venth, two months or so? been seeing, or you ve been seeing in some of your polling? the numbers bounce a round a little bit. a couple of weeks ago governor romney had a good week an was up a little bit. a couple of weeks before that president obama was up by a fair amount. but generally both candidates are stuck in this mid 40 percent range. we talk about all the demographics. the president does better among younger voters and women and romney has his core groups, white working class democrats are a swing constituency. the real numbers we should be focusing on are the economy. the changes in the economy, what s happening in the stock market, what is happening in the employment market, these are going to determine who wins in november. jenna: that s really interesting you mention that. in fact if we can show where the stock market is today we could get that up on the screen, it s down 180 points. we are seeing the stock market lower, we are seeing relief when it comes to gas prices.
being an advisor that has the president s ear and president has to rely on. now the other day there was a story about some of the campaign people meeting with the president and vice president was not in the room. seemed like a shot at the vice president. but from what i have learned subsequently, they do expect him to be the attack dog. they do expect him to be a valuable part of this campaign and they want him to go out there, allow the president to be the nice guy and he can be the bad cop in some of these situations. jon: at the same time, mary katherine, people don t pull the lever or punch the card for vice president, do they? aren t they voting for top of the ticket? i think there is a risk here if he is too much of an attack dog and gets too mean and nasty and learns that sort of warm goofy thing that allows everybody in the press, that is crazy old uncle joe making a mistake again. if he loses that, gets held accountable for mistakes more. that could be a problem for them. he
roosevelt, speak softly and carry a big stick, end of quote. i promise you, the president has a big stick. i promise you. [laughter] are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. wer surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy. new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could ve had a v8.
small businesses. we ve got to make sure we are doing everything we can instead to grow jobs and get this economy back on track. where is the president s plan to stop the largest tax increase in american history from occurring on january the 1st? reporter: there are automatic plans in spending in place agreed to last year. republicans say they are a blunt object and could be replaced with other cuts. democrats say there is another way. tax increases. so i say to the 41 republicans and senator hatch who sent me this letter, move on revenues, we could have had a deal a longtime ago. reporter: he also says higher healthcare costs for an abling population will be a huge factor in the budgets. some analysts say the absolutely worst thing for the economy is the uncertainty overall this as businesses wait to see what washington does to make hiring easier or harder and to keep the economy growing. jenna: a lot of dynamics at play. thank you very much for that. we have a new poll that s
hope that doesn t happen again. thank you. jenna: more today on the new challenges regarding the president s health care law as catholic leaders file suit in federal court to block the contraception mandate, arguing the requirement to provide birth control coverage for their employees violates their freedom of religion. this is igniting yet again the conversation about government and religion coexist in this country. in an editorial in the wall street journal our next guest maps out why she thinks institutions of civil society like the catholic church and some of the services they provide are essential to limited government. the proper functioning of government in our country. her name is mary ann glendon. a professor at harvard law school and religious liberty expert. a good person to talk to on the subject. nice to have you here today. pleasure to be here. one of the parts of your editorial that stood out to me when you talked about why civil institutions like the church serve