Is Obama vulnerable on the issue of the economy?

>>> the president's team on defense over some troubling poll number in our innings " wall street journal " poll. case in point, the six-point lead that mitt romney apparently holds on the president, on issue number one, the economy. while the president leads overall in our poll, that number was enough to get obama adviser david axelrod wielding magical mixed metaphors on "meet the press."

>> i think that government romney at the early stage gets a bit of an advantage because he has the businessmen and people assume because of that, he'll bring some magic elixir to the economy. when they get under the hood and see what he is proposing, more massive tax cuts for the wealthy, fewer rules for wall street . i think people will say we've seen this movie before and it didn't work.

>> i'm delighted to say that we're joined now by dnc chair woman debbie wasserman schultz . we're delighted to have you here. you're facing a candidate who changes position more time than the u.s. gymnastics team that's going to the olympics. he is a candidate whose own party regards him as inauthentic. all the polls suggest that the public say they trust the president more than they would trust romney . they say he would say things just to please them rather than tell him the truth. in the new york time, he is neck in neck with the president. what's going on?

>> well, actually, let me take up with a microscope what david axelrod said this and just look at the record. as a public servant, the only record we have is when he was governor of massachusetts . at the end of the day you'll see the american public support president obama because we've gone from bleeding 750,000 joks a month when he took office to after three years, 25 straight months of private segtor job growth . compare that with the only opportunity and massachusetts was 47th out of 50 with job creation . they had double the national average in reduction in manufacturing jobs.

>> notwithstanding these facts, the polls suggest that the president and romney are neck in neck.

>> that's why we have to not put too much stock in april of the election year.

>> you say that --

>> even with president obama being ahead, i would say that when polls favor us and when polls are not going our way. the american public is not paying extremely close attention to the two candidates. you've got the general election , mitt romney hasn't even wrapped up the nomination yet. when the voters get the opportunity to get a really close look, mitt romney is still a job destroyer. someone who took companies apart, sold off the pieces, let people go and sold the pieces for profit.

>> in the book, the rude guide to mitt. mitt romney is very weird. he seem incapable of natural conversation. all video of him attempting to interact with normal humans is cringe inducing. cookiegate last week was another example of an embarrassing inaction with the public. and yet in polling, i have to put it back to you. the president isn't ahead. if he is, it is mild. it is within the margin of error.

>> if you look at the key, again, not putting too much stock in polls. if you look at some of the key groups, demographic groups going to arguably be the deciding vote. women , latino voters, middle class voters, indianependents and moderates. the president is ahead in all those groups, at least latinos and women by double digits . in the polling that came out recently, the president is ahead with men by three points which is extremely rare most don't end up being ahead. that's because president obama has been fighting for the middle class . fighting to get the economy turned around. mitt romney is obsessively helping people doing well and sure they can do even better.

>> you've never struck me as someone who overreaches or makes grandiose claim about a forthcoming election.

>> thank you.

>> do you feel vulnerable about november?

>> i don't feel vulnerable. i feel focused. we need to make sure that you cannot sit on a lead. you cannot take anything for granted. you have to be singularly focused on doing exactly what the obama campaign has been doing in the democratic party as well and that is standing up, the most dynamic grassroots campaign in history. while the republicans are cowtowing to the special interests , trying to outdo each other. we are focused on the middle class . we're focused on organizing, opening obama campaign offices around the country, thousands and thousands of contacts through phone calls and door knock and one-on-one meetings and really making sure that this is a people powered campaign.

>> some people have the that the republican appear. pugh polls suggest the president as a result of thing said during the republican primary has been attacked more negatively than romney .

>> they have certainly spent an extraordinary amount of time attacking the president.

>> and it looks as though it's having an effect.

>> i think it is having a pretty damaging effect on them. particularly with women . there is now anywhere from a 13 to a 23-point gap with the president being ahead with women . because it's clear that mitt romney is dramatically out of touch with women in the issues and the priorities that matter to us. wanting to take us back to a time when insurance company could drop us or deny us coverage simply because of our agenda. a preexisting condition. charging us up to 50% more simply because we're women . focusing on not making sure that we can have access to affordable birth control and taking us back to a time when we had to worry about that. those are things, i have never been more concerned in my life. in my generation of women . has never been more concerned where my rights that i have accepted and taken for granted for far too long are in jeopardy if mitt romney becomes president of the united states . as a woman.

>> congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz . as