>> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and "politico," reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> we have still got a long way to go before we can put everybody back to work. >> this week on "inside washington," bad news on the economy and bad news for president obama. republican presidential sweepstakes. enter the governor of texas. the winner of the iowa straw

poll. >> under president bachmann, you'll see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. >> at the current front runner. >> from day one of might term, i will work to get americans jobs again. >> the obama administration's message to the president of syria -- get lost. and with the vice president in china trying to reassure the chinese, all of the georgetown men's basketball team friendship match? >> at that point, chairs started flying. it was a complete, complete disaster. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >>; is it me, or is it starting to feel like groundhog day? every week, the economic news

report is, in a word, lousy. we start with "the wall street journal" headline, "del falls on a weak home sales, manufacturing and employment data." as president obama begins his summer vacation on martha's vineyard, he can take it a gift from the gallup poll -- only 26% of the american people approve of the way he is handling the economy, a new low. >> i need you to send a message to folks in washington, stop drawing lines in the senate, stop engaging in rhetoric instead of actually getting things done it. it is time to put country it ahead of party. >> president obama at the conclusion of this three-day bus trip through the midwest. the president will deliver a major address after labor date outlining a new plan to create jobs. aa spokesperson for the speaker of the house says that president obama can drop of the speech in

the mail, no podium required. what can he offer on jobs growth he is not used before, evan? >> not much. there are some things he can do to inject money into the economy, but not much. this giant in debt overhang is our problem. the best thing he can do is a program that deals with that, not short-term stimulus, but something that assures the american people we will deal with our long-term debt problem. >> nina? >> i guess i don't really agree with that we have a long-term debt problem, but you do not solve it in what appears to be a debt recession. you can make things much worse than ensure that theebt is worse because fewer people have jobs. >> there is a lot of cash out there, colby. >> businesses are awash in cash, so or banks.

there is not confidence in government -- confidence in the white house, confidence in congress. the president has a low approval rating, congress is even a lower. people don't believe that the institutions we have are capable of addressing the problems. the president promises another speech after labor day. he has got to go beyond that >> 8. -- he has got to go beyond that. that is not what we're looking for now. >> charles? >> another speech? he needs to give up plan. he gave a budget that was left out of the senate 97-zero . the head of the cbo was asked about how it would appear to the budget. he said contemptuously, "we don't estimate speeches," meeting there was nothing he could actually evaluate. are you going to give us a speech or plan?

>> listen to this man now. >> you got bills. you know one of the homeless. >> -- you don't want to be homeless. >> this man is an order for the security guard, one of 4000 people who waited in line for hours for a chance at an interview at a job fair sponsored by the congressional black caucus. there are jobs out there, but a lot of people are not qualified to fill them. they needed training and education. how'd you get to there from here? >> there was a similar job fair in washington that eleanor holmes norton had that was -- that had lines that were similarly long. the president has had to show where he wants to take the country and the question of jobs and how he is going to get us there. the last to go around we had with congress before the recession was a disaster for him as a leader of the congress.

he came across as impotent. he has got to be able to put something on the table that is concrete and that shows that he is willing to fight for. >> i saw a figure during the first 10 days of this month. americans pulled over $23 billion in cash from their 401k 's bit individuals and corporations are sitting on a pile of cash. how much of this is psychological? >> confidence is everything. deep down, we are a strong country with enormous economic resources, but we are un confident right now. the way to deal with confidence is national leadership, not a little tinkering here or the speech he is going to give. he needs to do something really big. there are really big things he can do not go the biggest single thing he can do is massive tax reform, a giant tax reform, eliminate all deductions, all

exemptions, all tax breaks. if you do that, you can reduce tax rates in half. if you want to make revenue, you can reduce them by 1/3. that would have a huge positive effect on the economy. all economists agree on this. >> i do talking about mortgage interest deductions? >> yes, everything goes. the best thing he can do is to stand up to interest groups. >> if that happens, stand by for the tsunami. >> even assuming that you could do that, which i don't think you can -- all of it, anyway -- the fact is that the economy does not get better from its illness unless there are in fact more jobs because nobody is -- people don't have jobs -- who don't have jobs don't have income to spend. i mean, i think, really, the

only choice obama has right now is that -- is a lot of a very populist rhetoric to get a real budget as a real tax increases and real cuts and real job creation possibilities. >> the rhetoric is not working. 71% of the people disapprove of how he is handling the economy. >> he came in on hope and change, said he would change the way washington works, and we heard him on a sound bite you opened the show with running against washington. where the hell has he been the last two and a half years? he is washington, he is the president brought he pretends that he somehow hovers above all this and it is a washington holding everything back. he spent $1 trillion on the stimulus that did not succeed. we are hovering on the edge of the second recession. what he is, i suppose, going to bpropose is the second mini-

stimulus. government does not create jobs, it killed them. part of the problem we have is the blanket of regulation over america, especially in energy, the saudi arabia of gas and coal, epa, and a moratorium on drilling elsewhere has killed an industry that has potential to hire a lot of people and reduce our dependence on outside sources of energy. .> colby, quickly >> are you finished? >> now, if you would like, i disquisition to complete, but i will yield the floor. >> thank you very much, charles, for that. i have heard a lot of it before it from you, but it always sounds good. >> changing field for republican presidential hopefuls. >> making sure we have a candidate that can be barack obama in november is the most important thing we do.

>> we are going to make barack obama a one-term president. >> texas gov. rick perry, who recently entered the race for the republican presidential nomination, congressman michele bachmann, a one to stop all over the weekend. pawlenty is out. -- who won the iowa straw poll over the weekend. pawlenty is out. it does not guarantee a win in the iowa caucuses. >> this is what governor romney found out four years ago. this was important, though, because it showed that tim pawlenty did not have what it took to make it. now we have as much more interesting dynamic with rick perry in the race. rick perry has had quite a week for himself. he came on the scene with a big splash, made these comments about chairman bernanke of the fed, "treasonousc" was the word

he used the republican establishment has come down hard on him, especially the bush camp. >> shooting from the lip -- >> also, could he be another barry goldwater, who appeals to it narrow range -- >> but he is a proven vote- getter anin texas -- >> i used to think he was the one populist demagogue who could win the national election. his first week was not encouraging on that. may be is just the first week, maybe he will learn from his mistakes. the texas story is a good story and he has a big personality and people like big personalities. >> when you examine it, which people have been happy to do,

not just democrats, even his electoral record, he won at 13 points, at e ermous over the course of the elections. but it is a totally republican state, and other republicans won by 19 points. >> perry finished ahead of romney in the iowa straw poll. if you are romney, how do you play this guy? right now he is basically ignoring and talks about the president. >> the ignoring strategy is correct. he has a field of people running to be his challenger. it is like boxing, who is going to get that title fight? why should he wait in? -- wawdde in. it is the right strategy as of now. he directs everything against barack obama. the winner of the last round in 2008, makes you the presumptive candidate if you are a

republican. he stays out there, lets perry and bachmann compete for largely the same constituency. and now i yield my time to call the king. >> -- colby king. >> perry has to show he is a reasonable candidate. tom cole, republican from oklahoma, head of the national republican congressional committee, put it best about rick perry -- there is only one race, and that is the presidency. up to now, perry has been playing aaa bal pr. now it is another game altogether. >> there is a factor about perry, and that is a cultural one . the country had severe bush fatigue and a 2008 it still has a bit of it. i think that 2016 will be over

in the country will be a nostalgic and jeb bush will be a viable and it. -- a viable candidate. when people look at perry, there is bush in him, the dress and manner and the swagger and the boots. look, it is not a liability in the sense that he did wrong. it is simply a fact and it will hurt him in the general election. >> i think you are right, it is cultural, but texas has a patina, also, there is a patina on perry and it does not look like it is working well. >> peter hart -- who would you most rather have a beer with? >> bush was a successful drive for a long time. he did win reelection. he had a folksy manner that a lot of people like. perry may not win the

philadelphia suburbs, but he can get it together and be a large personality and funny and charming, which is possible we should take him seriously. if he sticks his foot in his mouth likhe d this week, he is finished, but it is still early going. >> what about huntsman? >> forgotten in all of this. sitting in the mushy middle, he is my guy. but he really missed an opportunity in the debate by agreeing with all the other candidates that we should not ever, ever, ever raise taxes a under any circumstances. he is the one guy who is not taken the pledge, but he raised his hand when they said even when it was 10-1. that was a mistake. he has got to assert himself. usually, the problem is that

they listen to their political advisers, and they say, be careful, be careful. throw off political advisers, allow himself to be the moderate he really is, and that is this channel. let perry and bachmann drives the party of the right wing at cliff and take the middl zeroe -- middle view -- >> will that take into south carolina? >> we will -- he will probably not do well in it -- >> florida? >> he has got money. >> he is the bruce babbit of the republican field. he was the governor of arizona, every reporter's favor, because he was a sensible, knowledgeable, centrist, a democrat from western state, and he went absolutely nowhere. huntsman got 69 votes in the

straw poll in iowa. forget leggs, he does not appear to have toes. >> how does he break out? >> he at the moment he missed, i agree entirely with evan. it is interesting how there are these moments, the reagan, where he seized the microphones. pawlenty had a moment where he was asked twice to expand on a critique he had done of romney and health care and he declined and then he said it was a mistake. it was his moment and he missed it. it is interesting how these things change on -- even though you could say, pawlenty was too moderate and too weak, from a blue state, still, there are these hinge points. huntsman had a chance to say -- if he had not raised his hand, the camera cut off, on him and he could have made a speech on taxes --

>> there will be eight more chances -- . -- there will be more chances -- >> i am not sure there are that many. >> romney it is not generating enthusiasm on the part it. us/can we show the b -- the bus? this the president road -- the bus the president road around in. what would the white house of and thinking to send the president of the heartland in the equivalent of an armored hearse? >> put some psychedelic colors? >> symbols are important. i am not sure that is that important. >> securing the president of the united states is a hard -- >> the bigger problem, i talked

about it -- martha's vineyard. this is not where he belongs. >> you don't think he's entitled to vacation? >> no, he is, and no one would be tried to tri -- would begrudge him days with his family if he chose camp david. but he spent three days in the heartland, selling the rich and powerful, then he says, these are the people i want to spend my vacation with. >> in peaceful demonstrations across the nation, syrians are demanding universal human rights. the regime has answered their demands with empty promises and horrific violence. >> secretary of state hillary clinton. the administration is calling on assad to step down, germany,

france, the u.k. as well. what impact will the steps have? >> we are seeing a carefully calibrated international effort against assad. you not only had europeans and the u.s. making demands, but also, the saudis, an equally important, the turks. turkey has raised serious reservations about assad and his leadership. it seems very clear that it will side with the u.s. and west as far as getting rid of him at. this is the kind of pressure he is getting now. >> i heard david ignatius in "the washington post" say that the syrian army is stretched to the breaking point. >> i would assume -- i don't now -- but i would assume that there is a deal of discussion in some

quarters in the syrian army about ditching this guy and putting up one of their own. this is the way things happened in the middle east ally. -- a lot. as a country, that would be the way to survive this and make some sort of deal with some opposition faction or not. i mean, the middle class has been very hesitant to get on board in syria, because it did not really want to be a victim. it is a victim whether it likes it or not. >> if it cannot work in egypt, it cannot work in syria because of ethnic divisions. the army, the leadership, political and military, is all allawite, a despised minority trade 10% of the population has ruled for almost half a century with an iron fist. if these allawites -- they will hang together or hang

separately. - will hang in until the very last moment. it will not be mubarak, it will not be a shah, it will be to the debt. everybody understands that after the grievances and oppression of the last four decades, there is no alternative. >> how was the obama administration playing it? >> i think they should stay out of that. yes, it is okay to say he should go eventually, but what i fear is mission creep. we put our toe in and get sucked in. don't do anything militarily. what we should do is mostly say he ought to go and no more than that. >> but the question is, what took so long for the united states to say that the head of an enemy state that is on the list of the state department sponsors of terror, chief iranian ally in the region, and iran is engaged in a sort of cold war with us and our allies -- >> orchestrating a multinational rule --

>> of the national movement -- >> the impact is greater now. you listen to the syrian ambassador respond after the u.s. called for assad's departure, it was a wrenching thing. >> within six days -- >> if we had done that five months ago by ourselves it wouldn't and hollow -- it would have been hollow. with the rest of the world, and the turks also weighing in -- >> we were within six days of the uprising in cairo, our president was on television demanding that the head of egypt, an ally of the united states, a step down. >> the dynamics are different -- >> after the bloodiest in syria,

the united states finally does it by having the president issued a statement? >> if it'd been a republican there would be people calling it at a dramatic stroke of genius. >> let's hope the vice- president's visit has a better ending. >> i cannot believe it. i have been in this business 20 years and i have never seen an ending like this. >> that is a "washington post" reporter who attended the so- called friendship match. at the same time, vice-president biden was in china were urging leaders not to abandon us in our time of need. >> i love this stuff. a brawl and friendship match? who could ask for more. sports is a sublimation of the war anyway, so throw the shares. -- chairs.

why do we have the olympics? is a way to not have wars. i am all in favor of this, and if somebody ends up with a black eye, terrific, as long as it keeps us out of war in the taiwan straits. >> $1.20 trillion in treasury debt, that is what joe biden is talking about. >> interesting thing happened as a result of that. the chinese came out of the meeting as saying that the u.s. economy is resilient, an important assessment from their point of view. i was in china a year ago. this is a different china. it is not a passive park is a country. if you go to the basketball court, they expect friction and they got it. >> they obviously did not have any real rough or control over -- >> free shots that the chinese got versus the georgetown men's

basketball team, yes, there is something to that. >> it is like the ice skating judges in the olympics, with the russian judges would say about the u.s., 3, and russians with 10. >> east german judge. >> the chinese launched an aircraft carrier -- that is a lot more significant than his basketball cgame. >> i would not have thought so. >> even in the arctic. >> but in fact, the launching of that aircraft carrier is one of the things that is going to boost our position in the pacific rim. every country in the area has china claiming its territory. the philippines, vietnam, taiwan, and they want america tuesday. it is going to be huge important. >> last word. see you next week. for a transcript of this broadcast, log on to insidewashington.tv.