what mistakes should he avoid that george w. bush made. look, the bush administration didn't end on a really happy note economically. >> right, right. remember the phrase no new taxes, i think that romney should be no new spending. remember the prescription drug benefit that george bush passed. >> paul: a huge expansion. >> a huge expansion, that contributed a lot to the growth of the tea party which was the insurrection inside the republican party. in 2010 they swept democrats out of office and we have the insuggestives, and one piece of data in the romney economic documents that caught my eye, he will push spending back to 20% of gdp, the average since 1968. during obama's term it's risen to about 24% of gdp. if he sticks to that, that means to spending will not rise during the romney presidency. >> paul: i would have to say romney has to avoid the bush mistakes of subsidizing housing andreated a housing bubble which led to the crisis. >> to his credit, even in places like nevada when it's been politically not, not the easiest thing to do

george w. bush does better in the suburbs. george w. sh wins the election and becomes president of the united states. virginia. this is the state where the demographics are changing. do the math first. 2004 now. see thred. in the richmond suburbs. in the washington, d.c. suburbs. that's 2004. george w. bush does very well. he wins. we come fast-forward to 2008. blue. barack obama wins the washington suburbs. wins down in the richmond suburbs. and changes this. again, he only broke even with john mccain in virginia among suburban women statewide. but closer into the city areas he does better. look at the gap for george w. bush. 17 points over john kerry amongst suburban women. anderson, close presidential elections in the united states are decided in the suburbs. one more example for you. we'll show you the state of ohio. this could be the decisive state this year. this is where president obama was today. again, a tie between obama and mccain in 2008. we know what happened. obama carried the state 52-47. you go back in time. george bush w

still, that does not mean that the george w. bush is as invisible at tonight's festivities as it is tonight. there's a tribute to both bushes which the convention aired on the convention hall floor. there's also condoleezza rice, george w. bush's former secretary of state and national security adviser, indelibly associated with the foreign policy and the wars of the bush/cheney years. she'll speak tonight in primetime, and there's early indication that vice presidential nominee paul ryan is likely to take up the topic of fourn policy at some point in his speech tonight. it's wurkt noting of the romney/ryan campaign's 24 foreign policy advisers, 17 of them are from the george w. bush administration, including 43's former spokesman, dan senor. we'll also hear from rob port nn who was george w. bush's financial director. if you're hoping to hear from or catch a glimpse of george w. himself, you will likely be disappointed. while he had a sitdown with george h.w. and barbara bush in march, the closest we came to a george w. bush sighting

he looks like a real moderate now. >> george w. bush'ss like immigration and so forth -- >> we may look back on w. as a moderate. >> thanks to eric, hugo, maggie and ari. see you back here tomorrow. until then, find us on facebook.com/nowwithalex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. good afternoon, andrea. >>> thanks so much. coming up next, how many ways can he say he's sorry? but what is todd akin sorry about? we'll hear from david brody on this topic. plus, patrick gaspar from the obama campaign and mark mckinnen. we are tracking the storm that could disrupt the republican convention in tampa. and pete williams with a sit-down with justice scalia. all that next on "andrea mitchell reports." than what they brush with. they think all brushes are the same. they're not. that's why i tell my patients about the new pro-health clinical brush from oral-b. unlike an ordinary toothbrush, it has pro-flex sides that individually adjust to teeth and gums. it truly provides a better clean. trust the brand more dentists and hygienists use. oral-b. the

go back to failed policies of george w. bush. you don't see george w. we aren't talking with george w. bush. >> you don't see george w. bush in the romney ad. the reason why bill clinton is appearing in a barack obama ad is the two men share a common vision for america of shared prosperity where everybody moves forward and pays their fair share as opposed to. >> sean: talking points, this is annoying. >> let's talk about the ads. >> sean: talk about the bill clinton ad. >> you don't see george w. bush in an ad. >> he said the tax cuts should be extended because of a poor economy. he said stop attacking bain they are a good company. bill clinton said that mitt romney has met the threshold, he can be president. he gets the big speaking engagement, why? to save barack obama becaus. >> you don't see george bush in an ad because george bush is not running for president. he said it it in the ad today. what is the choice. president obama has done nothing about talk about bain and mitt romney's tax returns and nothing to lay out the clear choice of a plan here

on but this has been a you know this is still the george w. bush administration's activities being carried on by the obama administration actions as well the lead prosecutor on this john a down and was appointed by you casey who was appointed under george w. bush who was one of the neo cons who was was very quote anti terror anti islam in the number of respects so we're seeing the same kind of thing going on underwear bomb i think they did expect that a great many liberals especially but conservatives too would be outraged at this violation of the rule of law and that's probably why this was announced as you say after you know a number of years that the announcement came the day before a major holiday in the united states labor day holiday i don't think that that coincidence is by accident. for the latest news video here's a taste of what is for you right now. a new. vision of the future. let's take a look at some of those other stories making headlines around the world this hour. people have been killed. after. sponsibility. recently seen a rise i

leader of the republican party: karl rove, a political strategist who masterminded the rise of george w. bush from governor of texas bank to the presidency. he advised bush during two wars in iraq and afghanistan. some claim helped seize the 2004 election for bush. he was at the center of two of the biggest scandals of the bush administration -- the valerie plan wilson affair and u.s. attorneys scandal. what karl rove was almost indicted for the valerie plame affair, he has reinvented them sought to become the most powerful political operative in america. heading of the american crossroads super pac and the affiliated non-profit crossroads gps, he built up a war chest that has given mitt romney a significant cash advantage in the fundraising race with president obama. his power was on display monday when he threatened to pull $5 million in funding from the super pac american crossroads for ads for congressman todd akin's race for senate in missouri because of his comments about "legitimate rape." >> if he remains on the ballot, a crossroads gps will not spend any money on the race. after thos

that night, that night of the long lines, george w. bush, of course, won the state of ohio, and mr. as president. and a few months later a congressional committee called out ohio for the way it had run that election. congress called on ohio to reform its elections to make things work better. but it was not just ohio where people waited if line in 2004. in florida, that year, people also waited in long hours in lines at the polls. we went back to look for old footage of those lines in ohio, we also found these images, people lined up at the polls in the great state of florida waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the chance to vote. that night, george w. bush, of course, won the state of florida as well. after the debacle of the '04 election, officials in the states took another look at early voting. at whether offering more days and more hours for early voting might help more voters vote without it taking all day. and lots of people leaving the polls in frustration without voting because they just didn't have the time to wait. voters also decided ma

it's the same blueprint we tried under george w. bush. >> it's worse. x cuts they want to provide to the very rich are multiples of the bush cuts. the cuts to the promise to the poor are much more onerous. 62% of the programs are designed for the poor. we're talking about head start food stamps, pell grants for poor students to attend universities. we're talking about everything that the federal government has tried to do to help people who for no fault of their own in most cases are poor or lower income in this country. >> eliot: it's george w. bush on steroids. the reasons for that is not only the tax policies that you laid out, but the spending time, they've capped 3.75% of gdp medicare medicaid, and defense associatesocial security. >> every time i hear that paul ryan, one thing that is on his side that i hear over and over again from pundits is that he's serious about entitlement reform. that's baloney. he's a destroyer of entitlements. he wants to take medicaid and give it out to the states with almost no federal support at all. the federal support

writer at "the dallas news," author of three books, including "bush's brain: how karl rove made george w. bush presidential." interestingly, your books on karl rove was about george bush. you say road is as relevant today as he was then. talk about the opening night of the convention. >> but we saw was the theme, not just "we built it" but barack obama, that man. it was toned down a lot of it like it because of hurricane isaac, but he did not hear that so much from the first -- potential first lady, but from chris christie and other minority speakers. the interesting thing about christie, he talked a lot about chris christie. it was 12 minutes before he even mentioned mitt romney. i was at the texas republican convention a couple of months ago. paul ryan was the speaker. the delegates did not want to hear the name mitt romney. when rick perry engine mitt romney on stage, he was booed because ted cruz was the tea party candidate. paul ryan never mention mitt romney by name two years ago. >> where does the tea party fall yesterday? how did they figure during the convention? >> you talk to these

on but this has been a you know this is still the george w. bush administration's activities being carried on by the obama administration actions as well as the lead prosecutor on this john donne and was appointed by a new casey who was appointed under george w. bush who was one of the neo cons who. was very put anti terror and islam in a number of respects so we're seeing the same kind of thing going on under obama i think they did expect that a great many liberals especially conservatives too would be outraged at this coalition of the rule of law and that's probably why this was announced as you say after you know a number of years that the announcement came the day before a major holiday of the united states labor day holiday i don't think that that current students is by accident you also mentioned a number of years now mention that the period of time in the criminal investigation with drops and i say due to the difficulties in assembling evidence from incidents which did happen a long time ago in iraq and afghanistan is that not a reasonable e

uh-huh. >> give me one specific example about how your administration would be different than a george w. bushistration. >> well, there's a very different time than the time that president bush was president of the united states. my plan for economic recovery and creating jobs for the middle class and more take home pay is quite different than anything that's ever been seen in this country before. >> so not exactly a resounding, even though two of his economic advisers served under bush, let's keep in mind our rnc officials said his economic policies are just bush plans just updated. in addition 17 of his 24 foreign policy advisers are former members of the bush administration. even though he's distancing himself and not doing the embrace clinton has, he's got bush people around him. he's using bush policy. bush video tonight. >> bush ideas. one of the big things they want to go to the mat on is the bush tax cuts. they're not just called the bush tax cuts because they were under bush. they were a big part of the economic policy. to pick up what he said in that clip, it wasn't that long ago bus

and without any public debate or discussion george w. bush turned that most important part of the commons head beating heart of democracy the vote turned it over to fewer than a half dozen very secretive and republican party connected corporations this is insane we need to learn from ireland's experience and sell our voting machines for scrap metal and go back to counting paper ballots by hand like virtually every other developed country in the world does privatizing our vote was a crime against democracy it's time to undo that crime and take our votes back from the other corporations you can learn more over a black box voting dot org. and that is the big picture for tonight wednesday august fifteenth two thousand and twelve if you missed any of tonight's show you can now watch it in h.d. on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture for more information on any of the stories we've covered visit our website said tom hartman dot com free speech at oregon r.t. dot com and also check out our two youtube channel is there a link to tom foreman dot

what they have said is we won't spend as much as george w. bush spent but nobody thinks that what happened in 2008 or even what happened from 2001 to 2008 was about george w. bush spending too much. that might have been a long term problem. i think it probably was. you don't want to run deficits when your economy is growing. but that is not responsive either to what created this crisis or frankly, what's really going to get us out of this crisis. >> there were two names you couldn't say last night at the convention. one was bain capital, the other was george w. bush. >> mitt romney. you couldn't say mitt romney either. >> they have updated their prescription for the country with voter i.d. laws and transvaginal ultrasounds. let's not forget those. we will be talking more about the ryan road map after the break. while much of the nation prepares for tonight's paul ryan rollout, many americans got their first introduction to the congressman when he gave the gop response to president obama's 2011 state of the union. >> this is the future in which we

twenty third two thousand and eight this was a plant that was closed during the presidency of george w. bush why is paul ryan talking about this it's an absolute joke because listen presidents do not create jobs ok governments do not create jobs my solution is why is the guy running for vice president up their line about you know i don't think he was lying at all he probably thought he was in line here he what he really think that all of us republicans in that audience thought that he was condemning i don't push no i don't think that all that ever said that but he presented two facts he said barack obama he came here he stood here and he said this plan going to close down if i'm elected it'll be here for one hundred years from now and then he said and then paul ryan said now that he had to tax it was fact fact one obama said he'd fix it back to its close now broken promise and now liberate are dealing with it if dissonance it's caused by the failure of their great leader he didn't say that it's going to make that claim he said that the role of government should to hear why it is same way tha

in fact, it was closed under george w. bush's administration.slammed the president for not doing anything with the simpson-bowles debt commission, but ryan himself voted against the recommendations. let me play a clip from president obama on the campaign trail in virginia yesterday. >> -- pay a little attention to what's happening in tampa this week. don't boo. vote. [ applause ] vote. sometimes they just make things up. >> in fact, you've take an bit of heat on your campaign because your pollster said, we are not going to let our campaign be dictate the by fact checkers. is the president right jt did paul ryan make things up or at least extend the truth a little bit? >> listen, president obama came to my state, the commonwealth of virginia to tell us we didn't -- let me go that gm plant. let me tell you what the president said when he went to janesville, wisconsin back in 2008. he said, as president i will lead the effort to retool these plants. he went to that plant in february of '08 and october of '08. what he told them, they knew the plant

as confronting what i call the legacy of the two georges, and the first george, of course, is george w. bush. obama needed to figure out what he was going to do in the wake of the bush presidency. the other george, less obvious, would be george mcgovern. the republicans ever since the george mcgovern campaign of 1972 there's been kind of a republican trope that republicans can fall back on at election time, even when it's not necessarily true that the democrats are weak on defense. and the fact that this is not true shows up over and over again, um, at the time of the persian gulf war, the shock and awe of american high-tech weaponry that we saw at the beginning of that war actually was, um, developed in the late 1970s, um, in the pentagon of jimmy carter under a guy with a high-tech background named william perry. democrats and republicans have both been familiar with issues of the use of force, and it's not a black and white democrats weak on defense issue. and so the other -- the problem in writing this book was the vulcans had all worked alongside one another in one administration after

look at the examples george w. bush set and barack obama set. george w. bush had the majority leader of the senate say something about strom thurmond and then backtracked but bush killed him. bush killed him immediately. said you're dead, get out of the way. with his actions. you knew it. it was over. barack obama throws anybody under the bus that gets in the way of his ambition. and sometimes he throws everybody under the bus. we can talk about reverend wright, we can talk about some personal things closer to the table here. but he throws people under the bus. immediately. mitt romney needs to do that today. >> one of the reasons it's been so easy for the obama administration and democrats to define mitt romney is because romney does not get out there and clearly define himself. after all this time, much of the public has no idea what romney really believes in. he was a moderate governor of massachusetts now. he's running like a hard right candidate for president. and he is not taking these difficult stands. i agree with you completely. >> and the reason

>> the 2000 republican convention was held in philadelphia and the nominee was texas governor george w. bush, son of president george herbert walker bush. governor bush selected richard cheney as his running mate and that election would ultimately be decided by a supreme court ruling. here is his speech from early august 2000. mr. chairman. mr. chairman. thank you all. >> [applause] >> thank you! >> mr. chairman, mr. chairman, delegates and my fellow citizens, i proudly accept your nomination. [applause] thank you. thank you for this honor. thank you for this honor. together, we will renew america's purpose. >> [applause] >> our founders defined that purpose here in philadelphia. ben franklin was here. thomas jefferson. and of course, george washington. or as his friends called him, george w.! >> [applause]

plus the other criterion of getting george h. w. bush elected in his wake. >> weight. >> i think he made very good points. i am very hung on reagan, and i think he will be included in the leaders of destiny. he is headed in that direction. and i believe that he is very consequential as a president. the two greatest presidents of the century were franklin roosevelt and ronald reagan. and one was probably the most liberal president of the century and the other was the most conservative president of the century. on the question of secrecy of his health, you know, that is a very good point. it did come out during his presidency. they weren't able to bury bear it until history got ahold of it. it was gotten a hold of my journalism. but your point is very well taken. >> hello. i respect what you're doing. i just have this feeling that, and certainly no much more than i do, but i have this feeling that this is such a complex topic because i think each president is a product of their time in history. to go back to john f. kennedy, while i believ

when george w. bushs president and i am vice-president, tests will be taken, results will be in majored, and no child will be left behind. [cheers and applause] for eight years, clinton and gore have talked about social reform -- social security reform, never acting, never gore have talked about social reform -- social security reform, never acting, never once offering a serious plan to save gore have talked about social reform -- social security reform, never acting, never once offering a serious plan to save george w. bush and i are going to change that, too. i have seen our military at its finest with the best equipment, the best training, and the best leadership. i am proud of them. i have had the responsibility for their well-being, and i can promise them now -- help is on the way. [cheers and applause] soon our men and women in uniform will once again have a commander in chief they can respect. [cheers and applause] the commander-in-chief who understands their mission and restores their morale. and

because i was saying the same thing, when george w. bush suggested changing social security, it just offered people the option of going to the stock market, and it wouldn't affect anybody who was over the age of 55, well, it turned out the more that bush tried to sell it around the country, the more people hated it. and it was the seniors. and we don't want you touching social security or medicare. and i think that is very dangerous, because a lot of people out there who are still deciding, and the undecided, are down to about 5% now, they're going to hear paul ryan, and they're going to hear right away he wants to tamper with medicare. >> and ryan is the architect of -- >> let eleanor in here. >> ryan is the architect of the bush social security privatization scheme. he also wants to eliminate all taxes on capital gains. wants to increase the defense spending. and this is all going to accomplished with these unspecified cuts. where are those cuts going to come from? >> i think he is muting some of those -- >> john, this is not a buddy movi