Last editorials before Election Day: What NYT, WSJ is saying

>>> white house as the sun comes up on this monday morning, the day before election day . joining us now, msnbc political analyst and vice president and executive editor of msnbc.com, richard wolffe . good to have you on board.

>> richard 's going to tell us who's going to win. richard , who's going to win?

>> manchester city .

>> i've got some must-reads for you. are you all ready?

>> we can't wait.

>> "the new york times ," jobs are growing. mr. obama has asserted his employment agenda including school and infrastructure rebuilding and aid to states to hire teachers. this was detailed in his jobs bill from last year. he has also vowed responsible approach to deficit reduction, including preserving tax cuts for most americans while letting the high-end bush tax cuts expire. such approaches would work, but time and again, they have met with a stone wall from republicans , who have been determined to keep the economy as weak as possible to hurt mr. obama 's campaign.

>> you can tell it's the day before the election.

>> the republicans ' last-minute tactic has been a cynical one, to make it clear that they will continue obstructing mr. obama if he wins. that's a hollow argument for mr. romney . and it does not change the fact that mr. romney has no good ideas and mr. obama has plenty.

>> oh, my lord! is this a comic book version of "the new york times " editorial page , or is it the editorial page ?

>> no. this is what the paper believes. and if you trust "the new york times ."

>> there are a lot of great reporters who don't have a two-dimensional view of the world.

>> what's your problem with it?

>> i know you agree with it.

>> i do. i agree with every word of it.

>> chime in. republicans bad, democrats good. so say "the new york times ." what say you?

>> i think it may be a hollow argument for mitt romney , but it's a real argument. republican obstruction will continue no matter what the president does if he gets re-elected, whether it's a one, two or seven-point margin. he had seven points last time and republicans never got out of campaign mode. the question is joe biden talked to chris matthews yesterday. he said the fever will break if the president wins re-election, which he believes will happen by a big margin in the electoral college . i don't know that the fever will break even if you think it is a fever. they are going to carry on, doing what they've done because it worked for them in 2010 . it will probably work for them in the next midterm.

>> it won't.

>> can i just say also, it's what they believe in, too. and let me also say this. if mitt romney comes with a package that's heavy on tax increases and heavy on spending, the house republicans will kill that bill, too.

>> oh.

>> so it may be a fever -- i mean, i understand democrats thinking that's a fever. joe biden believing that. but we kind of believe in smaller government. and "the new york times " saying this president --

>> that's exactly what we need right now.

>> -- that's rolled up trillion-dollar deficits, being responsible on deficits, that strikes some of us as funny, mark.

>> i wonder what they think of mary reed putting out a statement saying if mitt romney wins, his agenda is dead on arrival in the senate.

>> yeah.

>> seems like kind of the same thing.

>> i think we probably should read "the wall street journal " editorial page for that.

>> for that.

>> my point is, and, of course, "the new york times " is a liberal newspaper for a liberal city, and that is the sort of editorials that you would expect the day before an election. i'm poking but, you know, that's why you have "the new york times " editorial page .

>> no, this rang true when i read it.

>> msnbc.com. it is a great country.

>> it is. and at times like this, we have to look forward and say, who's going to get stuff done?

>> yes.

>> it would be great if people looked at the result of this election and said, someone has a mandate.

>> right.

>> and you know, the political tides may be moving one direction or another. so parties have to move with it. i would love to see both parties deal with what they all know is a real factor, which is latino votes. what are we talking about? on one side, maybe the dream act . on the other side, who knows?

>> who knows?

>> you know, it would be great looking at the trends of this country if they both dealt with what this country really looks like.

>> i'm going to do "the wall street journal " editorial since you mentioned it. " obama 's progressive gamble. mr. obama has governed from the left, not because he miscalculated his priorities but because these are his priorities. his first term is best understood as a race to put himself in the pantheon of the great progressive presidents, wilson, fdr, lbj who expanded the state's control over the private economy and over the wants and needs of the american middle class . unable to run on his record, he has conducted a low-down re- election campaign based on destroying his opponent's character. if the polls are right even if he wins, he will do so since the first president since wilson to win with a smaller margin than he did the first time. but for mr. obama , this won't matter. his great progressive gamble will have paid off.

>> it was balanced.

>> i don't know what to think.

>> subtly fought.

>> it's black or it's white.

>> you know what, it sang, like the beatles. it was beautiful. i guess "the wall street journal ," again, richard , a bit more nuanced and balanced than i expected.

>> interesting, in turn, they seem to be thinking the gamble will pay off. i don't remember them complaining too much about president bush 's re- election campaign style in 2004 , but maybe that's just a trick of memory.

>> you talked about mandate. you used the word "mandate." one of the things that concerns me is that this race is going to be so close at the end that both sides -- because democrats, harry reid 's saying it on the democratic side. republicans are going to be saying it on the house side. that both sides are going to say, whoever wins, you don't have a mandate. if mitt romney thinks he's going to get democrats to magically work with him in the senate and the house, he's out of his mind.

>> right.

>> and especially if you have a situation that could happen where mitt romney wins the popular vote . the president wins the electoral vote . wow.

>> remember, it wasn't close in 2008 . if anyone had a mandate, it was president obama . the economy fell off the cliff. did the two sides work together? not a bit of it. not from the start. why would it be different this time?

>> well, because it has to be. well, what are we going to do, go off the fiscal cliff?

>> they'll come up with some -- they'll patch and fix in the lame-duck session, and that's it.

>> forced.

>> you were showing me a map, mark halperin , a couple blocks back where mitt romney could lose nevada, ohio, iowa, pennsylvania , michigan, a lot of states and still win. which one -- what's that map look like?

>> well, this is not a prediction by any means. it's something ari fleischer , former bush press secretary, floated last night on the twitters. and again, i think the trick is, it's the assumption the president's got a commanding position in the electoral college . this is a way he found to get governor romney to 270 without winning ohio, pennsylvania , minnesota or iowa. so he wins all the mccain states, nevada, all the mccain states plus new hampshire , colorado, wisconsin and the southern states . probably the toughest one in there would be wisconsin . and then new hampshire . but that's not -- that's not a crazy thing.

>> i actually see romney winning florida, north carolina and virginia. if he doesn't win colorado, he's in trouble. new hampshire certainly could happen. but wisconsin , man --

>> he's taking pennsylvania , too. and in which case it's a sweep.

>> i think it's more likely that he takes pennsylvania than wisconsin . and i've always called pennsylvania fool's gold. i just don't see mitt romney cracking wisconsin . i just don't -- unless, like you said, there's a huge landslide. i don't see pennsylvania , but pennsylvania seems more likely because no focus until the last week.

>> you'd have to buy into the argument that there's a break in undecided voters at this point which i would argue is hard given what we saw with sandy.

>> with so few undecided voters as well.

>> right. and you also had a countervailing big-news moment which gave the obama campaign these incredible images. you've got that. look, there are not just two theories of philosophy of politics. there are two theories of campaigning. one is that the republicans have natural enthusiasm. and the other is this microtargeted obama campaign , is it true?

>> and mika, the great irony of this that the "game change" boys will obviously put in their book that the man of data, the man whose entire life was sort of like a scene out of "the matrix" where the numbers go across the screen, and he is the matrix, mitt romney is depending on the passion of the other people and not the hard numbers to get elected.

>> you're seeing it in the crowds at least. richard , stay with us.

>> but he doesn't have the numbers.

>>> mike murphy join us, chuck todd and david gregory . we'll be right back. if we