the words are cheap and the record of an individual is the basis upon which you determine whether they should continue to hold on to their job. >> when i hear governor romney say his 25 years in the private sector gives him a special understanding of how the economy works, my question is, why are you running with the same bad ideas that brought our economy to the brink of disaster? plus, tim geithner unleashed. well, sort of. >> who's that? >> mitt romney. >> you want me to respond to that? helicopter hang-up. the state department says new or old russian helicopters can kill. >> we have repeatedly urged the russian government to cut these military ties completely. they continue to deliver and we believe that the situation is

spiraling toward civil war. and have american nuns gone rogue? >> okay. you're radical feminists. >> we're certainly oriented toward the needs of women and responding to their needs. if that's radical, i guess we are. >> sister simone campbell joins me about the showdown with the vatican straight ahead. plus, snack attack. how does the army celebrate its 237th birthday? well, with 5,000 camouflaged cupca cupcakes, of course. someone tell mike bloomberg. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in philadelphia. in our daily fix today, this hour, only 250 miles apart in an all-important battleground state, president obama and mitt romney offered dueling visions about how to fix the economy. it is a sharp contrast that both sides say they welcome. chris cillizza is msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. we're going to havemsnbc, but t

president goes first. correct me, wasn't the president planning to do this then the romney campaign joined in? who got there first? >> that is correct. the obama campaign got there first, andrea. look, both these speeches matter but one matters more. that's the president's speech. this is coming at a time after ten days, we're almost now on two weeks now that i think of it, two weeks from the may jobs report that provided dire news about the state of the economy. and just kind of the wisconsin recall. some of the other things that happened. just bad. a serious of bad things for the president over these past two weeks. this is an attempt, though, the campaign hates when you use this word, to reset the economic debate in the broader debate in the country about what this election is about. and president obama, i think, going back to what he does best, he is a tremendous speech giver, whether you agree or disagree with what he says, he is gifted in that regard. i think they're going to his strong suit here in ohio to try to get the train back on the

track. >> and arguably one of the problems, which you knew the romney team was going to jump all over, was what the president said a week ago friday in the briefing room and here's the new ad that they unveiled today. >> the private sector is doing fine. the private sector is doing fine. doing fine. >> so that's a pretty heavy hitting ad. it's a -- a body blow. but we knew that this was coming. and that's another reason why this is a very important speech today. just wanted to, in the category of deja vu all over again, as yogi berra would say, this is the same location, september 8th, 2010, community college in

ohio, then president obama during the midterms. >> it's still fear versus hope, the past versus the future. it's still a choice between sliding backward and moving forward. that's what this election's about. that's the choice that you will face in november. >> and the white house wants it to be a choice framed today between their vision of the economy and mitt romney's vision. >> yeah. you know, andrea, the words in that speech, president obama probably won't use again, but the thematic of that speech he absolutely will use. what's harder? he has two more years as a record, and mitt romney can say, look, we gave him his chance, blaming this on george bush no longer is acceptable. moving forward means changing our leadership. that's the case that the romney team is going to make. president obama's task is difficult. it's why i think they're putting him in a venue where he's very

comfortab comfortable, a big speech to try to get him at his best. >> thanks so much, chris cillizza, see you later. and a bitter presidential election campaign centered on the economy. the crisis in europe. a $2 billion trading loss and still counting at jpmorgan chase. the future of simpson/bowles. is the private sector doing fine? i sat down with treasury secretary tim geithner, the council of foreign relations, and asked him about that yesterday, beginning with whether he still believes the eurozone can ultimately hold itself together. >> from talking to them and listening to them over these last 2 1/2 years of crisis, my view is, they've considered this very carefully, and they've decided that it's in their interest to hold it together. and what they say to us privately, they will do whatever is necessary to hold it together. >> and what role do we play? some have suggested that we're not playing a strong enough role. >> yeah. well, you know, there's a phrase

we use. it's fair to say it this way. a former colleague used to say it this way. we can't want this more than them. we can't make these choices for them. it's 17 countries. incredibly difficult politics. the economics and financial side is very tough. so they're going to have to figure out what works for them. and what we are doing is what i think we can do. >> there are now 42 senators who have signed up and said they are prepared to revisit bowles/simpson. is it time even if he can't move a grand bargain between now and election day, but is it time for the president to readdress that? >> we believe -- the way i usually say it, this debate about what's the right path to fiscal sustainability? it really began with bowles/simpson and where it's going to end. president framework the president laid out, although it differs in slight and small respects from the basic framework is very close to the basic design. >> should there be a temporary extension of all the bush tax

cuts as bill clinton and larry summers have suggested? >> i don't think that's fair to them. i want to revisit that history because i know you've talked about that. our view right now is, i think it's right, we need to take advantage of the incentive created by the sector and creative tax cuts to force this town to confront and take on the things that divide us now in those long term fiscal reforms so we can go ahead and govern. this is a place where, you know, people spend a lot of time worrying. it's a bit of cloud over the american economy, by whether washington can work again. for washington to say, we're going to defer, i don't see how that will be helpful to confidence. >> the data the fed reported on monday indicated the recession -- >> i want to be clear, we would not support that. >> understood. >> is that clear? >> got it. the argument being made on the hill by jamie dimon was there has to be inherit risk in banking. that's what the business is.

but that said, do you think looking at it from the outside that they did anything wrong? >> i would say that i'm -- one strength of what they've said in response to this stuff is they were direct and clear and crisp in admitting the scale of the error. and in trying to get very quickly to what produced that. and to be very quick in trying to figure out how to put in place a framework that would make that less likely in the future. >> why do you think wall street is putting its money in mitt romney's camp? by $37 million-plus to $4 million so far reported. and that 21 big contributors to president obama's election campaign in '08 have now switched sides? >> i can't really speculate on the motives but i suspect it's because they believe that they are more likely to get a more favorable hearing in terms of relaxing these reforms if the republicans have a stronger hand in washington. i think it's straightforward. >> just remind you -- >> is that fair, you think?

>> well, from your perspective. mitt romney was asked during a debate back in october, october 11th -- >> i don't think they'll be successful, by the way. i think the core reforms, we're going to fight to preserve them, and we're going to fight to keep them and there's an overwhelming compelling case to do so just because, you know, we're, again, we're still living with the scars and the damage caused by those basic errors. >> under your analysis, you've just contributed more money to the mitt romney campaign. what romney said in october of 2011 was when asked what he would do, if there were another financial crisis. >> i think anybody responsible governing the country would have a huge stake in preserving these reforms. why would they want to leave the country vulnerable to another crisis? >> point taken. and just to finish up what he said in answer to how he would handle a financial crisis, i can tell you this, that i'm not going to have to call up timothy geithner and say, how does the economy work, because i spent my

whole life in the economy. >> who's that? who said that? >> mitt romney. >> you want me to respond to that? >> in terms of the president's comment, we know what he meant in response to the jobs report the week earlier. when he said the private economy, the private sector is doing just fine, how do you explain to the american people, you know, what he meant, what's at stake? >> i think what he's trying to say, this way from the beginning, you know, it's a very tough economy still. huge amount of damage left over. a long way to go to repair that damage. growth not as strong as we would like. and what we try to do is to put out as clearly as we can, as powerful and creative a set of proposals for helping resolve that as possible. and to legislate as many as we can. and we've tried to choose ones that have had a tradition of broad bipartisan support in the

hopes that would ease the prospect to legislation. and that's what we're going to keep doing. >> given what you've said in the past about wanting to just serve for the first term, and it's a very, very tough job, have you rethought whether if the president's re-elected you would stay in some role in the administration? >> no. i have not. i have not rethought that. thank you for asking, though. >> well, you've had so much fun in the first three years. it has been a tough couple of years at treasury. up next, one democrat who is defiantly not a wuss. former pennsylvania governor ed rendell joining us next. stay with us for live coverage as president obama and mitt romney deliver their dueling speeches on economy coming up. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." a little bird told me about a band... ♪

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the president is not lacking in armchair critics. democratic strategists notably including james carville and stan greenberg, the poster, were challenging the obama campaign and asking it to retool its message. as the president prepares to hit the restart button in ohio today. i'm joined by ed rendell, former democratic governor from pennsylvania, and of course the author of the new book "nation of wusses." governor, thank you very much. good to see you. as the president goes to ohio today, now we see mitt romney scheduling a competing speech, we expect we're going to hear a lot of contrast between the president's vision and romney's vision, but do both of them have to be more specific about exactly what they would do to fix the economy? >> no question. this election is going to come down to not negative ads, not governor romney attacking the president's record so much, not the president attacking what governor romney did in the

private sector, or as governor of massachusetts. there will be a lot of that. i think the independent voters, the moderate republicans, moderate democrats, who haven't made up their mind, and i'd say it's no more than 15% or 20% of the electorate, they will decide by what they believe the plans are for the future of the president and governor romney and who has the best most concrete plan that will get us moving quickly, get the economy moving, get jobs created, get us going in the right direction. so i think the election's, often as it always does, is going to come down to the future. >> there's a new quinnipiac poll from pennsylvania yesterday which shows the matchup tightening slightly. a six-point lead for president obama in pennsylvania. it had been slightly wider within the margin of error in may. what is your sense of pennsylvania and a six-point lead for the president, given the registration advantage in this state? >> yeah, but remember republicans are always more

reliable turnout voters than democrats. we do have a big registration edge. president obama i believe if the election were held today would win pennsylvania somewhere between three to five points. a solid win, but not the 11 points he won by in 2008. there was a real tidal wave of support for the president then. obviously with the economy being what it is, no incumbent has faired very well in this economy. some have survived but haven't faired as well as they have in the past. the reality the president's going to have to deal with. his message on the economy, the jobs bill that he presented in october is much more likely to jump-start the economy than what governor romney talks about. reducing regulations and cutting taxes. particularly on the wealthy. that hasn't worked. for the last 60 years, andrea, the facts are clear. there's no correlation between lower taxes on the wealthy and job creation. in fact, the ten largest years of job growth in the last 60,

the marginal tax rate was over 50%. and we're down at 35% now. so when bill clinton, as you recall, raised taxes on the top 2% in '93, the republicans said, this is going to lead us into a recession, it's going to be term for the economy, the job creators are going to be hurt. what happened? we created 23.5 million jobs in the next 7 years. so don't think governor romney has a credible plan. i do think the president's plan reviving our infrastructure, investing in research and development, giving small businesses tax credits for hiring, those are concrete things that will work if the congress agrees with them. >> and finally, you may have horde that i asked treasury secretary geithner why not just come out now before the election and embrace some version of simpson/bowles or alternatively, some balanced plan of future tax cuts and current -- future tax

increases, rather, and tax cuts and perhaps some stimulus now to try to jump-start what's going on? but something to give the business leaders, the business community a sense of what's coming ahead that the two parties can work together and maybe they would start spending some of the cash they're sitting on. >> well, i would. i would for two reasons. one, it's the right thing to do. it's the only prescription. everyone shares sacrifices. cuts in domestic spending. some changes in reform and entitlement programs. increase in revenue. a little bit of share paid for everybody. i think it would be a great plan, and i think the republicans would be in a dilemma. if they say, no, they're going to look like true obstructionists. if they say yes, then it's the president's initiative and he gets credit for it. i think it would be a master stroke politically. give the president credit. people like myself have criticized him for not embracing simpson/bowles early. when he and speaker boehner were close to doing the big deal, $5

trillion to $6 trillion in reduction. it's not fair to say the president has never embraced simpson/bowles. he should do it loudly and clearly. i'd love to see him do it this afternoon. >> well, i don't think that's in the cards. >> we'll see. >> we'll have to see what he says in the speech. by the way, when i arrived in philadelphia, look what i saw in philadelphia magazine, your advance team is already out. rendell for president. >> the book says i want to be hillary's campaign manager in 2016. that's the only thing i want. >> okay. looking ahead. thank you very much. that is the book, of course, "nation of wusses." thank you so much, governor rendell. of course, an nbc news political analyst. up next, holy wars. the clash between american nuns and the vatican. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. today from philadelphia. >> time for your business entrepreneur of the week. nicholas brand of seattle wanted

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the battle is over criticism from rome. american nuns are radical feminists. their word. rome's word for focusing on poverty and social justice. while staying silent on abortion and same-sex marriage. it is a fight that goes all the way back, in fact, four decades since the nuns first demanded the right for women to become priests. joining me, sister simone campbell, leading the network, a catholic social justice lobby. starting mo ining monday is goi on a bus tour. nuns on a bus to rally opposition to paul ryan's proposed health care cuts. sister simone, it's good to see you. thank you very much for joining me. tell me what inspired you and your colleagues, your fellow nuns to take on the bishops, in some case, and in fact the vatican? >> well, actually what's really interesting about this is we're actually standing with their bishops who also say that the

house passed ryan budget is actually immorale. when the center came out from the vatican and catholic sisters were getting so much attention, we said, well, we're not used to having attention on ourselves. i mean, that's not what we're about. we're about using our opportunities to serve the needs of people who live in poverty. who live at the margins of society. who have fallen through the cracks of our rather fractured tenuous economy. and so we came together and i invited help from our colleagues to say, what can we do to lift this moment up? and we know how terribly important it is that the american public understand the problems, the huge problems in the house-passed budget and that we need to educate the american people. and how to do it? well, it struck us that going on a bus and lifting up these issues might get information out beyond the beltway. beyond washington, d.c. >> it is an unusually public --

i know you waited several months after the vatican censure to decide how to respond. you took your time and did it in a very contemplative way, but you really are raising lots of issues and issues that really do affect women, primarily, women and children at the margins of our society economically. >> right. right. well, i think we need to make a distinction between the leadership conference of women religious who is really the biggest focus of the vatican criticism and they have a direct tie to rome in that they are like incorporated by rome so that their existence depends on rome's approval. network, the organization i run, was criticized in this same document as a troublemaker, a suspect organization for lcwr. the women religious, to have a relationship with. so our response has been a little more public, a little more quickly.

the leadership conference has had board meeting, was in rome earlier this week. and in prayer and reflection we'll be having more meetings this coming weekend and then over the summer in the regions. so that process is going on. our process is really a political process. lifting up our faith to push back, to use it for mission so that the people that jesus responded to in the gospel, the people that were cared about by jesus, the poor or the least and the lest as we sometimes say, that they are lifted up and the focus is on them and their needs. and our nation's soul is not corrupted further by the house ryan budget. >> sister simone, as far as the leadership conference is concerned, as you correctly point out, is basically created and answers to the vatican. they were rebuffed in their meetings in rome. can you explain to us what is

the prospect now? what next steps are even open to them? to challenge the vatican authority? >> or even to dialogue with the vatican authority. i am -- i hope that this is like on capitol hill when you begin negotiations, everybody comes out saying, well, you know, we had candid discussion, which usually means there was some fighting going on, and that we were able to agree to disagree but we will continue in this process. and then everybody reiterates their starting position because nobody in a negotiation wants to give away their initial position too quickly. i come from a democratic culture. that's what i'm hoping is going on in rome. but i've been saying and realizing quite a bit that rome comes out of a culture of monarchy and we in the united states come out of a culture of democracy. and i think that's where the real tension is. this really isn't about tenets of faith.

it's about culture understanding of the role of people and role of leadership. and i'm very concerned that women religious have had a long history of democratic dialogue and engagement. and rome hasn't. and how this is going to play out, i don't know. they're at the lcwr and the bishops are at the center of my prayer these days and my worry, i must confess. >> sister simone, thank you very much. thanks for joining us today. we will follow the nuns on the bus, your tour next week. >> do follow us. it's going to be a great trip. thank you. and coming up, war of words in ohio. we will bring you all of the both speeches right here on msnbc. this is "andrea mitchell reports." see the podiums are ready. the candidates are coming. [ female announcer ] letting her home be turned into a training facility? ♪ this olympian's mom has been doing it for years.

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topping the headlines on "andrea mitchell reports"

secretary of state hillary clinton and actor ben affleck teamed up this morning to give extra star power to the new campaign we previewed on the show yesterday, to eliminate preventable childhood deaths. 700 political and business leaders are joining activists for the event. the judge in jerry sandusky's sexual abuse trial said the prosecution could rest its case as early as today. jurors heard from seven men who testified graphically about alleged encounters with the former penn state football coach. sandusky is facing 52 criminal accounts of child sex abuse. lance armstrong is facing new doping charges that if proved could strip him of his seven tour de france titles. u.s. anti-doping agency told armstrong it has evidence he used performance enhancing drugs between 1996 and 2010. comes only four months after the federal government closed its investigation into possible criminal charges. armstrong says the new allegations are baseless.

and in today's politico briefing it's not only democrats having trouble inside the family. republicans have their own family feuds, as a trio of governors past and present are offering back seat driving to mitt romney. politico's glen thrush is joining me now with more from politico. hey, glen. thanks so much for being here. let's talk about it. which governors are we talking about? governors who are now taking their own independent view toward the romney campaign? >> well, the leader is jeb bush of florida who a couple days ago was forced to do the standard kind of hostage video or hostage quote after he said he thought the republican party had kind of drifted a bit far to the right and that he wasn't exactly sure that his father or even ronald reagan would be an acceptable nominee. and then there was mitch daniels who recently talked a bit about how he thought that romney,

apart from just drawing the contrast with president obama, also needed to -- also needed to sort of draw a line and explain to people why what his vision for the presidency would be. >> and then you got scott walker. where is scott walker coming down with mitt romney in terms of police, firemen, and the teachers? and the whole question of union bargaining, public union bargaining? >> what's interesting about it is obviously the republicans including the rnc chairman, who is from wisconsin, himself, tried to draw a pretty broad national conclusion about the recall election last week. and i think what walker has been very careful in circumspect in terms of telling national republicans including mitt romney is this is not a template that can be necessarily repeated ar around the country and romney needs to sort of cut his own image here. and i think it's also pretty noteworthy that walker's first

move, the morning after the recall took place, was to convene, i guess, a lunch with himself, democrats and republicans. so if you're looking for any real consistency in terms of this message from these three guys, i don't think you're going to find one, but it is pretty interesting to see the same dynamic we saw on the democratic side over the past couple weeks. people like bill clinton and ed rendell and cory booker issuing these correctives to president obama are playing out on the republic an side as well. >> you know, glenn, one thing i think is safe to say that neither of these three, jeb bush, scott walker, mitch daniels are auditioning to become the running mate, the vice presidential choice, because they're certainly off message. on that socore, we don't foe frm the campaign whether they're going to go early or during the regular time, the run-up to the august convention. whether they're going to do something more quickly. there are people weighing in on both sides as to whether they

should actually try to name a running mate, perhaps in july, early july. >> well, andrea, i think a lot of this going to be dictated by the state of the race. i mean, we have seen three to four pretty brutal weeks for president obama. who is still holding a narrow lead nationally in most polls and a narrow lead in a lot of these battleground states. things are moving at the moment pretty decisively in romney's direction in terms of the short-term movements. you know, i think they will pull this out of their back pocket at the most opportune time. if the ball is rolling in their direction as it has been for a while, i think they might wait. so i think that calculation is very much a week to week kind of calculation. >> glenn thrush, thanks a lot for the politico briefing today. and syria's ambassador to russia says today no attack hospit

helicopters are being sent to the assad regime. the u.s. isn't buying. concerns of helicopters to attack siecivilians are fueling calls from france for an international no fly zone, similar to the one used in libya. now is connecticut's independent senator, joe lieberman, chair of the homeland security committee and member of the armed services committee as well. senator, what do you think we should do now? there's been a lot of criticism of the president for not arming the rebels. bushba pushback from the white house is we don't know for sure who the rebels are, they're disorganized, we could face the same kind of blowback we had in afghanistan. what do you think we should do given the massacres the last couple weeks? >> given the continuing massacres, estimates range from 10,000 to 15,000 syrians killed by their own government over the last 14 months in reaction to -- >> senator, senator -- >> yes? >> i hate -- i hate to do this. i've got to interrupt you and go to the mitt romney speech. we have the president coming up next. we will talk to you -- >> okay. >> -- on our next show. >> see you soon. enjoy the speeches. bye-bye.

>> and a special thanks to rod portman and governor kasich. senator portman and governor kasich, good friends of mine who are in significant measure responsible for the fact that i won the primary in ohio and had that not happened i might not be the nominee. so to rob portman and john kasich, thank you very much. great leaders. i express great appreciation for them. now, you may have heard that president obama is on the other side of the state and he's going to be delivering a speech on the economy. he's doing that because he hasn't delivered a recovery for the economy. and he's going to be a person of eloquence, as he describes his plans for making the economy better, but don't forget, he's been president for 3 1/2 years. and talk is cheap. action speaks very loud. and if you want to see the results of his economic policies, look around ohio, look

around the country, and you'll see that a lot of people are hurting. a lot of people have had some real tough times. and the policies the president put in place did not make america create more jobs. as a matter of fact, he made it harder for america to create more jobs. now, when he was recently elected, he went on the "today" show and he was asked about what he'd do, how he'd measure his success. he said, look, if i can't turn the economy around in three years, i'll be looking at a one-term proposition. he's right. he's looking at a one-term proposition. he's going to be saying today that he wants four more years. he may have forgotten he talked about a one-term proposition if he couldn't get the economy turned around in three years. but we're going to hold him to his word. now, i know that he -- he will have all sorts of excuses and he'll have all sorts of ideas

he'll describe about how he'll make things better. but what he says and what he does are not always the exact same thing. and so if people want to know how his economic policies have worked, and how they've performed, why, they can talk to their neighbor and ask whether things are better. they can talk to 50% of college kids graduating from college this year that can't find a job. they can talk to the people who represent the unemployed. the president said that if we let him borrow $787 billion for a stimulus he'd keep unemployment below 8%. nationally. we've now gone 40 straight months with unemployment above 8%. but then he'll say, well, but the things he's been doing have been good and helped create growth and put people back to work. oh, really? go check on that. go to small employers or big employers that you know in your community. talk to people like ken or dave. talk to other employers in this

room. talk to people you know that run a retail store or a small manufacturer and say, did president obama's policies help put people back to work? or did they make it less likely for you to hire people? and i have a prediction to make. because i've been doing that all over the country. and talking to small employers and big employers and i hear day in and day out they feel this administration sees them as their enemy. they feel that the obama policies that made it harder for them to put people back to work. almost everything the president has done has made it harder for entrepreneurs to start a business. has made it less likely for businesses like this to be able to hire more people. and, again, go ask businesspeople. you can do your own survey. anybody out there who doesn't know how to vote, doesn't know who can do a better job getting this economy going can go talk to the people.

talk to the people in business that do the hiring. talk to the employees that want to be hired. and ask them, did the president's policies make things better or worse for getting jobs? let's go through them one by one. that stimulus didn't work. that stimulus didn't put more private sector people to work. how about obama care? the president said the other day that he didn't know that obama care was hard for small business. oh, really? the chamber of commerce carried out a survey, some 1,500 businesses across america. 75% of those people surveyed said obama care made it less likely for them to hire people. think of that. then there was this financial regulatory reform. dodd/frank. you got some bankers, everybody goes to a bank from time to time. go to your credit union or bank and ask them, did dodd/frank help you out? did it make it more likely for you as a bank to be able to renegotiate loans with small

businesses or help people with their mortgages? did it make it easier for you to make new loans? or did dodd/frank make it harder for you in the banking business? did it make you pull back? what you're going to hear is that small business was not helped by dodd/frank and small banks and community banks weren't helped to make loans because of dodd/frank. then there were the president's energy policies. now i know today he's going to talk about all how he's going to really give a boost to energy. talk to the people in the coal industry and ask whether his regulations have helped them mine coal. and what they'll tell you is, on almost every front, he's made it harder to get coal from the ground and made it less likely for people to be able to use it. as a matter of fact, as a candidate, he said that if you build a coal fired plant you'll go bankrupt. if his policies are implemented. we're not taking advantage of the coal we could. how about gas? go talk to people in the natural gas world and ask them what it's like under the obama

administration. they'll tell you that the administration has tried to push itself in to regulate the production of natural gas in such a way that is less reliable and harder to use our gas. talk to the oil people. they'll tell you that he put a moratorium on drilling in the gulf. can't drill in anwr. aren't drilling in outer continental shelf off virginia. all three of those resources we have in abundance, this is a president that's made it harder to create jobs there and to get low-cost energy to manufacturers like this one. and there's one more. you don't need to ask people about this one. you already know the answer. did he get that pipeline in from canada? no. i can guarantee you if i'm president, on day one, we're going to get the approval for that pipeline from canada and if i have to build it myself to get it here, i'll get that oil into america. [ applause ] one of the things ken spoke to

you about briefly, and he's actually been to washington to testify about, is the fact that trade is good. of the businesspeople i met with just a few minutes ago, a number of them said that their business relies pretty substantially on selling products to other nations. it's good for us to be able to trade with other nations. it creates jobs here. i happen to think there are enormous opportunities in places like latin america. huge market area so close to us where we have natural competitive advantages. and some of these businesses are taking advantage of that. now, china and the nations of the european union over the last 3 1/2 years had made real inroads in latin america and other places of the world with trade agreements. and negotiated trade agreements. 44 different trade agreements being associated by china and european nations. with other nations around the world. guess how many trade agreements our president's negotiated? none. none. and then, of course, to the ones

that we have, now and then people signed agreements but then they don't live up to them. i heard today about a number of circumstances, my friends in china, who are important trading partners and hopefully will be on the same page as us on trading matters. nonetheless, they seem to have a penchant for stealing intellectual property. counterfeiting our goods. stealing our technology. our brand names. our trademarks. our nohow. that kills american jobs. every now and then you hear presidential candidates talk about how they're going to crack down on it. day one i'll allow tariffs, where they steal our intellectual property and kill jobs. [ applause ] so as you look at the president's record, it is long on words, and short on action that created jobs. and, again, talk is cheap.

action speaks loudly. look what's happened across this country. if you think things are going swimmingly, if you think the president's right when he said the private sector is doing fine, well then he's the guy to vote for. but when he said that, there was such an outpouring of response from the 23 million americans out of work, or underemployed, that i think today he is not going to say it again. i think it's more likely he's going to say, give me four more years, even though i didn't get it done in the first 3 1/2. in my experience and thinking about people who i want to have work for me, whether it's my doctor or the person that's going to be painting the house, i want to make sure they did a good job the first time, and if they didn't, i want someone who can do a better job. let me tell you where i'd take the country. i love america. i happen to believe that the principles that made america the powerhouse economically we are have been eroded by this

president. i think he's made it harder for small businesspeople to open their doors. for entrepreneurs to build businesses. for companies like this to know that their products won't be stolen by competitors overseas. i think he's made it harder for the american enterprise system to work. i want to change that. i want to make it once again, america once again the most attractive place in the world for job creators. and it's not just because i love job creators. it's because i love jobs. i want more good jobs for the american people and i want such competition for good work eers that salaries and wages go up so people make more money. i want to help the middle class of america, and i'm going to do it. [ applause ] and i -- i happen to be convinced, having been able to go all across the country, that we're poised to see a resurgence of american economic vitality, with companies growing, with

jobs growing, with employers bringing jobs back to america as opposed to sending them elsewhere. that won't happen under this president. that will happen if we change the course of this country. let me tell you how how i'd do . mentioned a few things. first, energy. i happen to like the sources of energy that we have in abundance in this country -- oil, coal, and natural gas -- and i'm going to take advantage to get the energy costs low so we can have more jobs, manufacturing jobs and bring them back to this one tri. that's number one. number two, i'm going to take -- i've got to get rid of this great big overhang that came from one piece of legislation that has frightened businesses small and large and made them less likely to hire people. i'm going to get rid of obama care.

so number one, energy. number two, obama care. number three, i'm going after the deficit. you see i think people who are thinking about investing in america and making this their future and putting their life savings into america to build a business and have it here for decades they wonder what the dollar's going to be worth when they see our country year after year after year spend morgue than we take it. trillions in debts. this president has put together -- he has put together almost as much public debt as all prior presidents combined. you want four more years of that? you call that forward? that's forward over a cliff. that's forward on the way to greece. i don't want that. i will finally get america on track to have a balanced budget and we will limit the size of government.

those are three big ideas. let me tell you some others. i want to open up new markets for american goods. and i want to crack down on nations like china when they cheat. i will not allow them to consistently steal our intellectual property and manipulate their currency in a way that kills american jobs. s that that has to stop. look, it's coming back, folks. america's a great nation. the entrepreneurship here, the passion of our people, our convict in the hope of tomorrow, our affection for our kids and coming generations, these things combined with policies that encourage the private sector will cause a resurgence, a rebirth of america's economy in a way that's going to surprise people all over the world. i'm convinced of it. i have had the chance to go across the country and see entrepreneurs of all kinds. i'm inspired by them. i met a woman who owns a

business. i said, how did you start your company? she said my husband lost his job and he took a class he'd always wanted to take in upholstering and she said because i was better manager i started a company. and hired him as my first employee. and she went on to hire other people. she now has 40 people who work in her uppolstering company. i met a woman from las vegas who has a business renting furniture to casinos and to conventioners that come to las vegas. when president obama said no need to go to las vegas for company meetings, don't spend money there, her business collapsed. and she wondered whether she'd lose it and lose the jobs of the people who worked for her. and she had an idea. instead of just renting these black naugahyde sofa ands coffee tables, she decided to teach her people how to make those things. she now makes that furniture with those same employees and

sells it, not just to the convention area but also around the country. i met a -- i met a guy who had a back problem, a russian immigra immigrant. alexis, san diego, he had a better idea how to do back surgery. started a little company to do that. now it employs 1300 people a company called nuvasive. i saw marco rubio the other day, he spoke to a group of people. he said something that struck me well. he said -- he said when he was a boy he lived in a very modest home and said there were some pretty fancy homes that could be seen around the miami area. he said you know what? i never heard my parents say, why won't those people give us some of what they have. he said i never heard my parents say, why won't the government give us some of what they have? instead they said isn't it great

to live in i country with hard work and education and risk taking and maybe a little luck you can achieve that yourself. america is the land of opportunity. we want good jobs here. we want to make it the place where people want to come with their ideas. we want this to be the home of dreamers. we want them to start enterprises and hire one another and cause cages to go up one again. it's an extraordinary country. the sacrifice made by the people of america to give us the opportunity we enjoy really can't be counted. i was -- on memorial day i was in san diego and had the plif of being with members. one a second world war vet a lookout on the "uaa tennessee "he happened to be there on the day of pearl harbor. his eyes locked on the eyes of pilot bringing bombardment into attack their ships. and he was injured in the attack

but he went on to serve for 33 years in the united states navy. i had him stand and be recognized. and i noticed there weren't as many second world war vets as there used to be at memorial days when i was younger and they're a little older. they can't hold the torch quite as high as they used to. that torch is going to have be seized by us, by our generations. it's a torch of freedom and hope and opportunity. it's not america's torch. but it's america's duty and honor to hold that torch high so it can be seen by the world. this is our time. we can either continue on a path to become more and more like europe with bigger and bigger government, taking more and more from the american people, directing our lives and telling us how to run our enterprises. if we take that path we know

where it leads. it leads to chronic high unemployment like europe has, low wage growth like europe has and potential fiscal calamity like we're seeing at doorstep of europe today. or instead we can return to the principles that made america america. we can have a nation that leads the world in entrepreneurship, innovation, in job creation, in economic vitality, in wage growth. that's the america i want. i spent my life in private enterprise 25 years. i know how businesses work. i know what causes them to leave and what will bring them back. i want to use that experience to get america working again. for me, it's all about good jobs for the american people and a bright and prosperous future and i'm going to bring it with your help. thank you so much. thank you.

>> mitt romney speaking in cincinnati and no text, no teleprompt, this was his preview and his attack lines, and he prebutted the president knowing that the president was about to speak. he went first moving up his speech by at least a half hour and the president is already at the event site and momentarily will be speaking. so a rare opportunity to see back-to-back speeches of both candidates. we of course will bring all of the president to you. this is "andrea mitchell reports" live from philadelphia. coming up next, tamron hall on "news nation." we'll take it from here. as we await president obama who is planning his speech as well. it's been an incredible few minutes to watch this all play i out. mitt romney moved the time of his speech to prebutt, we are using this word the president's speech. they are both in ohio. with me jonathan, jackry to discuss what we're hearing here.

before the president starts to talk here, mitt romney laying out the case, the president is no trade agreement, he says obama care or health care as he referred to it is hurting small businesses, dodd/frank has not helped banks here. he's laying out his examples of policies he says has hurt the economy rather than speed up the recovery. also started out with the stimulus here. fact versus fiction or is this subject to interpretation? >> dodd/frank clearly subject to interpretation and you had jamie diamond's testimony yesterday a strong rebuttal of that. one of most interesting things in the speech the warning about europe. i don't know that last time a presidential campaign has looked across the ocean and said, we don't want to become that. >> he pointed out unemployment rate. but what we know, austerity measures put in place in europe are part of the reason they have this epic problem, a crisis that we will watch play out tomorrow, as well, this weekend with elections in greece. we h c