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pretty good expectations for this debate. he can do well by standing on the stage against barack obama. but at the end of the day, you're going to have three debates but still have a lot of other things happening in the campaign and obama has a structural advantage in this race. he's been ahead and romney's got to try and catch up with him and i don't think the debates will do it for him. >> a take us if you will, behind the curtain, in the kerry campaign at this point, you were down about six points nationally which is roughly the margin where mitt romney finds himself down at this point. what's the mood inside the campaign? does it become hard to keep your spirits up? is there a danger of having sort of a gloomy mood per vads the campaign itself? >> that's always a danger and i think one of the great things that the obama campaign had four years ago is they didn't pay a lot of attention to all of this. they weren't watching all of these cable news shows and paying attention to the chattering class. the romney campaign is being buried by the media, not just the liberal media, but ever

established by this point why this was such a disastrous debate for obama. i'll play a quick clip here, and this is a jumping-off point to talk about what he needs to do in the next debates to avoid a repeat of this. let's play a clip of an opening romney gave him that he completely missed. >> i'm not looking to cut massive taxes and reduce the revenues going to the government. my number one principle is there's no tax cut that adds to the deficit. i want to underline that. virtually everything you said about my tax plan is inaccurate. so if the tax plan he described were a tax plan i was asked to support, i'd say absolutely not. i'm not looking for 5i trillion tax cut. i won't put in a place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. i'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. that's not my plan. >> that's three different moments during this debate when mitt romney noticed the bump in the set for obama. what he's saying there is he's arguing against math. the idea that you can cut faxes 20%, can you tell taxes for everybody and it's deficit neutral and faye for it by closing unspecified loop

this week president obama wouldvy strong debate performance that would be erased by a weak jobs number, but it's the opposite. the jobs report is in easing concern about obama's weak debate. nate silver said first day in while obama is is happy for everyone to talk about the economy because the numbers are better than expected with the unemployment rate dropping to 7.8%, a four-year low. exactly where it was when president obama took office. there was only a net gain of 114,000 jobs created last month. too low for sustained unemployment reduction. so something for both sides to like. the president has to be thrilled about this jobs numbers, though. it's a game changer unless it's not. the president is the out on the trail pushing it. >> as a nation we are moving forward again. we're moving forward. more people are getting jobs. now, every month reminds us that we've still got too many of our friends and neighbors looking for work. today's news certainly is not an excuse to talk down the economy to score a few political points. it's a reminder that this country has come too far to turn

. >> so jonathan, pugh had an interesting poll showing that president obama is expected to win the debate by a51% and mitt romney by 29%. it seems like president obama is more highly anticipated as the winner of the debate. do these sort of expectations setting games actually work for voters? >> i don't think they matter too much for the voters. it's a lot of fun for us to talk about. you know, as the comedy that you were just playing before suggested, if either one of these guys gets a complete sentence out, it should be a surprise to all of us. look, i think that it -- it matters a little bit on the margins, working the reporters who then report to the public. by and large i think the public is pretty good at making its own judgments. i don't think people walk in going, well, my expectations is about a 4, so if he gets a 6, i'll vote for him. if he gets a 5, no way. i don't think it works that way for most voters. >> i saw an interesting tweet come across the twitter this morning from carole simpson. she said debates are about style and not substance, despite what campaigns say. does he

barack obama didn't have the last time he debated. anything he says about a foreign country can be judged in diplomatic terms when he talks about issues and congress. these are blow up. he knows too much in a way and has to figure out how to bring back the knowledge set to what he says publicly both from a legal and sort of intelligence standpoint and also just from a good politicliolitical standpoi. >> he knows too much. >> jonathan, i think i can count on you to be objective with me. some would argue that obama has been given something of a pass on his record over the past year, and this might be the first real opportunity face-to-face to be pressed on his broken promises and record highs. high-d deaf sights and poverty d spending, on and on. from what you know of our friend, jim lair, do you expect these kinds of tough questions to come out in the debates? >> one of the talents of jim lair is the ability to ask questions that really reveal a lot from the people that he has as guests on his show or in a debate setting. not to put swuns on the defensive, but they can hang themselves with


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