here now is cnbc contributor, steve ratner, former obama auto czar, and tony fratto, former bush 43 whiteouse deputy press secretary. steve, welcome. you know, steve, you're a market guy. you are a pro-business guy. you're a capitalist. i know all these things about you down through the years. so my question is, tonight on "the kudlow report," will you come out and endorse mitt romney? >> no, i don't really think so, larry. you and i have been having these discussions for a long time and we'll hopefully have them for a much longer time to come. let me start with the positives about president obama, then we can talk about mitt romney if you want because i heard your intro. my view is very simple. nobody is happy with the state of the economy today, but i believe very strongly that things would have been a lot worse if president obama's policies had not been implemented. i believe the stimulus has actually added jobs. i think that's been studied. i think the bank rescue saved our financial system and not surprisingly, i think the auto rescues saved that important sector. when the president

here now is cnbc contributor steve ratner, former obama auto czar. we have steve forbes and tony frato, former bush 43 white house deputy press secretary. steve, want to start with you. we have not seen any improvement in the european story. the rest of the world economy is looking lousy. we may be in a recession and we don't know it. the worst part is as mr. obama dispenses advice at the g-20 his own economic story, his own numbers, jobs in retail stores and factories are going south. what kind of clout is he going to have? >> very little clout, larry, because he has nothing new to say. we have no success story here at home. europe is following policies in the early 1930s. that's austerity. they cut back the government a little bit. a massive increase on the private sector and on consumers. italy raising real estate taxes. spain 52% tax rate top incomes. you wonder why the economies spiral downward. when you practice 1930s austerity why listen to barack obama? >> what's your reaction to that? in some sense the imf looks like it's in the driver's seat

mike barnicle and steve ratner are still with us.ho looks fresh and rested and just happy. >> and out of the white house. >> out of the white house. >> it's great. it's a tough life but this is a beautiful day in chicago and you should come back in january. it's just great. >> i think we'll do the show right here. >> no problem. >> so how is the president doing right now as we're five months away from the election? >> look it, i think this is -- it's a tough election. i think he's doing fine. i think if you go state by state, which is what the election will be about, he's in good shape. there's lots of people running around with all sorts of setting their hair on fire to say this is a close race. it is a close race and the one person who has known that from the beginning is the president. i don't know what all the big news is when people talk about polls and say this race has tightened. it's always going to tighten. >> what's the president's biggest challenge moving forward? >> i think obviously the economy and convincing the america

i imagine steve ratner would say if, look, there are benefits to this comparative advantage to allowing other companies produce things peopler, we're able to buy the products cheaper and we have more money to spend. what romney is saying in the clips you just played was my job as president will be different from my job as the private sector businessman. my job will be to create jobs, i'm going to use the experience from my private sector days but my mai job at president will not be what my job was bain was, which was to increase returns for my shareholders. >> joan, it seems the obama campaign all too happy to make this a referendum on bain. >> yes, you have david axelrod already calling mitt romney the "outsourcer in chief." i think they think this is really productive avenue for them and that the post story give that whole line of reasoning a lot of new life. >> thank you, joan walsh and michael scherer. we appreciate you being here. coming up, president obama gets a spirited welcome from the same latino group that spent a lot of time sitting on its hands yesterday. ning body cream he

the jobs report we bring in former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst our friend steve ratner joins us by phone. thanks for waking up with us. >> no problem. >> in a perfect world, if the president as you just heard, sat down with congress, they agreed enough of the partisan fighting, let's sit down and do something, what could they do in the short-term to create jobs? >> there's certainly a number of things you could do in the short term. there is a proposal in front of congress for additional spending on everything from education to infrastructure that would create jobs. the republicans, of course, any more spending is wasteful, put aside the politics of all this. but that's one thing. another thing they could do, which would immediately change things but to get some movement out of congress on the fiscal deadlock i think would be an enormous reassurance to business which ultimately does create the jobs. >> so what does business want to see exactly? if you're sitting on wall street right now, if you're a guy starting a company, what exactly do you want to see from washington

interview with the campaign advisor, ed gillespie, fox news sunday has it and, he sits down with steve ratnerthe former advisor of president obama's task force and a bell known new york business man, here on the fox news channel, 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., right here on fox. >> jamie: you mentioned the gloomy new numbers on the unemployment front as the race for the white house, heats up. that jobless rate rising as the number of new jobs added comes in lower than expected, only 69,000. what does it mean for the president's reelect bid? we'll look at that fair and balanced. >> eric: you know who doesn't have to run for re-election? >> jamie: she's got the gig! >> eric: and she's honored today after being on the throne 60 years. hundreds of thousands of brits out on the shore, out on the river, celebrating the monarchy. we will continue our live coverage of the queen's diamond jubilee, ahead. bla their kids are adults? i have twins, 21 years old. each kid has their own path. they grow up, d they're out havingheir life. i really started to talk to them about e things that are important that they

former car czar steve ratner. >> they lose jobs since the recession that began since he got here. sirnlsly 2010 when the jobs started to recover we have added jobs every single month since then. nobody is happy with the rate of job creation today. i believe without the policy that is the president put in place we would not have this level of job creation. >> team romney swinging back saying the president's policies are simply not working. >> the president is about heading jobs fast enough. for anybody who is urgently waiting for improvement in the economy last week is not the week. jobs report were out friday and it was a revision in gdp down toward it's about consumer confidence an increase in unemployment plans. it's not that we don't think this president is trying. iveng he is. just his policies aren't working. >> the battle over jobs getting more heated yesterday. live reports later in the show and top advisors from both campaigns. >> while battling a wildfire in utah they are here with the details on that. >>> very sad story. >> the pilots trailing the fire after a lightening

yes, the union made huge concessions for new hires, those not members of the union yet, but as steve ratnerdmitted, it didn't require any of the existing union members to take a pay cut and that was a mistake. why should everyone have to pay for this? >> you have a point there vis-a-vis the existing workers, but the retirees took a wac on health care and pension, and they made concessions as well. for instance, no more automatic wage increases, and they agreed not to strike until 2015. that's a union making a big concession. don't forget the creditors at gm. i think you're being a little chery picky there. >> you look at the unsecured creditors at crystler, they have nothing. and the union ended up in total of $26 billion in subsidies. more than the whole budget went to worker who is make device the average. >> the unsecured creditors did not get nothing, they got preferred stock and warrants. but here is the thing. here is the thing -- you know, an unsecured creditor in a bankruptcy, and the unions were just another unsecured creditor, i know you will agree with that. it's up to the bankru

and former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst, steve ratner. why don't we start in egypt. financial times and islamist win. >> good day to have richard on. millions forced jose mubarak to step down. the head of the muslim brotherhood is set to take over. it was met by widespread celebrations in cairo's tahrir square. he was trained as an emergency and becomes the first elected in islamic head of state. he took in 52% of the vote and the transition faces significant hurdles between long standing tensions between the muslim brotherhood and new rulers. they seize new control and limited the breech of presidential power. >> what's the import of this. >> the military and egypt decided they couldn't have a confrontation. they department want to be faced with the choice of backing down or killing people. as mik adjust said, there is no constitution and no parliament and stripped the presidency of the power. >> how much power by the end of the day? >> by the end of the day, they have a lot. this sets the stage between the military and the muslim brothe

you think where president clinton was last week, cory booker, steve ratner, who criticized, or mildly rebuked the president for taking on the bain record. president clinton came out and did the same thing, it would be taking it up another notch. he used more aggressive language. stellar business record. that was clear a shot to a former president to the current one, saying back off this. this is not a winner for you politically, but with fund-raisers already scheduled, knowing he would have an opportunity to provide new footage, change the story and have him come out very strongly on the side of president obama sequenced in his mind of how he will do this. let obama know what he thinks, wrap him on the knuckles and a very effective critique of romney. i live to lunch to bill clinton. what has barack obama said is as effective as bill clinton said last night to flip the bid. who is the europeans here? they are republicans and let me tell you why. it's amazing it took president clinton to school the current president in a much more constructive way there in how to refute that argument i

steve ratner said the same thing a different way. but why cory booker according to this "new york post" exclusive story is suddenly dead to the white house, you know, in terms of ever working there is beyond me. i guess they know that he's an impact player in the democratic party. but he on "meet the press" said what he said. he's nauseated by the reverend wright attacks coming out on the other side. >> after he's apparently dead to the white house, he still went out to seattle and campaigned for the president a couple of weekends ago so some of the story doesn't add up to me. maybe it's not such a bad thing to be dead to the white house. have you thought about that? if president obama does not win re-election, cory booker is a rising star in the democratic party. if he doesn't align himself eventually with the president and the president is not the president, cory booker has a great career in front of him. >> problem is, gretch, he was apparently planning on during a second term for barack obama, planning on being h.u.d. secretary a

you cannot expect bill clinton, deval patrick, ed rendell, steve ratner to continue to tell untruth thatitt romney was bad, it did not have a productive use in the economy. you can't expect them to lie. >> i think what obama personality said is he's not saying it's a bad thing. he's saying that is not a qualification to be president. i think that's a tough, rather subtle argument to make and running into trouble politic politically. >> we're going to talk about that morning on "starting point," "starting point." thank you for setting that up for me. coming up, we'll talk to the spelling bee champion. how do you spell success. there she is right there. she nodded and smiled when she saw that you got that right. we'll be talking with her up next. you're watching "starting point." back in a moment. and this is what inspires us to create new technology. ♪ technology that connects us to everything the world has to offer and vice versa. ♪ technology that makes lightweight stronger, safer, and faster than ever before. ♪ technology that makes electric electrifying and efficiency exhilarating. ♪

steve ratner, one of his former advisors, was on another network this morning and again, said that heng just fine. >> steve: they're going to be throwing him under the bus pretty soon of the always a pleasure. we'll be watching you today, 5:00 o'clock eastern time with "the five." >> brian: and your dog. >> he's not going to come today. unless you're making a special request. >> beth: i'm making a request as a viewer. >> alisyn: she was just out in the hallway ogling her dog because she misses him. >> it's been an hour. >> alisyn: next up, how many hours of sleep did you all get last night? i'm guessing it was more than us. if it was less than six, stick around for the next hour. >> steve: god bless the usa. the song is offensive. i'm not saying it. one school principal says that because it makes other cultures feel bad. so students can't sing it. you're about to hear from the man behind the song, lee greenwood. ♪ and defend her still today ♪ 'cause there ain't no doubt i love this land ♪ ♪ god bless the usa [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pa

ed rendell, former governor of pennsylvania, steve ratner, the guy that did the g.m.ithin the democratic party and all have been critical of the president's stance on private enterprise. all of them have been forced to walk it back, clarify, so to speak, but the split is there. it's obvious. >> why are they walking it back? that's my question. why did cory booker walk it back? now you have larry summers -- >> angry phone calls! >> does anybody tell president clinton what to do? apparently so. he had to walk it back. here's larry summers clarifying his comments. i fully support president obama's position on tax cuts. extending the high income tax cut does little for demand and poses financial problems for fairness and fiscal prudence. that's not what he said initially. why do these high ranking walk it back? >> they've been taken to the wood shed and who knows what they've been threatened with. another explanation is we don't want to be too obviously splitting the democratic party. we don't want to be too obviously in opposition to president obama. take your explanatio