>> "inside whington" is brought you in part by the americanederation of governmentmployees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org. >> i wl set a national goal off america and north america, north american energy independence by 2020. >> this is the most important eltion in our lifetimes, no matter what generation you come from. it is a defining moment. >> this week on "inside washington," mitt romney and paul ryan tried to get their campaign back on message and awayrom this. >> what is forcible rape? >> rape is rape,.

, end of the story. >> the senate candidate who triggered the dustup refuses to quit. >> i misspoke one word in one sentence on one day and everything chahanged overnight. >> in january, thehe congressioional budget office sees disaster ahead.d. after 11 years of fighting, the american military death toll in ghanistan rches 2000. why aren't the candidates talking about that? ptioned by the national captioning ititute --www.ncicap.org-- after days of dealing wi the coconversation about rape and abortion, mitt romney this week unveiled his energy plan. it calls for more offshore oil drilling including the man to lead the coa, virginia and nortcarolinahere it is

cucuently banned. he wants to givehe states the poweto green light drilling on federal lands, saying it wilill bringg energy independence by 2023 great campaign issue, no question, but instead, the focus of a campaign this week was on rape and abortion because of this. >> from what i understand from doctors, if it is a legitimate rape the female body has waysys to shut that whole thing down. >> the republican is talisman has been trying to shed on missouri conesan todd akin ever since he said that. senator claire mccaskill, his that he won't qu because he stays in, mccaskill has a shot at saving receipts. how critical is that -- has a shot at saving her seat. how critical is that seek tto democrats, mark? >> the democrats are looking too maintain control of the senate, and mccaskill had been one of the most of honorable.

but todd akin had been one of considered the weakest republican challenger and he m have vindicated that suguggestion this week. >> is the romney campaign snake bit, charles? >> they were on the road, it had a nn exciting new vice presidential candateand the campaign had switched to issues on whi thehe republicans are comfortable with itnd then described in missouri -- is so much in denial that in that clip you saw he thinks it was a mistake of diction he is out to lunch. the democrats a are doing a great up prending he is a spokesman for the republican party whereas he is a pariah. >> can you believe evan, in 2012 we're still talkingng about abortion? >> the amazing thing is that the

polls went up at first. never underestimatehe grass roots and the resentment of us, media elites and all ththat. but then they s started going down, and once his polls really crater, he will get out. >> nina? >> this whole subject is not as important as the economy are many things we're talking abouout, but it brought to light that there are a lot of republicans, including paul ryanan who voted for provision that was -- would've banned abortion for fcible rape. he nowow says rape is rape. he did not agree initily with romney. he has been told whato do and is there happily. but to pretend thatt t this is not a serious strain in the republican party and in part of

the pro-life movement is to blame yourself. >> here is michelle obama campaigning in florida. >> this election, ladadies, is a choice abobout supporting women and families in this country. [applause] make sure you tetell people that your president believes that women should be able to make our own choices about o health re. > there you go, our real platatform, an opportunity for the democrats, the women's vote. >> this is not black and white. no question that congre mucman akin has done enormous damage, butccorng to the gallup poll this divides the country. 1/3 of democrats are pro-life. a majority of independents call themselves pro-life rather than pro-choice. is this get-out-the-vote issue for women and especially pro- choice womomen democrats. llet me make one exception to my colleagues here.

i think it was bad f for the democrats. i think that the democrats went for the catnip of abortion here, which is not a decisive issue. they were rolling up the score on medicare against paul ryan. >> i agree with you. >> going to the cononvention, they had a a chance to define paul ryan as mr. channge your medicare. as republican tom davis told me ere is no member of congress will make the case that medicare is not popular. if you are talking aboutut voters over the age of 65 and the margin dropping two points of roey after they won by 18 points in 2010, this is where they want to be. instead, they went for t catnip -- >> there is plenty otimeo demagogue medicare -- >> it is defining paul ryan going to the convention. he stands for a voucherizing medire and that is the debate

you want toto have if you are a democrat. >> charles? >> i don't know where to start. abtion is the only social issue which has moved right over the last generation. gay rights, other things obviously the countries become more liberal. but abortion, i think in part as aa result of ultrasound and hired technology, is remarkable in the fact that there is a majority of people who are now pro-life. it is a narrow majority, so it is not a gimme issue for the democrats. i agree with mark on that. on medicare, it is an sult to the intelligence of the american people to define him as a guy who wants to voucherize medicar to his plan, which ron wydenen has joined in, allows it normal medicare to continue as option. it does not at all cut off the old medicare. and it does not affect anybody

over 55. to demagogue it and sta and its lead to the old ople that you are going to lose medicare is simply false. you can win with lies, but it requires a belief that y you can propagandize anything. >> the nbc poll laid out both options, and by a 51-34 margin, voters said theyanted medicare preserved the weight it is. now, evan makes the case you cannot afford itit. that is legitimate and compelling, but the reality is given the choice, the republicans are on the defensive. >> how was the alternative to find in the pol >> it was defined fairly, because bill mcintff republican pollster romney's pollster's partner -- >> don't tell me who wrote it.

tellll me what he wrote. >> if we have time, i will get out -- >> we don't have time.

>> if i am the president of the united stas in a few months re -- [applause] i will set and national goal of america and rth america -- north american enerergy independence by 2020. that means we produce all the energygy we use in north america. >> mitt romney says his energy plan will create 3 million jobs in virginia and north carolina. he is a numbers guy evan. >> but he islso, as usual,

being phony he said that this wilbring down gas prices, energy prices.s. that is not true. we aren a globalal market and will not impactt ergy prices. actually, it would be betteif energy prices went up, because we need to develop alternative sources -- >> which he is r really not very interested in. >> they i do in the old "drill, baby, drill thing -- >> but that is not true of natural gas. it is a local price because i.t. is hard to shift. the price here is $3. inhina, $2we have reduced the price to the point where it is almost too cheap for producers to pduce. yes, oil, you are t going to bring down the price, but you will with natural gas. >> you have just said it is already low.

>> but you can substitute for coal and oil if you make the infrastructure. you can run our trucks on a natural gas and create the infrastructure. we have stumbled upon the greatest discovery of energy in north america probably in the last 80 years, since e discovery of oil in the mdle east, and we are squandeng it by not drillingand this idea that we will run n on it windmill's and sun. >> that is why t tampa convention will be fascinating find out who mitt romney is. he has had one exposure to elective office, where he was for abortion rights and gun control, and he wawas green. now he is mr. power crazy. we will find out who mitt is.. >>o or not. -- no, we are not. >> does he have coictionand character?

>>igger queson is, are we going to have oil and gasas? >> we are dririlling for gas right now. we will have a peline to canada absolutely, whoever is elected esident. >> who blocked it? >> the enviros blocked it. >> the "enviros"? u mean it is just an election -- >> let me finish! let me finish charles. the are people w who think this is like a magi bullet, and will help the economy will help in our production. it does not mean that you just give up on alternative sources of energy. there are prices. >> president obama, in what mark would call a romneyesque flip-flop, is attended by blocking the pipeline until election day because y you are sharing as that --

>> no, excuse me, theyey had a deal with nebraska. nebraska out reneged on a the deal. for whatever reason. >>here was a big cake out in "the new york times" -- >> it is the state deparent at the sides, not nebraa. >> they needed an agreement from the state -- >> the state department by law it decid. >> can you invoke my name agaiain, charles? >> will you kids play nice? >> nina is absolutely right. >> yay! >> i'm sorry, i withdraw that. [laughter] this is one where the administtion is totally on th defensive. whoever wins or doesn't win, but there is going to be at a change in policy. for the democrats, the policy

defense will be that we defer to states' rights, and republicans wi say we ignore the state's rigs. it tells you the level off hypocrisy in this campaign. >> you mentioned the nbc poll. ere do we stand relative to governor romney and presidident obama? 4-point lead for president obama, but romney has no problems. four months after he has one of the nomination, people have a more negative feelings towards him that a positiv feeling. he has spent these fouronths -- misspent is four months >> he is danangerously behind in florida and ohio. >> but people still how obama has handled the presidency. -- still disapprove of how obama has handled presidency. >> political satirist ma russell has come out of retirement. "you may rall that i've got to

come out of retirement on the day that congress mean skinny dip in the sea of galilee." [laughter]

>> not too late e to get people back to work with higher take- home pay, not too late to reignite the american dream. we can do thihis. >> paul ryan and mitt romney are focused on novemember. so are presisident obama and vice president biden, , who, by the y, will attend at the republican convention, although i don't think he will t credentials. the congressional budget office is focused on january. this will drive us back to a

recession next year and cost 2 million jobs by the end of the year. >> this really scares me. having watched the way that republicans and some democrats behaved over raising the deatbt wjla.com- you talk to economists and thesay we would not be in the pickle we are in today if we had raised the debt and got a deal earlier. david brooks had a column in which he said that each par has a fantasy that the other does not exist. that fantasy could drive us into the ground. >> he also blasted paul ryafor not approvi erskine bowles -- >> he said that was his fantasy. paul ryan's fantasy that the democratic p party did not exist. >> you have a lot of bonds beeen janunuary and the following nuary.

congress, as nina was saying, is so totally dysfunction, that unless it is carmageddon -- armageddoni, nobody will do anything. they have some time. it takes awhile for the bad things to happen. >> this has been going on for at least two years, this kind of behavior -- >> but the actual impact -- >> i understand thatat but businesses mamake decisions inn advance. there is a whole atmosphere about whether the system is working on not. >> you wonder why the voters are so angry. >> again it is fascinating to me to watch the challenge of the presidencycy. we have an idea what the president has done, will do. at least in outline. mitt romney said he would keep taxes exactly t the level at they

were. now he has endorsed them m to cut to the lowest level, the tops tax rates, sincee 1931, when herbert hoover was in the white house. if you get to that ideology in the republican party that we have to continue to the taxes, despite the fact that the pentagon budget is larger than the military expenditures of the next 17 countries inin the world and has to be increased each year, you're not goingng to get to the point we are talking about with the bowles-simpson kind of solution. that is the reality. i think tt democrats have to confront it as well. >> for the 100th time, there is a difficulty here in undersrstanding the distinction between the warring tax rates and lowering tax revevenues. what ronny wants to do, what ryan wants to do, is to lower tatax rates anincreased the base increased the amount you

tax, by y eliminating loopholes deductions, exemptions, and tax shshelters -- >> not s saying what they are. >> which is genelly what the rich are able to do an ordinary americans are e not able to do. that is how youncrease revenues and stimulate the economy did exactly what happened in 1986 when democrats and republicans did the ultimatete inax reform. that is what we're talking about.

[ male announcer ] some think obamacare is the same as free health care. but nothing is free. obama is raiding $716 billion from medicare changing the program forever. taxing wheelchairs and pacemakers. raising taxes on families making less than one hundred twenty thound dollars. free healthcare comes at a very high price. the romney-ryan plan will restore medicare funding and protect and strengthen the program for the next generation. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> this photograph appead on page one of "the new york times." thee parents of thehe 1,990th militaryry silver'sservice member to die in afghanistan. a weelater,umber 2000. the e lance corpal's mother said that our forces should not be there, no more why aren't these

candides talking about this, mark? >> a couple of reasons. we have been at war for 11 years, did the best of my knowledge, npresident has even been to a funeral of any of these. they donon't t know them. they don't know the people who are fighting and dying tre. the second factor is that this the first titime in your lifetime that we have had an election where none of the candidates for major office have serveved in the military. that is a distancing, which military leaders are concerned about -- the distancing of mililitary experience from the civilian expience. they don't know each other. >> io think that presidents go to the hospitals -- i think the president personally do feel something, because they see the lost limbs. think that is the stretch. your larr point, that we have two worlds, the military and

civilian world, is a serious problem. >> thehere is a much m more cynical reason. obama clearly would like to get out, getting out as fast as he can, but is his war rigight now and his strategy. and romney it does not want to say, "i will stick in there and estee lauder," beuse it would be a highly unpopular position -- stick in the and stay longer," as it would be highly unpopular position. >> whatever. which is stitill talk about this. >> he is still commander in chief. can you remember the w were president did not talk about what was happening? obama could haveve hosaid that it is a lost w war and we will getet out, and that would've been a reasonable option, but he chose to triple the number of troops and increased the number of casualties and he lengthened the bod. he is not speaking about it, as

if it is not s war. >> last word. see you next week. >> "inside washingngton" is brought you in part by the ameran federation of governmement employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org.