i just got off a conference call the obama team put on with madeleine albright. he barely mentioned china and his mention of russia they say russia is not the greatest foreign policy challenge. when it comes to the middle east he senses vulnerability in the wake of benghazi. >> i think it's an attempt for romney to push the reset button. they put out a statement, a political statement before we knew about the death of ambassador chris stef ens that they could have handled it better but it doesn't mean they should leave the issue alone. they think the president is vulnerable. i thought the most quotable line from the romney speech is hope is not a strategy talking about the middle east. you used the words leading from behind. mitt romney used it at least once in the speech. the speech was an attempt to say, this is what barack obama has done. here is what i would do. it was tonal more than specific. it was more we need to be bigger, more aggressive whether it's iran or another syria. it was broadly philosophically we need a stronger, more muscular approach. >> on

is what sort of policy prescriptions can we expect from a board of directors that includes madeleine albright colin powell both of whom served as u.s. secretary of state tom brokaw for reid's a career both too well known establishment journalists so these folks aren't even in government anymore they sit on the board of one of the most influential think tanks in the world now if you doubt the c.f.r. is influence just take a listen of a clip of hillary clinton's first visit as secretary of state to the c.f.r. headquarters right here in washington d.c. . to get a lot of things from the council so this will mean i won't have this far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future. what we should be doing and how we should think about the future g. hiller you're really letting the cat out of the bag there now you may be wondering why you don't hear about these groups influence from the corporate media as i mentioned before extremely powerful influential media moguls that on these boards they are part of the establishment and the c.f.r. is only one of these groups

vice president joe biden will in floridaearance while madeleine albright makes campaign stops on the president's behalf today in virginia. coming up on abc 7 news at after 18,000 flights were storm,d because of the idea whening an will finallyelers get home. >> pipe bombs on least on a northern kaduna community. what police are saying. -- a northern virginia community. traffic snarled and sandy turns deadly. traffic snarled and sandy turn[ minto ] you know, those ads saying mitt romney would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme. so i looked into it. turns out, romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. in fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother's life. this issue's important to me, but i'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with. i voted for president obama last time, but we just can't afford four more years. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney nd i approve this message. >> the first washington area trouble after a crash early this morning. you can see it happened on the of the beltway near college pa

madeleine albright did not have much of anything to say -- plenty to say about it but didn't grade it to be a-level work let's hear what she had to say on a conference call yesterday -- i think we have that. >> probably a speech that to those that are not totally into foreign policy sounds pretty good, but i think it is really full of platitudes and free of substance. some of the facts, though, are just dead wrong. >> so, madeleine albright not exactly saying this was the greatest foreign policy speech ever. do you think voters -- what did you make of it and do you think voters are paying attention to foreign policy? >> i think they're starting to. i think they're going to certainly in the next -- the next debate at the end of the month. i think that it was -- lacking in nuance and that's a real problem because the world is very nuanced. we've moved from a kind of simplistic u.s. is the sort of soul super power world, incredibly multi polar, just in the middle east, and i think you've seen romney already drop the ball there. there is many kinds of islam as countries that it's practice

president clinton's secretary of state, madeleine albright, told reporters on an obama campaign conference call that romney's speech was full of platitudes but no policies. >> there's an awful lot of rhetoric and things, but when you get to the specifics, you kind of don't get the sense that he knows exactly what tools to use and how to operate within an international setting and what the role of the united states is in the 21st century. >> reporter: the obama campaign's reaction to this speech is part of a larger strategy to portray romney as opportunistic and dishonest. it all started right after that debate performance, scott. the old obama campaign might have made little mention of this speech. >> pelley: nancy, thanks. relief may be near for californians paying record high gas prices. there were record low temperatures in some parts of the nation. and it's the beginning of a new chapter in space when the "cbs evening news" continues.in a r j.d. power and associates has ranked quicken loans "highest in customer satisfaction in the nation." call or go to quickenloans.com to discover for

they're certainly carrying out the bidding of the steering committee right where you see it madeleine albright colin powell henry kissinger on the steering committee said these think tanks i mean a lot of neo con has a lot of people who've been out of politics paris still definitely directly influence and policy really quick to wrap it up though dan and the train there were in mind that this is something that the mainstream media of course has doesn't touch and i'm guessing they see fox and why is this and what does it say that the media's silence can be bought. they're about thirty seconds ok well yeah that's just the fact is these guys are covering it and because for the most part they are attending the meetings and they have a strict rule of secrecy and they are simply not allowed to discuss the things that are going on there and so there is a tight control on the information that gets out to the world of bellville bird but that is changing we call this film turning point because it is the turning point for the build bird group things are changing the rise of the independent media is making

former secretary of state madeleine albright will campaign him in virginia, in charlottesville, manassas, and r town. >> mitt romney resuming normal campaign activities today. , in tampa,in florida coral gables, and jacksonville. had a storm relief effort in ohio yesterday. >> we want to get a look at what happening outside, with jacqui jeras as we're watching the river levels and flooding. >> that will continue to be a concern. goose creek in northern virginia go down now.o the monocacy river is one of our because it's as be receiving bye in frederick tomorrow. in there. late this week, i think be back in good order. the monocacy river should be receiving -- receding by tomorrow. washington, d.c., has received 5 inches of rain in the last two days. the system is no longer a closed low, so it will continue to weaken. that's the good news. widespread. is less have a few sprinkles this morning. take a look at that on the live doppler. is very light rain. a lot of what we are seeing be reaching the ground. u awake in fauquier county culpeper, let me know if you any light rain or any snow fl

leaders themselves have said that the supreme court from this president is unpress didn't: madeleine albright more scathing. i think it is really full of platitudes and free of substance. i would really like to ask governor romney and his advisers what he would do differently. and then the campaign ad reminded voters of the hapless response that in the attacks that killed chris stevens. >> romney's response showed a lack of presidential character and republican experts said romney's remarks were the worst possible reaction to what happened. if this is how he handles the world now think of what mitt romney might do as president. >> eliot: for more on mitt romney's assault on foreign policy record and focus in the middle east i'm joined by james traub who writes regular column "terms of engagement" for foreign policy.com and jon soltz, an iraq war veteran and co-founder and chairman of vote vets.org . is there anything tangible to bitebite into. >> it is adder. the bellicose language is the classic bellicose language, democrats are soft. democrats are weak. democrats are not resolute. but in th

of ads ready to go and then put together a conference call with campaign officials and also madeleine albright, former secretary of state and they are saying he's erratic, unsteady, irresponsible, something the campaign was not as quick to do in the past but post-debate, a much more aggressive tone from the campaign. >> jim, you have been following governor romney for a long time. have you seen a marked -- you talk about a smile he has on the campaign trail. have you seen a big difference in how he's been campaigning since the debate? >> absolutely. you know, one thing that we should touch on is in that pew research center poll, it shows an 18 point swing to mitt romney among women voters, and i think that may vindicate some of what people were observing at that debate last week, when a lot of people thought mitt romney was sort of moving to the middle in certain areas on bank regulation, on at least trying to do so on health care reform and on taxes, even though the obama campaign was accusing him of etch-a-sketching throughout that debate. that may have been a factor in why the women vote, a

the obama campaign put out one with former secretary of state madeleine albright saying governor romneys not up to the task, is a cold war mentality. the romney campaign put one out with the video of president obama talking to russian prime minister dmitry medvedev in which he said i will have more flexibility after the election. it was all a set-up to this foreign policy debate and, yet, we could hear a lot about the u.s. economy in this debate as well. it is going to be interesting to see the 90 minutes, the final time that these candidates will reach an unfiltered audience and millions of them. >> megyn: the pressure not just on those two candidates but also on the moderator bob schieffer after the criticism in the last debate for the moderator to stay out of it. we will see how it goes tonight. bob: good evening from the campus of lynn university here in boca raton, florida. this is the fowrstd and last debate of the 2012 campaign brought to you by the commission on presidential debates. this one is on foreign policy. i'm bob schieffer of cbs news. the questions are mine. and i have

. >> you saw madeleine albright yesterday call romney's speech full of platitude and free of substance. >> well, i'm sure the former democratic secretary of state would say that. the reality is it set out a very strong approach for america being a leader. it talked about america being more assertive. it gave three or four differences. if it went too far in the other direction, they would say governor romney was undercutting the commander in chief. >> well, he said he didn't want to come across to be compared with president bush, former president bush. >> well, he isn't president bush and he isn't president obama. it's a different approach. is it totally different on every respect? no. president obama hasn't been a failure in every respect. but there are certain things he did in foreign policy that i respect very much. >> when you saw the numbers, you were surprised. is there something going on in the romney campaign other than this debate, in which they decided to tack to the center. they decided to be more moderate. >> i think the debate was enormously important for governor romney. i

>> didn't madeleine albright say something like that this weekend.plain, whether it's undecided or swing voters, you don't have to be in new york to get the republicans are a craving bunch of mother [ bleep ] who are trying to protect the rich or enforce their cribb extremist morality. you don't have to have a rachel ma do you poster on your wall to see what they tried to do. you don't have to get media matters updates to see that romney's calculated emptiness is frightening. when they're interviewing southern baptist birthers who are going to vote for obama you know that, right? >> right. i think a lot of americans these mythical independents are looking at that going okay, who do we want to hang out with? do we want to hang out with the crazies over here or do we want to go to the people that sound reasonable and live in reality over here? >> stephanie: right. and you being a helper like are you to the republicans, you gave the republican party probably the best -- you said what the republicans need to do is take a long look in the mirror. we're a

if you are listening to that from their perspective, it sounds like -- >> it sounds like madeleine albrightchildren to be killed because of sanctions. it's okay to starve people? >> the american soil part is the weird part. not something saying it's okay to take the food out of the mouths of children. whose government is plotting an attack on american soil. does the cia have information they made public to attack america? on american soil? >> it's immoral. it's strategically productive. >> there has to be an out. >> it's going to mobilize the people in support of the regime. we are starting to see indications of that. we have to figure out a way to keep the sanctions more targeted, smart sanctions was the phrase. what happened? keep them focused. i would like to see and we could do this, it doesn't require congressional action, a message, statement and policies that say we are going to continue the sanctions especially the multilateral but we have no intention of harming them. we are going to ease up the measures as a gesture to the iranian people. these are targeted at a policy, not the pe

he has advised six secretaries are state, bi-partisan as that, including madeleine albright. nice to have you back on the program. we know the topic, we don't know the kpwes. what do you think is the single biggest issue that the american people need to hear about on monday? >> the organizing principle of any nation's foreign policy is to protect the homeland. if you can't protect the homeland you don't need a foreign policy. that has to be a fundamental and primary concern, protect the security of the continental united states and protect our diplomatic facilities and our personnel abroad. clearly what happened in benghazi has opened up july in a pweults fo vulnerabilities, what they knew, and a muddled and mixed message. i think that is a critical and important issue. one important thing has to be made clear, it's a point of departure for everything in my judgment. i worked for democratic and republican secretary of states. i voted for democrats and republicans, the dividing line for these issues, particularly on national security shouldn't be between left or right, hreub r

after romney's speech, former secretary of state madeleine albright underscored the obama campaign's message in a conference call with reporters. she said that she is a teacher and if romney had turned in the op-ed he had written in the wall street journal last week, on the middle east, she would have given him a c, because it was so light on specifics. >> okay. big picture, jessica yellin, the president pretty much talked all kinds of pundits on either side bombed last wednesday, speaking in denver. when you look at the polls, they indicate americans most definitely took note. as we mentioned, you still have the three additional debates including this vice presidential debate, this upcoming week. the question is, is the president's re-election campaign, are they hitting the panic button here or are they changing the approach with these final debates looming in. >> well, according too the top democrats i'm talking to, they do not expect vice president biden to somehow make up for the president's missteps in his debate last week. because americans aren't looking to the vice president

former secretary of state madeleine albright gave the obama campaign's rebuttal. >> i'm a professor.f one of my students turned it in they'd get a "c" because he gave absolutely no specifics. >> it's getting close here in michigan. can you help push us over the top. >> reporter: ahead of this week's vice presidential debate on monday paul ryan attacked what he considered the democrat strategy. >> it seems pretty clear that their new strategy is basically just call us liars, to descend down into a mud pit and hopefully, with enough mudslinging back and forth and distortion, people will get demoralized and then they can win by default. >> reporter: and to give you a sense of what some may describe as the absurd back and forth in this election season, take a look at this. this is a new ad just out this morning from the obama campaign. it mocks mitt romney's plan to eliminate federal subsidies for public broadcasting, sarcastically calling big bird a, quote, menace to our economy, matt, on the level of bernie madoff. >> all right. peter alexander in virginia this morning. peter, thank yo

weighed in on it yet, but his campaign spokesman, ben labolt, also former secretary of state madeleine albrightold a conference call a short time ago where they really attacked mitt romney saying that he is not fit to be commander in chief. they said that his policies are what he would put in place are really unclear. that he has been shift aing lot of his positions, and, again, saying that he doesn't -- he is not really on the same level as the president. it was really sort of a fierce attack from the very beginning going detail by detail, whether it comes to the u.s. relationship with israel, whether it comes to what romney pointed out on libya, or even on south america. they said that it semplly is lack and that he is not fit to be commander in chief. that coming from the obama xaen. nothing from the president himself. >> we've also heard, dan, the vice president joe biden say, you know, bin laden is did. do they think that is something that really resonates with voters? >> they do. it's interesting that you point that out because even last night as the president was at that big fundraising

the obama campaign put out one with former secretary of state madeleine albright saying governor romneynot up to the task, is a cold war mentality. the romney campaign put one out with the video of president obama talking to russian prime minister dmitry medvedev in which he said i will have more flexibility after the election. it was all a set-up to this foreign policy debate and, yet, we could hear a lot about the u.s. economy in this debate as well. it is going to be interesting to see the 90 minutes, the final time that these candidates will reach an unfiltered audience and millions of them. >> megyn: the pressure not just on those two candidates but also on the moderator bob schieffer after the criticism in the last debate for the moderator to stay out of it. we will see how it goes tonight. bob: good evening from the campus of lynn university here in boca raton, florida. this is the fowrstd and last debate of the 2012 campaign brought to you by the commission on presidential debates. this one is on foreign policy. i'm bob schieffer of cbs news. the questions are mine. and i have n

what it does mean and frankly the one who used the phrase as well as any other was madeleine albright in the clinton administration who said we are the indispensable power. that means we are a necessary condition for making things happen and making happen the right way. we are the only necessary -- by definition that makes us exceptional. beyond that, although we are not the only nation of immigrants, canada is a nation of immigrants, australians, europe has lots of them. we have done more as a nation of immigrants than anybody else. people are lining up to get into this country and have been since day i. that makes us exceptional too. finally more than any other country we represent, i don't think michele or anybody disagrees we represent a series of values in a way nobody else has been able to. that makes us exceptional. when you begin with at the next question is how do you underpin it? the governor has made it clear that he underpins it with a notion of peace and strength. that is to say if you want to have peace, if you want to have stability, you need to be strong because being

approach showed a lack of -- >> reporter: and a conference call with former secretary of state madeleine albright and ben le bolt. >> he's changed his mind on a number of issues, in terms of libya. at first, he was for the intervention. now he's against it. it's unclear where he is on syria. >> behind the tough talk, he's an erratic, unsteady in his audition on the world stage. >> reporter: the obama campaign says governor romney's foreign policy speech was, quote, full of platitudes and free of substance. the recent unrest in egypt and libya has given the gop nominee an opportunity to question the president's policies and draw a contrast for voters on those issues along with the economy. but experts observed taking on an incumbent president comes with fundamental disadvantages. >> the president has been doing this day in and day out, getting the intelligence briefings, working with all the cabinet secretaries, working with his staff. for romney, he has to learn this every day and it all seems a little bit abstract for the president. it might have been abstract four years ago. sure isn't abstract

in the case of serbia, the students in serbia and is a of madeleine albright was supported because wordgot to vent because one of their stickers was on her desk in the state state department while they were active in their fight. they send back a message saying thank you, that's wonderful. we let you are supporting us. nothing would undermine us quicker than for everyone to believe we are some madeleine albright in a ditch, cemex tension of the u.s. government. will lose credibility and immediately. we have to understand these people that are progressive, let's say there's 10% of the country. these people that are really dependent on a camillus either 10% of the country. it's a struggle between the two months to get the majority. so the people you're trying to bring our people that identify themselves as politically. they would say if you asked them what they are, they'll say i've attended a muslim brotherhood meetings, but i'm a small-business owner. that's what i am. you need to convince them that there's a better future for you with their set of ideas than what they've known. that's

so i am a great believer in madeleine albright's -- >> indispensable nation? >> yeah. the united states is the indispensable power. warts and all, that's it. that's the reality, i think. so the united states should be engaged, should continue to engage in the arab world. the united states should invest in a long-term alliance with those people in the arab world and the muslim world who share with the united states certain values, who believe that it serves their own interest to have a good relationship with the west. today believe that it's in our interest to be part of a globalized world. they believe that it's in their own interest to have good economic and political relationship with the united states even when we disagree with the united states. i mean, one of the good things that i liked about this poll is that the majority of americans still believe that democracy in those countries are going through transition or in the arab world -- [inaudible] and we're more fully in turkey than the rest of the arab world because you have a more democratic system in turkey. th

a little bit in awe because i am sharing the stage that was grace by margaret thatcher and madeleine albright. i was sitting in the audience watching them up your speech here when i first got on stage, though assorted in my head. so, for a guy like me who went to public schools down the road and should be in the situation to stand before you, it's a pretty awe-inspiring thing. frankly it is not something i ever plan to do. but lately i've just gotten so fed up with the way things are going in washington. it's having politicians cannot say we've got to stop raiding the social security trust fund when they know good and well david butter to raid the social security trust fund. it is this worldview of washington this past, washington is going to take care of you. but these are two bureaucrats decide what health care you're have because you are not smart enough to figure it out. it is fast mentality that drives me crazy and that is why i'm running for congress because i want to change that. my position is that individual should be making decisions about their lives, but if we create incentives fo

what it does mean and, frankly, the one who used the phrase as well as any other was madeleine albright in the clinton administration, secretary albright who said we're the indispensable power. that means that we are a necessary condition for making things happen and making them happen the right way. and we're the only necessary condition like that. so by definition that makes us exceptional. beyond that although we're not the only nation of immigrants -- can canada to the north, the australians are, europe now has lots of immigrants -- we have done more with our immigrants as a nation of immigrants than anybody else by the longest possible shot. people are lining up to get into this country. they have been since day one. that makes us exceptional too. and finally, more than any other country we represent and i don't think michelle or really anybody in our national security community would disagree, we represent the series of values in a way that nobody else just has been able to. so that makes us exceptional. now, when you begin with that, the next question is how do you underpin it. a

madeleine albright gave the obama campaign's a rebuttal. >> i'm a prefer.f one of my students turned it it in, they get a c because he gave absolutely no specifics. >> it's getting close here in michigan. you can push up over the top. >> reporter: on monday, paul ryan attacked what he considered the democrats strategy. >> it seems pretty clear that their new strategy is bawling us liars and descend down into a mud pit and hopefully with enough mud slinging back and forth and distortion, people get demoralized and win by default. >> reporter: to give you saens of qha some may describe as the absurd back and forth in this election season, take a look at this. a new ad just out this morning from the obama campaign. it mocks mitt romney's plan to eliminate federal subsidies and calling bird big a menace to our economy, matt, on the level of bernie madoff. >> peter alexander, thank you. >>> senator john mccain good to see you and thank you for coming on. >> thanks, matt. >> i will get to the campaign ad in a second. no one questioned your expertise or knowledge