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>> don't forget, he has been president for three and a half years, and talk is cheap. >> this week on "inside washington," squaring off in ohio. >> you want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then you should vote for mr. romney. >> is the president connecting with the american people? >> they need some signal that he has their interests at heart. >> the attorney general under siege. >> you leave me no alternative but to join those that call upon you to resign your office. >> i don't have any intention of resigning. >> what to do about syria? >> we have repeatedly urged the russian government to cut military ties completely. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

>> it wasn't a face-to-face debate, but it will do for the time being. mitt romney and barack obama delivering major speeches on the same day within minutes of each other in the same battleground state, ohio. first, romney in cincinnati. >> he has put together almost as much public debt as of the prior presidents combined. you want four more years of that? you call that forward? that is forward over a cliff. >> 250 miles away, president obama speaking at a community college in cleveland. >> i don't believe that giving someone like mr. ronny and other huge tax cut is worth ending the guarantee of basic security we have always provided the elderly and sick and those who are actively looking for work. >> governor romney's speech was short and to the point -- the american economy is broken and replace barack obama with me and

i will fix it. president obama's speech was long real -- let me and we will keep moving forward, and romney and his republican allies in congress will make things worse. did either candidate make the sale, mark? >> i don't think so. mitt romney's speech made me nostalgic for the rhetoric of torch of the bush. i would point -- made me homesick for the rhetoric of george w. bush. i would point out to the president that for a speech to be a model, it does not have to be eternal. >> charles? >> the president's own staff said it was a reframing speech, meaning that the picture was the same. it was the same litany of stuff you go all the way back to the first speech he gave to congress a month after his inauguration. he has trouble running on his

record, he does not have a vision, he has not proposed anything large or gold. romney is simply doing the attack, which is what you do with a weak incumbent. >> nina? >> one guy has a new frame, the other guy has an etch a sketch. the public does not particularly like peter. they do not connect with either one of these people, and neither one of them has made the sale, and this is more of the same of that. >> colby, would you pick the winner in this thing? >> not in ohio. romney did what he had to do, which was attacked. obama did not do what he had to do, which is explained why we are where we are and how to get out. he is not talking about the real problem he has had the best two and a half years, the obstructionism in the congress, and why he cannot overcome it. that is the big problem.

he has got to be able to show that he can be an effective president. we have seen of the past three years is that he has been blocked and locked in blocked. >> he had control of congress for two full years. he had the wind at his back, he had public opinion on this side, and he got the program he wanted -- >> i think we need to dispel this argument about control of congress. he does not have control of the united states senate. it takes 60 votes to get something done in the senate -- >> these days. >> he does not have 60 votes. therefore, the obstruction -- >> he gave a speech after speech in the beginning saying we need a stimulus and reform of health care. he also said cap-and-trade, which the democrats opposed. stimulus he got, obamacare we got, and here we are. >> we heard james carville a

couple minutes ago saying that he needs to convince american voters see as their best interests at heart. why are democrats are nervous about this? >> elections, in the final analysis, as james carville understands, are about the voters. there seems to be precious little about the voters. following up on colby's our original point, i would compare it the electorate right now -- we oug -- we are a nation on a subway car, and the subway car has come to an abrupt, and expected, and kind of scary stop between two scheduled stations. what we need in the way of leadership is an authoritative, confident voice to tell you, reassure you that this is what happened, this is what is being done to change it, this is what we're going to get out. that is what we're missing. >> the reason he cannot do it the second part -- agree with your analysis -- the second by

he cannot do because he does not have an answer on how to get out. he shot the arrows in his quiver and it did a keynesian expansion. all he has now is the buffett rule and small ball of stuff that everybody understands will not make a difference. they are talking points, but not a program or a vision. >> everybody also understands that every time we get some momentum, and-- we get some momentum going, the car comes to stop again, as it did without raising the debt limit. 60-vote senate is a new twist in political life. one last thing -- harry truman campaigned against the do- nothing congress. he has to figure out a way to explain in a not-53-minute way how he has been stymied, if he believes that. >> one of my favorite columnists

this week writes that obama's opponent "is a stolid, gaffe- prone challenger for whom conservatism is a second language, and the less we see of these gentlemen, the better each of them fares." >> that is a clown question, bro. [laughter] back story to that, too long to explain. look it up on twitter. this is not the finest of presidential campaigns. it is not lincoln-douglas. we have are relatively weak republican candidate -- there were others on the bench who were stronger -- and romney is not the natural conservative who could make the case the way that ryan mitch daniels could. obama got his with the first two years and has a dismal economy. there are a lot of liberals, like william galston, adviser in

the clinton administration, excellent social scientist, who says that what obama can and should do is seize the big issues, entitlement reform our tax reform, something large. it is risky, but it would give him an argument date he does not have one now. >> i regret that he did not take advantage of the opportunity he had a year ago with simpson- bowles. i really thought he was going to step up to that, and he did not. i think he did it from the issue well in ohio by saying that there is a choice, a real choice between the direction he wants to go and the direction romney wants to go. >> let's back up a bit and talk about the president's view of the private economy. >> the private sector is doing fine. >> that was president obama last week, and almost immediately, republicans were out with an ad criticizing him. >> the private sector is doing

fine. the private sector is doing fine. >> here is mitt romney's response. >> he says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. did he not get the message of wisconsin? >> democrats were out with an ad attacking romney for that. >> did he not get the message of wisconsin? >> romney economics and doesn't work. it did not work in massachusetts, it is not going to work in washington. at they, let's look private economy. how fine is it? >> not as fine as the president seems to think. look, that was a gaffe, and we can play the election this way. i did not expect this of president obama. really did not expect him to say something like that. it is like john mccain saying

four years ago about the economy -- >> up fundamentally sound. >> he did it, he said it, he will have to work his way out of it. >> on the other hand, charles, how smart is it politically to criticize the president for saying we need more policemen and teachers and fireman? >> that is what i mean by ronny being new to the game of political discourse, even though he was a governor. it is a classic liberal trap. if you have a city budget and you are a democratic mayor and you propose a cut, you close the fire station. the firemen and policemen are always first. it is a trope always use. they don't speak about the guys in the back of the dmv playing angry birds all day. no, it is always the firemen and policemen. romney steps into eight. he repeated the line obama used,

instead of stepping away and saying that obama thinks the way to increase employment is to hire bureaucrats. he got the wrong word, and he is paying 48. -- for it. >> the revered poster boy of the new republican party, scott walker, governor of wisconsin, immediately took governor romney to past and said this is wrong, we want teachers, firefighters, and police and that is why we provided for them in wisconsin. mitt romney calls barack obama out of touch. being called out of touch by mitt romney is a little bit like being called tasteless by lady gaga. [laughter] it just is really too much. >> do you prepare these? >> they are spontaneous. where is the prompter? [laughter] no, i really think that president obama talking about the private sector since --

2001, there has not been a net single job created in the united states in the private sector. that is 80 years of george w. bush and at three and a half years of poor -- 8 years of george w. bush and three and half years of barack obama. that is a terrible, terrible record. >> what did you make of it jeb bush's comments about the republican party and that it will have eight horrible time if you define it as orthodoxy that is not tolerate disagreement? >> it is seditious truth. it is so orthodox that you -- it is a vicious truth. it is so orthodox that you saw him try to walk it back the next day. the extremes in both parties, more at the moment in the republican party, but it will be truth in the democratic party eventually -- that is where the money is.

the money gets plowed into clever is the most orthodox candidate in the primary -- whoever is the most orthodox candidate in the primary. whoever wins is by a factor of x more to the right or left than the previous candidate. it may be that the vast majority of americans think of themselves as moderates or middle-of-the- road or want to compromise, but the system, especially with the gusher of money we now see on the outside, is not doing that. >> i think jeb bush was making another point about ronald reagan, and that was his capacity to bridge differences and compromise. not to give up ideological ground, but to find common ground on tough issues. he said that is what is missing in washington today. >> jeb's remark was ridiculous. he said that reagan was too right wing, and to quote your favorite columnist, who happens

to be me -- couldn't be nominated today? the party just nominated a man who was 15 miles to the left of ronald reagan. how do you explain that? every republican nominee since reagan has been more liberal than him. >> we had a special election this week in arizona, in a district that republicans have carried at the presidential level consistently since its creation. democrat, running as a national democrat, vanquished the republican, who was an iraq veteran, who came out for the ryan budget, the privatization of medicare, and that was a loser, folks. take that as an example of where we are going in the debate in 2012. >> colby, this week the federal reserve reported what most of us know already, that our net worth is shrinking. median net net worth declined

to $77,300 in 2012. a lot of that is housing. median on equity dropped 42.3%. >> this is pre-barack obama. that is an argument we are going to hear over and over again, who is responsible for it. i would like to not shifted gears but to stay on the subject of 2012, especially as far as congress is concerned. that is where we are going to see real action in the house of representatives, and the chance that the democrats can recover. if that is the case, it strikes me as odd that president obama is not also out there campaigning for democratic house of representatives. >> that is another question. related to what i just brought up, the man in the white house, whether it is fair or not, is going to take it for this. >> the easy thing to say --

numbers were it 2007 to 2010 net worth dropped. almost all that is 2008 and beneath -- don't think any of it was after 2008. but that doesn't matter. it is a great one minor, and you have to take 15 minutes to explain how you really should not blame me for that. >> tell that to the couple who borrowed on their equity to send their children to college. >> 49% of americans say that in their local areas, at their home town, the economy is in either excellent or good condition. but only 25% of them say that the nation, the country is in good economic conditions. that is really a disconnect for president obama, and he has got to make the case that we are improving. we are not there, but i understand what you are going through. >> the real problem obama has is what mark said.

when the numbers came out for may, he could not say that anymore. you could say that over the winter. we had at the uptick, unseasonably high employment. now with the may numbers, what he is saying instead is that we have had winds, which means it it is not me, it is europe, whatever. all elections are run on the economy and they are all in that sense unfair, because the president is not the one who shape the economy, at least in the long run. but that is how we run elections. john mccain ran in 2008, six weeks after a financial collapse. he did not have a snowball's chance in hell. obama is stuck with this, and the economy is stuck. he cannot argue it is improving . >> he can rto it is improving. -- argue it is improving trade

we are not in recession. it is a tepid recovery -- >> you cannot deny -- >> the ultimate example of what charles was saying is that there was a focus group, and a woman who voted for obama last time, what could he do now, they asked her, and she said, well, if he could really get gas prices to drop -- a, they have dropped, and b, presidents don't have a damn thing to do with that. >> reality rears its ugly head again. attorney general eric holder in the hot seat. >> you want a point a special prosecutor in the face of a potential conflict of interest. you won't tell the truth about what you know and when you knew it with a fast and furious. >> with all due respect, senator, there is so much of factly wrong with the premises

you started your statement with the it is almost breathtaking . >> that is senator john cornyn and attorney general eric holder. republicans are calling for a special investigator to look into the leaks of classified information. john mccain says they are to make the president look tough. how much trouble is holder in, nina? >> none. yes, he will get the holy daylight's beat out of him, and if barack obama is reelected, he will probably not come for a second term. there has not been an attorney general was not had the holy bejeezus bonked out of him in memory. some of them deserved it, like a gonzales, and some of them didn't -- >> depending on their party. >> no, not depending on their party. john ashcroft took a hell of a

beating and ended up looking halfway decent. this is not a job for ninnnies. no matter what you decide, you will get us beating you up, and often with the justification. but that is just the nature of what the job is. >> what about the fast and furious situation? >> look, i think holder sent a letter late in the week where he offered to personally negotiate and get a lot away. i don't know if that is acceptable to the republicans. they ought to find some kind of compromise -- >> they don't want to find compromise. >> well, they might or might not. again, it depends on a party, of course. if they are republicans, they don't want compromise. i think you will probably get a deal in the next week on this. >> colby, that you have been in

the national security field. what do you make of this? >> well, the leaks are disturbing, not only the ones that republicans are so upset about. my own newspaper in the last couple of days is giving great detail about his intelligence activity the united states is engaged in in africa. i just cannot understand why somebody would want to disclose that kind of information who would be supportive of the united states. but i think that the investigation that the attorney general is going to launch with two very good prosecutors, they are going to be very good. >> they want an independent prosecutor, the republicans, mark. >> the party not of the president always wants an independent prosecutor. charles saying the republicans are not going to compromise, that was tongue-in-cheek -- >> do i have to have a chyron

under me -- "irony"? >> on television, charles. certainly not in this forum. behind this are two things. one, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives had a plan not to confiscate guns but to hope to get a larger fish -- >> it started in the bush administration. >> that is apparently what he does not want to talk about. relations between the attorney general and congress seem very strange. >> blood shed in syria is starting to reach epic proportions. >> it is now time for everyone in the international community, including russia, and all security council members, to speak to assad with a unified voice and insisted that the violence stop, and come together

with kofi annan to plan political transition going forward. >> the un estimates that more than 10,000 syrians have died in assad's attempt to hold on power or. should we do? no-fly zone? >> i am glad i am not president. it is not just syria. it is in it an incredibly dangerous situation -- egypt is in an incredibly dangerous situation with the parliament being dissolved. there was a very interesting piece david ignatius wrote on friday in "the washington post" about what will happen in the wake of the dissolution of parliament. it is a very scary situation in that part of the world. >> this year in a situation is even more complicated because of the involvement of iran. syria is almost a surrogate of

iran. the iranian influence in the region is growing at some point is what we will have to come to grips with. not just syria, but iran. >> meanwhile, there is a humanitarian crisis. >> the situation, in the words of the secretary clinton, is spiraling towards civil war. what we have now is saudi arabia as a proxy of the united states, very deeply committed to removing assad from our. -- power. you have the united arab emirates as well, qatar. it is coming to a point where the united states has to decide , because russia is in as well and those are the only two supporters internationally of the syrian government. >> that statement by the secretary of state was pathetic, begging russians to be nice on syria. of course they are not going to.

they are building enable facility and are not going to move. it tells you what happened with the reset policy with russia, a total abject failure. we cannot get anything out of them after everything we gave away, for which we got nothing in return. >> last word. see you next week. >> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org.