vice president, biden, took the obama's case to blue collar youngstown casting mitt romney as a son of privilege and vice president saying his record suggests that governor romney cares more about profits than workers. >> my mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams. >> they don't get us. they don't get who we are. >> now, word from the vice president was from a battleground within the battleground. let's look at ohio. this is the 2008 map. barack obama carried the state 52% to 48%. a lot of red in here for john mccain. president obama went where the people are. this is youngstown. this is where the vice president was. in the general election, then senator obama carried it quite convincingly. this was hillary clinton country. you have white, blue collar workers. i am going to bring the state back. hillary clinton carried ohio big-time. president obama winning where you have african-american population. white blue collar workers, a big problem for barack obama. why will this be a battleground in the fall? because it always is. this is the 2008 election. senator obama winning a decent margin, 52-47. that's pretty close. george w. bush just barely winning. what's different about 2008 and 2004. look down here. hamilton county, cincinnati, president obama then senator obama carried it then. make that go off. president bush carried it in '04 and 2000. the suburbs around cleveland and columbus and cincinnati, those are the big battle grounds in a general election in ohio. watch for the candidates to be there in the weeks ahead. governor romney not in ohio. he was in another huge battleground state. he had the industrial states as he drew this contrast. >> we are able to help create over 100,000 jobs and secondly, on the president's watch, about 100,000 jobs were lost in the auto industry in auto dealers and auto manufacturers. so he is hardly one to point a finger. >> our chief political analyst, glor gloria borger is here. that will be key in battleground, ohio. if you ask the voters, president obama carried it in 2008. republicans had a great year in 2010. as we head into 2012, they seem a bit conflicted as to the psychology of this election. how is the economy doing? >> one of the reasons ohio is such a battleground state. there is a mixed message there. by a 2-1 margin, people in ohio believe the state is in a recession. the country is in a recession. 55% also believe that the economy, the recovery has begun. people that believe that, that's good for president obama. people who believe they are still in a recession and it is terrible, 2-1. that would be better for mitt romney. this is going to be fought, as you point out and i was talking to a romney adviser today, senior romney adviser, this is going to be fought in the suburbs of cleveland, cincinnati, columbus and particularly suburban women. >> it is fascinating. if you go back campaign, four more years, four more years, the state hardly changes. certain areas are locked in to republicans. certain to democrats. you have the suburban area right around cincinnati and columbus and the suburban area up along the lake. suburban voters and women, like in pennsylvania, in the bigger states when they are locked so close, that's usually the key. >> the romney people believe that they can really do well with married suburban women. president obama's campaign believes that they have a lock on the younger, single suburban women and urban women. that's going to be the real battleground. we talk about a large, gender gap throughout country. in these specific suburban areas, it is where it really counts in a battleground. >> the vice president is important to this president. that's his biggest weaknesses, the white, blue collar guys that work with their hands. >> you heard joe biden make the class argument i would say very, very strongliy today. they don't know how we feel in juncti youngstown, ohio. that is a message that joe biden can deliver. >> we are going to spend a lot of time. ohio, ohio, ohio. qul worry so much about just one state. this one state could settle the election. no republican has won the white house in modern times without carrying ohio. republican governor, john casey, joins us to discuss the 2012 political terrain. you are in the midst of perhaps the most competitive battleground state. vice president biden was there to say romney was a bad guy. >> then, there is the romney philosophy which says slong tass the government helps the guys at the top to do well, workers in small businesses and communities can fend for themselves but the country will be okay if the big guy is doing well. >> you hear this coming. romney is rich. he is greedy, he doesn't care about you, the guy that works with his hands. what does governor romney need to do to counter that? >> well, john, look. this state of ohio had a near death experience in the last few years. we came in. we lost 600,000 jobs. 400,000 in the last four years. our credit was going down the drain. we had an $8 billion hold. working with the legislature, with he were able to balance the budget, cut taxes, build up the rainy day fund from 89 cents to $240 million. get our credit upgraded when the united states' credit went down and get our credit improved out here. when governor romney was out here, i told him, i said, we are following the formula of streamlining regulations and being a job creating friendly, balancing budgets, cutting taxes and, you know, using common sense. if you get to be president, we are going to do more of that. frankly, what happens out of washington, it creates a wind in my face. uncertainly over obama care and their tax policy. uncertainly over the regulatory policy. when joe talks about small businesses, this is paralyzing small business's ability to make decisions. when they don't have certainly, they go the other way. in ohio, we have given them certainty and things have been improved. when we get a romney presidency, they are going to get much better. >> help me with the empathy case. it was a tough campaign. you like to get on the factory floor and grab people in the streets and shake their hands. that's the knock when governor romney doesn't make the connection. what does he need to do to be better? >> what people really want to know from their doctor, if you are going to make me feel better or give me some security when it comes to my work. if i'm not working, my family is in trouble. when i am working, the fact of the matter, my whole family is doing better. all this high-fiving, it goes to a certain degree. it is frankly about, people are worried out here and they want to have some sense that tomorrow will be better. that's what he needs to communicate. that's what i've told him. >> you know the politician that you used to work in this town, washington, you were smart enough to get out. a lot of people look at the the electoral map and look at presidential history and say romney needs to win ohio. so why not pick portman to be your number two. >> i think rob portman would be a great pick. i am not even going to express no interest, because that indicates interest. i think rob portman would be a great pick. at the end of the day, voters don't vote on the basis of vice president. we always talk about. it gets everybody fired up. i can remember when bob dole picked jack kemp. my god, isn't it great. at the end of the day, it gets down to obama and romney. what it's going to get down to is this. obama is going to say, i inherited a mess and i'm make being it better. romney is going to say, you haven't made it good enough. i can do far better than you have. it will get down to mom and dad and the kids in the living room saying, who do i trust? not who the vice president is. >> governor john kasich minutes ago. governor romney says he will be a better president because of his experience. a scary video brings back memories of uncontrolled acceleration in some cars. if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this. ♪ got it all. here. have a good day, honey. i love you, ok. bye, mom. 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as long as there are identity thieves, we'll be there. we're lifelock. and we offer the most comprehensive identity theft protection ever created. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. >> is romney says he has a much better understanding. to grade him these are the big factors, his record at the private investment firm in bain capital. his performance as massachusetts governor and his promises this year. >> lower the marginal rate and get rid of some of the deductions and special rates that big companies get. we are going to get the rates down, particularly for small businesses. >> as we continue our record card, a closer look raises some questions. he claims he created 10,000 jobs. other times, like today, he said that number was as many as 100,000. >> we invested in over 100,000 different businesses and those businesses have now added over 100,000 jobs. >> now, the massachusetts record also is a mixed message, unemployment fell during his term. the state gained about 50,000 jobs. massachusetts ranked 47th among the 50 states in job growth those years. >> i came into a state that was in real trouble, huge budget gap, losing jobs every month. we turned it around, three out of four years, unemployment below the national average. we ended up with 4.7. i am proud of what we were able to do in a tough situation. >> as for his promises, it is a mix of lower taxes, less regulation and trust me. >> my plans get the economy going again. i spent my life in the private sector. i know what it takes to create jobs and to bring business back. >> so does romney's private and public sector resume give him mornea more know-how. >> andy and robert joining me. andy, let me go to you first. let's go through the points. governor romney and his campaign have given different numbers when it comes to bain capital, a private equity firm. how can they give a better, more consistent one or is there one? >> it is difficult to give an accurate answer on the number of jobs created, because of the number of companies they invested in and the number of companies they created and the period of time over which they were open and when governor romney was there or not there. staples alone accounts for 90,000 jobs. private equity firms, that's what they do. they want growth and higher profits. they want real economic growth. governor romney did spectacularly well with that while he was with bain capital. >> mr. secretary, the democrats, including the obama campaign seizing on one company where they did shut it down. is it fair if you try to look at his record at bain to say, as andy just mentioned, staples at a plus, do we have to look at it at all or can you pick out individuals? >> i think you have to look at it and ask yourself the very fundamental question and that is, does private equity and private equity firms generally, do they create a lot of jobs? are they great for the economy? is it moving money from one set of pockets to another? what is private equity all about anyway? private equity managers, such as bain capital and mitt romney, have lived off of a loophole allowing them to treat were earnings as capital gains. that's why mitt romney pays a tax rate of only about 14% or 13%. private equity is not a magic trick. it is a trick. it is not generating a lot of new jobs. that's like saying anybody who invests in any job creating company is creating those jobs. the creation of the jobs come from the individuals who are managing that firm. since bain capital left that firm. >> is private equity a trick? >> it is no the a trick at all. there is so much in that i hope i get a chance to address it. if you are a private equity firm, you want to buy a company at a multiple of its cash flow. let's say they had $1 million. it was for sale. the founder wanted to leave. you would buy it at a six multiple, so you would pay $6 million for the company. you want that company to grow. you want the cash flow to grow and you want the company to improve so the market will give you a higher multiple when you go public again. you do what you can. you work on marketing products and how they manufacture. you work on cutting expenses and creating new ways for the company to make money. you want to add jobs and for it to grow and get bigger. when it does, the market values at an eight multiple. you get the cash flow to $1.5 million. now, you can sell it for $12 million. the profits don't just go to some private equity guys that are looking sitting around trying to make money. it goes to pension funds that invest and to university endo you endowmentes. if you can't find a preach are or a fireman that doesn't have some of their funds invested with private equity, that loophole was there when clinton was president. it was there when president obama had control of the house. he had a filibuster improved in the senate. nobody, even congressman levin, who tried to get captured interest taxed as ordinary income, nobody would too it. it incentivizes a particular conduct. nobody has gotten rid of it. it has been very, very successful. >> we could continue this conversation. i think we will almost every day between now and the election. i want to ask one more question. there i a lot more i would like to cover. andy, to you first and then to you, secretary rice. governor romney says he has these turn around skills. i understand when he was governor, nationally, it was a tough time wechlt should put that on the table. if he is so much better than everybody else at this, why was massachusetts 47th out of the 50? >> what you are looking at is a percentage. massachusetts didn't start off with 10% unemployment. they were little above the national average at 5.6 when he took over his government. they were bleeding jobs. when he left, they had created tens of thousands of jobs. he had employment at 4.7%, which was under the national rate. if you wanted a job in massachusetts, when mitt romney was governor, you could get one. i wish you could say the same in the united states today. >> mr. secretary, when he was governor, did he do as well as he could given the national economic circumstances? >> in his first three years, he generated or presided over an economy that generated 5,600 jobs. that's not a lot of jobs. over the last 26 months, the administration, granted, we are talking about the entire nation. the obama administration has generated or presided over an economy that has generated 4.2 million jobs. we have got to be very clear about this. to try to compare what one governor has done in one very small time period with what the entire nation is doing tore try to say that because somebody was a private equity manager that could very quickly pump and dump companies using short-term strategies such as wall street has been using for years and got us into a big mound of trouble is ludicrous. the question is, which of these men can be trusted to preside over an economy that is recovering, that should be recovering and going in the right direction already? i think the answer is president obama is showing that he can take an impossible situation and actually get the economy going again. >> gentlemen, i appreciate your passion on this issue. it is a defining question of the campaign. as i say thank you tonight, i will say before i do say thank you, we will have you back another day. a lot more ground to cover on this, both governor romney and the president's record. thanks to you. the truth about the group spending record amounts of money to spend your own. >> a company on shoes that you might own fined millions for false advertising. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. when the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first week... i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. welcome back. here is kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know. good evening, everyone. some sad news to tell you about first. cnn has confirmed the death of mary kennedy, the second wife of robe robe robert f. kennedy jr. a body was discovered. they are not commenting on published reports that she committed suicide. closing arguments are tomorrow in the john edwards trial. his defense team rested their case after presenting only two days of testimony. without calling edwards, his daughter or one-time mistress to the witness stand. the jury may begin deliberations on friday. we will continue to watch that. if you didn't get kim kardashian's rocking body after wearing sketcher's sneakers, you can get a refund. the federal trade commission said they deceived people saying they would lose weight without going to the gym. shoes i know that you have in your closet. >> kim kardashian's what? >> i just read what they write, sometimes. >> don't ever say that. you are no ron bergen, you are not. kate will be back in a little bit. a little twist in the scandal of a former assistant coach accused of molesting boys. his wife is suing the network that broke that. a couple's car sped up to 80 miles an hour. they say that video right there proves it. 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