>>> hi, everyone i'm tamara hall. governor mitt romney 's latest description of himself with 11 days left in this campaign, he's now the change agent. in the last hour governor romney gave what his campaign referred to as a major economic speech. the backdrop of the speech, a construction company in ames, iowa. romney for the second time in as many days attempted to paint himself as the change needed to face challenges.
>> what this requires is change. change from the course of the last four years. it requires that we put aside the small and the petty and demand the scale of change we deserve. we need real change . big change.
>> in that excerpt alone one, two, three, four, five references to the word change and romney 's new selling points as being the cane of change was the highlight of a speech he gave last night in ohio where he trails president obama in recent polls.
>> given the big challenges we have and the big election we have it's time for a big change. paul and i represent a big change for america. we recognize this is a year with a big choice and the americans want to see big changes and i'm going to bring it to this country.
>> as for the president he's off the campaign trail today. instead he's sitting down for ten interviews including with "news nation" regular that aired only minutes ago.
>> governor romney 's economic policies are reverting back to the same policies that i inherited that led us to the slowest job growth in 50 years, record deficits, and the worst economic crisis since the great depression.
>> also today brand new polling in two important states out in the wild west . our nbc news " wall street journal " m.arist poll has the president holding on to his lead in nevada . that same poll putting governor romney and the president in a dead even race in colorado. national daily tracking polls from "the washington post " and abc news gives romney a three-point advantage. let's bring in our panel. zachary , you were here with me, we were watching governor romney 's speech. what was the major part of this speech that he revealed today?
>> i'm at a loss to figure out what the major part was. it was any different than the talking points at the debates. he rehashed those. he talked about slinging bureaucracy, energy independence , ending the war on coal, closing the skills gap and liking business. all of that is part of the campaign. these are the talking points . it's 11 days. be a lot to expect a specific or brand new policy to be unveiled. but there's a big gap between how this was promoted as a major economic address, and the fact that really it was just another grab bag campaign and he spent far more time attacking the legacy of the past four years and attacking obama than he did offer any particular vision of what would to be done specifically.
>> republicans criticized the president when he handed out his plan and said it was the same thing. the president said he outlined what he sees is the vision of the future for this country at the dnc. i'll bring it back to what we saw today. real change , real recovery the headline of the speech from governor romney . can you tell me what the real change or major part of the speech was today?
>> well, i think the speech honed in on those things that are the failed policies of president obama . the american public is tired of a stagnant economy. we need someone in the white house who can work with the private sector , work with both parties in congress to craft a set of policies that will spur the private-sector, will lead to 4% growth year after year that will lead to 12 million jobs. the reality is the results for president obama are not there. we have 1.3% growth which is not where we need. we have one in six americans living in poverty. we have a growth in the number of folks receiving food stamps . the policies have not worked and it's time for something different.
>> did you see the gdp numbers that came out today?
>> we did. and i know that there's quite a bit of government spending taking place at the federal level but the reality is there's still billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines. private sector has not inreceived in the future.
>> let me explain to our audience the gdp expanded at 2% annual rate. that's above the 1.9 estimate. governor romney was not impressed with that number but zachary that is more than any other industrialized country .
>> right. it may not be more than china but anywhere in western europe and most of the countries of the western hemisphere . this has been a very challenging global economic environment . you're hard pressed to lay that at the president's door. if romney was president i would say the same thing. the president has a lot of power but controlling the wealth of the global system is beyond what the president is capable of doing and we're living in a little bit of a fantasy land when we act like everything that's gone on economically in the united states in the past four wears is a product of administration policies which will change if that administration gets change.
>> part of what governor romney had to say regarding gdp , slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take home pay. this is what four years of president obama 's policy has produced. americans are ready for change. what do you make of that? mitt romney says he's the agent of change. the president says the policies that are being outlined by republicans not change it's just bush.
>> yeah. i think governor romney 's political strategy is failing. it's failing in the key states that he has to win and here's why. for the first time really in years americans perception of is this year better than last year has gone up. and mitt romney wants to paint a picture of gloom and doom like you heard my republican colleague try to paint and the problem is you have governor kasich, republican governor in ohio saying ohio is back, ohio has recovered. at the same time ohio voters are hearing that message they are hearing mitt romney say gloom and doom. look, the auto bailout, all the policies that the president put in place to bring the economy back all those things have underscored this general perception especially in places like ohio , wisconsin , iowa where the unemployment rate is lower than the national average and economic recovery is tied directly to some of these policies the president put in place. the romney message isn't resonating. he's on the wrong message. he's hoping for gloom and doom. the rest of us are betting for a strong u.s. economy . we're seeing that going in the right direction. governor romney 's strategy is failing.
>> how can you say that when the polls show governor romney is leading.
>> i'm looking at ohio . where the president is expanding his lead. i'm looking at wisconsin where mitt romney , his running mate is from wisconsin the guy has never led in wisconsin not once. so if you look at the key states , national polls mean nothing to me. nothing. look at the key states you'll see why mitt romney 's strategy of economic gloom and doom is failing.
>> ann, oil bring you in --
>> there's republican policies in place in virginia and wisconsin and ohio .
>> absolutely. they are all republican governors who are out there saying look at our state. we're doing pretty well.
>> let me get in here, danny there has been a conflict on how the republicans will handle those key states that have an unemployment rate that's below the national average trying to give the credit to the republican governor by skirt ago round the president and that's not been successful. you mentioned polls. we know this is about math. we know the lucky number . when you look at colorado and nevada , for example, right now they are neck an neck as we pointed out in our new poll. in nevada the president is holding on to the lead. governor romney needs ohio . he has boots on the ground and he's been on the ground. why do you believe he's not been able to break the fever of being the underdog, if you will, in ohio despite the fact that he's banking heavily on white middle class working class men where he leads in a number of places but not in ohio . why aren't they buying his mess saks danny ?
>> i still think we have several days left in this campaign. i still think it comes down to voter turnout come november 6th and i think at the end of the day when people have an opportunity to make a decision to actually go into the voting booth and decide on what future they want for their state and country it will come down to someone who understands how to motivate and stimulate and move the private sector in the direction of creating jobs. that's what we'll hopefully see. i agree it will come down to ohio , ohio , ohio .
>> i'm curious how much it will come down to ohio . will it come down to people going in to vote and think president obama says that he certainly subscribes to the plan of this country that was laid out by bill clinton . that gave us better years. governor romney even today did not make a distinction between what he would like to put in place and what we saw in the bush years when we saw what was referred to as the worst economic downturn since the great depression. will it boil down to who these two men's economic plans mirror?
>> possibly. although i don't know that people will necessarily correlate them just with their parties. one of the reasons you hear governor romney talk about change is he's banking on people not necessarily associating him with bush. it's not as he and former president bush have been campaigning arm in arm and are friends. of course they share many advisers. what he's saying the last four years haven't worked. forget the party i.d., it's not working. you can see it with your own eyes. as your guests have been discussing that may not work in places where the unemployment rate is not as low or excuse me as high as in the rest of the country. nonetheless why you hear him say the word change for people don't like the way they feel and want to try something else.
>> in the latest polling people are more optimistic about their future. the president doesn't get credit for that in the polls meaning when you see the optimism number and who is leading the economy in the right direction he doesn't get credit for. this optimism has to be coming from somewhere to yes president bush is not campaigning alongside governor romney but who is campaigning alongside president obama is bill clinton in several states .
>> sure. absolutely. i think it's a valid question to ask whether people who live in states that have republican governors might give credit there instead of the president. the administration always says the president can control the economic single-handedly. there may be people who believe that's true. people make decisions on all kind of things. it may not gone as quickly as they wanted.
>> why do you think in ohio the president is still leading? when you look at the demographics of that state what should be a favoring climate or favorable climate minus the auto bailout industry or auto bailout for the car industry why hasn't mitt romney been able to pass the president in the numbers so far in ohio .
>> that's a bigamy news.
>> i think so. but republicans have tried to diminish it.
>> sure. but i think that is obviously a place where it's a state where some of the president's policies can be pointsed to. it's a mist reand something both campaigns have been asking themselves the attempt to reconciliation it a the numbers with national numbers. it remains a mystery. that's why everybody is looking ahead to election day . it's the real head scratcher at this moment.
>> we'll talk about that later. i want to bring in another number today zachary that folks are talking about the national association of manufacturers looked at the fiscal cliff that we're hovering over and according to them a million jobs in jeopardy this year. based on the fact that businesses are worried about what is coming here.
>> clearly there's a lot of wait and see attitude on the part of the private-sector based ones what happens not just on november 6th but two month lame duck period because they are concerned the whole tax structure will change come january 1st . it looks to be a decent but not great recovery. i think the larger point that's somewhat troubling but here in the haiku of this. government is in trouble. or there's a degree of misguidance and believing this government is the panacea. a lot of our problems are decades in the making.
>> and manufacturing what our future is.
>> that goes out the window. suddenly it's one person in the white house who will change 30 years of trajectory.
>> we see that argument with gas price as if the president can change the price of gas. i have to transition to john sununu and colin powell . we can talk about numbers all day long but this is another buzz story. let me play what mr. sununu said on cnn.
>> when you take a look at colin powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama .
>> what reason would that be?
>> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states , i applaud colin for standing with him.
>> may it be the mourdock comment at the beginning of the week regarding rape or john sununu with this line here. he said colin powell is a friend and believes he based his decision on policies. but that's not what he said initially. what do you make of members of your party? we're talking about mr. sununu and his comment that colin powell was backing president obama because he's black.
>> the reality is individuals make comments on both sides that both candidates don't agree with both campaigns.
>> he's a surrogate not an individual.
>> colin powell is a great american. he's made his individual decisions on his who criteria. i don't attribute that to anything other than his own personal views and feelings. at the end. day it's about the thrust and focus and message of the two campaigns and that's what the voters have to come down to.
>> let me just say john sununu was channels his inner rush limbaugh . if you recall back in '08 rush limbaugh said the only reason general powell , secretary powell is endorsing barack obama is because they are both african- americans . the demographics of this country are trending against the republicans and the republicans are exacerbating that. so i just think -- i think actually john sununu did us a favor. he showed us exactly the mentality of divide and conquer that seems to be going on in the republican party . this is the same republican party that for the first time in 100 years is pushing back for the rolling back of voting reits like in states of pennsylvania and virginia . it's awful. john sununu did us a favor by putting a face to that and putting it in words.
>> go ahead.
>> democrats have no room to talk about the twid and conquer because they are the ones dividing this nation along socio-economic lines. this nation celebrated hard work. this is a time to laud folks pulling themselves up by the boot straps and creating successful lives.
>> that would be nice, danny but i have to ask you. if that's the case and you believe democrats are divided why then is the president leading with latino voters by incredible number around 60%.
>> well because frankly my party has done an awful job in the last six or seven years.
>> in way of division or how do you describe that?
>> in terms of talking about some of the issues that we as latinos care about. governor romney has made it very clear he'll work with congress and both parties and he's demonstrated the ability to work across party lines to reach solutions.
>> thank you so much. danny , ann, david, zachary . we have breaking news. maryland and virginia declare states of emergency ahead of hurricane sandy. bill karins
>> what this requires is change. change from the course of the last four years. it requires that we put aside the small and the petty and demand the scale of change we deserve. we need real change . big change.
>> in that excerpt alone one, two, three, four, five references to the word change and romney 's new selling points as being the cane of change was the highlight of a speech he gave last night in ohio where he trails president obama in recent polls.
>> given the big challenges we have and the big election we have it's time for a big change. paul and i represent a big change for america. we recognize this is a year with a big choice and the americans want to see big changes and i'm going to bring it to this country.
>> as for the president he's off the campaign trail today. instead he's sitting down for ten interviews including with "news nation" regular that aired only minutes ago.
>> governor romney 's economic policies are reverting back to the same policies that i inherited that led us to the slowest job growth in 50 years, record deficits, and the worst economic crisis since the great depression.
>> also today brand new polling in two important states out in the wild west . our nbc news " wall street journal " m.arist poll has the president holding on to his lead in nevada . that same poll putting governor romney and the president in a dead even race in colorado. national daily tracking polls from "the washington post " and abc news gives romney a three-point advantage. let's bring in our panel. zachary , you were here with me, we were watching governor romney 's speech. what was the major part of this speech that he revealed today?
>> i'm at a loss to figure out what the major part was. it was any different than the talking points at the debates. he rehashed those. he talked about slinging bureaucracy, energy independence , ending the war on coal, closing the skills gap and liking business. all of that is part of the campaign. these are the talking points . it's 11 days. be a lot to expect a specific or brand new policy to be unveiled. but there's a big gap between how this was promoted as a major economic address, and the fact that really it was just another grab bag campaign and he spent far more time attacking the legacy of the past four years and attacking obama than he did offer any particular vision of what would to be done specifically.
>> republicans criticized the president when he handed out his plan and said it was the same thing. the president said he outlined what he sees is the vision of the future for this country at the dnc. i'll bring it back to what we saw today. real change , real recovery the headline of the speech from governor romney . can you tell me what the real change or major part of the speech was today?
>> well, i think the speech honed in on those things that are the failed policies of president obama . the american public is tired of a stagnant economy. we need someone in the white house who can work with the private sector , work with both parties in congress to craft a set of policies that will spur the private-sector, will lead to 4% growth year after year that will lead to 12 million jobs. the reality is the results for president obama are not there. we have 1.3% growth which is not where we need. we have one in six americans living in poverty. we have a growth in the number of folks receiving food stamps . the policies have not worked and it's time for something different.
>> did you see the gdp numbers that came out today?
>> we did. and i know that there's quite a bit of government spending taking place at the federal level but the reality is there's still billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines. private sector has not inreceived in the future.
>> let me explain to our audience the gdp expanded at 2% annual rate. that's above the 1.9 estimate. governor romney was not impressed with that number but zachary that is more than any other industrialized country .
>> right. it may not be more than china but anywhere in western europe and most of the countries of the western hemisphere . this has been a very challenging global economic environment . you're hard pressed to lay that at the president's door. if romney was president i would say the same thing. the president has a lot of power but controlling the wealth of the global system is beyond what the president is capable of doing and we're living in a little bit of a fantasy land when we act like everything that's gone on economically in the united states in the past four wears is a product of administration policies which will change if that administration gets change.
>> part of what governor romney had to say regarding gdp , slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take home pay. this is what four years of president obama 's policy has produced. americans are ready for change. what do you make of that? mitt romney says he's the agent of change. the president says the policies that are being outlined by republicans not change it's just bush.
>> yeah. i think governor romney 's political strategy is failing. it's failing in the key states that he has to win and here's why. for the first time really in years americans perception of is this year better than last year has gone up. and mitt romney wants to paint a picture of gloom and doom like you heard my republican colleague try to paint and the problem is you have governor kasich, republican governor in ohio saying ohio is back, ohio has recovered. at the same time ohio voters are hearing that message they are hearing mitt romney say gloom and doom. look, the auto bailout, all the policies that the president put in place to bring the economy back all those things have underscored this general perception especially in places like ohio , wisconsin , iowa where the unemployment rate is lower than the national average and economic recovery is tied directly to some of these policies the president put in place. the romney message isn't resonating. he's on the wrong message. he's hoping for gloom and doom. the rest of us are betting for a strong u.s. economy . we're seeing that going in the right direction. governor romney 's strategy is failing.
>> how can you say that when the polls show governor romney is leading.
>> i'm looking at ohio . where the president is expanding his lead. i'm looking at wisconsin where mitt romney , his running mate is from wisconsin the guy has never led in wisconsin not once. so if you look at the key states , national polls mean nothing to me. nothing. look at the key states you'll see why mitt romney 's strategy of economic gloom and doom is failing.
>> ann, oil bring you in --
>> there's republican policies in place in virginia and wisconsin and ohio .
>> absolutely. they are all republican governors who are out there saying look at our state. we're doing pretty well.
>> let me get in here, danny there has been a conflict on how the republicans will handle those key states that have an unemployment rate that's below the national average trying to give the credit to the republican governor by skirt ago round the president and that's not been successful. you mentioned polls. we know this is about math. we know the lucky number . when you look at colorado and nevada , for example, right now they are neck an neck as we pointed out in our new poll. in nevada the president is holding on to the lead. governor romney needs ohio . he has boots on the ground and he's been on the ground. why do you believe he's not been able to break the fever of being the underdog, if you will, in ohio despite the fact that he's banking heavily on white middle class working class men where he leads in a number of places but not in ohio . why aren't they buying his mess saks danny ?
>> i still think we have several days left in this campaign. i still think it comes down to voter turnout come november 6th and i think at the end of the day when people have an opportunity to make a decision to actually go into the voting booth and decide on what future they want for their state and country it will come down to someone who understands how to motivate and stimulate and move the private sector in the direction of creating jobs. that's what we'll hopefully see. i agree it will come down to ohio , ohio , ohio .
>> i'm curious how much it will come down to ohio . will it come down to people going in to vote and think president obama says that he certainly subscribes to the plan of this country that was laid out by bill clinton . that gave us better years. governor romney even today did not make a distinction between what he would like to put in place and what we saw in the bush years when we saw what was referred to as the worst economic downturn since the great depression. will it boil down to who these two men's economic plans mirror?
>> possibly. although i don't know that people will necessarily correlate them just with their parties. one of the reasons you hear governor romney talk about change is he's banking on people not necessarily associating him with bush. it's not as he and former president bush have been campaigning arm in arm and are friends. of course they share many advisers. what he's saying the last four years haven't worked. forget the party i.d., it's not working. you can see it with your own eyes. as your guests have been discussing that may not work in places where the unemployment rate is not as low or excuse me as high as in the rest of the country. nonetheless why you hear him say the word change for people don't like the way they feel and want to try something else.
>> in the latest polling people are more optimistic about their future. the president doesn't get credit for that in the polls meaning when you see the optimism number and who is leading the economy in the right direction he doesn't get credit for. this optimism has to be coming from somewhere to yes president bush is not campaigning alongside governor romney but who is campaigning alongside president obama is bill clinton in several states .
>> sure. absolutely. i think it's a valid question to ask whether people who live in states that have republican governors might give credit there instead of the president. the administration always says the president can control the economic single-handedly. there may be people who believe that's true. people make decisions on all kind of things. it may not gone as quickly as they wanted.
>> why do you think in ohio the president is still leading? when you look at the demographics of that state what should be a favoring climate or favorable climate minus the auto bailout industry or auto bailout for the car industry why hasn't mitt romney been able to pass the president in the numbers so far in ohio .
>> that's a bigamy news.
>> i think so. but republicans have tried to diminish it.
>> sure. but i think that is obviously a place where it's a state where some of the president's policies can be pointsed to. it's a mist reand something both campaigns have been asking themselves the attempt to reconciliation it a the numbers with national numbers. it remains a mystery. that's why everybody is looking ahead to election day . it's the real head scratcher at this moment.
>> we'll talk about that later. i want to bring in another number today zachary that folks are talking about the national association of manufacturers looked at the fiscal cliff that we're hovering over and according to them a million jobs in jeopardy this year. based on the fact that businesses are worried about what is coming here.
>> clearly there's a lot of wait and see attitude on the part of the private-sector based ones what happens not just on november 6th but two month lame duck period because they are concerned the whole tax structure will change come january 1st . it looks to be a decent but not great recovery. i think the larger point that's somewhat troubling but here in the haiku of this. government is in trouble. or there's a degree of misguidance and believing this government is the panacea. a lot of our problems are decades in the making.
>> and manufacturing what our future is.
>> that goes out the window. suddenly it's one person in the white house who will change 30 years of trajectory.
>> we see that argument with gas price as if the president can change the price of gas. i have to transition to john sununu and colin powell . we can talk about numbers all day long but this is another buzz story. let me play what mr. sununu said on cnn.
>> when you take a look at colin powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama .
>> what reason would that be?
>> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states , i applaud colin for standing with him.
>> may it be the mourdock comment at the beginning of the week regarding rape or john sununu with this line here. he said colin powell is a friend and believes he based his decision on policies. but that's not what he said initially. what do you make of members of your party? we're talking about mr. sununu and his comment that colin powell was backing president obama because he's black.
>> the reality is individuals make comments on both sides that both candidates don't agree with both campaigns.
>> he's a surrogate not an individual.
>> colin powell is a great american. he's made his individual decisions on his who criteria. i don't attribute that to anything other than his own personal views and feelings. at the end. day it's about the thrust and focus and message of the two campaigns and that's what the voters have to come down to.
>> let me just say john sununu was channels his inner rush limbaugh . if you recall back in '08 rush limbaugh said the only reason general powell , secretary powell is endorsing barack obama is because they are both african- americans . the demographics of this country are trending against the republicans and the republicans are exacerbating that. so i just think -- i think actually john sununu did us a favor. he showed us exactly the mentality of divide and conquer that seems to be going on in the republican party . this is the same republican party that for the first time in 100 years is pushing back for the rolling back of voting reits like in states of pennsylvania and virginia . it's awful. john sununu did us a favor by putting a face to that and putting it in words.
>> go ahead.
>> democrats have no room to talk about the twid and conquer because they are the ones dividing this nation along socio-economic lines. this nation celebrated hard work. this is a time to laud folks pulling themselves up by the boot straps and creating successful lives.
>> that would be nice, danny but i have to ask you. if that's the case and you believe democrats are divided why then is the president leading with latino voters by incredible number around 60%.
>> well because frankly my party has done an awful job in the last six or seven years.
>> in way of division or how do you describe that?
>> in terms of talking about some of the issues that we as latinos care about. governor romney has made it very clear he'll work with congress and both parties and he's demonstrated the ability to work across party lines to reach solutions.
>> thank you so much. danny , ann, david, zachary . we have breaking news. maryland and virginia declare states of emergency ahead of hurricane sandy. bill karins