"w." he left the new president with a jobless number that spiked over 10% by the following year, a financial crash so bad that the republican candidate for president in 2008 asked for time out to deal with it. a calamity outmatched only by the great crash in '29. so ask it yourself, is this country better off in the direction "w" was taking us, really? we'll get to that in a minute. first, we have new poll numbers in the presidential race. let's check the "hardball" scoreboard. here it is according to the new "washington post"/abc poll, president obama with a one-point lead over mitt romney among likely voters. among all registered voters, the president's lead is six points. joining me is governor ed rendell who was leading pennsylvania through that transition from "w" to obama and douglas brinkley. the great american historian and author of "cronkite." if you think about where the country was headed in the final months of the bush administration, there's no question we're on a better path today. take a look at the stock market. five years ago the dow closed above 14,000 before heading south. it closed around 9,600 on