>> what do you think that tree can be? can it be stronger than steel? can the tree the biodegradable plastic? can it be fuel for our cars? or clothing? or medicine that fights cancer? with our tree cell technology, we think it can. weyerhaeuser, growing ideas. >> thank you to wisconsin, maryland, and washington, d.c. >> this week on "inside

washington," romney it racks up three more. now it is all about obama. >> we just got to get him out of office. >> the president attacks the ryan budget and mitt romney for backing it. >> he even called it marvelous. >> the president also takes on the supreme court. >> i am confident that the supreme court will not take the unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress. >> who will mitt romney choose as a running mate? >> it doesn't matter if that person has national level experience. they will get clobbered by the lamestream media, who does not like the conservative message.

captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> well, it turns out after all the commentary, mitt romney was inevitable after all, everything else was just noise. after this week's trifecta of wisconsin, maryland, and washington, d.c., it is all but in the bag for mitt romney. romney was never comfortable trashing fellow republicans, and now he can go after his favorite target. >> years of a flying around on air force one surrounded by adoring staff telling you you are great, it is enough to make you think you might become out of touch. >> time to plug the book. evan thomas, co-author with mike allen of the politico e-book "inside the circus."

"the number one challenge for romney's inner circle is to find a way to make their fabulously wealthy candidate connect to average voters." how to they get their? >> tall order. what you'll see is romney talking about helping people. he will be awkward about it. he does have some good stories. he and partners in his firm bain shut down an office to find a missing child once. you don't hear about that. but he is not comfortable talking about himself. >> mark, how does the romney team teach their candidate to get voters to love him? >> the problem is that you have to let mitt romney be mitt

romney and accept him with all his awkwardness. he is not emotionally available, but you try to turn that int. the thing -- turn that into a virtue but a person who can do that for him is ann romney. >> nina. >> awkwardness can be endearing. but there was a story in "the washington post" about him using a loophole to conceal fabulous wealth. that is a red flag for the journalism profession. get that out of the way, live with it. >> the like ability factor, charles. >> first, i want to commend you for squeezing in sarah palin. i know you missed her greatly. where were we? mitt romney. nina is right -- he is likable

in an awkward sense. but he is running as the guy who can run the country, sober, not the charisma guy that obama was in 2008, but he can say, "how was all that charisma doing?" >> there is apparently an exception in federal ethics laws allows him to withhold information. it is the go, but a hard sell for americans who are struggling -- legal, but a hard sell for americans to a startling. >> you should get all that stuff out. if you are running for president, all this stuff will come out, and if you let it dribble out slowly you are asking for trouble. mike and i write about this in the book -- he is a pretty good

boss. the campaign is well run. that, i think, comes from the top. he is a fair minded, even-handed boss. that is not an insignificant thing. when you are running up for the white house, you have got to be a good boss. that gets lost in the shuffle. >> the unemployment rate for march went down to 8.2, but only 120,000 jobs were added. >> it's the economy, stupid. we don't know where it will be in september. economists have managed to be wrong almost every month with projections. they underestimated growth for three months now, overestimated it this time. if the unemployment rate goes up again, it is a boon for romney. if it goes down, even slowly, it is a problem.

>> for the record, i paid $4.29 for a gallon of regular this week. not reassuring to the white house. >> gas prices are on the watch of who was in power. we all know rationally they can do little to affect it, but it is on at their watch. all the figures reside with the incumbent. >> also, gasoline prices -- mark is right -- are not directly influenced by any incumbent, but they remind people of policies they don't like from the obama administration. keystone pipeline, shutting down drilling. even if you are an extreme environmentalist, you know we are in the midst of an incredible boom of oil and gas and shale, and the obama

administration with its left wing allies is doing everything it can to stifle that. >> he claims there is more drilling -- >> private and state lands. on federal land at it is it down. there is no way to justify keystone. that is the perfect analogy for what obama is doing with fossil fuels. epa issued a regulation -- >> ok, charles, you got your swipe in. >> i will now get in a fact. the epa issued a regulation that will make it impossible for the construction of a coal plant, shutting down the entire industry within a decade. >> the extreme non- environmentalists will not rest until there are oil rigs at the lincoln memorial in arlington cemetery. >> if israel bonds aroun --

bombs iran -- this is the real fear of the administration, that it war in the middle east will drive prices up. >> look at how the press is dealing with this. romney using loopholes for non- disclosure is an issue, and the fact that we will have a coal industry is not an issue. i have not seen any coverage of that. >> the president is in full campaign mode with an attack on the ryan budget. >> it is the trojan horse. disguised as a deficit reduction plans the, it is an attempt to impose a radical vision of our country of a thinly veiled social darwinism. >> we have a president who's good at giving big speeches. the problem with our president is he is not good at leadership. >> that is congressman paul ryan, chair of the house budget

committee. "the wall street journal" said this week "if there is a laffer curve for political invective, at the white house must think ."e president has hit eighit social darwinism, charles? >> the president accused ryan of the trickle-down, trojan horse social darwinism. who writes this rubbish? he and the democrats have not presented in three years of budget. here are the republicans who are presenting a budget, which is serious. it has its flaws, but it at tacks thomas, tax reform. the president has decided he cannot run on his record. he does not have any idea -- no

one has any idea what he'll do in his second term except dmitry and vladimir in russia. he is attacking the republicans as if the republicans were in power. a lemon this morning. >> it is hard to know whose budget is a bigger joke, obama's or the republicans'. they are responsible in the extreme. >> how is the republicans' irresponsible? >> it does not do anything about loopholes. you would shut down the faa once a week -- >> it increases defense spending while obliterating a relatively small piece of the budget, discretionary spending, everything from headstart to

enforcement of securities laws. >> this was a political week. the president knows the following -- mitt romney is the most unpopular nominee in the history of either party. more on popular -- unpopular, his party. you want to make mitt romney the republican party. >> why is he attacking the ryan budget? >> the republicans in congress are less popular than the democrats in congress or the white house. you want to make this campaign about budget cuts, tax cuts for the best off, the angry affluent. that is where obama wants to fight the campaign, not on unemployment. fight it on the budget --

>> fight it on student loans. he wants to fight it on an end to student loans, safety net, an end to scientific research, which has made this country great. those are the things you can sound the alarm bells on. conversely, republicans want to make it about fiscal the fall. >> obama will win the argument if the electorate is as well as -- is as gullible as nina, mark, and evan. the ryan budget keeps the level of public grants exactly where it is. the president wants to keep inflating the amount of 25%ding by the government d,

of the economy, the highest since the second world war. the average is 22% rate we are now 25%. what he calls a cut is the not increasing of a budget is inflated erratically. >> you think that the ryan budget would deal with the deficit? >> absolutely. >> how can you say that? it does not do anything about loopholes. >> i find it interesting that you are defending an administration -- >> i am not defending the administration! what loopholes -- >> he leaves it to the house ways and means committee. your party has not -- >> not my party. >> what have the democrats

offered on medicare? >> i think the democrats are completely irresponsible on medicare. you are not answering my question. i think the democrats are terrible. >> it will be capping of the mortgage interest rate deduction, a health-care deduction. >> they ought to say it. >> let me go to mark and nina. ;'t we all get along? evan is right. paul ryan has a budget that has none of the spinach. he never talks about -- charles apparently has some pipeline. he knows what is in paul ryan's mine. other than $5 trillion in tax cuts --

>> that is simply false. on social security, ryan has offered to raise the retirement age and reduced the amount the rich get rid the democrats have offered zero. on medicare, for which ryan and republicans have got slaughtered, he proposes to go to a premium system. the democrats have offered zero except it demagoguery. on discretionary spending, ryan has spelled out all kinds of cuts. i agree come in when area, he talks about lowering the rates but did not specify the lo opholes. having gone out on a limb on everything else, you are asking the republicans to commit

political suicide when the democrats have offered nothing on anything. >> he is much more specific on entitlements than the democrats. if enacted, it would have a shot at controlling medicare cuts. the democrats are shamefully non-specific. but both sides are not willing to tell the voters about the problem. >> the people who pay the most are between $60,000 and $120,000. they get about 30% in income, taxes across the board. it goes down for people who make more than that. this proposed budget would give

it all to unearned income. celebrate people would be paying more and more -- salaried people would be paying more and more. >> tough sell to the middle class. >> you are talking about a cut in tax rates, which democrats always think is equivalent to overall taxes. we saw it in simpson-bowles. seven out of every $10 of loopholes is paid by the upper quintile. >> what makes you think that will happen? >> the only way you can do tax reform is the way it was done in 1986 -- >> there is nothing in the budget about that. >> because republicans aren't suicidal. >> gang of six, simpson-bowles,

which patrols just spoke approvingly, and alice rivlin -- which charles just spoke approvingly, and simpsoalice rivlin at pete the medici -- pete domenici. each of them have entitlement cuts and increases in revenue. >> simpson-bowles increases -- >> revenue. >> it eliminates -- >> by eliminating loopholes. >> i have to eliminate this discussion. >> i am confident it will be upheld because it should be. that is not just my opinion. a whole lot of constitutional law professors, academics, judges, and lawyers who have examined this law, even if they

cannot particularly sympathetic to this legislation or my presidency. >> once again, "the wall street journal" editorial-page -- the president needs a remedial course in judicial review. >> there were two factual errors and to what the president said. it was approved by congress, but not by a huge margin. no. 2, the court as often overturned acts of congress. what it has not done four 3/4 of the century is overturned a major piece of regulatory legislation. but does not what he said. >> isn't it unusual for the president to attack the supreme court of port they and down a decision? b -- before they hand down a

decision? >> it's stupid. [laughter] >> he is saying that you have a chance to preserve legitimacy of the court by upholding this legislation. >> that can have a backlash could use of a judge on the federal appeals court go bonkers and say, "i want a three page letter from the attorney general saying he still believes in judicial supremacy. knows what this can -- that shows you what this can devolve into. >> the president talked about unelected judges. that is the exclusive reason for right-wing critics. does he think we should elect judges? i don't think so. but "unelected judges" is not a contribution to a more rational discussion. >> charles, i have a feeling you did not care much for what the

president said. >> what can i add to what my liberal colleagues have so discerningly seen? they are right. i think john roberts has a sense of the legitimacy and legacy of the court, and of the five conservatives the court, is the most resistant to overturning. but when you have the president challenging you in public, attempting to bully the court, i would think it would make him disregard the issue. >> we like to think they are above that, don't we? >> they are human beings. >> and they should not be totally above it. the constitution is not frozen in stone. it has to go with what holmes

called the necessity of the times. >> the independent judiciary is the crown jewel in this democracy. but you saw this week from the president and that that judge how it can devolve. presidents are entitled to criticize the court, but it is a hairy thing to do. >> is that sherlock holmes? [laughter] >> oliver wendell holmes. >> if you want to criticize the court, he should get somebody else to do it. >> when i fill out my ballot in wisconsin, i pick who i think is going to be the next president of united states, mitt romney. >> there is paul ryan, teaming up with mitt romney in wisconsin. marco rubio says no.

how about romney-ryan? >> there seems to be chemistry. the question for a vice president is do you go macro or microqo? i want to win at a state, that is why i go with rob portman. or to i want to make a statement, somebody outside the political arena -- david petraeus? paul ryan brings a lot of conservative columnists and certainly the editorial page of "the wall street journal." >> how about a woman? the governor of new mexico, south carolina? >> i think if politicians learned anything from palin, it was that you have to have somebody who has been in the wars a bit.

if you pick a relative novice, you are asking for trouble. >> palin fired up a lot of people. >> she was ultimately a disaster to hit the person he wants is rob portman. his kind of guy. >> pawlenty, mitch daniels, john thune? >> all safe. it would be an anti-charisma ticket. [laughter] that might work, given 2008. i think it should be marco rubio. assuming he passes the cleanliness test, he is the perfect candidate. hispanic, florida is a critical state, and he has a great story. >> romney is gone on hispanics.

let's remember how romney ran against rick perry. he said he was too compassionate because he wanted the dream act in texas. somebody brought here against his or her will, joined the military, went to college, trying for citizenship. he did the same thing against newt gingrich. the problem with rob portman is bush. director, trade negotiator, and i don't think you want washington on your tickets. >> last word. see you next week.