mitch mcconnell expected it to work. committee met. was to come up with this deficit reduction. and if you don't, we'll have sequestration, means forced spending cuts immediately in 2013 in a way that is decided almost with a hatchet, so everyone gets cut. the super committee failed. host: james from louisiana. caller: who do you think is calling the shots in the white house? the thing it is valerie jarrett or the other end of the chicago machine. guest: the president is calling the shots. he is heavily influenced and the man who ran his successful campaign in 2008, the senior adviser and has the office closest to the oval office. geography is very significant. when there is a decision to be made, he ways and with the political angle. i would say his influence, valerie jarrett plays a role. there are many other people. the congressional liaison plays a significant role in all of these. i layout exactly what happened, what we used to call the best obtainable version of the truth and it is often emotional. at many points it is complicate

mitch mcconnell expected it to work. committee met. the mechanism was to come up with this deficit reduction. havef you don't, we'll sequestration, means forced spending cuts immediately in 2013 in a way that is decided almost with a hatchet, so everyone gets cut. pentagon. medical research. the super committee failed. that is what we are stuck with. host: james from louisiana. caller: who do you think is calling the shots in the white house? the thing it is valerie jarrett -- do you think it is valerie jarrett or the other end of the chicago machine. thati is all. guest: the president is calling the shots. he is heavily influenced and the man who ran his successful campaign in 2008, the senior adviser and has the office closest to the oval office. geography is very significant. he is a very skilled political operative. when there is a decision to be made, he ways and with the political -- weighs in with the politcal angle. i would say his influence, valerie jarrett plays a role. there are many other people. the congressional liaison p

mitch mcconnell called for national unity. arizona senator jon kyl told reporters, "this is like a judge telling the woman that got rained you asked for it because of the way you dressed. okay? that's the same thing. well, america, you should be the ones to apologize. you should have known this would happen." and the conservative wing of the party, that and lambasted romney on monday loved him on wednesday. take a look. >> mitt romney's team was smart in coming out strong last night in saying we should never apologize when these things go down. >> today romney is the only guy looking presidential. romney looks like he's the only adult in the room. >> the weekly standard's bill kristo wrote romney is right to seize on this moment. he's right to reject the counsel of the mainstream media so far i believe pretty much so good. the "wall street journal" -- his political faux pas was to offend a pundit class that wants to cede the foreign policy debate to mr. obama. >> there's a broader lesson to be learned here. governor romney see

when mitch mcconnell made that pledge, he had 40 votes in the u.s. senate. not even enough to sustain a filibuster even when he got a 41st vote. he wasn't able to block an initiative for two years. president obama got everything he wanted on the economic front from the congress and the same mitch mcconnell actually cut a deal with him that avoided the expiration of the bush tax cuts at the end of 2010. which would've almost would have almost certainly have pushed the economy back into a recession have those tax cuts all expired. so this notion that republican obstruction has never worked for the president and the notion that has prevented him from getting anything done is just factually false. but for president clinton, he made it in a very powerful way. lou: a number of the facts, the so-called facts that the former president views are what's called daschle let's put it this way, highly chargeable and we will do so this evening on this broadcast. but you point out that this has been the most relentlessly ideological administration. the obama administration.

that's something, by the way, that mitch mcconnell basically admitted. let's watch him. >> you said, quote, the single most important thing we want to achieve is for president obama to be a one-term president. so how do you respond to those democratic lines of attack? >> well, that is true. that's my single most important political goal along with every active republican in the country. >> in all the details, all the issues we have about last night, a lot of journalists have it with what was said in this convention especially by paul ryan in his vice presidential acceptance speech, was this claim that they were with obama from the beginning, they were rooting for him from the sidelines, open to cooperate with him and he was going to run again, it's now on the record, he wasn't rooting for him. he was looking for an opening. and mitch mcconnell was saying i'm going to stop this guy in his tracks so he doesn't have one trophy to show the voter in four years. >> chris, you're asking me. i believe that that's exactly what the republican goal was. i believe t

mitch mcconnell expected it to work. committee met.he mechanism was to come up with this deficit reduction. and if you don't, we'll have sequestration, means forced spending cuts immediately in 2013 in a way that is decided tchet, soth a hachet everyone gets cut. the super committee failed. james from louisiana. caller: who do you think is calling the shots in the white house? the thing it is valerie jarrett other end of the chicago machine. guest: the president is calling the shots. he is heavily influenced and the man who ran his successful campaign in 2008, the senior adviser and has the office closest to the oval office. jogger free is very significant -- geography is very significant. when there is a decision to be made, he ways and with the political angle. i would say his influence, valerie jarrett plays a role. there are many other people. the congressional liaison plays a significant role in all of these. i layout exactly what happened, what we used to call the best obtainable version of the truth and it is often emotional. at

in fact, for rand paul, the son, to get to the senate, he first had to win a primary against mitch mcconnell'snd-picked candidate in kentucky. it was the true believer conservative outsiders against that entrenched washington establishment. now one of the truest of the true believers is moving into a key position on mcconnell's campaign. but in some ways the move shouldn't be too much of a surprise. to a degree people i think really don't appreciate, ron paul's dramatically changed the face of the republican party. not on everything, of course. his attitudes on foreign policy and on the drug war haven't gotten him very far. but his positions on the size of government and in particular on monetary policy on the fed have basically won. i mean, the last book ron paul wrote, the thing he really wanted people to know about him before he ran for president in 2012 was called "end the fed." that is one of his core policy beliefs right there. and on that issue at least, this is now ron paul's republican party. you heard it from rick perry last year. >> paul got me really intrigued with the whole, the f

mitch mcconnell has said his first-term goal was so defeat obama.s next-term goal would be to frustrate. him. that's why senator brown did not want to talk about issues except for his vehement objectio raising the taxes on the richest people in the country. other than that, i was disappointed by a snarky, personal attack not consistent with the nice guy image he's put forward. >> you know, on the issue of specifically attacking elizabeth warren on her native american heritage, scott brown is saying look at her, you can tell she's not native american. look at her, look at her. he was saying that over and over again tonight. i've heard this attack from him. i've never seen him do that. i actually -- i feel like it's racially offensive to say, i can tell you're not native american. look at you. >> the point is that he's clearly -- he's not doing as well in the polls as he thought. they've shown her somewhat ahead. it's a little bit volatile. here's his problem. 60% of massachusetts or more are going to vote to make barack obama the second-term presiden

host: yesterday, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. this front page of the washington times -- let's get to your calls and comments. john has this -- vanessa's on the republican line from arizona. caller: i wasa just watching -- i was just watching the massachusetts debate, and i know this is not what this is about. congress has not been doing any progression or progress, because no one can seem to agree on anything. host: we will share what harry reid said that affected the senate agenda in a moment. one of our viewers had this to say -- next is darnell joining us from kansas. caller: it is a do nothing congress because of the republicans' unwillingness to compromise on matters that are very important to america. they absolutely refused to do the work of the american people. i cannot believe mr. mcconnell is talking about the president the way he is, because he is the main person -- he is the leader of the republican senate. we all know the statement that he made. it is just a shame. the folks that both these guys in, but the party, t

question to you is if democrats come in and there's a republican president, and they say like mitch mcconnell, our priority is to get mitt romney voted out of office, which can mitt romney do that barack obama couldn't. >> mitt romney knows how to sit down with someone and analyze the problem and find the aspects of the problem that are common ground. the democrats like to criticize this guy for making a lot of money. you don't make a lot of money without knowing how to sit down with people who may not agree with you to start. but end up agreeing with you at the end and that's what mitt romney brings to the table. >> obviously governor romney wants to talk a lot about the economy, and just what you're talking about, who can turn it around. and yet there seem to be, they're not side issues because they're core demographic issues that are affecting the party. i talked to former governor jeb bush about it. the standing among hispanics. a real liability for the party. >> the party understands that long-term we've got to continue what has been a long effort to reach minority groups like the hispan

now mitch mcconnell is bringing benton on board. they brought them all on board.s to not be happening in the common tear yat. so aren't people like the folks at fox news risking the situation in which they are seen as the establishment and they lose all of the energy on their own side in the same way that the national republican senate snee and all these guys had to bare the brunt of their own wing? >> i think you're right, but i think you're hitting the conundrum about fox. it's not a tea party association. it's owned by rupert murdoch, more or less. so therefore, when the chips are down, they are going to go with romney. murdoch himself has been skeptic of romney. that's where the interests are. the tea party people, the grass roots have nowhere to go. i think the grass roots people would say we have some place to go, possibly some day a third party. but i think if romney loses, which increasingly seems likely to me, even if he wins, they are going to be a real night of the long knives as people fight this out. it's really interesting. >> let me ask you before w

bill: that is mitch mcconnell on the floor of the senate. brett is back with me now. know how often he talks with me on the floor of the senate but you're 47 days from the election. that is an address that could have been written for mitt romney on the stump. >> reporter: yeah, bill, you know it's almost october and baseball season, that is bringing the high heat for mitch mcconnell, and on the floor of the senate basically he said some things like that before, but putting it all together in a speech like that is significant because republicans say that the democrats are standing in the way on a number of issues. now, democrats will say the opposite, and they are going to hold a press availability today at 12 noon and we'll likely hear the opposite about house leadership. the bottom line, bill, as you know is there are big, big things that are pending that will all get jammed into that lame-duck session right after the election. bill: there was an indictment about where we stand as a country too. look for more on this. bret baier there live in washington. martha what

mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate expected it to work.ttee had a mechanism where the authority was to come up with these deficit reductions and, if you don't, we will have what -- it is an awful word -- sequestration, meaning force spending cuts immediately in 2013 in a way that is decided almost with a hatchet. so, everyone gets cut. the pentagon, medical research, you name it. of course, the super committee failed and that is what we are stuck with. host: walker, louisiana. caller: welcome back, greta. mr. woodward, one question. who is really calling the shots in the white house? the chicago machine? or the washington, d.c.-based hillary rodham center for american part -- american progress machine? guest: good question. the president is calling the shots. no questions about that. he is definitely influenced, and one of the most powerful forces in the white house is david plumb, who ran the successful obama campaign in 2008, who is the senior adviser and has the office closest to the oval office. office allocation is very significant. p

a comment on camera is from the republican leader in the senate mitch mcconnell. >> i join my colleaguesn strongly condemning the murder of these innocent americans. and i support employing every available tool at our disposal to ensure the safety of americans overseas and to hunt down those responsible for these attacks. >> reporter: so, members of congress certainly feel the responsibility to try to do what they can to get to the bottom of this and for senators, craig, there's a more personal responsible because they vote to confirm an ambassador like the one lost today. there is politics and heard from republican senators coming without a bit more strong language. jim demint of south carolina publicly said he sides with governor romney saying he has it right. also, the oklahoma republican jim inhofe and said he criticized the president and the administration's foreign policy saying there's a record of appeasement and apology. those are very strong words. also, from the house side, the armed services chairman and said that this is a sign that weakness can be provocative and beginning t

. >> it is better than mitch mcconnell almost runun out of the box after the election saying our job is to defeat thisis guy. this is the moment that people finally are gogoing to start to tu in. it is labor daday weekend. it is the convention. this is the real deal for the next two m month and i think -- they did not do anything wacko. all the french stuff is completely suppressed. >> exit for clint eastwood. >> occaonally with factual things, but other an that, they did well. >> i think romney sceeded in convincing the convention that he was one of them. thatas thehe firstst thing he had to do. he did present to the american peop a face, but also falsehoodsds. frfrom the beginningng, the romney story was we wantethis president to succeed. it is a lie. the party wanted him to fai from day one, and d they set out to do just that. the other thing that i thouought was breathtaking was paul ry's peormance. chilling as a matter of fact in his brazenness to resort to falsehoods. >> one quick question --o you agree that when most people le they were sold on mitt romney? >> i think they fee

one cannot blame mitch mcconnell for does siring not to re-elect a democratic president. what one can blame is the flavors in 1787 and others to fail to recognize the implications of developing a basically parliamentary party structure in a system of so-called checks and balances that was designed for ruled by a virtuous public interested politicians who would not submit to the temptations of what madison called factional politics including making decisions on the basis of what will most tell pure political party rather than what will necessarily help the country. after praising friedman for his diagnosis of america's condition let me conclude by offering some severe criticism of his limitations. in friedman's recent best seller, co-authored with michael mandelbaum that used to be us:how america fell behind in the world invented and now we can come back, we find the statement that quote for america's remarkable history the constitution deserves a large share of the credit. although friedman and mandel bomb called for shock therapy to alleviate what they call the, quote, a

mish mcconnell said his number one priority was what, chip, do you remember. >> i think what mitch mcconnell has done is right. >> he said it was to defeat barack obama. >> look, i understand, tamron. you're talking about bill clinton was successful because he worked with republicans in the house and senate to work for the betterment of the country. i have not seen this out of this president. >> let me talk to you about this, michael, the white male vote. right now 40% president obama. mitt romney 53%. what, if anything, does bill clinton bring to the conversation here and it's i always feel a tad bit unconservatismable when you say white voter and a former president who is white. surely they're not looking to bill clinton to relate just on race. this has to be deeper i hope than that. >> tamron, it's a natural constituency for talk radio. i think i know a little bit about what these folksing are most concerned about. and what i hear through these head sets most often is the debt. they want to talk about the debt. they want to know there's a path out of where we are with the spending right n

here's mitch mcconnell. hire was the plan. >> our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny president obama a second term. >> that will be in the archives and will be played over and over again for generations. because our government is broken, it's broken because of republicans and their attitude towards progress in america. they were out to defeat this president at all costs. mitt romney's most profound dishonesty last night was trying to make everybody forget about all of the obstruction and the road blocks from the republicans. maybe he wasn't paying attention to the news. now, according to romney, everyone, i mean, i fell you what, everybody was on the sidelines just rooting for president obama. it's just he couldn't get it done. >> i wish president obama had succeeded because i want america to succeed. >> under his watch, he wanted obama and america to succeed kind of together? romney said it with a smile on his face, and he, of course, got a bunch of cheers in the crowd from it.

vice president biden and minority leader republican mitch mcconnell and with just hours to go, a deal is finally struck but one that basically puts the country through it all again in january. but is that the president's fault? >> my conclusion is presidents clinton, president reagan and if you look at them, and criticize them for lots of things, they by and large work there well. >> reporter: and he did not? >> on this, president obama did not. >> reporter: but here in an election year there are going to be people who say you deliver some ammunition to his opposition. >> i am not delivering ammunition. i am trying to describe what happened. i also make the point that speaker boehner was responsible. >> governor romney has said the president was in over his head. is your bookmaking a case that that was true? >> no. he had partner -- dancer part r partner. he has the republicans in on this. i close the book with the thought that the result of all of this was the status quo, only worse. >> bob woodward's price "the price of politics" is on sale tomorrow. thanks to diane and coming up ne

. >> obama said if wins the election, mitch mcconnel will change from the party of no, to a party of maybe. chris: some see parallels between this year and 2004 when bush 43 was another president who excited strong opposition from the other side. there are plenty of unlikely parallels between bush's opponent john kerry and mitt romney. they love to ridicule each other. here was john kerry the other night. >> mr. romney, here's a little advice. before you debate barack obama on foreign policy, you better finish the the bait with yourself. chris: here's was romney doing the same to kerry back in 2004. >> the other day i heard that the junior senator from massachusetts is thinking about putting together a balanced ticket. and he wondered whether he could pick someone with views different than his own, he selected himself to do that. chris: a shared handicap is their money an of course northeastern elitism. listen to the pot here calling the kettle black on "hardball" back in 2008 when he was being talked about for mccain's running mate. >> how many houses do you have? >> one less than j

as millions of americans we're struggling to find work, the republican leader of the senate, mitch mcconnelllicans number one goal was to make barack obama a one-term president. they wouldn't cooperate to great jobs. they wouldn't try to turn around the economy. they wouldn't do anything but stand in the way of presidentç obama. now i had a front rowç seat to watch the tea party take over the republican party. for three and-a-half years, they wouldn't govern, they couldn't lead, and we shouldn't let them take over the senate from the whitehouse. [crowd cheering] we must stop the tea party before the united states senate falls into the hands of extremists and idealogs who levees no room for reason or compromise who don't recognize common ground even when they're standing on it. and if they won't stand up to rush limbaugh or grover norquist, what would make anyone think they would stand up for you. [crowd cheering] you see, today's republican party believes in two sets of rules. one for millionaires and billionaires and another for the middle class. and this year, they've nominated the stron

as millions of americans we're struggling to find work, the republican leader of the senate, mitch mcconnelllicans number one goal was to make barack obama a one-term president. they wouldn't cooperate to great jobs. they wouldn't try to turn around the economy. they wouldn't do anything but stand in the way of presidentç obama. now i had a front rowç seat to watch the tea party take over the republican party. for three and-a-half years, they wouldn't govern, they couldn't lead, and we shouldn't let them take over the senate from the whitehouse. [crowd cheering] we must stop the tea party before the united states senate falls into the hands of extremists and idealogs who levees no room for reason or compromise who don't recognize common ground even when they're standing on it. and if they won't stand up to rush limbaugh or grover norquist, what would make anyone think they would stand up for you. [crowd cheering] you see, today's republican party believes in two sets of rules. one for millionaires and billionaires and another for the middle class. and this year, they've nominated the stron