bush slept on an aircraft. here in the mediterranean because there was a credible threat that somebody is going to hijack airplanes off the coast of italy was not it was is they were holding some kind of a nato meeting there was that you had there was a it was a g. or a g. eight maybe maybe there was but well it but you know when you get down when you get down to it what matters in terms of that august sixth brief is what was bush told beforehand right and that's the story line that was not told so that's the history that they were referring to and that you dug into right and the presidential daily briefs before the august six one that is supposedly so shocking far far worse in terms of what was bush told i mean you had a may first presidential daily brief where bush was told there was an al qaeda cell in the united states that was preparing a major operation in the weeks that followed you had an attack is imminent you had the statement they're going to be matched mass casualties and these were going you know w

and that president clinton said the same thing to george of you bush. that being the case dick cheney was put in charge of the counterterrorism task force right after the inauguration and to the best my knowledge that task force never met until september do i have that right there was a principals meeting on september sixth of two thousand and one right so basically back was so dating is is that i'm trying to come up with a metaphor that i could say on television. throughout this this entire year of two thousand and one he's been charged with keeping the nation safe they've all been warned that this guy is coming the cia is virtually screaming at them the august sixth memo actually had a human being that a company to did it not who came out they all did all of it ok and bush like you know personal briefings yeah ok and and. and yet george bush took the longest vacation in the history of the presidency that august and then after that he still didn't want to go back to washington d.c. you want to florida where his brother locked down the state or state of

bush? >> yes. great question. a question that nobody had any idea how romney was going to answer it. this is why town hall is such a great format. you get real people asking direct questions, that the campaigns do not want to talk about, and that the beltway press maybe hasn't been focused on, but they are questions that are really on regular people's minds. and to mr. romney's credit, he did not try to evade that question. he did try to answer this question by pointing out differences between himself and president bush. he said that the first difference between him and george w. bush is that he, mitt romney, would make us, he said, north america, actually. he said, he would make us energy independent. he, mitt romney, unlike george w. bush, would promise to get america totally independent from foreign sources of oil. >> we've got to become independent from foreign sources of oil. >> mr. romney also distinguished himself from george w. bush by saying, unlike president bush, he, mitt romney,

bush and he's on the record as saying that in ninety nine george w. bush told him that when his father invaded iraq he failed because he didn't extend the war long enough if he'd extended it into the next election cycle he would have won and that if george w. bush became president he wasn't going to have a failed presidency like his father he was going to have a war in iraq against saddam hussein it was going to get him enough political capital that not only would he get reelected but that he could privatized social security and that's actually the sequence of events that he followed for years after mickey herskowitz came out with this minus the great support over the iraq war well he thought i mean you know i do recall in two thousand and five right after he was in are greater dk money said i got political capital i'm going to spend it let's privatized so security and that kind of but you know so is it possible that both stories are right that that one was personal one was institutional the both are wrong i mean i think that there is something much b

bush institute and jeb was on the board -- >> jennifer: fascinating bush politics going on.for coming inside "the war room." check out joe's piece in the new york magazine. up next, brett ehrlich takes some of the mystery out of mitt romney. >> coming up we discover there are many, many layers to mitt romney, he is like an onion, or a landfill, don't go away. do you share the sense of outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. u>> i'm not prone tot. understatement, so explain to me i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa. [ ryan ] it doesn't get any better than endless shrimp at red lobster. you can mix and match all day! [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's endless shrimp just $14.99! try as much as you like, any way you like! like parmesan crusted shrimp. hurry in, offer ends soon! i'm ryan isabell and i see food differently. ♪ >> jennifer: in our mitt moment tonight we see the apple doesn't fall far from the romney tree. when a romney supporter forced a bunch of

bush. that's why i say ironically because after george bush said he was doing a heck of a job then he, of course, went on to blame michael brown later for all of the problems. then brown wrote a book in which he said president bush was "didn't get it. he failed to comprehend the magnitude of the storm and that the president tended to act like a well-meaning fraternity boy." those are some harsh words for president bush. he's back on the line with us. he was explaining his words about president obama. again, michael brown. tell us your version of events there. >> so here is the question that was posed to me. in terms of disaster, what are the politics that go on behind the scenes? and i described to the reporter that what the president needed to do was to -- before he made his of press conference, that he should have waited until later in the day because he would have gotten more political mileage out of it. it had nothing to do with the response. it had to do with the politics of the situat

bush doesn't say anything.ust looks at him, smiles, gives him the head wink, and goes on. >> i believe i can. >> that was it. it just -- you know, it just absolutely devastated gore. >> you watch him go. >> yeah. we all revert to our junior high mentality, you know, when our team scored. yeah, you know! >> most people don't know is that bush had been prepared. >> jud gregg, who had played the role of al gore in the debate prep, had seen him pull this trick. he said to bush, be prepared, he's going to come and get in your face. we all dismissed at the time, but sure enough it happened. >> which raises the question how do candidates prepared? these two debate coaches showed me. they prepped president bush for debate. o'donnell later coached mitt romney and michele bachmann. they spent hours trying to replicate debate moments. >> you have the candidate stand in front of a podium like this as realistic as possible? >> yeah. you want a strong bearing, erect. look at colin powell. he commands the podium. it's like th

bush that is not the question of a voter who is undecided.bly weird, mitt romney took the bait and might have alieniate the his bait, or did he. former bush political director matt does not think so, matt, as a guy who worked for a former president, who likes former president, knows form are president, how did you feel that about that? >> i thought governor romney's answer was gentle. every person that runs for president has to be his own man, think about george w. bush he had to separate himself from his father who was president. and his father had to be his son man compared to ronald reagan. so, you know, i think governor romney is smart to explain to american people how he would be different, it say -- he has to be careful, he needs every one of those george w. bush voters, including those who cherish when the president did for the country. neil: a lot of those beginning with dad who came out supported governor romney early in the process, then, president bush, son. who did the same. but later. you don't think that it rank els them? we thr

bush out of the bus. there are differences between governor romney and george bush but they're not on economic policy in some ways he's gone to a more extreme place when it comes to social policy i think is so is romney more extreme than president bush mars but in some ways i think romney's answer should have been and i still think he needs to talk to the libertarian in his party and independents who lean libertarian he's got to talk about the fact that george bush in no way was a small government president now part of that's nine eleven he had to react to it and we needed to expand certain things i think romney's answer there is the more extreme he needs to talk to his the libertarians he needs to talk to his party i don't think first of all he didn't really answer the questions he talked about policy i think what he was asking it's illogically character are you different than president bush and that's a lightning rod question for him because george w. bush is not popular in this country was it when he l

bush next. thank. you mr. with eight years of scandal contempt torture into a legal ground war as deep it was a strong anti bush sentiment pervasive amongst american citizens leading up to the two thousand and eight presidential elections and during obama's campaign for president he made it clear that waterboarding was torture and that bush administration officials had broken the law with their illegal wiretapping programs and counterterrorism torture strategies but if there's one thing we've learned over the last few years it's that talk is cheap and one just has to look at what obama's actions were after he got elected into office to see that actions speak louder than words and help me dig more into this and where it brings us all today robbie martin journalist from media roots dot org joins us from oakland california hey robby thanks for coming on if you think for having me so i remember a really strong rhetoric coming from the obama administration during the early stages of this campaign that is tone kind

bush several times. he had three oil companies in the 80s that would rally up in each time they came to stress here. they were also baseball royalty. bill dewitt owns the st. louis cardinals and his father had owned the old st. louis browns. and they gave bush entrÉe into his own texas rangers, which is one, the only lucrative investment he ever made. he put his vixen a dozen dollars and came away with about $15 million. and this company, smart tag, which started out as a legitimate technology company soon became a republican operation. and it's all good while the republicans are conservative groups should have their websites and so forth. but this is very unusual and i saw george w. bush 43 was fair. the republican committee hosted it websites. hundreds and hundreds of conservative groups were there. again, that is all fine and well. this company, which is highly, highly partisan also overtime required in contracts that i think probably should not have gone to such a partisan company. in the me just say

bush. you've largely addressed the topic, but just sanest rhetoric, i don't know that it's not going to support war. he so close to being a yahoo! to let israel do whatever they want. >> host: guy taylor. >> guest: it's a legitimate concern. barack obama and joe biden aren't antiwar administration. they ran on a message. four years ago they got the united states untangled united states untangled from a very unpopular and extensive occupation iraq and they've done it. so it's hard for the obama administration -- it's hard to get up and say we're going to get tough on iran. they've actually been phenomenally tough on iran with the oil, crushing the economy in tehran. it is still difficult to come and say who would actually do a military strike. and i don't think romney is going to go much further than not. as far as being concerned is one of the players in romney's foreign policy adviser consulate is john bolton. john bolton adamantly supported going into iraq. the catch is that he is a count

bush.omeone mitt romney would prefer to keep in the recesses of the american imagination, unsurprisingly when asked about the elephant in the room last night, and how his policies differ from w.'s, romney was less than forthcoming. >> thank you. i appreciate that question. i just want to make sure that i think i was supposed to get that last answer but i want to point out that i don't believe -- >> i don't think so, candy. i want to make sure our time keepers are working here. >> after a brief detour romney finally answered the question by focusing on venezuela. >> president bush and i are different people and these are different times. and that's why my five-point plan is so different than what he would have done. i mean, for instance, we can now by virtue of new technology actually get all the energy we need in north america without having to go to the arabs or the venezuelans or anyone else. that wasn't true in his time. >> american reliance on venezuelan fossil fuels. the lasting legacy

bush who had held about half of that amount. he broke bill clinton's defense record and he broke george h. w. bush's records and so on. so it's important to note that it is a multi president story. president obama's critics have been quick to jump on him for devoting so much time to fund raising, and he absolutely has broken records. but there is a very understandable reason why. what we have seen in the presidential fund-raising is an unintentional consequence of the rules of our political system that we have campaign finance rules designed to reduce corruption or the appearance of corruption, and to do that we limit the amount of money that presidents and candidates can raise from any individual or from any group. so the idea that you can't buy any election if you only give $2,500 to a candidate per election cycle but when you combine those relatively low campaign rather contribution limits within the rapidly escalating cost of campaigns, the presidents and candidates are forced to spend more and more time raising money and it

bush white house, his time as scheduled in five minute increments.there's always more important than suppress mccain doing any of the time to do. my 10 step from racing, electoral concerns does mean less time doing something else. and we should be about what the something else is. we don't know. i haven't looked carefully. presidents may be simply spending less time with their families, getting my sleep. they're quick to say they're campaigning instead of doing their job. that presidents do that because that is how they can get closer to the more perfect union in our political system. tonight coast-to-coast anymore numbers in congress. they need a second term, four more years in the white house to have a chance to make their political dreams reality. and so the sun rising electoral concerns as a means to anon make decisions on how to allocate their time based on the rules of the system and if they want tou? make thep? world a better place? d.c. this is something i have t? do. >> host: professor doherty, with a different before jimmy carter? >> guest:

and what are the bush criminals doing today well connelly's a rise george w. bush donald rumsfeld dick cheney all of that have been callow vantage around the country being given a platform to contemptuously sell their books books full of propagandist excuses and apologies for their heinous acts it's a moral outrage but instead of holding these people accountable for blatant war crimes obama chose to look forward instead. obviously they're looking at past practices. and i don't believe that anybody has both the law on the other hand i also have a belief that we need to look forward as los as opposed to looking looking backwards . and just like that the obama administration decided to cover up the cancerous moral decay of the fabric of our society a country supposedly built on justice and moral righteousness but you know what obama i get why you haven't prosecuted any of the bush criminals because if you did you would have to open yourself up for prosecution.

vice president bush? >> i think i just heard mrs. ferraro said she would do away with all covert action. that has serious ramifications that the intelligence community knows. this is serious business. sometimes it is quite support for a friend. let me help you with the difference, mrs. ferraro, between iran and the embassy in lebanon. in iran, we were held by a foreign government. in lebanon, you had a terrorist action where the government oppose it. we went to lebanon to give peace a chance, to stop the bombing of civilians in beirut, to remove 13,000 service -- terrorists from lebanon. for somebody to suggest these men died in shame, they better not tell the parents of those young marines. they gave peace a chance and our allies were with us. >> representative ferraro? >> i almost present president -- but president bush for the patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy. i have seen what has happened in the past 17 months of your administration. secondly, please do not categoriz

bush had been prepared. had played the role in the debate, be prepared he is going to come into your face. we dismissed it but sure enough it happened. >> john: which raises the question, how do they prepare? the these two debate coaches showed me. o'donnell coached michele bachmann. they try on replicate moments. >> you have them stand in front of podium. >> you want strong. look at colin powell he commands the podium. it's like this. >> it's about making sure that you fill the stage more than your opponent does. >> they practice debating. john kerry's played romney. rob portman plays obama. >> john: you never see videotape of this? >> no. there is reason why, you don't want to show those vulnerable moments. we don't want to give any component in the prep. >> in a campaign, one of secretaries gave bush prep video? >> they went right to the f.b.i.. what happened. >> john: what is so secret. >> limited government. >> you say limited government. what kind are you talking about. can you be specific? >> yes, i c

bush next. question is that so much as i said i'm going which of course he's right on it i'm so beyond any of the candidates for awful moment in mitt romney revealed a little major difference between the two in their approaches to security and foreign affairs many clean. stories to come. along. like don't tell me i'm on my. prime a. joke or name which among other things coming up. with eight years of scandal contempt torture and to a legal ground wars deep there was a strong anti bush sentiment pervasive amongst american citizens leading up to the two thousand and eight presidential elections and during obama's campaign for president he made it clear that waterboarding was torture and that bush administration officials had broken the law with their illegal wiretapping programs and counterterrorism torture strategies but if there's one thing we've learned over the last few years it's that talk is cheap and one just has to look at what obama's actions were after he got elected into office to see t

bush does not support.e big oil companies are against the measures to get more energy independence and renewable fuel. they ought to have their voices heard, but they shouldn't have a big megaphone that drowns out the american people. we need campaign finance reform and we need to shoot straight with young and old alike and tell them what the real choices are. and we can renew and rekindle the american spirit and make our future what our founders dreamed it could be. we can. >> governor bush, two minutes. >> tell you what i hear. a lot of people are sick and tired of the bitterness in washington, d.c. and therefore they don't want any part of politics. they look at washington and see people pointing fingers and casting blame and saying one thing and doing another. there's a lot of young folks saying, you know, why do i want to be involved with this mess? and what i think needs to happen in order to encourage the young to become involved is to shoot straight, is to set aside the partisan differences, and set

bush doesn't say anything.oks at him, smiles, gives him the head wink, and goes on. >> i believe i can. >> that was it. it just -- you know, it just absolutely devastated gore. >> you watch him go. >> yeah. we all revert to our junior high mentality, you know, when our team scored. yeah, you know! >> most people don't know is that bush had been prepared. >> jud gregg, who had played the role of al gore in the debate prep, had seen him pull this trick. he said to bush, be prepared, he's going to come and get in your face. we all dismissed at the time, but sure enough it happened. >> which raises the question how do candidates prepared? these two debate coaches showed me. they prepped president bush for debate. o'donnell later coached mitt romney and michele bachmann. they spent hours trying to replicate debate moments. >> you have the candidate stand in front of a podium like this as realistic as possible? >> yeah. you want a strong bearing, erect. look at colin powell. he commands the podium. it's like this. >>

bush doesn't say anything.iles, gives him the head wink, and goes on. >> i believe i can. >> that was it. it just -- you know, it just absolutely devastated gore. >> you watch him go. >> yeah. we all revert to our junior high mentality, you know, when our team scored. yeah, you know! >> most people don't know is that bush had been prepared. >> jud gregg, who had played the role of al gore in the debate prep, had seen him pull this trick. he said to bush, be prepared, he's going to come and get in your face. we all dismissed at the time, but sure enough it happened. >> which raises the question how do candidates prepared? these two debate coaches showed me. they prepped president bush for debate. o'donnell later coached mitt romney and michele bachmann. they spent hours trying to replicate debate moments. >> you have the candidate stand in front of a podium like this as realistic as possible? >> yeah. you want a strong bearing, erect. look at colin powell. he commands the podium. it's this. >> it's about making

bush?to say about that, ari fleischer joins me live. >>> plus, one issue comes up for the very first time in this year's face-offs. >> he called the arizona law a model for the nation. >> how each candidate took on immigration head on. >>> and first his sport, now his charity. and a major sponsor. the walls are closing in on lance armstrong. jen's car wasn't handling well. so i brought it to mike at meineke. we gave her car a free road handling check. i like free. free is good. my money. my choice. my meineke. >>> we have been talking a lot about the claims and the counterclaims last night between republican challenger mitt romney and president obama. now we look at how they differed on immigration reform. again, here is tom foreman. he reins in the rhetoric and cuts to the facts. tom? >> republicans have been going after president obama for months saying he has not engaged the issue of illegal immigration. listen to how mitt romney attacked him and how the president responded. >> why did h

bush's record.ut nobody knew if romney and ryan were going to try to drag that old disastrous idea over the threshold of the white house with them. now we know they are dragging it with them. which is amazing. when i said there were two points from last night, and one last thing i think needs to be mentioned that i think changed the race last night. and it's the war. before the debate started, there was a really weird moment. this was yesterday, but before the debate. it was on fox news. it's a weird moment when george w. bush's iraq war spokesman, paul ryan's senior staffer on this campaign, he went on fox news yesterday afternoon to try to explain what the republican position is on the war in afghanistan. he said romney and ryan support the president's timeline for leaving afghanistan in 2014 but then he also screwed up and said this. >> so this is important. governor romney has always said it is a mistake to broadcast timelines, if you're the commander in chief, to broadcast timelines so our enem

igree with governor bush. agree with dick cheney. >> embarrassing episodes like those are why candidates prtice a lot. these discussions go on for hours? >> hours. for most candidates it's the most hated part of the candidate. >> does a candidate ever g mad? >> all t time. it's painful. it's not fun. >> do candidates ever yell at you? >> yell, collapse, walk out. >> they all do it because practice builds confidence. the coident guy wins, not the guy who has the better answer? >> quite often, yes. >> quite often, yes. confidence, not [ male announcer ] at scottrade, you won't just find us online, you'll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. >> people that complain that lit

i agree with govnor bush.gree with dick cheney. >> embarrassing episodes like those are why candidates practice a lot. these discussions go on for hours? >> hours. for most candidates it's the most hated part of the candidate. >> does a candidate ever get mad? >> all the time. it's painful. it's not fun. >> do candidates ever yell at you? >> yell, collapse, walk out. >> they all do it because practice builds confidence. the confident guy wins, not the guwho has the better answer? >> quite often, yes. >> quite often, yes. confidence, not energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with se risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy foour country, drilling thousands of et below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're

bush picked dan quayle. i think that says a great deal to the american people about the standards we'll set and the quality of the people that we will pick to serve in our administration. >> to each of you candidates, regrettably, i have to inform you that we have come to the end of our questions. that's a pity. before i ask the candidates to make their closing remarks, on behalf of the commission on presidential debates, i would like to thank all of you for joining us this evening. governor dukakis, yours is the first closing statement, sir. >> 28 years ago, as a young man just graduated from law school, i came to this city, came clear across the country, to watch john kennedy be nominated for the presidency of the united states, right here in los angeles. i never dreamed that some day i would win that nomination and be my party's nominee for president. that's america. that's why i'm proud and grateful to be a citizen of this country. 26 days from today you and millions of americans will choose two people t

vice president bush will get the first question. the debate will be built upon a series of questions from the four reporters on the panel. a reporter will ask a candid it a question, a follow up question, and the same to the other candidate. the debate will be divided into two parts. the first one on domestic affairs, the second on foreign affairs. the manner of address was decided by the candidates. it will be vice president bush, congresswoman ferarro. >> john adams, the first president once said "today i am nothing, tomorrow i may be everything." with that in mind, i would like to ask the following question. four years ago you ran against mr. reagan for the nomination. you disagree with them on issues like the equal rights amendment, abortion, and you labeled his policies as voodoo. now you apparently agree with them on every issue. if he should be called upon to assume the presidency, would you follow mr. reagan's policies down the line or would you go back to some of your own ideas? >> i do nothing there is a big difference bet

george bush will lead us to the 21st century. ronald reagan, george bush. we changed america. michael dukakis fought us every step of the way. not that they are not empathetic, it is simply that they will take america backwards. george bush has the experience. with me, the future. a future committed to our family. a future committed to the freedom. thank you, good night, and god bless you. [applause] >> senator bentsen, your closing statement. >> in just 34 days, america will elect new leadership for our country. it is a most important stigs. because there is no bigger job than governing this great country of ours and leading us into its future. michael dukakis and lloyd bentsen offer you experienced, tempered, capable leadership to meet those challenges of the future. our opposition says lower your sights, rest on your laurels. mike dukakis and lloyd bentsen think america can do better. but america can't just coast into the future, clinging to the past. this ray race is too close. the competition is too tough, and the stakes are too high. michael dukakis and lloyd bentsen thi

bush won last night. yeah peter i agree with you i think what is that debate last night demonstrated is the extraordinary continuity of u.s. foreign policy i think obama largely continued with the bush foreign policy and should there be a romney presidency as a spare romney will to pursue the obama bush foreign policy. neither candidates seem to question the right of america to determine you know what kind of governments are going to be ruling anywhere neither candidate seem to have any problems about determining who is going to have what kinds of weapons it was it was very much the continuity of the bush era michael what do you think about it all right chad jump in that's the whole point of the program go ahead yeah. well the bush foreign policy was was aggressive engagement it was in the diplomatic approach of the barack obama administration it clearly is not that barack obama has never talked about you know weapons of mass destruction we bills kind of false suits barack obama has not ever uttered you k

and the bushes, president george h.w. bush and bash ra are in houston. they spend the summer in main. president bush turned 88 last summer and they are doing great. when he turned 85 t milestone year of 85 he celebrated with his traditional sky diving jump out of an airplane. it happens at the largest he jumped into is a church yard. my mother-in-law joked that was convenient. if anything went wrong we could wheel him straight on into the church. but he's doing very well. they're both doing really great and we treasure our time with them. general na is going every month to get video footage of her grandparents and telling stories and she wants to have that both for his library but also just for her and all of the family to have this footage of them because they're so terrific. now let's g get to what we're really here for which is to thank you all very very much and to encourage you to keep working every single day, keep going door to door and making those phone calls and make sure all of those people you contacted turn out to vote on november 6. it's re