>> be a titanicing to struggle. >> this week, will fears economic and political headwinds make barack obama a one-term president? >> i really implore you as a citizen of this country to please reconsider. >> as republicans begged chris christie to take the plunge, those mitt romney begin to look like rodney dangerfield? why do so few african-americans vote republican? >> it is just brainwashing and people not being open-minded, pure and simple. >> at alabama anax the toughest immigration law in the country the political debate heats up. >> the reason states have to deal with this is because of the failure of the federal government. >> finally, boston red sox made baseball history with another aspect september fold. >> maybe the worst situation i have been involved in in my

whole career. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- barack obama's top political adviser is in new hampshire to of course drum up support for the president's reelection effort. david axelrod told an audience of politicians and business leaders in manchester that the path to a second term would be a titanic struggle. and mitt romney, who longs to be the president appointed in 2012, agrees. >> the captain of the ship has been inattentive, otherwise occupied. [laughter] finally, most importantly, it is going to sink. >> i know it is early but with history as your guide, what are the indicators regarding a second term for barack obama?

>> they are not good. we have 90% of americans saying the economy is bad right now, the highest number in this entire presidency and the highest really since november 2008. david axelrod did speak the obvious truth, and that is, that democrats are far less enthusiastic about voting in 2012 -- not simply than they were in 2008 -- but far less enthusiastic than republicans. enthusiasm does indicate eventually turn out. that is the problem. >> colby? >> the same polls that shows 90% think things are dismal, the same poll says 52% of the public still blames the bush administration and republicans for the bad state of the economy. but axelrod's assessment is probably right on target. it is hard to see where things

look good for barack obama, except if you go back three years ago, same time, and look at the polls, you will see hillary clinton twice the lead of barack obama and guiliani and thompson were leaders. >> evan? >> barack obama won in 2008 by turnout, getting people to vote and exciting people. he is basically just plain old base politics. class warfare, the same old stuff. call republican socialist. why is that going to excite people to come out and vote? >> i think the titanic struggle was the effort to be the underdog and fighting for you, the fighting that helped him in the last election. it axle just handed mitt romney a metaphor. the ship is sinking. he went to the congressional black caucus and told them to stop crying, stop grumbling, stop complaining. it strikes me -- struck me that if you are doing that with your base you really are in trouble

and you are scolding them rather than looking at yourself. >> foreign policy question. we learned another major terrorist, american-born anwar al-awlaki has been killed. osama bin laden and this gentleman. does it translate into political capital for the president? dam it translate into a good talking point. he can make the point he has made real progress against al- qaeda than did george bush. but in the context of talking about now the economy, that is first and everything else is so far behind it just hardly matters. >> it takes away national security as an issue. democrats are traditionally low were on national security and now they are killing terrorists right and left. it takes it off the table unless there is another terrorist attack. >> why doesn't he get more credit for this? >> he does. the commander in chief credentials are his best as president, people give him the

highest ratings. ratings hired and traditionally democrats get. but does it mean jobs? i don't care who is building the drones -- apparently drones were used or reportedly they were used in that assassination. you know, is that producing jobs? are there drone factories in ohio? >> luckie martin -- lockheed martin -- boeing. >> there is too much pain to feel the pleasure of getting these really, really bad guys. and obama is not the type to spite of all and the end zone so there has not been much gloating over it. there has not been any -- he has not stopped to really capitalizing on it. >> let me show you a picture. wizard owner ted leonsis, at a wizard's game, on the d.c. sports blog.

ted leonsis challenges the president rhetoric about the gap between the very rich and everyone else. >> i voted for the president, and that's out on donations to his reelection campaign. it blows my mind when i am asked for money as a donation and at the same time i am being blasted as the bad guy. his advice to the president is to rethink how to talk to business and sell to business leaders on your plan to make the president -- country great. many of us want to be part of the solution. we are not the problem. >> well, he is not all wrong in this sense rich people do pay an awful lot of taxes. but warren buffett has a -- you can't just debate the fact that rich people, really rich people, their average tax rate is about 15%. americans look at that and say how kennedy. it is because of capital gains, that is the reason. but both are right. it is true rich people pay a district -- does the poor amount of money but it is true they pay a very low tax rate. >> is he right about that?

>> he is very thin skin. they are the ones who came out of the debacle way ahead. what is the real complain when you look at what you have gotten. the real class warfare is taking away benefits that go to the poorest and the working class. that is class warfare. and republican dan coats said, these people who don't have any spin in the game, let's tax them. he is referring to the people who get the earned income tax credit and only pay payroll taxes. >> and sales taxes and all sorts of other taxes. the war on poverty is over and the board lost. i think what you've got right now is abundantly clear that evan says and rightly so, you have to raise the capital gains tax of this people are paying the higher rates that every

republican it is pledging to abolish -- the capital gains tax. >> obama is getting his biggest push back from wall street. he is getting it because of the reforms initiated after he came into office. >> comedian rodney dangerfield is to say i get no respect. good mitt romney feeling some of that? >> you and your family -- it is not only the right thing to do but i think something you must do at that time of the life, both for you and your country. for me, the answer to that was -- >> chris christie saying he is not going to run in california. they were begging him to run. let's be obvious, even mitt romney -- the rank and file, there pulls quickens. >> mitt romney has done better in the debates and rule on some people. chris christie would be a very appealing candidate except that

he weighs too much. it is an issue that everybody is uncomfortable with but really is an issue. >> technically isn't it and little late. a big mountain to climb? >> a point of personal privilege. you have to have a 28-inch waist? how about being a leader. chris christie has touched something in the american people. would you like his politics are not. anybody who stands out there in the face of a hurricane and says to the full still on the beach get the hell off the beach, it crosses democrat and republican. >> but i think his weight will be an issue. >> it may show a lack of discipline. evan has a point on lack of discipline. >> getting personal. >> the comparison -- i don't think he is not getting respect. he is not getting the love. republicans have been speedskating -- donald trump,

palin, bachmann, perry, and then they fall out of love and they are still looking, trying to find someone else. they don't want and arranged marriage would be electable guy. >> let's talk about the voters. they listen to chris do not and their response. >> they like being blunt -- he is the guy i would like to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with at the same setting. [laughter] >> it would be all you can eat. >> did you see woody did this week? he struck a blow to national good taste. he eliminated out of the new jersey but did the tax credit for the worst show on television "jersey shore," which shows people who are drunk, fighting, hooking up indiscriminately, stupid, and they are all italian-americans. they call each other guido, and so forth. he just and dear himself to

every italian-american family. >> he gets my vote for that. >> the this thing is a problem. when you sit in the bathtub and the water level in the toilet rises, it is a good indication -- i think that is a problem. >> let's talk a little bit about african-american voters. last weekend the president raised eyebrows in washington when he told the congressional black office it is time to stop complaining, grumbling, get to work. here is republican herman cain in an interview with wolf blitzed her. >> why is the republican party in basically poison for so many african-americans? >> because many african- americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view. i have received some of the same vitriol simply because i am running for the republican nomination as a conservative. >> nevertheless, margaret, cain says if he were the nominee one-

third of african-americans would vote for him. brainwash? >> he is doing well -- is book christie standard. he talks clearly and bluntly. i would like to find out if godfather pizza got any government help when it was starting out that was the result of the democratic officials. >> this is one way that he is not going to turn around of the two-thirds of african-americans who do not go for the republican party by saying they are brainwashed. he is going to lose it just that way. but he also conveniently misses a little history because there was a time when the republican party did enjoy great support from african-american community, particularly because of lincoln. significantly, almost up to eisenhower. but you get something called the southern strategy and which the republican party makes it clear to the south that you can come with us. we know don't like the civil

rights bill, we know you don't like the poverty programs, come with us. and they played that card since the nixon administration, and even some african-american republicans acknowledged it. and cain should at least face the facts. >> adjusting strategy in self- promotion. >> blamed the customer. probably not a good idea in retail politics. if barack obama's presidency has suffered from his limited experience in public office -- being united states senator for four years before he was elected and having been in the state senate -- i mean, herman cain is not what people are looking for in terms of public experience. that really is a problem. >> he is a gadfly -- free to say what everyone's because he can't win. >> in the party he is running,

not having government experience is a plus. so those romney in a way. >> a political reporter should plan to spend christmas in the morning i will because florida decided they want to move the primary to january 30 force -- denver a 31st. not yet other states want to be first -- iowa, new hampshire, nevada, south carolina. >> there is an arms race. one person moves and everybody races to get back so it would be thanksgiving we spend in des moines. in this, democrats and more disciplined than republicans because they take away all your delegates that you move your primary whereas republicans are not as strict. >> they take half? >> republicans take half an democrats take all. but, mark, you were saying republicans then even give back. they don't enforce it. to them at the convention they do seat the delegates.

to me it is even more serious than florida chauvinism. there is a genius to the process being extended over time and voters having a chance to look at these candidates under different circumstances rather than having the whole thing compressed where it simply becomes a media event. the genius of iowa and new hampshire is candidates have to see real people and answer questions from real voters. once you eliminate that, in light is what all take place in a tv studio. >> in practical ways, it is a real problem for someone like chris christie. he got to ramp up so many to get in -- and is moving up of the day, he hardly has time to get ready for something like florida. >> now he needs to file in the next couple of weeks because of the move. and while they are whispering in his heat year, he got the money, that would be ollie has an terms of running a campaign.

what is the motivation for florida to do this? >> attention. >> you make money. coming into the state. >> iowa and new hampshire -- but picking up on margaret's point, john mccain won new hampshire in 2000 and upset george bush to outspend him and had all the establishment with 114 town meetings. that would was. 114 town meetings. it takes time to connect. you eliminate it, whether it is chris christie who does town meetings almost as well as mccain and as interestingly, you basically for closing his chance. >> the power of the super pacs, these well funded supposedly independent but not actually a political action -- >> anyway, so it does, it curtails of the democratic process. you don't have as much time for

retail politics. voters did not have a chance to get to know you. and it does happen -- you see them talking. >> you have to do that. it is not like a primary. >> you have to visit all the counties in iowa to compete and it takes a lot of time, a lot of work, a lot of retail. >> any way to stop it? >> only the party. >> you got to preserve iowa and new hampshire at that time. once the candidates leave new hampshire, it is no longer retail, all wholesale. the land on the tarmac, interviewed by the local news anchor. which brings into charlotte today? that's it was questions. silly shows and studios and they never see you. >> not vacuous questions. [laughter] >> in an abbreviated schedule,

who benefits the most? >> molock -- romney benefits because he is the best organized. >> the republican establishment likes romney more. maybe they allowing to happen because they favor him. >> conspiracy theory. >> good thing to end on. >> receiving end of some harsh stuff because of this. dam it the immigration debate. -- >> the immigration debate. reaction to the anti-immigration law which went into affect, police broad powers. they can stop and detain anyone they suspect is here illegally, track down children in schools and the justice department is suing alabama and arizona on the issue that is becoming a defining issue in the presidential campaign but in this one, colby, rick perry sounds like a humanitarian. >> he says if you oppose something like in-state tuition

for children of undocumented aliens, that you don't have a heart. he caught a lot of flak for that and stepped back a little bit. actually, he was right in expressing this sentiment that way. fact is, the republican party, if you look at the nominees, or the candidates for the presidential nomination, they all disagree with rick perry. they all sort of support the flavor of the immigration law in alabama. i think this does tell us a whole lot about this republican field that we are looking at. >> perry said on cnbc there -- it was in the best interest of texas to have the young people educated rather than kicked to the curb. >> who could argue with that? how could you argue with that? >> people do. >> because they are children of undocumented --

>> but the perry argument is you have to solve its state-by-state because there is no federal policy. and i think the president is saying the same thing. >> he is right. but then dropped the ball. they were close to a deal a few years ago. but most of what is going on is planning on fear. fear is a terrific way of getting votes, sorry to say. immigration is not as bad as it used to be because of our economy. we do not have huge hoards of illegal immigrants coming over the border. it is less than what it used to be but it is a way of scary people about the other and it is a old campaign trip. >> i think perry might have been able to be soft and immigration if he had not consulted his potential voters by saying they did not have a heart if they did not agreed. but this alabama lot is good harshest -- this alabama law is the harshest.

>> you see how much has changed in the past eight years. george w. bush was committed to national immigration policy and a path to citizenship. and john mccain was earlier and he and ted kennedy worked closely on it. that changed. it started changing in the 2008 campaign and it accelerated to the point where mike huckabee told me in an interview that one of the reasons he did not run this time was because the atmosphere was so toxic. he pointed out that tom tancredo, the former republican congressman of colorado, has defined the republican debate -- >> he attacked representative. this week as harshly as anybody because of immigration. >> will we have another government shut down? we narrowly avoided one. >> just tell the congress to rule that if they close down the

government, they will also close down the paymaster on capitol hill and they don't get a dime. that will take care of the problem. >> who is going to vote for that? >> part of the problem is a -- democrats feel they have been rolled. now they are trying to earn their manhood by standing up. and understandably so. they are doing it on the right issue behalf -- the right issue, axle of the funds for disaster relief, whether it is fires and texas where the floods in vermont. we talk about business being concerned about certainty and predictability. if you think at some point they might get upset with the republicans who continue to threaten to close of the government. >> it seems like everything now goes to the limit.

that republicans have become a drama queen and king. and so, what ever they don't disagree with they threaten to shut down the government. >> what they are worried about is this incredible debt that we have, and justifiably so. >> debt overhang hangs over all. in europe, the united states, we have lived beyond our means for a long time and this is the core and the center of all our problems. and a problem with the political process is involved deal with it is of the monster stands there threatening us with real crist -- fiscal crises in the political problems will not deal with it. >> has the curse of the bambino return to boston? >> absolutely shocked. i was watching it last night and could not believe that. >> my friends, how many times have we been here before? there is again.

game 6 did in 1986 world series. suffering the bucky dentism. is the curse that? >> never left. it was briefly interrupted. sort of like the prosperity of ireland. it was enjoyable but we all knew it was not going to last. all red sox fans are fatalistic. either. in protestant or believed devoutly in original sin or fatalistic irish who believes we will suffer in this world and things will it better in the next. terrible mix magic -- mixed marriage and they know the red sox will lose. second-highest payroll and all of baseball. they are not really underdog's any longer. we lose to the team with the second lowest payroll and all of baseball, tampa bay. >> good news. the washington nationals finished the season one game short of 500. that is something to be pleased

with. >> and strasbourg's's arm is pretty good. >> 10 strikeouts in the last game. >> great athletes over paid just like i was in high school, i would choke. >> i should yield my time to the diamond from massachusetts. i do have a son-in-law from boston who watches on his computer screen every game. it is a national team, of sorts. and we still think of them as an underdog and root for them. it affects all of us. >> but mark talks about the theology, which is very deep and profound. >> red sox fans are a little different than the nationals fans, tampa bay. 712 consecutive sellout. since may 11, 2003, every single game at fenway park has been oversold and oversubscribed. no other team in the history of baseball -- >> it is a real ball park and

not a skybox ballpark. >> it will continue because we are all masochists. >> on that sad note, see you next week. >> for a transcript of this broadcast, log onto www.insidewashington.tv. broadcast, log onto www.insidewashington.tv.

from washington, "the mclaughlin group," the american original. for over two decades, the shar