joining me now charles pierce, author of "how stupidity became the virtue of the land of the free."ng me. >> eliot: you have criticized romney, but where is the torrent of criticism for his lack of ability to stick to any position. >> i really thought we were going to get to the critical math on the etch-a-sketch when he committed to a date certain to the withdraw of afghanistan the other night. that's something that he has belabored the president with, that it was a bad idea and it would empower our enemies. it would give them a chance to lay low until we left, and then come surging back in. then he's standing there meek as a kitten saying we're out of there 2014. in a matter of life or death i thought that would be enough. but a lot of people in thigh business, the etch-a-sketch is now looked upon as a sharp tactic rather than a window into his character. >> eliot: that's exactly right. people are saying that it's working, and that it should be emulated. shame on them. it needs to be critiques and he needs to be held accountable. have you ever encountered a candidate who is so gli

. >> guest: noah charles pierce. >> host: noah charles pierce. you talk about his story. why you got involved in his case. >> guest: i'm a writer. i sometimes write short stories and poems. i had a story in a magazine, i had couple of poems from a soldier who committed suicide. it blew me away, a soldier is committing suicide? and i thought about it and i asked the editor, could you put me in touch with his mother? he said, not really. it is privacy. i said please. well, i finally got in touch what was his stepmother who put me in touch with his real mother. i called her. we talked a lot. she did a lot of crying. she is a wonderful woman, wonderful woman. so he decided to write an article about her. after i wrote the article, was really unnerved by thinking of a young man who had done, a wonderful job as a soldier. >> host: two tours of duty in iraq. >> guest: yeah. committing suicide. i said, this is not right. i want to know more. i began to do a lot of research and decided, because one of my passion in writing is a human rights. for me this is a human rights book. so i

do i deticket that--detect that this is a big panic and charles pierce author of "idiot in america" thank for joining us. >> thankthank you for having me. >> eliot: is this panic time or should people chill out and relax a little bit. >> it's time for concern obviously because there is a triple number, while it's not as graphic as the pew poll, but it tracks in the same direction. anyone who was surprised that in an era even though it's below 8% unemployment is nudging 8% and having a presidential election was someone who was not paying attention. >> eliot: the president's performance was one that he spoke. there was no passion no energy, no fight. and if somebody had observed if he's not going to fight for himself to defend himself he's not going to fight for us. his demeanor fit the imagery that the republican party is trying to create about him he's weak vacillating and some how disengaged. was that the real barack obama in which case there is reason to be concerned or will a different barack obama emerge in the next debate. >> weak, vacillating and disengage does not give the order to

when charlie pierce from boston wrote up that moment from the debate at "esquire" magazine today he wrote this. "you could hear the screams from romney headquarters all the way up the charles to where i was watching." democrats have so far been keeping their powder dry on this very, very potent issue. on the republicans wanting to privatize social security. not just privatizing medicare, and thereby getting rid of it, which has been an issue in this campaign, but privatizing social security and thereby getting rid of it. before last night, that was paul ryan's record and it was george w. bush's record. but 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 camp