from david brooks, mr. romney your entitlement reform ideas are essential but when will the incompetence stop? we don't know, david brooks, but one thing remains certain, this avalanche of errors has made the upcoming presidential edebates which begin two weeks from today not nearly crucial but critical. romney must deliver a super human performance to not only reverse the downward spiral of his campaign but cat ta put him to where he might win an election that is seven weeks away. we hope rob portman is one heck of a sparring partner. john heilemann, your colleague in "new york" magazine said mitt romney has revealed himself to be the smearing pluto crat everyone thought he would be. has he and can he reverse that impression in the course of the next few weeks? >> i don't know if everybody thought he would be. certainly there's a negative stereotype of governor romney. it's been an open question. is he a sneering police toe crat, is he not, who is mitt romney? he's done a lot of things to create the stereo

he has a clear agenda david brooks mailed the point he doesn't what the president wants.o you know what the president wants? >> i think the president has been clear. he wants an economy that's growing, one that's reflects our values more than we have over the last number of years. so he's been very clear. state of the union, acceptance of nomination, a few events in a president's year where he gets the total focus of america on that speech and i think he will lay that out again tonight. last opportunity for him to have done that wags in the state of the union. >> charlie:everybody weants the economy to grow. broad principles everybody agrees on, is it not? what we want to do know is what his plan is to get there. >> he will lay that out. if you go back and look at the last year and 3 yawrs now, he's been specific on things. they haven't gotten done. we have numerous votes in the senate on jobs bill last fall that were very specific. he put out a budget with pieces. they were debated in the senate, never in the house but those were specific ideas that were never really --

warfare a divider and you ought to be saying shame on you, obama. >> let me ask you about what david brooks wrote today, who has been a down the middle columnist -- >> david? david is the -- is the -- republican leaning -- go ahead. >> without getting into -- >> but don't categorize him. you started to categorize him and i don't accept the categorization. >> let me read from his column. he writes, it suggests that he, mitt romney, doesn't really know much about the country he inhabits. who are these freelodsers? the iraq war veteran that goes to the va, the student getting a loan to go to college, the retiree on social security or medicare? it suggests romney doesn't know much about the culture of america. the entitlement state has expanded but america remains one of the hardest working nations on earth. the people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big government lovers, republicans, senior citizens, white men with high school degrees. the tax policy center which is nonpartisan backs this up, showing that people who are getting these benefits are largely

>> david brooks is entitled to his opinion.s that governor romney has the passion to run the campaign and he has a chance to do it properly. his tax plan, providing skills that america needs to succeed. deficit reduction and making a fair, level and safe playing field. that's a plan that will as opposed to the -- >> you talked about mitt romney's passion. you talked about mitt romney's passion. and there are folks who said the same thing. but the fact of the matter is you don't see it i think what david brooks was getting at. part of the reason we don't see it and hear it is the fire is not in the belly. basically if he was a true believer. there would be no question about his passion. >> well, i've seen him out on the stump, he's very passionate and very fiery when he speaks. >> what stump have you seen him on? >> i've seen him speak on many occasions. most recently in little rock. i can assure you he's got the fire in the belly or he wouldn't be putting himself and his family through this. this is a very, very difficult job a

>> charlie:wel tom the program tonight our continuing k komp in charlotte new york david brooks the columnist port he or she times. >> i trust mitt rm any. if our problem were sewingal equity i trust barack obama. but if we have 3 and growth for neither party has a good adenned ga. who do i are trust? who is going to give me balance. navigate fees cross current. one of the roan i say the democrats from the advantage hail obama hasn't come out with a plan, he seems like the guy who is cape believe of doing did. mitt romney has not shown what. >> we continue former chief of staff for president obama, bill daley. >> there will be a point people do have to govern. i do not believe that the leadership and the republican members of the congress are irresponsible. maybe it's everybody's going to look down in the abis and say you know what we may want to continue our games but this has gotten much more serious. >> charlie:we con krawd this evening with mark halperin, maggie and swron heilemann. looking at the politics of this convention. one of the weakest things i think about governor conventions wh

>> i'm sorry, i've got to cut this off. >> david brooks -- >> which side are you on?re taking this country -- >> the "wall street journal" editorial page. laura ingram, rush limbaugh,ky go on and on -- >> if you want to blame the media for mitt romney's inept campaign, peggy noonan said it best this is a nightmare of a campaign. and the most troubling thing is it's not that a lot of us republicans don't think he can win, we do believe he can win. but when he says he has no need to turn this campaign around after a disastrous week, where you see ohio slipping away, wisconsin slipping away? iowa slipping away, michigan slipping away? that's a political concern. not an ideological concern, that's a political concern. >> let me step back for a second. david brooks you're looking at the substantive debate taking place here about the records of two candidates, biographies of two candidates, but also where we are politically in the state of this campaign. if we pull back, how do you diagnose where he goes next? where he tries to go next? >> he has to look at what the preside

with us, senior adviser for the republican campaign and host of morning joe, joe scarborough, david brooks and democratic strategist dee dee meyer. chuck todd on what the polls tell us about the race. >>> announcer: from nbc news in washington, "meet the press" with david gregory. >>> good sunday morning. election day is 44 days away. early voting starts in iowa, ohio and florida. polls showing a very small pool of undecided voters left. it's important for mitt romney as he tries to steady his campaign. joining us for a debate of their own, democratic governor of massachusetts, devalue patrick and kelly welcome to both of you. >> thanks, david. >> a lot to get to. let's start with the issue of taxes. mitt romney's tax returns showing in 2011 he paid 14%. he didn't have a job. this was interest income. governor, should this end the debate or should there be more? >> i understand people's interest and curiosity about the tax returns. his dad said tax returns for presidential candidate should be produced way back many years and i think it produced 20 years worth of tax returns when he was con

. >> and david brooks thinks he knows a moderate republican when he sees one. and that mitt romney is faking it when he tries to sell right wing extremism. >> mitt romney does not have the passion for the stuff he's talking about. he's a problem sofr. i think he's a nonideological person. and he's faking it. >> rush limbaugh who pretty much hates everything that david brooks has to say, reacted this way to david brooks on his radio show today. >> ideological age that romney can't do it? isn't that why you told us he would be the best nominee? am i wrong -- am i missing something here? isn't that why brooks and others told us we had to nominate romney precisely because he wasn't ideological and that would be necessary to get the independence. if romney would go ideological in explaining obama, it would help. >> a new political national poll of likely voters shows president obama leading mitt romney by 3 points. tonight nate silver fraufts that on november 6th president obama will within 309 votes. today paul ryan picked off the romney campaign's three day pus to

i think david brooks, conservative columnist for "the new york times" said it best. he said as a description of americans today, romney's comment is a country club fantasy. it's what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. it reinforcing every negative view people have about romney. there's two parts to the statement. there's the country club fantasy part. i want to look at the numbers here, this claim 47% of people don't pay income taxes, which strictly speaking is true. you look at who those 47% are. 61% of them are workers. they have jobs and there's paying payroll taxes so not shiftless moochers, 22% are seniors and 17% are too poor and who benefitted from the earned income tax credit that incentivized work. they can't make the threshold to pay the income tax. that's who we're talking about in the 47%. you have 7,000 millionaires who pay zero income taxes, so if you're looking for the moochers in that pie chart, i would point to those individuals. the second part of david brooks' point is it reinforces every negative view they have about romney. i think it

we'll see. >> david brooks, mark shields, thank you much. a ree minder, you can see the speeches as well as the entertainment on our live stream. >> ifill: a reminder: you can see all the speeches-- as well as the entertainment-- on our live stream. and tomorrow morning, also on our livestream, i'll be hosting a panel of the party's rising stars. that starts at 9:45 a.m. eastern time. >> woodruff: those are just two of our six live stream channels. another offers a feel for what it's like on the floor. that's our special hat cam. for up-to-the-minute reporting, exclusive interviews and helpful context during the convention, including what's going on behind the scenes here at newshour. also, on our web site you can take a quiz from the pew research center to determine your political party i.d. >> ifill; again, the major developments of the day. democrats opened their convention here in charlotte, north carolina, on a mission to reelect the obama-biden ticket. and a suicide bomber in eastern afghanistan killed at least 25 civilians and wounded

david brooks goes on to say, while he likes mr.mney, he quote, says stupid things because he's pretending to be something he's not. and he ends it all, he ends the column by asking, when will the incompetence stop? when you get even more conservative than david brooks, the comments get even more devastating. here's a taste. this is referenced earlier this hour by dan rather. this is bill crystal from "the weekly standard." the headline is, a note on romney's arrogant and stupid remarks. he goes on to half jokingly suggest that mitt romney quit the race that he drop off the ticket so he can, quote, get the ryan/rubio ticket we deserve. this is what it looks like for the wheels to come off. but wheels have come off in other campaigns too. sometimes after the wheels come off, the campaign crashes because there's no wheels, but then the candidate and campaign scramble around in the underbrush and find the wheels and bolt them back on and sometimes even win that race. do you remember how john mccain won the presidential nomination? duri

"new york times" conservative columnist david brooks compared romney in his headline to thurston howell iii the clueless millionaire in the '60s tv comedy gilligan's island before writing and i quote... national review editor rich lowery compared romney's remarks to and i quote someone who overheard some conservative cocktail chatter and maybe read a conservative blog or two and is thoughtlessly repeating back what he heard and read. romney also shared his thoughts on the israeli palestinian counsel to the fund-raiser. mother jones released that video today. here's part of what romney said. we have a potentially volatile situation. we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately somehow, something will happen. >> eliot: romney took to fox news this afternoon to explain his comments on taxes and the so-called 47%. romney didn't try to apologize for his remarks which he said contrasted his commitment to free enter vise to what he called the president's preference for expanding government but he did manage, get this to get in a good word for taxes. >> romney: i do believe that we

we'll see. >> david brooks, mark shields, thank you much. a ree minder, you can see the speeches as well as the entertainment on our live stream. >> ifill: a reminder: you can see all the speeches-- as well as the entertainment-- on our live stream. and tomorrow morning, also on our livestream, i'll be hosting a panel of the party's rising stars. that starts at 9:45 a.m. eastern time. >> woodruff: those are just two of our six live stream channels. anher offers a feel for what it's like on theloor that's our special hat cam. for up-to-the-minute reporting, exclusive interviews and helpful context during the convention, including what's going on behind the scenes here at newshour. also, on our web site you can take a quiz from the pew research center to determine your political party i.d. >> ifill; again, the major developments of the day. democrats opened their convention here in charlotte, north carolina, on a mission to reelect the obama-biden ticket. and a suicide bomber in eastern afghanistan killed at least 25 civilians and wounded 30 o

bellantoni, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> ifill: now to a few final words from mark shields and david brooksince you joined us at the top of the show we have excerpts from president obama's speech later tonight. i remember you telling us in tampa we should never believe in the excerpts they put out in advance. >> these are a little better. it's "good evening, ladies and gentlemen." that's your excerpt. here we've got goals he's going to lay out, creating a million new manufacturing jobs, doubling exports by 2014. these goals suggest he'll lay out policies which would be a good thing. some of the goals strike me as extremely modest, reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over a decade. that's like a hundred million a year, it's not that much. so it suggest he is's going to lay out a vision of influencing the economy in distinct places which suggests he will lay out a vision. >> are these the kinds of things mark, that you're looking for? >> yeah, i think most of saul it's the results of reassurance. as michael said the second term is going to be better than the first and a million new jobs in ma

of you. >> woodruff: after all the nice things i said about you. >> i know. >> . >> woodruff: david brookselds, i guess wale have you back. and mark and mark and david keep up the talk on the "doubleheader." that's on our web site coming up after this program. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day: violent protests raged across pakistan as crowds vented rage against the u.s. and an anti- islamic video. at least 19 people were killed. some 30,000 libyans marched against islamic extremist groups in benghazi. u.s. ambassador christopher stevens was killed there last week. and in the u.s. presidential campaign, mitt romney released his 2011 income tax return, showing he paid an effective tax rate of just over 14%. online, we have tips from a job- hunting expert. kwame holman tells us more. >> holman: need some professional advice for finding work? a longtime headhunter and consultant offers six suggestions for job seekers. he'll be featured on the newshour in an upcoming report by paul solman. jeff talks to poet laureate natasha trethewey, a frequent visitor to the newshour, about