welcome to the journal editorial report, i'm paul gigot, in a pre-election change of heart. president obama came out in support of gay marriage, telling robin roberts at abc news, he personally believes that same sex couples should be able to wed and why now? will it help or hurt the president's reelection chances? let's go wall street journal columnist and dan henninger. and james toronto and editorial board member dorothy rabinowicz. james, it's been leaking out from the white house that this was planned sometime before the election, maybe at the democratic national convention time and that biden moved this up because of the timing of his remarks. how do you read it? >> well, there are two things going on here, all right? one, is all right, from a political standpoint. this is about money. "the washington post" reported recently that one in six of obama's top bundlers, people who raise large sums of money from other people are gay and also a lot of the reporters had been threatening not to denate money having to do with an issue and contracts and coming from pressure from

i'm paul gigot. heading into the memorial day weekend and as the presidential campaign kicks into high gear, the conservative political action committee cross roads gps went up with an ad this week in ten swing states reportedly the center piece of a $25 million tv buy. the piece is not your typical attack on president obama. instead, tapping into voters' economic anxiety. here is part of the ad. i always loved watching the kids play basketball. i still do even though things have changed. they can't find jobs to get their careers started and i can't afford to retire and now we are all leving together again. >> earlier i spoke to cross roads cofounder and former george w. bush advisor karl rove and asked him why the ad doesn't teak on the president more directly? >> first of all, an effective ad is in part an effective narrative. and that is based on what people believe they know and what the american people think they know and it is accurate is that their economic condition is not particularly good.

>> i haven't been on the computer. >> paul: and i'm paul gigot, and hope to see you right here next week. . >> jon: on fox news watch. >> every day you receive a steady stream of sensationalism and scandal. stories with a message that suggests change isn't possible. >> jon: the president takes a shot at the media for only reporting bad news and an agenda, but when it comes to the issues which really matter, where is the good news and who is reporting it? was this gd

i'm paul gigot, fresh from a fund raising wing t >> paul: fresh through a swing of manhattan through an apartment big wig tony james is president obama rolled out a long expected attack on mitt romney's ties to private equity. campaign released an ad blaming romney and his former firm bain capital for 2001 closing of steel company in kansas city. >> i know how businesses works. i know why jobs come and go. >> bain capital was the majority owner. they were responsible. mitt romney was deeply involved were the influence he exercised over these companies. >> it made as much money off of it oos they could. they filed for bankruptcy without any concern with families in communities. >> paul: joining the panel this week, columnist dan henninger and james freeman and washington columnist kim straussel. you looked into the closing of plant. tell us what the facts are the reality? >> it's not really the ad. you have 1993 the steel industry is a wreck. hundreds of thousands laying off. companies are losing billions of dollars and a plant in kansas city. i spoke to someone that was vice presiden

>> i haven't been on the computer. >> paul: and i'm paul gigot, >>> fox news alert. world leaders gathering in chicago for today's nato summit. welcome to a special extended edition of america's news headquarters. >> heather: i'm heather childers. meeting the two just delivered opening remarks at the nato summit in chicago. ed henry is there. afghanistan is front and center at the summit, right? >> reporter: absolutely. that has been the plan all along. they are trying to fill in the details of how this mission will end the next few years. the last time president obama sat down with president karzai was when he on a secret mission around the anniversary of the death of osama bin laden. at that point they signed a pact that would show that the u.s. would be out with all combat operations by the end of 2014. since then, france has elected a new president, president hollande who ran on a platform by getting his troops out 2012. so president obama is working to keep this coalition together. he was making clear that the u.s. even beyond 2014 will be committed to afghanist

. >> paul: and i'm paul gigot, and hope to see you right here next week. . >> jon: on fox news watch. >> every day you receive a steady stream of sensationalism and scandal. stories with a message that suggests change isn't possible. >> jon: the president takes a shot at the media for only reporting bad news and an agenda, but when it comes to the issues which really matter, where is the good news and who is reporting it? was this good news? news week claims mr. obama is it the first gay president or maybe this was good news. >> what kardasian was married for only 72 days. >> that would be kim. >> very good. >> jon: mitt romney made some good news. >> i want to make it very clear that i hope our campaigns can respectively be about the futures ap issues about america. >> jon: the g.o.p. faith shooting down a super pac's plan to go negative on the president's past dealings with reverend wright. how did the media react to that? newly released evidence in the trevon martin shooting case gives credibility to george zimmerman's storiment are the media covering that? with mles and billions t

thanks to my panel and especially to all of you for watching, i'm paul gigot, thanks for all of you watching, see you here next week. >> on fox news watch. >> i've just concluded that i think same sex couples should be able to get married. >> following years of confusing comments, flip-flops on the issue, a surprise statement from his vp, pressure from the press, partisan groups, mr. obama finally said it. did the revelation get the positive press he might have opened for. and the position of the washington post, mitt romney, detailing the g.o.p. front runner as a gay bashing bully. what was behind the timing of this? >> that simply is not accurate. >> and another underwear bomb plot is uncovered, foiled by a british double agent. the associated press breaking the news of the plan this week, but they he knew about it last week and was holding the story the right thing to do? >> joe biden strikes again, giving his off the wall take on the iran's nuclear threat. is it time for the media to i go dor the vice-president. and does dancing on stage bake you a bad journalist? on the panel this week,

i'll paul gigot. captioned by closed captioning services, inc. >>> on fox news watch. >> in the period from january to april of this year, the three newscasts discussed romney's wealth 27 times. the same period 2004 they discussed kerry's finances twice. >> is there a media double standard when it many coulds to reporting on the wealth of candidates? and why is this so important? >> stop attack private equity and jeremiah wright. this stuff has got to stop. >> newark mayor corey bookary rising star in the democratic party takes a shot at the obama campaign. how did the liberal press react. >> an act of sabotage. >> the polls have him up. the

i'll paul gigot. we hope to see you right here captioned by closed captioning services, inc. >>> on fox news watch. >> in the period from january to april of this year, the three newscasts discussed romney's wealth 27 times. the same period 2004 they discussed kerry's finances twice. >> is there a media double standard when it many coulds to reporting on the wealth of candidates? and why is this so important? >> stop attack private equity and jeremiah wright. this stuff has got to stop. >> newark mayor corey bookary rising star in the democratic party takes a shot at the obama campaign. how did the liberal press react. >> an act of sabotage. >> the polls have him up. the

i'm paul gigot, fresh from a fund raising swing through manhattan, but included a top at apartment of tony james. and president obama rolled out a long expected attack on republican rival mitt romney's ties to, well, private equity. the campaign released an ad blaming romney and former firm, boehner capital for the 2001 closing of gst steel in kansas city. >> i know how this works, why jobs come and why they go? >> and they were responsible, mitt romney was deeply involved in the influence that he exercised over these companies. >> they made as much money off it as they could and they closed it down and they filed for bankruptcy without any concerns to families or to the communities. >> and can't handle stuff-- >> and joining the panel this week, wall street columnist dan henninger. assistant editor, james freeman and washington columnist kim strassel. >> you spent all week looking into the story the closing of that steel plant in kansas city. why don't you tell us what the facts are. the reality of what really happens? >> it's not really the ad. you have 1993, the steel industry is a

thanks to my panel and especially to all of you for watching, i'm paul gigot, thanks for all of you watching, see you here ne >> on fox news watch. >> i've just concluded that i think same sex couples should be able to get married. >> following years of confusing comments, flip-flops on the issue, a surprise statement from his vp, pressure from the press, partisan groups, mr. obama finally said it. did the revelation get the positive press he might have opened for. and the position of the washington post, mitt romney, detailing the g.o.p. front runner as a gay bashing bully. what was behind the timing of this? >> that simply is not accurate. >> and another underwear bomb plot is uncovered, foiled by a british double agent. the associated press breaking the news of the plan this week, but they he knew about it last week and was holding the story the right thing to do? >> joe biden strikes again, giving his off the wall take on the iran's nuclear threat. is it time for the media to i go dor the vice-president. and does dancing on stage bake you a bad journalist? on the panel this week, writer

they left the labor force, as paul gigot was just telling us. employers added only 115,000 jobs last month, that's the smallest gain since october and not even enough to keep up with population growth. daniel hemminger is editor of the wall "the wall street journal." the president is talking about student loans and jobs and the economy, what should he be telling them? >> well, i think probably, jon, try to start thinking about matching your education with the job market as it exists out there. clearly, we have a high youth unemployment rate in this country, and it is in no small part because a lot of the, oh, college degrees that people are taking into the workplace -- mainly in the humanities -- simply don't match the kind of jobs that exist out there right now. so many of these people taking jobs that are well below their skill level. so, you know, it's interesting, jon, that the president is mainly these days pushing this 3.4% college loan rate that he's so in favor of. i have to say with college tuitions now running between $30,000, in some

my name is paul gigot. i'm the editorial page editor of the "wall street journal," and i'm delighted to welcome you all here to the inaugural event of the opinion journal event series. we're going -- this is the first one. and we're delighted you're all here. and we hope to do this on occasion three or four times during a year. and it's great to have you all here in this turnout and for a really interesting inaugural event amid the presidential election season. we've got two experts here, karl rove, the star of stage and screen. before that a deputy white house chief of staff. and architect, to quote a famous person's word. of two winning presidential election campaigns and many would say also architect of the revival of the republican party in texas. joe trippi is his sometime debater on television. he is a noted democratic strategist, one of the innovators in the use of the internet and social media in political campaigns. he's also the man who helped to bring howard dean that close to winning the democra

brit hume fox analyst and liz marlantes christian science mon identity are and paul paul gigot. and juan williams. juan what do you make of this is it a plus or minus. >> if you look at the poll numbers it is a wash. most say it is not impacting the way they vote. but more people are less locly to vote for the president than more likelyy to vote for the president. i look at the democratic base and excites the young americans who don't have a problem with gay marriage. where it will cause a problem is older social conservative overwhelmingly republicans that don't vote for him. but think about the socially conservative states like virginia, wisconsin and potentially michigan, and that could be a problem where you have a large -- not large. but independent voters who have doubts . with africa-american voters, it is still the case, most africa-american do not support gay marriage. are they willing to not show up in the polls in support of president obama? >> you will see in the polling after the president's announcement. 55 percent of the africa-americans still oppose the gay marri

[cheers and applause] jon: let's talk about those claims with paul gigot. he is the editorial page editor of "the wall street journal" so what the president would have us belief he has done a great job i guess of managing our federal spending. has he? >> the only thing i think you can agree with him on he did inherit a recession that did increase spending, there is no question about that. the problem he has is the recession ended officially, in the middle of 2009. and yet spending has continued to increase at the same kind of pace. since world war ii the share, the best measure of spending is how much of the whole economy does the federal government spend? what percentage does it take? it has never been above 24%, except for the last four years since world war ii. we have had $700 billion increase in spending. average of about 5.2% a year, according to glen kessler of "the washington post" who looked at the claims the president made and compared them to reality. this is, i know he wants to say it is not his fault but i don't think the facts add up. jon: he

i'm paul gigot.

i'm paul gigot.

list marlantes, paul gigot and one williams. >> juan, what do you make of this? a plus or minus for the president? >> you took at the poll numbers it is sort of a wash. most people say it will not impact the way they vote. in you break it down there are more people less likely to vote for the president than those who say they are more likely to vote for the president. i look at it in terms of the democratic base. it excites a lot of the young people. young americans just don't have a problem with gay marriage. where it could cause a problem is with older socially conservative people or republicans who weren't going to vote for him anyway. then you think about the socially conservative states like, virginia, and wisconsin and some place like, michigan, and that could be a problem for criminal them when you have a large -- it is not large with you a substantial number of independent voters who say they have some doubts. one other thought i have here, shannon, is that with african american voters. it is still the case most of a concern americans do not support gay m

my name is paul gigot. i'm delighted to welcome you all to the inaugural event of the communal defense series. we're delighted you're all here. we hope to do this on occasion three or four times during the year. it is great to have you all here and to turn out for an interesting inaugural event amid the presidential election season. we have two experts here -- karl rove, the star of stage and screen. before that, the deputy white house chief of staff and architect who "of the two winning presidential winning campaigns" and some would say the architect of the revival of the republican party in texas. joe tricktrippy is a sometimes r on television. he is in a democratic strategist, one of the innovators in the use of the internet and social media in political campaigns. he was also the man who helped to bring howard dean that close to winning the democratic nomination. he was one shout away from the presidency. -- and help with jerry brown's campaign in california in 2010 as well as many campaigns overseas. i

let's talk about it with paul gigot, editorial page editor for "the wall street journal," we're at an interesting time. you've got greece basically bankrupt and threatening to leave the eurozone because it's people don't like the austerity program that its government imposed. the french government, the number two economy in europe, trying to bring in an austerity program, and they get voted out of office in favor of the socialist. >> yeah, it's really a mess. what you in some respect is the revolt of the national local economies against the austerity programs that have been put in place. but they don't really have a lot of alternatives. i mean, what is greece eastern? it doesn't really, they can decide to leave the eurozone, but that would mean they don't have euros anymore, they have drachmas, and those would immediately be devalued by 80, 90%, so they take a huge devaluation in their standard of living. but that's the fundamental choice the greeks are going to have to make in their next election. jon: and you said, i mean, we read so much about a nation, greece, potentially going ba