>> but michael crowley, will this pass?been through this in every campaign he's run. he won when he ran for governor. he lost when he ran for senate and he won the nomination despite the attacks on him in the primary. this is essentially an argument about who is on your side and the president is trying to say you might be mad at me but this guy won't help you. >> that's absolutely right. i think there is a character element to this on one hand we are talking about sort of the capitalist system and how it works and who gets the upper hand and who gets the short end of the stick. but i think to some extent to a very important extent here this is a message about who mitt romney is. the obama campaign wants people to feel he's an unfeeling, uncaring, greedy guy and that kind of flows into a larger picture of the republican party that obama's trying to paint which does go back to the basic policy issues of lowering taxes on the rich and cutting benefits for the poor that obama wants his campaign to be about. so in an interesting

. >>> we're back talking politics with michael crowley.on battleground state polls. wisconsin's a dead heat, obama up a little bit. let's look at florida. yesterday we had one that showed governor romney ahead. there you see the president ahead a little bit. that's essentially a dead heat. virginia, the president ahead, essentially a dead heat. a little bit more of a lead for the president. 48%, 42%. we've got about 160 days left and there are essentially half dozen states that are going to decide this election. they break late. sometimes they look close now, they're not close in the end. you say -- >> they are really close. we just see what the next rounds of job numbers are going to look like, see how the campaign played out. one thing that strikes me in some of these -- the nbc poll had ohio, virginia and florida in particular. interesting states where the economy is doing better in those states, the trajectory is better than it is on the national level. virginia has a really strong economy, ohio is below the national unemployment avera

about the political impact of the ballooning national debt are time magazine deputy bureau chief michael crowleylcher and republican strategist rob johnson. thanks for being with us. first of all, romney hit the president also on the stimulus. he called it, quote, the biggest, most careless one-time expenditure from the federal government in history. before we get to that i want to point out that joe stiglitz, a prize winning economist, said the stimulus wasn't big enough. he said, we will see in the next two year it is real cost of there not being a second round of stimulus. we will see the economy slow down at a very high economic cost. rob, as a republican will you acknowledge at least there is a debate to be had about whether or not government spending is wise? >> no. i will not. i will admit there is a debate going on, but i don't think we should be having this debay. i agree with governor romney. he did a great job laying out the plan and the problems we have. >> is this an issue that democrats can win on or do they have to just agree the spending is too much and has to be spent down? >> w

here tonight to talk truth, michael crowley, democratic strategy, paul mcgou wa and republican strategist> is that about right, your party too often on these social issues, takes a gift and turns it into a disaster? >> i do thing both parties have had moments they can't take yes for an answer. i believe the obama campaign netted this probably correctly sints they know their own base better. they need to ener joiz the cool youth voice that doesn't turn out. >> democrats see mitt romney flips and flops. the president says it is an evolution and he changed his position. >> not only did mayor juli mayg made that case. >> i said i believe marriage should be a relationship between a man and a woman. >> what you couldn't see there was below that shot, the secret service was putting his pants out because they were on fire. it is nuts for mitt romney to get into a flip-flop argument. this is clearly a flip-flop to president obama. i like at the came to my position. when they flip-flop to where you are, it is evolution and growth. when they flip-flop away the way romney has, that's terrible. you ca

here to talk truth, michael crowley, and maria cardona and senior advisor kevin madden.t like this ad. people at bain say it is a cheap shot or distortion. however, however, one of the problems you went through this in the last campaign as well is because bain is a private equity firm, you can't say here it is, here is the record, right? >> you can. you can make the record about the governor's experience in the private sector, the governor's experience in working with a successful venture like bain capital and a couple that with experience as a successful governor and you can paint a portrait of a candidate and a vision that governor romney has for the future and that is a better economy, better -- >> but governor romney is on the record and one time he said 100,000 and now they say thousands and you heard steve ratner saying it was a mistake. >> forgetting the numbers, i think you can have an argument whether or not it had a positive impact on job creation and whether or not that experience is the type of experience we need to help turn around this economy and then cont

crowley, barry mccaffrey, michael grimm, and senator coburn.ator coburn, at the end of the talk there was a reference to nation building in afghanistan. i couldn't think -- help think about your book the debt bomb in america. what kind of financial resources do we have here at home to help nation build in afghanistan abroad? >> i think most americans want to nation build here. and there's not going to be a marshal plan for afghanistan. we have to wait and see what's involved in this. the real question is, what's the greatest threat to our national security. is it al qaeda or our debt? and i would say it's our debt. in terms of what will take this country down is not al qaeda. it's spending money we don't have on things we don't need and creating the debt that will totally shackle our children. >> p.j. crowley, is our greatest threat al qaeda or our growing national debt which now exceeds gdp? >> they're both. let's remember, what the president was saying tonight was we have a responsibility to make sure the guys that were sitting next door to a

michael smerconish. also with us, p.j. crowley, thank you gentlemen, for joining me. i want to talk about the politics of this. let me play with william cohen, a former defense secretary, said to andrea mitchell. >> once he left the u.s. embassy, then power shifted immediately to the chinese government. and frankly, the united states is in no position to dictate what the terms of release will be for a chinese citizen, dissident or otherwise. >> do you agree with that, p.j.? >> well, secretary cohen is my former boss. i would phrase it a little bit differently. it is not about leverage. the united states negotiated in good faith with china based on the wishes that mr. chen expressed at the time. he was trying to do something very unique which is rather than be an activist who is forced into exile, he wanted to be an activist that continued to do his work inside china. much more powerful. and so the united states negotiated that basis. it thought it had a deal is that that deal is unraveling. as a result, mr. chen is changing his mind and may well be seeking to come to

michael, thank you so much. professor, doctor, thank you for joining us inside the war room. you heard what p.j. crowleyaid about the agreement. do you agree with the three goals that you think were identified in that? and how important is the strategic interest of that agreement for the united states? >> i think he, you know, clear lee has laid out a game plan to increase stability in afghanistan which is clearly in the interest of the united states to preclude it from becoming a base of operations for attack against nato or the u.s. secondly, it's to also tell the pakistanis that we are going to stay in the region. the pakistanis are constantly concerned we flit in and out the statement to pakistan that we are going to be there. >> that's important. >> why is that importantly? >> at the moment u.s.-pakistan relations are at a low ebb for a number of reasons for the violation of sovereignty when bin laden was taken out. >> this says what? >> we are going to be there and we want to also sustain and improve our relationship with them. they have major, many problems. they have large numbers of taliban in