happening in massachusetts and what was happening in the private sector at six times the rate that was happening in the private sector. his record whether it was at bain capital, and whether it was as governor of massachusetts, it was not a record of reducing debt and not a record of increasing private job creation, having the 47th out of 50 states. except if you look over time, most of the companies did well and most of them paid off the debt. if you look at staples, for example, it was enormous. i think the problem the president s got you re a normal america, look at the price of gasoline and the foreclosure rate which is coming down in part because so many houses have been foreclosed and look at the unemployment numbers and you say to yourself, why would i believe barack obama would be any better in the second term and that s why i think romney has a very strong case to say it s time to try a different approach. during the campaign you said, you know what?
press conference and lay out what his experience was at bain? do you think he ought to do that? i think people looked at it and i can just tell you this is why i don t understand the obama campaign strategy here. bain has an issue that doesn t work because people looked at it in balance and you can pick a couple of companies that lost. you can pick a couple of companies that succeeded and as the governor of massachusetts said last week, it is a good company and a good track record. you said this is a character issue for romney, ultimately. his time in business and what he did. if you look at what happened, he had the press conferences is it a character issue to you and to the president? i think it s more of a qualification issue. there s nothing that governor romney did either in the private sector that created jobs or in the public sector that distinguished himself as a job creator. there s a tremendous amount of balance that s required to be president of the united states
when people are given a choice, particularly new americans, with more jobs and new opportunity or return to the days of george w. bush. they want to move speaking of bush they want to rub the 2004 campaign to make it a referendum. they have to do that because they can t live in the record, but look, let s talk about spending more. the president said he was shocked to discover shovel-ready jobs weren t shovel-ready. romney represents private investment. romney made an education proposal this week that would actually improve the education of poor americans and improve the education of american with disabilities while lowering the cost. if new york city if your child goes to a catholic school and costs two-thirds as much as the public school and they re dramatically more likely to go to college and the same thing with charter schools across the country and this is the fight not over more or less.
of social conservatives there and they ll have to turn out that vote in order to offset what s going on here. a lot to talk about moving forward including how things stand in the battleground states. the maris poll, it s the president s 48 to romney s 42% and they re both below 50 and more on the battlegrounds as we continue. let s bring in our roundtable now. here with us washington post columnist and author of our divided heart e.j. dionne and the former chair of hewlett-packard carly fiorina is also with us and the democratic mayor of los angeles antonio villaraigosa. the mayor spearheading the return of the great los angeles damagers as they re off to a great season under terrific new ownership and mr. mayor, my divided sports heart. welcome to all of you here. i want to start, david brooks, where i ended with the governor and speaker.
the things that this governor is doing. i think mitt romney has to step back on this sat some point and he hasn t done it yet. final item is the question of colin powell. will he endorse in this race? it came up in the context of russia and romney. one of his folks saying russia was the biggest strategic threat to the united states. colin powell was on msnbc and had this reaction. governor romney not too long ago said the russian federation is the number one geostrategic threat. come on, think. that isn t the case. i don t know if mitt really thinks that, or if someone told him. i don t know, you ask him. it s been catching a lot of heck from the more regular gop community. we re kind of taken a back by it. carly, quickly, is foreign affairs will be a target of