Fox News anchor Chris Wallace spoke at the ASIS International convention at the Pennsylvania Convention Center today offering his take on the upcoming presidential election. First, he discussed the subject that was really on everybody's mind. He reassured the mostly male audience that the female Fox News anchors and reporters are as beautiful in person as they look on television.
Then he offered up some humorous election one- liners including a barb at Bain Capital. He compared Clint Eastwood to today's weather -"82 and cloudy".
Wallace joked, "Bin Laden paid off his mortgage but he is still underwater. Romney is so rich that his illegal immigrants have illegal immigrants. Obama owns a 2005 Chrysler, which is registered in Kenya. He is just like the car. It runs well but does not have the power to pass anything. No matter how much they changed the lightning at the convention, Obama could not get out of Clinton's shadow."
Wallace confirmed that Fox News shows that Obama has a small, but real electoral lead, which he attributes to the Democratic convention.
"On August 27, Romney was leading 47% to 46%, said Wallace. "Now Obama is ahead 50% to 44% a difference of 7 points. There is a growing sense that the Democrats had a successful convention. Clinton, who presided over the largest peace time expansion in history, was effective."
Wallace affirmed that Obama has an even bigger lead in the Electoral College.
"My colleague Karl Rove displays maps that show Obama with 225 electoral votes to Romney 191," he said. "In the 9 swing states, Obama has a lead in 8 of them."
Romney's staffers have told Wallace that they believe the election will be a referendum on the economy. Wallace seems to have some doubts that this strategy is going to work.
Despite polls that show 1/3 of Americans believe the country is on the right track and 2/3 believe it is on the wrong track, Obama is still in the lead because they are not they will be better off with Romney," he said. "Obama blames Bush 4 years into his term. A lot of voters believe that."
The recent horrendous jobs report, which had zero effect on the polls, seems to back up his reasoning. Wallace attributes the non-reaction to the fact that the country has been living with bad job numbers for a long time, the public's greater disdain for the Republicans in Congress, and a lack of conviction that Romney cares about them.
After Romney made him pancakes for breakfast one morning, Wallace was convinced that Romney is full of empathy. He lamented that the convention speeches of two Mormons, who have been counseled by Romney in his role as bishop, were not seen by many Americans because they were not in prime time.
"One woman, whose daughter was dying of a fatal illness, told of Romney coming to comfort her and folding the laundry," said Wallace.
He feels that Romney has been "swiftboated" because they have taken his greatest strength-his business success- and turned into a liability. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's accusation that Romney has paid no taxes and the Obama campaign commercials featuring people who were put of of work by Bain Capital, particularly the former employee whose wife died of cancer, have painted Romney as Robin Hood in reverse.
While admitting that Romney has to do "something big" to win the election, Wallace is not ready to concede the election to Obama. Recalling the Carter-Reagan debate, he thinks that there is a chance that Romney could pull a Reagan and turn around the election.
"I moderated a debate during the Republican primary. Romney is pretty good going after one person. He went after Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry during the debates and won," he said.
The news anchor then took the unusual step of urging Romney to get specific on his tax reform proposals by detailing which loopholes he would end.
"Voters fear that he will cut taxes for rich people, but not close any of the loopholes," he said.
While he criticized Romney for speaking out too soon on the death of the American ambassador to Libya, he had no qualms about discussing the matter. He places the blame for the death of Chris Stevens squarely on a failure of security.
Wallace, an eight year veteran of Fox News, only halfheartedly defended the conservative bias of the network.
"People mistakenly believe that the liberal view on gun control, gay marriage, abortion is the conventional wisdom," argued Wallace.
In the final moments of his speech, he surprised the crowd by revealing the interview that made him the most nervous. No, it was not a president, a great religious leader, or a despotic tyrant, but basketball player Michael Jordan. He even practiced before the interview his jump shot. Wallace would have won but Jordan is so competitive that he extended their game of DOG to a game of HORSE in order to win.
Wallace, whose father was Jewish, revealed that Jesus and Hitler are the two people that he would most wanted to have interviewed.
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