She doesnt know where the jobs come from in the first place . He was referring to what she herself said on the campaign trail last fall. nt let anybody tell you that, um, you know, its corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know, that old theory trickle down economics. That has been tried, that has failed, it has failed rather spectacularly. Well, romney went after that comment and attacked her former record on foreign affairs, calling the administration tim mid, and cluelessly perezed a reset button for russia, which smiled and then invaded ukraine. The middle east, and much of north africa is also in chaos. Ron fournier is senior political columnist, and ann geren is with the washington post, and amy is a political report with the great new york times. Thank you, we have the heavywaits here tonight. First of all, is this the new macho test like at a carnival, you have to bring the hammer down . You have to hit the presumed democratic nominee to show youve got it . And its the easiest thing for the republicans to do, is to go after the presumed nominee. The problem is thats not all they should do. They also have to show they have a governing philosophy and inspirational message. If all they do is attack Hillary Clinton, shell be the next president. Wasnt governor romney familiar with the fact that already we had a reset button, we were trying to open things up with russia, maybe put ago smile on it . But at least Hillary Clinton didnt do what w did. He said i looked into putins soul and found, what, god . I would be careful of that russian that future look at russia if i were a republican. I was the one who asked the question where bush said i looked into his soul. As bush way saying it, i couldnt hear him. I was looking at putins eyes like youre not getting out of this country, young man. It was the scariest thing. Burn saw something different. I saw something different. The gender comes into this always, you never know weve seen debates between a male and female. George bush taking on ferrara, and joe biden taking on sarah palin. How will it go . Can you make direct shots, bakley saying youre no good . Hillary clinton is none of those people, right . Shes a completely a creature apart. Theres no other equivalent of that combines all the former things shes been plus her celebrity status, plus her inevitability twice now as a candidate. So attacking her is totally fair, but you may not want to use it with words like tim mid and clueless, which have some sexist conostations, and happen to be very wrong. Certainly in the example you used, Hillary Clinton was anything but tim mid on russia during her tenure as secretary of state. She had a pretty cleareyed view of exactly what was happening there and tried to make it a very transactional relationship. I would go for the left on her and say you wanted to go interestr into libya, syria, a bit serious there for being haushish. And she tried to figure out whether russia could help eda9 they did help. They helped on afghanistan, frankly. They allowed a land route for resupply, which was hugely important during the years that the Afghanistan War was heating up. She credits them with that, but she also now is saying very tough things about putin. Just last week in canada, she had this odd moment where she mimicked him, but your point her point was you cant trust this guy. I think one of the most effective things in politics, Ronald Reagan was schooled in it called the attack from the defensive position, set it up so your opponent is attacking you. Your opponent looks like theyre coming too strong and you do something like, there, go again and you win the election. It seems she must be getting ready i assume for all these arrows, and is going to set up an sdi system your thoughts . 100 i would say shes the most effective when on the defense. Remember the New Hampshire primary where obama said shes likable enough. I think thats when voters kind of connect with her and she resonates more. 2b rwhr gdjcs÷