While CNN's Soledad O'Brien tossed softballs at Democratic Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, she was not so kind to her
Republican guest during the next hour, on Thursday's Starting Point.
O'Brien reported poor poll numbers for both the Romney and Obama
campaigns, but went after only the Romney campaign's economic message in
detail.
O'Brien teed up the Democratic mayor to respond to Romney hitting Obama
for wanting more public sector workers. But she posed the same question
of Romney advisor Jim Talent, putting him on the defensive, rather than
bringing up, say, President Obama's remark that the private sector is
"doing just fine," a statement he later retracted.
And the CNN anchor was content to ask Villaraigosa about both
candidates' economic plans polling poorly with independent voters. But
with Talent, O'Brien specifically put the Romney campaign's poor numbers
in the spotlight – even though the actual polling report emphasizes
President Obama's "chilly reception [1]" from independent voters.
"So terrible numbers for both of them on something that everybody has
said is the most important issue in this election, which is the economy.
What should they be doing?" O'Brien asked Villaraigosa. Contrast that
neutral question with her pointed skepticism of the Romney campaign in
her interview of Talent.
"When you look at that poll, bad news for both candidates. But let's
talk about your candidate specifically. Why do you think that number is
so low?" she pressed Talent.
While she initially reported the complete poll numbers on the economic
plans – which show President Obama with a slightly higher approval
rating than Romney, but a significantly higher disapproval rating –
O'Brien only mentioned the approval numbers in her second interview as
"bad news for both candidates."
The ABC News/Washington Post poll report states that while the polling
for both candidates is not good, Romney "avoids majority criticism"
which Obama did not, and has "some room to maneuver" since more voters
were undecided about his economic plan. O'Brien didn't shed light on
this analysis, however.
A partial transcript of both segments, which aired on Starting Point on June 14, is as follows:
[7:18 a.m. EDT]
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You mentioned what Governor Romney said. And I want to
play a little chunk of it – just from Friday where he talked about
really the lessons from Wisconsin and targeting what President Obama had
said about the private sector doing fine. So let me play a little chunk
of that and I'll ask you a question on the other side.
(Video Clip)
MITT ROMNEY, Republican presidential candidate: He wants to hire more
government workers, he says we need more firemen, more policemen, more
teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people
did. It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American
people.
(Applause)
(End Video Clip)
O'BRIEN: So then what do you make of the governor's remarks when he
says it's time to cut back on government and help the American people,
and he listed firemen, policeman, teachers?
ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), Mayor of Los Angeles: Well the 325,000 jobs
that the President is talking about is saving jobs, not adding jobs,
that's one. Two, there's no question that we have to cut programs and
cut the deficit. The President's proposed a $4 trillion cut over the
next ten years. Mr. Romney talks about cutting the deficit and also
proposes a $5 trillion tax cut for – primarily targeted to the wealthy,
that we can't afford.
What Democrats and Republican mayors are saying is we have got to do
both. We have to cut some spending, no question about it. But we've got
to make investments in infrastructure, transportation, in education, in
helping us export when 95 percent of the new markets are outside the
United States of America. We've got to do things across the aisle, do
things to make investments, but also make the cuts that we need.
O'BRIEN: Both the President and Mitt Romney are in the state of Ohio
campaigning. And there is a new poll out that's sort of bad news for
both of them, I think. Washington Post poll talking about favorable
numbers of their economic policy, President Obama at 38 percent and Mitt
Romney at 35 percent. And if you look at the margin of error, actually,
it's very close. If you look at their unfavorable numbers, President
Obama at 54 percent, among independents I should say, and Mitt Romney at
47 percent. So terrible numbers for both of them on something that
everybody has said is the most important issue in this election, which
is the economy. What should they be doing? What should they be talking
about?
VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I think both candidates have to talk about the
economy, not just what's gone wrong but also what we're going to do in
the future. And I think the President has done that. He said, again and
again and again, that he's willing to cut spending. But we also have got
to make investments. We can't continue to extend the Bush tax cuts and
not make investments in education and transportation, in the
infrastructure. We have got to do both. And I think the President has
tried to extend the hand to the Republicans. But the House leadership
has refused again and again and again. And in the Senate, if you recall,
Senator McConnell has said his number one job is to defeat the
President instead of putting the country back to work.
(...)
[8:08 a.m. EDT]
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: There's a new Washington Post/ABC News poll that shows
crucial independent swing state voters don't think very highly of
either of the candidates' economic plans. Only 38 percent have a
favorable view of the President's plans, 35 percent have a favorable
view of Mitt Romney's plans. And they are both within the margin of
error. So literally neck and neck.
Brings us right to Jim Talent. He's a former senator from the state of
Missouri. He's now the senior economic adviser to the Romney campaign.
Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate your time
this morning. When you look at that poll, bad news for both candidates.
But let's talk about your candidate specifically. Why do you think that
number is so low?
JIM TALENT, senior economic advisor, Romney campaign: Well, I've seen a
lot of poll numbers indicating the governor is being received very well
by independent voters, Soledad. And look, he is proposing things that
really ought to have bipartisan support and have had in the past like
approving the Keystone Pipeline, stopping the cap and trade regulations
the President wants to pass that he'd – the President said will
skyrocket the price of electricity.
So, I mean, his message is that the President's policies were
well-intended but are failing. And he's going to move in a direction of
empowering the economy. And I think that's being pretty well received.
O'BRIEN: It sounds like that maybe it's – are you saying you think just
this particular poll from The Washington Post is wrong because the poll
numbers certainly don't say well-received. It says more like, meh.
(...)
O'BRIEN: Okay. So let me ask you a little bit about what Mitt Romney
said last week about the hiring of teachers and firefighters and police
officers, and the context as I know you know was sort of lessons from
that Wisconsin recall vote and Scott Walker obviously won. The governor
said that there was a message in this for President Obama. And here's
what he said. Let's play that.
(Video Clip)
MITT ROMNEY Republican presidential candidate: And his answer for
economic vitality, by the way, was of course pushing aside the private
sector, which he said is doing fine. Instead, he wants to add more to
government. He wants another stimulus. He wants to hire more government
workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers.
Did he not get the message in Wisconsin? The American people did.
(End Video Clip)
O'BRIEN: So my question for you is this. Was the governor there saying
that we don't need more teachers and more firefighters and more police
officers? Because that's what it sounded like to me.
-- Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center