tv The War Room With Jennifer Granholm Current August 14, 2012 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT
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tonight. stay tuned to enter the war room with jennifer gran home. >> i am jennifer granholm. tonight in the war room mitt, if you didn't want to dance with her, you shouldn't have asked her out in the first place. am i the only one who finds republicans confusing? here, i thought paul ryan was the chosen one, the boy wizard who would cast a spell of en chantment when they looked at mitt romney like meat loaf. the granted wish carries some dire consequence. so run republicans, run. paul ryan is coming to a swing state near you. and he is bringing his budget with him.
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>> so, picture this: a political candidate running in a national race with this kind of approval rating plummeting over the last year from 24, really crummy to a measly 10% today. that is a lower favor ability rating than paris hilton, lower than the iraq war. the only person who has got a lower approval rating is fidel castro. this is not a winning candidate. political advisors would probably say to this person, maybe you should consider another line of work. so who is this deeply flawed mystery candidate? da-dah da-dah: congress since the tea party took the house in 2010, congress has congress's already crummy
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approval itrating has taken a nose dive. who is the leader of the flawed tea party congress? actually not speaker john boehner. in reality, the de facto leader of the house republican caulk caucus is paul ryan. ryan has been a leader in congress's refusal to compromise with president obama and the democrats. he publically trashed the deficit deal. he -- which of course led us close to the brink of default and, of course there is his own toxic budget which president reagan's budget advisor david stockman today called an empty conservative sermon and a fairy tale in "the new york times." nonetheless, 98%, 98% of all republicans in congress -- and that's all of these right here except for maybe those little ones right there, of these
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republicans in congress voted for ryan's budget. and for its blueprint to turn medicare into a voucher system. all of them. and mitt romney, by picking ryan, he has effectively yoked himself, handcuffed himself to that toxic congress and ryan's radioactive budget. and it's not going well. today, on fox news, paul ryan himself, he tried to am pew tate the toxic limb from his budget plan. >> the budget plan that you are now supporting would get to balance when? >> well, there are different -- the budget plan that mitt romney is supporting gets us downing to 20% of gdp government spending by 2016. >> i understand that. but your own budget that you -- >> the house bunt? >> the house beaumont. >> yeah. >> the house budget everyone's
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talking about the house paul ryan's house budget. it's the central issue of the campaign. you know, kind of like frankenstein's monster romney has created the toxic avenger, a mutant that contaminates everything within its reach. did he know how this creation would spread and so quickly? actually, cranny senior advisor mark mckenan warned it would run on principles and provided vision for the republican party and probably lose. maybe big. it was the pick the toxic creation. paul ryan. it was the pick born of panic. it was a move made out of desperation. mid romney was seeing his poll numbers slipping under the toll of bain capital and his own daily flipflops and gaffes so he lunched wildly to the right shore
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up his crumbling and probably suspicion base. but i wonder if romney in his heart of hearts might regret the decision. when asked today whether he would back his running mate's budget romney was quick to say that it wasn't identical to his own plan, you know, he did so in a typical romney way. >> representative ryan has worked hard to find ways to see if we can't get to tracktorted a balanced budget. there are places my budget is different than his but we are on the same page. when mitt romney asked how their plans differ he couldn't quite say. >> the items that we agree on i think south way any differences. we haven't gone through piece by piece and say here is a place where there is a difference. i can't imagine two people in the same party who have exactly
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the same positions on all issues. if we can't back the plan which was probably why i picked him how can he expect others? they can't. a lot of republicans are fleeing from ryan's radioactive budget. the gop is hoping to avoid getting contaminated themselves but it might already be too late. montana representative denny rayburg running for senate has made it a point to campaign against the ryan plan this summer. take a listen. >> denny rehberg, is different, an independent thinker. he refused to support a republican budget plan that could harm the medicare plan so many montana seniors rely on. >> in massachusetts rhode island, connecticut, they have all distanced flails paul ryan this week. democrat candidates are not letting this golden opportunity pass either.
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massachusetts senate candidate elizabeth out swinging yesterday hammering her republican scott brown for marching to paul ryan's looney tune. >> scott brown has said there is no one he trusts more on the economy than mitt romney. and mitt romney has picked paul ryan. but, you know, i think the point to remember here is that the romney-ryan part of this is something republican had already started and scott brown is deeply tied in to. >> this is just the beginning. you think this distancing is bad? just wait until people get a load of ryan's extreme positions on privatizing social security and other social issues. buckle your seat belts folks. the monster that mitt has created cannot be stopped. it could poison his whole campaign. it might just take congressional republicans down with it. maybe democrats will be able to
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occupy the majority in congressall. so congratulations, mitt. you have succeeded in changing the conversation. the election shifted from being a referendum betweenpom and tall ryan's tea party-steeped house republican caulkcusaucus. good look with that. congressman ryan i think i will just have myself a hot cup of earl gray and offer a grateful toast of tea. welcome to the race. so glad you are here. coming up, presidential polls are like buses. one comes around and then a couple of more follow. it's easy enough to lose track of the numbers on the side. i can guarantee you, however, this will not be the case. it's the first post paul-ryan bus. plus when he votes, it's about
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buying a man a beer a sure way to do that and lucky for them that foreign policy isn't playing a big year in this year's campaign because romney and ryan have the least amount of experience of any ticket since, well ever. we are going to delve into that and more. we are getti (vo) cenk uygur is many things. >>oh really? >>"if you ever raise taxes on >>the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true! [ male announcer ] peppermint that cools as you chew. stimulate your senses. 5 gum. now in micro pack.
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right by those who gave their lives to for this country nearly 70 years ago. >> we are back inside the war room. i am jennifer granholm. despite serving seven terms in congress and sharing the house budget committee, mitt romney's running mate paul ryan is far from being considered a household name. but, his budget plan which calls for slashing social services, lowering the tax rate for the wealthy is pretty much a known commodity, at least to some. and it's not very popular. so a new poll that was commissioned by the super p.a.c. priorities u.s.a. found that 62%
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of voters were extremely concerned about ryan's propose the cuts to early childhood education, the same percentage were concerned about shifting the tax burden to the middle class from the wealthy. here to tell us how the pick of paul ryan is impacting the presidential race is war room regular, john whaley with heart research. welcome back into the war room. typically, we see a bump in polls after a presidential nominee picks a vice presidential candidate. in fact, we saw a different poll this week which dr. a poll with a slight bump but not a huge bump. the president was at 45. romney at 4 september. it was a two % bump up for romney. is this typically or would you have expected a different number? >> we are supposed to see how this plays outed. this started on the 7th and just finished last night. so it's over the course where romney chose paul and so.
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>> you don't get the full brunt of it? >> we are sorting that out. obama was up in a fair amount of the polls. the fact romney is up shows a little bit of a bump. >> so today is tuesday, he selected him on saturday when go we expect bell see the polls with the first full reaction? >> i like to see the polls over a few days so that they actually get sort of a nice diverse sample. i think in the next couple of days we will see polls that reflect the -- >> the bump. >> the bump if there is one. both sides are to create a narrative around who he is. >> the big place to define him in is at the moment florida what do you expect to see?
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do you think the democrats will succeed in defining him as taking away your medicare successfully? >> no. i was really concerned about florida for the president because consistently what we have seen in florida, swing states elsewhere and naturally older voters are some of the voters obama has the hardest time with and the ones who turn out the most. so florida seemed like a -- that would be a big challenge for the president. now, you have something where he can really create some -- a rift within this potential base of romney's to peel away some of that support among older voters. florida, almost 20% of florida citizens are over 65. >> that's pretty incredible. >> you guys will be doing polling there is what about pens? it was moving into the president's cam solidly? >> right. they were solid and they have a couple of things.
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one, we are going to be talking a little bit about catholics and the fact that, you know, ryan. >> yeah. >> joe biden is the native son. he is catholic. and we have some of the same con concerns in florida, in pennsylvania. pennsylvania is the second oldest state in the country. so it seems like he will have problems there. >> so pennsylvania is one of the oldest. i with a is one of the oldest and so is west virginia. >> uh-huh. >> west virginia is red, red, red. >> it is. >> there is no way that's going to move? right? >> i don't see it actually flipping. i mean i think there could be potential there. also because of the sort of low-income issues that might be part of the pol ryan budget. >> yes. >> they have some very strong laws about protecting low-income people in west virginia. it could be an issue there. whether it will flip to blue that remains to be seen. >> let's look at a few others. wisconsin was we just talked about iowa and ohio. >> uh-huh.
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>> obviously, this wisconsin, does it flip into play now because of paul ryan? >> it doesn't flip automatically. in fact, there is a model for each of the swig states and his model showedwich had a 12% chance of going to romney before the ryan pick and it will only bumps up to 20% chance. >> really. >> it's not. >> that stunning? >> it is stunning you energize the cogservative base and the frogsive. >> they have spended. paul ryan went back to wisconsin but then they spent time in eye juan. >>om they are often tied together to thedegree. >> i with a is more conservative. >> eastern iowa which has some more demographics that are tied more closely to ryan i think that helps.
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>> that's where he has been since yesterday. >> well, you know, there is all of this conversation today, with the president, et cetera. he was in colorado but he was talking about wind energy, and obviously, the ryan-romney ticket, put ryan on top. don't like subsidies to the wind industry. is that going to have an impact in iowa? >> it could. i don't know if that is going to be really top in the end of at a time. >> ohio has been close. actually t rasmussen had a poll out that showed it was tied with romney-obama, it tends to skew conservative. >> that's one where ryan sort of the redder this is where catholics are now concentrated.
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we have a lot catholic representation in these places. i assume down here, it's because of hispanics. >> right. >> same thing in california, but up there, you have ethnic populations that are catholics. it's important here you have,' specially wisconsin, eastern iowa northern ohio, pennsylvania potentially but joe biden flipping the other side as the native son catholic. but to the degree that paul ryan's passionate catholicism registers with some of these catholics, i think that's important. >> it was interesting to us that his catholicism cuts both ways because you have got the bishops and the nuns criticizing him over his budget and the fact that it does not have an option for the poor essentially by cutting all of the social services. on the other hand he is so
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strictly right-to-life that the bishops like that too. it will be interesting. john whaley thank you for coming in with your insight, democratic polster with heart research. if you are a political junkie and you like your sys southern fried, chak open an old one because mudcat saunders and donnie fowler are two of the best in thththththththththththththththththththththththththththththth (applause) the best political insight leads to the best political foresight. first pick, i'm going to shock the world and pick, paul ryan. brillant. okay... with the number that just came out he's more inclined to throw long. in which case, i think the long one is paul ryan because the risks are higher. here in the obama war room... putting satire aside, i agree paul ryan would be great for democrats. for us it would fame the intellectual debate. see the future "live" weeknights starting at 7pm. uygur. spitzer. granholm. only on current tv.
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nah, he's probably got... [ dennis' voice ] allstate. they can bundle all your policies together. lot of paperwork. [ doug's voice ] actually... [ dennis' voice ] an allstate agent can help do the switching and paperwork for you. well, it probably costs a lot. [ dennis' voice ] allstate can save you up to 30% more when you bundle. well, his dog's stupid. [ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds.
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>> we rook at our kids and we know that they are our future. but today, we look at our kids and we know without a shadow of a doubt that we are mortgaging their future. we are giving them a diminished future, and president obama has made it worse. we have got to cut this deficit. we have got to balance this budget. we have to leave our children a debt-free nation. >> that's paul ryan on campaign draw in lakewood colorado today, showing off his patented right-wing rhetoric that earned him a place on mitt romney's ticket. joining me to deconstruct the ryan election, what it means beyond the presidential race are two very insightful political operatives and strategists, dave mudcat saunders advises in the south, the senior strategist for wayne powell who is trying to
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unseat house majority leader eric cantor one of the young guns joining us from richmond, virginia. go get them mudcat. here is donnie fowler who has worked on a gagillion democratic presidential campaigns and hisas his own dog-patch strategies. donnie and mud cat. >> south carolina and virginia. >> yes, mudcat. so glad that you are on. so hey we just were making a bit of analysis with john whaley whaley. we were talking about whether ryan was a miss calculation for a variety of reasons. mud contacted, do you think it was a miss calculation on romney's part? >> i have no idea. governor since this -- i had a
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feeling was going to do it. i don't know why. obviously, it energizes the base, but it doesn't is seem like a logical choice to me. one thing the media is not talking about is the $700 billione and nobody knows where the cuts are going to come from. brook brookings, different people who have studied this say that, you know $210,000,000,000 of it has to come from mortgage interest deductions. and they have got to stop those. but the one thing about this ryan budget is he's going to have to start talking about what he was going to cut. and i don't see how that cuts anywhere except against romney. >> wood well but the question is: is he going to have the courage to do that? he has put out a document. he has more specific clearly than romney has by a mile. >> we know romney hates
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specifics. >> yeah. >> he is run from that budget already. >> that's the kicker, you know. i mean donnie we see a guy who picked something to appease the base, as mudcat says but talk about the difference between apaying the base and the undecideds that you really need to woo. >> well there is obviously about three % undecided. >> that's not a lot of people left in the battleground states. so you win elections by tunrning out the most votes. get votes from people who are undecided and convince them to be for you or you go to your base and you talk to people who may not vote. you have to convince them to turn out. so either you get votes from the base or you get votes from the undecides. the romney campaign and i think the obama campaign have decided there are too fine undecides. let's turn out the infrequently loyal voters. >> that's what the ryan strategy is. >> do you think, though that -- and i would be interested to hear mud cat your thought about this. do you think that the republican party base though has gotten a lot narrower with the tea party? i mean isn't that the new base?
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the tea party? and so therefore, the narrowing of it means what they are ing are a fewer number of people and the mod rats have been left up for grabs. do you think, mudcat? >> well, there is an owed adage in politics democrats fall in love and republicans fall in line. and that's why i was really, you know, surprised by the ryan choice because with the -- especially here in the south, as donnie will tell you i mean barack barack obama's unfaves are through the roof. back to the ryan choice, they are going to have to get specific. there is a lot of danger in there. and what paul came out -- one poll came out today gave congress 1 1 approval ravangrang >> this was a bold and risky choice.
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just because you take a risk, choice doesn't mean you are going to get a reward. romney's going to find out about whether this risk pays off or not. >> the congress congressional approval rating is something we were talking about earlier, and this mark mckenon, obviously, who is a former george w. bush advisor, smart guy and he said that this is going to elevate campaign into a debate over big ideas and then he goes on to say that and probably lose and maybe big. >> well, so another republican consultant in dc said the favorite line today about ryan is, by republicans, is ryan was a great choice but... >> yeah. well and mudcat do you think that the pick of ryan could end up hurting congreg -- republican congressional candidates down the ticket? >> that's exactly what, you know, i am counting on and my candidate is thinking on. we couldn't have picked a better
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running made because now they have to talk about the budget. they have to talk about things that, you know, they didn't want to talk about. and, you know, i mean paul ryan being out in las vegas today with sheldon adelson, i don't get that. you talk about a risky move. here is a guy whose company, los angeles sands is under investigation for money laund laundering. the republicans in the house have gotten so smug in how they do business and, of course, you know i have caulderic cantor a bought and paid for crook. he is. there is no question, you know, he havelled eric cantor a bought and paid for crook. he is. there is no question, you know, he have bur for paul ryan to go out there today, you know, with sheldon adelson, i don't get it. to me, it's nuts. >> this guy is the republicans -- ties the republicans in the house to mitt romney. there no way, no matter how much he wilks and squiggles. >> there is no question about
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it. >> your point, they are not in the mainstream of this country. they represent the tea party. >> the main question to get your reaction on it the ryan selection provides a whole array, a panoply of other things to be able to attack mitt romney on. >> everything. >>. >> including the ryan budget obviously. does this mean that there is such an array that the bain argument sort of falls off of -- goes by the wayside for the time building. >> absolutely not. >> yeah. i agree. no way. >> yeah. >>. >> mudcat. >> governor we are in a new age of economic pop lichlt it's like i have said many times, you know, it's every 100 years or so. the 19th century, the big boys were kicking the little boys' butts left and right and andrew stopped it for a while andrew jackson and in the 20th century it was teddy roosevelt. this country will not keep
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putting up with this coin-operated government. it's not going to happen. take china, for instance. that's not even on the radar for anybody to talk about. we've lost 5.8 million jobs to china at a minimum over the last 10 years. nobody is talking about itmented it's an unlevel playing field for the american worker. we are just not talking about textile and furniture jobs talking about high-tech jobs going over there. >> mudcat -- >> nobody -- nothing wants to level the playing field. >> well, that's exactly right. the question is: even if you put out policies that level the playing field or that try to do you end up are you able to attract some of those white southern voters? we are going to talk about that just after the break. hang on, donnie and mud cat will strick around after the break. president obama spent the day in iowa handing out cold beers and throwing fast balls, political
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admitted that that look, we were able to keep a lot of the folks because of the stimulus. >> bill: absolutely. again, do you great work, judd. thank you. all of your colleagues at think progress. we'll see you again next hey joe? yeah? is this a bad time? no, i can talk. great -- it's the 9th inning and your hair still looks amazing. well, it starts with a healthy scalp. that's why i use head and shoulders for men. they're four shampoos for game-winning
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>> boost that's what he said about wind power. you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. i don't know if he has tried that. i know he has had other things on his car. . >>pom on the campaign trail in oscaloosa, iowa taking the wind out of mitt romney's energy propose mitt romney at a coal plan said about the president's energy strategy. >> you probably heard the president say he is for all of the above.
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i see how he has waged war on: i wondered how he could say that. he is for all of the sources of energy that come from above the ground. >> sorry to bray it to you, mitt. domest-i will ashen product is at an 8-year high. that comes from underground. take a listen to what he said about america's energy supply after what would be his second term. this is mitt romney. he is dreaming. >> i make this commitment: we will have america. we will have index. we won't have to buy oil from venzuela venzuela and the middle east. we are going to be intend. >> i needndependentindependent. >> cover to the energy administration 63% of our crude oil comes from outside of north america. >> that's too much to just cut even in heaven-forbid, eight years, if you are elected. besides giving me nightmares about two terms of flip-flops romney did provide a glimpse of why he cares so much about coal
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miners. >> now he wants to get re-elected. to do so, he has to win ohio. to win ohio he's got to win eastern ohio. he has to get the voice of the people in these communities around us here. >> the real question and i will throw this right to you, donnie: does mitt romney actually care about a 21st century energy policy or is he using the miners as a prop backdrop to get at some of the cultural issues we were talking about before the break? mudcat was saying economic poplism is an important strand of argument. do you think that the president is missing out on that? >> both sides trying to capture this poplism, comic poplism mud mudcat talked about. the tea party is using cultural issues and this notion of obama's otherness. ren the anglo saxon comment about there is not an anglo saxon in the white house, the
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left wing is trying to capture the poplism by playing the narrative that mitt romney is too wealthy, out of touch, offshoring jobs and bankrupting companies while he is making millions of dollars. both sides trying to capture this economic populist moment. it's not clear who is going to -- who has the advantage, though. >> well, so mudcat if we are going down this path of advising, say, the war room of the obama team and the war room is asked: what do i do in the south to keep those voters or to get those voters what do you tell them? >> i think you tell them the same thing you tell the democratic party and donnie's dad, don, has been a proponent of this for a long time. we have a fight down here. and we are just for the doing it the democrats for all practical purposes are continuing to write off the south. i mean if you look at the 2004 campaign with john kerri, he wrote off 223 electoral votes before labor day in the south.
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i mean it's crazy. and i mean we are sitting here now fighting eric cantor and, you know, we don't have, you know ryan canfy -- rank and file democrats. not many. we have had, you know, a few. >> we are not writing off village, mudcat. >> that's -- >> but virginia is only a portion of the south. let me tell you there are states in the south like mississippi. i mean it's easy in mississippi to get to 47, 48%. donnie will tell you getting the 50% plus 1 is tough. >> he is right. you are right, mudcat. there are a couple of things to look at. one is the village and north carolina are battleground states. they have not been for more than 30 years before barack obama. south carolina and texas whose population is changing. maybe in 4, 8, 12 years, south carolina and texas will be battleground states. to make another point about what murder cat said, to win a
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statewide election in the deep south, the democrats only need to win about 1 out of 3 white voters. 1 out of 3. >> 1 out of 3 to 1 out of 4. >> in mississippi. exact right exactly right. you don't have to win a majority of the white vote to win statewide elections. the democrats haven't found the key to that. mudcat understands that. a lot of good democrats have been fighting that fight. we will see when that shift happens. >> mudcat, you agree demographics are going to make up in the deficit over maybe the next -- >> i don't think it has to do -- governor, in all honesty, i don't think it has to do with demographics. if you don't play the game you can't win. if you go to mississippi -- i will use mississippi as an example. i bet they don't have three employees in the state democratic party. and i mean we are forgotten america, the south is. and we are going to miss the train on it if we are not careful. i know donnie will tell you
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this: we are a different breed of democrats in the south. i mean it's hard to be a democrat down here. many areas of south carolina and where i am from and in the appalachian, it is socially and cull the structurally unacceptable to say you are a democrat. if you say you are, you better be ready to fight. we are a fighting bunch of democrats here in the 7th district of virg. >> that's why we are going to take on eric cantor whether anybody else wants to or not. >> man, i am telling you we want you fighting. i mean we want to expand that fighting sense, not just in virginia but all across the country. we appreciate you coming in and giving people something to fight alongside. >> that's donnie fowler and mudcat saunders coming in to the war room. >> thank you, governor. >> up next. >> donnie i will give you a call. >> i love it. just because it's not being talked about doesn't mean that it's not important. we are going to look at the romney-ryan ticket's foreign policy experience or lack
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thereof. you are in the war room. it's only on (applause) the best political insight leads to the best political foresight. first pick, i'm going to shock the world and pick, paul ryan. brillant. okay... with the number that just came out he's more inclined to throw long. in which case, i think the long one is paul ryan because the risks are higher. here in the obama war room... putting satire aside, i agree paul ryan would be great for democrats. intellectual debate. see the future "live" weeknights starting at 7pm. uygur. spitzer. granholm. only on current tv.
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>> you will apply a decision-making process that relies very heavily on facts, and he will distrust the state department. now, i have to tell you as you point out, somebody who has a lot of experiences, i am for any candidate who distrusts the state department over a candidate who trusts the state department.
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>> that's former house speaker and presidential candidate newt gingrich explaining how he thinks mitt romney is going to conduct foreign affairs if he is elected president. two things come to mind after hearing newt's myselfings firstusings, first is he advocating a president not have faith in his own state department? for a more grounded view on how mitt romney would can conduct fortunately policy if he were to be elected, we will turn to james man in washington d.c. a former correspondent with the los angeles times, the author of several critically acclaimed books including the new york sometimes best seller the rice of the valuecans, considered to be many as the did i have definitive account of george w. bush's war cabinet and his last book is "the obamians." mr. mann thank you for joining me inside the war room? >> good to be with you govern.
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>> so, you heard that little sound beside of newt gingrich. should a president distrust their own state department? >> i don't know where to start on that one. in the first place, it's kind of dangerous to say distrust all of the people who are the -- the state department is composed of people who are out there living in countries who know the language. do some of them become overly sam pat i thinkic to the country, yeah. >> an old phenomenon in this. is the state department bureaucratic but to say you are not going to listen to the state department is crazy and dangerous. secondly, it's an inaccurate prediction of what romney will do. it's also kind of hipypocritical for gingrich because i covered gingrich in the 1990s as speaker of the house and to tell you the
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truth, he didn't challenge bill clinton much. there was a republican jesse helms, who was challenging bill clinton left and right. that wasn't gingrich. i don't know where he is coming from on this. >> who knows? who knows what has happened in the interim. let's listen to a sound byte from mitt romney slamming president obama on foreign affairs. take a listen. >> in dealings with other nations, he has given trust where it is not earned insult and apology where it was not due. >> is it fair to paint president obama as an apologist? >> it's not fair. everyone who has looked at the record, we can take apologies in two senses. really referring to an actual apology, everyone who has looked at it says they can't find it in obama's record. okay. if he is taking the broader meaning of kind of expressing regret for specific things sure i mean not only hasbol
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apologized but people tend to forget. i counted with george bush that he had apologized to the chinese over a plane incident. george bush apologized after abu abgraib and on a trip to africa if we are losing the looser definition of apology. what's wrong with that? i have problems seeing what the problem is. i don't get i apologize issue. >> i am interested in the differences between how mitt romney would lead his foreign policy endeavors. mitt romney talks as a hawk. do you think he would lead as a hawk or would his approach be similar topom president obama's? >> i have yet to see any serious concrete policy differences with the possible exception of romney's position on israel. but generally speaking i think
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that what we are hearing from the romney campaign now is campaign rhetoric rather than policy differences with obama. >> well, so what do you -- what do you consider to be the biggest foreign policy threat to the u.s. in the next four years? and will president obama handle it? will it be different from that the mitt romney from what you could read between the lines. >> the biggest pending issue would be iran's nuclear program, and romney has said that he would not shrink from using force if necessary to stop that program. but that is also obama has not ruled out the use of force. i am not sure that there is a difference there. the more long-range issue is china. and although romney has said he would declare china a currency manipulator on his first day in office, that sounds like more
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than it is. there are no policy or economic ramifications other than the fact that the u.s. has called china a currency manipulator and while i think that would be a good thing to do, it's -- i am not sure what flows from it, and i am not sure romney would do it. >> he could do what donald trump said he would do just tell those chinese to stop, you know manipulating the currency of course. you actually say that you were surprised when researching for this book to learn how much of a details guy the president is when it comes to foreign policy. why did that surprise you? >> it surprised me because i don't think he gave any indication of that in campaign he mounted a very coherent attack on the war in iraq. he showed familiarity with policy issues but he struck me as the kind of person who might delegate a lot of foreign policy to other people. and while he does really, it's
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turned out that obama, himself, is the person laying out the kind of strategy and vision on foreign policy. seems to spend quite a bit of time on it. >> it's an interesting thing to imagine what an obama doctorine would be or how a romney doctorine however that might be would be different from an obama doctorine. obviously the obama administration has done pretty well in foreign policy at least from a non-foreign policy. i appreciate you coming inside the war room. i am holding up your book james mann author of "the obamanians." brett erlich takes digital stock of the reaction from paul ryan's election. >> coming up i will have the internet's response to paul ryan assuming, you know i am not attack by a bear shark. it's like chicken and crunchy stuff
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