positioned himself very much as the grown-up in the room, the reasonable one, something that the president's advisors thought would help him appeal to the independent voters that he needs if he's going to win relection next year. we're seeing a very different tact now. a very aggressive tact, especially after the president saw dismal approval ratings following that bruising debt ceiling battle. we've seen the president taking his message to the home turf, as you mentioned, of his rivals and calling them out by name. we saw that this past week when he went to the brent spence bridge which is the bridge spanning the home states of house speaker john boehner and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. here's what he said. >> the bridge behind us just happens to connect the state that's home to the speaker of the house with -- with the home state of the republican leader in the senate. now that's just a coincidence. it's purely accidental that that happened. but part of the reason i came here is because yeah, mr. boehner and mr. mcconnell, they're the two most powerful republicans in government. they can either kill this jobs bill or they can help pass this jobs bill. >> and, remember, the president's first visit following the unveiling of his jobs plan a couple weeks ago was to richmond, virginia, in the home district of eric cantor, the number two house republican. wolf this is a white house, this is president obama being much more aggressive, much more trying to be on the offense than we saw this summer. >> that's what the base wants to see. so what is he planning on doing next week to continue this push? >> reporter: a couple things we know he's doing to promote his jobs plan. one will be a mountain view, california, silicon valley in northern california. he'll be participating in an online town hall through linked in, the social networking job site. he'll also reportedly when he's in denver, colorado, be visiting a school. a couple of provisions in the jobs plan, one that would give money to states so they could hire teachers who have been laid off or teachers that could be laid off and also money to renovate schools so they can be put back to work. a couple of events there. he'll be pushing certainly his jobs plan. but this western swing that he's going to be on starting in seattle, wolf, he'll be not just in northern california but also san diego, l.a., finishing up there in denver. a lot of this is going to be fund-raising. he's got a number of dnc events that he'll be going to. we've seen so far up until now he's only taken the jobs plan message to states that are swing states that he won in 2008 and trying to hold on next year. certainly colorado is one of those states. fwhut seattle and certainly in california, he's looking to shore up the donor support as his campaign aims to best that of three quarters of a billion dollar haul that it brought in last election. >> i'm sure he's going going to be doing fund-raising. thank you very much. president obama's push to turn the economy around abacklash is causing serious concern for a number of democrats including the former president, bill clinton. mr. president, good to see you at the clinton global initiative. another year. it's really moving very quickly. and it's jobs, jobs, jobs right now. this is an enormous crisis. and potentially -- potentially it could get a whole lot worse. >> it could. and it could get better. and, you know, what we're trying to do here is just to come up with concrete things that can be done not just in the united states but elsewhere to put americans back to work. and when we met in chicago in june when we talked about how to put america back to work and today we had a good manifestation of that with the announcement by that they were releasing a lot more money to try to put their members and other people, construction workers back to work retrofitting buildings. they're going to create an enormous number of jobs doing this. >> you know there is political gridlock in washington. the president comes up with these initiatives, these plans, as he's done this week. you know it's not going to go anywhere as far as the republican majority in the house of representatives is concerned. >> well, i think it's sad. but the people -- they were elected about it american people essentially on the promise of doing nothing except to try to, you know, give us a lot less government. and then in the senate, i think they'll block anything because they're afraid it will work. >> you need 60 votes. >> yes. senator mcconnell says his main goal in life is to defeat the president for re-election. it is what it is. i it this president had to propose these things and ultimately the american people are going to have to decide what kind of country they want and vote for it. they voted now for -- in 2006 and 2008, they voted for one kind of country to take a move away from the policies of the previous several years. then in 2010, they voted to take a u-turn. i don't think they really think like that. they think we need more of this and less of that. they voted for quite a radical departure. and, so, you know, it's -- it's interesting to me to see the voters sit around and condemn the politicians that they elected who are doing what they promised to do during the elections. >> my sense is -- and you and i, we have different jobs -- but '95 and '96 when the government was shut down, as bitter as the acrimony was in washington then, and i covered it. i was the white house correspondent covering your administration. i think it's worse now. you tell me what you think. >> it could be. i don't know. you would know better than me. i'm not there all the time. i think basically -- but the american people, all i'm saying is they keep giving congress low ratings and the white house low ratings. they need to take a little ownership here. every one of these people got in power because they were voted for. >> they were democratically elected. >> yes. and none of them that were -- there's now determined effort to restrict the franchise and kind of support the elections. but all these people were. and you know -- you should pay attention to what people say when they run for office. they pretty much try to do what they say they're going to do. i will give it to the tea party republicans. if you paid attention, they're doing what they said they were going to do. and the voters now seem to be upset by it. >> did you see that debate i moderated? >> i d i saw some of it. >> what did you think of those guys up there on the stage? >> you know, there's a range of what i think. the more moderate ones as you might imagine are the ones that i think will be better presidents. i was like a lot of people, quite disturbed at there were those who were cheering when you asked if a man who needed life saving care but didn't have health insurance should be allowed to die. and there seemed to be cheering. but it's all political theater now. look at the difference in what we're doing here and what happens in the campaign. i sympathize with you. you got to run all the news programs. it looks to me like what's good politics in the modern world when times are tough is conflict. and it also makes for edgier news coverage and, yet in the real world where jobs are created, what works is cooperation. so it's not the government versus the private sector. it's what they can do together to create prosperity. if you look at -- let's take san diego -- no longer primarily a navy city. it's a biotech city. the silicon valley is back. orlando has 100 commuter simulation companies. pittsburgh are trying to go from being the city of steel to nano technology. cleveland is using cleveland clinic to retrofit, if will you, not buildings, the workforce. so there are these centers of prosperity in america. every one of them works because people cooperate, not because there's conflict. but conflict is good politics. that's how you get elected. >> you said some of the republican candidates are more moderate than the others. let's talk about that for a second. who do you like and who you are concerned about? not from the political standpoint, but from the standpoint of america's future. >> well, it appears that governor huntsman and govern romy at least have not come out and just flat out deny climate change. it appears that -- i mean governor huntsman said he supported the compromise to raise the debt ceiling because america couldn't afford the economic consequences of debt default. that used to be the position of every responsible american. that now passes for a moderate to liberal position in the republican party. that's the only candidate for president who supported, you know, not defaulting on our debt. so, you know, i don't have anything against the others. i admire a lot of things about the other candidates. i think that there is no evidence anywhere in the world of a successful country that has such a bitter anti-government philosophy. >> like rick perry does? >> yeah. he's like the get america, get washington as far away as possible. it's interesting. an enormous percentage of the jobs created in texas since the financial meltdown, not before, he's done pretty well with government funding. closing budget gaps, creating public jobs. nonetheless he's anti-government. this whole anti-government thing. and it sounds so good. but there's not an example of a successful country. you work around the world, the countries growing faster than we are, have lower unemployment rates than we do, have, you know, less income and equality than we do, without exception, they have the good government and a good economy. they don't work against the government. they work together. what's good politics for them is -- there's just not any example in the world of the country working better, doing what they advocate. not a single one. >> what i hear you saying is you'd be happier if romney or huntsman got the nomination than rick perry. >> it's not up to me to pick. that's -- they'll both lose if anybody thinks i've endorsed them. i'm just saying that i appreciate the fact that they're trying to navigate the landscape that bears almost no relationship to what's produced successful economies in the world. and there are lots of countries that are now doing better than we are in some areas because of the very ideas that apparently you have to support to get the nomination. and it bothers me because i think we need a republican democratic debate and discussion about how best to change the way we produce and consume energy. and how best to revive the economy and how best to incorporate the need for cultural norms like the value of working family as well as government programs to help get through this tough time. and we can't get it because you're either for or against the government. and if you're anti-government guy, you have to be saying every tax is bad. every regulation is bad. every program is bad. first, it's factually not true and it's really distorting our politics. >> we'll have a lot more with the former president of the united states much that's coming up later this hour. also, a question from a gay soldier booted a republican presidential debate. the latest a series of controversial audience reactions. could they end up hurting the republican party in the general election? 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[ male announcer ] call today for a free home loan review. we'll offer a free android smartphone to you! one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. in my interview with bill clinton, he suggested rick perry as being hypocritical for railing against the federal government while at the same time gladly using federal resources to help his home state of texas. let's talk about that and a lot more with our cnn chief political correspondent and anchor of the show "state of the union" which airs sunday mornings and our senior political analyst. thank you very much for coming. what about that point that the former president is making against rick perry? he wants federal money. but he still continues to rail against washington. >> reporter: i think the standard answer that you'll get if perry should answer it is what most republicans say and what most republicans governors said when the stimulus money was being handed out in the first year of the obama administration that is it's there. and i'm going to take it. yes, there's hypocrisy there. but hypocrisy and politics are those things that go hand in hand. i'm not sure it's a game changer for perry at this point who at the moment is leading in the republican polls. that may not last long. >> whether you say -- i want to go to ron in a second -- that may not last long, you're referring to the performance in that debate this week? he is being criticized. >> i scared a the love republicans. there were moments there when he was lost in the moment. i'm sure you're e-mails as well as mine from various republicans going oh, my goodness, he just was not strong. didn't seem all that strong on facts. didn't seem all that strong on the politics. he got lost in a fairly standard slam against romney flip-flopping. he couldn't get it out. there are a lot of republicans out there today thinking uh-oh. >> people don't realize that he's run for office many times. he's never lost an election. but he really hasn't done a whole lot of debating other candidates. >> reporter: and, in fact, he's also mostly ascended in a state in a state that has really tilted to becoming a one-party state. he had to win tough elections in 1990 and 1998. but since he's been governor, republicans thoroughly dominated the state of texas. no democrat won a statewide election since 1994. he's been operating with an he thunderstormous take wind. some of the things you see in perry, some of the strengths and especially some of the weaknesses are really reflection of someone who has operated in a one-party state without a meaningful opposition. the kind of tough questioning that he faced even from his republican opponents yesterday is not something that has been routine for him, certainly at the highest level of his career as governor over the past decade. >> at this point, you're not ready to write him off, are you? >> not at all. >> look, rick perry is probably closer in tune ideologically to the median republican voter at this point than mitt romney although does he have glaring vulnerabilities. i was struck at that debate like your debate in tampa that perry supported in state tuition for illegal immigrants is more the center of attention than romney support for the individual mandate on health insurance. that doesn't mean that romney solved this problem. it means that's where the focus is now. i think perry does have probably a clearer ideological connection with a majority of the republican electorate. but also clearly i think romney at this point is a much smoother, confident, and assured performer. even with some of the ideological hurdles, you can see the trajectory is moving back in his direction. >> this rinne debate, ron, this week is the third and almost as many weeks. there seems to be at every one of the debates a moment where the audience plays a significant role. you remember that debate where they spoke about the executions in texas. the audience was cheering at the debate that i moderated in tampa when i asked ron paul about somebody who was uninsured, what do you do if they get into a catastrophic injury? let him die, i asked? there was cheering in the audience. yeah, let him die. in this debate, there was this o is gay. >> in 2010 when deplied to iraq, i had to lie about who i was because i'm a gay soldier. i didn't want to lose my job. my question is under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military? >> yeah. i would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military. >> all right. you heard some of the booing going on, ron. what, if any, impact will this have on the image of the republican party in a general election? >> look, an election involving an incumbent president is a referendum on the performance of that president. the booing that you heard and like the comments at your debate is a reflection of the enormous force that is operating now in the republican electorate. over three quarters of republican -- of self identified republicans now call themselves conservatives as candy noted the energy in the party is with the tea party voters. very militantly anti-government vote wloerz surged into the party. n. 2010. the electorate is getting older, more blue collar, more conservative. i think you see this had in a diminished flexibility for the candidates to take position that's might reach out to the middle while alienating that base. the fact that they're so harshly pummelling perry for support of instate tuition for illegal immigrants is an indication of how difficult they will find it in some areas to reach out to hispanics. the fact that perry and romney are battering each other over who is less committed to social security is something that democrats probably will watch with some anticipation. none of that doesn't change the fundamental reality this is primarily a referendum on president obama's performance. you can see in those kind of audience reactions the pressures that are moving these republican candidates pretty much to the right although romney and perry both in some cases are trying to resist that. that is the overall current. >> candy, you know, the notion that a soldier served in iraq being booed at one these debates by some of the republicans in the audience, you know, who would have thought we would ever see that? >> sure. and we should point out again that generally we're talking about a very few people in the audiences. people do things in crowds that they might not do individually. nonetheless, in answer to your question, it doesn't help. you already have republicans out there who have sort of publicly pushed back perry saying we can't be looking like the party that wants to get rid of social security. we want to be the party that saves social security. so there's already concern among traditional republicans that the image of the republican party which is always fought this kind of harsh imagery that the image is taking a battering. and this is more drips on top of it. these sort of isolated incidents inside the debates that are going on. and i think it does hurt them around the margins even as sort of mainstream republicans are saying hold on, hold on. we don't -- you know, we don't want to get rid of social security. we do have a heart. you're hearing mitt romney and perry talk about who has a heart and who doesn't have a heart. and sometimes when you listen to the democrats, that's exactly where they go. what do the democrats say when they criti