. >> steve hayes in wisconsin and chris is here. we talked about it before we got on the air. we have a break in 40. you think they will have a problem getting that put forward. >> it is going to cost a lot of money and you can put up ads and tell the story of a maul town boy and republican version of the man from hope. you say this is a american success story and this is who he is. a lot of people who say who is he and what he is about? and the obama people are not wasting time as defining him as corporate america. >> we bought another minute. bill kristol is there a compelling. is he a technicrat and his father dying as teenager and he had to pull up his boot straps and become something. >> he is a good guy and friend and i am totally biased. we were together in the washington think thank annual conference a few months ago . paul was giving one of the major talks and i ran into him and said what do you think of the discussion and panel. he said i was not there. janna and his wife and kids, we were all out on the beach. don't tell anyone . he's a policy walk and family guy an

steve hayes is live in the studio. steve, you are there in wisconsin, and you are getting the flavor locally of what the reaction is. one of the things that you are looking with paul ryan in addition to the policy part of the politics there is a personal narrative. paul ryan is a intellectual and serious person. what is the personal narrative that can add warmth to his candacy. >> one of the things that we are likely to hear, john over the course of the next three months repeatedly from ryan's old colleagues and friends. paul ryan is a normam guy. you can sit down and have a beer and have a conversation with ryan and he doesn't talk at you like so many politicians do. if you are in a crowded room, he's not looking over your shoulder to see who is behind you. he's actually engaged in talking to you if you are talking about policy issues. that is one of the things that ryan will bring personal story and family story. the other side of that upon, he is a good campaigner. in part because he's not had a competitive campaign

steve hayes is here to share a success story with us. the couple you'll tell us about today had that ah-ha moment when they got married, is that right? >> yes, barbara, inspirational beyond belief. >> let's look at the photograph that you brought with you. that was them, their wedding. maybe it was looking at their wedding pictures that made them decide, ah-ha. i think they look great just as they are. but let's take a look at them now. welcome. so good to see you. you have both lost some weight. >> yes. >> it's so great to see you. how much did you lose? >> 211. >> 211 pounds combined. >> yes. >> steve, of course, wants us to know that you did a whole lot of exercise to get to where you are now and you also did some dieting, is that right? >> yes, yes. >> tell us bout that. >> well, lisa came to me and said, listen, i'm really concerned about your health and you need to do something. we sat down together as a team and talked about some of the things we needed to do. some of the changes we needed to make so she created, i guess, a eating

steve hayes writing in the weekly standard said pick paul ryan.party intellectual leader and he laid out the core of the policy and got colleagues in congress to sign it or marko rubio, the most gifted young politician and man who embodies best of what is best about the teparty. do you concur either one of those. >> either one of those is good. so is rob portman and tim pawlenty and a long list of people to pick and they will be good choices. i will trust the romney team who has done the research. it is not speculation. but they don't have the responsibility of picking someone with whom they work in the campaign but then after the election. i am going to trust that the romney team is thoughtfully pursuing this and we'll get behind it and salute it when it happens. >> governor romney is never accused of throwing a hail mary pass. he's deliberative and cautious and some would say risk adverse that might lead to a choice like portman or pawlenty. those guys are not huge television draws. we saw how pawlenty faired in the republican primaries. is ther

steve hayes and i would never take credit for anything. >> one of the things that we had congressman from maryland . gave an indof the democratic. tax cuts for the wealth yecut to medicare that are going to put an extra burden on the elderly . we remember the tossing granny off of the cliff that came out after the first ryan budget. how does romney pull out. >> taxes are a tougher attacked and combined. they are cutting medicare . why do they have to cut medicare and education. they insist on giving them to the wealthy. people do know entitlements have to be reform even president obama said so. tax cuts for the wealthy they have not done a good job and i think you will see the democrats focus on that. >> we have known for two years that the democratic attack line is tax cuts to the rich and that's what they always do. bill, what is excited about having paul on the ticket. who is better to defend those policies than paul. he knows the stuff better than anyone. remember there a moment a couple of years ago when bark obama was first elect there was an eight minute exchange between paul

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. >> about a month ago our colleague you see him more often than we do steve hayes wrote a piece in thendard a feature piece about paul ryan not about possible vp candidate but about himself. in that really ryan is not giving any interviews he has been low profile. he is not running for president. that was when i first thought okay i think it could be him. he has been so quiet. >> i totally think so. first a lot of people are talking about him. he's for limited government. wants to caugut back on spendine wants lower taxes. he has real platforms real ideas about what to do to fix this broken government. this is not a foreign policies election it's about government and what you think it should have. >> to that point greg one of the things people are worried about is he polls badly he suggested entitlement reform. we already called him a murderer. what are they going to say about mitt romney and paul ryan ticket about medicare. rich wrote a piece today don't be afraid of paul ryan. you are already a little bit pregnant and they already endorsed paul ryan. >> you read a lot today. you read

steve hayes for weekly standard. okay, steve, your thoughts about last night?ff and the two big speeches obviously. >> solid start for the convention. both speeches made the case for mitt romney. ann on a much more personal level in a way the campaign was eager to do and wanted to do for a long time. she was in a unique position to give that speech. to make comments and give that context for mitt romney. the question is how much will that matter to people? i think it was generally well received. on television. but do people apply discount factor? because you expect a wife to say nice things about her husband? chris christie speech was not the speech most people expected him to give. he made a big picture case. and tried to provide a contrast. and defend the republican brand. >> he has been criticized about the speech that took him a long time to talk about mitt romney. a.b., some, almost 1800 words before he said it. he was asked about it this morning at an event. here is how he responded. >> i really thought that my job last night was to lay out both the stake

we'll talk to steve hayes about that. gregg: a major security breach at one of the nation's biggest airports. how did a man manage to make it over a fence across two runways before anyone noticed him? martha: a good trick. the top lawmakers throwing down the grauntlet today. this is big news on capitol hill today. preparing to file suit against attorney general eric holder over "operation fast and furious". as the family after border patrol agent waits for answers about this program that have been linked to their son's death. >> he is a liar. i think he is lying to the american people. >> that when he said i did not know nor did my attorney general authorize this program, you think that is untrue? >> yes i do. yeah. and i think he knew about my son. i think it went all the way up the ladder to him and they're protecting him and holder. whoa. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. now

steve hayes, senior writer for "weekly standard." juan williams, columnist with the hill. s krauthammer. steve, you heard the president there. no one would say that we have tried to divide the country. we always tried to bring the country together. thoughts? >> a lot of people said exactly that. it manifests the truth that the president tried to defy the country. that is the basis of his re-election campaign trying to cobble together the democratic special intest groups that made up the democratic party for better part of the last three decades. energize them and get them to the polls so he can win. this is a base election. we have talked about that for better part of eight months. the president and the campaign team sees this as a base election. the goal is get the base to the poll. that meebs dividing the way we have seen them do it in the past several months. >> the issue about the cancer ad which continues to come up. david axelrod, senior advisor to the come pain asked about it this morning. we have seen how thous has answered it before, the campaign, super-pack, bill

steve hayes, senior writer for "weekly standard." a.b. stoddard associate editor of the hill. columnist, charles krauthammer. steve, look at the numbers and you can see what elmendorf said today and put it in political perspective. >> it's scary. it's a virtual certainty that nothing will be done about this before the election. everybody is operating as if nothing will be done because it doesn't make sense politically for either party to do this. the problem with the fiscal cliff among others including the fact it would end us in recession as suggested, mainly cut in discretionary spending and mainly to defense. it may have a short-term impact on the budget trajectory but it doesn't solve the long-term fiscal problems. it does nothing on entitlement. it really doesn't channel the structures of the entitlement driving the national debt. it's a short-term hit we'd take. driver us in recession as a near certainty. it doesn't do anything to solve our problem. this is exactly the kind of thing that people send their congressmen and women to washington to fix. nobody wants to do any

steve hayes out of washington. >> thanks, bill. bill: we'll watch the storyline, whether the romney team or obama team makes any adjustments in strategy. here is patti ann. patti ann: harry reid getting a vocal backer for his claims about governor romney's taxes. why nancy pelosi is jumping in the fight right now. bill: there is raging inferno. why this fire is burning out of control even today. >> i thought that we actually got bombed, that's what i thought. >> i seen this cloud, big ol' mushroom cloud before it started spreading everywhere though. [ male announcer ] it's a golden opportunity... to drive a car filled with as much advanced technology as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable tmake restaurant servations... search wi bing... and listen to pandora. presenting the 2013 lexus gs, rx and the all-new es, the leading edge of the leading edge. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newe models. this is the pursuit of perfection. bill: 22 minu

steve hayes, writer for "the weekly standard" and fox news contributor. >> good morning, rick. rick: i want to talk about "fox news" polling numbers that came out yesterday afternoon, early evening. look at this first one. the choice for president among registered voters. back in july, steve, the president had a four percentage point lead but that has grown now. we're looking at a nine point lead for president obama, if you're in the romney camp how troubling is that? >> well i think you've got to be worried. i think he has had by all accounts difficult several weeks here. a lot of negative coverage of his trip overseas, some of it undeserved in my view. he had attacks, consistent attacks on his tax cuts. he on his unwillingness to release hess tax returns. he had attacks on bain capital. he has been sort of on the defensive for the past several weeks. i think that is what we're seeing to some extent in these polls. rick: there was a lead for governor romney when it comes to the economy. when people were asked who they trust to do a better job with the economy the governor has

steve hayes, senior writer if the "weekly standard." susan milligan editor for u.s. orld report. and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. welcome. happy friday. good to see you. steve, it's an interesting lawsuit. equal protection clause. why should the military get three extra days of early voting rights? >> we can come up with a number of reasons why the military might deserve three extra days of early voting rights but to me the bigger problem is philosophical. you have an administration that had since the beginning given preferences to one group or another depending if they support the president. you had the uaw get jumped up in front of other shareholders when they did the auto bail-out. the stimulus package that gave preferences to green energy companies. you had unions and other celebrity groups that have gotten preferences and exceptions for the healthcare law. it seems you have it consistently all along. now the extra three days for military to vote in ohio, that is too much? we need to file a lawsuit? that is a problem. >> shannon: do you think they'll

steve hayes, senior writer for "weekly standard." a.b. stoddard of the hill.nd syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. sometimes in august we get to the silly season here in politics. boy, this seems to be hot and heavy on this issue. >> this isn't silly season. this is disgrace season. the hypocrisy on this. democrats and liberals take endless pride in having opposed mccarthyist. the essence o mccarthyism is use high place, high office to make innuendo, unsubstantiated charges and destroy other people by means of doing that. the famous speech mccarthy made in 1950. i have in my hand list of 205 members of the communist state department. of course, he never produced that list. this is a blind accusation on harry reid where he says i have any head the word from one person who remains unname unnamed, that romney didn't pay his taxes. then he said, and he didn't pay his taxes. is there a single democrat in leadership anywhere, or in the white house who will denounce him as he needs to be denounced is tactic? it's worse. they use him to demand the release of the

and steve hayes for "weekly standard." mara, a big night.ys the speech of his political career but this probably is. >> that has the added benefit of being true. this is the biggest speech of his political career. the table is well set for him by paul ryan last night. now he has to pick up the ball. make the case for himself. sounds like he will do personal talking about his family and his faith. he is also going to make i think the most powerful argument, effective arguement that the republicans can make against barack obama, which is he was inspireded and exciting but he has been disappointing and it's okay to vote for a change and give somebody else a chance. >> bret: we're told by the campaign officials that he will talk about his religion, his faith. wove in through the speech. a lot of personal talk in this speech. >> i think the personal part is really important. the only reason that obama is within, is neck and neck and not ten ponts beshind because of the success of his campaign to portray romney as a completely hartless pluetecrats

our fitness expert, steve hayes, is here this week to tell us how a trip to the park can be more than just fun. and good morning, steve. >> good morning, barbara, how are you? >> you've brought some exercise help with you today. tell us who you've brought. >> this is ali, the camp director, and this is gabby and tristin. they are her workout partners. >> this is gabby here? gabby, is that you? >> yes. >> how old are you? >> 8. >> and do you like working out? >> yes. >> you do? why? makes you feel good? >> yes. >> got any answers other than yes? you looking forward to going to school? >> yes? >> really? that's good. that's fantastic. who is this over here? gabby? >> tristin. >> i'm sorry, you were gabby. tristin, how old are you? >> 6. >> oh, you'll be starting school, you'll be in the first grade this year. and are you excited about going back to school? >> yes. >> oh, great. so we've got some great yes girls here. let's see what you've brought. >> first of all, we were -- when we went there, out to the park, spring hill lake, there were numerous exercises that were being done. for in

steve hayes, senior writer for the "weekly standard." lane, opinion writer for the "washington post." and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. steve, start there. >> well, in the grand scheme of things should romney make berther jokes? probably not. let me say i can't get outraged about this. you had the obama campaign suggest that romney was a felon. you had the super pac suggest that the indifference led to the death of a woman and the obama campaign flat-out lie about it and lie about it on more than one occasion. you had president obama in recent days making shameless dog jokes. i'm not going to get too excited about the obama campaign saying we need to elevate the level of discourse. >> bret: what about the trek to tam and messaging as we get going? campaign put out a statement saying obviously governor romney believes the president was born in the united states and he was campaigning and it was a joke. end of issue. >> yeah. i'm not surprised that steve is not outrageded. it found it more tasteless than that. unforced error. no

steve hayes for "weekly standard." charles lane, opinion writer for "washington post." krauthammer. okay. boy, you look back to thursday and friday of last week. steve, and you could haven't predicted where we are now. >> or you could have. [ laughter ] >> bret: i mean as far as the -- >> one time i got something right and you're trying to take it away. >> bret: not who, but the dynamics, the conversations, the talk. >> absolutely right. what has been so fascinating to watch over the past week is to see the conventional wisdom up-ended. at every turn. it wasn't conventional wisdom that romney would pick paul ryan. nobody thought republicans would choose to campaign on medicare reform. nobody thought if they chose to campaign on medicare reform they would be doing so successfully. all of these things have happened. finally, nobody thought the vice presidential pick ever makes any difference. right? that is sort of one of the oldest pieces of conventional wisdom in washington. and whatever else has happened, and whatever else happens from this point forward, it's clear th

steve hayes for "weekly standard." kirsten power, columnist for the daily beast.d columnist charles krauthammer. steve, welcome back. your reaction to the polls and where the race is heading. >> it's interesting if you look at the florida poll. in addition to that finding they found that romney thought of as better on medicare specifically. in florida. i think democrats when paul ryan was picked thought he was a silver bullet would be medicare and the ryan budget. ill would sink the republican chances in florida and could doom them across the country. we heard democrats cheer wildly about this in the first couple of days. i think the reality is quite different. you now are in a position where i think republicans are actually winning the argument on medicare. the reason they are winning it is simply the fact of the debate. most voters who aren't paying attention to every single twist and turn and don't know every detail of the 2,500-plus pages of obamacare learn perhaps for the first time that obama care included the $716 billion in cuts. which as the video suggest

david drucker, juan williams, steve hayes, senior writerr for the weekly standard.ur thoughts. i talked to brit earlier. he was saying it was work man like, it was solid, it wasn't flourishing but it got the job done. >> you have to look at the speech for who is delivering them, maybe not who has delivered the speech in the past. if you look at mitt romney and who he's been in the campaign, i think he gave a very good speech and probably better than i thought he was capable of doing. let's take a look at what's allt him. look at his favorable numbers are underwater. you look at the people that people don't really know him. they want to vote against barack obama in a lot of these swing states, but they don't know who this guy is. what did we learn the past couple days? we learned who he is and mitt romney finally talked about himself, and there's now a counter argument or a forward argument about who he is, not just the obama campaign argument. so because he was able to do that, i thought it was very successful, and i have to say for somebody who does send to be pret

steve hayes for "weekly standard." a.b. stoddard, associate editor of the hill.d columnist, charles krauthammer. and mara liasson, national political correspondent of national public radio. mara you look at the polls a you saw paul ryan's performance. start with the interview. your thoughts? >> paul ryan is a fresh exciting face. the republican of the future. you can see why the party has been energized since romney put him on the ticket. he is responsible for a small bump. you call it really small, but a bump toward romney in the last few weeks. >> bret: which candidate do you trust to do a better job handling medicare? >> the thing that is interesting about that, democrats rejoiced when paul ryan was put on the ticket. they thought they had a juicy target because he wants to partially privatize medicare. they ran and attacked about it a lot. they ran ads. lo and behold it hasn't hurt the romney ticket. to neutralize the traditional historical advantage on the issue is an achievement. >> talking to romney folks they said if we can through the election play medic

our fitness expert steve hayes is here to share with us golf tips and exercises that you could do on golf course. good morning. >> good morning, barbara. >> who did you bring with you today? >> nephra long. >> he's a tiger woods look-a-like. >> welcome. >> you got your first golf lesson ever. >> yes, i did, barbara. i went to golf dome, the pro over there, i never held a golf club in my life. he showed me how to hit the ball. this is golf pro tim at golf dome. i wanted to hit it like that. >> had you imagined it would take as much energy as it does. >> it's inkred. i thought it was just swinging it. no, it's technique. >> you feel you got a workout. >> yes. >> not just the walking over the golf course. >> no, absolutely not, the twisting, the movement of the arms. >> how important is form in golf? >> form is actually really important because if, you know, you're not swinging the golf club properly you won't be able to make solid contact. >> is that where you get the exercise, trying to get your body in the right position to have the perfect form? >> it's working your whole body, work

. >> we are back with our panel now charles krauthammer, steve ha hayes and bill kristol.ou listen to that response i pressed him during that interview saying did mitt romney embrace fully he said fully not every decimal point but he embraced the themes the overall tackling the big choices. what about that question about this budget and mitt romney? >> look, i think when i was on special report earlier you showed clips of democrats attacking the romney ryan plan. that was before paul ryan was on the ticket nobody thought he would be on the budget. they were going to attack medicare reform anyway. it's not like they were going to say if mitt romney didn't pick him it would be a safer pick. if you made a siafer pick we can't criticize what you said about entitlement reforms and what they voted for with respect to entitlement reform. both support it. i think in for a dime in for a dollar the republican position conservative position and true position a lot of independents is you have to reform these entitlement programs. we are going over a cliff of debt and deficit and we ar

joining us is rick klein, co-host of topline and a national correspondent for the washington post and steve hayesor writer at the weekly standard. the issue of leaks consuming us for a while. is that an important part of the campaign? the whole idea of national security and the investigation going on? >> yeah, i think it is. look, i respectfully disagree with martin dempsey. i think it is entirely appropriate to be expressing their opinions and one could argue they have a better right to express their opinions on these issues than pretty much anybody else. i think they would be wise to focus on the leaks. i think that's something that everybody gets and not something that people are asking questions about, the way they are -- the way they should be in my view. the attacks on president obama and the osama bin laden killing the bin laden raid strikes me, most voters, republicans and in thees are willing to say, look, he gave the order, he deserves the credit. i think if they want to have an impact, it's the criticism of the leaks. >> greta: will this be effective? it is such a specialized interest,

steve hayes for "weekly standard." a.b. stoddard, associate editor of the hill.columnist, charles krauthammer. and mara liasson, national political correspondent of national public radio. mara you look at the polls and you saw paul ryan's performance. start with the interview. your thoughts? >> paul ryan is a fresh exciting face. the republican of the future. you can see why the party has been energized since romney put him on the ticket. he is responsible for a small bump. you call it really small, but a bump toward romney in the last few weeks. >> bret: which candidate do you trust to do a better job handling medicare? >> the thing that is interesting about that, democrats rejoiced when paul ryan was put on the ticket. they thought they had a juicy target because he wants to partially privatize medicare. they ran and attacked about it a lot. they ran ads. lo and behold it hasn't hurt the romney ticket. to neutralize the traditional historical advantage on the issue is an achievement. >> talking to romney folks they said if we can through the election play medic