but david axelrod said what we said. believe it was successful in the stand point of brucing mitt romney and humanizing him. he came out of tampa as a more broader and more humanized figure if we can use that word. >> chris: you can use. >> that was a theme of what they are doing. >> people think that the guy is a armadillo . but one other republicans are doing with the speakers leading up to romney. you saw it in christie and governors and paul ryan. to dissolutionment of whether thengs can be fixed. it is greater than what we have seen. remember we can do we can do which is striking. i think that is a burden on them. if you ask people to make a switch tolt party that you voted out of power. you have to believe that the part and country can turn it around. >> chris: jeff, you brought up something in the last session. we had an argument about this in the commercial. that's what we do. friday, the job's report comes out for august and this is one of the last before the election will that muffle the bounce for the democrat

going as david axelrod said, right down the wire. >> absolutely. as axe said in your segment earlier, everyone knew that this was going to be a close election. the economy has been in trouble for so long. but, at the same time, what we have seen in some of the polling and i don't live by week by week, day by day polling, and no one should, because it is over the long haul, but when you break open that polling, what you see is, people respond to the president because they believe he gets their concerns. he understands their daily lives. and also understand, we're holding even in this very, very bad economy. >> george, we have two unemployment reports coming up. on october 5th and one november 2nd. and we als have three presidential debates. anything can happen. it's still very close. romney's unfavorables are higher than his favorables. at this time in a presidential race, i can't remember a presidential candidate's unfavorables with this high. >> ann, i was talking about the polls in the big battleground states, they're going to determine this race

of the place where democrats will nominate president obama for a second term we are joined by david axelrod. david, welcome back to fox news sunday. >>guest: good to be with you. >>chris: anyone who is at the democratic convention in denver four years ago, remembers the magic there, the sense of hope and endless possibilities. how do you re-capture that magic this week? >>guest: i am glad you have warm memories. we will have a very good time in charlotte. we do not have the problems that the other party has. we are not divided and we do not have to worry about their affection for the president or we do not have the problems and the we inventions convention. we are a unified party, we believe strongly we have to move the country forward around policies that will lift the middle-class, and we will look to the future this weekend and everyone is excited about it. >>chris: mitt romney said the president's real problem is his record. let's look at that. >> every president since the great depression, who came before the american people, asking for a second term, can look back at the last four yea

in the short-term, the chicago head quarters, david axelrod said what he said. people believe it would be a successful convention from the stand point of humanizing him. i think he came out of tampa as a more broader more humanized figure if we can use that word humanized. >> chris: you can use it. >> i'm kind of sick of that word humanized but that was the theme of what they were doing. >> i'm sick of humanized, too. like people think he he is an armadillo or something. you saw you this in cristie and the governors that spoke and heard this in paul ryan to express the disillusionment that we have of whether things can be fixed. remember the line ryan repeated we can do this. we can do this which is striking. and i think that was something that they felt that was a burden on them because if you are going to ask people to make the big switch to the party that they just voted out of power a few years ago you have to believe that that party and the country can turn this all around. >> chris: i want to go back jeff to something that you brought up in the last segmen

call or click today. [ grunting ] >>> i am joined by a senior advisor david axelrod.to pick up on what john mccain and i were talking about. there's back and forth now about why did this administration -- why did it take them until friday after a september 11th attack in libya to come to the conclusion that it was premeditated and that it was terrorist-involved. john mccain said it doesn't pass the smell test or it's willful ignorance to think that they didn't know before this what was going on. your reaction? >> well, first of all, candy, as you know, the president called it an act of terror the day after it happened, but when you're the responsible party, when you're the administration and you have a responsibility to act on what you know and what the intelligence community believes, this was -- this is being thoroughly investigated. >> first they said it wasn't planned, it was part of this tape. >> as a director of national intelligence said on friday, that was the original information that was given to us. what we don't need is a president or administration that s

look, david axelrod and -- and david plouffe -- the chicago-operation campaign. they have done millions of dollars of focus groups with these people. what we did was duplicate. they know-- >>> they know how bad it is. >> this is not, as i keep saying, their worst nightmare is to have those voters saying they are disillusioned, not that he is a socialist, but to say, he promised us, we're hurting. he is not helping us. >> sean: you agree that the obama campaign knows this is how i. by the way, seeing the film, that's why there is no vacation this year. that's why there is no soaring rhetoric. we don't upon to hear rhetoric. we want to see action. >> sean: how do you explain the negativity? >> this is the danger, i think, for him, they have decided because i was involved in the campaign in 1980, trying to say the other guy is worse. that's another chapter of my life. but this is -- the negativity he's doing to divide, you see -- you will hear these people on how they feel about the division of the count tree -- it works against what he was. that's the danger for hi

we'll talk with senior obama campaign advisor david axelrod about that. >>> plus, slew of new battleground polls confirm the president's lead, and it means we have a new battleground map. here's a hint. the toss-ups are narrowing and romney's path to 270 is as well. >>> lashing out over libya. after hedging for days, the white house is now calling the attack that killed the am an act of terrorism. was politics behind that delay? >>> and what would have happened if al gore had defeated george w. bush in the disputed election of 2000? would 9/11 have happened? would we have plunged into a recession? we're taking a deep dive into a fascinating alternate universe that jeff greenfield wrote about. >>> but we start with the normal course of events. good morning from washington. it is friday, september 21st, 2012. this is "the daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. >>> mitt romney's week started with a plan for new ads and a newly focused message. that plan quick le went out the window. after a hectic week, all the soun and fury boils down to more missed opportunities for the romney campaign. less than

david axelrod was on "morning joe" talking about social security reform and said we'll wait and see.is is david axelrod going back and forth with mark halperin on social security. >> what's his proposal? >> mark, i'll tell you what, when you get elected to the united states senate and sit at that table we'll have -- this is not the time to -- we're not going to have that discussion right now. unless the congress wants to sit at a table and say okay, we're ready to move on a balanced approach to this. >> okay. this is -- the showdown here, the specific -- the showdown on specifics theoretically will happen on the debate stage. look at both that clip and the angels in the policy or wherever the angels and devils are, and david axelrod suggesting that mark halperin needs to be a senator before the president outlines his plan, someone will have to get specific on the national stage. >> obama in front of the aarp forum suggested he could raise the caps on the taxes that go to social security. he did put out a specific. i'm not sure why david didn't go for that there. during the debate it'

campaign senior strategist david axelrod is talking exclusively to chris wallace. around because we will be back with more news. america's news headquarters a special hour at 3:00 eastern. i'm shannon bream. captiod by closed captioning services, inc.

chris wallace with that question, to david axelrod, here's what he says. >> he spoke for 45 minutes andever really offered any, any real ideas, for how to move the economy forward, for how to lift the middle class, and, in that sense i think his convention was a terrible failure. ♪ [ male announcer ] extreme environments can cause a spontaneous change in dna, resulting in unexpected power and agility. introducing the all-new, all-powerful gator rsx 850i. sixty-two horsepower, a fully independent multilink suspension and a top speed of 53 miles per hour. it's a whole new species of gator. see just how much the gator has evolved at johndee.com/gator. >> martha let's get you news outside of the political scene, a freight train derailment making a big mess in chicago. the csx rail spokesperson said one freight train slammed into the back of another early this morning and several cars jumped the rails, damaging a third train on an adjacent track. what a mess! look at that! a twist of metal... in chicago and it briefly knocked out power to more than 2500 people, nobody was injured, thankfully

and david axelrod. >>> our powerhouse roundtable. squaring off, nicolle wallace, ann court, robert reich and jorge ramos. >>> hello again. with just over six weeks to go, it's safe to say that mitt romney can't afford another one like his last. to electrical problem that grounded ann romney's plane friday night, nothing seemed to go right. running mate paul ryan fielded a question from griping from republican insiders. >> there will always be critics. but guess what, i have rarely seen a moment with the man in the moment have met so well. >> president obama pounded away at romney's private thoughts on that 47% in wisconsin. >> we can't get very far if we're just writing off half the country. as a bunch of victims. or presume that somehow they want to be dependent on government or don't want to take responsibility for their own lives. >> and with that, let's get right to our headliners david axelrod and the reince priebus. reince, let me begin with you. thank you. president obama, you saw him yesterday, voters are going to be hearing

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still ahead, obama's senior adviser david axelrod will be here. keep it right here. he? >> where did he go? >> he went off. ♪ ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express. ♪ it says a lot about you. ♪ in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. guts. glory. ram. in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. you expect something $40in return. billionaire oil tycoons charles and david koch and their special- interest friends are spending $400 million to buy this year's elections and advance their agenda. what's their payback? politicians who will pass laws that benefit special interests, but hurt the middle class; more tax cuts for the rich, eliminate the minimum wage, big cuts to our schools, but big subsidies for oil companies, tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas, even replacing medicare with a voucher system, which means higher profits for insurance companies, but higher costs for seniors. the oil-billionaire koch brothers and their special- interest friends are spending their billions

look, david axelrod and -- and david plouffe -- the chicago-operation campaign.y have done millions of dollars of focus groups with these people. what we did was duplicate. they know-- >>> they know how bad it is. >> this is not, as i keep saying, their worst nightmare is to have those voters saying they are disillusioned, not that he is a socialist, but to say, he promised us, we're hurting. he is not helping us. >> sean: you agree that the obama campaign knows this is how i. by the way, seeing the film, that's why there is no vacation this year. that's why there is no soaring rhetoric. we don't upon to hear rhetoric. we want to see action. >> sean: how do you explain the negativity? >> this is the danger, i think, for him, they have decided because i was involved in the campaign in 1980, trying to say the other guy is worse. that's another chapter of my life. but this is -- the negativity he's doing to divide, you see -- you will hear these people on how they feel about the division of the count tree -- it works against what he was. that's the danger for him. >

it's not often that you are siding with david axelrod. it's rare that you are quoted by him. e-mails that came in after your comment that mitt romney was stupid and arrogant on the 47%. thoughts? >> well, i'm flattered, i guess. i'm amused that david axelrod agrees with me occasionally and the stop clock is right twice a day. his agreement is one of the twice a day occasion. stupid statement by romney. i still think it really did, it did injustice to conservatives in which believe so strongly in opportunist society and standing for middle america. that's the kind of conservatism i came to washington to be part of in the reagan administration with bill bennett and jack kemp. mitt romney just so mischaracterized that and made it seem as if we're depending the 53% of the taxpayers against those 47% who don't pay any income tax. they're all victims. >> bret: so is he moving past it? one-day deal? >> of course. >> bret: or is it lingering? in your mind -- >> not lingering in my mind. >> bret: clearly it is. >> no. you asked me about it and i answered it. he should move past this a

. >> david axelrod told us a few minutes ago there will be new elements in the speech but the president's basic argument will remain the same. a laundry list of sorts like a state of the union and i'm told this is going to be a surprisingly short speech, at least for the president. the goal is to have it shorter than it was four years ago, shorter than president bush's in 2004 and we do know it will be shorter than bill clinton's from last night. in fact, let's move on to that. four years ago, barack obama was trying to turn the page on the clintons and the bushes. fast forward to last night when the president wanted the country to see him hug bill clinton. last night's 48-minute speech was classic clinton, smart, not always sticking to script, less of a speech and more of a story in traditional clinton style on paper. looked far less effective than it did delivered in person. clinton was the ultimate character witness, fact checker, one man rebuttal machine rolled into one. >> we left him a total mess. he hadn't cleaned it up fast enough to fire him and put us back in. the claim that pre

on fox news sunday chris wallace pressed obama advisor david axelrod about unemployment going up, income going down and debt rising, too. >> just looking at the president's record and those statistics, david, is the average american better off than four years ago? >> i think those auto workers whose industry would have collapsed if the president hadn't intervened are certainly better off. i think that the millions and millions of americans, young americans who have healthcare today who wouldn't have had it if the president hadn't acted are better off. >> reporter: it's a defense that was offered across many channels. >> can you-ly say that people are better off -- honestly say that people are better off today than four years ago? >> no, but that's not the question this election. the question without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before george bush brought us the bush job losses, the bush recession, the bush deficits. >> people want to know about the first term, very simple. general motors is alive and well and osama bin laden is not and that's what got done. >> reporter: dem

david axelrod and other obama advisers didn't -pbt want t want to answer it. ey when he answered it he didn't answer it the way people wanted him to. >> can you say people are better off than we were four years ago. >> no, but that is not the question. we are not better off than when george bush brought us the bush receive date, the series of wars charged the first time in the national credit card. >> reporter: the obama case is trying to shift the argument saying look at where we started four years ago. based on that measurement they think things are a lot better. the fact that martin o'malley said no we are not better off as a bottom line for the american people, that's difficult. the bus hin behind me casted again and they are slugging it out in ohio. bill: it's very difficult to get a yes or no to a yes or no question. keep slugging. martha: let's go to bret baier, the anchor the special report. welcome. >> reporter: good to be here. martha: the president has his work cut out for him, it's a razor-thin race. what do they need to accomplish here to make diff

. >> reporter: presidential advisors david axelrod and rahm emanuel said president obama's leadershiping those first chaotic months were vintage obama. he would gather people together, consider all options and then take decisive action. >> what he doesn't encourage is needless conversation. he know it is information that he needs to make decisions when he calls groups together to talk through those questions that he has. he listens to advice, makes people debate in front of him, he's not scared of contrary advice >> he asks advice, there's one last gut check and then he moves. >> woodruff: david axelrod, senior advisor to the reelection campaign in chicago was a white house political director in the early years. he says the president isn't afraid to take action that is unpopular and points to the bailout of the auto industry as a prime example. >> you know, it was clear that the politics weren't on the side of intervention but he knew what the impact of losing a million jobs in the midst of this already difficult economic crisis would be and ae he acted. you can't be a leader and sit