for what we take out. is. martha: i hear you. brad, constitution says all money begins in house of representatives, controlled by republicans. come on, bob. martha: but it is endless, endless pot that continues to be spent. that s right. martha: bob, one of the things that strikes me is the sequester. we were told the sequester was going to be so horrible and so scary and it would cut back so many things that meant so much to americans. it didn t happen. if that wasn t so bad, what is the president afraid of in terms of saying you know what we ll raise the debt ceiling but we ll go further. we ll cut this and that? because he says he is serious about reining in spending so why not do it? why not surprise the republicans? first of all sequester is in fact beginning to cause pain across democratic and republican why republicans want to change wait a minute. both democrats and republicans want out from underneath the sequester vote. they can t do that without a new budget. tha
now to what the republican agenda is. they can t just not talk about it because they re going to be asked specifically about it. i think that s right. and, joan, to you, to that point, as you know, i serve on the board of pro choice america. you wrote about this not that long after the election, and the fact that in this election choice was such an important issue, and to krystal s point, it wasn t just the measures were outrageous, but the way they were talking about it, legitimate rape and then even recently saying that wasn t so bad, was just as bad. right. oh, absolutely. i mean, you know, they really did succeed in galvanizing women and focusing attention on what they ve done to their own party over the years. you know, i really think we have to remember that george h.w. bush was a contributor to planned parenthood and sponsored birth control legislation when he was in congress. leading figures in the republican party used to be pro-choice and certainly pro-contraception so
he only raises his game at the last minute. frankly, i think his performance you may have felt he aced it or wasn t so bad i don t know that ari said he aced it. he said, i don t think it was as bad as everybody thinks. you must be a good debater as i don t recognize my position. being the super competitive individual he is i expect him to. but mitt romney now has to live up to expectations. he has a different point of comparison, too. the thing about poor mitt romney, in the first debate you have to represent, bring the a-game. he did and now, you really have to represent again. no room for error. he basically doesn t. to some extent neither candidate does. the electorate is split now almost evenly. you re fighting for a tiny slice of the electorate.
i can t stop laughing. we talk a lot about mitt romney s connection problems, his lack of a sense of humor. there are many accounts from those who know him well that say this guy is quite funny. are we starting to see some of that? was this a good week for romney? we were told that about al gore, too. get him in a room alone and you double over in laughter. it s very hard to escape being the groom on the top of the wedding cake. he looks perfect, he s kind of stiff. the fact that he s going to be played by john kerry fits into the personality. in the debate, yes. they are both very stiff. you know, it s probably good he s trying. i didn t mind the joke they re not my, you know, i love them like they re my own, oh, they are, that wasn t so bad, because he doesn t do anything that seems the least bit spontaneous. you know he s handed these things. two of those jokes in there, the one about wiping the hard drives and also the one about pretend to be anybody other than
extremely difficult, but elections are choices. you end up with two candidates, and you know, you just have to think back to 2004. the last time a president was going for re-election, and in the early part of 2004, iraq was spiralling out of control. the pictures were devastating. you had the 16 words. you had no weapons of mass destruction. you had an economy that was slowing. there was a real sense of crisis for the bush white house at that point. what happened? yes, the economy wasn t so bad, but the situation in iraq really was awful. in the end they had a choice. they had a choice between two candidates. bush who was struggling, and john kerry, and they did an incredible job of making john kerry look unpresidential and an unacceptable choice. when we get to that contest, let s make a decision. that s a year away. we don t know what the economy looks like or what the head-to-head looks like. we ll be talking with you then, if not before. thanks so much. autopaying for college by