Limbaugh, Romney go for far-fetched attacks on Obama, Christie

>>> let's get right to our panel now, krystal ball is my colleague and the co-hass host of "the cycle." jimy williams joining us from washington. we have live pictures of president obama speaking in northern new jersey . isn't this what a disaster like this required, a state governor to communicate and then cooperate with the president of the united states ?

>> it's absolutely what's required, and i think it is what americans want from their government. i think it has to be a source of pride for americans watching these two men who have been political combatants. chris christie a top surrogate for governor romney , standing next to each other, praising one another. not jst one way, the president has been praiseful of chris christie . i think republicans are really off base to criticize him just for thanking the president for doing his job and being a leader in this situation.

>> when you were listening to rush limbaugh there, that had a hint of kind of homophobia, didn't it?

>> rush limbaugh has been disgusting on all this. he also imitating the president in a very offensive way. indicated that he called chris christie and basically bullied him, said he wouldn't get any money if he didn't come out and do this. limbaugh is in his own land trying to spin things for his tribe of sort of deluded people that follow him.

>> jimmy, mr. romney is now moving from the lying to the ludicrous in his ads. here is a particularly sensational one as he tries to reach out to latino voters. take a listen to this. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> so i'm mitt romney --

>> we have fidel castro , hugo chavez , all the devils are here as shakespeare has said. they even have castro's niece. but can you explain what any of that ad has to do with the president of this nation?

>> well, martin, don't you know that barack obama is a socialist. don't you understand that? isn't that clear after all this time, even through the gop primaries that barack obama --

>> no, no.

>> every one of his policies is clearly without a doubt, it's ir irrefutable. he is a socialist.

>> jimmy, you're beginning to sound like sarah palin .

>> well, that's -- oh, that's the worst thing you could ever say about me except -- unless you call me rush limbaugh . here is why barack obama is not a socialist. i will give you one example. obama care. people say that obama care is a government takeover of health care , but there's a slight problem with the government takeover of health care in obama care. there is no government option, and, b, what barack obama did in a word is he said to 22 million people in america , you have to go and now buy private health insurance . this is shocking. he said to america 's big five insurers, you're not going to get 2 million new paying customers? there's the socialism in that. he runs this ad. i don't understand spanish despite the fact i took two years of it. i can look at that ad and i can see what they're saying is that the barack obama is a socialist. there's nothing about him that's socialistic at all. in fact, obama care was a boon to the private health insurance industry. so it's kind of a far as and itand it's a little bit of a stretch and it's fearmongering. i don't know of anybody in the latino community that look at that and say it's credible.

>> to that point jimmy calls it fearmongering. i would use one word which is desperate. to me it smacks of the jeep ads they're putting up in ohio, the welfare ads in ohio. it's desperation, it's lices, and it's aimed at suppressing voters, scaring them, making them to feel that their choice isn't a good one and keeping them from going to the polls.

>> that's a good description of ran net romney , but on pla net earth we have mayor bloomberg offering an endorsement of the president. one believes in a woman's right to choose. the other doesn't says mr. bloomberg. one believes in marriage equality . one believes that climate change is real. what do you make, krystal , of this endorsement?

>> i really am quite surprised to see bloomberg come out and endorse. he just last week said that he was not going to endorse in this race and, in fact, it was hurricane sandy and really recognizing what a threat climate change was and how much we need leadership on that issue that caused him to change the way that he was viewing the race. i think given the fact that he had previously said he wasn't going to endorse, that he is an independent, that he's a business-friendly capitalist, i think it adds a little bit to the momentum that the president already has this week.

>> jimmy, you were assenting and according with what krystal was saying. i should mention to you, jimmy, that "the economist" magazine has also endorsed the president and i might read to you what they say in their editorial comment. mr. romney has an economic plan that works only if you don't believe most of what he says. this is not a convincing pitch for a chief executive. jimmy, you know about the private sector as you do about the public sector . what's gone wrong here? romney told us that he was the businessman.

>> well, he is a businessman, and barack obama has never run a business his entire life but he's run a government for four years that was literally teetering on the brink of worldwide economic destruction, and we didn't go over that cliff. and what do we have? home prices are up. there are escalation clauses on homes in new york city , across the country. unemployment is going down. people are actually out there hiring other people. we're going to find out tomorrow what the jobs number is. we have good economic data . i have said this before, running a government is not the same as running a business. they're not meant to be the same. and i think there's a factual distinction between those two things. barack obama knows how to run a government. he's done a remarkably good job considering that he inherited what i call a bad, bad pooh-pooh sandwich. that's the nicest thing i can think of. he's turned it around. at the end of the day i think mayor bloomberg making this endorsement when he did not endorse in 2008 is a big deal and it sends a clear signal to wall street and to business leaders across this country that barack obama is doing exactly what he said he was going to do and that is to turn america 's economy around. it is turning around and denying it doesn't make it so.

>> jimy williams and krystal ball, thank you so much.

>> thank you.