president obama, it's friday, march 9th and this is now. steve kornacki and huffington post sam stein and scott heldman of the globe. good news on jobs but a deaf deafenideafen to the news from the campaign trail. good news on the jobs' front, it's all marked with a foot note, because it could get bad, who knows. the question is, if the economy keeps improving, how do you run on a message about the economy being bad under president obama? >> i don't think that you can. i think you can see it in the curve cs of the graphs. approval ratings are going up for the president and it is going to be particularly hard

for romney, frankly. i've never bought the idea that a private equity guy will fix the economy, when the numbers are getting better, it's harder to make that case. >> that is anni interesting poi. if we talk about romney, he is the one that is supposed to be the money guy, business guy, this might seem to weirdly help santorum, news like this. >> you know, i think, we over stated how much the economy played well for romney. that was a theme that his campaign put out. i looked at the exit polls from ohio, those voters that were woerp eed about the economy, th was 73% of the voters they only sided with santorum over him. the idea that he is a businessman and help the economy is over stated. >> i agree with that, the thing that we miss about the economy in the story the last few years is not how it helped romney,

it's how it has been the message for the republican party. it's look at the unemployment rate and how much insecurity do you feel right now, he is the president, he made it worse. that's the only message he wants to run on. the last month, the jobs report came out, and the first press release from romney was about religious freedom and contraception. next month he has nothing to say. >> i think we should add to, it was all on getting the deficit under control and the white house recognized and your guest coming up gene sperling recognized that you had to make a shift. starting in the summer, they said focus on jobs. they have not been able to legislate it that way. they got the payroll tax cut but it has gotten a motion for the jobs creation that is a benefit.

>> i think it will shift back to deficits and debt, because that is the one thing that will not go away before november. >> i'm going to disagree with that actually. because i think the messages that are now through, is the shrinking middle, you cannot starve your way to growth as we can see from europe. the focus will be on supporting the middle and bringing back manufacturer which was doing well and that plays to obama's strengths. >> and santorum's as well. i want to play a bit of a sound group regarding how much he has been talking about the economic picture. >> i don't think that the president understands the power of america's economy and what makes it work. >> it's critical that the person that we nominate is someone who understands the economy. i understand the economy. we need to have a president who understands the economy. to make sure this country has leaders that understand how our

economy works. people are hurting under the stagnant economy. >> to bring in the deficit question, romney has outlined his plan for the economy. and they have that increasing, mitt romney's plan increases the deficit by trillions and you have this, he has been running on an economic message where does he go then? >> the reason i bring up the deficit and the debt, i mean, i agree that there'ses a problem of the middle, and that is what obama will talk about. i think, mitt romney, it's as the washington outsider, he can stay, look, this is something that democrats and republicans have made worse, we are mortgaging our future, i think as the graphs, if they continue to do this with the job numbers getting a bit better, that's the only place for him to go. the romney campaign made a strategic decision this time, they were going to run on the economy, four years ago what were they running on?

you cannot answ answer that. -- you cannot answer that. they decided look, the economy is not doing well, this is my wheelhouse, we will run on that. but as that crumbles they have to finds something else. >> the thing about the deficit that strikes me is, if you look back historically, there's a direct relationship between the number of people that say they can care about the deficit and the economic security in the country. when the democrats were running against reagan, he exploded the defici deficits, this is what they wanted to run on in 1984 but the economy was improving so much that year that by a month before the election, modale had to say i cannot run on that anymore deficits were a huge issue in '92 and it continued to be an issue and the economy improved. >> not to suck up to the show's

host too much. you raise a very valid point. it's tough to call yourself a, you know, a deficit hawk when you are introducing a tax plan when people who on look at it say it explodes the deficit romney was saying that this cannot be scored because i do not offer specifics. and that is a problem too. he has questions to answer even if the question is moving back to the deficit, if only because we have that whole deficit ceiling thing come up before the election if things do not improve. it has to nationally get this too. >> i want to talk about romney beyond the economic message, the message in general and how he delivers it. we have been talking about grits in the early morning. he has been doubling down in a bid to get southern support. let's listen to what he said this morning in jackson. >> governor said i had to say it right, morning y'all.

i got started right with cheesy grits. >> you wrote a book on him has he as been that way? yesterday this was a bad idea and today it's a worse idea. >> we should be fair and say that a lot of politicians do it. >> he is remarkably bad. >> a lot of them try it, i do not think he is trying to look too good there. but he does not need to win the whole south this year. he needs to win a fru -- few districts to get to the end. can the gop nominee get anywhere without having the south behind him? >> he will have the south. >> right, is alabama going for barack obama. >> the question is north carolina going to go for obama.

>> he is the worst at commenting on things. but, that is all aside show, you are right, when it comes to putting out a republican nominee, i think republicans will be smarter to have someone who appeals in more moderate states than someone apeas in alabama. >> let's talk about alabama though, a state that mitt romney calls an away game. if we have -- there's an alabama state poll out santorum got 22% of the vote and mitt romney gets 19% of the vote. and undecided gets 29% of the vote. other, which is actually ron paul, because he was not on this as a choice, 15%. chris hayes was saying, that we are comparing this to the would thousand and eight race and in that year, you had two great meals to choose from, it's like

republican voters here are being presented with a plate of dog food and a plate of cat food and they are like, i just really like a ham sandwich. it's nobody is happy. >> nobody is happy. >> it's so telling. >> the away game comment makes me say, where is your home game? that says volumes about, who can get behind this guy? who does he motivate? >> that poll and sort of the story of tennessee and oklahoma and south carolina tells a story of mitt romney is if he is a republican nominee, he is going to do it without the core support of the republican party base. alabama is a state, in 2008, 77% of the voters in the represent cann prime identify themselves as evangelical is conservatives. he did terrible across the south in 2008. we see people seeing that he will probably be the likely nominee, but he is getting his

clock cleaned. >> speaking of newt and snore up up. there's a new newt gingrich that is out slamming rick santorum. let's look at it. >> to get things done, you have to work together. i teamed up with joe leberman, and barbara boxer and i wrote a law, i'm even working with hillary clinton. politics is a team sport folks. >> what is that wwwf thing? kudos for the digging of that up. it does, newt's support, he won georgia of course, but in a place like alabama, he has staked his candidacy race on the south and doing well on next tuesday in southern states. if he does not do well, curtains is it not? >> it's hard to see it going on. it gets much harder if

mississippi and tennessee do not go his way. >> then, that goes to your point, i mean, then does santorum have a fighting shot, i guess? >> it would be a benefit for santorum if gingrich decided now that he could not do it instead of after a few more states vote. he needs to build momentum and that is where gingrich hurts him the most. it's an advantage for romney that these people are hanging on. and what does sheldon adelson decide to do. i think he makes something like $3 million every six hours. so, i know, it's about what we averaged it out to. once he is decides to stop that, i do not see how gingrich goes on. crazier things have happened. >> i don't know if gingrich will drop out in a few weeks or go to

the convention or not. one thing is, last summer when i looked at it, i said that newt gingrich has been so embarrassed we will be rid of him for good. he has now won georgia and alabama and this guy will be around for as long as he wants to be around. >> thank god for his stubbornness if you are romney. >> thank god for us in the media. it's worth mentioning assist we talk about the fracturing republican party, i thought this was interesting. "new york times" has a story about democrats finally coming around to the president and really, if we talk about the road ahead, that you know, 2010 president obama was crypt night, people are wrapping their arms around the things he has done while he was president. and that is a good sign for the white house that they may stand a good fighting chance of

getting re-elected. >> i'm not firm on that. i want to see him getting people that will test him. there's still a lot of dissatisfaction with his performance. the jobs numbers are. >> but it could be better. but there are groups like hispanics that are upset about lack of progress on issues that are important on to them. >> all good news comes with a foot note. as i said at the very beginning of this show. coming up, from steep decline to slow recovery, today's jobs report is another stop in the economy's long trip back from the lowest lows. we will dig into the numbers with gene sperling, when he joins us live next on "now." [ female announcer ] feeling that flu all over your body?

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the improving jobs numbers are no doubt welcome news for the white house but for the more than 20 million americans who are out of work or under employs, is this a sign that the economic recovery is finally for real we have gene sperling with us. gene, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having us. >> gene, so some good numbers out there, 227,000 jobs created in february, also, december and january numbers have been rev e revised to show an additional 60,000 jobs. with all good news, we were saying, there's the idea of how

long will it last? what is the mood inside the west wing today? >> listen, this is about what is good for the country. what is good news for the country, the right way look at this is when you are coming back from the worst recession since the great depression people are still climbing out but we are making progress. this is evidence we are moving in the right direction. and that there's good news and good progress, even with how much further we need to go. to give a sense of why this is more than just a month or two. you are talking about 3.9 million private is sector jobs over the last 22 months. you are talking about over 2 million jobs the last 12 months. so, this is not just a blip. if you look in the january and february alone, as you mentioned with the revision from last month, our economy is now

created over 500,000 jobs in the first two month alone, think about the difference between when the president first took over, when our country was losing 800,000 jobs a month. >> i was remindsed in the trailer about the president's early days. i'm sure you saw it as well. when we talk about the road ahead and the question marks hanging over the economy, one of the things that everyone is talking about, specially the republican candidates, gas prices. financial analysts say that for every penny of gas increases consumers have $1.4 billion less to spend. so there's the optics and the immediate pain at the pump but there's the long-term consequences. how can the president control

that as much as he can going into the summer and into november? >> this president made clear, he was not going home or allowing anybody to go on vacation in december until we extended the payroll tax cut can. now that was not just a political stance, it was an economic stance and it was exactly about ensuring that average working families had the extra amount in each paycheck so they can withstands this type of issue of higher gas prices and our economy could withstand it, so what people who understand is that the payroll tax cut that this president fought for and got extend theed is putting an average $80 to $100 in the pockets of the typical family, that is far more than the increase families are facing at the gas pump. so while we understand how frustrating it is for people to have to pay high onner prices at the bump, it's frustrating for everyone, it's the case that

this president acted in advance to provide a bit of padding for families and our economy, and this exists because of how hard and strong he fought to get that payroll tax extended for 2012. >> gene, as long as we are on the subject of fuel and gas, i will bring up something that i am sure you are tired of hearing about and probably do not want to talk about, i have to ask, keystone, we know that 11 democrat senators roted in support of it, and the comments made by former president bill clinton in support of it, what do you make of on the democratic support for this both in congress and among former presidents? >> first i want to point out, this administration very clearly showed warmth to the idea of building the pipeline from kushing to port arthur, that is where we have a strong urgent

need and we have a infrastructure, a lack of infrastructure -- from kushing to the gulf and at this moment, there's not even a live application before us. so, this is an important issue, we understand that there's a lot of controversy about it. but i think that the president has taken a serious position on it, supported things when they made economic sense and all we have said on the pipeline is that it should not be subverted by politics so we cannot do the type of normal health and safety, you know, scrutiny that you ask for in any situation like this. >> gene, i want to ask you one last question and that is, you know, we are looking ahead to 2012 and beyond. and i think the question that a lot of americans have is what is president obama proposing to do

as far as the economy beyond sort of supervised and slow recovery? do you think that americans can look forward to comprehensive tax reform and do you see something like simpson-bowles that is embraced in the future? >> listen, this is the president who not only fought for and succeeded in getting the payroll tax cut extended, this is the president that came out in september with a major american jobs act and has gone around the country, fighting for common sense ideas for jobs that have bipartisan support by people as a whole. the one piece that was not good about today's jobs numbers is the construction jobs were down some, construction jobs would be up significantly had the united states congress, had the republicans in congress not blocked the president's propo l proposals to do 50 or $60 billion more in infrastructure

and modernizing the schools, these are proposals that are put in place by the president that could be making us stronger, we need a cooperating congress that is willing to work in a bipartisan way on things that can effect jobs. you have seen, the president will push and push, he is out today, calling for new manufacturing innovation hubs that can help companies to be on the cutting edge to create jobs. he is calling for that today as he announced in virginia. he has been out with a robust manufacturing agenda and called for corporate tax reform that would lower rates and do more to encourage jobs here, and of course, we as a country need to come together to have a fiscal discipline plan as well. a grand bargain as the president said that the not get in the way of the recovery and incorporates the values of shared sacrifice and balance which means revenues

from those who are most well offs as well as the type of reforms on entitlements that our country needs in the long-term. >> gene sperling that is a long lift of things that may get done in the next few years. we hope to have you back sometime soon. >> thank you. >> the week of super tuesday brought reboots on the campaign trail, we will look back next. [ coughs ]

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it's time to look back and say what just happened? >> well, i don't want to retire. >> it's the season of face lifts or upgrades as apple released aipad 3.0 mitt romney's self destruct button was taepted to be removed and failed. santorum could not afford the latest software. he had to resort to a little pity, and anyone who could spare a buck. even for the competition. >> donate to romney, he needs the money. >> on super tuesday, a new brand hit the shelves in ohio.

as a classic was phased out. >> many of you are -- were not on this planet when i started my career. >> while in an alternative universe, gingrich and company looked to rebrand itself. whatever the packaging, the best selling model is still zaney. >> i invite saturday night live. >> and chicago previewed hope 2.0. >> do we remember what we is have been through. >> we are using this time to build while they are destroying each other. we are building a campaign. >> ready for release and not on sale yet. >> what would you like to say to mr. romney? >> good luck tonight. >> to really. >> really. >> and i'm feeling good. ♪ >> oh, boy, news today from politico that mitt romney is opening himself up to the press

more and trying to be more accessibili accessibility, is this part of a reboot in. >> he comes from a ceo background, they are not used to is having reporters around them the way that politicians are. he is not used to it yet. but it's recognizing that he needs to soft enthe coverage of the gaffes that have not got wrong. >> can santorum reboot himself sam? >> no, he is just who he is, right that is the appeal, he shoots from the hip. he is a guy you love or find bizarre and i don't think that he will reboot. sorry. >> any reboots that are change the game? >> well, the thing i'm wondering about with santorum, yeah, he will not win this time. but with gingrich, never thought he would win any states. you think this guy got into the race out of boredom, i wonder

what he is doing next. >> isn't it late for reboots? look at the apple, what am i talking about. look at the ipad. you are looking at prince george, virginia where the president will be speaking. he will be pushing his economic agenda. we will bring his remarks live next. man, i'm glad aflac pays cash. aflac! ha! isn't major medical enough? huh! no! who's gonna help cover the holes in their plans? aflac! quack! like medical bills they don't pay for? aflac! or help pay the mortgage? quack! or child care? quack! aflaaac! and everyday expenses? huh?! blurlbrlblrlbr!!!

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>> this reminds me of the michigan primary whens he was talking to the uaw workers. this thing synced up nicely for obama. in a lot of of ways. it's not just sort of that the republican race went off the rails. it's lining up with the unemployment rate, dropping four five months before the -- being equal today but more jobs coming in. obama is emerging from the process with an approval rating at or above or near 50% and they compare him to jimmy carter and george bush, they were at the high 30s when they ended their process. so he is coming out in good shape. and they have a great feeling now. >> he is still trying to keep states like virginia in place, the fact that he made six visits there is a testament to hey,

maybe i can do better than i thought. >> they have taken the idea that you have to continue to be on the ground in the states. we did a piece about huffington post in ohio, they have nine offices and they will open up their tenth. so they have thought that have being an on the ground presence is the way to win the state and west virginia have a, it's so close, he can come by any time he wants. that is the way they feel they will get to the electoral college votes much. >> mitt romney was expected to wipe the floor, to clean up as the kids say, because it was him and ron paul, but paul won 45% of the vote and the analysis was that it's the dog food, cat food thing, people are so dissatisfied with him a as the nominee, that they -- >> they may have been the

gingrich people use positive proxy. >> either way, they are not voting for rop any. >> -- for romney. >> if you go back, it looked like colorado no way, he that is to hold on to the old democratic states. now all of a sudden fast forward to march, he is looking confident and speaking in virginia, mitt romney is having trouble winning if south. they are looking possible again. >> the bottom line is he that is a great story to tell around manufacturing about job creation, and in particular worked in detroit, you can see from the factory speeches. we will see more and more factory speeches in f e es in tw weeks. one interesting thing that is often missed is that higher gas and oil prices are a reason that jobs are coming back to the u.s. it's interesting, because it's more expensive to ship things around the world. that is why some of the ta

factories want to be closer to home. >> speaking of jobs, i want to talk about what is happening acro across the river in washington, d.c. and the jobs bill that passed with bipartisan support yesterday. here is what the speaker of the house had to say. >> it's so meager, trum pet, here comes the little king. this is -- yes, it is bipartisan. we pledge to the flag, that's a big thing. >> here comes the little king! this job's bill is -- i think a little prince compared to the one that they would rather have passed. you know, i will say, there's a transportation bill that is stuck. it's something that boehner had out there, five year transportation bill, it's

essentially dead because he could not rally enough republicans to it. the house will take up the senate version if they do not do something, it disrupting 130,000 projects and lays off a lot of construction workers. to me, that says that the republicans are finally realizing that they have to pass something, anything. >> yes, something anything. ? little princes or what have you. >> on the scope of it, there's big obstacles that stopped the grand bargain and all of that still exists. it will take the november election to really resolve those. the first fight after the november election, unless something dramatic happens will be the bush tax us ccuts. i think it's true, the republicans in 2010 and through last year could afford to be cocky. the president's number says were

low and the anxiety was high, and people were programmed to opposition to obama. that will shift as the numbers go up, and if he gets re-elected. >> i think it will be interesting to see what happens on infrastructure, sperling said the instruction numbers would have been higher if those plans got through. >> while we have added private sector jobs the ones we lost is public sector jobs. those are teachers and police and firefighters that cannot be employed. obama has been trying to feed more money in it and they are saying no, it has to be paid for. what they proved with the tax cut, it does not have to be paid for. i wonder if that will change the dynamic of the argument. >> the republican caucus is in and of itself a strange beast, i want to draw everyone's attention to an interview that peggy nunan has with the speaker john boehner. he said that the tea party has not made the house ungovernable

and said we got 435 members. it's just a slice of america, it really is. we got some of smartest people in the country and some of the dumbest, we got some of the best people and some of the raunrhiest we have them a all. >> who is the dumbest and the raunchiest? >> we find out who those are when the pictures come out on the internet. >> yes, we do. >> but i mean, could it, we know that there's supposed to be some sort of sister soldier healing moment going on between the boehner and cantor camps. boehner commented saying eric and i never disagreed on strategy every, there's been disagreement on strategy, but not between us, just usually between the staffs. and we had conversations to make

sure we are all on the same page. >> sounds like someone not on the same page. >> oh, man, it's the aides i swear. it's our naughty staff. we will have more on you all sorts of washington goings on as well as live coverage of the president's speech in virginia, coming up next on "now." ♪ oh. let's go. from the crack, off the backboard. [ laughs ] dad! [ laughs ] whoo! oh! you're up! oh! oh! so close! now where were we? ok, this one's good for two. score! [ male announcer ] share what you love with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. they're gr-r-eat! [ man ] hmm. a lot can happen in two hundred thousand miles... ♪

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you are looking live at prince george, virginia, where the president obama is expected to speak at a rolls-royce plant in a few minutes, we will be bringing it to you live, first, we were talking about the goings on in washington and beyond. one of the things i spoke with gene sperling about was keystone and the fact that 11 democratic senators tried to move it forward with some republicans. that comes with former president

bill clinton throwing his weight behind the project sort of, or at least wrapping his arms around it. this seems to be a problem for the white house, because it will not go away this year. >> i think it probably was not a great decision on the president's part to not pass that. i think it's something that we will see more movement to because of the energy independence debate is a big deal. a few facts, the u.s. is on track with or without keystone to be nor energy independent than we have been in decades. we are exporting more oil than we have since '49. we have plenty of oil within the country, there's a record number of riggs. i do not think there's talk, that if we do not sell the oil the canada, that they will deal with china. their economy is so linked to us, the oil executives not going

to i think a deal with beijing. it's not going to shift the energy independence debate in terms of its direction. >> can i ada thid something, itt politically a winner either way. the democratic base is divided. there's an intensity gap in this. there's much more awareness among self identified republican voters about this issue in general. than there's among independents and democrats. this is an issue that sort of conservative talk radio and rush limbaugh and guys like sean hannity, they have been pushing it and it is at the top of the list of what they do not like about the president. president needs to not have a war there and hope it's under the radar, the republicans that care bit, will always be against obama. >> because the narrative, it's so, we care about jobs, this guy is a greeny, lefty, who just cares about the environmental

lobby. and there in lies the narrative that they have been sort of -- >> i feel like the environmental lobby and the greenies and lefties would be surprised by that assessment. >> yes, i think -- yes, i agree with that, but at the end of the day, this, i mean, the acknowledgment was this was a effort to satisfy them given how little he has done. >> you have to put a bet down, i see he him going forward with it after the elections. it's a political calculation, they do not want to upset their main base. and that is that. i think everyone is going crazy about him calling people and saying he is not supporting it. he came out and said he is not supporting it. i understand that they want him to be painted as owning keystone, but it's not a shock that he would encourage people

to back up his position. >> it probably was because obama made the phone calls. >> i guess the question is, when we talk about the relationship between obama and congress, which has been frosty, i mean look at the next four years ahead, is there going to be a thawing of relations. obama has not had the appetite for the back and forth of getting legislation passed. but i asked sperling, what can we expect if he is re-elected in the future? >> he will have more respect particularly from the republicans, i think of the example of bill clinton in his second term. the republicans did not like him enough to try to impeach him, but you had the budget deal and children's health insurance and you had welfare reform. that was a far cry from their posture in the first term when

they thought they could just walk all over him. >> wasn't it the filibuster, and now you need 60 votes to get anything through the senate. it's obvious that the administration has poor hill relations, that they have a very difficult time working with, the senator leadership or house leadership or both on occasion, they were never good at the inside game, they thought the persuasion of the value of his rhetoric could move them, but it was not the case. >> haven't they learned? and of course, you look at what happened on contraception and how they initially fumbled that and sort of were given a gift by the republicans, now it's a issue of women's legitimahealths just luck. they would have learned. you would think that biden would be playing a bigger role of crafting their relationship are congress. >> i think biden wears a lot of

hats. but one of the great operators for the governor to hill was rahm emanuel. and even then there was anger about the how they handled legislative products. you them holding out for bipartisan support, everyone is saying, this is silly and it was never going to get there, and that is one of the big stories of the administration, they cannot manage the hill well enough to get legislation that they need through. >> i would say though, that was the most accomplished congress since lbj in the great society what we went through in 2009/2010. health care was a mess. it's always going to be a tough process. they got it done, but the simple act of getting that you bill through as messy and ugly as it was, no one had done that.

>> i want to, when we talk about, we have to idea what will happen in november, but we talk about how administrations would handle congress and i think about, you know, i say the word constitutionally. a romney administration, it would be a difficult dance, and mitt romney has proven himself to be not on light on his feet. i wonder if we talk about relationships with the hill. he is a businessman, right? how does mitt romney tackle a congress like we have now? >> he is prag mattic at heart, i can see him doing well. on the other hand, our instructive precedent is his years as governor. there's a good story when he came into the state house, he was talking to leaders when he came in, he said i've been in the business world and typically

i like to operate as i set the vision and work with my executive vice presidents to carry out that strategy and you can imagine this did not go over well with the executive vice presidents, t the senators and representatives that saw themselves as a different power of government. that is how he views things. on one hand it could work, on the other, if he comes in and says, listen to me. it will be a disaster. >> you raise that different point. ultimately he is coming at things as a coe, that is different from being a president. >> exactly. >> i have spoken with people in the business world that say, he is a great decision maker. he gathers all the facts and as long as they are done the way he wants them to be, and there's not too many surprises he is effective. but one, the compromise issue is an issue and when things are surprising and sort of stuff coming out of left field, he is not that smooth. that is what it's all about, coming out of left field.

>> contra sepgds is related to transportation bills. it's complete disorder and chaos, you talk about a congress that is not all about process and deals behind one room and then taken back when people exit the rooms. i cannot imagine how he would deal with that. >> he was great when he could -- he knew public perception was behind him. he had the public on his side, and it worked and he did move lawmakers to doing things. the thing he was not that effective at and was not interested in frankly was the back room dealing. and the sort of, the you know, getting to know you . >> how did he get health care done? >> the one thing he engaged on and was willing to get his hands dirty on was health care and that was his biggest achievement and it's no a coincidence. every else he much preferred the

press conference to tas opposed the private meeting. >> mr. romney do you know the office you are running for perhaps you do, that is all for "now," i'll see you back here at monday noon eastern, until then find us at facebook/nowwithalex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. i wouldn't do that. pay the check? no, i wouldn't use that single miles credit card. hey, aren't you... shhh. i'm researching a role. today's special... the capital one venture card. you earn double miles on every purchase. impressive. chalk is a lost medium. if you're not earning double miles... you're settling for half. was that really necessary? [ male announcer ] get the venture card at capitalone.com and earn double miles on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? cover for me. i have an audition.

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cot is in the house. we have got your mayor, brian moore. and i want to very much say thank you to our out standing secretary of commerce, secretary bryceon who is trying to create jobs and investment and opportunities all across the country. it is great to be back in petersburg. last time i was here was during the campaign. i had my bus pull over so i could get a cheeseburger at long street's deli. you guys have eaten there. some of you may think that violates michelle's "let's move"

program. but she gives me a pass when it comes to a good burger and fries. now, back then, in 2008, we were talking about how working americans were already having a tough go of it. folks, were working harder and longer, for less. it was getting tougher to afford health care, or to send your kids to college. the economy was already shedding jobs in less than a decade nearly 1 in 3 manufacturing jobs had vanished. then, the bottom fell out of the economy. and things got that much tougher. we were losing seven to 800,000 jobs a month. the economy was hemorrhaging, and three and a half