shows like this, and all across msnbc, and our competitive stations, as well. this is going to be about ideology. this isn t going to be about what the unemployment rate happens to be this week. it s going to be about where we re headed. who are we as a country? what do we believe in? what philosophy should drive us? the president laid down that marker today. it s about what you believe we should be. it seems to me, over the weekend, he s made the point that he wants this campaign to be about ideas and purpose. you know, you re right about that, chris. and i hate to plug my own book, but he spent much of 2011 setting up the campaign exactly in this fashion. he wants it not to be a referendum on him and the economy for obvious reasons. he wants it to be a choice in values and visions from what he has to offer, progressive set of values and visions, and the romney view, which is he caused backwards on tax policy and look how he just described romney. he basically called him mr. monopol
and also he doesn t want to give romney a nano second of an opportunity to start moving back to the center after that weird and wacky and crazy republican primary season. so that s why he s coming out strong and just trying to keep and define him severely conservative and a guy who may know the value of profits but not the value of values. chris, what romney seems to want to do is say hey, gang, let s all go to b school. let s all go to business, school, make as much money as we can any way you make it. and by the way, if you vote for me, you can be like me. you can be just like me. that s what he s offering. i would put it slightly differently. i think what he s basically saying, chris, it s a variation on your point. i think what he s saying is look, we tried a guy who didn t have deep experience in the private sector as president, and in romney s assessment, that didn t work. what he s pitching himself as is a guy who has spent his life fixing the problem which is
chris, that the president was first informed of this in april by john brennan, his top counterterrorism official. he directed homeland security and law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take whatever steps were necessary. i am told separately that we were working very closely with saudi intelligence on this, because this man al asiri who was the master designer of bombs and still is at loose we believe in yemen had also designed the bomb that did successfully explode. it was an attempted assassination in 2009 against a top saudi official, the son of prince nayyaf, the interior minister, who is himself a top counterterrorism official. he was injured in that attempted assassination in jeddah, saudi arabia. so you had three known instances where al asiri did design bombs. one was the cartridge bombs that pete williams pointed out. the other, of course, was the underwear bomber in 2009. and then the successful attempt
there s more to do. we re on the right track, but there s more to do. and the president made clear mitt romney is not the one to do it for us. he doesn t seem to understand that maximizing profits by whatever means necessary, whether through layoffs or outsourcing or tax avoidance or union busting, might not always be good for the average american or for the american economy. i don t care how many ways you try to explain it, corporations aren t people. people are people. with six months until election day and two new polls showing mitt romney and barack obama nearly even right now, both candidates are in overdrive to define the other. chris with the washington post and david corn washington bureau chief and author of the book showdown. let me go to david corn on this, it seems to me that this is going to be a campaign that s going to be great to cover on
has to offer, progressive set of values and visions, and the romney view, which is he caused backwards on tax policy and look how he just described romney. he basically called him mr. monopoly. a guy who just cares about profits and such. so he wants this debate now. and also he doesn t want to give romney a nano second of an opportunity to start moving back to the center after that weird and wacky and crazy republican primary season. so that s why he s coming out strong and just trying to keep and define him severely conservative and a guy who may know the value of profits but not the value of values. chris, what romney seems to want to do is say hey, gang, let s all go to b school. let s all go to business, school, make as much money as we can any way you make it. and by the way, if you vote for me, you can be like me. you can be just like me. that s what he s offering. i would put it slightly differently. i think what he s basically saying, chris, it s a variation on your poin