when candidates the debate, they are playing both offense and defense. they have attacks they cannot wait to launch and they have questions they would rather not answer. ezra klein has been working on the latter part of that today. on the worst-case scenarios for both candidates. toughest questions they know they will face that they are not looking forward to tonight. ezra, thank you for joining us. happy debate tonight, rachel. thank you. it s my favorite night in politics. let s start with president obama. what do you think the most challenging question the president is likely to face tonight? the toughest question for the president is about a graph that his administration released, and it was before they were an administration. back in september of 08 when they were in transition. it was about how to sell the stimulus. it said, if you pass our stimulus bill, we will keep unemployment below 8% for the rest of the administration. is, ill never go above that. unemployment went u
si, that he candidacies, that he knows economics, he knows how to get things rolling. so you really feel like this is an area, especially with the eurozone and the problems that may trickle down to our country, for him to stand up and get specific. that s right. i think, actually, it would be appealing. i think the conviction and a firm plan and a willingness to be forthright about what he would do is going to be required. that moment might never come, but it might come if there is a feeling in this country come august or september that we are not greece, but that we are affected by what s going on with the eurozone crisis. and that could be a lehman brothers-like moment that happened to senator john mccain and senator barack obama in september of 08, and it could be a test of his leadership, and he should be ready to pass it. rick: but you know what happens, a.b., when politicians who are running for office get specific and start making concrete proposals and promises. then they
mountains of free money lying around. look, i would differ with dan in one respect. remember in 1997. the asian contagion and currency crisis, the united states sailed through that, even though numerous asian economies collapsed in the summer. what we need to do is look at europe and understand what it means when you run an entitlement state decades after decade. and what about the absolute now? remember september of 08, in the united states? if we d let everybody crash, it would not have tarp, what would have happened? our problems cannot be attributed now to europe, our exposure to europe is limited. trade with europe has been growing and europe is an objectless son in the failure of a welfare state. if we should have europe going on its own, and maybe stop giving them bad advice.
remember in 1997. the asian contagion and currency crisis, the united states sailed through that, even though numerous asian economies collapsed in the summer. what we need to do is look at europe and understand what it means when you run an entitlement state decades after decade. and what about the absolute now? remember september of 08, in the united states? if we d let everybody crash, it would not have tarp, what would have happened? our problems cannot be attributed now to europe, our exposure to europe is limited. trade with europe has been growing and europe is an objectless son in the failure of a welfare state. if we should have europe going on its own, and maybe stop giving them bad advice. spain has 18%, and what s the advice. raise value added tax. income taxes in spain are among the highest in europe.
mountains of free money lying around. look, i would differ with dan in one respect. remember in 1997. the asian contagion and currency crisis, the united states sailed through that, even though numerous asian economies collapsed in the summer. what we need to do is look at europe and understand what it means when you run an entitlement state decades after decade. and what about the absolute now? remember september of 08, in the united states? if we d let everybody crash, it would not have tarp, what would have happened? our problems cannot be attributed now to europe, our exposure to europe is limited. trade with europe has been growing and europe is an objectless son in the failure of a welfare state. if we should have europe going on its own, and maybe stop giving them bad advice.