columnist david from, the host of the fromme forum and former speechwriter for george w. bush. thank you for being here. the one thing we re going to be hearing about in the next 12 months, david i put it to you, a gop set of primaries, looking for a candidate, talking about the middle class, who represents the middle class in this country? the the democrats are trying to make some speeches that the democrats are the party of the middle class, republicans the party of the rich. the republicans struggling with that themselves. david, what s your sense of how republicans are positioning themselves and who this country represents the vast majority of people, the middle class. i don t think anybody is doing a very good job of it. the president gave a speech in kansas in which he tried to stake out this ground and gave an assessment of the major problems facing middle-class americans. his prescriptions were really weak. the president s main idea seems to be to have higher taxes
diane swonk, old friend, chief of messere, aux financial. we re talking about the middle class. who represents the middle class in this country. the democrats are trying to make the point with speeches by president obama in the last couple of weeks. democrats are the party of the middle class. republicans are the party of the rich. republicans obviously are struggling with that themselves. david, what s your sense of how republicans are thinksing themselves and who in this country represents the vast majority of people, the middle class. i don t think anybody is doing a very good job of it of the president gave a speech in kansas a week ago in which he tried to stake out this ground. he gave a very good assessment of problems facing middle class americans. his descriptions were really weak. the president s main idea seems to be to have higher taxes on those who earn a lot and to use that money to expand public employment and hope more public employment will create a broad
energy and china when he was campaigning. he promised us thousands of green jobs. he shut down drilling in the gulf more or less. he hasn t replaced them with another industry. in china he simply hasn t acted. that trade debt is choking the economy, there s not enough demand for what americans make and the economy doesn t move forward. he doesn t have a compliant congress at the moment, specifically parts of the house of representatives. that s true. the reason he doesn t is because he squandered his first year. now as a consequence, the country elected a congress that wants a change in direction. the congress for its part doesn t seem much capable of providing it. to say mr. obama is alone in not getting us out of this mess would not be fair. the republicans aren t providing a path either. this is a senior fellow at demos and author of it takes a pillage, epic power, deceit and untold trillions. the americans condition to give president obama low marks, only 9% say t
stand, reports of explosions near a compound where he may be hiding. and i m carol costello. a new poll predicting a tight race in 2012, whether obama versus romney, bachmann, perry or paul on this american morning. good morning to you. it is tuesday, august 23rd. this is american morning. we have a lot going on today here. this weather in the united states. that s right. politics and, of course the developments in libya. start with breaking news in the battle for libya this morning. the arabic news network al arabiya reporting explosions near the compound where moammar gadhafi is believed to be hiding, this coming as the regime is teetering on the bring of collapse. nobody has seen gadhafi since the opposition rolled into tripoli over the weekend. his son, saif al islam, made a surprise appearance after the libyan opposition claimed they captured him. he showed up at a western hotel with journalists and spoke to matthew chance and said his father is alive and