>> it's no laughing matter but will anyone take her seriously? plus, how can anyone walk away from this? two survivors tell their incredible life and death story. >> within three or four seconds, you're on the ground. >> this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. president obama and governor romney proving to all of us tonight unfortunately how low they will go. new attack ads from both sides, ads that twist the truth that are, frankly, shocking and unacceptable. including the latest that holds bain capital or mitt romney responsible for causing a woman's death. a new romney ad blames obama for a war on religion. >> when religious freedom is threatened. >> we say this, for those of you who say these super pacs are to blame and not the candidates, i say to president obama and governor romney, step up and disavow any connection or live with the fact both of you are part of the problem and not the solution. with me now is former pennsylvania governor and former dnc chairman ed rendell. and romney adviser john sununu. the surprising cnn presidential poll shows obama with a seven-point advantage. that same survey says 63% want romney to release his personal tax returns. it's a great description i think. two crucial areas. one, this ridiculous way. secondly, on the gun issue, and we'll come to that in a moment. just the fact they won't say anything. let me start first of all with this ad that came out yesterday. the one that basically said mitt romney killed this woman. to me, it was crossing a line. it was just one of the ugliest smears i've seen. this is from a man, president obama, who said he didn't believe in super pacs. he wasn't going to do that. now he is and doing it in a very ugly manner. >> it was clearly over the top. just like the vampire ad at the beginning. where someone called governor romney a vampire. he's not a vampire and he's not a murderer. the problem with all this stuff and the other side is just as bad and the welfare ad is just as despicable. the problem with all this, it cuts away at the american people's faith in politics in general. they say of course not, government can't do anything right. so it eats away at the core relationship between the government and the governing. i absolutely believe it's got to stop. i can't wait for the conventions to get here. because the convention speeches are real and the debates are real. and then we finally will hear some real stuff. not this blame game or negative stuff. >> let me bring in john sununu. what is your reaction to this? is it basically a stain on all their houses? >> look, there's a reason. if ed rendell and i were running against each other, we'd be arguing politics and policy. we have slight differences. he was a governor. i was a governor. the problem is -- been caused by what was well described by ben smith in an article in politico just about a year ago today where he interviewed the obama campaign and the obama white house and they said that their strategy was to do things that would destroy mitt romney and, in essence, be a character assassination. once they started down that path, it's like nuclear armament. everybody escalates a little bit. this should be about issues. >> i mean, i think both are equal at fault here. i watched the whole romney campaign when he was becoming the republican nominee. i was in some of these places. these small towns and smaller cities when he was rampaging against all his rivals. it was a bombardment. if you were watching local television, every three minutes, boom, boom, boom. i don't think mitt romney can claim the high moral ground here either. >> i don't agree with you. look, i've been involved in politics a long time. when mitt romney was up here in new hampshire, they were talking about the jobs issue. they were talking about the issue of taking positions on immigration. now, they were talking about taking positions on spending. they were talking about taking positions on taxes. they may have fought fiercely on that, but they were talking about policy and issues. >> why is barack obama on bain for example so obsessively going after mitt romney? which shows the perceived gap between the regular man and woman on the street and mitt romney is getting better. they believe he is pro the rich. that is why obama is going so hard after him, isn't it? >> why aren't you talking about the rasmussen poll? this election's going to come down to what people perceive the performance of of this president is. the governor's book provides a great, great reference. obama hasn't passed a budget in four years. he's a wuss. has rejected his own simpson/bowles on his own budget package. >> you aren't supposed to be talking about -- you are the king wusser expose at the moment. let's talk about what i said. the cnn poll which shows more and more americans associate mitt romney with the rich. wall street. that kind of thing. this is why barack obama is pounding him about bain capital. >> politicians do negative ads because unfortunately they work. the governor has a chance to redefine himself. he's got to do a very good job of doing that. of saying to the american people that i care about you, here are my values, here's what i fought for all my life. a lot of this stuff is noise, early noise. i want to say one thing about the president -- >> ed's right on that. >> on simpson/bowles, he remembered the so-called big deal with john boehner was for $5 trillion of debt reduction which essentially was simpson/bowles on steroids and john boehner couldn't sell it to the republicans in the house so let's be clear about that. >> that's not boehner's version. boehner's version is that the president tried to change what they had basically agreed on. >> john, everyone knows he couldn't sell it to his own caucus. >> that's the strategy for him -- >> let me move quickly to the second issue which is this issue of gun control. we've had two of the worst gun incidents in america of this century. yet neither romney, nor barack obama, is prepared to say anything about this at all. there's been this wall of conspiratorial silence. august 7 to the 8 the poll was take it says 38% of american, the majority, believe there should be major restrictions now -- >> you said 38%? >> 38%, major restrictions. 37%, minor restrictions. only 13% think no restrictions. make all guns illegal, 10%. this is a rising tide. despite that you hear from the pro-gun lobby that people want something to be done. why is nobody saying anything in any sort of leadership way? >> because politicians underrate the intelligence and the reasonableness of the american people. piers, i ran in the state that has it is second highest member of nra members. i won three times by 10%, 12% and 21%. the nra doesn't speak for gun owners. they don't want assault weapons in the hands of anybody other than police and the military. they don't want these clips that have 33 or 100 bullets to a clip. so is it moral cowardice -- >> i'll give the president -- >> john, john -- >> go ahead, finish up. >> the president in the book i take the president to task post-tucson. but he did say in new orleans he was in favor of a ban on assault rifles. he did say that. but it is governor romney signed the exact same bill in massachusetts. it would be easy for him to say he's for it. this is something where the nation would love it if the two of them got together and said the insanity must end. >> this is a classic example where i believe old school washington, you know, maybe the generation you guys grew up in in washington, would have gotten together, beaten each other's heads around the room and worked out some form of consensus which meant the fears of the american public, that these things are happening more and more, would at least be allayed by the thought that someone in power was taking it seriously enough and trying to bring in some form of check and control on the kind of people we've seen getting access to these extremely high-powered weapons and committing atrocities. >> look, the reason the president and mitt romney are not talking about this right now is they both understand that the issue the american public wants to hear about is is the economy. and with all due respect to your personal interests in this issue, piers, it is not going to be a major issue in the campaign. what is going to be an issue is how do we fix unemployment. how do we get jobs. and how do we get out of of this morass of nonrecovery we're in for the last four years. >> i understand this. totally agree with you. the number one most important issue. what i don't agree wh is wall of silence from both the president and the man who would be president. neither of whom want to upset the gun lobby. when, you know, when sikhs can't go to their temple. when americans can't go to a movie theater. when congress women cannot walk out into the street without being shot, something has to be done. doing nothing is not an option. >> interestingly, i slightly -- >> passing a law is not going to change that. that's your perception. i don't agree with it. >> john -- >> why have rules about anything? >> if we outlaw those magazines the fella holmes in the first minute when he killed most of the people, he would have had to reload six times. he couldn't have killed half of the people he killed. >> he bought a magazine drum for his high powered assault weapon which he also bought perfectly legal. fired 100 bullets in a minute. >> the election is primarily about the economy. but people look at governors, mayors and presidents. they look for leadership qualities. a leadership quality is having the courage to stand up and say, guys, i don't care what the political ramifications are to me. this is wrong and we've got to stop it. i think if either one of the candidates have done it, i think president obama did it early on. if any one of them did it, the american people would say, i'm not sure i agree with them but that's a lot of guts. >> i completely agree. otherwise, we become a nation of wusses. governors -- last word to you, governor sununu. >> if ed rendell or bill clinton or mitt romney or mitch daniels or haley barbour had been president the last four years, you would not have the problem we have now. they are governors. they know how to cut budgets. what this country needs is somebody with that kind of experience instead of avoiding issues going in and putting the right policies in place. president obama's failed because he really is a wuss. >> let me just ask you both one final question. i just want one name out of both of you. who would you choose if you were mitt romney as your vp? let me start with you, governor sununu. >> ed rendell. >> governor rendell? >> i think i'd choose condoleezza rice. i think he's got some weaknesses in foreign affairs which he's demonstrated. she's a woman, african-american, it would be out of the box and she would energize a lot of voters. >> i completely agree. there was a little bubble about her a couple weeks ago. it went away. she ticks all the boxes if you're not romney. please come back. very entertaining. >> thanks. buy the book, buy the book. >> i bought it. i read it last night. >> coming up, the controversial roseanne barr, now, wait for it, presidential nominee. chase scene netflix coming soon extra butter tickets swoon penguin journey junior mints movie phone evil prince bollywood 3d shark attack ned the head 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback on movies through september. it pays to discover. ooo no. the hotel lost our reservation. nonsense! you book at travelocity, your reservation's guaranteed. well, i did not book with travelocity, okay?!? 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[ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate. laugh your government to scorn in this election. that's my message. do so by electing me and cindy sheehan. we're tougher. we're tougher. >> roseanne barr. one of america's best-known tv moms. she's also the peace and freedom party's presidential nominee. that's no joke. roseanne barr. welcome to the show. your first appearance. >> yeah, thanks for having me, it's nice to be here. >> this is a serious thing. i want to read you a quote you said about your political aspirations. you said, i'm not a liar, i'm not a thief, i'm not a whore, i'm not a politician. i think that uniquely qualifies me to be president of the united states. >> i think those are my strengths. >> why are you doing this? some people will think it's a comic ruse. i know that's not the case. you're passionate about this. why have you decided to get engaged properly? >> well, just because i felt that, you know, i was asked to carry the water and carry a message during this election, and to make socialist solutions part of the narrative of this election, because they're being left out, and they work. >> i've been talking earlier in the show with more seamier members of the washington community. there's a general sense of despair i think collectively about the malaise now in washington. where any kind of cooperation, any kind of coming together to get things done, any kind of doing a deal to benefit america, it's all gone out the window. it's not all about points scoring. it's about childish, petty commercials. which are based on a pack of lies. and so on, so on. >> i think you're right. >> general sense of moral cowardice, many would argue. also a fundamental lack of leadership. why has it come to this? >> that's just what happens when you make everything for sale. that's exactlyhat happens. since we got citizens united, just everything's for sale. all of our government. all the way up to the executive branch, you know, to the highest bidder. and of course that's the very worst thing that can happen in a democracy. you know, they both -- this party, this two-headed beast, which we say is, you know, the demopublicans. i also call them the republicant's. they blame each either for the fact neither one of them has any real solutions. both parties work for the same people, which are the bankers that brought us to ruin and misery. as they did in the great depression. and, again, because this whole system is needing a reboot. and that's what i'm bringing. commonsense solutions. just common sense to the dialogue. because we don't -- we could make -- you know, we could solve our problems. i do think i'm a leader. you know, i think i've proven that. also, i have moral fortitude to stand up and say no. it's not -- this system does not exist for the benefit of international bankers. this is america. and we're the americans. we have the right to make this discussion bigger and to include the solutions that benefit the majority of people. not a small minority at the expense of everybody else. >> most americans right now in the polls would say that the economy's their number one concern. the reason for that is the jobless figures are still extremely high. many people loing their jobs, losing their homes, so on. if you were president, what would you do about that particular issue? how would you get americans back to work? >> well, i would ask the richest among us, the richest corporate citizens to, you know, include the american people in their jobs. instead of sending all our jobs to china and other countries. where people are doing fine. i have a whole thing on my website, roseanneworld.com. where i talk about agriculture. and going back to the things that built a middle class in the country. we were once the bread basket of the world for instance. and we still have the capability to do that again, to grow the world's food. all of the solutions which have already been proven in this country and built a large and middle class and a working class too can be reemployed i think. we just need to tip it. and step away from the direction we're headed. which does not work. and, like i said, benefits a very small percentage of people. and disfranchises the rest. 99%. to disfranchise 99% of voters is really stupid. and these guys that are so smart or think they're smart, you know, have caused all this problem and now, you know, they're talking about, you know, they're bringing the ideas for solutions which are exactly like the problems they caused. so, yeah, i do think that government should not be run as a business. government is the thing that protects the people from fat cats, monopolists and crazy international bankers that just write off human life. you know, i think they're very, very simple socialist solutions to everything. >> let's take a break. you yourself just got roasted. i want to know if you can take it as well as give it. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's four course seafood feast, just $14.99 start with soup salad and cheddar bay biscuits then choose one of 7 entrees plus dessert! four courses, $14.99. offer ends soon. come into red lobster and sea food differently. i was hoping we'd have a little extra money to play around with. >> well, you want extra money? because, you know, i have my own system for extra money. >> all right. >> okay. first, we send in the phone bill and we forget to sign the check. >> there you go. >> then i send the water bill to the electric company and the electric bill to the water company. >> now you're cooking. >> you know that charge card bill? it never even showed up. >> she's gone from sitcom star to peace and freedom candidate for president of the united states. i'm back with roseanne barr. yes, roseanne? >> you know, piers, i just wanted to say a large part of my solution is to, as fdr did, write down the principal on the debt. thank you. >> let's turn to your roast, which happened last week. how was it for you? >> yeah. well, it was the comedy central roast. it was just fantastic. i loved it. i love that they gave me the opportunity to kind of bring it up a few notches. and it was like all the press is saying, you know, it's one of the friendliest, nicest roasts. we lifted the level of the joke. i'm glad i did it. i loved every minute of it. i took it hard in the shorts and gave it hard too. >> let's watch a little clip from your roast, coming up on comedy central. >> okay. >> tom arnold, i'd really like to thank tom f showing up tonight. it was very brave. and he was very funny. but jesus christ, how many [ bleep ] do i have to get for that guy? i'm glad you have a new wife, tom. i hope she isn't with you just for your money, i mean my money. >> tom arnold was getting roasted there, not you. >> oh, yeah, well, you know, i get the last word on the roast, the roastee gets to have the final retort. and so i took everybody -- you know, i gave as good as i got and, you know, just loved it. there was real cutting-edge comedy going on that night. i missed doing stand-up and it was fantastic to do it again. >> there are two questions i like to ask all my special guests. i'm going to throw them at you. >> thank you. >> one of them is how many times have you been properly in love in your life? >> properly in love? >> yes. >> you know, there were many timeses in my life where i was in love. i'll just have to say that many times. i happen to be in love right now. i guess i'm -- i'm not like my gay sister and my -- i mean, my gay sister and my gay brother that have both been with the same partner for 25 and 26 years respectively. i, as a straight person, have not been able to hold any relationship together as well as they. >> are you getting easier wit