today wisconsin is a fall preview. >> they look at wisconsin, and they see america's battleground between people who want to work together to solve problems and penal who want to divide and conquer. >> democratic challenger and milwaukee mayor tom barrett on his bid to oust the republican governor in a recall race. then battleground politics with virginia republican governor bob mcdonald, u.s. jobs and the bloodshed in syria. plus, unemployment is up, the dow is down, and the presidential election is 157 days away. analysis from mark zande of moody's analytics, stechen moore of the "wall street journal," and dan balz of the "washington post." i'm candy crowley. and this is "state of the union." 19 months after electing republican scott walker as governor, wisconsin voters decide tuesday whether to recall him. walker's critics were galvanized by his first budget designed to fix a $3.6 billion shortfall. it included stripping collective bargaining rights for most public workers and increasing their contributions to their pension and health care plans. the race is seen as a test run of things to come on the national scene pitting republicans and the tea party against democrats and organized labor. it has attracted mega millions from outside the state and lots of attention from party headliners, but as republicans like to note, not all the headliners. >> well, it's more obvious is that the president himself, the current president, is not in town, and that to me speaks volumes, his absence. >> joining me is milwaukee mayor tom barrett, the man who lost to governor scott in the 2010 election and looks to unseat him now in the recall. mr. mayor, thank you for being here this morning. let me start out with you asking whether you have asked the president to come and campaign on your behalf? >> no, because we understand that he's got a lot going on, and this actually started as a grassroots movement here in wisconsin because of governor walker's lack of integrity and his surprise attack on workers in the state. so integrity and a grassroots effort was how this started and it will be on those same two notes, that's how this campaign will end. >> you certainly have certainly the republicans have had more out of state money and more out of state help, but you have had some national figures come in as well from the party and also from the unions who have been fighting governor walker in particular based off this budget, and one of those folks, jer jerry, the president of asme, had this to say about the democratic party. we think there could have been more responsibility, more work on behalf of the national democratic party. we think they could and should have done more. as you look at these next couple of days moving forward, where do you think the momentum is and could you use more from the dnc and from some of these other folks to get in there and try to pull you over the finish line? >> well, candy, i traveled the state yesterday, i'm going to be traveling the state again today and tomorrow. yesterday it was just a phenomenal day. literally hundreds of people all throughout the state, people saying to me they have never seen the level of excitement they're seeing right now, and it's people from wisconsin. it's people who live here, and that's what this should be all about. it should be all about the people in the state of wisconsin because you've got a sitting governor, the only governor in this country who has a legal defense fund, all this outside money. this is wisconsin values versus outside influence. and again i want to be on the side of wisconsin values. >> do you think then that there is no national message in this? that win or lose, you don't see any national implications for november or any tea leaves coming out of this wisconsin race? >> again, scott walker wants to make this a national race because he wants to be on the national stage as the rock star of the far right, as the poster boy of the tea party. that's not what i'm interested in. i'm not going to be the rock star of the far right and frankly on the rock star of the far left. i'm focusing on this state because that's what's important to me. >> i want to talk to you a little bit about recall elections in general. the marquette law school poll, this was about the approval or d disapproval of scott walker and how he's handling his job. that was may 23rd to 36th, so very recently. 51% of those, you know, said, look, we think -- we approve of the job he's doing. 45% disapprove. the recall election itself in general seems to me to encourage in some ways timid leadership. here is a guy who is polling 51% in your state and yet you're trying to recall him because you're unhappy with what he did. >> well, i think it's important to understand the history of wisconsin here. scott walker actually became the milwaukee county executive following a recall that he was one of the leaders of, and as a state legislator, he says he does not remember whether he signed recall petitions against senator kohl and senator feingold. >> how do you feel about them though? >> i think they should be rare. i absolutely -- think should be rare but this is a rare instance. off governor who did not campaign at all about having an attack on workers, on workers in this state, and he came in in a very furtive fashion. he said, and these are his words, he said he was going to be dropping the bomb and he was going to divide and conquer. he set out on a strategy to pit people in this state against each other and he succeeded in pitting people against each other. >> again, it seems to me that if you use a recall election because a governor does something you don't like, you set up the stakes for timid leadership. they're always sort of putting their finger to the wind trying to figure out what people want so they don't get recalled. the president himself has said i need four more years in order to fix what's wrong with the economy and other things, and scott walker, that whole recall thing, began within months of his taking office. that's kind of what i wanted you to address. >> sure. well, it's important again to understand what happened. he said that he was require state employees to pay more towards their health care and their pensions, and quite honestly what happened was they agreed to do that. they agreed to do that. did they want to do it? of course not, but the leadership agreed to do that. this entire episode would have been avoided if he would have said, all right, i campaigned on that, you agree to it, let's move on, but it became clear very, very early that was not all that was going on here. he wanted to go after his political opponents around permanently disarm them. that's what this was all about, taking away their rights. he said it was the first step. and the next step obviously would be to go after people who are in the private sector and people who aren't in unions. so i believe that this is the first step towards taking away workers' rights throughout the state, and that's where the surprise attack came in. he never once mentioned that, but once he came in, he instead of focusing on jobs, which he said he was going to do, he took this road where he went after the rights of workers throughout the state of wisconsin. that's what got people up in arms. >> quickly, mr. mayor -- >> all of this would have been avoided if he would -- >> quickly if i can, are you going to win this thing? jim going to win it. we saw in the last tracking poll two nights ago, this is 800 samples, i was one vote behind. not one percentage vount behind, but one vote behind and we have literally thousands of people on the streets this weekend. so we are very, very positive. >> milwaukee mayor tom barrett, you have got a busy couple days ahead of you so we doubly appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you, candy. we invited governor walker to appear, but we were told his schedule was too tight. now, one state that president obama and mitt romney are fighting hard to win this november is virginia. governor bob mcdonald is here next. uh-oh. 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[ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate. joining me, virginia governor bob mcdonald. he heads the republican governor's association and you're a man that has been out to wisconsin to try to help governor walker stay in office. about $8.3 million you all have sent out to him to try -- >> about. >> about, but probably a little more by this point. >> yes. >> what do you think is at stake. we just heard from the mayor, the democratic challenger, that he doesn't think this has anything to do with the national scene. does it? >> i think it will, but it's certainly about wisconsin. it's about a governor campaigning saying elect me and i will do certain things to create more jobs and get our fiscal house in order. and this is a guy that's kept his word and i think the voters will reward him for his courage. >> and if he loses, what does it say? >> i'm not planning on that, candy. i think the tracking -- >> you must fear that though a little bit. >> of course, because it's all about the ground game, there's same-day registration in wisconsin which can change the dynamics. scott has worked incredibly hard. here is what at stake. he said we will get a $3.6 billion budget fixed. we will reduce property taxes. >> budget shortfall. >> and create jobs. and that's what he did. and this is about results. it's going to be the same thing with romney and obama. as you put policies in place, were they controversial? yes. does it take guts and leadership to tell people we can't afford to do these things jen more? sure. but he's done it. and now he's getting the results. >> but if they come back a year and a half later and say we don't like these reforms and they reject him, does that not say that you can go too far, that this is one republican who went too far and found himself out of office? >> ask me wednesday. i don't think that's going to happen. >> i'm going to hold you to that then. >> you can do that. this is what's happening in washington as well is people expected results. obama promised a couple years ago, if i don't have this deal done in three years, it's going to be a one-term proposition, meaning on spending, deficit, on debt, on jobs, and he hasn't delivered. that's why i think there will be a change in leadership in washington. people are tired of the rhetoric. >> let me talk to you about the swing state of virginia. >> yeah. >> i want to show our viewers your unemployment rate which has basically stayed two to three points below the national unemployment rate. it's a success story really. >> you can keep that up for a wile. >> you like this, i understand it. does it not make it difficult for mitt romney, who has the same problem in other swing states to come in and say the economy is terrible and, you know, you need to elect a new president because virginia is doing very well under president obama. >> yeah, i don't think it undermines his argument at all for two reasons. one is as well as we've been fortunate to do with the lowest unemployment in the southeast, i tell people, think how much better we'd do if we had president romney. number two, i think that there's something going on with republican governed states. seven out of the ten states that have the lowest unemployment rates, republican governed states. >> do you credit president obama at all for the good fortune virginia has had? >> what would you point to that would lead you to say that that unemployment -- the only thing i can say is he had a nearly a trillion dollars in stimulus, and that was one time spending. did it help news the short run with health care and education? sure. does it help news the long term to cut the unemployment rate, i'd say no but we have done a lot of things. republicans and democrats in virginia doing things i requested on economic development and targeted tax kuts and other things that i think have made a difference. so i'd say republican governors are doing some things that are making a difference and that's why i'm trying to get more of them this year. >> just a tiny bit of credit to the president? >> sure. i think there's national policy that is have had some impact but i can tell you this, if we didn't have all these attacks on virginia's energy industry we'd be in a lot better place. this president on coal, natural gas, nuclear, not letting us drill offshore, the environmental protection agen agency's overburdensome regulations on coal and gas has made it much more difficult for us. >> let me ask you about governor romney's record as governor of massachusetts. >> sure. >> when he -- during his four years there, the state was 47th in job creation. there quas was a net gain in payroll fob of 1%, which is well below the net gain nationwide. spending went up, the size of government went up. what kind of record is that for a republican to run on? >> i'd say it's better than that. he went from 47th down to 30th in job creation by the time he left office. he had a $3.6 billion deficit, too. was able to cut that and left office with a $2 billion rainy day fund. i'd say that's pretty good. >> but in the end, you know, he was 47th throughout that whole four-year period, and he is selling himself as a businessman who knows how to create jobs and yet really didn't do that very well when he was in massachusetts. you see the democrats going after this. what's his defense here? >> well, the numbers i have is it went down to 30th by the time he left office nationwide in job creation. more importantly than that, candy s what he did in the private sector. add democrat legislature. that's a deep blue state and i think managing the fiscal house and trying to create jobs during that time, he had to combat a democratic legislature, but look what he did at bain capital, as executive director of the olympics, over 100,000 new jobs with venture capital. he knows how to create jobs in the private sector. he understands the american dream because he's lived it. i'd say president obama had the kind of record mitt romney did, he'd be talking about it, but he can't run on it. >> two quick questions. donald trump staying on the birther issue seems to me a cynic would look at that and go, well, it helps keep a certain part of the base of the republican party happy. mitt romney has not condemned it. in fact, he campaigned and fund raised alongside donald trump. are you bothered by the kinds -- >> mitt romney and i both agree the president was born in america. it's not where he was born. it's his policies that are the issue in this race. 8% unemployment rate for 40 months, the largest debt in american history at $16 trillion and growing and no plan on debt reduction. that's the issue, not where he was born. >> has the romney campaign asked for any papers in the vp search for you. >> they have asked for my schedule to see where i can help them next. >> sounds like maybe he has. we'll talk to you later. virginia governor, bob mcdonald. amid new signs the recovery may be hitting the brakes. republicans and democrats are pointing fingers. >> instead of another campaign speech, the president might want to engage with democrats and republicans here on capitol hill. >> republicans are risking another deep recession. >> two senators who have reached across the aisle, republican dick lugar and republican mark warner are here next. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning.. you can feel. introducing the all new cadillac xts, available with the patented safety alert seat. when there is danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, america's beverage companies are delivering. those are live pictures of queen elizabeth's diamond jubilee celebration along the thames river. cnn's coverage picks up at 11:00 a.m. eastern. back here on "state of the union" i'm joined by republican senator dick lugar of indiana and democratic senator mark warner of virginia. brought you both together because you both are known for working across the aisle in a time when there hasn't been much of that. i want to play you something that president obama said on friday. >> so my message to congress is, now is not the time to play politics. now is not the time to sit on your hands. the american people expect their leaders to work hard no matter what year it is. >> the president repeatedly chastises congress on the campaign trail for not working and not doing anything about jobs, et cetera, but i hear from republicans publicly, some democrats privately, that the president has not used the power of his office to push some of these ideas that he's out there talking about. has there been too much politics on the white house end of this as well, senator warner? >> well, i didn't get the memo that we were actually supposed to take presidential election years off. you know, if we look around -- >> but has he? >> i think the president has laid out an agenda. >> did he push for it? >> well, i think he has pushed for it. i think there's been particularly in the house an almost knee-jerk reaction that anything the president could be for, they've got to be against. but even if you step back and say where can we find common ground, the senate worked together, we passed a two-year highway bill that would put people to work, give a little predictability. we recently passed a bill bipartisan. senator lugar and i, the overwhelming majority of the senate, to feed up the fda approval process. there are things we can do even in an selection year to get this economy going. >> you hear democrats privately, republicans publicly, this they don't hear from the president. that he hasn't said to congress, pick up the phone, i need you guys to really work on this. have you seen more or less presidential influence in the obama administration than previous administrations? >> in this particular year the president is campaigning for re-election. that's his total preoccupation and he's been criticized for that by some democrats who would say as a matter of fact you ought to be talking about how jobs are going to be created, how, in fact, you have more comprehensive view of the deficit, of the debt, of all of these sorts of things. this has not been something on the president's agenda except broadly. i would agree with mark that essentially members of congress still have tried to pick up in modest ways. we're working on a farm bill, for example, where we have a majority and we're hoping to get that to the floor. this is not the whole thing, but i would say simply there have been congressional initiatives quite apart from the president. >> let me ask you, and i don't mean to bring up a sore subject, but richard murdoch, who defelted you in the republican primary, was on fox news recently and talked about the idea of bipartisanship and here is what he said. >> i have a mindset that says bipartisanship ought to consist of democrats coming to the republican point of view. >> we are hearing this this election is going to solve things, that there will be a clear picture after this election of which way the country wants to go, the republican way or the democratic way. does that sound like to you, do you believe that the election is