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weyerhaeuser, growing ideas. >> i will set a national goal of america and north america -- north american energy independence by 2020. >> this is the most important election of our lifetimes. it is a defining moment. >> this week on "inside washington," mitt romney and paul ryan tried to get their campaign back on message and away from this. >> what is forcible rape? >> rape is rape, at end of story. >> the senate candidate who triggered the dustup refuses to quit. >> i misspoke one word in one sentence on one day and everything changed overnight. >> in january, the congressional budget office sees economic disaster ahead. after 11 years of fighting, the

american military death toll in afghanistan reaches 2000. why aren't the candidates talking about that? captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- after days of dealing with a conversation about rape and abortion, mitt romney unveiled his energy plan. it calls for more drilling, including the mid-atlantic coast, virginia and north carolina. he says his plan will bring as energy independence by the year 2020. this is a great campaign issue, but instead, the focus of the campaign this week was on rape an abortion because of this. >> from what i understand from doctors, if it is legitimate rape, the female body has ways

to shut that whole thing down. >> the republican is talisman has been trying to shut down republic -- and establishment has been trying to shut down congress and todd akin ever since he said that. senator claire mccaskill, his opponent, hopes he won't quit, because she has a shot of saving her seat. how critical is that seat to the democrats, mark? >> the democrats are fighting to maintain control of the senate. claire mccaskill had been considered vulnerable, but todd akin had been considered the weakest republican challenger, and he may have vindicated that suggestion this week. >> is the romney campaign snake bit, charles? >> they were on a roll, they had an exciting vice-presidential candidate, and the focus had shifted to larger issues, with

the republicans or strong or at least feel comfortable, then all of a sudden this crank in missouri -- he is so much in denial, in that clip you saw he thinks he made a mistake of diction. the guy is out to lunch. but he stands alone. the democrats have had a tremendous time pretending he is a spokesman for the republican party, but he is a pariah. >> that virus spreads, evan. can you believe it is 2012 and we are still talking about abortion? >> the amazing thing is that the polls went up at first. never underestimate the grass roots and their defiance of us, the media elites, whatever. as time passed, the polls started to go down again. once the polls really crater, it is what the polls tell him to do and he will get out. >> nina?

>> this is not as important as the economy or the things we're talking about, but it brought to light that there are a lot of republicans, including paul ryan, who voted for provision that would have banned abortions for forcible rape. he now says rape is rape. he did not agree initially with romney. he has been told what to do and he is there happily, but to pretend that this is not a serious strain and add the republican party and in part of the pro-life movement is to blame yourself. >> here is michelle obama campaigning in florida. >> this election, ladies, is a choice about supporting women and families in this country. [applause] make sure you tell people that you're president believes that women should be able to make our own choices about our health

care. >> a platform, an opportunity for the democrats, the women's vote. >> this is not black and white. no question that congressman akin has done enormous damage, but according to the gallup poll, is an issue that divides the country. 1/3 of democrats are pro-life. a majority of independents call themselves pro-life rather than pro-choice. this is a get-out-the-vote issue for women, especially pro-choice women, democrats. let me make one exception to my colleagues here. i think it was bad for the democrats. i think the democrats when for the catnip of abortion this week, which is not a decisive issue. they were rolling up the score on medicare against paul ryan. >> i agree with you. >> going to the convention, they had a chance to define paul ryan

as mr. change medicare. as republican tom davis said to me, there is no member of congress will make the case that medicare is not popular. if you are talking about voters over the age of 65, they won by 18 points and 2010 -- is where they ought to be paid instead, they went for catnip. >> there is plenty of time to demagogue medicare -- >> it is not demagoguing, it is defining paul ryan into the convention. he stands for a voucherizing medicare and that is the debate you want to have went you are a democrat. >> charles? >> i don't know where to start. abortion is the only social issue that has moved right over the last generation. gay rights, other things, obviously the countries become more liberal. but abortion, i think in part as

a result of ultrasound and technology, is remarkable in that a majority of people are pro-life. it is a narrow majority, so it it is a not a gimme issue for the democrats. i agree with mark on that. it is an insult to the intelligence of the american people to define him as a guy who wants to voucherize medicare. his plan, ron wyden has joined in, would allow normal medicare to continue as an option and he does not at all cut off the old medicare. and it does not affect anybody over 55. to demagogue it and to say in florida to old people that you are going to lose medicare is simply false. you can win with allies, but -- with lies, and it requires a belief that you can just propagandize anything. >> the reality is that by a 51-

34 margin, voters said they wanted medicare preserved the weight it is. now, evan makes the case that you cannot afford it. that is absolutely legitimate and compelling. but the reality is, given the choice, the republicans are on the defensive. >> how was the alternative to find in the poll? >> it was defined it fairly because bill mcinturff, republican pollster, ronny's pollster's partner -- >> don't tell me who wrote it. tell me what he wrote. >> you want me to be the language? if we have time, i will get it out -- >> we don't have time. let's go back to mitt romney's nrg plan. >> if i am president in if humans h -- in a few months

here -- [applause] i will set a national goal of america, north america -- north american energy independence by 2020. that means we produce all the energy we use in north america. >> he says his energy plan will create 3 million jobs and open up more areas for drilling in virginia and north carolina. he is a numbers guy, evan. >> but he also, as usual, is being phony. he says it will bring down gas prices, energy prices. we are in a global market. no matter how much we drill, it is not going to have a big impact on energy prices. it would be better if energy prices went up. we need to develop alternative sources -- >> which he is not very interested in. >> they i do in the old "drill, baby, drill" issue --

>> but that is not true of natural gas. it is a local price, because ids hard to shift. the price of natural gas its $3. in china, $20. we have reduced the price to the point where it is almost too cheap for producers to produce. yes, oil, you will not bring down the price, but you will natural-gas -- >> you just said it is already low. >> but you can substitute: oil if you make the infrastructure. you can run trucks on natural gas and create infrastructure. we have stumbled upon the greatest discovery of energy in north america probably and its last 80 years, since the discovery of oil in the middle east, and we're squandering it by not filling and this idea that we will run on windmills and sun. >> that is why the tampa convention will be fascinating,

because we will find out who mitt romney is. he has had one exposure to elective public office, where he was for abortion rights and gun control and he was green. limiting nuclear and all the rest of it. now he is mr. power-crazy. we are going to find who mitt is. >> no, we're not. >> does he have convictions, does he have character? >> the bigger question is, are we going to have oil and gas? >> we are drilling for gas right now. we will have a pipeline to canada. absolutely, whoever is elected president -- >> who blocked it? >> the enviros blocked it. >> the "enviros"? meet it is just an election ploy -- >> let me finish!

let me finish, charles. there are people who think i.t. is a magic bullet, and will help the economy and all this production. but it does not mean you just about what alternative sources of energy, because there are prices to drilling. n whatsident obama, i wa mark would call a romneyesque flip-flop, is attending by blocking the pipeline until election day -- >> no, they had a deal with nebraska. nebraska reneged on the the deal, for whatever reason. >> it was just a big thing in "the new york times" -- >> it is a the state department who decides, not nebraska. >> they need an agreement from the state. >> the state department by law it is the one that decides. >> can you invoke my name again,

charles? >> will you kids play nice? >> nina is absolutely right. >> yay! >> i'm sorry, i withdraw that. [laughter] this is one where the administration is totally on the defensive. whoever wins or doesn't win, there is going to be a change in policy. for the democrats, the defense would be that we defer to states' rights, and for the republicans, we ignore states' rights, which tells you the level of hypocrisy in the campaign. >> you mentioned the nbc poll. where we stand relative to governor romney and president obama? >> 4-point lead for president obama. romney has real problems. four months after he won the nomination, people have a more

negative feelings towards him than positive feeling. he has misspent these four months, and the obama people have filled in the blanks in lot better than romney. >> he is dangerously behind in florida and ohio. >> but people still disapprove of how obama has handled the presidency by a huge margin. >> political satirist mark russell announced that he is coming out of retirement. "you may recall that i said i would come out of retirement on the day that congressmen with skinny dip in the sea of galilee." [laughter] we are still heading for a cliff in january. what happens if we go over? >> it is not too late to get people back to work, higher take-home pay. it is not too late to reignite the american dream. we can do this. >> paul ryan and mitt romney are focused on november, as our

president obama and vice president biden, who, by the way, will attend the republican convention, although i don't think he will get credentials. the congressional budget office is focused on in january. the standoff between republicans and democrats in congress will drive us back to a recession next year and cost 2 million jobs by the end of the year, nina. >> this really scares me. having watched the way the republicans and some democrats behaved over raising the debt, and you talk to economists, and they say we would not be in the pickle we are in today if they have actually raised the debt and that got in the deal earlier. you watch as congress seems to be incapable of coming to consensus on anything. david brooks had a column in which he said each party has the fantasy that the other does not exist. that fantasy can drive us into the ground. blasted paul ryan

for not accepting works in -- not accepting erskine bowles -- >> paul ryan's fantasy, that the democratic party did not exist. >> you have a lot of months between january and the following january. i think they will have to go over the cliff just to get a deal, because congress, as nina was saying, is just so dysfunctional that unless you have carmageddon -- armageddon ii, they will not do anything. it takes awhile for the bad things to happen. >> this has been going on for at least two years, this kind of behavior. businesses make decisions in advance. they don't make decisions 10 months from now the minute there is an agreement. there is a whole atmosphere about whether the system is working or not --

>> and you wonder why the voters are so angry. >> yes. >> again, i guess fascinating to me to watch the challengers for president. we have an idea what the president has done, will do, at least an ally. mitt romney said last year he would keep taxes exactly the same level they were. now he plans to cut them down to top taxest level, rate, the lowest level since 1931, when herbert hoover was in the white house. if you get to that point of ideology that we have to continue to the taxes, in spite of the fact that the pentagon budget is larger than the military expenditures of the next 17 countries in the world, ok, and has to be increased each year, then you are not going to ever get to the point with a bowles-simpson kind of solution. that is the reality. democrats have to confront it as well that it is not just going to be done in revenues.

ask to be done on cuts in entitlements. >> for the 100th time, there is a difficulty here in understanding the distinction between the warring tax rates and lowering tax revenues. -- lowering tax rates and lowering tax revenues. what romney wants to do is lower tax rates and increase the amount that you tax by eliminating loopholes, deductions, exemptions, and taxes shelters -- >> not say in what they are. >> which generally the rich are able to do an ordinary americans are not able to do. that is how you ireduce tax rates and increase revenues and stimulate the economy, exactly what happened in 1986 when democrats and republicans did it the ultimate in tax reform. >> the war in afghanistan. why aren't the candidates talking about that? this photograph appeared on page one of "the new york times" on

wednesday the parents of the 1,990th military member to die in afghanistan. a week later, number 2000. the lance corporal's mother says that our forces shouldn't be there, no more. why aren't the candidates talking about this, mark? >> a couple of reasons. we have been at war for 11 years, and to the best of my knowledge, no president has been to a funeral of any of these. they don't know the people who are fighting and dying there. the second factor is that this is the first time in your lifetime that we have had an election where none of the candidates for major office had served in the military. that is a distancing -- military leaders arke very concerned, the distancing of military experience from the civilian experience.

>> i agree that that is a huge issue. i do think that the president's go to hospitals -- i think the president to feel something, because they see the guys who have lost limbs. that is a stretch. but the larger point, that we have two worlds, the military and civilian world, is a serious problem. >> there is a much more cynical reason. obama would clearly like to get out, getting down as fast as he can, but it is his war right now, his strategy. ronny does not want to say, "i will stick in their bank and state lager," because it would be a highly unpopular position. >> whatever. we should still have a debate about this. >> we are that by a president who does not talk about afghanistan. he is the commander in chief. can you remember an

administration where it they did not talk about what was happening? obama could have come in and said that it is a lost war, we will get out, and that would have been a reasonable option. but he chose to triple the number of troops, he increased the number of casualties, and he lengthened of the war, and now he is not speaking about it. this is his war and those were his decisions. >> there is a political ad running in which former special ops guys criticize the president, saying that he did not kill osama bin laden. our guys did. there is a book coming out by a navy seal. nobody knows what is in, but he will talk about the mission. aren't they supposed to clear this stuff, evan? >> there is a code of secrecy. andy are an amazing force, but they had a code that you do not talk about it.

they have been violating it lately. they made a movie -- >> with seals in it. >> it is the road to trouble. once you give away that code, pretty soon people are poking around, they would look at the not so pretty stuff. >> not everything is a success. there is a way for you sign when you are in the seals when everything has to be reviewed, and it does not matter if you are out. it still has to be reviewed. >> is there a legal recourse? if you have to sign a waiver, why isn't the government saying -- >> it may do that. of course, the obama administration does not want to be the first -- >> do you want to restrain publication going into your political -- >> it puts them in a very

difficult position. >> you also have to protect national security -- >> self-restraint. you should not have to have a restraining orders. >> the idea seems to have been compromised by what they have done lately. we have at the same time lance armstrong, who said that he did not do it, but he will stop fighting -- >> you mean, he did not dope himself. >> the justice department decided not to prosecute him, but at the same time, the official board says this is an admission. i learned something from the clemens trial -- >> roger clemens. >> how these athletic commissions operate, which is not what you want to have happen to you. the mitchell commission was pretty good. i came out thinking that it was something not to be proud of. i'm not really happy about this.

>> armstrong is not any peace deal. where do you see this may be sealed think? >> -- this navy seal thing. >> there is a movie, the release of which has been postponed until after the election, because it would be seen as being helpful to the president, and actually lionizing his decision making and contributions. i think evan put his finger on it. this has really been an exceptional group. those of us who and navy seals, they did not even talk about it. once it starts, you will get into competing narratives, book contracts, money. it is just bad for the institution and organization and ultimately back for the country. >> i agree with evan that it is a matter of code, but there is

also a code for the commander in chief. the seals are upset about the victory laps he took great look at eisenhower's statements about the date. the one he issued mentioned nothing about him. the one he prepared in case it failed put all the blame on himself entirely and praised the courage of the troops. we don't have that today. >> he did not land on a carrier -- >> saying "mission accomplished." >> i am not raising bush. i'm just saying there was a standard with commanders that we do not have now. >> not praising, just exempting him. >> see you next week. >> "inside washington" is brought to 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.