issues that we have are interesting stuff here professor mearsheimer is a professor of political science at the university of chicago and for us that's going to do it here for more on the stories we cover and go to our website youtube dot com slash r t america and you can follow me on twitter at christine for zero. zero.

zero. leads technology innovation all the latest developments around russia we've got the future covered. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations to rule the day . can't. stand. alone when welcome to crossfire computable is the republican party on

a long guest march to november it is very likely former massachusetts governor mitt romney will eventually capture the party's nomination but does he have what it takes to unseat obama in the general election. and. to cross out the prospects of the republican party just months before the election i'm joined by andrew hardisty here in the studio is chair of democrats abroad in russia and atlanta we have amy kramer she is chairman of the tea party express and co-founder of american grassroots coalition and also in atlanta we have laura ramble she is a freelance writer and blogger all right crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want amy if i can go to you first in atlanta mitt romney he see it there seems to be an inevitability about the man but as things stand right now is the electable you know i use the word and have a bit and have that ability but i don't see it that way i mean we are only

a third of the delegates have been awarded there this is still an ongoing process and anything can happen we've seen all of these candidates rise up and fall and you know the people have a voice with their vote and so i just don't see that we already have a nominee right. if i can go to you i mean but the number the numbers are out there i mean the numbers seem to this say a lot about you know which states we're going to have as the process continues and it romney has a much better chance he's he's not is conservative and he's going into some progressive areas. well i think it's very interesting that when you look at super tuesday most of the states that mitt romney carried were states that traditionally lean more toward a liberal and you know what santorum and gingrich carry conservative states and i think what that gives an indication of is that those middle voters that swing vote in america would be more likely to accept mitt romney then they would either

santorum or newt gingrich plus if you look on their web sites mitt romney really doesn't get into social issues as much as the other two candidates do and they make a very strong position about things such as religion and abortion where mitt romney stays more on issues such as the economy on trade and those type issues that i think are a little more or less controversy or not ok well. in a second and in the studio with me here mr obama mr obama must be quite pleased if he were to ask you not to give money to mr obama then he'd be very happy if you gave it to mr romney. possibly possibly but of course we're sitting as a democrat and we are sitting over here i am sitting over here and somewhat amused by this. it's seems to not generate any

enthusiasm on the parts of the middle the middle part of the spectrum the people and swing voters who obama's going to have to recapture if he's going to win in november and seeing the scrum rolling towards the right is certainly giving us a little bit of. the term so yes there is a little bit of. maybe. distracted interest in our part of the law ok and if i go back to you it seems to me that you know it if the republican party is basically in self-destruction mode right now santorum and newt gingrich i mean i don't see how the math isn't out there for them but they're going to stick it out i mean why are they doing that to be really believe that they can capture the nomination or is it just to just to go after mitt romney keep the process going maybe they just want to keep raising money because they do have donors i mean what's the point i mean because it just continues to fracture the party when the party now more than ever needs to be unified because right now mr obama is pretty sitting pretty well for i

want to go back to what discipline or i said about going about the social issues and the fiscal issues every one of these candidates need to stay on the fiscal issues because that is what all americans care about right now all this other stuff it doesn't really matter we need to say focused on me when i mean amiable explain to me and explain to me as i explained to me why so unlike rick santorum does go to that goes to the cultural wars i think we all know you everyone knows what i mean by this because that is totally self destructive for the republican party ok and obama has got to be loving it because the republicans more than more than the democrats divide themselves on cultural issues i mean what is santorum doing this because that's the only way he'll interact voters. so let me tell you something peter i agree with you it is not good for us to focus on that right now recently i had a social conservative radio talk show host say to me any we feel like the tea party is kicking a social conservatives to the curb and you need us and i said you're right we do

need you but we also need those independents and moderates to defeat president obama and so if we go to the right and start pulling and focusing on the social issues then we're going to alienate those people that's why the tea party movement has been so effective because we have stayed focused on the fiscal issues it is not anything out of the ordinary or radical to a lot washington to live within their means and balance their budget and many democrats and independents agree with that and that's why we have been so successful so these these candidates need to stay away from these social issues we need to focus on what is going on right now with our economy with gas prices with jobs it's all about jobs jobs jobs and this whole thing about contraception it's not really about oh it's about religious freedom there are going to the mud because they're walking right into the trap ok laura jump in peter if i may i think the reason why that there are really highlighting these social issues is because

they're hot button issues they get people passionate and they're getting people passionate and talking about really is a field of pretty lackluster republican candidates i mean mitt romney nobody was excited about him in two thousand and eight and here he is again in people and he hasn't really done anything in the intervening four years that is really gotten people excited about him so you have these other people that are almost it's almost like they're a sideshow just to keep people looking at the republican nomination because i think if there were just a run away with mitt romney people would just be snorri laura i want to stay with you though my audience across talks audience is international so can you explain why we have such a lock westerfield because the republicans have more money than god but they can't produce anyone that is even mildly attractive i mean obama looks like a rock star next to these crimes. i think a lot of the really strong viable republican candidates are waiting for the next

election cycle i think twenty sixteen you're going to be see some really good candidates but right now the economy is such a mess that no matter who is elected in two thousand and twelve is going to have a very hard fight on their hands and could be committing political suicide for any future. missions for themselves so i think a lot of smart potential candidates are just staying out of it because of that i really i think mitt romney is in it just to be in it i don't really unless the republicans can really get their act together get unify work out a medium between the social conservatives in their party and the moderates in their party we're going to see obama go to washington again ok. you know listening to all of that here i mean i mean it's interesting what we've heard i mean to the lack of viable candidates because when we look at some of these like

mccain region and mr santorum i mean they they really do play to pander to these these issues that really i agree with laura i mean they get people to passionate ok but it's not elect ability i mean you're actually speaking to people who are already convinced about certain social issues if their issues are not candidates when i get in issues in candidates that are really connecting. to green as a matter of fact i didn't feel the need and you can't even jump in discourse this is they're both doing a pretty good job of explaining the lack of the lack of enthusiasm people have for their own candidates on the one point that i would say though is everybody wants to . set a couple of times focus on the economy focus on the economy the economy is a mess it's a reset or again it's worth noting that the economy is picking up there is an uptick. it's not going to disagree with you there i mean we have sixteen trillion dollars in debt that is the economy is not recovering sixteen trillion. dollars and that is not acceptable we have to stop this and when i don't

want you i don't know what you're going to do it for free right here is it also when i was look at the kind of jobs that are being created in the united states i mean that you know i'm a fast food jobs and and you know teachers assistants i mean that's that's not growing the economy there amy you want to you want to keep going and then i'll go to laura. well you know i just want to say that i believe and i know many people believe that while we may not have a ronald reagan running that truly excites and energizes the base right now any of these republican candidates i believe will be better than president obama because they understand that we have to stop the spending we cannot spend our way into prosperity or spend our way out of debt and they understand that and they also understand that the majority of americans want to repeal obamacare and if we don't repeal obamacare in twenty thirteen it will never really be repealed but obamacare obamacare controls one sixth of our economy we can't afford it they're already getting rid of parts of it because it's just not sustainable you can't do it you

have just recently you know the democrats are saying the republicans want to kill grandma they want to push her over the cliff well no we don't want to do that we want to take care of our seniors but the fact of the matter is that with the passage of obamacare it took five hundred seventy five billion dollars out of medicare reallocated it to cover the middle class as part of obamacare and we have baby boomers entering america medicare rolls on average of ten thousand per day it's not sustainable we can't continue down this road and the medicare board of trustees issued a report last may and said if medicare is not reforms that it will go bankrupt and twenty came twenty four hour i know you know what i mean when we go to florida we go to break here ok but it would see amy's right ok but it's still not energizing enough people to go out and get will quickly involve because i mean the republican republicans are getting more and more divided united i mean as we continue with these primaries. well because one of the things if you they did surveys after

obamacare was passed if you took away the title of obamacare and took the the main contentions in that bill piece by piece over two thirds of americans were in favor of them but you slap a title obamacare on it and then that dropped to closer to fifty percent so it was all perception it was anti obama it more than anti bill also too i find it very ironic that the republican party of all people should be talking about fiscal responsibility and spending money that they don't have when we are just finishing up a war that we've been in for ten years that basically was paid for completely ok i am going to jump in here and they're going right back at you after the break and after that break if your discussion of the republican guard state. if.

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broadcasts live video for your media project c.e.o. don carty dot com. you can. welcome across town people to mind you we're talking about what awaits the republican party. live can. live. ok what i'd like to go back to you in atlanta is i think you brought up one of the most interesting parts of this program so far as you know people talk about fiscal responsibility i don't see anybody in washington d.c. i don't care what party it is take fiscal responsibility very seriously because well this another drumbeat of war ok we just have another war around the corner constantly and that is not a way to to mend the economy ok anything but the military i mean that's one thing

the republicans the democrats and that nothing really separates them on that issue . well i don't necessarily think they just have two different focuses they both love to waste money. you could argue that the democrats waste money on social programs you could argue that the republicans waste money on defense spending you know they were going on and on the g.o.p. about the one trillion dollar cost of the health care bill yet the combined cost of the iran iraq war the iraq war and the afghanistan wars it's going to be in the neighborhood of three trillion dollars which you know we don't have money to help provide health care for our people but we have money to basically destroy and then rebuild another country i don't find that to be a very satisfying argument when it comes to you know candidates stumping on fiscal responsibility and then you have three candidates who are there to varying degrees

are all hawkish you know you have rick santorum talking about wanting to eradicate communism from cuba and then go in and bomb iran to get rid. of nine hundred fifty two candidates ok i mean he would he eisenhower might have liked him very much andrew thanks to you here we talked a little bit before the program mean it's interesting is that obama's really placed himself as a hawk as well as a foreign policy just guy because a lot of people always thought he would be weak on that if he gets it some jobs growing and you know get some kind of confidence in the economy that's his strategy because he's very much like in this is my opinion very much like the republican george w. bush in terms of foreign policy there are no significant changes its historic we republicans are already in the democrats as the mommy party that kind of thing but obviously his foreign policy is really pretty much inoculate himself against charges of being weak or wishy washy you know on any potential enemies although of

certainly has made clear differentiation in his relationship to any possible attacks on iran and he's going to do the right thing here and he's. you know let the economic sanctions work and see what will be the result of that not putting any fiery irresponsible in my opinion speeches in in any of the who was at the apac recent point so again yes he has done a good job on that and in my opinion or at least politically he's insulated himself from possible attacks there and again the economy is starting to have to take off and we're getting some jobs growth and we are getting we are getting a hiring going on in the automobile industry which was so trashed or wanted to be in which the other candidates were so willing to say go to the wall is recovering strongly so there's no guarantee there but things are looking up and if that continues on that trajectory there's going to there's not going to be any reason for the american people to choose otherwise and that's where he's finding himself in this position and his concerns i'm sorriest concerns you know the spending and

what have you yes we do have a deficit yes that is one of the things that you do when you're facing an economic slowdown we can look at japan from the ninety's we can look at the u.k. right now with the cameron government slashing social slash they have not even returned to their pre pre-recession levels of economic activity whereas the united states has so if you can look at the facts of the then once we do have a solid recovery moving forward then of course we do have now everybody understands we need to attack the spending and we need to get that under control first you've got to get things growing you could you agree with that amy there. peter ok well i want to i mean i have to say the republicans i mean the spending started under george bush everybody always says where was the tea party movement during the bush years well it was starting to brew it's not like somebody just clicked their heels together like dorothy and said there's a tea party the it was the anger was there it was starting to brew and then say intelli had a platform no one else had he lit the fire but listen you know everybody wants to blame it on bush and one thing i'll say is bush didn't do it all in self neither

has president obama i mean it takes congress for them to spend money and so it is our entire federal government but lloyd you know obama has i thinks tripled the amount of money that bush spent in eight years already he's done that and the thing is nobody talks about the first two years of president obama's administration he had a democratic controlled congress and a democratic controlled senate he could've gotten anything he threw he wanted to and he didn't instead focused on with passing obamacare let me finish the other thing is you know what we have the best health care system in the world people cross our borders every single day legally and illegally for them or if. i have. everything we're going let me that that he doesn't know that he's not going to close our health lawyer says you know look at studies not even actually look at recent times eterna former health care says don't have. to reward are no i mean

we're here in the. ok go ahead we're barely in the top ten of health care programs in terms of effectiveness of developed countries the quote unquote socialist countries in europe have better standards of health care than we do. this is the united states rob rob rob you know you they're all grabbing they can email me or not you're going to bring in the late because it is not true and it's ok and you know you probably want to be on the studio at least police are going to and your head is true ok alright alright alright ok and one of the things i'm very i would go further than what laura was saying is that i still think it's very much corporately driven by the entire political system here it's really you know it's hands on how much money you can you cannot raise and that's what the power of political situation is like right now you're going to see obama he's going to get a lot of fund raising and we have the republicans saying the same thing i mean if

thing is that there's no fiscal responsibility because most of the governance is for the not for the people but for corporations and i think that the plight of the democrats as well it doesn't actually say a lot of their programs they don't tell you that ok response to it i mean they get more you bring up a good point i mean that's that really works a hand in the glove isn't it they want these programs and you have corporations that are making an enormous amount of money off the taxpayer i want to enjoy here in the studio right now we want this this probably goes back again into into regulation and the ability of course to properly regulate and manages to go on to be the group with the republicans have been going on and on and on about of course here is the spending chop spending trap spending caps then and chop regulation shopper dilutions but what happened and we saw it from the from the from the crisis that in the economic crisis that it is improperly regulated banks and properly regulated systems don't function well and just leaving everything else to the market is not the way forward if you look at just our neighbor to the north canada which had a very well regulated financial system and two and five banks that are just too big

to fail they were able to glide through this entire process without any of the problems that we were actually facing now as concerns of course you are saying the money the money the money in this is part of the regulation thing or of course a lot of the corporations they want to invest in they want to support candidates that are going to have to his orders they were touring or they're going to support them we're going to support them. what it's all there is it doesn't really do about the economy has nothing to do about creating jobs it is nothing about creating a better society it's all it's about profit profit and profit and don't forget the supreme court has given them equal rights to american citizen yes ok well it's really quite extraordinary ok that's quite extraordinary amy what do you think about that i mean it's really kind of a systemic problem because you know again i want to make sure everyone understands we have an international audience on this program here well there's a difference between republican and democrat in this election well look i wish i would even go further than that but one thing we've learned over the past three

years that's the birth of the tea party movement is that just because you're a republican does not mean you're a conservative and that's one thing i want everybody to understand is that i'm conservative first and that's what the people in this movement are there were fiscal conservatives we don't all agree on the social issues and one of the biggest problems the movement was born out of people being frustrated and angry with both political parties the democrats and the republican party but it specially the republican party because they've gotten away from their conservative principles and values and so they're very angry at the republican party and i think that's why you have people that you know just are not energized and excited about this election because they don't see these candidates is true constitutional conservatives ok laura so far did you think you know the oregonian like you guys and split ok let me ask you a question i mean ninety percent of the money that goes into the ads on television the republicans are spending money on ninety percent of them are super negative ok how can you unify a party that is so negative on itself ok i mean if you can the republican party

mend itself i mean mitt romney just is doesn't you know the word charisma doesn't come to my mind ok but i don't live in the states maybe i would feel differently if i saw more of the i'm ok i mean think that comes. with i mean can the kid the republican party mended self with ninety percent of the ads being really negative. well once you get done trashing each other and throwing seeds of doubt it does make it difficult to unify at a later point but one of the things that has been a hallmark of the republican party is they unify via fear they find a particular issue whether it's gay marriage whether it's terrorism whether it's communism whether it's civil rights and they unify under bad as as their own brother have feared usual or and get people all riled up that if you don't vote for a republican candidate it's going to be the end of the world we're going to become a communist socialist terrorist you know whatever society gay society and you

know it's it doesn't surprise me that that there is such a prevalence on tap attack ads because it's sowing the seeds of doubt and fear and i think that was the thing that resonated so strongly with people about obama is that it was optimism yes we can not not anything negative not reactionary but affirming proactive positive and you know i think they're once once everybody on the republican ticket has finished knocking each other down i think if obama returns to that. optimism and manages to back it up with ok these are things that i have achieved or that we have achieved as a nation since i've taken office i think that can carry him because people get tired of negativity people get tired of being angry unhappy party started hannity it changes it or i want he doesn't achieve anything and. he's done nothing if

you're not also here other than fox news you would know that i would have to break it up and it. is today and here in the studio and thanks your viewers for watching this year ok see you next time remember after. the.

if. any is a piece of the. fifty. feet. from. the six.