machinists union across the country, sharpening america's edge on the global economy under president tom buffenbarger glad to be here and thank you for the invite. it'sez a pleasure to come here. >> follow their good work at their website, goiam.org. tom, the secretary hilda solis was sitting right where you were sitting on monday. we were talking to her about the jobs numbers that came out last friday. 163,000 new jobs in the month of july. so we are back. is that the answer there? >> well, those certainly, bill, those numbers were an improvement by far, by about 100,000 over the previous one. >> right? >> that's a nice trend if we can sustain it. but it's still about 100,000 jobs a month short of what this economy needs to say we are moving forward again. so i applaud at a time president for the efforts to put america back to work. certainly the efforts of secretary solis. i think she is one of the finest, if not the finest secretary of labor in my lifetime for the job she is doing. we are still short, bill. we can't be satisfied with these numbers until we get to that quarter million, 300 jobs a m

tom buffenbarger, appreciate your time. >> anne, we were talking to tom about the ad and something that also came out this morning, the romney campaign still wanting to talk about the ad. let me play this first. >> what does it say about the president's character when his campaign tries to use the tragedy of a woman's death for political gain? deserve better for a president that will say or do anything to stay in power? >> so the campaign answering a super pac ad. is this an effective way to fight back? >> well, and we're seeing increasingly the rebuttal of the negative ads. so, yes, of course they have to. and when they see an ad starting to do damage, they go into the cutting room and cut one of their own that rebuts it. >> ron? >> i couldn't agree more. if you're running against a favorability ad, you go right to the character. >> ron and anne, thank you both this morning. >> thank you. >>> the nation's historic drought could prove to be a major campaign issue. food prices will be on the rise as election approaches. whether it helps to slow pocketbook pain, voters will know in just w

association of machinists, good men and women of the machinists union sharpening under president tom buffenbargerica's edge on the global economy and you can find out more about their good work by going to their web site at www.goiam.org. well, if you can't take a plane he'll take a bus. if he can't take the bus he'll take the metro. if the metro breaks down, he will take a cab. judd legum from think progress. not a good morning for the morning commute. >> i made it. that's the good news. >> bill: must have been disaster. at this hour for the metro. you know. bad enough in the middle of the day when i'm heading down to the white house on the metro. great to see you. lots to talk about. let's start with the fact that we've got republicans in tampa but the focus is really on hurricane isaac heading for the gulf coast. sad reminder of hurricane katrina, george bush seven years ago and now that all of the states down there are seeking disaster relief, there's not much disaster relief available correct? >> well, it used to be up until a year or two ago that disaster relief was one of the few things th