinton will be speaking, the big speaker tonight here at the dnc. meanwhile, republican presidential nominee mitt romney and running mate paul ryan using

their day, yesterday, to go after the democrats. doug mckelway is live in woodstock in vermont with details. doug? >> that's right. couple of themes emerged from the dnc last night. one, is that the dnc is a real force for good in the lives of people. the other being that mitt romney is out of touch because he's so wealthy, out of touch with the ordinary struggles of everyday americans. another theme that emerged is that the government, especially the federal government, and local governments, state governments, are a force for good in the lives of the american public, a point that was brought home in the dnc video. take a look. >> we are committed to all people. we do believe you can use government in a good way. government is the only thing we all belong to. we're different church, different clubs. we're together as a part of our city or our county or our state. >> governor romney was quiet and

behind closed doors yesterday as he continues his debate preparation. but he took time to pounce on that video with a tweet that read, quoting now, we don't belong to government. the government belongs to us. the expansion of government and the expansion of government spending under the obama administration is something that romney surrogates were pounding away at yesterday. coincidentally, on the very same day that the national debt clock surpassed the $16 trillion mark. here is what vp pick paul ryan had to say about that yesterday as he was in iowa. >> isn't thank is a serious threat to our economy. of all the broken promises from president obama, this is probably the worst one because this debt is threatening jobs today, is threatening prosperity today, and it is guaranteeing that our children examine grandchildren get -- and grandchildren get a diminished future. >> democrats were quick to distance themselves from that video yesterday, quoting, the

video in question was -- that we produced and paid for by the host committee of the city of charlotte. it is neither an obama for america nor dnc video despite what the romney campaign is claiming. it's time for them to find a new target. in vermont, we expect governor romney to continue maintaining a low profile as he partakes in day two of his debate preparation with ohio senator rob portman acting as the stand-in for obama. there has been some speculation whether or not governor romney would do a little bit of campaigning, perhaps nearby while he is undertaking these debate preparations. but so far that's just speculation among the press. there has been no word to that effect from the romney campaign. back to you guys in charlotte. >> steve: all right, doug in woodstock, vermont, thank you very much for the live report on this wednesday. >> gretchen: last week during the republican national convention when the vice presidential nominee, paul ryan, took the stage, the main stream media immediately pointed out

they believe he made factual errors in parts of his speech. last night charles krauthammer, a columnist and a fox news contributor here, had a response to that and it was pretty lengthy, but it's important for you to hear the entire thing. here is charles. we don't have it. >> brian: he said one of the goals was get paul ryan to lose credibility and they went through the speech and as you look through the speech, it does fact check pretty strongly. >> steve: it does. >> brian: including the plan that everyone discussed, the janesville plan that the fact is not open of the the president pledged to keep it open, and it was -- it actually on fact check, they said paul ryan was not accurate, but upon further review, he was accurate. so it makes you wonder, can you -- you have to check the fact check now in newspapers.

>> steve: so charles krauthammer was talking about how -- he talked in the sound bite b how the main stream media is kind of living in a bubble and they're very selective about how they fact check things these days. and unfortunately, when you look at some of the fact checks, they're partisan, you know. they take a side, which is not what a fact check is supposed to be. we're going to talk to the guy who would like to be vice president of the united states, paul ryan will be joining us live in about 22 minutes from right now here on "fox & friends." >> gretchen: it's kind of sad when you got to get fact checkers to check fact checkers to check the fact checkers. now we have charles krauthammer. let's hear him. >> i saw one sort of general consensus emerging among the main stream media a that republicans had lied continuously and repeatedly and shamelessly in their speeches. they particularly centered on paul ryan to the point where they were calling it almost

unanimously. this is on all the nets, they were calling it a truth free zone. >> what did they lie about? >> this is what is so amazing. they don't even pretend to be objective anymore. >> do you think the main stream media, national media simply doesn't understand the issue and just buys the democratic talking points when they spit them out, or are they doing this consciously? >> i think when you get to a complicated issue, they're so used to and they live in the bubble of liberalism, that's the air they breathe, that they find it easier to accept it than to actually go into the weeds, as we do on fox news, jim angle, a lot of the people on "special report," on your show, other shows, go into the weeds and show that this stuff isn't true. >> brian: charles krauthammer used to work with jimmy carter. so he feels like he can speak about the liberal mindset. >> steve: headlines, brian. >> brian: let me begin here. court documents revealing the federal government is quickly moving to settle the lawsuit alleging discrimination

retaliation and lewd conduct at the immigration and customs enforcement agency. the head of the ice's new york office, sued janet napolitano, claiming he was passed over for jobs that went to women. and he was punished for complaining. he also says the former ice chief of staff, suzanne barr, encouraged frat house culture and made lewd comments to employees. she resigned last weekend. >> steve: a california couple claiming american airlines would not let their son board a flight because he has down's syndrome. robert and joan sander horse paid an extra $625 to fly first class from new jersey with their 16-year-old son. before they could board, they say an airline employee pulled them aside and told them the pilot thought their son was a flight risk and didn't want him near the cockpit. american airlines supporting the decision, claiming the teen-ager was misbehaving at the gate, but the couple says that's not the case. they were ultimately put on a

later flight with no refund. they are now threatening to sue american airlines. >> gretchen: nothing says will you marry me like faking your own death to do so? a russian man decided to test how much his girlfriend actually loved him, so he hired actors and make-up artists and staged an elaborate car crash. when his girlfriend got to the scene, she was told the man was dead. she started to cry, her boyfriend jumped in and proposed. that sounds so romantic. at first she was furious and storms off. but then eventually says yes. my question is, why? >> steve: what a clown. he wound up on tv. >> gretchen: i don't know. >> brian: coming up next on this show, which candidate would do best for small business? we ask our panel of small local business owners. they weigh in next. >> steve: vice presidential nominee congressman paul ryan's going to be joining us. you know at the dnc they've been taking swipes at the romney-ryan ticket. we'll talk to him about that when he joins us in 17, 18

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>> brian: back in 2009, president obama announced his new small business lending initiative and spoke about the importance and struggles of small business. listen. >> always form the backbone of

the american economy. the problem is, our small businesses have been some of the hardest hit by this recession. there is no question that the steps we've taken have improved the overall climate for small business across the country. but there is also no question that we've got a long way to go. >> brian: okay. does that long way include four maurice? joining us now are small business owners locally. they're all from charlotte. you got sherwood webb, owner of webb and partners, inc. katy tyler is ceo of tyler 2 construction inc., and dr. rick wideman is here. he is an eye surgeon. welcome to all of you. about your business, how are you doing in 2008? how are you doing now? >> basically lost everything in the last four years. 30 years, everything i built, i've lost the last four years. almost everything. >> brian: why? >> there is just no work. we manage large projects all over the country. lamb projects have come to a stop of the i have three hospital clients, all three have gone bankrupt. so when you don't have income

coming in, everything else domino effects. >> brian: katie, you are ceo of tyler 2 construction. you voted for president obama last time. how are you guys doing? >> we're coming back. 2008 was a tough year for us. 09 was horrible. 10 was horrible. 11 was a little better. i've got high hopes for 12, 13 and 14. >> brian: dr. wideman, people still coming to your office? >> with some of the elective procedures, patients are holding back on those. but what i take care of, serious retina problems, back of the eye type of things, you can't put those things off. so i'm a very busy doctor, but my main concern has been with my patients. over 21 years, i've developed a rapport with patients and they share with me the difficulties and struggles they are having. i've had more patients than i can ever recall in the past three or four years share with me as their eye surgeon how they've lost their job, or their spouse lost their job, whether business is going bankrupt. >> brian: i understand in charlotte it was 11%.

now 10%. above the national average. what about money? if you need to do borrow money to sustain yourself, are you finding the local banks open to a loan? >> really for a small business owner, it's not a good time right now. there is too many hurdles and government regulation to get through. it's not all the banks' fault. a lot of it is the federal regulators. they tighten them down so much that they can't lend the money. i had a banker tell me, we should lend think money. it's foolish not to. but we're concerned we may get sued by the government if we do lend to you. >> brian: how does that affect how you will vote? >> i'm absolutely voting for a businessman, mitt romney. >> brian: katie, how about you? >> i am undecided at this point. i'm hearing a lot of different stories. i think people come down to crisis and crunch and the next 60 however many days between now and the election is going to be a lot of things said and i'm listening. >> brian: if they can build it, you will build it and do that job. and dr. wideman, what's ultimately going to be the decision and what do you need to hear as a small business owner

to decide how you'll vote? >> i already know how i'm going to vote. i'm supporting mitt romney. the reason is i think we need a president who has been successful in not only politics, but in big business. i think the combination of business sense as well as political experience is what we need in the white house right now. >> brian: if i could just give my opinion, you picked a great city in charlotte it build it. people are nice, the place is beautiful. you got so many sky scrapers, but the rural at moss speech thanks so much. i wish you all the best of luck and hope we have a smooth day. >> thank you. >> brian: you can have a free pita. that is another thing. coming up, one top democrat is already flip flopped after admitting we might not be better off than we were four years ago. what does democratic governor of new mexico bill richardson think? he would join us next. he also ran the democratic national convention at one point. first, on this day in history,

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>> can you honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago? >> no, but that's not the question of this election. we are clearly better off as a country because we're now creating jobs rather than losing them. >> steve: oh, man, first it was no, then it was yes. that was maryland governor o'malley flip flopping on the state of the economy. joining us now is the former governor of new mexico, bill richardson. good morning to you. >> steve, nice to be with you. >> steve: it looks like somebody got to the governor of maryland.

he can't say that! you got to fix that! >> i was sitting right next to hem. of course, they blotted me off. i did hear that, but i think what the governor meant was compared to the baseline of the past years. he's quickly corrected it. i think -- >> we are better off. >> gretchen: it was so obvious that the talking point machine came out after that because now all democratic operatives are using the same exact thing that you just said. >> i'm not an operative. >> gretchen: well, people in the democratic party. it sounds like the line is one that was fed out to everyone to say. do you agree with that? >> no. i really think that we are better off. i mean, look, 800,000 jobs lost every month when the president came in. private sector jobs, 4.2 million. >> brian: let's take a look at this together. unemployment was 7.8% when

george bush left office and president obama ran. now it's 8.3. gas doubled. national debt, he added now $6 trillion. that's what a lot of people are look at. you can understand how they might be disappointed. >> well, i think what you're going to see with the president's speech is where we move forward, an economic plan. energy, self-sufficiency, immigration reform. economic plan that i believe he's going to outline that -- look, you guys know, we need bipartisan cooperation. we need both sides to really get together and do something about the debt and spending cuts and entitlements and find a way also to equitabley deal with the revenue. >> steve: he said i'll be able to negotiate more. we heard the dnc was not going to be very negative in tone. after last night, we got a little sound bite and some

reaction. >> mitt was santa claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. >> steve: outsourcing the elves. >> look, these conventions, we've all done these for a long time, particularly you and me, steve. >> steve: yeah. >> this is romney, you have to give to your base. the republicans did the same. we do the same. what we're trying to do is there is an important coalition that the president needs once again, young people, minorities, and i think most importantly, the independent voter. this election will be settled by six or seven states and a few thousand votes. >> brian: amazing. is bill clinton over the fact you endorsed barak obama? >> no. [ laughter ] >> steve: he's not talking to you yet? >> no. >> brian: do you think he's getting loan with president obama today? >> i think there is good chemistry. look, it's going to be a very strong speech. he's a pro-growth democrat,

reminding everybody that in the democratic days, we had a balanced budget, a surplus. >> brian: it's been four years! >> you know, the last eight years of president bush didn't help president obama, you know that. but what i'm saying is i think the symbolism of a pro-growth democrat, moderate democrat embracing president obama, i think it's going to be good. >> gretchen: we'll wait and see what president clinton says tonight and then president obama on thursday. governor richardson, thanks for stopping by. >> steve: appreciate it. >> brian: vice presidential nominee paul ryan joins us in a matter of moments, for about 20 minutes. then as the dnc is underway in north carolina, a new disturbing report from the state capitol showing thousands of dead people are registered to vote. how does that happen? >> steve: that's handy. ♪ mach3 has high definition blades

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with our award winning apps that allow you to transfer funds, pay bills or manage your finances anywhere, anytime. so that wherever your duty takes you, usaa bank goes with you. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is wednesday, september 5. i'm gretchen carlson live in charlotte, north carolina. thanks for sharing part of your day with us today. so much for running a positive convention. >> if mitt was santa claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves! >> gretchen: congressman paul ryan will join us live just minutes away to respond to that one negative attack and more. >> steve: meanwhile, first the president said if you have a business, you didn't build it. now here is a brand-new message as of last night here in

charlotte. the government is the only thing we all belong to. we'll give you details straight ahead. >> brian: earlier this morning, you saw me, i got my butt kicked by one anna kooiman in a drag race. it's time for a rematch. i'm in pit row and i got my screw gun and i mean business! bring your own lug nut, pal. i'm talking to you, kooiman. "fox & friends" starts right now >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. welcome. this is the nascar hall of fame, live in charlotte, north carolina, beautiful shot there. we had a huge thunderstorm here last night. i thought maybe we'd be rained out on our beautiful set here today. but aulas, even though it said 30 to 40% chance of showers,

right now it looks like it will be pretty nice for us. >> steve: we certainly hope so. it's the middle of the week and the middle of the dnc, kicked off last night. talking to my wife yesterday about the program, doing postmortem, she said one of the coolest things about our location here at the nascar hall of fame is that tv. she said, how do you get the tv up there? and we had you doing your jet packing on that throughout the day yesterday. >> brian: how do we know we were here early? on the record was threw when we started walking to work this morning. then we reallied, greta is still here. >> steve: where is the clicker for that? i want to see what's on the other channels. >> brian: let's not do that. meanwhile, the headlines and then paul ryan. >> gretchen: yeah. let's kick them off. zero, that's how many times the dnc's official platform mentions the word god this year. it was mentioned one time in 2008. it's a sharp contrast from republicans who mentioned god 12 times in their platform this year. on "special report," illinois democratic senator dick durbin wouldn't say why god was nowhere

to be found. >> trying to draw some conclusion that democrats are godless, did she -- present your evidence. >> why was the word taken out? >> i'm just telling you you are harping a trite. we know both parties are devoted to this country. both parties are god fearing parties. let's get on with the agenda. >> gretchen: another part of the dnc platform raising a few eyebrows, failed to say jerusalem is the capital of israel. mitt romney calling the slight shameful. the national debt now officially topping $16 trillion and counting. the embarrassing milestone coming less than one hour before the first speaker took the stage at the dnc. that $16 trillion amounts to a staggering $135,000 for every family. the deficit has increased by more than $5.4 trillion since president obama took office. that's more than -- it increased in eight years president george w. bush was in office. to give you an idea, $16 trillion, break out

calculator here, stay with me -- it could buy you 9400 space shuttles. you could also buy the new york yankees not once, not twice. 8600 times. >> brian: cheaper now, they're tied in first. >> gretchen: you could also buy the company apple 25 times. $16 trillion also more than the entire economy of every country in europe combined. >> steve: darn, we could have bought europe. >> gretchen: now bad economic news. sorry to be the bearer of it. the number of americans using food stamps now at an all-time high. new report shows nearly 47 million americans receive food stamps in june at a cost of $6.21 billion to taxpayers. that's one of every seven people in this country spending on food stamps has doubled in the nearly four years since the president took office. house budget plan sponsored by paul ryan aims to cut food stamp spending by $33 billion over a decade. all right. let's bring you some cute video. she stole the show last night at the dnc and never opened her

mouth. the three-year-old daughter of san antonio mayor and keynote speaker, julian castro. apparently caught a glimpse of herself in camera monitors as her dad told a story about her first day of preschool. she couldn't stop flipping her hair and admiring herself on the screen. beautiful child and nice looking dad, too. >> steve: looks like me, she's thinking. let's bring in paul ryan who joins us from cedar rapids, iowa. congressman, good morning to you. >> good morning, gretchen and guys, how are you doing? >> steve: great to have you. were your ears burning last night, because while the democrats do not take the high road, they turned you and mitt romney into punching bags here at the dnc night one. >> well, this is what you expect when you have a president who cannot run on his record. what you did not hear is that people are better off than they were four years ago. what did you hear were simply attacks against their opponents. they don't have a record they can run on, so hope and change

has become attack and blame, smear and fear. that's the kind of campaign they're going to run. we're offering a a positive vision, bold solutions to get people back to work. it doesn't surprise me, to be quite honest with you. >> brian: chairman, i heard a lot about spending. i heard a lot about government programs. in fact, one of the statements was and one of the -- the speakers was, we only belong to one thing and that's government. we saw governor mitt romney's tweet to that saying, we don't belong to government. the government works for us essentially. what's your reaction? >> that's exactly what i would have said, which is the government works for us. not the other way around. this is in perfect keeping with president obama's philosophy of a government-centered society, of a government-driven economy. so it doesn't really surprise me that they say this. it also kind of give us a glimpse, brian, of what a secretary term would look like if president obama got one. >> gretchen: how do you respond to the people who actually do believe that the government is

helpful to them, because a lot of people are arguing we're approaching this tipping point in our society where when we get to 50% or more of the people who are receiving a government handout, it's hard to reverse that. who is going to say no to government aid and help when it's in dollar bills? >> i think two things. number one, just because we believe in limbed government, doesn't mean we believe in no government. we believe in limited effective government, but we also believe that the role of government is to forget our natural rights and promote equality of opportunities so we can make the most of our lives and lead independent, self-sufficient lives. upward mobile lives. safety net that helps people who cannot help themselves, help people get back on their feet. that's very different than what i think president obama is moving us towards, which is much more of a cradle to grave kind of welfare state where they see the role of government is equalizing the results our lives. not promoting equal opportunity. very different philosophy. i think you see that alive and

that philosophy leads us to, like we've said, a government-centered society with a government-driven economy. that doesn't grow jobs. that doesn't work. it's what europe has and look what europe has gotten. they've got a debt crisis. so if we keep copying this european philosophy and european economics, we'll get european results. >> steve: i don't know if you were watching colorado television yesterday, but a local colorado television reporter asked the president, you know, sir, how would you grade yourself after these first four years? here is what he aned. listen -- answered. >> your party says you inherited a bad situation. you've had 3 1/2 years to fix it. what grade would you give yourself so far for doing that? >> you know, i would say incomplete. we're seeing this not just here in the united states, but around the world. europe is going through a very difficult time. parts of asia, even china are going through a difficult time right now. >> steve: i don't think the average person would like to think that after four years, the president's grade is incomplete.

they'd like results. >> well, steve, i think what this means is he's just going to give us more of the same. incomplete means i want to keep taking the country in the direction i've taken it. look where we are. 23 million people struggling to find work. nearly one in six americans in poverty today. it's not working. it's a failed agenda. we have answers to get us on the right track to get this debt under control, to get this economy growing. it's a five-point plan to get people back to work, have higher take home pay. stop spending money we don't have. i think what that incomplete answer means is he just plans on offering a the country more of the same. >> brian: you do this. >> gretchen: an hour ago, congressman van hollen, i know you know him well. he's going to play new debate prep with the vice president, joe biden, and so i asked him earlier about the prep. listen to this, and then your response. >> next to paul ryan every day in the budget committee. i know how he likes to present

the arguments. soy hope i can be of some use to the vice president in that area. i think paul is a good debater. the question is the use of facts on the budget. i think we're going to hear a lot more about that as we know that in his acceptance speech, there was a lot of fact checking going on the next day. so i think it's going to be important to hold people to the facts as we go through these debates. >> gretchen: i think he said the word facts at least four times in that. are you nervous that they're going to come after you with their facts? >> look, i stand behind every this thing that was in my speech, number one. number two, the fact is, president obama has failed on this economy. the fact is he has not led on the budget at all. the fact is the senate hasn't passed a budget in three years. and the problem is the facts as they are today are not good for the president and his reelection prospects. so they have to go to fear and smear, attack examine blame. that's -- and blame. chris is a good guy, i like him personally. we've debated each other for many years. and joe biden is a very

experienced debater. he's done more than i think anybody he else around. so i think what they're trying to do is change the narrative away from their failed policies to anything but that. >> brian: the one thing they keep bringing up is the fact that you're not accurate with some of your statements. so what you're saying is they're way off base, because i'm seeing a theme? >> they're way off base. they're talking about janesville, wisconsin, my hometown of the no one could accuse president obama of shutting down the factory we had. but president obama came to that factory and said that he would lead he said to keep it open for 100 years, that when the factory was shout down, he said he would lead a retooling effort for factories like janesville to get people backwuúoyrt7@!21óehxo"z7ç

>> gretchen: i guess it's a note. it has to be somebody who spent time and speaks off the cuff. >> it will be somebody who really knows what he's doing. >> steve: that will be interesting. congressman, stand by there in cedar rapids because we want you to weigh in on this, we want you -- we want to findity what you think about the democrats taking the name god and also the city of jerusalem out of their platform. >> gretchen: governor chris christie of new jersey channels his inner springstein. what happened last night while you were sleeping. you got to see this duo.

♪ >> governor chris christie, everybody !

>> gretchen: zero times, that's how many times the dnc platform welcomes god. it was mentioned one time in 2008. it's a sharp contrast from republicans who mentioned god 12 times in their platform this year, just last week at the rnc. we're back with vice vice vice

presidential nominee, paul ryan. congressman, what do you make of this? is this the politicalcally correct influence to take the word god now out of the platform? >> i think it's rather peculiar. it's not in keeping with our founding documents, our founding vision. but i guess you have to ask the obama administration where they purged all this language from their platform. there sure a lot of mention of government. i guess i would put the onus of the burden on them to answer why they did all the purges of god. >> brian: i got to ask you something else, what is not there. i think it's fascinating because as you know, most of the american jewish vote went for president obama in 2008. a lot of people have been critical of his policy towards israel. now in the democratic platform, they say -- no mention of jerusalem being the rightful capital and the isolation of hamas, all omitted. how significant is that to you?

>> this is tragic, brian. first of all, jerusalem is the capitol of israel. mitt romney and i are very clear on this and on the other issues you mentioned. what is so tragic, this is one of the few issues where the republican and democratic party agreed. our two party platforms were emphatic about injuries being the capital. the right of return and had hamas examine for the obama administration to remove this language from the democratic party platform drives a wedge into one of the few issues that our two parties agreed on. we had bipartisan agreement in our two party platforms on this very important issue for our strong ally israel. now that the obama administration has removed it from the democratic party platform, undermines our nation's support for our ally, israel. jerusalem is the capitol of israel. we're very clear on that. it's in our party platform. so is the language with respect to the right of return and hamas. it's tragic that they took it out of their party platform.

>> steve: this is a real messaging problem for the democrats because today rather than talking exclusively about the great speech that michelle obama gave and she gave a terrific, impassioned, talked about why her husband should get four more years, instead we talk about why they took god out. that's not what they should be talking about today. >> no. and they should not have driven a wedge into what has been a bipartisan agreement for our support for israel. they took that out. it sends the wrong signal. at the very wrong time to our key ally, israel. look, we believe that our rights come from nature and god and not from government. that's the founding vision of america. we're proud of that vision. that's the vision our founders created that our veterans, every generation fought for us. and so to see this kind of language, this acknowledgement removed from their party platform is disappointing. >> gretchen: what do you think you need to do, along with governor mitt romney, we have 62 days left now until the election. what's the most important thing

that you can do to try and get a person's vote? >> we feel we owe every single american a real clear choice of two futures. president obama is offering a more of the same. he can't run on his record, so he's trying to attack us. hope and change have become attack and blame. we owe them big solutions, big ideas based on our founding principles and how we get prosperity back, how we get more job, more prosperity, economic growth and opportunity, upward mobility, the american idea. we have a specific plan to achieve growth and prosperity. so we owe the country the right so that they get to choose what kind of country too they want to have? what kind of people do we want to be? mitt romney and i are committed to giving americans a very clear choice in this election so that they can choose a better path for a better future. >> brian: chairman paul rain joins us, he sacrificed his workout this morning. tony horton has to sit there

cued up in your dvd player just for us. we are honored. >> he'll send me an evil e-mail because of this. >> gretchen: i think you'll still be in shape. all right. we'll talk to you again sometime soon. >> thank you. >> steve: all right. straight ahead on this wednesday, disturbing new report revealing that tens of thousands of dead people registered to vote right here in the state we're sitting in, north carolina. the man who discovered that is going to join us. >> gretchen: then a drowns keeper channels his inner carlton? it's all caught on cam. ♪ [ mother ] you can't leave the table

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>> brian: welcome back to charlotte where our affiliates and supporters gathered to see us in action. we are -- give yourselves a round of applause. by the way, you can't tell, but nome do they look good, they smell good. i'll blog about that later. quick headlines. federal government is moving to settle a lawsuit over improper practices at ice. janet napolitano named in the suit, which alleged lewd conduct, discrimination and retaliation, and a warning this morning for anyone who uses apple products. 1 million users i.d.s have been stolen. a hacker group says it swiped the information from a f.b.i. laptop. check your iphone. back to gretch. >> gretchen: okay. thanks. as the department of justice cracks down on voter i.d. laws around the country, there is

frightening new research about the voter rolls right here where we are in north carolina. the voter integrity project, nc, discovered more than 30,000 dead people are registered in this state alone to vote. i'm joined by the founder of the voter integrity program, jay. >> thanks for having me. >> gretchen: why does a guy in the air force care about who is voting? >> when we were looking at all of our people in our shops, looking around at the tv in 2000 and watching that election and realizing -- we realized how critical it is that there is integrity in the election system. so i made a decision back then to do this when i got out. i retired last year. >> steve: are you surprised what you found, 'cause let's look at some of the numbers. this is your hall of shame. counties with the most dead people on the rolls. cherokee, number of voters, 310 dead people. samson, number of dead voters, 560. how many of those are actually then going to vote as another person? >> i would hope part of that, when you look at the numbers is misleading. the hall of shame, the problem with it was the ratio of the

number of dead voters per registered voter. so you had big counties and small counties. so it's a matter of list maintenance. your question, how many are actually registered? how many are going to vote? >> gretchen: how many do we know? >> we are doing the research right now. and it takes a little longer to find out how many of them voted. we were surprised to find that some did and it was more than a handful. but we're not ready to actually come out with an exact number because we're looking at them very carefully. >> gretchen: when you hear certain states that want to have a voter i.d. law to hopefully root out dead people from voting, what do you say? >> it's common sense. you think about would you really want to get on an airplane where they don't check your i.d.? we're thinking with an election y not? and it would prevent identity theft at the polls if you just had an i.d. check. >> gretchen: states where voter i.d. law is going challenged, you were reminding me that in indiana and georgia, it's

passed? >> it passed. supreme court affirmed it 6-3, even justice brennan of all people, he's from chicago, by the way, he wrote the majority opinion because all these studies they cite about how all these people would be disenfranchised, in the studies, what they say one thing, but in reality, in the courtroom, they never could provide witnesses that could survive a cross-examination and prove that they could somehow could not get this free i.d. card. >> gretchen: very interesting. there is a statement from the north carolina board of elections and they say we know it's our responsibility and take it seriously. the state and county board of elections has a responsibility to remove any individuals who are no longer eligible to vote. we'll see where that goes. great idea for this project. good to see you. >> i thank my volunteers. it's been a real blessing. >> gretchen: coming up on "fox & friends," turns out sometimes it pays to fail. the man at the center of this solyndra scandal gets red carpet treatment at the dnc. then she certainly made a rousing speech, but did the first lady really make a case for four more years? our panel is standing by for a fair and balanced debate next.

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♪ thunder road ♪ ♪ oh, thunder road ♪ . >> gretchen: shot of the morning, fabulous one, chris christie, the governor of new jersey and jimmy fallon singing "thunder road." the new jersey governor talked on the show about the gridlock in washington and says there is one person at the center of it. house minority leader nancy pelosi. >> she's part of the problem. i mean -- it's true because -- in any of the leaders up there are part of the problem if

they're not trying to make a difference. you can't just sit there and say, we're not talking to each other and you're one of the leaders. then you got to make a difference. >> gretchen: all right. so that was governor chris christie showing that he's got some pipes. we knew he had speaking pipes, right? and now we know he may have a few singing pipes. >> brian: i thought he might be asked to come down here. i know governor haily, rnc has a headquarters here. reince previn is here. i think chris christie would be perfect for the other side. let's pause as the loudest vehicles in the charlotte area go by. >> brian: they specialize in truck refueling. >> steve: it's right next to this thing that says cat, that's our generator as we broadcast live from the nascar hall of fame. >> brian: we took that out of a bag. >> gretchen: last night was the first night of the dnc and so you had a lot of speakers. the ones that are the most important are the ones who speak later, 10:00 p.m. eastern time. there were a couple of good ones

who are high profile people who spoke at a much earlier time. so the question this morning is, did they get punished with getting an earlier time slot, like cory booker, the mayor of newark, new jersey. remember when he was the one who said that that whole attack on private equity by the obama administration was nauseating to him and then he sort of changed his tune after that. is that why he spoke at 6:00 p.m. yesterday? >> when your country is in a costly war with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation is facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare. it's patriotism. barak obama is an economic patriot. mitt romney is an outsourcing pioneer. >> steve: really? so is it patriotic for americans

to lose so much money in one failed green energy program after another? according to our calculation, 16 projects that the government has green lighted have gone belly up. look at those beautiful logos of companies that are no longer green. they're in the red. >> brian: the top of that list, of course, everyone thinks solyndra is symbolic of this. you talk about guaranteed loans that went to these companies, many of which went belly up. the money is gone. there is no hope of being paid back. it was supposed to prime the pump. but it hasn't worked out. propping it up with a foundation of government money doesn't seem to be effective. >> gretchen: one of the people who was instrumental in getting that government loan, that original one to solyndra that got so much attention, well, he's actually at the dnc and last night he got red carpet treatment of sorts, until apparently he saw some news cameras there. there he is, steve spinner. then he decided to, well, take a hike. get out of the way of the news cameras. maybe he didn't want to answer some of the questions that may have come about solyndra and

that huge government loan. >> brian: if you're running from the media, usually it's not a good sign. >> steve: somebody who is going to be running to the microphone tonight is bill clinton. he's going to be the keynoter tonight and according to what we have married, he's apparently still -- heard, he's apparently still working on the speech. as we told you yesterday, he still has not vetted it with the obama campaign. so it will be interesting to see what he talks about. i bet there's a lot about bill clinton in the bill clinton speech. we've got extreme weather to talk to you about in our headlines in new jersey last night. take a look at this. a rare funnel cloud caught on camera near belmar. brought down trees and power lines in a matter of seconds. >> you felt everything sucking away from you into the funnel itself. you watched all the leaves and debris washing into it. almost like a train coming down. >> there is a tornado because we could see trees flying up in the

sky where we were. >> steve: and a number of homes were damaged and a hotel was evacuated after being struck by lightning. crews this morning are already trying to clean up the mess and turn the lights back on. >> brian: taxpayers in massachusetts putting -- footing the bill for a convicted murderer's sex change. a judge handing down an unprecedented ruling on the prisoner, in case you're not familiar with her, the inmate born robert, that's the guy you knew, murdered his wife more than 20 years ago. since then, he's been receiving hormone treatments on our dime and living as a woman in an all male prison. the judge ruling a sex change is the only remedy for his mental problems. the surgery could cost $20,000 of the state's prison department considering an appeal. >> gretchen: that's a bizarre story. >> brian: i would say so. >> gretchen: something unusual happening at last night's tampa bay rays game. >> d for detail.

♪ baseball everywhere. >> gretchen: all right. that's grounds keeper for the rays, busting into the carlton dance right in the middle of the field. the dance was made famous by alfonso rivera who played will smith's cousin, carlton, on "the fresh prince of bellaire." he couldn't help himself when the tom jones song came on over the loud speaker. >> brian: if you're wondering where steve is, we are, too. >> steve: thank you very much. i'm with three very important people to talk about this. michelle obama asking america to give her husband four more years. did she make the case effectively? let's talk to our political panel, a.b. stoddard, steven hayes, and jehmu greene is a fox news contributor. she's a democrat. so let's start with you. how did she do last night? >> was amazing.

powerful, passionate. if the convention ended last night, it would be okay. i don't think anyone expected -- we expected her to be good. we didn't expect her to bowl us over. there was a point where i thought my knees buckled. i thought she really focused on what the convention will be about. vision and values. she hit hard on the values points, but started off the conversation for vision which we're going to get a lot more from tonight with costco examine car max ceo's. >> steve: and a.b., last week we heard from ann romney, she did an effective speech, impassioned as well. >> their role is to humanize their husbands and tell other husbands and wives and maybe first-time voters that their spouses are real people, that they have cared about their kids. they've been passionate about their course in life and their causes. she really got across many personal points, many political ones as well, subtle attempt to

tell independent and persuadable voters who remain open minded in this election that the democratic party in particular has been do not begrudge success. they want to help others reach it as well. i thought she managed to do it effectively. >> steve: sure. you would expect that from the wife to tell the story about he's a great man you don't see at home and stuff like that. there are people looking in who -- they're sitting on the fence and trying to figure out, okay. he's a good man at home. but how is he doing running the country? we look at the statistics and we got the unemployment and the loss of wealth and everything else. you know, that's troubling. >> right. i think that remains the bigger challenge of the convention is for democrats to convey to people that despite what they think of the direction of the country, that in fact, president obama cares about them, that he's thinking about them. i think she did a good job in sort of taking the edge off of her husband. i think she made the case that -- to the extent that he's a normal guy, even though he's president of the united states. there were a couple moments where i think for conservatives

listening or maybe independents when it was -- you stop for a second. one a.b. mentioned, this idea that they don't begrudge success. you know, i would argue that their campaign to some degree has been about begrudging success, and that president obama doesn't see us and them, the entire campaign has been us and them. >> steve: something we've been talking about today, jehmu, is the fact that the platform dropped the name god from the platform. it was in there in 2008. not there now. jerusalem, it was in there three times four years ago. it's not in there at all as well. this is not what you want to be talking about today. why did you do it? >> democrats are god fearing people. this is just a nonissue. and i think it's a distraction. i think the real point is to talk about what michelle obama and mayor julian castro really hit on last night, the investment and opportunity. you can't be pro business without being pro education. and i think a lot of those

messages, they actually come from a social justice place in the bible. so -- from a platform standpoint how the issues roll down, those social justice messages, straight from the bible r a part of the issue as -- >> steve: but a.b., when people see the headline, and the headline in abc this morning is for democrats, there is no god in 2012. at least as far as the party's platform is concerned. neither is jerusalem. that's not helpful for them. >> no, it isn't. it's a distraction and i think she's right, platforms distract. it did from mitt romney last week because he differs on certain restrictions for bans on abortion that the party differs with him on and the platform was different than the stated policy of the mitt romney campaign. but to take out words that were there four years ago, obviously is an intentional move. it provides a distraction examine criticism from the republicans right at the time that the convention is kicking off and it doesn't seem like it was entirely necessary.

>> steve: the karaoke over to steven, your reaction? >> beyond that, there was also a very disgraceful move by the head of the democratic party, debbie wasserman schultz, she was quoted as saying, i heard from ambassador orrin that he thinks that republican policies are dangerous to the republican rhetoric about iran and israel is dangerous and accused a journalist of deliberately making up a coach epossed the audio and she said exactly what he reported she said. i think she owes him an apology. and if the distraction democrats don't need. >> steve: this is their big weekend and today is day two. jehmu and steven and a.b., we thank you very much. all right. straight ahead on "fox & friends" live from charlotte, we're going to have a number two with cheese. mcdonald's is going meatless. are you kidding me? you saw anna kooiman you kick brian's butt on the racetrack. he's about to get a secretary chance. so don't blow it, brian.

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>> steve: quick headlines on this wednesday morning. mcdonald's going meatless? what? is that possible?

the world's largest hamburger joint is opening two vegetarian restaurants in india. mcdonald's says it's responding to customers' preferences. they want it there. then imagine seeing your own obituary in the newspaper. a florida guy says his phone was ringing off the hook with condolence calls after an obituary appeared in the paper for a man in the same town with the same name. that is what you call a coincidence. brian, in to you, and anna in the pit crew area. >> brian: we're in the beautiful nascar hall of fame and we are in the pit crew challenge area. and you've been able for the last two hours, to do the best you can to go 2-0 against me in everything nascar related. >> what you don't know is i've been practicing in here. actually i haven't. that's lie. but if you haven't seen our little bit of a challenge we did at the dragway at charlotte motor speedway, go to foxnews.com and check it out because i whipped his tail,

y'all. >> brian: she did. it was pouring rain. meanwhile, it's my chance to do what i do best. work on cars, rotate tires. when i'm lonely, i will rotate the tears on my car alone. you're in for a lot of trouble right now. with a little music and with the blessing of gavin harden, who will be the official score keeper, when you say go, we're going to go into our pit crew challenge. we're going to pull that tire out, place it back on, fill this car with gas. we're going to jack it up and come back here examine i will beat this woman in her hometown and humiliate her in front of all her fans and family! >> come on, i can hear you at home! >> brian: they're all hung over from last night. i saw them in bars. >> ready, set, go! ♪

♪ . >> no! a little help! ♪ ♪ ♪ . >> brian: kooiman, give it up! face it! i am better at screwing than you. there we go. i'm telling you. i have just put on my tire, pulled it out and put it back o. >> so you're done? >> brian: that's what i'm saying. that's what i'm trying to say. >> all right. >> brian: anna kooiman beat me in her home up to. we're 1-1. >> we'll have to have a rematch in new york city doing

something. >> brian: we have to have one more he event. this is very fun. it's interactive. this is a blast. back inside. >> gretchen: brian, the only thing i remember from that whole thing right there is just what you said, just a few seconds ago. >> brian: that we're 1-1 lifetime against each other. >> steve: come on, you got to give her some points. she did it in a dress and high heels. next time do you it in the same outfit. >> brian: not anymore. >> gretchen: how much do you trust the president on the economy? how about mitt romney? frank luntz here next with what the voters are saying. that's coming up. >> steve: let's first check in with martha mccallum who is a couple blocks away from where we are. what happens in 11 minutes? >> i don't know, but that was pretty fun over there. that's good place to be. good morning, everybody from charlotte. a big day defense center. bill clinton will take the stage tonight. why he says the invite really did surprise him. we'll talk about that. brit hume is here this morning as is karl rove with some new polls and some movement in them

really for both of the candidates. we'll show you those numbers. and what has jewish voters unhappy with the platform here in charlotte? we'll talk about that. we'll see you at the top of the hour. mornings aren't alwayserfect. that's why i give them carnationreakfast essentials. it'sacked with 21 vitamins and minerals and protein so kids get the nutrition they need to start the day right. carnation breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start.

>> steve: how much do you trust the president on the economy? how about mitt romney, the challenger? new political adds from both sides are zero not guilty on that. which ones are effective in. >> gretchen: frank luntz tested two of the latest ones on 27 swing voters right here in north carolina. and he joins us. so the swing voters, they decide every election and that's why

you're testing them out with them. what did you find out? >> we want to do do ones that focused on outsourcing since the number one, number two, number three issue is jobs and so we've got one hitting obama, one hitting mitt romney and there is a clear winner in these. let's take a look. >> the obama administration admitted the truth, that $2.3 billion of tax credits went overseas, while millions of americans can't find a job. $1.2 billion to a solar company that's building a plant in mexico. half a billion to an electric car company that created hundreds of jobs in finland. and tens of millions of dollars to build traffic lights in china president obama wasted $34 billion on risky investments. the result? failure. american taxpayers are paying to send their own jobs to foreign countries. tell president obama american

tax dollars should help american taxpayers. >> steve: frank, i guess people are fed up with waste and they hate it even more when it goes someplace else. >> these are jobs that are supposed to be created in america when they're being created someplace else, the public is frustrated. what's interesting with that one, is the democrats, the key line you're look for doesn't go above 50. that is impactful across the spectrum. americans for prosperity has a winner. we looked at the obama approach because the campaign has been really striking mitt romney on outsourcing from bain. let's take a look at that ad. >> i'm barak obama and i approve this mental. >> over the top, erroneous, out of context. big oil's new attack ad. president obama's clean energy initiatives helped create jobs for projects across america, not overseas. what about mitt romney? as a corporate ceo, he shipped american jobs to places like mexico and china. as governor, he outsourced state jobs to a call center in india. he's still pushing tax breaks for companies that ship jobs

overseas. it's just what you would expect from a guy who had a swiss bank account. >> gretchen: so we've seen this before. how did it do with the voters? >> it's not quite as impactful. the reason why? make no mistake, this don't like any outsourcing. but bain is a private company. that's private dollars. barak obama is taking your money and sending it abroad. bain is taking investor money. so they see a difference. >> steve: you had 27 swing voters what, did you find as north carolina goes? >> number one, in despair. depressed. second, they don't believe that barak obama will do any better in the next four years than he's done in the last four. third, they're not yet convinced that mitt romney will be any better than barak obama. so romney is going to have to make the case. they decided no for obama. but romney has to make a case why it should be yes, sir for him. >> gretchen: that's interesting to give people a reason to go to the polls. we'll see you later this week.

>> thank you. >> steve: bring the shoes. >> these are different. these are the olympic team for wrestling. i had to wrestle people back there. >> gretchen: more "fox & friends" two minutes away music: "make someone happy" music: "make someone happy" ♪it's so important to make someone happy.♪ ♪'s so important to make meone happy.♪ ♪make just one someone happy ♪and you will be happy too. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. now in two new flavors.

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