and our host today. thank you so much. [ applause ] i want to acknowledge our out standing emcee peggy whitford, great friend of mine. and one of my dearest friends here in iowa, your outstanding attorney general tom miller is in the house. if you guys have a seat, feel free to take a seat. that way if it gets a little warm, i don t want anybody getting overheated. you guys are kind of out of luck. make sure you re hydrated. and abraham lincoln is in the house! [ applause ] my home boy from illinois and an outstanding republican endorsee. there you go. now, unless you ve managed to hide your television somewhere for the last year, you may be aware that it is now campaign season. and here in iowa, it seems like it s always campaign season. you guys can t get away from it. and i know that it is not always pretty to watch. there is more money flooding the system than ever before. there s more negative ads. there s more cynicism. most of what you hear in terms of the news is who
most of what you hear in terms of the news is who s up or who s down in the polls instead of how any of this relates to your lives and the country that you love. so i know that sometimes it can be tempting to lose interest and to lose heart and to get a little cynical. frankly, that s what a lot of people are betting that you do. but i m betting that you won t. i m betting that you are going to be as fired up as you were in 2008 because you understand the stakes for america. most of you are here because you know that even though sometimes our politics seems real small and petty. the stakes in this election could not be bigger. what s at stake is bigger than two candidates. it s bigger than two political parties. what s at stake is two very different visions for our country. cedar rapids, the choice that we make, it will help determine our direction for years to come. that choice is going to be up to you. obama! that s a good choice. [ applause ] this will be my last polit
republicans are increasingly nervous that mitt romney is kicking away a winnable election. it began with a tweet from rupert murdoch and is now spreading throughout his media empire. and now a lot of conservatives who never liked romney are saying, i told you so. also, remember when pennsylvania s republican house majority leader said voter i.d. laws would help mitt romney win the election? here s what he was talking about. a new study shows that three quarters of a million people in the state don t have the proper identification and most of them are likely democratic voters. and not even scarlett o hara said the aim ashley so much. look, ashley. ashley. ashley. ashley, ashley, ashley. what s not respectful, ashley? ashley ashley, ashley, ashley, i ll say it again. that s joe wallach with ashley ban field trying to defend his position that tammy duckworth is not a hero. duckworth lost both legs fighting in iraq and she joins us tonight. and our joe walsh highlight
a substantial decline from the job numbers we saw in january, february and march. now, it s a similar slowdown to a slowdown we have seen in previous years. the hope, obviously, is that we get more job growth later in the year. that s a hope both economically and politically but it s very hard to make good news out of today s job numbers. mr. bernstein, where is it headed? i think we re aware of the statistic that says since world war ii no president has been re-elected when the unemployment rate was north of 7.4%. is it likely that 8.2 could get under 7.4 between now and november? absolutely not. you never know, but that is way outside anyone s forecast. the most optimistic forecast i ve seen to have the unemployment rate trending down a bit below 8% by the end of the year. but frankly between now and then, absent some very important and necessary economic policies to generate more job growth, which gridlock will probably block, it s hard to see things change that much.
been a big supporter among other things, of gay marriage. but get this. the actor s mother jane pitt wrote a letter to a local missouri newspaper in response to an op-ed advising christians not to vote for romney because of his mormon religion. she wrote any christian who does not vote on writes in a name is casting a vote for romney s opponent, barack hussein obama. a man who sat in jeremiah wright s chair for years, did not mark the national day of prayer and is the liberal who supports the killing of babies and same-sex marriage. i guess that s why it s a good rule of thumb to steer clear of politic at family get togethers, right? and this one has the added touch of going viral. finally, illinois congressman joe walsh is drawing criticism for blasting tammy duckworth, his democratic challenger in the race for using her military experience for her campaign. walsh spoke with ashley banfield yesterday and gave new meaning