not as likable as barack obama. a big problem for him. in this economy, he should be -- that is mitt romney leading by 10 points and that is because he is not likable. do you think that's an issue? >> well, we will see mitt romney and hear from ann romney, we will hear from paul ryan or the american people are going to look at us and say, this was the person to lead the country. barack obama has failed. we can do better and mitt romney is a person to do in. neil: that you are pretty good at the passion. until paul ryan came on that ticket, no offense to the governor, he was not winning in the past. maybe a little bit more so now. is that going to make up for the fact that lot of the diehard conservatives don't trust him? >> i believe that you win by building a broad coalition of people who all believe we can do better than what we have under barack obama. specifically, with jobs and economy the economy in debt and spending, and i am a doctor. whether it is the health care law, they're going to end up paying more. [talking over each other]

. >> and that's an odd word to use, but he's been considered so stiff and not nearly as likable as barack obama. it's one thing to give a speech where people see a little emotion. but another thing that doesn't come naturally to mitt romney. >> as nice as the clips were and the speech we all agree was a great speech and he delivered it nicely, the problem is that's going to be replaced by lots of him speaking off the cuff in crowds where he hasn't performed smoothly. where he says the wrong things or gets into trouble which has been his default. so you know, that memory of him will fade. we'll get into the debates and that's a whole other piece of it. but these campaign moments have not been his strong point, to put it mildly. >> and he's got to pass the batten to himself, doesn't he, in a way, michael? because as i was watching louisiana night and this didn't make it into the 10:00 hour. but if you were watching some cable stations you saw a couple of friends of mitt romney. a couple who had lost a child and a woman who had lost her child as well. and they talked about what kind of person that

as a likable presidential candidate. abc news and "washington post" carried out the survey. 40% of respondents said romney is likable, 51% unlikable. that puts him ten points behind his rival. 50% of those surveyed viewed barack obama as likable. 47% say he is not. among women, only 34% said romney is likable. 51% of them said that of obama. pollsters have been taking this survey since 1984. romney is the first presidential candidate labeled unlikable by more than half the respondents around the time of the party nomination. >>> japanese consumers worried about nuclear power safety are seeking alternative energy sources. now two companies are teaming up to meet the growing demand. they are building a large scale solar power plant in western japan. the venture brings together sb energy a unit of telecom giant of soft bank. the solar plan will it is on 50 hectares. it is scheduled to be completed bin a year. the two firms signed an agreement in tokyo. the solar power facility will generate 39.5 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. that's enough to power about 11,000 households. the plant will sell the electricity it generates to power companies. >> translator: all businesses have to work on increasing systems of r

likability number. mitt romney is not overnight or in the last two months of this campaign going to come anywhere close to barack obama as a likable guy you'd want to sit here and channel side and have a cup of coffee with. so that's not of a concern. the other two are very much of a concern and those are the numbers that mitt romney has to address tonight. and i think he has to address them in narrative form, in some way. when ann romney spoke the other night, she said take it from me, queen ann, that the king is a really good guy. >> he brought home a quarter billion dollars. of course he's a good guy. >> now, the speech writer fer mitt romney has been working with him. he's a novelist and narrative guy. i would expect to hear some narrative tonight and i would expect to hear about the father again. you've heard about him before. when i first went to the romney headquarters last spring, the biggest photograph of a politician on the wall was not of mitt romney, but of george romney and in mitt romney's mind when he's standing up there tonight, he's going to be thinking about his father. >> and the father who was born in

know, what mitt romney has to do is make barack obama less likable because barack obama, you know, like his policies are not and his record are not, he's well liked as a person. gwen: we're going to see it all the next weeks. we have to leave you just a few minutes early so you can support your local pbs station which in turn supports us. but we'll be back with a full length program. we'll take you on the road with a special "washington week" town hall previewing the republican national convention in tampa before a live audience in st. petersburg. the next week we'll do the same thing for the democratic national convention in charlotte. i'll be online answering your questions next thursday at 2:00 p.m. you can start sending them now to pbs.org/washingtonweek. and we'll see you from florida next week on "washington week." good night. >> funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875 we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. rough the years fro insurance to investment management to retirement solutions, we've developed new ideas for

as awkward and more likable. they will more likely focus on president barack obama like he has been doing speeches in tampa alreadyis week. >> the president is nothing more than a chicago war politician and that's the way he has been acting on this campaign so far and 90% of his ads are vicious untrue ads on mitt romney. >> and he will appear on the stable at the end of his wife's speech. they are voting on a rule that would punish states that hold their primaries and reporting live from washington d.c. allison burns ktvu channel 2 morning news. >>> 5:37 is the time, time to check in with sal. did you see the moon this morning? >> i saw it last night, it was pretty incredible. it was like whose light is on. >> one of the benefits of having crazy hours. enjoy the moon. >>> good morning. let's go out and take a look at 80 westbound and no major problems as you drive towards the bay bridge toll plaza. if you are driving further down you can see traffic on interstate 880 looks good in both directions near the coliseum and getting to the oakland airport. and through fremont looks good, livermore valley traffic is movin

likability. we look at the poll out this morning. you see a 20-point gap between romney and barack obama. people see barack obama as a more likable person. one of the things you have to do is see more approachable and likable in the speech. did he achieve that? >> i think you could say he was likable, almost. he does not come across as an electric personality. he did not have moments of great humor. the part of the beginning of the ipod -- it was fine. it was likable enough. he did not seem unlikable. we were talking about, a lot of people sit -- he struck people as weird. i did not see that. he was convincing, doggett, disappointed. the hope is that people will find that appealing, the stark contrast between obama's electricity, but a failure to deliver on that promise to do a great point. what the campaign hopes and will argue -- you tried the magic, tried the surprises, tried celebrity. i am somebody who can come in. the subtext was very much an appeal of a free market versus government. let's take a look at this clip where he uses steve jobs to talk about the unpredictability of the markets and the potential of

barack obama? they say he is never going to be lovable. they say, he may not even be likable. is he plausibly better as a bat and barack obama?hat is what it is about. >> they compare him to a plumber. you not care how nice or plumber is. can they do the job? >> i care how much -- how nice my plumber is. >> it goes back to, do people feel they can relate to him? the more the obama campaign pounce on all the bain stuff, how rich he is, the tax returns he will not release, i think he is susceptible, he has been living in another world. >> governor christie's speech -- let's dissect what he was trying to do. what he wants to do in his career. we know he wants to run in 2016. let's listen. >> i believe we have become paralyzed, paralyzed by our desire to be loved. our founding fathers have the wisdom to know that social acceptance and popularity were fleeting. this country's principles needed to be rooted in strengths > the passions and emotions of the times. -- larger than the passions and emotions of the time. the leaders of our time have decided it is easier to be popular, to do what is easy, to say yes rather than no one know

and i think as he does that, because we talk about the difference and the likability between mitt romney and barack obama, i think that went a long way towards closing that dpap. >> you heard so many republicans say the president is a nice guy. but that's not what matters. so obviously anyone who talks about their parents in a loving way, that beautiful story about the rose that governor romney told, was all nice. but under the kcredo of the republican party, so what that you love your parents and that they had a beautiful marriage. >> we thibault bo isn think thas a good husband, a good father and a good man. but the gap you've seen in the polls is they don't want to vote for barack obama because they don't think he did a good job but they're not on board with mitt romney because they don't like him. >> jimmy, you get the next five minutes since i was talking to chip that long. let me start off with this -- the question posed, the point posed by governor romney is that there were people who have been enthusiastic about the president or disappointed. we've heard from many supporters who articulate that.

it's the likability issue that has given barack obama the advantage he has. and the jury is still out asether this convention addresses that, but for now, the goal tonight is to show mitt romney's business credentials and this party's gravitas credit tensions and both of those things, that ann romney sells her husband on the likability thing and they hope and pray they will he' be off to the races. we'll see. dagen: you'll be watching tonight, mr. cavuto, so don't dial it in. i love you, neil. and this morning, and i mean that, i will be watching tonight 'cause his coverage, special coverage starts at 8 p.m. eastern time and look at that lineup. rand paul, the senator ken langone, founder of home depot and so many more top guests coming up. neil, thank you very much, because again, working like a demon, working like a demon and hurricane, still not one, tropical storm isaac, but joe bastardi join us with the latest on why he is angry that the the storm hasn't been upgraded and in the face of the storm, and will all of this rain help the drought-ridden midwest. and take a look at the trea

as a kind of chicago politics. they see in barack obama one of his strengths is his likeability. people may not be happy with the economy but they think he's likableway to knock down, to diminish, to knock the edges off the likeability of the president by suggesting he's negative and angry. from the obama side what you have is an understanding there's a lot of people who want to vote against him, not so much for romney. that's what the polls show. fundamentally what that means is the obama people have to give you lots of reasons to vote against romney. that's the underlying elements in this campaign at this point. >> it's funny i hear you say negative campaign and i can hear the people watching us saying isn't that one in the same. i keep hearing this campaign is lower than low. you watch tv, reading the papers and what's what they're saying. for the life of me i can't recall any recent campaign that was high minded. can you? >> no, i cannot. there's some elements to this. you only have to go back to the year 2000 during the republican primary where karl rove is directing the bush campaign and they attack john mccain suggesting that he had a -- wa

as your leader, who do you think represents and understands you. mitt romney can't let barack obama still be the candidate of hope and change. there's just a huge likability gap. this could be the leading edge of an attempt to diminish that gap, whether or not mitt romney meant to do it initially. >> of course, we should point out as jonathan capehart and other democratic analysts have said earlier, jonathan of course an editorial writer but as other democrats have said today, this is not the first time that there have been suggestions of some sort of quiet racial connotations in things that have been said. the romney campaign has been accused of using the word foreign in a particular way and the whole birther issue, certainly. this is not the first time this has reared its head. >> no, it's not but let me just, one very quick thing. you mentioned this. i think it's important. look, if joe biden and the obama campaign didn't think this was an issue, joe biden would not have later in the day clarified what he meant. whether or not these sorts of racial innuendo or whether this even fits that description, they clarified which means they thought that there w