barack obama woufld have been carrying his bags. labor pains, does a good convention even matter if it's followed by bad job numbers on friday? one big problem to football that no one is talking about. you can count on me to keep it real on this monday, september 3rd. the democratic national convention starts tomorrow in charlotte. democrats will try to undo the tiny little bounce mitt romney got from the rnc, a squash ball sort of bounce, and seize the chance to push their numbers and members ahead. gallup say voters think the rnc speech was the worst convention speech in years. only 38% rated the speech as excellent or good, far below 1996. but let's not start digging his

grave just yet. the president's approval rating is 45% and his disapproval is at 48%. ouch. here's the lineup in charlotte. castro kicks things off tuesday. he'll be joined by the first lady michelle obama and former president jimmy carter via video. wednesday, bill clinton, the president's new bff, and thursday, joe biden and president obama accept the party's nomination and speak to the future. other big speakers this week include elizabeth warren, harris, john kerry, rahm emanuel, sandra fluke. we start with steve kornacki in charlotte with an adoring crowd behind him. as much in love with steve as we are. how about that, you're a rock star, brother. >> it's not just me. it's you too. i feel like lee corso on game day with this giant crowd behind me. i need head gear to put on later

or something, but you can tell, i think, from the reaction of the crowd behind me, there is, i'm picking up walking around here today and talking to people, a lot of optimism among the democrats here. i think it comes from what you just mentioned, toure, the polling right now coming off the republican convention last week suggests a minimal at best bounce for mitt romney so i think there's a sense from democrats things didn't go the way republicans hoped they would and therefore there's an opportunity for obama to have a strong convention and build a more substantial lead in the polls. i would throw in a cautionary note, the alternate interpretation is that this is really the modern reality of polarization in politics, there are fewer undecided voters, public opinion's much less fluid, so the era of big convention bounces might be passing. we'll see this week how true that is. couple other things to set the stage tonight and the rest of the week, there are two elements of suspense in charlotte, one

involves bill clinton, he'll be speaking wednesday night. this is an unusually anticipated speech by the non-nominee, partly because of clinton's stature as a former president, but also he emerged as a central player in the republican narrative, frankly. they have made him sort of in their telling the anti-obama. the good democratic president against whom they've been comparing obama the last few years. they've helped bill clinton attain new heights in popularity. the suspense surrounding that is bill clinton has not cleared his speech with anybody in the obama campaign. that immediately conjures thoughts of clint eastwood and the empty chair, but i would say clinton in 2008 did not clear his speech then. he had a very bad experience going way back to the start of his career in 1998 where he thought the campaign handlers had too much input in his speech and it was a disaster. i think that's what's involved there. quickly, the other element of suspense here involves, sort of like last week, the weather. the obama is planning to deliver

his speech thursday night in the football stadium not far from here. they want the 70,000 cheering fans, but there's talk of rain, maybe a lot, we don't know yet. there's the question will they have it outside if there's rain, then is there empty seats and so that's what's going on here. and also, little hot right now too. >> krystal, look, here's what's been happening. romney tried to move the race with an economic attack. that didn't work. he tried to move the race by picking paul ryan, that didn't work. he would expect the rnc would give him some sort of bounce, that seems not to be working. is his support maxing out? >> well, the counterargument to that is nothing has really moved the race. it's been remarkable how steady it's been, and i do think it's a little of both. i think in part his speech failed to articulate really a vision in terms of what a mitt romney administration would look like. i think it was heavy on the

personal details and he delivered that better than i think anyone expected, but in terms of actual this is what my administration would look like, we're still left wondering about that, and i hope that the president will do a better job of laying out exactly what a second obama administration could do, but another thing i would note here is no matter what you think of the president, i think everyone would agree his team has been very good at staging major events like this. they understand the drama, the timing, the theater, the multimedia elements, and the republicans have tried to put that into a criticism, this guy's a rock star, he's a celebrity. i hope they won't be afraid, though, to use those multimedia elements and things they are so good at, because americans still do fundamentally want to be inspired. >> and they want to be entertained, and you're right, this is partly theater, this event. >> it is. >> one wonders, though, how close to the line they'll come. the economy's really bad, they want to be sure that they don't

go too over the top, because the narrative becomes look how out of touch this convention is, so it will be interesting to see how that play that up. steve, let me ask you this. at the rnc where i was, the talk was about who was auditioning on the republican's side for 2016, so you saw chris christie was having his audition moment, people said marco rubio, some even said paul ryan was auditioning for 2016. who's auditioning at the dnc for 2016? >> it's interesting, no matter who wins this fall, there's going to be an open democratic nomination, so the big one, obviously, hillary clinton, she won't be anywhere near here, consider her husband's speech her audition for 2016. a lot of smaller name at this point ambitious people making their rounds this week at delegation breakfasts and trying as hard as they can to get on television. martin o'malley, they are doing the most they can.

the big exception is andrew cuomo, the governor of new york, reasons for having his own position in new york that's made him so popular in new york. he's staying as far away as he can from this convention. he'll be making a token appearance later in the week, but the one that interests me, hillary clinton is at this point the favorite for 2016. the one who really wants to be in the mix and has an opportunity this week, i think, is joe biden. he's going to be speaking thursday night now. he's 74 years old at the end of 2016, is he too old, the vice president who was too old and never got to succeed harry truman, even though he wanted to, so biden may have an opportunity this week to get his name in the mix. that's the one i'm most interested in seeing this week. >> the one i'm most looking forward to for 2016 or 2020, harris, brilliant woman, was the attorney general of san francisco. we're looking at the governor's

mansion one day, perhaps she could be a serious contender coming out of california. but i'm just excited by this massive crowd behind you. they made me think you could be a contender in 2016. >> guys, this has little to do with me and a lot to do with you and i think, like i said, i am picking up on a lot of optimism here this week. i know you'd probably get the same thing if you were going down to tampa for the republicans, but the crowd is in a good mood. >> steve's going to be our eyes and ears in charlotte all week. next, imagine a test where the first question is obvious. then imagine failing that question face palm. we're going to talk about the obvious question that flumoxed obama surrogates. how could that not see it coming? that as "the cycle" moves on for monday, september 3rd. all energy development comes with some risk,

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yes or no, are americans better off today than they were four years ago? >> listen, george, you know, they did a good job of reciting all the statistics everyone's familiar with. >> you can't say yes. >> we've clearly improved, george. >> i can say we're in a better position. are we where we need to be, no. >> yet it is not moving fast enough. >> can you honestly say people are better off today than they were four years ago? >> no, but that's not the question of this election. >> i bet most of america won't agree with governor martin o'malley that this election

isn't about whether or not you're better off than you were four years ago, of course, that's what this election is about. 69% of americans in the latest nbc news poll say things are the same or worse than they were when president obama took office. today his campaign is trying to walk back those weekend comments, saying the election is about if you are going to be better off tomorrow and who's best to get you there. >> we are clearly better off as a country, because we're now creating jobs rather than losing them. we have not recovered all that we lost in the bush recession. that's why we need to continue to move forward. >> are we better off today than we were four years ago when president obama was elected? >> absolutely. by any measure, the country has moved forward over the last four years. it might not be as fast as some people hoped. the president agrees with that. he knows we need to do more. that's what this week is about. >> the answer is, yes, we are better off.

we need to keep working harder. we're better off because we're investing in the middle class. >> i think if we were unequivocally better off, i'm not sure this would be a question people are having to ask. politico's ken vogel is in charlotte. the weekend before the dnc, i cannot imagine a worse time to have a messaging breakdown. what's your sense on the ground, are they scrambling to try and fix this or are they going to let it hang there and hope it goes away, what are you sensing on the ground? >> they've been really struggling with this question for months. it is the central question in the election and it's kind of a catch-22 for them. they don't want to say yes, because they do look insensitive to the economic suffering. they don't want to say no, republicans are quick. we saw mitt romney doing so just recently, so instead they have this nuanced answer you would be

worse off if we hadn't have done the things and the steps we took. you hear joe biden taking an alternate attack saying we are better off because obama bin laden is dead and general motors is alive, but not the majority of americans are coming up with an answer that does not look good for the obama administration. >> you touched on the exact right answer, it's not that hard of a question. you look at who's asking the question, yes, we are better off, bin laden is dead, detroit is alive, getting out of iraq, what's the problem, but yesterday it seems like crimi l criminal. i'm like what are you talking about, you are not helping, are you a secret agent? >> seemed like they couldn't coordinate either. >> totally not expecting it, which is weird. >> there are four answers to the

obvious question. you were a candidate, don't your surrogates know this question is coming and we coordinate how to answer this very obvious question, which is central to the question of the election? >> well, i think that is the part that is unforgivable, not anticipating it and having an answer ready to go that everybody knows, but in fairness, i do think it's a tough question to answer. if you look at the metrics, four years ago we were in free fall. the economy was a disaster, people were terrified. no question looking at the metrics things are better, but people don't feel like things are better, so the answer is, yes, but you don't want to give that answer and feel like you're out of touch. and to that point, you know, ken, i wanted to ask you about this quote from a romney spokesperson, the obama campaign now has a clear message for americans, you're doing well, you just don't know it. americans deserve a president that believes we're not better off and have a plan to fix it. my question to you, what is the

right answer to the question, saying yes and painted out of touch or saying no, see. >> it is a tough question and one that the romney people are going to seize on. it's unfortunate for them, like you said, from a tiny perspective it would come up before the convention. some of the answers they have come up with in the past, the joe biden bin laden is dead and gm is alive, the health care, you know, the health care overhaul is going to be helping you shortly, just hang on. those aren't what people think of when they are asked that question by pollsters. they think of their bank account, their bottom line, and that's why it's such a personal and tough question to answer. if they say yes and give any kind of answer that is a conditional yes, people are going to come back and look at their bank account and if their bank account doesn't make them feel better than they were four years ago, they are going to wonder are these guys out of touch. >> you know, guys, i tend to

agree with the idea, look, obviously, martin o'malley stepped in it and been unfortunate, to say the least, for democrats to have to deal with this right now, but when you look at the bigger picture on this, the gamble is much more on the romney campaign side. i saw this in romney's acceptance speech last week, this is a candidate in a campaign that believes they need to be generic, a generic protest vehicle and the economic anxiety of the average swing voter is sufficiently high, that that voter will want to vote out the incumbent and will settle for generic. that's not a bad strategy when the president has sat with an unemployment rate over 8%, but the model the romney campaign is buying into is what worked against jimmy carter in 1980, democrats against george h.w. bush in 1982. the difference is this, when you're carter, you couldn't look back to 1976 and say, hey, i inherited this economic disaster from harold ford. when you were george bush sr. in

1982 and the unemployment rate went up almost three points on your watch, you couldn't say i inherited this mess from reagan, especially since you were the vice president. when you're barack obama, you have polls that show by a fairly significant margin, voters say that george w. bush is more responsible for the current economic conditions than obama. so context generally doesn't work. i almost say it almost never works. this is the election that could be the exception to that, though. >> i want to thank ken vogel of politico for joining us and mention to our audience they are looking at michelle obama, first lady, who is doing her run through at the dnc ahead of her speech tomorrow. what i think is interesting, guys, pointing back to this idea that the obama campaign has to walk a fine line at this dnc. they had to walk a fine line in answering that question, they have to walk a fine line in optics, because things are not rosy for everybody and they don't want to act like they are. i want to play a clip.

president obama was in boulder on sunday and he was talking about the rnc and mitt romney and what happened there. roll that. >> there was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but the interesting thing was, nobody ever bothered to tell us what they were. and when governor romney finally had a chance to reveal the secret sauce, he did not offer a single new idea. >> so i'm taking my republican hat off and being sort of strategist there, and we talked about this before, the president has this tick, sometimes he can seem a little condescending and a little defensive and i think that what you saw right there was the exact attitude he needs to avoid this entire week. he needs to feel your pain. that was a little sort of smug, a little sort of flippant, and i think that could absolutely ruin this dnc if he comes out looking

overconfident, i got this, mitt, what do you guys think? >> first of all, you can take your republican hat off any time you want to. >> okay. >> second of all, i actually agree with you. i think there's -- it's a lot about the context. there he's speaking to his supporters, he's speaking on the campaign stump, giving a partisan speech. at the dnc, he's speaking to the nation, he's not speaking to the delegates in the room, it's a speech for the nation. lots of people will be watching, and he's got surrogates around him that can make the contrast and make it hard. he doesn't have to go there. i agree with you on that. >> i didn't mind that moment so much. i counted three smiles just in that little block, and he sort of, like, planned the dozens a bit, trash talking like some basketball, where's your secret sauce, man, what's going on? so i didn't mind that moment so much. >> that moment was for you and me as supporters. i loved it too, but on a national stage -- >> i think that's walking a fine line, again. i think he has to look humble and understand the state of the

nation at this dnc. we'll see if he can pull it off. next, can the democrats recapture the magic of 2008? we're putting this convention into historical contest with a walking political encyclopedia jonathan alter. he's in the guest spot. at purina one, we believe small things can make a big difference. like how a little oil from here can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. we discovered that by blending enhanced botanical oils into our food, we can help brighten an old dog's mind so he's up to his old tricks. it's just one way purina one is making the world a better place... one pet at a time. discover vibrant maturity and more at purinaone.com.

these challenges are not all of government's making, but the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in washington and the failed policies of george w. bush. [ cheers and applause ]

america, we are better than these last eight years. we are a better country than this. >> in 2008 he was a senator preaching hope and change to a huge crowd of adoring fans who looked at him as a man who could walk on water, ushering in camelot 2.0. now four years later on the eve of the dnc in charlotte, enthusiasm has faded and the youthful senator has graying hair, but he's still full of fight. a story calls him the competitor in chief. sub text, he's still got fire in the belly about campaigning, but will it make the difference? in the guest spot today, msnbc political analyst bloomberg view columnist, jonathan alter, thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me, guys. >> it is fair to compare the '08 dnc and the 2012 dnc, 2008 obama, 2012 obama, is it fair? >> all's fair in love and

politics. sure, it's fair. that convention he had a big expectations bar to get over because he was already a phenomenon going into that convention. they had to make sure that things with the clintons went well, which provided some suspense there. >> and we have that again. >> by the time they got to thursday night, they needed to make sure that it didn't rain, which is, again, another issue this year. what do they do in that case? and he had to get over the bar, and he basically did. i actually didn't think it was one of his all-time great speeches in 2008, but it was good enough. >> you have this ascended guy, talk about hope and change, now we have more of a negative muddied campaign. does this really remind you most of '08 or, say, '96, '04, '92? >> it's a lot like what they call a reelect, because it is a reelect, so you mention two important sort of models for this. one would be '96 when bill clinton got reelected against

bob dole. and i think that chicago is using that as a model. clinton didn't really say very much in that reelect campaign. it was all small ball, little issues. >> right. >> and he had a much better economy to run on than obama does. 2004, though, is the real model. and it's interesting, because in this case, it's obama as president bush running for reelection against john kerry. with mitt romney in the john kerry mode. massachusetts stiff with good hair and not a lot of connection to the american public. >> and not a lot of spine, right, the flip-flopper. >> the flip-flopping, so what the bush people did that year was took kerry apart. and even though bush was not all that popular and the war wasn't popular, he managed to get reelected by essentially undermining his opponent, and that is pretty much obama's strategy this time. >> it's funny that you mention the obama speech and it not

being, in your opinion, one of his greatest oratorical accomplishments, so to speak, and i would agree with that. what i remember from 2008 was the energy in the room, emotion. >> big football stadium. >> you could feel it coming through the television. and i think a lot has been made of this idea that, oh, the base isn't as energized, they are not as excited about him this time around, but i have to tell you, we just had steve kornacki from charlotte and they were going absolutely crazy. i think people underestimate how much democrats love this president, love the first lady, and are still excited about what this president and administration means for the country. >> i think you're absolutely right, krystal, and the other thing to understand is what these conventions are for, both in denver, battleground state, charlotte in a battleground state, is to create enthusiasm locally. so the reason they are doing them in football stadiums is because they can give a lot of the locals, who then become

organizers for get out the vote operations, tickets to the show. and they also do a lot of voter registration that's connected to these conventions. it used to be the conventions were just a tv show. they are also now, at least for the democrats, big mobilization opportunities. the republicans didn't do it as much in tampa. >> jonathan, you mentioned back in 2008 the obamas having to contend with the clintons at that convention, and i think a lot of people forget that just before that convention and surrounding that convention there were still a lot of democrats who were disappointed that it wasn't hillary, so sitting out or vocally sort of antagonizing the dnc. >> pumas. >> i think it's fair to say a lot of those people have forgiven and gotten over their disappointment. do you see any issues, i mean krystal mentioned an enthusiasm gap on the left, but do you see any other sort of issues that have broken up this party? it seemed fairly coalesced, to me. >> i think the party's unified.

the two things that chicago, as they call the obama headquarters, worry about, one is money. so the real convention in tampa was the meeting of american cross roads, 70 multimillionaires and billionaires in there with carl rove. that was the actual republican convention, because if they win this election, it will be because they just blew obama out in terms of money. so that's the main thing that they are worried about and that's why they send out all these requests and e-mails that are irritating, but they work for obama, because people understand that this president is going to get outspent, which is a highly unusual, even unprecedented thing in american history. the other thing they are worried about is voter suppression. in 2011 a lot of states passed laws to make it effectively harder for democrats to vote. some have been overturned, but there's still problems in pennsylvania and other states.

so they need an even bigger get out the vote operation, more party unity, to overcome these barriers that have been put in the way of mostly democrats who don't have the right kind of photo i.d. not just you need a photo i.d. that's kind of a misconception. the way the republican legislature set it up, you have to have a precise photo i.d. from the state department of transportation. >> with an expiration date. >> if you don't have that or something pretty close to that. >> sounds tough. >> might be facetious about it, but 750,000 registered voters in pennsylvania don't have it, so that's adjusted for them, they take the bus, they are not drivers, they live in the city. it is, you know, it's an extra thing to get over. the obama team has to get them out to the department of motor vehicles to get the driver's license equivalent. >> that will be a big thing that we'll have to be watching around what happens in pennsylvania. that's the biggest swing state where we have to watch out for

this to be an issue. >> it now is, because in florida and in ohio, very recently there have been court decisions to make it less of a problem for democrats, but the reason i mention all of this, this is the kind of thing they are going to be talking about at the democratic convention. how do we get over election day -- >> are they going to be talking about how to get over the bad economy too? >> they should be. >> that's going to be an obstacle as well. hate to point out the obvious. >> we'll have you back to talk about more of that. thank you very much, jonathan alter. four years ago, his wife was president obama's fiercest opponent, now he's one of the president's most important campaigners. we're examining the friendship with bill clinton and president obama with jimmy williams in charlotte next. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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♪ just four years ago, tensions between president bill clinton and then-senator barack obama were running very high. in fact, a piece claims clinton asaid, "a few years ago this guy would have been carrying our bags." times have changed a little bit. this wednesday clinton will be speaking primetime at the dnc. still has not submitted his speech to be vetted. jimmy williams, also here in charlotte. jimmy, i want to set this up a little bit. because i think there's -- the clinton speech works on two levels here. one, what impact is it going to have on barack obama's reelection campaign, but another interesting angle i'm sort of thinking about is the longer game in 2016 and his wife is positioning for no matter what will be an open democrat nomination next time around.

maybe i'm reading too much into this, and you can tell me, i think the clinton team scored its first tactical victory for 2016. the sort of recent tradition at conventions is vice presidential candidate goes wednesday, presidential candidate goes thursday. that wednesday spot was important for joe biden. he's been bounced from it. he'll be the undercard on thursday night and in his place is the husband of a woman at this point who is his chief rival for 2016. am i reading too much into this? >> no, no, i think that's pretty much right on. i think we clearly have not only daytime, but a budding relationship between a sitting president and former president, and that's a good thing. i think it's strategic on both sides. i think the president of the united states needs mr. clinton to help him with that narrow sliver of undecided voters, especially women ages 30 to 50 who grew up with bill clinton as

sort of their teenage or childhood president. that's important. the second thing is is that bill clinton and hillary clinton need barack obama. they need him to perform strongly and to do well, because if barack obama loses and loses on the scale of a carter, that is very bad for the democratic brand for years to come and that is not helpful to a, perhaps, nominee or presidential candidate hillary clinton. so on many levels, this is -- they are living vicariously off each other and through each other, and as i said to a buddy of mine back stage a minute ago, clearly they are carrying each other's bags now and that's probably not a bad thing for today's politics. >> one of the interesting tidbits in this new yorker story looks at the -- pardon me. one of the interesting tidbits, sorry, i was hearing something in my ear there. one of the interesting tidbits looks at clinton's strategic advice to barack obama. look, you attempted to run

against a flip-flopper and should be running against a right-wing idealog and basically saying i proved that in my own career. do you buy that? >> sure. i like both. you know, frankly, i think you can do both. listen, i've never been elected president of the united states, obviously, especially not in this state, and bill clinton has. i have no doubt he actually understands and has his fingers still, today in 2012, on the pulse of the american electorate. if i were the obama camp, i would definitely take that advice, but i also think you can do both at the same time. i don't think that there are many people in the country, even republicans, that think that mitt romney today, currently, holds many positions opposite what he held when he was governor. that's engrained into the minds of most american people. the question becomes can you scare the american people enough to know that the republican party, a congress sitting at 13%

approval rating, a republican majority of the house sitting at a lower number than that, to think that they are all one in the same and they are bad for the country. i think that's what clinton was saying when he was giving that advice to the obama camp to president obama. i think you can do both, and i would do both. at the same time, though, if i were the president, i would scare the hell out of the american people and tell them what you're going to do in the next four years, come up with three things and hammer that home between now and november 6th and don't veer off message. >> the speech by clinton hasn't been vetted yet. what is kind of the best-case scenario we could get out of president clinton and what are they nervous about, what would be the worst-case scenario? >> me or to steve? >> that was to you. >> me? >> you, jimmy, take it. >> gosh, i couldn't hear most of the question. >> best-case scenario for

clinton's speech and worst case. what is chicago nervous about? >> listen, listen, bill clinton, remember when president obama just got elected and invited clinton to the white house and took over the podium in the press room? i don't think that's going to happen this time. this is barack obama's convention. will the crowd go nuts? they'll go nuts when bill clinton gets up there, but bill clinton is not going to do anything to jeopardize president obama and will do everything to help this guy, i think, in my opinion. >> jimmy williams, i will see you here around charlotte this week. coming up, forget the polls, the number dems should really look out for this week. ♪

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currently, the 2012 republican national convention stands adjourned. >> ah, yes, the intimidating debt clock striking its final dooming dollar at the close of the republicans' convention. with such a prominent prop, we must have heard numerous corrections to the debt crisis, right? not so much. vice presidential nominee ryan did mention debt, most were attack lines against the president, not about what romney and ryan would actually do better. this was romney's grand proclamation on the debt. >> they could start paying back some of their loans and build

for the future. this is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt and rolling back those massive deficits. >> that was actually the only time that romney mentioned the supposed cornerstone issue of the republicans' big party, and from the debt to the wars, romney and ryan used the war three times between the two of them and neither uttered the word afghanistan, not once. romney recognized that over the weekend saying he already addressed the unpopular war at length during the week. >> governor romney traveled to indianapolis on wednesday and gave a speech to the american legion. that was an invitation that president obama declined. governor romney thought it was a privilege to be speaking to people who nerved so nobly, and in that speech, he talked about afghanistan. >> what will or won't the democrats be talking about this week? one thing that's threatening to change the conversation does come friday and that's the august jobs report. we'll get to that in a bit, but

i would say the romney campaign decided they should be sort of intentionally vague. they want to be the in-offensive alternative to the president. their goal is to say this guy is doing a bad job and we'd be a plausible alternative. the president has decided to go about things a different way. people generally like him, but they want to know, okay, we gave you the four years, what's going to be -- what are you going to do in the next four years so we are not having this question are things or are they not better off. we don't want to feel like things are better off, we want to feel like we're in a strong position. what would your second administration look like, so i think we will get more policy details, and i also will say even on the democrats most controversial plan, which is the health care plan, when you spell out the details and lay out the details of the plan, they are broadly popular, so the democrats benefit from the details. if the republicans go into details on the med rare, the voucher plan, the cuts they are going to make, it's not popular. >> remember last week, tuesday,

i think, i was telling you all i want to see some specifics out of this rnc. i too was disappointed there weren't as much specific proposal ideas but i looked back at the 2008 dnc footage and the promises that were made in those speeches by biden and obama look like fiction today, so i think you're right that mitt romney wants to be vague so that he doesn't have to be held to anything. but to the wars issue, it's a really interesting thing when i was going through those speeches, it almost appears as if that dnc was a different era, like a generation ago. play some of that for us. >> for the last seven years the administration has failed to face the biggest, the biggest forces shaping this century. the emergence of russia, china, and india's great powers and the resurgence of fundamentalism in afghanistan and pakistan, the

real central front in the war on terror. >> you don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying iraq. you don't protect israel and deter iran just by talking tough in washington. you can't truly stand up you'ver oldest alliances. >> georgia. i meep mean, can you imagine and georgia made an appearance more than once in those dnc speeches. it feels like a different time. there's really no talk of foreign policy at these dncs about those wars, nuclear energy. iran. >> people like barack obama. they don't like mitt romney. they think mitt romney would be a good steward of the economy. they don't blame barack obama for the problems of the economy they have. so ultimately, barack obama becomes the good husband who's kind of doing bad and do we take you back or not?

can you give us flowers and say, baby, don't worry, it will be better. >> i think some would make the argument. he didn't just fail to bring flowers. he cheated on us. >> how did he cheat on us? >> the question of this election is going to be do enough people think he failed us because aehe was a cheater not not paying enough attention to us. >> that's a question i want to ask my friend, steve kornacki. the the jobs number is coming out friday. >> file it's not going to have much of an impact. i think we've settled from a stable pattern where the dye is sort of cast. people have a sense in the positive or negative of where they think things are and making judgments accordingly. talking about the 1992 comparison when bush senior was voted out, i remember the jobs

reports that year. they had a much different political impact because you had a president who had inherited a stable seeming economy. it really seemed like a traumatic thing had happened on his watch. you watched that year, april, may, june, july, as the unemployment rate ticked up near 8. so there was this sense of a sudden, worsening, deepening crisis that the president was sort of flailing as he tried to respond to. i think now there's a sense that for better or worse, we are where we are. people are kind of making their judgments assuming the economy is where it is. >> and to that point, i think if you look at the liability numbers, they're just not sure. >> do they feel unappreciated or betrayed? i think that's where it's going to come down to. >> up next, even better than the kickoff of the the dnc, well, at least according to toure, is the the kickoff for the nfl. [ male announcer ] this is rudy.

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my fellow americans, this is a truly great monday for this is the week that football season begins. the pros get back to work on wednesday, the college boys got a start over the weekend and america is just better when football's in season. the whole week becomes like tailgating in preparation for thrilling throws and catches. >> tenth play of the series. epd zone bound and he's got the touchdown. >> powerful runs.

bone crushing hits and exciting extra point kicks. that wasn't exciting. that was lame. let's keep it real, people. extra point kicks are boring. a skinny guy lines up really close to the upright and spoiler alert, he kicks it through 99% of the time. the defense barely tries to block him. is it affirmative action for dorks? it doesn't even make sense that after you pass or run the ball into the end zone, then you have to complete an entirely different physical skill to get an added amount. where else in sport is a score ratified by completing a different skill? imagine if lebron knocked down a three-pointer and some tiny man had to bounce it off his head into a tiny goal to get three tenths of a point. people like to say it's a war metaphor, runs like tanks moving

through a ground campaign. okay. but then how does the extra point fit? i know. after you capture enemy land, soldiers sometimes take prisoners and torture them. lest you think i'm insane for wanting the extra point out, the -- last year, bill belichick told boston radio station quote, philosophically, plays that are non plays should not be in the game. i don't think it, the extra point, is good for the game. amen, brother. there's nothing wrong with sports evolving. basketball has added a three-pointer. baseball, the dh. football will improve by eliminating the extra point and making the the offense go for two points or giving teams the option of taking six. either way, the less america sees of kickers, the better. >> you feel good? >> i've been wanting to do that for a long time.

>> i take issue with this because what i like about football is that it is a variety of skills. the whole thing is not just one skill. >> right. >> so why do you want to take away one more skill? >> field goal. >> skill lest. >> i think i can break some news here because my sources are telling me the democrats have revised their platform. they're calling for the elimination of the extra point. >> that sounds awesome. >> mission accomplished for toure. >> martin, speaking of football, how about van persie yesterday. >> but listen, just on that point, i kicked goals for the rugby team i played for and it's a very, very important skill because you can still have a role in the game, so i totally disagree with what you said and entirely agree with krystal ball. good afternoon. it's monday, september