between now and august. and now is really important. at the beginning of the week the buzz and momentum appeared to be with newt gingrich. now have the pendulum may swing toward mitt romney which makes tonight s debate potentially crucial in the trajectory toward the primary on tuesday. bret: more on this with the panel. thank you. let s talk more about crucial constituency in florida. americans who are spending their sunset years in the sunshine state. steve harrigan tells us about the senior vote. the most powerful vote move slowly. seniors make up one-third of the florida republicans but because of their vote, the influence is especially greater. i want to see the country come back to reporter: what many say they are looking for is less of the specific policy on social security or medicare and more a personal quality in the candidate. a toughness. i want a man to stand up for a man or woman to stand up and say i m going to fight for this country, to bring it back
don t want. i m looking for at this point, honestly, anybody but obama. anyone but obama. fact tries and the jobs they grew up with are gone. everything has been moved overseas because it is cheaper but that doesn t make it better. sooner or later we will not be able to afford the things we buy because nothing is made here anymore. what they are, whoing for in a candidate more than any specific policy on social security or medicare is a quality, a toughness. i want a man to attend up, a man or woman, to stand up and say, i ll going to fight for this country to bring it back where it was, and i ll be honest and open. if you like it fine. if you don t like it, vote me out. i would like to see more respect for our country. everybody hates the americans. we have become the ugly american. and, why? we have no one to stand up for us. toughness is what we are hearing over and over again, what seniors are looking for
an idea that has bipartisan sport, at least outside of washington. some of what s broken has to do with the way congress does its business these days. a simple majority is no longer enough to get anything, even routine business, passed through the senate. neither party has been blamed. now both parties should put an end to it. for starters, i ask them to pass a simple rule that all judicial and public nominations receive a simple umor down vote within 90 days. the executive branch also needs to change. too often, it s inefficient, outdated, and remote. that s why i have asked this congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so our government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the american people. finally, none of this can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. we need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction. that politics is about clinging to ridge
the romney campaign, nothing from the perry campaign. romney has a problem, he s playing it safe this may be a problem this year. that s the not proposing a tax cut. not doing anything specific on social security or medicare. that s the conventional politics. don t take any risklr put details on the take. is this a conventional year? you have a lot of republican voters who want people to show leadership. they want somebody to say if we win we have to reform the government. here s how. romney is not. he s playing a conventional, political game. in what may not be the right year to do so. this could be good for romney. if perry is not guarded enough, romney has been too guarded. remember when he was being heckled a few weeks ago and go angry? that offered a sense of authenticity in him not present before and the base of the republican party reacted well to that. it could be this back and
i think that s the direction we really need to move. shannon: what for is you a deal breaker or deal maker? what couldn t you vote for. i can t support something that balances our budgetary problems on the backs of our most vulnerable, our seniors, that does nothing to raise revenue, that allows, you know, these special interest tax cuts that go on at the expense of people on social security or medicare. medicare and social security haven t resulted in the current deficit. they do need work in terms of their long-term solvency. we shouldn t mix the two and, you know, balance our current deficit problems on their back. i don t think that s right. i don t think it s fair. i am willing, and i think most people are outside the beltway to have a shared sacrifice where things that are sacred to me have to sacrifice, some people that are sacred to the other side have to sacrifice, and, you know, we have seen it in the past with reagan and tipp o neal. if ronald reagan and tipp o neal coul