i mean, mitt romney spent more time at harvard and barack obama george bush went to harvard and yales a conservative that sounds great. so there is a definite disconnect between the leader class of our country and the common people. a lot of the people that andrew was talking about are asked to make great sacrifices. they don't serve and so forth. so it is a real problem and has been a real problem, particularly for liberals. i think liberals have become to be paralyzed by their inability to speak to these people and have led conservatives feed them to menagerie without fighting back. i think liberals need to take their principles more seriously and fight back carter. those principles will turn out to be more consistent with these people's lives than the conservatives. what has happened is liberals have lost their confidence and the conservatives have been able to exploit the concern to make these people vote. >> he mentioned congress. was the congress of the 1950's and 60's more typical of the everyday american and today? >> well, 1950's and '60's did not care about black people. th

when the white house changes hands as it did when barack obama took over from george bush, that's a strong predictor for re-election. if president obama lost he would be only the second to lose in 12 -- 100 years after the electorate had switched parties. the only other one? jimmy carter. >> well, i'm not much of a believer in these kind of prep addictors, but if one is, what's different about this time around is, jimmy carter was a case of the electorate was faces with a charismatic new republican on the scene. now, there's a lot good to be said about mitt romney, but for many people he has the charisma of a carrot. [laughter] so he may develop it as the campaign goes along, but the other thing, why i think president obama is particularly vulnerable is the extreme distaste to put it mildly that so many people have for him. republicans and people on the right. and that may bleed over into the independents and swing voters who are going to decide this election in the fall. right now i would put president obama as no better than even money and if the republican candidate is mitt romney he wi

. >>> the reforms i'm proposing -- >> what do barack obama, george w. bush clinton all have in common? >> bill, this is a tenner of the aids epidemic. >> they've been heckled. >> and that's why i'm running for president, to do something about it. >> and politician ben coniff is proud to be in their company. >> it's a rite of passage. >> liar. >> we're here again -- >> it's not something that i anticipated. >> it all starts in march 2009 when lucas county commissioner ben coniff decides to run for mayor of toledo, ohio. >> i wanted to give something back. i enjoy politics. i actually find it interesting, stimulating, challenging. >> we're here today -- >> and when a local television station films him struggling to talk over a relentless heckler, his hard day at work becomes a caught on camera sensation. >> are you done? >> no. i'm going to keep going. >> okay. well, it wasn't what i signed up for. i didn't enter this race for mayor in hopes of becoming a youtube star. that's politics. >> maxwell austin is a toledo resident who follows politics closely and tak

george w. bush carried white voters over al gore by 12%. in 2000, john mccain carat white voters over barack obama -- in 2008, john mccain got white voters over barack obama. obama won in a landslide because of latino voters. that is something that republicans other than george w. bush do not understand. >> i wanto talk about this more. >> 3, 4, 5, 6, seven years ago, if i do the job as vice president -- i'm sorry. [laughter] >> you guys all got that, right? >> bit of a gaffe there. but look at this -- the nbc- "wall street journal" poll, romney is trailing obama want latinos. romney-rubio, match made in had been. -- heaven. >> match made in purgatory. [laughter] now, he is smart, he makes a great case, he has a record in florida. >> but? >> but we went through this four years ago. everybody is an amateur running for national office, and the republicans learned painfully in 2008 with gov. palin. >> this guy is no sarah palin. >> no sarah palin, but you are taking a chance. there is questions. does the cuban connection reached latinos, with the dominant vote in the country among the latino communit

barack obama himself called george bush unpatriotic and irresponsible borrowing from the bank of chiname of our children. bush had $4 trillion in debt in eight years. obama has $5 trillion in 3-1/2 years. if i used the same language against him, i'd be attacked. the reality, we can't sustain the path he put us on. bankrupting us, ensuring we'll become greece if we continue down the path. responsible people are saying we can't steal from our kids anymore. how is that racial? >> i think responsible people are saying we can't steal from our kids and we need some kind of what was called in this town short time ago a grand bargain. but you will see that people aren't cooperating in terms of saying here is where we'll have increase revenue. match increase cuts. you say it's nothing to do with race. right now as we sit here today you see increasing divide. people, black, hispanic, asian -- college educated -- >> sean: juan, juan, 47 million americans live in poverty. obama has increased that number by over 10 million. >> you think it was barack obama -- sean, you think it was barack obama. >>

barack obama, and george w. bush, above 4%. bill clinton at 3%. george h.w. bush, below 3%.y on the screen that lost. ronald reagan after 10% unemployment, lucky, the economy started booming. how important is the psychology of the economy for this president? 2% growth is not a recipe for re-election? >> that's why we're talking about bin laden, why the president is talking about bin laden. for three years in a row we've had this spring of false optimism with job numbers and some early growth numbers that looked good and then you get into april and may, and they start to look bad, and the recovery starts to look weak again, and now i think the big concern has to be double dip recession. >> your people around the country, forgive me, got to be nervous. george h.w. bush, high approval ratings. people thought he was a nice guy. same with bill clinton, nice guy, can't fix the economy. >> my people, you mean the people who want to find jobs and not worried about -- >> i mean democrats around the country. >> i had to make sure pup said, my people. i got a lot of people. got a lot o

obama for killing bin laden. thank you, bob. thank you. but who is a better wartime president? george bush or barack obama? that debate when we come back.ing news, everyone. no more e-mail. our facebook page is now officially up and running. you can find us at facebook.com/thefivefnc. we hope you like the page. we explained what it meant to bob earlier. he's with us now. check back next week. every night after the show next week one of us will do q&a with you. keep it clean but interesting. one more time, facebook.com/thefivefnc. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> eric: president obama took a break from the campaign trail to address troops at fort stewart. does this sound like a warrior to you? >> they are trying to swindle and hoodwink you. today, here at fort stewart, we're going to put an end to it. the executive order, i'm about to sign will make life a lot more secure for you and your families. veterans and tougher for those who try to prey on you. >> eric: the heroic men apedom more for freedom and more for america in a day than you will ever do, sir. don't insult them by talking about schools preying on them. they take live round and risk their lives, s

it's true, there were attack ons america when george bush was president. barack obama attack. put up with that, but remain true to what you are trying to do in the region. >> sorry, harold. what does that mean to do in afghanistan. hang in there? stay in there longer. >> and what we do in pakistan with the drones. >> my view of afghanistan is ten years on, it's absolutely necessary that the afghans take charge we are not just walking away. we are still going to be there supporting and helping. >> let's take that argument back to the role of faith. you have in afghanistan a country where the median age is 18 years. they don't know who we are. they don't know who karzai is out in the providences. the degree of difficulty seems insurmountable. >> here is where the issue of faith is important. if these young people in afghanistan, by the way, in pakistan, where many of the young people are taught, if they are taught a view of faith, it's a view that is poisonous about people who don't share your faith. why are we surprised if we have a problem later on? i'm trying to persu

even by republican standards, barack obama has done something extraordinary that george bush could notwas necessary for them to be seen successfully. now romney is notç only arguin against obama, but the moral trajectory of his own party. >> he is also arguing against some of his own language. look at this -- >> we look around the world today, we see a muddled picture of american's foreign policy and our power. >> obama has adopted an appeasement strategy. it portrays a lack of faith in america. >> if you don't want america to be the strongest nation on earth, i'm not your president. you have that president today. >> muddled, appeasement, not having faith in the united states to be strong, and then when he answers, showing the strength he did exercise, showing that he is not in any way muddled, then it is a cheap political attack? you can't have it both ways. >> you can't, and muddled? appeasing. this man was clear, stood before the american people, indicated what had happened, was not engaging in an extraordinary and extreme celebration, but saw bin laden as the person responsible fo

. >> i think that bill clinton and barack obama and often george w. bush were very good at showing different aspects of themselves while maintaining a core type of authenticity that appealed to supporters. mitt romney tries a lot of different thin and none feel real. >> he is both romney and anti roey at the same time. coming up, rick santorum renews his defiant stance against the growing chorus calling for him to drop out of the race. where steady eddie still has a fighting chance next on "now." is this what we're doing now? i don't want a plunger anywhere near my coffee. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. between taking insulin, testing my blood sugar. is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah. and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of oneto

george w. bush years. with the iraq war, the torture, with deficit, with, with, were, choose your poison. the last time they had a choice between barack obama a party associated with george w. bush, they lost in a land slide. today, the party's nominee from that year was on the turkish border demanding that they get in a fight. every day she does not work in politics except as a commentator. he was supposed to be mitt romney's big day in the sun. this is the last day in the world the romney campaign would want america to have a big visual reminder of george w bush republicanism. beyond there being bad things about the bush era, mitt romney has a different problem of there being some relatively good things about the george w. bush era, at least when you compare those things to mitt romney. he ahead a real effort to cultivate the latino vote. they are not a traditionally republican constituency. in 2004, he got 44% of the latino vote in the general election. that's a lot for the republican. in the next election, republicans got shillacked. the republican proportion dropped to 31% and the republicans lost the election badly. now, now look at h

george w. bush and president barack obama. and the party's over because of gsa deputy administrator susan brita, an obama appointee who blew the whistle and took this matter to the inspector general. and the party is over because the new acting administrative gsa, mr. daniel tangherlini is a no-nonsense leader from the u.s. department of the treasury who aims to clean up this mess. this is not the first episode of misconduct at the gsa. the carter administration uncovered one in 1978 and 1979 when a nationwide investigation noose long-standing corruption resulted in prosecutions for bribery, for fraud, and protections for whistleblowers in the agency. then there was more misconduct during the bush administration. the first occurred when the chief of staff to the gsa administrator traveled with jack abramoff to scotland even though mr. abramoff had business before the gsa. in 2011, this chief of staff went to prison. in 2006, the bush appointed gsa administrator steered a contract to a friend and. and in 2007, she organized a p

under employed as well -- >> maybe you also missed the fact that the last month of george bush and first month of barack obamaost 750,000 jobs. one month. since then there have been 24 straight months with over a hundred thousand new jobs. >> all right. we could sit here and listen to you all night. but there was a recent poll which shows that married women favor romney and single women favor obama. you wrote that book about raising three sons as a single woman -- >> a single mom. >> yes. >> this is the issue out there again. as a single mom i know better than anyone what do we care about? we want security for jobs. we want to know that we can take care of our children and our families and ourselves. and we have to know -- our children are going to have jobs? they struggle through college will they be able to take care of themselves. so how do you reach these people? the same way you are going to reach all americans. you are going to tell them the policies of this man have failed. we all know that. we need somebody who knows what to do. >> let me follow up on this bill, just a quick follow up bill on it. >> s

obama administration. presidents george w. bush and president clinton had their own troubles with lobbyists, but did barack obama promise more when for office? joining me now, andy card, former white house chief of staff for george w. bush and acting dean of the bush school at texas university. and bernard whitman who is a former pollster for president clinton. chris stirewalt says all president's do it. but did president obama promise us something -- did president obama promise us something better? >> he did an delivered in a number of ways. let me go through a few of them. he has done more to limit the influence of money in politics than any president before him. he refuses to accept contributions from registered lobbyists. he does not allow his appointees to lobby the administration after they leave. he's the first president in history to release the names of any visitor who comes to the white house. and like george w. bush and john mccain he releases the names of his bundlers, something mitt romney has refused to do. megyn: the "new york times" of all publications issued a scathing report on how he doesn't accept contribution

george w. bush carried white voters over al gore by 12%. in 2008, john mccain carried white voters over barack obama by 12 points. one race was 50-50, 2000. obama won in a landslide. that is because of the influx of latino voters. that is what republicans, rather than at george w. bush, do not understand. >> mitt romney, politics, and a word from senator marco rubio. >> 3, 4, 5, 6, seven years from now, if i do a good job as vice president -- sorry. [laughter] >> you all got that? >> bit of a gaffe there. but if you look at the latest nbc-"wall street journal" poll, romney is trailing obama among latinos. romney-rubio, a match made in heaven. >> match made in purgatory. [laughter] no, he is a ticket, smart, makes a great case, -- he is articulate, smart, makes a great case, has a record in florida -- >> but? >> everybody is an amateur running for office, and republicans learned that painfully in 2008 with gov. palin. >> this guy is no sarah palin. >> no, but he has a prickly relationship with the florida press. there are questions. does the cuban connection -- the dominant threat through the latino community is for mexico and central ameri

george w. bush or barack obama on iran, and he could be trouble for nato as well. so there are consequences for us. as you rightly say, there could be a real problem between germany and france. >> you know what, nick, on the economy, the trouble is france is in recession, sarkozy has been acting like a socialist, why do i say that sarkozy has been raising taxes. he talks about taxing rich people, talks about the value-added tax. he's all austerity. i think the french don't see a way out of the recession, and sarkozy's own center-right allies are running away from him, nick. >> austerity is very unpopular, as you can imagine, and the eu is unpopular, and he accept hezbollahs the eu, so hollande is running a smart campaign. he's appealing to the french, saying i can create 150,000 subsidized jo, for young people. i'll raise taxes to 75%, he says on peel emearning more than 1 million euro a year. he'll undo some of the reforms that sarkozy put in place three, four years ago. it will be a dramatic change. >> all that stuff, i agree with, from what i've read. that will

barack obama. that's a direct opportunity that's lost for them. and your previous guest, secretary geithner, he continued to blame george w. bushhe current economic woes, for the current dealt woes, but barack obama has to take responsibility. there's no question, his economic policies have had a disproportionate negative impact on women and that's why i think women are going to be very upset with this current administration. >> senator, was there a broader context to hillary rosen's remarks. >> hillary apologized for her remarks, her remarks were wrong and they were inappropriate. as a mom, i know one of the toughest jobs in the world is being a parent. but this election isn't going to be about ann romney or hillary's remarks. what the election is going to be about which candidate cares about the economy. barack obama whose first bill he ever signed was a lily ledbetter equal pay act. women are still making 78 cents on the dollar. this president has focused on -- access to capital. president obama has focused on increasing access to cap 258 -- president obama's also focused on education, pell grants are actually used by women.

could barack obama have been elected president if he had taken this line? could george bush have been reelected if after 9/11 his response had been one that sounds similar to yours? my point is that i do not know that the american people even want to hear elected officials tell them these kinds of hard truths about the fact that were ultimately does not make us safer. you do not get elected if your barack obama's saying that. you do not get elected if you do not beat your chest to say that you took out osama bin laden. he keeps saying that. "took out osama bin laden" when foreign-policy comes up, you have got the first african- american president who comes out of the king tradition -- if it were not for king, he would not be present. king is vehemently opposed to war, and to get reelected, he has to brag about the fact that with his nobel peace prize, he took out osama bin laden. if he were to tell americans the trick, what would happen? >> that is a really good question. i can offer some evidence. woodrow wilson was opposed to the constitutional amendment giving women the r

george h.w. bush whose their reelection bids, but bill clinton, ronald reagan and george w. bush were reelected we found out that in order for barack obama to get a second term, he has to win in certain districts and win over voters of special interest in specific demographic roots, and convince americans he's likeable and competent. it's ultimately a referendum on the incumbent and the republican doesn't have to win, he just has to make sure that the democrat loses. how could president obama kaep from being a one-term president? well, he's got to keep a solid lead with women, which democrats typically do, but his lead is not as solid as troises four years ago. he currently trails mitt romney in polls as to who would be best to handle the economy, which is the main issue concerning voters. and in key states that he won four years ago, now appear to be likely states that he could lose this time. such as indiana, florida, ohio, iowa, nevada, virginia, and north carolina. by the way, that's where he's going to travel for his coronation-- i mean, nomination (laughter) . that's where the democrats will have the national convention. while pres

you score the touchdown. >> i wish someone said that to george bush in 2004. >> we're not talking about george bush. we're talking about barack obamae sure we have an equal standard about this. >> absolutely. >> i think somebody earlier in the show made the point about the vice president, joe biden, comment about general motors is live and osama bin laden is dead. those are the two basic themes. domestic policy and foreign policy. on each one of these, obama has done a wonderful job gooel dealing with an enormously difficult crisis he inherited. >>> for more analysis, head to nbcpolitics.com. >>> now to number four on our first five web story, osama bin laden's family. after being deported from pakistan, the slain leader's three widows and children were banned from the country. we were allowed entrance into saudi arabia on humanitarian grounds. one year ago the leader was killed in pakistan. >>> a foul ball at an arlington ballpark, a young rangers fan couldn't contain his tears after a couple seated near him got a ball that he desperately wanted. but now the couple who kept the ball are crying foul. michelle franzen joins us. >> t