maybe it was thomas friedman. it is just a little more complicated. >> he raised taxes when we needed to. >> part is in opposition tend to be less responsible than parties in power. -- parties in opposition tend to be less responsible. >> i would agree. >> the question is, it seems to me, if romney is elected, then you have a party that you think it's irresponsible is now in a position where they have to govern and we will see what happens. but generally testicle party is more towards the center when someone becomes president. just the way the left is on happier with obama in many respects, then we would see what would happen with the democratic opposition. if obama wins a second term, that will be interesting question. i'm optimistic because my reading of history is different than jessica's we have been this partisan and is in gridlock many times in our history. people were buried when they put "democrat" or "republican" on their tombstone. you all remember the tariff issue. it is almost designed to create this.

and thomas friedman.us: how america fell behind the world it invented and how we can come back." >> so mika, you didn't like the romney answer on women? >> you know, i think it's interesting what's happening with women. and i'd really love to hear all of your takes on this because you see some polls showing a tightening between the candidates on women. well, this is a president who i think if you take social issues out of it, even, he's done more for women you could argue. >> last night, though, he didn't seem to connect. i thought, this is another one of those examples, the libya question is asked, and mitt romney doesn't slam dunk it. the immigration question is asked, and barack obama doesn't slam dunk it. >> on both sides. >> it's almost like there's a plan against romney, he's going to get killed, and the president rattles through his liturgy. >> there's so much to talk about. >> i thought romney actually handled the question pretty well. if you look at the meter and you look at him talking about all

thomas friedman and joe scarborough. >> i love hearing those two names in the same sentence. >> what?our's is really good. so is friedman's. we'll start with that. mitt romney gave a foreign policy speech on monday that can be boiled down with one argument, everything wrong with middle east is traced to a lack of leadership by president obama. if in speech is any indication of the quality of romney's thinking on foreign policy, then we should worry. it was not sophisticated and described in the complex aspirations of the people of the middle east. it was not accurate in describing what obama has done or honest about the prior positions romney has articulated. it was not compelling or imaginative in terms of the strategic alternatives it offered. the worst message to send right now to middle easterners is their future is bound up to what we do. it is not. they're rarely more complicated and more in need with radical new approaches by us and men. would anyone like to comment? >> well, yeah. i mean, barack obama four years ago when he was running for president was just slashing and burni

thomas friedman called this story entirely contrived on "meet the press" on sunday morning. i listen to a lot of folks over the weekend. what they say governor romney has to look presidential. can't go for ticky-tacky stuff on round number two. do you agree with that? >> yes, i do. he needs, look he looked very presidential the first debate. he looked somewhat presidential in the second debate. president obama looked somewhat presidential. when they got up there started circling each other like --. bill: sumo wrestlers. >> finalists in the state high school wrestling champship, it wasn't very presidential for either one of them. i think that was deliberate on president obama's strategy. i think president obama wanted to interrupt him. he knew governor romney has a tendency to ask questions. he was ready for that tactic. governor romney used that so well against newt gingrich and others in the republican primary and attempted to use it against president obama and president obama was ready for it. yeah, look, here's the deal. the second debate the governor romney same in secon

>> at the same time you have other people like david axelrod and people like thomas friedman saying thathe attack in april inspired by video? was the june attack inspired by video? no. what's contrived is the effort by some media outlets to cover up one of the biggest national security failures in modern times. this was a failure before benghazi, during the attack itself, an after. it's been an effort to mislead to keep the narrative going that al-qaeda's been dismantled. if you believe, in fact, al-qaeda-inspired militia attacked this conflict using mortars and heavy weapons, so much for that narrative. what's been contrived is the story of explaining the attack. there's the disconnect between the world as it exists and being explained barack obama. there's a dangerous disconnect between the obama's administration characterization of the world and the way it exists. >> it sounds as if you think mitt romney can win this tonight. >> absolutely. in many ways the foreign policy decisions of this president, leading from behind, scaring our friends, emboldening our enemies make him look like

. >> thomas friedman, our secret sauce, this will resonate with you, i think.other term of partisan gridlock. we are heading into a world where the breakdown of the european supranational state system combined with the breakdown of the arab nations state system combined with climate change combined with a much greater global interdependence means that we will be more and more buffeted by problems that are too dangerous to ignore but too complicated and big to fix alone. and when a country finds itself in that kind of situation, there is no one thing it absolutely must do, and that is build resiliency. that will require a president who will dare to challenge the country to do big, hard things together, not just tack with the winds of public opinion, and it will require an electorate that is ready to value and demand such leadership. and i think, you know, at the top of the show, you were talking about what's missing. and that is the truth. and that is also the asking of the american people to accept it and perhaps even stand up to it. >> you know, tom brings up

two of the featured panelists included thomas friedman, "new york times" foreign affairs columnist and author of "the world is flat." and jessica mathews, carnegie president and director of national security office of global issues. >> good evening. my name is david rothkopf, and i will be the moderator for this evening. in the carnegie endowment discussion about how should the next american president engage the world. this is a debate format discussion. we have a terrific group of panelists here. starting on the far right we have professor john ikenberry of princeton. next is tom friedman of the new york times. next to him is our own jessica matthews of the carnegie endowment, and beside jessica is bob kagan at the brookings institution and we are going to cover several sets of issues in metal blocks tonight. in each case i'm going to open up. i'm going to open the discussion with a quote from one or two of the panelists. we will then have some interaction. among the panelists and then i will ask them a couple of questions about related issues. following that at end of each one of the