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MARQUETTE -- CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley was the woman of the hour at Monday's Economic Club of Marquette meeting.

In the midst of all the turmoil in Washington, Crowley was invited to Marquette to talk politics, a job she's accustomed to as host of the network's program, State of the Union.

Crowley says each time she leaves our nation's capitol, people always ask her: what's wrong with Washington?

"I think that part of what ails Washington right now is the stakes are so high in people's jobs, people's homes, livelihood, everything is at stake, and while I have seen Washington gridlock before, I think the stakes are higher so it looks worse; the prism is different," says Crowley.

The big political news of the day across the country is President Obama's new "Buffet rule," announced earlier today; it means big tax hikes for the rich in order to chip away at the exploding deficit.  Crowley says it has no shot of passing Congress.

"I, in fact, talked to a couple economists about it and they said good idea, but it can't just be something out there.  We have to overhaul the tax system, which is what Republicans have argued, which is, let's get rid of all the loopholes and have three levels of taxes," she says.

And what about last week's much anticipated announcement of the American Jobs Act?  That plans to put Americans back to work by putting federal dollars into projects like road construction.  According to Crowley, something will pass, but it'll be much smaller in scale than what the President is proposing.

"Most economists say it'll be helpful...will it be helpful enough?  Not if you're the one that still doesn't have a job is the bottom line, and nine percent unemployment is a very tough environment for the President to run for re-election in 2012," Crowley says.

As host of CNN's State of the Union, Crowley says you can expect to see her shows out of the studio and at the heart of it all on the campaign trail as we inch closer to the 2012 election season.

Crowley, a proud Michigander herself, says she was thrilled to make it back to her home state.  And the Economic Club was happy to have her join their impressive notable speakers list, which includes Bill Ford, Wolf Blitzer, and Louis Rukeyser.