at this news conference? nothing in this press conference or the last week has altered my view that democrats do not have anything right now in their arsenal to stop a wave. what they have and what they are trying to do is pick-off individual races where they can save members by disqualifying republicans. that is right now, two months to go, not something that s doing to work in many case because it s going to be at this point very big, not just in house races but senate races as well. right now the president is not leading a counter-force that s fog to stop that wave. i m not sure i agree with that, actually, andrea. mark is right, it s too soon to know. these campaigns kick off on labor day. he s had a pretty good week. he can nationalize this. if he states the choice starkly enough, drives it home, maybe challenges boehner and mcconnell
negatives. these don t fit on bumper stickers. what does fit on bumper sticker, he has a problem with cogency, tax cuts for the rich or middle america. that s the choice. he s got a plan to build on the infrastructure that began last year. republicans want to extend tax cuts for those making over $250,000. this is a good issue for him. even in this news conference it wasn t stated starkly enough. most busy people don t have time to sort through the double negatives and complexities of washington. they need a straight up choice and he needs to get sharper in the way he frames that choice. and mark halperin, you were the first to say it could be a tidal wave, tsunami, it could be 60 seats. where do you stand today, especially watching the relaunch
deemphasize the global scale and the need to understand how muslims in this country are standing shoulder to shoulder with us. we can t move in a direction of anti-muslim sentiment if we re going to prevail over all. we ll leave it there. that is a good note to end on this eve of the commemoration. thank you gene robinson and david gregory. we ll be talking to david axelrod and former mayor rudy giuliani. coming up, is president obama giving republicans the upper hand on the economy. your thoughts, find me on twitter@mitchell reports. is that it allows me to be outside. [ male announcer ] we bet you ll love zyrtec®, too or it s free. [ vonetta ] it is countdown to marshmallow time. [ woman laughs ]
isn t that what i should be doing? i would assume that s what republican think we should be doing, stimulate growth and jobs. i will continue on trying to stimulate growth and jobs as long as i m president of the united states. chuck, did he leave open going along with tax cuts for all. send me middle class tax extension, send me that, and we ll talk about the other stuff. this is a game that is going on between the two parties. republicans have said what about temporary two-year extension. add up two years. they would love the debate again in two years in another even numbered year, 2012. the president wants to not have the same argument he doesn t want middle class tax cuts to
summer that wasn t a recovery summer but his first answer was at least 15 minutes. where was the energy and passion? well, i thought he had a little more rough-and-tumble in terms of framing the argument with the economy, what he s going to do there, negotiating on taxes. i think he s trying to frame this as a national message, we ve done some things getting you in the right direction. it s republicans unreasonable. i keep pointing out 60% of voters who disapprove of the president. these are folks who have a problem with taxes and spending and the deficit. they have a problem with how washington isn t working very well right now. to the extent he can cast republicans as being totally unreasonable, he s better off. on the tax issue, these corporate tax breaks, i ve talked to business leaders who are very supportive of the president on this. they say this is late, where was this before, this is exactly what they want to see. i think it may be an interesting