that s turning. and if it continues to turn, he s going to be in much stronger shape. he also has the right tone in talking about it. he s optimistic, but not triumpha triumphant. he s not making the mistake made years ago by bush. like ronald reagan in 1984, he s drawing a dividing line. he s saying i stand for fairness. i m going to fight for prosperity and the middle class and ordinary americans. that s my cause. and quite frankly, that s a great pushoff against mitt romney. what do you make of 50%? half the country says they approve of the guy. with unemployment still high, even though it s ticked down, unemployment is still high. people have given up looking for work. 50% is pretty good given the status of the economy. we have been talking about this since his jobs speech in september. the white house came up with a campaign on what they could do to convince americans that the
our team our team, not all that good. you know it, and i know it. they re just not. howard dean, honesty, breaking out on the rush limbaugh show today, that s how bad it s gotten for republicans. that s not something you hear very often. look, these guys have a problem, because the idea was to run against obama and make obama the issue. the obama campaign is incredible. they ve been on a role since the jobs speech before labor day. and you re just not going to grind them down. the issue of this campaign is, can you trust the republicans? that is a terrible issue for the republican party, but that s the issue. the issue is can you trust the republicans, who got us into this in the first place to get us out. the other thing we haven t talked about is, in florida, the republican brand has been destroyed by the governor, who s at 30% in the polls.
listen to this. our team our team, not all that good. you know it, and i know it. they re just not. howard dean, honesty, breaking out on the rush limbaugh show today, that s how bad it s gotten for republicans. that s not something you hear very often. look, these guys have a problem, because the idea was to run against obama and make obama the issue. the obama campaign is incredible. they ve been on a role since the jobs speech before labor day. and you re just not going to grind them down. the issue of this campaign is, can you trust the republicans? that is a terrible issue for the republican party, but that s the issue. the issue is can you trust the republicans, who got us into this in the first place to get us out. the other thing we haven t talked about is, in florida, the republican brand has been destroyed by the governor, who s
he looked real. looks like he cares. it was policy drenched. so it s not just talk. here are the things. since the debt ceiling, since the jobs speech and the last few months, he s been on the road. he s been in washington fighting for things that people care about. so he hasn t been abandoning his post. that doesn t make sense. and i think you compare that to sort of name calling on the right. it looks good. he still has a heavy lift because the economy is not in a good position and a lot of people will be interested for some kind of change. but if the republicans and mitt romney, if he ends up being the nominee keeps engaging in name calling, it will make obama s job so much easier and he ll look so much better and, this is the key thing, more presidential than the competition. i m going to have to leave it there. richard wolffe, david corn. thank you both for joining us. thank you. thanks, reverend. ahead, chris christie is trying to spin his outrageous comments about the ci
poetic in his presentation. knows the language in a richer form than most people on the planet. and yet doesn t make the points he needs to punch back with. you mean winning the future didn t do it for you, chris? but the thing is, i don t disagree with jonathan s point. but i also think we live in a world where big speeches just don t bring big movements in popular opinion. people are watching the channels they watch. they are getting the news they want. and we don t have the sort of communal experience any longer with our leaders. before the debt ceiling episode was over, the president did give a speech and he did ask people to call congress and complain or demand a compromise. and the fall lines did light up for a day or two. so i think he s had some impact. but i think it s really hard in these times for him to sort of move the needle. what moves the needle now is what he s done since that jobs speech which is to get out there and fight day in, day out for his program and show th