dan balz why do you so where coalition? >> guest: i thought this election was a collision between a lot of things that collision between the americas the america that elected president of bombing 2008 and the america that elected the republicans to take control of the house in 2010. there was a collision of philosophies, of ideology and really a collision between two quite different personalities and people in president obama governor romney. if you think about where each of them came from, they could have been more different. >> host: was there a point when the winner of the collision could have been? >> guest: well you can argue a year out the president was very vulnerable. in large part to cut as it was not clear what was going to happen with the economy. as we played out the election to things. one, think of presidents camp and was more skillful and more effective both in the consistency and the shaping of its message and also just in the sort of its organization and get out the vote operation in many of the things they

[applause] and next to me right here is dan balz. dan is it chief correspondent of the "washington post." he has served as the paper's national editor political editor, white house correspondent and southwest correspondent. dan has co-authored the 1996 book entitled storming the gates, or test politics and the republican revival. in 2009 dan cho wrote with the late haynes johnson the bestseller, the battle for america 2008, the story of an extraordinary election about the 2008 presidential election and this year dan wrote the book "collision 2012" obama versus romney and the future of elections in america. "collision 2012" provides incredibly detailed rich insights into both the election campaign and makes for fascinating reading. in 2011, dan received the white house correspondents association smith award for writing about the presidency and the national press club award for political analysis. dan is a regular panelist on tbs's "washington week" in "msnbc"'s daily rundown and a frequent guest on other public affairs shows. please j

covering the week, dan balz of the "washington post." john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times." indira lakshmanan of "bloomberg news" and jeff zeleny of abc news. >> reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we went out and asked people a simple question -- how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90's and that's a great thing. but one thing that hasn't changed, the official retirement age. the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years? >> additional corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by northrop grumman. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to pbs stations from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator

jeremy scahill, and dan balz. now as you can see we are following mark halperin and john heilemann to the sign in a. mark halperin is wearing a microphone and will be able to listen in as he signed books with in talks with some people that were in the audience. but we also want to get your reaction to what you saw mark halperin and john heilemann talking about as a reaction to the election 2012 panel. this is live coverage in miami on tv. as we went for john heilemann to get started let's get some, get you calling them. here are the numbers, (202) 585-3890 for those in the eastern and central time zone. (202) 585-3891 if you leave -- if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. david in hopes sound, florida, just up the coast, what was your reaction to that panel backs. >> caller: my reaction was not out to my reaction. they were actually fairly objective and answers. but even they had to express their new discussed with that audience. the audience is that we're getting at these book festivals are dispropor

scahill, earlier you were on a panel with dan balz and george packer, and one of the questioners asked you what do you see as the difference between how the bush administration and the obama administration approach the war on terror. >> right. , i mean, i think first of all it's great to be with you here on c-span and booktv. the bush with administration, i don't want to understate how atrocious i think that period was in american foreign policy. it really was like murder incorporated. the destruction of iraq, the creation of the cia black sites, the idea that the geneva convention was -- [inaudible] the abu ghraib torture, using guantanamo, you could go on and on in characterizing it. so i don't want to get into a thing about is obama worse than bush. i covered those wars, i know what happened. under president obama i think what we have is someone who has sort of rebranded some of the more egregious aspects of the bush-cheney counterterror apparatus and i think has convinced himself that they're waging a smarter war. so they're relying on the drones much more than the bush administrat

coming up, dan balz, george packer of the new yorker and jeremy scahill dirty wars. this is live coverage here on booktv. international. those of you joining us to chapman center in the lou harrison and absurd as a volunteer for many, many .. years. it's happy anniversary to the 30