mike viquiera is at the white house. you are fast becoming the resident truth sayer. weeks ago you told me the payroll tax cut holiday would be resolved on a thursday and it was. yesterday you anticipated better jobs numbers and here we are with the lowest level in almost three years. i think i will call you micah viquiera from now on. do you think these numbers will affect the president's battle plan for 2012? >> they will play right into it if they improve. there was one figure we often hear when it comes to politics and the jobless numbers. no president has been reelected with a rate b above 8% since 1984. the reason that reagan was reelected is it's a question of relativity. it was as high as 11% or over 11% in the years proceeding. that 84 election. the trend was ronald reagan's friend and in this instance, the trend is personal president obama's friend. he is obliged through economic and political prudence to say we are not out of the woods and we don't know how this will work out and the federal reserve and his own economic apparatus forecasted that the rate co

for more on this, let's go to mike viquiera. republicans have come out and voiced frustration with the president after today's speech accusing him of putting america's military dominance at risk. not with standing rick santorum's desire to bomb iran, is in a singular truth of where we are economically. we can't go on spending huge sums of money in this way. >> that's the point that leon panetta were making. he made no bones about crisis and equal opportunity and the equation was the fiscal crisis that the country is under. they had to add that this was going to happen anyway with the words receding as the president put it and you quoted and the fact that as the period said exceeding in defending the nation, there is a restructuring and a cutting back and the president was quick to add at the end that this is not a cut of the defense budget. they will be growing, but it's going to be a cut in the rate of growth of the defense and to that end, the bulk in terms of personnel will be coming out of the army and the marine corps. repu