>> how do you know it's been a bad week for the republican presidential nominee? that's when willard mitt romney wants to change the subject to his tax returns. yes, you heard me right. that's how bad things have become for mr. romney. the meeting went something like this. someone on the campaign suggested bringing out a whiteboard on an airplane tarmac. that got shot down. they've already done the veep rollout. too late, i guess, to do that again. a foreign trip? i don't think that's such a good idea. the entire foreign front has proved a complete and utter disaster. but then came the eureka moment. one hour ago, 3:00 p.m. on a friday afternoon to be exact, the campaign decided it would finally release the romneys' full 2011 tax returns. mitt and ann paid $1.95 million in taxes on his 2011 investment income of $13.7 million. an effective rate of just over 14%. the release showing just how fraught the romney campaign must be with seven days to go before early voting begins in iowa, seven weeks until the election, and that terribly unlucky 47% secret video which left mr. romney more naked than prince harry playing strip snooker in las vegas. while mr. romney has tried to restart and reset multiple times this week, the president has more faith in voters' short-term memories. taking the stage in battleground virginia this afternoon, armed with an hour-long video with which all of america is now very familiar. >> i don't believe we can get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims. who think that they're not interested in taking responsibility for their own lives. i don't see a lot of victims in this crowd today. i see hard-working virginians. >> or, as mr. romney likes to call them, feckless freeloaders. now, of course, as romney faces an intense backlash for insulting half the nation, the romney camp also finds itself with a war chest less impressive than originally thought, and now a widening gap in key swing state polls in both colorado and wisconsin. a new nbc/"wall street journal" poll puts the president up five points among likely voters, 40% to 45%. in iowa the president's edge over romney is eight points, 50% to 42%. that number enough to take iowa out of the swing state category, now defined as leaning toward the president on msnbc's battleground map putting romney at an even deeper electoral deficit. the new polls taken after romney's blundered response to u.s. attacks in north africa and during the release of that 47% video showed the toll the last week has taken on his candidacy. and if he was hoping for a little consolation from some conservative friends, well, i hope he didn't read peggy noonan today. quote, the romney campaign has to get turned around. this week i called it incompetent, but only because i was being polite. i really meant rolling calamity. >> stop it. >> i'm sorry. >> this is hard. you want to try it. >> i'm hearing that ann romney has something to say. mrs. romney, what was that? >> stop it. this is hard. you want to try it? get in the ring. this is hard, and, you know, it's an important thing that we're doing right now, and it's around important election, and it is time for all americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with mitt's qualifications and experience and know-how. >> with all due respect, mrs. romney, i'm afraid lucky is not a word anyone has used to describe your husband in quite some time. let's get straight to our panel. msnbc political analyst karin finney and here in new york, republican strategist ron christy and msnbc contributor ari. karen, can you believe it? the romney campaign suddenly wants to release his tax returns? what a coincidence that it's this particular friday afternoon. i can't imagine how it seemed to coincide with that week. >> i have to say as a person who has been doing politics for 20 years, the idea of releasing tax -- one year of tax returns as a way to try to change the story, that is unprecedented. and you forgot one other little blunder this week. don't forget that paul ryan was booed quite heavily today at the aarp -- >> we're coming to that later in the broadcast. you're becoming premature like mitt romney. stay on the point you're making. >> my only point being, i mean, clearly when they were having that meeting trying to decide what they needed to do, they also knew they didn't want to have to have a conversation all weekend about the fact that seniors are not buying the snake oil that they are trying to sell to them. i have never seen a campaign that is this infective at being able to both respond and then trying to shift gears, and the problem that romney will have going forward, remember, something like 20 battleground state newspapers editorialized against romney on that 47% comment. now, that's not just -- we're not talking about inside the beltway. we're talking about outside. that's what the polls i think are reflecting. but how romney turns it around is anybody's guess because he's got to have more than just a good day or a good two days. he's got to be on par, solid every single day between now and the election to even try to change the story. >> right. ari, in london we used to talk about the friday night coffin drop when someone wanted to drop something quietly. he's not done that for this reason. the romneys gave $4 million in charity in 2011. but only claimed a deduction of $2.25 million to keep their effective rate around the 13% mark. a move that according to mitt romney would disqualify for the presidency. take a listen. >> i have paid all the taxes required by law. i don't pay more than are legally due, and, frankly, if i had paid more than are legally due, i don't think i'd be qualified to become president. i think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires. >> doesn't the 2011 disqualify him according to his own words, his 2011 tax returns. >> he did pay several more points in taxes than he needed to. i don't think that should be a qualification for the presidency. >> but that's what he said. >> he said it, and he said it in rhetorical flourish and he would seem to count himself out. part of what's going on here -- >> just before you get to that, i want to make the point, if he hadn't reduced the opportunity to take those deductions, his effective rate would have been 9%. >> yes. >> and he says if you pay less than you should, it disqualifies you for the presidency. >> if you pay more -- >> more than you should. >> and more. >> well, look, i think that's the problem for him, right? he's got a record, and he's constantly running from it. it's not just his massachusetts record of governance, it's his personal record, how he manages his books, the commitments he's made. and this is the point i was going to tell you is i think we're in a different political era now. i think facts are the new spin. i think numbers are the new rhetoric, and what you have seen is as the country has gotten a load of the mitt romney/paul ryan plan, as they have watched the convention, seen the 47% comments, they can see what this plan amounts to. they can see the numbers. they can do the arithmetic, and they don't like it. >> your thoughts. >> you guys crack me up. you honestly crack me up. >> really? >> first it's -- >> we're using the words of mr. romney. please accept that he's cracking you up as well. he said it. >> first you said that romney, we need to see his tax returns, we need to have these tax returns released. >> we'd like 12 years like his father. >> he gave us a summary for 20 years. >> two years. >> he gave us a summary for 20 years. >> details for two years. >> executive -- >> i can give you a summary -- >> let me finish a sentence. >> please do. >> what was his effective rate over 20 years? it was 20.20%. so, again, the lib raleralliber never enough. first you want him to release his records and then you say he's not paying enough on taxes. my second point is you're being disingenuous. he's paying taxes on wages and salary. then he's paying taxes on investment income. so to suggest he's not paying his taxes or not paying his fair share a ludicrous. >> it's a distraction. >> you and i will agree with this. >> you agree? >> this is absolutely a distraction. >> so you agree he's released these in order to distract attention from his magnificent performance in florida where he's captured on tape dismissing and deriding 50% of the population. >> i think what the distraction is here, martin, is we are looking at mitt romney's taxes as opposed to looking at the president yes dismal record and you're going to fixate on this. >> karen, please. >> two. number one, we know mitt romney was willing to hing around with the numbers, if you will, to make sure that the numbers released today match what he said back in may, right. >> he's engineered the numbers. >> he's eveningineered the numb. that to me raises even more questions about what is in that last ten years of taxes because we know he has no problem engineering the numbers to make it say what he wants it to say. more importantly, ron, and this is the problem that your guy has right now, his rationale is he ways to the letter of the law what he is supposed to pay. so do the 47% of people that he writes off. they pay to the letter of the law every bit of tax they're supposed to pay and somehow they're lazy victims? >> come on. >> this is just so absurd, this whole notion he's written off 47% of the country. the fact -- >> it's what he said. >> the new gallup poll that came out today said that president obama has 47%, mitt romney has 47%. i know very well actually what governor romney said, martin, and the fact of the matter is he said there's no way these 47% of these people are going to vote for him. >> ron is cherry picking now. >> what he actually said is he characterized those people. he gave them certain conditions and he described them as entitled, dependent. >> yes. >> and victims. >> all of that is what's proved offensive. >> he made a value judgment about those people, ron. that's the problem. he made a value judgment about how much people pay, and he also doubled down on that by saying, you know, that's why to those people, those people, the idea of -- my plan for lowering their tax rates is not so interesting. i mean, that totally disrespects the work that the people -- >> absolutely, entirely not true. >> it disrespects how they live their lives. >> i'm sorry, the fact of the matter is that 49% of this country does, in fact, receive a check from the government. and it is true. i'm sorry. you guys minight not like the fact. >> lazy victims? >> we know that -- i'm sorry to tell you this, but a number of them are actually serving this nation overseas. >> that's right. >> i don't dispute that. >> many of them are elderly. and these are benefits they've paid into. let's be careful about discussing them. >> there's a problem here. it's a problem you have and a problem mitt romney has. you sound cold. you don't sound like you care about what government does. that's your biggest problem. the numbers bear that out so people can see why, but that's the fundamental thing that's going on. when you talk about the stimulus, when you talk about health care, when you talk about putting this nation back to work and when you talk about our veterans, some of whom don't pay taxes but serve us with the ultimate sacrifice, everything you're talking about here, the heart of it is that we have one idea here about government working for people and getting this country back to work, and you have another idea -- and i waited a while -- exemplified by mitt romney in a private moment of candor where he sounded even more cold than you, although i think you both sound cold, where the attitude is screw these people, we don't care about them politically. they're moochers, they're takers. that's the attitude. i think it sounds cold. i'm glad to see that it's being rejected by the public because sometimes this tough talk works. it doesn't seem to be working right now. >> i'm afraid we have to call it a day, but ari, i want to you let your parents know that they brought you up exceptionally well because you have been polite and waited for your opportunity. so thank you so much. >> karen finney, ron christie, ari, thank you all. next, more on the worst week ever for team romney. stay with us. >> the first step to a stronger medicare is to repeal obama care because it represents the worst of both worlds. humans -- sometimes life trips us up. and sometimes, we trip ourselves up, but that's okay. at liberty mutual insurance we can "untrip" you as you go through your life with personalized policies and discounts when you need them most. just call... and speak with a licensed representative about saving on your policy when you get married, move into a new house... [crash!] or add a car to your policy. don't forget to ask about saving up to 10% when you combine your auto and home insurance with liberty mutual. security, coverage, and savings. all the things humans need to make our beautifully imperfect world a little less imperfect. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? if we want to improve our schools... ...what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ...nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. well, the week was going so bad for mitt romney his team seems to have decided that today, moments ago in fact, was the perfect time to release his 2011 tax return. under cover of bad polls and his comments on libya and the 47%, romney says he's paying close to $2 million on income of about $14 million for an effective rate of about 14%. however, compare that with mitt's estimate in april of his 2011 return. he's off on all three counts, particularly his income where he's off by a third. joining us in washington is jared bernstein and in harrisburg, pennsylvania, robert traynor, both msnbc contributors. thank you to both of you. jared, can you explain this to me? mitt romney does not appear to be very good at math. he estimates -- the estimates he gave in april were considerably off the amount that's been announced today. is that typical of a man who understands how the private sector works? >> well, look, i mean, his taxes are going to be very different than that of most of the rest of us, and as you mentioned in the earlier panel, there was a lot of adjustments made in order to hit a particular target. so i think that all that means is one year you're going to adjust one way, one year you're going to adjust another. remember, these are not -- this is not a taxpayer who gets a paycheck every week. this is a taxpayer whose income exclusively comes from unearned income, things like capital gains and the bond portfolio and carried interest. and that income is treated very favorab favorably. some of it doesn't even live in this country. >> but, jared, jared, i don't have anything like your expertise in this area but i have been studying it for the last hour, and it just looks suspicious to me that a man has to engineer the amount of deductions that he chooses to take from charitable gifts in order to achieve consistency with what he says publicly. that just smells wrong. >> interestingly in this case, he engineered it upward so he would pay a higher tax rate because he liked those optics. my point is as follows. if you actually look at the average tax rate that the typical person in the tiptop of the income scale pays, it's about 30%. if you look at mitt romney or for that matter warren buffett, it's 13% or 14%. the question you have to ask yourself is do all those tax deductions help the economy, productivity, jobs, gdp, or just boost the income of rich people? it's basically a question of supply-side economics and the answer is very clearly they don't help on the growth side. they do boost the inequality side. >> i'm not against the fact that people earning $20,000 or less are paying more in payroll taxes. they're paying around 15%. >> absolutely. the average tax rate for middle income families is about 14%, and here exactly the same as what we're talking about here. >> incredible. robert, what was your thinking behind this friday document dump? was it things possibly -- couldn't possibly get worse so let's chuck some more bad news out there? what's the thinking here? >> well, again, i'm not a romney spokesperson, but i'm not sure it's bad information. look, a couple things here. i have been listening to the conversation over the last 15 minutes, with all due respect to the panels, there's a bit of disingenuous comments going on. mitt romney asked the irs for an extension of his tax returns. most americans do that. and my understanding is that that in fact was granted obviously to him, so the timing is not necessarily on his part. it's more on the irs' part. that's number one. number two, we all know that mitt romney is wealthy. he has said that he's wealthy. there's nothing new really here. number three -- >> robert, i have to challenge you on your first point. >> i have to finish. >> you can come to your second point. let's stick with the first for a moment. he said earlier this year, he said earlier this year that he paid around 13% in taxes. and what it appears is that he's had to make and engineer his tax returns in order to satisfy the claim he made publicly. that's why there's suspicion. >> the last time i checked -- okay. look, i'm not inspector gadget and neither are you. >> i'm merely going on what romney says. >> let me finish. the last time i checked, you know what? this hyperbole and all of these comments about whether or not he engineered it or something, i don't know that, and, quite frankly, neither do you. to sit here and make such a gross characterization -- >> okay, robert, let me just tell you what the romney camp -- >> should be ashamed of themselves. >> okay. >> to my second point -- >> on that point, let's stay with you, the romney camp itself has issued a statement, itself, explaining this issue. and it said, the governor wanted to be consistent with the original comments he made, and that's why, okay, he has engineered the amount of deductions he's taken on charitable gifts to achieve that rate. this is the romney campaign. it's not me, sir. >> okay. sir, let me just -- but let me just go to a former irs commissioner who released a statement who said that basically what it appears is that, number one, governor romney paid all the taxes he was legally -- >> he actually paid more. >> number two -- he and he paid more. >> he paid more. >> and by the way, let me just make a point there because the last time that i checked, martin, in this country, no american likes to pay more than their fair share. >> hold on a sec. >> robert, you got to turn down the heat a little bit. nobody is being disingenuous. certainly i'm not, i don't think martin is. what we're doing is kind of looking at the anatomy of what's going on here. you're absolutely right. he paid more than he had to pay. now, he himself, as martin said, said he did so so he could ratchet up that rate that he wanted, and so be it. i think the economic question is why -- not does mitt romney or barack obama or anybody -- why are people whose incomes are $14 million a year paying the same effective tax rate as middle income people? the only possible justification for that would be if for some reason all that investment income led to a lot more growth or more jobs or -- >> spending, spending. >> but it doesn't zwrp. >> i don't disagree with you. i don't disagree with you. look, i'll be the first to admit that the tax code is not fair. i will be the first to admit to you. >> good. thank you. >> i think even mitt romney would say this, that the tax code -- >> i don't think he wants to fix it. >> okay. well, gentlemen, gentlemen, i'm afraid -- i'm so sorry. we have run out of time, but just to be clear, robert, if mitt romney had not engineered those charitable deductions, we would be talking about him paying 9%, okay? jared bernstein, robert traynor, thank you both. next, mitt romney reaching for anything and comes up with nothing. stay with us. we're actually watching a puppet. i thought it was actually mitt romney because it's a shot from behind, but it appears to be some kind of pugilistic puppet on the side of the stage. i apologize to my viewers of making the mistake of thinking that was actually mr. romney. 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independent, i'm on national tv. i'm not ready for prime time? >> got a special guest, cookie monster. >> squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. >> jesus had a wife? >> lucky lady. >> what an arrogant, ivy league, harvard, los angeles, new york. >> 47% of americans pay no income tax. my job is not to worry about those people. >> perhaps i made a bit of a honey booboo. >> good evening. i understand there's a video that's been on the internet. >> but when i say people, i mean black people. >> it's not elegantly stated. >> there's no such thing as a free lunch. lunch is $50,000 a plate. >> aka the amount of money it takes to see mitt romney [ bleep ] on them in person. >> he was inarticulate. >> it's so sad. stop being a victim. >> you all but called them moochers. >> i think it's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms. >> you represent the entire country. >> obviously doesn't need to do this for a job. >> romney, 9.0. how did the reboot go? >> this is a campaign about the 100%. >> my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot. >> which we're hearing about today on the internet. >> because i actually believe in redistribution. >> redistribution, which is just fancy talk for a black guy's coming for your stuff. >> stop it. this is hard. you want to try it, get in the ring. >> the president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. >> if they get a break, they deserve it. if you get a break, it's a handout and an entitlement. >> it looks like vegas behind you. good luck. we'll need good luck to 47 days. >> let's get right to our panel now. we're joined by toure who is also the co-host of "the cycle." msnbc contributor jonathan capehart and democrat strategist julian epstein. okay. i'd like to put this to everyone. the romney campaign has very courageously released the tax returns on a friday afternoon. they indicate mr. romney paid more than he needed to in tax, which is interesting because i have one statement mr. romney made back in january where he suggests that people who pay more tax than they o don't have any business running for president. then i have another statement from his campaign today which explains why he paid more than he owed. get this, they did it all for the sake of consistency. toure. >> oh, my goodness. this is such a great moment for the obama campaign. i mean, look, there's a break glass in case of emergency for every campaign. they clearly broke it in boston this week. we can't deal with that 47%, we have to do something to change the conversation. what is the thing they least want to talk about? let's talk about that because this is preferable to talking about that. i don't think they're going to change the conversation but they're trying to. this is such a -- this is not what we were looking for. your father released 12 years. now you have released two years. when they get into the next problem, what are they going to do, release his grades? >> julian, they say they want to be consistent by being inconsistent with at he said about being disqualified as president or for the presidency if he paid more taxes than he should. >> it's another issue on which he just has so many different countless conflicting positions you can't keep up with him. i think toure say something that's on point here. this is leading with your chin. if you want to change the subject when you're in trouble, you change the subject. what they actually did was they reinforced the narrative here because but for the manipulation that gets romney from a 9% effective tax rate to a 14% tax rate, he would be paying less in taxes than the majority of the 47% of people that he insulted as moochers. that's point one. point two is you begin to see all this manipulation. you're reminded of the earlier years. in 2010, remember, he had almost $3 million, if i remember correctly, almost $3 million in foreign income on which he paid about $50,000 or 2% in taxes. >> that's correct. >> he may have actually paid less than that because of the credits he got in 2009. so this reinforces the question again about his lack of transparency and how he's manipulated the tax code in previous years to become the world's ultimate moocher. and this is just reinforcing -- this shows this to be such a monumental incompetent campaign. >> jonathan, was it a bad idea to release his tax returns today or a good idea? >> you know, when i saw the quotes, i kept thinking of ann romney, what did she say? stop it. i cannot believe, i cannot believe on a friday afternoon to drop this such as it is and i think it was julian who said this reinforces the narrative that poor mitt romney is in, that he's this sort of clueless out of touch rich guy who i think as toure said finds it preferable now to talk about this rather than his unbelievably horrible 47% moocher gaffe from earlier in the week. >> toure, does moocheraffe today in the form of the tax returns, does that distract us from the superlative 60 minute or 47 minutes of him secretly recorded in florida saying what he really believes? >> you know, it does move the narrative a little bit in terms of -- >> julian's point is it only confirms the narrative. >> it moves the cycle i meant to say, the media cycle. now we're talking about this, but, of course, we're also talking about the 47% thing. i mean, look, apparently the romney campaign has to walk and chew gum at the same time right now and this is the gang that couldn't shoot straight so that's very difficult. jonathan rightly points out ann saying stop it. i go to another sentence she said there when she said this is hard, and she says it twice. she says it with this deep strain in her voice which to me deflects the deep desperation and anxiety and spiritual pain the romney campaign is in right now. nothing is budging this race. we are losing it, it is slipping away, and conservatives are telling us we should be crushing this guy and we're losing and the end is so close. >> julian. >> again -- >> do you have any sympathy for mrs. romney. it is difficult to be out there in a campaign. you are undergoing something of a microscopic look at everything you say and every aspect of your life. of course, it's not compulsory. >> this is the chickens coming home to roost. this has been a cynical and contentless campaign and it's inevitable at the end of the day you're going to get in enormous kinds of trouble that you cannot spin your way out of with the moocher gaffe, now this bit on taxes. you keep wondering -- i was having this conversation with jared in the green room befer the show, you keep wondering when the republicans are going to come wut a campaign. there's nothing other than just this nonsense. the gop is just moving into a state that i have never, ever seen in my lifetime. it's really embarrassing for them at this point. >> martin, so you know how they say nature abhors a vacuum. so does politics. if mitt romney had meat on the bones of his 59-point economic plan, if he had real substantive ideas on entitlement reform, on how to create jobs, on where he wants to move the country, we wouldn't be talking about 47% -- >> jonathan, you have it wrong because he's going to tell but that after he's elected. now, shut up. jonathan capehart, julian epstein -- no, i'm not having it. you will find out when he's elected. stop asking. toure, jonathan capehart, julian epstein, thank you. coming up on "hardball," chris matthews on the gop revolt, which republicans are distancing themselves from candidate romney. that's just ahead at 5:00. next, paul ryan, is he really the lesser of two evils? he might be. stay with us. >> he's out of ideas, and that is why he has knocked this campaign down to a campaign of distraction, of distortion, to try to knock you off center so you will just vote for the lesser of two evils. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone, but her... likes 50% more cash. but, i have an idea. do you want a princess dress? yes how about some cupcakes? yes lollipop? yes! do you want an etch a sketch? yes! do you want 50% more cash? no you got talent. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. with a 50% annual cash bonus it's the card for people who like more cash. what's in your wallet? i usually say that. what's in your wallet? one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. in case paul ryan doesn't read polls and doesn't know how extremely unpopular his plan to gut medicare is, attendees at today's aarp convention were more than willing to explain what the polls say. >> we're also going to repeal obama care and replace it with real reform. >> a chorus of disapproval there. joining us now is congressman jim moran who is a democrat from virginia. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon, martin. >> i have to begin, sir, by getting your reaction to mitt romney's tax returns being released today. somewhat belatedly and only one more year, but what are your thoughts? >> well, it raises so many questions, martin. for one thing, as you know, you can revise your tax returns after the fact if you pay too much in taxes. i'd like to know if he's not elected president, which is probably going to be the case, does he intend to revise his tax returns so that he will pay even less taxes? i'd like to know with regard to the millions of dollars that he's deducted from his u.s. tax return because of foreign taxes paid, what was paid in the way of foreign taxes? >> yes, sir, because actually mr. romney has voluntarily overpaid something like $2.5 million in order that his total amount in percentage terms would be just over 14% so he may well seek to get that back at some point i guess so he will be back down to the original which should have been 9%. >> so i'd like to know, does he plan to do that? i'm just curious about it, but, you know, he didn't release his actual returns for a good reason i'm sure, and that's, i think, what people would like to take a look at. in other words, his policies are going to reflect his beliefs, which is going to reflect his actual actions, his everyday decision making. so if we know how he deems with his own tax return, we'll have a much better understanding of how he would deal with the american people's tax returns. >> you, sir, know all about mr. ryan's budget, which, as you know, would slash bloc grant assistance for 23 million americans, would cut meals on wheels for 2 million, would remove transportation and r respite care for a million americans. it's been condemned by virtually every christian denomination in this country. you know mr. ryan well, but has it surprised you it's taken such a short period of time for the rest of the country to find out quite what mr. rn is like? >> well, it hasn't surprised me really because i think you have to give mr. ryan credit for being honest about who he is. what you see is what you get in terms of policy. paul is very intelligent but a very right wing ideologue, ambitious, and the budget that he came up with is probably perhaps the most radical document ever to come from the house of representatives. the idea that you would further cut the average millionaire's taxes by $265,000 but pay for two-thirds of it by taking it away from the poorest people in our country. one thing you didn't mention, 2 million women with preschool age children who would have to leave their full-time minimum wage jobs to take care of their children because he wants to eliminate the child care tax credit. now, what goes into that kind of thinking? give $265,000 more in tax cuts for millionaires and make the hard-working, full-time women with preschool age children have to decide between locking their little children in their apartment or having to give up their job. what's behind that? >> welcome to the world of paul ryan and mitt romney. congressman jim moran of virginia, thank you, sir, so much. next, the president is taking his message right to mr. ryan's backyard. stay with us. ♪ constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. 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[ horn honks ] hey, honey. do we have life insurance? ♪ [ male announcer ] or visit fidelitylife.com to secure your family's future today. the president gave an energized speech in virginia today. he will head to wisconsin tomorrow before appearing on "60 minutes" sunday and then addressing the united nations general assembly here in new york tuesday. nbc's mike viqueira joins us from the white house. mike, mitt romney has released his 2011 tax returns to grand fanfare everywhere. do we know if the president is expected to mention this interesting fact on the campaign trail? >> reporter: we don't know. i think we can expect the president or at least the vice president or perhaps their surrogates to make plenty of allusions to that fact. after all, it does fit into the president's fair shake, fair play theme. >> it also, mike, i mean the president didn't take long before he whipped out the 47% line, did he? >> reporter: no, he didn't. he got his sticks in, plenty of them, over the course of the week. you're right. the president has plenty more travel to those swing states. i know you're a clock work orange fan, do you remember the scene where he got the treatment and he's sitting in the chair. i think voters in the swing states by the time they see the campaign ads, that's going to be a metaphor for what they are going to be feeling. the president heads to wisconsin tomorrow. that's been leaning democratic for quite some time. it's gotten closer more recently. the president has reopened his lead according to our nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. you mentioned some other appearances on television shows. don't forget "the view" when he's up in new york around that united nations appearance. he starts up there on monday. he will be on "the view" with michelle obama we understand. >> very frightening broadcast that mitt romney is too terrified to appear on, yes. i know the show. >> yes. i'll pass that along. and tuesday is the big speech before the united nations general assembly where foreign policy obviously is going to be front and center. there's also an appearance at the clinton global initiative while he's in new york on tuesday. and then wednesday the campaign just announced a trip to another swing state of ohio where the president has been, martin, our producer at the white house informs me just moments ago that this will be his 13th trip, his 28th to ohio, the swing state, since becoming president. obviously a big focus there. he's opened up, according to our most recent poll, a 50% to 43% advantage, and what really has to be considered a must-win state for mitt romney. >> indeed. finally, mike, i wanted to mention mitt romney has not just released his tax returns, he's released his physical, and he's also chucked out a white paper on housing. so this is incredible. anything to divert attention from the 47%. >> reporter: his poe physician judges him quite vigorous. >> and we judge you the same. thank you. >> reporter: okay. >> and we'll be right back. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! 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[ male announcer ] it's the power of aspirin plus more in a triple action formula to relieve your tough migraines. new bayer migraine formula. it's time now to "clear the air." not only is mitt romney's contempt for half the nation repugnant, it's also based on a legend that he's tried to create around his own personal history. the legend itself has become part of his stump speech. he tells us that he's the very essence of a self-made man, a man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, a man who came from nowhere to millionaire. in his own words, i have inherited nothing. everything i earned, i earned the old-fashioned way. but, unfortunately, the legend is a lie. mr. romney had the benefit of a powerful and influential father successful in business and in politics. he inherited a million dollars in stock from his father, some of which he used to finance his education. he had all the benefits that come from being born into a wealthy and successful family, but not only is mr. romney lying about his own experience, he's also misrepresenting the reality of life in modern america. a new study by the brookings institution's center on children and families shows that if you happen to be born in the top 20% of earners in this country, then you have an 82% chance of also doing well financially. and here is what the authors of that report conclude. the reality is that economic success in america is not purely meritocratiw. those born into rich or poor families have a high probability of remaining rich or poor as adults. now, there's nothing wrong with being born into wealth. many have done so. and they tend to acknowledge their good fortune, but in the case of mitt romney, he's tried to sell us a legend, a legend that turns out to be a lie.