john: the sorting-out process begins for the republican presidential hopefuls. while the president takes to the road to ensure that creating jobs is job number one the i'm john dickerson sitting in for gwen ifill tonight the >> there is no doubt in my mind we are the team that can't be beat for 2012! john: the big winner from the iowa straw poll and the loser the >> i'm going to be ending my campaign for president. john: and the new face in the race hits the campaign trail with a bang. >> it's time for america to believe again.

time to believe that the promise of our future is far greater than even ore -- our best days behind us the john: plus the president takes his case to the people. >> i'll be putting forward a very specific plan to boost the economy and create jobs. john: but with trust in the ability of the administration to create jobs, will it make a difference? covering the issues this week, jeff zeleny of the "new york times," karen tumulty of the "washington post," alexis simendinger of realclearpolitics.com, and david wessel of "the wall street journal." >> covering -- award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875 we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed we

were there to meet them. through the years from insurance to investment management, from real estate to retirement solutions, we've developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this rock has never stood still and that's o thing that will never change. prudential. >> corporate funding is also provided by boeing, at&t, rethink possible. additional funding for "washington week" is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, substituting for gwen ifill, john dickerson of "slate" magazine and cbs news. john: good evening. it was a week for a new script in politics. the republican race quickened

and became more action-packed. michelle bachmann became the frown -- front-runner in iowa. tim pawlenty dropped out. rick perry jumped in with both cowboy boots. >> we appreciate the fact that he's trying to devote some time to it. not just going to be a bus tour but vacationing on martha's vineyard but giving some thought to the american people. i would have thought that's what he would have done from day one the john: meantime, the president left to connect with the heartland, or as close as he could in armor plated buses. karen tumulty, walk us through this and what we expect next. >> it starts under a week ago with this quirky little ritual theaf in ames, wawarks a sort of a picnic and sort of a republican party fundraiser and

people vote at some point in the day. it's p a very good gauge of anything, except it does have a history of winnowing out the field and the casualty was former minnesota governor tim pawlenty, who had come in and spent a lot of money on this little event and had basically done miserably. and michelle bachmann, the congresswoman from minnesota, the two of them had gone after each other a couple nights ago in a debate, and ron paul had a tie. in the middle of all this, rick perry, the governor of texas jumps in. so this week has seen even more turmoil in that rick perry's start was a little bit rockier than some people, especially those who had been waiting at the window for the savior of the republican party had thought. so by the middle of the week you heard rumblings that perhaps congressman paul ryan

might be getting in and today just to remind us she's still out there, sarah palin puts out a very slickly produced web video. joongs -- -- john: i wonder if we're going to be getting those rum rble -- rubble -- rumblings. tell us what his week was like, the president? >> you -- it was really unscripted and free-wheeling. probably 30 different interviews in small, manageable chunks, about 30 seconds at a time. we didn't learn all that much from perry sub stance wise but we learned how big his personality is. he was eager to show this. but then he got himself in trouble in that first news cycle in iowa when he of course made that famous comment we've heard all week about ben bernanke, suggesting he would

get ugly treatment in texas. john: the chairman of the federal reserve? >> right. and the next day he didn't take questions at all. very scripted. so we saw in a very short period of time he realizes he's not in texas any more. he's a very seasoned politician, he's won every election he's been in. but this was a different stage entirely. what i thought was most interesting was how swift some republicans were to jump on him. they did not give him even a second of a break. most ever -- of these people are former bush advisors and there say long history between the two. i think he learned this is going to be harder than it looks. he also had a sense of discipline though. he goes down to south carolina at the week end and he still has an impressive presence about him and as i talked to voters, i kept hearing request, "he looks like a leader." you didn't hear that as much at

michelle bachmann events or ron paul events. john: and the very disciplined bus tour of the president of the united states, what was he trying to do? what message was he trying to get out there? >> the white house made an effort to tell us thises with an official tour of minnesota, iowa, and illinois. this was not campaigning, they were arguing loudly. the president was trying to make an effort in that period of time when congress was away from washington to start working on so -- some of the, they really are campaign themes he is going to start showcasing after labor day when congress is back and in lots of ways you could see him practicing the lines he is going to be using all the way from the fall into the beginning of the year. his effort is going to be that he's an outsider, even though he has the job at the white house. that he is the anti-congress, or anti-republican congress and

he wanted to make the case that america is great, the politics are bad but we need to put country ahead of party. all that sounds very campaign oriented. then it was the big tease for the jobs plan that's to come in the fall. he was saying that it's a great restorative for him. he loved seeing the audiences. jeff was out there with him on a day. he genuinely seemed to relish the opportunity to meet with people and talk to them and it was the huggy-touchy-feely president one day. in lots of ways he was showcasing themes he will keep coming back to. >> the one thing hanging over settle economy and the fears people have. the word is that things are getting worse. give us a sense. the economy, is it getting worse? what's the real story and how worried should they be? >> i think they should be worried and aeverybody should

be worried. basically the plan was by now the federal stimulus would be fading and the private sector would be picking up the slack. there were a lot of economists who thought by the second half of the year we would have this palpable sense be gaining momentum. that hope has evaporated and in the last couple of weeks the economic indicators have been very disappointing. there were new numbers this week that were very disappointing. home sales were down. looks like people are backing out of contracts they had signed to buy homes. more people filed for unemployment compensation and so on. people are giving to say -- beginning to say wow, the first half was lousy. we could blame that on what happened in japan and the crisis in the middle east. that was supposed to be wearing off but it's not. john: and let's look at a clip here of the president talking. we'll talk about it in a second with jeff.

>> i've got a whole bunch of responsibilities, which means i have to make choices sometimes that are unattractive and i know will be bad for me politically and i know will get big, uh, supporters of mine disappointed. but what i want everybody to think about is the trajectory in which we've gone. john: jeff, you were there at this event. he's got to be both energetic and have conversations with his supporters, but he knows about these dark clouds. how did he navigate that? >> the speech we just heard was from ata, illinois, a town of about 800 people in rural illinois. it's in the quad city, iowa, media market and i think that's another reason for it because iowa is very important as a general election battleground. one thing i was struck by is he was, even from these friendly

crowds, the questions he were getting were all gloom and dominant. a young college student stood up and said "i don't think i'll gel -- get a job." a real estate agent said, "i haven't been able to sell houses for a long time." he was trying to reassure them. with you after send -- spending several weeks at rene vents, the hope and confidence and optimism is on the republican side this time and the worry is on the democratic side. you talk to those voters who like obama overall, they are worried for his future and re-election. he was trying to show that he's going to be a rational fighter. he is going to, as alexis said, he is the anti-republican congress. but he wasn't as fiercely partisan. he was trying to be the adult in the room, as he's said so many times, and that look, i'm

probably the best option here. >> that is probably his real opponent. all this jockeyy -- jockeying among the opponents, i think the president's ream opponent is the economy and what's going on in people's lives. a couple weeks ago somebody called my attention to the consumer confidence indexes. if you look at where they stand now, there have only been two presidential election years where they have been as low as they are today. those two were 1980 and 1992, which also happened to be the only two election years since then that americans have thrown out an elected incumbent. john: so to try and fix this, he's going to give a speech after labor day. what do we know is going to be in this one? >> yeah. another speech. well, the president, as you know, makes it clear in every way he can that he is been working, working, working on the jobs problem and the

economic problems. this is another in a long series, and a long series it is, of efforts since the day he arrived in the oval office, you could argue with the troubled asset relief program and on forward. many folks in his own party have been organize -- arguing, you need to show some leadership. this is going to get bolder. this is likely to get worse next year. you've got to do something bigger. so he is arguing with his advisors over the best way to do this. he could go for tax credits to try to induce hiring. he is definitely entheused and was talking on the bus trip about infrastructure, putting construction workers to work. there are several ways to do that. you can do that through an infrastructure bank or a job corps program where you are directly infusing money into hiring. he's talking about the range of things he's already been arguing for, legislation still

stymied in congress the >> his approval numbers on the economy have been going down in part because these measures don't work the will they work, david? >> i don't know what the measures are. i think if he says -- comes out and said we need to pass free trade agreements and mass unemployment compensation, not only we but the people are going to yawn. we have as many unemployed people in the united states today as there are people in greece. it's become, you don't sense it in the president's rhetoric that it's any kind of emergency. the problem is there is very little he could do now that would make a difference between now and the election and even if he did have some bold ideas there is no sign that the republicans would go for them. so i don't, i can't quite figure out what he's going to do. maybe the highway construction and gas tax and all that but my

gut is they must be cooking up something more interesting than that. >> one thing i've been hearing is that the white house is not that optimistic that congress is going to go for this. although hope is his business, the president. but this could be an effort to say he's going on the offense, getting tougher and you republicans, where is your viable economic plan? so the president is not standing there empty handed, that he can argue for something. >> right. although that doesn't put bread on the table and when you are at 26% approval on the economy you have to hope either that something passes or that you get a good opponent. let's take a look at rick perry and his remarks about the fed. there were some who were very happy to see this because it was a big gaffe they thought. >> if this guys -- guy prints more money between now and the election i don't know what you all would do to him in iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly

down in texas. i mean printing more money to play politics at this particular time in american history is almost treacherous, or treasonous in my opinion. john: karen, this guy in that case was ben bernanke, the chairman of the federal reserve bank. i was talking to one of the voters there by the pool and he said, you know, he sounds a lot like bush. you're from texas. how are they similar? how are they different >> well, very -- yeah, they have the same accent and cowboy boots and same bearing. but when you think back to the way george bush ran in 1999 and 2000 it was very much a softening of the edges of partisanship. he ran as, now a cliche, the compassionate conservative. he talked about education.

he took on tom delay over, you know, he accused him of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. it was a conservativism borne very much of hope and affirmation. rick perry is sharpening the partisan edges, and this is a conservativism that is borne very much of anger. the accent may sound the same, but the words are very, very different the john: who would obama choose to run against? would he prefer perry to romney? >> probably. he would probably prefer sarah palin over either of them. but i think it's going to be, again, if you assume that it the big issue is going to be the economy, rick perry has a good story to tell from texas about job creation. but it is really, you know, mitt romney's whole persona is mr. fix-it. john: jeff, in the republican party then it's between the

establishment and the tea party. the theory was that perry would work for both camps. he appeals to the tea party but he was the executive experience and is it -- is pro-business. is there a feeling among republicans that he might be too hot for a general election? >> good distinction. a few of those comments are but overall i think he's not too hot. he fills the stage, obviously and he has a passion and some of the anger. but for the general -- general election, one thing he's never done in texas, he isn't a crossover candidate. even though he was a democrat until like 1991 or 1992 so he has sort of both things. but i think that what he's saying now, you're absolutely right, karen, he is sharpening the edges and there is no independent voter or very few who is going to gravitate toward that message. which is why mitt romney is

sitting back, watching this all unfold. he is just fine with this for now. but they don't know exactly how far governor perry is going to get which is why the romney campaign is keeping an eye on iowa. misch -- michelle bachmann is probably the biggest loser of the week in terms of only a week ago she won this iowa straw poll and everything moved on quickly and everyone is sort of going after her. on the pawlenty argument which he isn't around to make any more, that experience matters, governing matters. >> we should also bring up that governor perry also this week cast doubt on the science of warm -- global warming and also suggested that evolution is just a theory that's out there. these are the kinds of comments that could come back to haunt him. john: i'm going to ask david quickly though about the substance of the bernanke comment. first of all, talking about the fed chairman in a political

race, that seems slightly new. the president of the dallas fed also responded. talk a little bit about that, but also is printing money, is that generally accepted as an economic problem right now? >> well, there is an argument whether the fed is pursuing the right policies. i think where governor perry got in trouble was using the word treason. when ron pau says governor perry makes me look like a moderate, you know he's gone pretty far. i think there were a lot of money interests in the republican party that were upset by that word. but ben bernanke had trouble getting confirmed for a second time -- term. bush put him in the first time. obama put him in the second time and there was some question whether he would be confirmed. with the quantitative easing,

some people think it is not helping the economy and is going to inevitably produce inflation down the road. those people are criticizing him. others think it's the only sound policy for a federal reserve chairman to pursue at a time when the rest of the government seems to be paralyzed. so there is a legitimate debate there. but he chose his words unfortunately. john: the president had his own issue with the base of his party this week. maxine waters, congresswoman from california, was at a jobs event in atlanta, georgia, long lines of people seeking jobs. she said, you know, the president is off talking in iowa. that's great but he should be talking about the problems people are having in the cities. is this a vulnerability for the president? >> it is in the sense that every part of your -- our economy and every sort of demographic is struggling and suffering in some way and african-americans are suffering

exponentially. 17% unemployment, much higher than the national average. so in that sense there should be a lot of attention being paid to the part of our work force that are struggling the most. the interesting thing i thought about that discussion was to look more carefully at where the president's support is. although support for president obama among african-americans has come down slightly, it's come down from such a stratospheric high, 81% in the most recent gallup, it's not a crash down like in the rest of the electorate. most people, at least most democrats who are very supportive of the president have been very quick to say this is not anger and willingness to abandon president obama, it's just the sense of frustration the whole country is feeling the john: karen, on the republican

side it seems to me the argument is going to come down to romney and perry and who has the better experience in creating jobs. romney made his case that he's got it in the real wompltd is that basically it? that wins the kay? >> yes. his record though is problematic because what he was doing in the real world was essentially, you know, invest ing in companies, leveraging companies. so in some of these deals the companies came out stronger. in some, the companies went bankrupt and ended up laying off a lot of workers. so that record of governor's -- governor romney's could also come back to haunt him. john: and at the state fair governor perry said i thought texas was in the real world. >> he fore shadowed, he said governor romney can talk about his four years as governor of massachusetts but i've been

governor of texas for 10 years. ats that brarveado. he can argue he's created all these jobs. it will be argued what kind of jobs those were but he has a credible message. his slogan on the side of his bus says it all, "getting america to work again." his advisors want him to say that over and over and over again and not much lells. -- else. john: that's why his last speech in iowa he read it almost word for word. unfortunately we're going to have to leave it there for debates to come. thanks to all of you. thanks to all of you for joining us. gwen will be back next week. in the meantime be sure to go to our web site tore the -- for the "washington week" extra. we'll take you back to 1999 and the iowa straw poll that year. i'm john dickerson.

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