>> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org. >> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and politico, reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> don't forget, as he has been president for 3.5 years, and talk is cheap. >> this week on "inside washington," squaring off in ohio. >> if you want to give the policies of the last decade another try, you should vote for mr. romney. >> is the president connecting

with the american people? >> they needed some signal that he has their interests at heart. >> the attorney general under siege. you >> leave me no alternative but to join those that call upon you to resign your office. >> i don't have any intention of resigning. >> what to do about syria? >> we have repeatedly urged the russian government to cut these military ties completely. "tim brant's college football prev captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> it wasn't a face-to-face debate, but it will do for the time being. mitt romney and barack obama delivering major speeches on the same day within minutes of each other in the same state, ohio. first, romney in cincinnati. >> he has put together almost as

much public debt as of the prior presidents combined. what four more years of that? you call that forward? that is forward over a cliff. >> hundred 50 miles away, president obama at in cleveland. >> i don't believe in giving someone like mr. romney the huge tax cut is worth ending the basic security we have always provided the elderly and the sick and those actively looking for work. >> governor romney's speech was short and to the point. the american economy is broken and replace barack obama with me and i will fix it. the president's speech was long. reelect me and you keep moving forward, and romney and his republican allies in congress will make things worse. did either candidate make the sale in ohio, mark? >> i don't think so. mitt romney's speech made me this logic fort george bush.

-- made me nostalgic for george bush. i would point out to the president that for a speech to be a model, it does not have to be eternal. >> charles? >> the president's fallstaff said that it was a -- the president's own staff said that it was a reframing speech, meaning that the picture was the same it. was the same litany of staff -- you go all the way back to the first speech he gave to congress a month after his inauguration. he has trouble running on his record. he has not proposed anything large or bowl. -- bold. >> nina? >> one guy has a new friend, the other has an edge a sketch -- new frame, the other has and it just gets. -- has an etch-a-sketch.

this was more of the same. >> colby, would you pick a winner? >> not in ohio? obama did not do what he has to do, which is to explain why we are where we are and how to get out. he did not do that. he has not part about the real problem he has had the past 3.5 years, the obstruction in congress and a why he cannot overcome it. he has got to be able to show that he can be a successful president. what we have seen over the past three years is that he has been blocked and block and lot. >> he has had control of congress for two full years. he had public opinion on his side and he got a program he wanted. >> i think we need to dispel

this argument about control of congress. he does not have -- he has not had control of the united states senate. it takes 60 votes to get something done in the senate. >> these days. >> he does not 60 votes. >> he made a speech after speech in the beginning saying we need a stimulus and we need reform of health care. also said cap-and-trade, which democrats oppose. stimulus, obamacare, and here we are. >> mark, we heard james carville saying that the need for the president to convince american voters that he as their special -- their best interests at heart -- why are democrats are nervous about this? >> elections come in the final analysis, as james carville understands, or about the voters -- are about the voters. following on colby's point, i

would compare the nation right now to a subway car, and it as come to an abrupt and unexpected and slightly scary stop between two scheduled stations. what we need is an authoritative voice to come on and tell you, reassure you that this is what happened, this what is being done to change it, and this is what we're going to get out. we are missing this -- >> the reason he cannot do the second part -- i agree with your analysis, but the second part he cannot do because he does not have an answer. he shot the errors in his quiver and did the keynesian expansion. he has now is the buffett rule and small ball stuff that everybody understands is not going to make any real difference. they are talking points, but not a program or vision.

if he had won, he would do it. he does not have one. that is the problem. >> every time we get momentum going, the car comes to a stop again, as it did over raising the debt limit. the 60-phone business is a new twist in american political life. harry truman campaign against the do nothing congress. he has to figure out a way to explain in and not-53 minute way how he has been stymied. >> one of my favorite colonist'' rights this week that barack obama's opponent is "a stolid, ."ffe-prone challenger dougl the less we see of them, the better each of them fares. >> that is a clown question,

bro. [laughter] back story to that -- look it up on twitter. this is not lincoln-douglas. what we're seeing is a relatively weak republican candidate -- there were others on the bench who were stronger, and romney is not a natural conservative who can make the case that ryan and mitch daniels could. obama is a president who got his way in the first two years and who has a dismal economy. i would say one thing -- a lot of liberals, like william ballston, adviser in the clinton administration, excellent social scientist, who says that what obama can and should do is to seize the issues, entitlement reform our tax reform. it is christie, but it would give him an argument. he does not have one now. >> colby? >> i regret he did not take the

opportunity a year ago with simpson-bowles. i thought he was going to step up to that. he didn't. but i think obama framed the issue well in ohio by saying there is a trac -- choice, beatrice between the direction he wants to go added direction -- the direction romney wants to go. >> the private sector is doing fine. >> was president obama last week, and almost immediately, republicans had an a criticized him. >> the baprivate sector is doing fine. the private sector is doing fine. >> he says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. did he not get the message of wisconsin? >> shortly thereafter, the democrats were at attacking romney for that. >> did he not get the message of wisconsin? ron >> the economics doesn't

work. -- romney economics doesn't work. it did not work in massachusetts, it will not work and washington. >> colby, let's look at the private economy. how find is it? >> not as fine as the president seems to think it look, that was a gaffe, and there are gaps on both sides. we can play the election out this way. i did not expect this of president obama. i really did not expect him to say something like that, like john mccain's comments four years ago about the economy -- >> saying that the economy was sound. >> he said it, he did, he will have to work his way out of it. >> on the other hand, how smart is it politically for a candidate to criticize the president was saying we need more policemen and teachers? >> that is what i mean by ronny

being new to the game of political discourse, even though he was a governor. it is a classic liberal trapped. if you have a city budget of $1 billion, and a democratic mayor and you propose a cut of $100, he will close the fire station. that is what you do. the firemen and policemen are always first. has a trip always used. they don't speak about the guy in the back room of the dmv playing angry birds all day. no, it is always the firemen and policemen. romney steps into it and he repeats the line that obama used instead of stepping away and saying that obama thinks the way to increase employment is to hire bureaucrats. he got the wrong word and he is paying for it. >> the revere poster boy of the new republican party, scott walker, governor of wisconsin, immediately took governor romney to task and said no, this is wrong.

we want teachers, firefighters, and police, and that is why we provided for them in wisconsin. mitt romney just calls barack obama out of touch. being called out of touch by mitt romney is a little bit like being called case list by -- called tasteless by lady gaga. [laughter] >> do you prepare these? >> they are spontaneous. where is the prompter? [laughter] president obama talking about the private sector -- since 2001, there has not been a net single job created in the united states in the private sector. that is eight years of george w. bush, 3.5 years of barack obama. that is a terrible, terrible record, dismal for the future. >> nina, what did you make of

jeb bush's comments about the republican party, that ronald reagan would have a hard time if you define the party as having an orthodoxy that is not allowed this agreement? >> it is a vicious truth. it is so with a box that you saw him try to walk it back the next day -- so orthodox that you saw him try to walk it back the next day. what we are watching is the extremes in both parties -- more at the moment in the republican party, but it will be true in the democratic party eventually -- that is where the money is. the money gets plowed into whoever is the most orthodox candidate in the primary. facto -- ns desp a whoever wins is more to the right or to the left of the previous candidate. as much as americans think of themselves as moderates or the

middle of road and want to compromise, the system, with this gusher of money that we now see on the outside, is not doing that. >> jeb b -- jeb bush was making another point about ronald reagan, his capacity to bridge differences and compromise did not to give up ideological ground, but to find common ground on tough issues. that is what is missing in washington today. remark is ridiculous. he said that reagan is too right wing, and to quote your favorite columnist, who happens to be me, the party has just nominated a guy who lives 15 miles to the left of ronald reagan. every republican nominee since reagan has been more liberal than him. >> we had a special election this week in arizona, in a district that republicans have

carried at the presidential level consistently since its creation. the democrats running as a democrat, and national democrat, a vanquished the republican, an iraq veteran, who came out for the ryan budget, the privatization of medicare, and that was a loser, folks. take that as an example of where we're going in the debate in. > -- in 2012. >> colby, this week the federal reserve reported that our network is shrinking -- net worth is shrinking. a lot of this is housing. median home equity dropped 42.3%. >> this is pre-barack obama. that is an argument we are going to hear over and over again, who is responsible for it. i would like to not shift gears

but stay on the subject of 2012, especially where congress is concerned. that is where we are going to see real action over the house of representatives. the chance that democrats can recover and gain the house -- if that is the case, it strikes me as odd that president obama is not out there campaigning for a democratic house of representatives. >> that is another question, but related to what i just brought up, the man in the white house, whether it is fair or not, is going to take a hit for this. >> the numbers were 2007 to 2010, net worth dropped. the fact is, almost all of that is 2008 and beneath. i don't think almost any of it was after 2008. but it doesn't matter. it is a great one minor, and you have to take 15 minutes to explain how you really should not blame me for that, and that is no good. >> tell that to the couple who

borrowed on the equity of the house to send their children to college, and now their house is under water. >> that is exactly right. comes back to ronald reagan's question, are you better off than you were four years ago? according to the gallup poll, 49% of americans say that in their local areas, their home towns, the economy is in excellent or good condition, but only 25% say that the national, the nation, and the country is in good economic condition. that is really a disconnect for president obama, and he is going to make the case that we are improving, we are not there, but i understand what you are going through, i really do. people laugh at doe clinton, but his ability to identify with the suffering and the answer to the anxiety was a very important point. >> romney should be able to hit it out of the park with these numbers, it seems to me.

>> the real problem obama has is one mark said. he should say that things are improving, but when the numbers came out for may, he could not say that anymore. you could say that over the winter. unseasonably high employment. now with the may numbers -- what he is saying instead it, we have got headwinds. it is not meet, it is europe, whenever. -- whatever. the president is not the one who shape the economy at least in the short run. some of them last into presidencies way after them. but that is how we win elections. john mccain did not have a snowball's chance in hell. the economy is stuck and obama cannot argue a it is improving. >> it is and not talk and we are

not in a recession -- not stuck we're not in recession. >> the ultimate example -- >> you cannot deny -- >> the ultimate point of what charles was saying is that there was a focus group with a woman who voted for obama last time, and what could he do now, they asked for, and she said that if he were to really get gas prices to drop -- a, they have dropped, and b, presidents don't have a damn thing to do with that. >> reality rears its ugly head again. >> you won't appoint a special prosecutor in the face of a potential conflict of interest, you won't tell the truth about what you know and when you knew it on fast and furious. >> with all due respect, senator, there is so much factually wrong with the

promises you started your statement with it is almost breathtaking. >> that is senator john cornyn, attorney general eric holder. he is demanding eric holder's resignation. holder says he's not going to quit. john mccain says that the leaks are intended to make the president look tough as he campaigns for reelection bid how much trouble is holder in, nina? >> none. yes, they will beat the daylights out of him every chance they get. if barack obama is reelected, he's probably not coming for a second term. but there has not been an attorney general who is not had the holy bejeezus bonked out of him in memory. some of them deserve it, like gonzales, -- and some of them didn't --

>> depending on their party. >> no, not depending on their party. john ashcroft ended up looking halfway decent. this is not a job for ninnies. no matter what you decide, and you will get aus beating you up, often with justification. >> what about the fast and furious situation? >> look, i think holders sent a letter late in the week where he offered to personally negotiate. i don't know if that is acceptable to republicans. >> they don't want to compromise -- >> it depends on party, of course. if they are republicans, they don't want to compromise. i think there will be a deal

early next week on this. >> colby, you have been in the national security field. what you make of this? >> well the leaks, and not only believes that republicans talk about -- my own newspaper described in great detail what the intelligence staff is engaged in an africa. i think that the investigation that the attorney general has launched with a very good prosecutors, one republican -- date and will be very good. >> what they want the independent prosecutor, the republicans, mark. >> they always want, but on

charles' point about republicans wanted to compromise, tongue-in- cheek -- >> do i have to have a chyron under me -- "irony"? >> the reality is that behind this are two things. one, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives at a plan not to confiscate guns, but hoped to get larger fish -- >> it started in the bush administration. >> that is what apparently he does not want to talk about. relations between the attorney general and congress seem strained. >> blood shed in syria reaches epic proportions. >> it is time for everyone in the international community, including russia, and all security council members to speak to assad with a unified

voice and insist that the violence stop and come together with kofi annan to plan political transition going forward. >> the un estimates that more than 10,000 syrians have died as assad fights to hold onto power what should we do? it should be put in a no-fly zone? i am >> glad i'm not president. it is not just syria. egypt is in a dangerous situation without parliament having been dissolved. very interesting piece that david ignatius wrote on friday in "the washington post" about what is going to happen with this election and the dissolution of the parliament. very scary situation in that part of the world. >> he could get more complicated because of the involvement of iran, and syria is almost a sort

it out of iran -- almos a surrogate now of iran. the iranian influence is expanding and is what we will have to come to grips with, not just syria, but iran. >> meanwhile, there is a humanitarian crisis. >> the situation, in the words of secretary clinton, is spiraling towards a civil war. what we have now is saudi arabia as a proxy for the united states, very deeply committed to removing assad from power. and you have the united arab emirates, qatar. i think that it is coming to a point where the united states has to decide, because russia is now in as well. those are the only two supporters internationally of syria. >> that statement by the

secretary of state was pathetic. baking the russians to be nice about syria could of course they are not going to. zazi what would happen with the reset policy with rauscher, -- it tells you what's would happen with the reset policy with russia. >> see you next week. >> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org.