Transcripts For MSNBC Republican National Convention 20120827

for mitt romney. here comes romney's chance to show his human side. i've seen it done before, in 1988 when george bush sr. came into the new orleans superdome and gave the speech of his life that certainly got to me. but here i am in tampa, hearing a message that troubles me as an american. it started with that joke, so-called, that the republican candidate told friday about no one having asked him about his birth certificate. here's a guy, born to a famous family, mocking a guy born with none of his advantages. had to weather the endless ethnic attack. imagine the president of the united states having to produce his papers, just to prove he's in office legitimately, and that's how funny this birther thing has gotten. then i put it together with this new romney tv ad attacking obama for passing out welfare checks. and just to rub it in, to ensure that no one missed the point, did you catch romney following it up by saying, this was obama's effort to excite and shore up his base, passing out welfare checks. his base. i've lived through other politicians talking like this. it's not been good for america in the past, it's not going to be good now. welfare queens, young bucks buying booze with food stamps. i know the images that presidential candidates have used in the past. so let's get back to his compassionate side, mr. romney, and you're not doing it yet. but we begin with tropical storm isaac. it's already postponed the convention by a day. that's tonight. and now threatens the gulf coast and cross over to new orleans. todd santos is with the weather channel. todd, size up what they're facing here in north america. >> all right, chris. you know, we're talking about a system that has a very large wind field, especially, referring to the tropical storm force winds at the moment. still a tropical storm. we just received the latest advisory from the national hurricane center. it came in at 70 miles per hour, as far as the sustained winds with this system. there's a look at the current stats with that. it's moving towards the northwest at 12 miles per hour. we do expect to see the system actually slow down a little bit in forward speed. that may compound some of the effects along the north central gulf coast. again, tampa, kind of dodging a bullet with that westward shift in the track. though still in line with some potential severe thunderstorms today, again into tomorrow. but there's a look at the folks that really need to be on alert with this, especially in and around new orleans, not just concerning, again, the central portion of the cone, but keep in mind, we're talking about at least, again, a category 2 storm, if not potentially stronger than that as it makes landfall. and as you slow a storm down, it has a better chance of seeing some development as you go through the next couple of days. as far as where the system is headed after that, pushing up towards the mississippi valley, still a lot of uncertainty with that piece of the track, but we do expect this to be increasing to hurricane strength as we go through the next couple of days. storm surge will be one of the bigger issues, especially with a system that has that big of a wind field, 6 to 12 feet in and around the biloxi area, new orleans as well, some slightly smaller numbers down towards pensacola. also the power outage potential with this system is quite large to go along with that. so, chris, again, as far as tampa is concerned. you guys, i think this is now on the closest approach, and again, moving away from the area, but we could still see some showers and thunderstorms as a result into tomorrow. >> thank you so much, todd santos. michael steele was chairman of the republican national committee, the man who actually brought them down to tampa in hurricane season. howard fineman is editorial director for the "huffington post" media group. both are msnbc political analysts. what made you think that this was a good time of year to come to tampa? >> because this is a great place to have a convention. these are great people, they're putting on a great event for us. and look, you take all of that into consideration, even as you've noted, and before, in 2008, we were in minnesota. we had an issue with a hurricane here in fact gulf region, we stopped the convention. so, you know, the country's going to do what the country needs to do at the right time, in the right moment. but it doesn't impact the convention. we'll go on with a great convention. and thank you, tampa, for having us. >> what a politician! what a politician. just to keep it on that level of lightness. howard, why is it that we go to the coldest places in america for the primaries, in the middle of winter, why do we go to the meat locker up in iowa, it's always so cold there, and new hampshire, then the hottest part of the year, when it's sweaty and hot down here, we come down to tampa or atlanta. what's the thinking? >> i just remembered driving through a blinding snowstorm in iowa from one event to the other. >> to here. >> right. on balance, i'd rather be here. >> i like it here too. >> let's talk about this campaign. it's gotten pretty nasty right now. i brought up this -- i'll keep talking about it tonight. michael, you're the former chair of the party. why do -- why does this candidate talking about things like welfare? by the way, mitt romney defended his campaign's welfare ad by saying this. it was actually an erroneous ad. he says president obama would drop work requirements for welfare recipients. in truth, the hss directive allows states more latitude in welfare, but insists that states improve employment outcomes, not reduce them. romney says obama's decision was a political move. he told the "usa today," quote, there's no question in my mind that the president's action in this regard was calculated to build support for him among people he wants to have excited about his re-election. just as so many of the things he's done were designed to try to shore up his base. and weakening the work requirement in welfare is an enormous mistake. why is he saying the president is trying to get more welfare recipients to vote for him by making it easier to get welfare checks? is that not ethnically charged? >> it's not -- i don't think it's ethnically charged as you're alluding to, chris. but i think it's been documented, at the beginning of this administration's term, they did weaken those rules, generally with respect to the states encouraging them, in terms of the number of people they had on their roles. they've now gone to the hss and said, look, we want to make this a part of the law, we're going to amend the law, without congressional approval, by the way, to do this. >> that's erroneous. everyone checking this out has said it's dishonest. howard? >> first of all, a number of republican governors, including at one point, earlier on, in an earlier incarnation, governor mitt romney, asked for leeway in enforcing the work fair rules that went in originally with bill clinton, in the deal that was done in 1996. that's number one. number two, it doesn't abolish -- there's nothing that the president said, no order that the president gave, abolished the requirement that people work and study, often it's studying, for welfare. nothing said that. and the ad is just flat-out wrong on the facts. >> but howard, on the facts -- >> the nuance to it, in real life -- no, the ad itself -- >> he gets people to study -- >> the ad itself says that barack obama basically, as chris translated it, wants to give away welfare checks. that's not what the president proposed. and it's not what he -- what states asked him for permission to do. >> but giving away the welfare checks, that's your interpretation of it. >> even the ad itself, mike. the ad itself says -- >> but the fact of the matter is, the loosening of these rules -- >> they're not loosening. loosening is not the right word. >> giving more leeway. that's loosening the rules. >> no, it's not. it's asking to be creative -- it's asking them to be creative -- >> the definition of the term -- >> okay. >> the ad's wrong. >> every single person who's looked at the ads -- and i want to know why they're running an ad like this. why would you run an ad like this, attacking welfare recipients and saying the president's playing to his base. what does romney mean? >> they're not attacking welfare recipients, they're attacking the policy -- >> okay. >> -- that lessens the requirements that have been in place for over 20 years. >> let me ask you a political question, mr. chairman. why is he accusing the president of doing this to excite and energize his base? >> why is he -- >> why did romney say that, just recently? he just said it over the weekend, he's doing this -- he's making it easier to get a welfare check, because that's the way to excite his base. >> well, yeah, again -- >> do you want me to read them again? >> i don't need you to read it, i got it. >> what do you think? >> this administration, whether it's on gay marriage, or the hispanic vote, for three years he did nothing with -- >> but stay on the -- >> i'm just saying. going to those baseline constituencies and talking in terms that they understand, it gets them excited, that's what the -- >> let's talk to, howard, about who hears the dog whistle. i heard it. >> your interpretation of the dog whistle is your interpretation. >> let's move on to another interpretation. >> here's what i know. i know that everybody, democrat and republican, campaign and noncampaign, has been focus grouping like crazy among undecided, working class white women. >> right. >> especially in places like ohio. but -- in every swing state, and what i'm told is that the republicans found, to their surprise, over recent weeks, that the welfare ad really worked with those women. now, they were surprised, because women don't, as often, respond on the welfare issue, but at a time when everybody's strapped, when everybody's struggling, old resentments resurface. that's my interpretation of what's happening. now, wait a minute, the romney people saw that, and they're defending and using and driving, with money, an ad that every fair -- every fair analyst, every fact checker from the -- every fact checker has said is just factually wrong. >> an ad that you just sat here and admitted that white women, that part of that focus group, agreed with. so -- >> but it's a dishonest ad they agree with. >> the ad itself is straightforward. >> where's a 30-year-old white woman that agrees with this ad, against this old vestige of -- i assume you're talking racism here, and that's not what this ad is about. that's an easy leap for you guys to make. >> it's not a leap. because i allow you to go back to -- >> the process -- >> -- to mr. romney himself -- >> and playing politics withit. >> let me come back to what romney said, quoted here with susan page. there's no question in mind that the president's action in this regard was calculated to build support with people that he wants to have excited about his re-election. just as so many of the things he's done were designed to try to shore up his base, and weakening the work requirement is an enormous mistake. he's saying that obama did to this try to get people to vote for him. what do you think of that. do you think that's why the president did it? >> i don't know why the president did it. i know that's the effect of what the president's done. in the sense that it does -- it does galvanize within certain communities a response. >> sure does. >> it's galvanized a response with you two. >> because i grew up with it. you grew up with it personally. >> absolutely. >> it's not a southern issue. >> the law has worked since 1996, chris. why do we need to change it now? >> because the governors have asked for more liberalism -- you know why, because sometimes training has something to do with getting a job. if they can get someone to go to school -- >> the ultimate objective is to get people who are on welfare into good work environments. and even a lot of republican governors have said, let's work with that and see how we can improve it. i think the problem is, in our discussion, was the word "loosening." the problem with the ad is that the ad itself says that the president wants to get rid of and has quietly gotten rid of all work requirements and welfare. that's not true. it's just not true. >> look, i think all of this stuff is aimed at moving the white working class over to the republican candidate. i think it's rotten. but that's fine. i'll move on. in an interview with the associated press today, president romney says obama has embraced the extreme positions of house republicans. let's watch. >> he has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent with the positions that a number of house republicans have taken. and whether he actually believes in those or not, i have no doubt that he would carry forward some of the things that he has talked about. >> let's go back to what i thought would be the optimistic view with this election, this wonderful convention down here is going to be about. i've seen it done before. i saw george bush sr. do it, where a president can come out of his shell, a candidate, and really embrace the american people in a way that he hadn't been able to do before. let's face it, thursday night, whatever the weather, he's going to speak to the american people, romney. do you think he -- how would he cut through the problem he's had, this sort of opaque personality, this distance he's had from most people. how does he do it? will he try? >> i think, absolutely, he will try. and i think the way it's going to be set up is, you're going to have those voices leading into his speech on thursday night, that begins to craft that image, to create that image so you begin to see that other side. and i think of all the speeches between now and his, is ann romney's. i think she will have the greatest moment to really kind of get us inside that relationship a little bit, to show us a little bit of that side of -- >> howard, what do you make of that? >> what i make of it is the american people have serious doubts about re-hiring president obama as the economic steward of the country and the economy is the number one issue. in that sense, the election is there for the taking, for mitt romney. >> yeah. >> but the only way mitt romney can do it is to prove that -- to tell people what's inside of himself, not just as a guy with a spreadsheet, but as a guy with a heart. >> agree. >> and if he can do that, not only at the convention, but thereafter, look at the current polls, he's got a chance to pull this off. it's there for the taking for him if he can do it, but instead, they've been running an entirely negative campaign. >> i think he can run the high road if he changes his mind. michael steele, thank you. and thanks for the weather. howard fineman, thank you. coming up, from the republican national convention here in tampa, the man who had hoped to be giving the acceptance speech is going to talk. we'll ask newt about this dog whistle and this romney dishonest ad campaign. also, this republican party wants to show one face to its supporters and another to a national audience here on television, that's why michelle and sarah and the w. are not really going to be speaking here. and four days of free advertising for republican presidential candidates. how seriously might the romney campaign be damaged if isaac shortens this one, reduces to it a day or two? finally, let me finish with this tampa campaign what it can be and what it shouldn't. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ welcome back to "hardball." well, nine months ago, my next guest stood between mitt romney and the republican nomination, only to be taken down in iowa with a brutal barrage of super pac ads. since then, the two have made up and newt gingrich is here in tampa this week, leading newt you, a set of workshops for republican delegates. and he and his wife, callista, are set to speak thursday evening during a tribute to ronald reagan. welcome, mr. speaker. you certainly engineered an excellent speaking spot. you've got a crew of wild people here. he's going to pay for beer afterwards. free beers on newt. okay, you've engaged in what i consider very problematic rhetoric in the campaign trail. when you accuse obama, the president, of being a food stamp president and everybody gets into the birther fun and there's a -- i don't even know what game that donald trump's going to pull this week. he says he wants to go on the offensive with the birther talk. do you have a problem, thinking back on it, of having used ethnic politics, with terms like food stamp president? >> look, i find your assumption so absurd that it's hard to answer your question. >> okay. >> but let me take the birther thing for a second. >> sure. >> what mitt romney did the other day, people say, you ought to relax, you ought to be a little bit lighter. so he tells a joke. now, it tends to be a joke that serves him in a totally different way that you're calculating. it reminds everybody in michigan that he was born in michigan, he's a michigander, and the poll that came out this morning, he closed a five-point gap in michigan. >> how does that justify the use of that reference to birther talk, when birther talk has been poisoned -- >> it was a throwaway line. it's part of the common culture. >> do you think it's funny that the president had to show his papers to shut down the birther talk? that he had to go to hawaii and get his documents released. do you think that was funny? >> i think that it is bizarre that people think that it is a challenge to be able to say, i was born there, here's my birth certificate. what's the big deal? >> because it hasn't stopped. because we've got members of your caucus, the republican caucus, like louie gohmert and these people that keep talking it up. >> but romney was making, by any reasonable standard, he was making what's called a joke. >> first one he ever told. >> and it was a joke that actually -- >> okay, let's listen to romney. here's mitt romney telling the joke. if it was a joke, there certainly was a punch to it. >> now, i love being home in this place where ann and i were raised, where both of us were born. ann was born at henry ford hospital. i was born at harper hospital. no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. >> you know, it's amazing how -- you know how african-americans generally, at least people who have e-mailed me in the last couple of hours, how they react to this? do you understand they have a reaction? they think this is racial talk. that this whole thing about welfare cheats is relentless stuff -- >> i think there are a lot of people in america who listen to people like you -- >> i'm alerting them to this? >> who tell them all day, every day -- >> so it's my influence on them? >> you just had a panel where the guy who was black was telling the two guys who are white that they were nuts. saying why are you not sensitive to being black? i think michael steele knows he's black. i don't think this is a great shock to them. >> you can laugh about it, but you don't think you've used it in the past? what's a food stamp president? >> a food stamp president is a guy whose policies are so destructive, that he creates the longest unemployment since the great depression and he puts more people on food stamps, most of them white, than anybody else. why do you assume food stamp refers to black? what kind of racist thinking do you have -- >> let me tell you what type. >> you're being a racist, because you assume -- >> let me tell you why. because from the beginning of paying attention to politics, ronald reagan would talk about the welfare queen, who was african-american. he'd talk about the young buck waiting in line -- >> he didn't say that. >> yes, he did. he talked about the welfare queen out in chicago -- >> who was african-american? >> yes. >> i don't believe he ever used the term who was african-american. >> he didn't have to. how about the young buck waiting in line for food stamps to buy booze with? this is a history we have here. and this lingo is so clear to every african-american watching right now. >> so we're not allowed to tell the truth about food stamps. >> you sit here and chuckle about it as if it's not a game you're playing. >> we're not allowed to talk about food stamps because your sensibility tell us that 35 years ago -- >> newt -- >> give may break! >> you've got that diabolic smile of yours, and you know you think you're winning here, but everybody out there who's black or white knows exactly the game that's being played here. >> no, here's the game. you have the worst president -- >> oh, that's your shot? >> no, wait a second, economically. we just put up a chart today at new university, which people can get at newt university.com, that shows every recession since world war ii all of them are up except one. the obama depression is down here. >> okay. >> now, is that a racist -- >> let me ask you about romney and what he said the other day. why would romney say that obama is reducing the requirements -- the work requirements for welfare checks to excite and energize his base? wait a minute, why would he -- what does that mean? >> it means that liberals who hate the work requirement, the 101 democrats -- >> who are the liberals who hate the requirement? >> the 101 democrat who is voted against it in 1996. >> i thought it was bill clinton who signed that bill. >> that's right. and when he said he would sign it, half the democrats in the house voted no. obama was against it, after clinton said he would sign it. >> so what's your point? >> my point is -- >> do you think most americans are against the work requirement? >> i don't think poor people noticed it, pause i don't think that's in their -- but i think liberals loved it. i think liberals thought, that's right, let's go back to dependency. why are we requiring poor people to work -- >> why don't you like dependency? >> you tell me. >> well, you tell me. you just say they like dependency. >> there's a book called "the tragic of american compassion," in which he outlined step by step to the degree to which the left dislikes requiring people to work. >> we just had howard fineman on the show who talked about how white working women are responding so well to this ad, as dishonest as it is. >> what is this editorial, as dishonest as it is? >> because every editorial, every fact-checking group of america, every single one of them that i checked, said this ad is dishonest. politifact, every one of them, says it's dishonest. you know it's dishonest. >> i don't think it's dishonest. i helped write the bill. >> who's getting rid of the work requirement? >> the obama administration. >> you're a perfect spokesman. >> wait a second, mathews. why would they have a waiver if they're not going to use the waiver? >> because getting education -- it's part of getting back to the workforce. no. because sometimes it's smarter to put a person in school so they can get a job. >> you're allowed to put them in school. that's not a problem. >> that's not what they did. let me ask about this convention. when are you speaking, exactly? what time of night? >> i've got two hours a day for the next four days. >> at your school. >> and callista and i are speaking thursday evening, i don't know the exact time, because frankly with having canceled monday night, they're shaping -- but they're doing a tribute to ronald reagan, and we since we did a movie on ronald reagan, we feel it's a logical thing for us to do. >> what changed your mind about mitt romney? >> barack obama. >> go ahead. >> my choice is mitt romney or barack obama. for me, as a conservative, that eliminates everything. >> so whatever justifies the means? the means justifies the ends? the ends justifies the means. >> no, if you think -- you won't agree with this. but i think the re-election of barack obama is a disaster for this country. >> and what about -- >> and i think that romney is far better for this country -- >> what do you want romney to say thursday night that you haven't heard him say yet? let's put on your political hat, which is generally on your head, mr. speaker. tell me how he turns that middle, thursday night? >> look, i don't think mitt romney should play games about trying to be somebody he's not. >> which would be? what would be playing a game? >> people say he's got to show his human side, he's got -- here's the choice. here's a simple choice for america. you've got a terrifically fun guy as president, who would be great to have a beer, but he's a plumber who can't fix the plumbing, and the house is getting wetter and wetter every day. you've got a guy -- >> how do you know this new plumber of yours is going to come over when you call him? >> because you've got a guy who has a tradition of turning things around, in business, in the winter olympics, as governor. and he's coming in and he's saying, okay. i've got a management personality. i'm actually kind of a ceo. but, by the way, we're going to have 4% economic growth, we're going to create millions of jobs, the country will be better off, and we'll have energy independence for america. >> so what's his problem? why isn't he winning big? >> i think he will be by november. >> okay. but i think we have a challenge here. the question is, i think you're right about the plumber. the question people have is, is he going to come over when i need him. mr. speaker, thank you. we'll be right back from tampa, the site of the republican convention. this is "hardball," the place for politics. with the fidelity stock screener, you can try strategies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover. there's natural gas under my town. it's a game changer. ♪ it means cleaner, cheaper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water. billions in the economy. at chevron, if we can't do it right, we won't do it at all. we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. ♪ we're not in london, are we? 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[ normal voice ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy. are you in good hands? hethey don't need one,gh wes, clay and demarcus tried on the new depend real fit briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even while playing pro football. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try one on for yourself. this is what i love to do. talk to people, and actually listen! i'm going to listen to these people. so we're down here in tampa. where are you from and what do you think? >> i'm from tampa. welcome to tampa, mr. matthews. i saw you this morning, loved you on "morning joe." we're going to re-elect president obama. >> this is my hometown. i'm excited to be here for whoever wins. >> good for you. >> from tampa, florida. definitely for president obama. >> do you like this weather? >> love it. >> nadia from tampa. obama! >> oh, gosh! >> glen goodman from tampa, we have some events that my wife and i have worked hard to build. >> dave trot from michigan, and all politics is locally, and locally, the local folks aren't doing with well. >> duke, and i wonder how romney's going to rule when everybody in the senate goes against him, just like they went against obama. >> we'll see. >> what is a liberal? >> what's your answer? >> liberty. >> okay, thank you. i know where you stand. >> i'm ann from lakeland, and i loved you on "morning joe" this morning. >> aren't you nice. >> i'm mike from the university of florida. and all of the college students are going for barack obama. >> okay, thank you. >> hi, i'm maggie from tampa. i'm for obama, but happy to have the rnc here in tampa. >> that's nice. >> we're for obama all the way. >> are there any republicans here? we had one out of six. come here, come here. this guy. this guy's a ron paul man. tell me about ron pall. why you're mad he didn't get to speak this convention. >> he didn't only get to speak, but his delegates aren't getting seated, the party's changing rules. >> but you're a delegate, sir? >> i was elected a delegate in oklahoma, but they didn't seat me, because the republican party changed the rules and ruled against us. >> okay, ron paul's spokesman speaks out. thank you. >> i'm amy, i'm from washington, d.c. and i live here in tampa and i'm for obama. >> we need some republican voices here. any republican -- yes, sir? you're a delegate, sir. >> charles, detroit, michigan. i'm a veteran. i want to end the war and bring our troops home. >> thank you! >> i'm from the bahamas. let's keep politics clean. >> i'm sheena from the virgin islands, and i want to know, are the republicans going to really take women the women's right to choose? >> okay, thank you. keep asking. thank you, all. thank you all. >> ron paul or obama, they're stealing the signs. thank you very much. disparate voices here in tampa. luckily, the skies stopped falling on us. wel be right back in a minute. at usaa, we believe honor is not exclusive to the military, and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. with our award winning apps that allow you to transfer funds, pay bills or manage your finances anywhere, anytime. so that wherever your duty takes you, usaa bank goes with you. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. out! your kind is not welcome here! nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd. 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[ villagers gasping ] reverend? ♪ can i have some? ♪ here's what's happening. tropical storm isaac is expected to make landfall as a category 2 hurricane along the northern gulf coast late tuesday or early wednesday. louisiana and mississippi and alabama have declared states of emergency. energy companies have begun evacuated oil rigs in the gulf. 78% of the region's production has been shut down. and some airlines are canceling all flights to new orleans ahead of that storm. american, southwest, and united all suspended operations there. back to "hardball." our demographics are changing, and we have to change, not necessarily our core beliefs, but how we -- the tone of our message and the message and intensity of it, for sure. this is going to be a close election, but long-term, conservative principles, if they're to be successful and implemented, there has to be a concerted effort to reach out to a much broader audience than we do today. >> back to "hardball." that was jeb bush, of course, speaking the hard truth, you might say, on "meet the press" this past weekend. the republican party has an image problem, one that is not helped by the ridiculous comments by senate candidate todd akin, of course, not to mention the extreme abortion position, likely to be in its platform this week. so is the party trying to solve that problem in a meaningful way? of course not. their solution seems to be their version of see no evil, hear no evil. keep some of the more trouble-making voices away from the podium this week, that seems to be the strategy. the ceremony has been truncated, thanks to the forecast, of course. but even if the weather were perfect, here are some faces you wouldn't see in prime-time this week. tea party leaders sarah palin and michele bachmann, birther donald trump, who said he had to cancel his trip here, and alan west and stephen king. the party is trying to pave over all the problems they have. will it work? david corn is an msnbc political analyst and erin mcpike is a reporter for real clear politics. thank you so much for joining me. david, it seems it's been cleaned up, the act. you've got ryan speaking, governor christie speaking. the candidate and especially the candidate's wife putting a more moderate position or moderate face on the party. none of the people that most of us would call extremists are up there on the platform, especially during network broadcast time. >> well, this is what we can call the soviet part of the campaign, when you start photo shopping out of the picture what's been happening for the past year. so when you have, you know, michele bachmann calling people un-american, you know, she won't be there. you know, you had this republican primary, where you had newt gingrich earlier, talking about food stamps. we had rick santorum saying that this is about the end of liberty, the end of freedom. they were very, very extreme and strident voices. and mitt romney, if he's going to win, and the conventional wisdom is he has to start making a play for some of the voters in the middle. and yet, that hasn't happened yet, keeping the crazies off the platform, maybe gives them an opening. but still doesn't really give them much of a case for the independence yet. >> and let's talk about some of the platform language. because normally you wouldn't speak about the platforms. they're boring. but this time around, the platform is so tough. look at the position on abortion. it basically says, give the rights of the 14th amendment, the ones we all enjoy as citizens, to the unborn child, right up to the point of conception. that means you've got this personhood thing out there, which means you're basically outlawing abortion. this is strong language. i'm not sure they want to get that in the front of the average middle of the road voter. do you think? do they want that out there? >> that's why mitt romney didn't really respond to that at all, because he doesn't want to create any kind of trouble with the base so that the base makes more noise about it. >> how's he hide from his own platform when the democrats throw it back at him? >> what's interesting is, this happens time and time again, you've been covering this a long time. the ideologues of the party, it happens in the democrat party too, often take control of the platform, and the candidate often says, go ahead, platform doesn't really matter to me. it's what's on the podium. it's what the cameras see, when they record, that i care more about. so here they are, keeping the crazies off. but letting the extremists write the platform. >> and instead, they're having several names talk in prime-time like condoleezza rice and brian sandoval, the governor of nevada, both of whom are pro-choice republicans. that is the image that they want to project to a larger audience. >> we'll catch this stand your ground language under the second amendment. we support the fundamental right to self-defense, wherever a law-abiding citizen has the legal right to be. so they're getting into that, stand your ground. look at this. they want unlimited clips -- why would you make an issue of unlimited clips in magazines in your guns? not just certain kind of firearms -- let me get erin in here. we oppose legislation that is intended to restrict our second amendment rights by limiting the capacity of clips or magazines. why do they want to have unlimited clips? this is really -- and supporting the right of state-issued concealed issue carry limits to cross state lines. they want unlimited gun use. >> remember that a lot of voters, throughout the midwest, are single-issue -- i shouldn't say a lot. there are single-issue gun rights voters in many midwestern battleground states, and they are also trying to appeal to them. >> but they're absolutists, these people. >> they are. >> when you don't put the more strident voices on the stage and let them say what the base wants to hear, then you let them write the platform. and you let the gun rights folks whatever they want. the immigration stance is hard-core. the abortion, no exceptions. and you just basically turn it over to the extremists. and you hope that those independent voters out there only see the pictures. >> this goes back to you covering the campaign. you cover it very well. let me ask you a question. reasonable people are putting in their minds, is romney the man of all the commitments he's made, all the platform language, or is he secretly a moderate, secretly a pragmatist? he's had to cut all these deals with the gun people and the hawks and the no tax people, but in his heart he's a practical business guy. at the same time, he appeals to the people on the right. which is he? how does a voter know difference between the guy who signed off on all this stuff and what he really is? is there a difference? >> one thing we will know when he addresses the nation on thursday night is what he believes. this is the first time he is speaking to the entire country with his -- the largest audience. so hopefully, at that point, we'll see what his answers are. and if he has actually gotten -- >> do you think that will work? is this a litmus test, what he really believes? >> there's a story about mitt romney that to me says it all? in 1994, he wrote a letter saying, we need equal full rights for all gay and lesbian americans. full rights. then when asked about it in 2007 he says you have to consider who i was sending that letter to. so deep down, i don't know what's there. i don't know if the speech will give us a clear indication. it will be written by his team of mad men. >> thank you. not crazy people, right? thank you, erin mcpike and thank you, david corn. up next, if this convention gets cut back to a day or two, it's possible given the weather in new orleans, what will the romney campaign be all about? will it be damaged by a cut in half convention? maybe it will be helped by the pr. from tampa, we're here at the site of the republican convention. we don't know when it's going to start. for fastidious librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. for their "destination wedding." double miles you can "actually" use. but with those single mile travel cards... 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what is it they're trying to do? >> as i talk to republicans in congress, republicans out around the country, they say, look, if this is a battle of personalities, mitt romney is probably not going to win. it's got to be about ideology and about policy, about results. the republicans i'm talking to say look for mitt romney to really cast himself as a mechanic. as the car mechanic who can fix things. he may not be as eloquent, may not be able to set the room on fire or excite everybody, but he can get things done. now, there are risks that come with that. but i think that everyone is sort of gearing themselves towards going in that direction. you're seeing it from romney himself when he says i am who i am. i'm a data guy. rather republicans saying he's about metrics. some of it can sound cold and distant. that may be the big risk, but that's the direction they're going. he's got to be the guy to execute and accomplish where they would argue president obama has not. >> you know, they seem to be of two minds in this because the presidential candidate has brought people to church him, to his mormon church. that's unusual for him. he's putting more of ann out there publicly. much more family portrait. it seems like he's still thinking he can sell his personality, his family life. >> i think they're trying to do tw two or three different things that are cutting at each other. the most important message, and david is right, the most important message for romney to get across this week is it's about jobs. it's about the economy. it's about i can do this better than that other guy can. however, he picked a vice president for whom it's about medicare. it's about abortion and social issues, schkind of muddies that message. and then the way they have used ann romney, i think, is unfortunate because too often she's had to be out there defending her husband on things like tax returns rarl s rather just being the advocate for him as a human being. >> david, if you had to score this convention in advance and say what would be a success here, would it be that romney breaks through as a person, that he convinces people that i may not have the personality you're looking for, the bill clinton type feel your pain personality, but i'm the guy you need for this job? what would be a success? somewhere between? >> i think it's two-fold and i agree with joe. he's got to show who he is. he's a hard guy to get to know. whether it's his faith which is such a driving force in his life, the marriage, the fact he's a dad and grandfather and everything that means to him. that's got to come through. that was one of the things i remember from the 2000 convention about george w. bush that came through so strongly. i think he's also got to demonstrate he's actually leading the republican party rather than the other way around. that's something he has been struggling with. and again, there is a vision. there's a vision to get people back to work. he's got to get back on the terrain that he wants to win on, which is making people think about the fact that so many people are out of work. who gives us the best shot to get back on track? i have been talking to people in swing states and republicans like in ohio where there's a belief there's more undecided voters than we know about in this base election. that's who he's talking to, people who are softly committed, who are not iron clad in their support of the president. >> heerbz the question, how does he address the convention hall? it's the oldest question in politics. they talk to the room, but it's broadcast. here is a guy that has to talk to people in the far fringe of the party, the birthers, the real hawks, the real pro lifers to the point of almost relentlessness. the people who don't like marriage equality. how does he still appeal to the quality. >> he's talked to the base to a fault in the campaign. he's never had a message for the vast middle. now he has a situation where he's being denigrated by his own base. groverer norquist said he's going to be an auto pen president. >> donald trump is still promising to show up with his birther stuff. >> i don't go there with him, i don't acknowledge his political existence. >> this is the strangest weather, i have to say. when are they going to stop having conventions this far south this particular time of year. >> i like when you say that on the air. i like when you said that earlier in the program, chris. i like that. it's true because that is tampa. i want to say this is his question of reaching the middle of the electorate reach versus reaching the base. do republicans and democrats, you know, political professionals think it's a fool's errand to say to the american people, we can get things done in washington? are people too cynical. do they not believe washington can do anything. is it about idealogical warfare, and we need to win as many seats in congress as we can and we have to take the white house so we can jam through the kind of change we want. that's what i'm going to look for, that kind of message or something to appeal to the middle of the electorate. >> david gregory, thank you as always. thank you, joe. let me finish with the convention in tampa, what it can be at its best and what it certainly shouldn't be and already smells like. this is the place for politics, tampa. 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[ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds. are you in good hands? let me finish tonight with this. the republicans could win this election just on the arithmetic. you could argue they can't make something of an a-plus jobless rate and all of the underemployment out there, they shouldn't be in the running. the point is we can mostly agree on this. they shouldn't do some of the stuff they're doing on the eve of this convention, desperate or not. welfare cheats, food stamps, the birther game is below a major political party, including and especially the party of lincoln. i don't know why romney hooked up with trump, i don't know why trump is pushing the birther charge so hard. john mccain showed last time about the conscience. he refused to play the ethnic card, the he's a muslim card. so why is romney, who is head to head now, and now faces a huge chance to pull ahead in his acceptance speech and in the three big primetime debates? why is he doing it? why is he taking these shots at welfare people and telling knee slappers about the birther sickness. it's a question that needs an answer and more important, it's a question we shnlt be asking after all thiscountry has been through all these years. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. 71 days until the 2012 election. as the republican convention starts, mitt romney's lies to scare old white voters about president obama are starting to work. the polls are interesting. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> president obama quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements. >> mitt romney blows the dog whistle on welfare and called it shoring up his base. >> nown ever asked to see my birth certificate. >> tonight, eugene robinson and e.j. dionne on making this about race. new polling numbers on midcare show that the republican lies are starting to work. howard dean is here with reaction. >> i don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. >> and almost seven years to the day since the botched response to hurricane katrina, new orleans is bracing for hurricane isaac. we'll give you a live update from the big easy as the republicans get ready to party in florida. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. racialdentity politics is now the number one strategy of the romney campaign. mitt romney has added a new twist to the false claim about president obama removing the work requirement from welfare. there's no question in my mind that the president's action was calculated to shore up his base. folks, the work requirement has not been removed from welfare. but mitt romney continues to lie about it. it's his campaign. now, he says this imaginary change was done to make poor minorities vote for president obama. the romney campaign is currently running, count them, five separate campaign ads hammering the president with this lie. five of the last 13 ads endorsed by mitt romney are about bogus welfare claims. this is the latest dog whistle to white middle class voters across america. it comes on the heels of romney's so-called joke about the president's birth certificate. >> no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know this is the place we were born and raised. >> republican chairman reince priebus was on the defensiverom. he said, people should just lighten up. >> the fact of the matter is that he's from michigan. he was born in michigan. he's making the point that i was born in michigan. and you know what, we have gotten to a place in politics that any moment of levity is totally frowned upon by guys like you. mitt romney continuously has said this president was born in this country. it's a non-starter. it's a dumb issue. it's a distrakdz. >> this is part of the new strategy. priebus claimed romney meant no harm and we should praise romney for being a good guy for the birther stuff in the past. karl rove tested this line out on fox news. >> the one guy who consistently dismissed this and defended the president as having been born in the united states and in the middle of a contentious primary was mitt romney and the white house never said thank you, governor romney, for acknowledging this and defending president obama. >> thank you? according to rove, romney is the victim and president obama is the bully who never said thank you to him? the romney campaign is using a lot of reverse psychology these days. here's a good one for you. former mississippi governor haley barbour told a reporter to name a campaign in the last 25 years where the dems didn't play the race card. think about that. haley barbour. he's the guy who kept a confederate flag in his office and said segregation during the civil rights movement wasn't that bad. now, he's the romney surrogate on race relations. these comments are not coincidental. as the "new york times" reported this weekend, mitt romney is heading into his nominating convention with his advisers convinced he needs a more combative footing against president obama in order to appeal to white working class voters. makes sense, doesn't it? romney is actually no stranger to portraying president obama as a foreign menace and someone who hasn't had the white american interest at heart. >> sometimes i just don't think that president obama understands america. >> we have on one side a president who wants to transform america into a european style nation. and you have on the other hand, someone like myself, who wants to turn around america and keep america america with the principles that make us the greatest nation on earth. >> i watched today a president who i don't think understands america. >> the course we're on right now is foreign to us. it changes america. >> expect to hear a lot of these comments and stuff like that in the coming weeks. there are two big reasons. the romney campaign is diving head first into racial identity politics. first of all, it works. remember this? >> i'm going to have food stamps versus paychecks. president obama is the most effective food stamp president in american history. >> newt gingrich was a presidential candidate who didn't avenuen have a fully staffed campaign, but his racial dog whistling about food stamps paid off somewhere, in the south. he won south carolina with 40% of the vote. in georgia, his home state, the win was even bigger at 47%. and then of course, there's always donald trump who is the king of the birthers during the primary season. yesterday, trump told reporters he was address romney addressed the president's birth certificate. it happens to be an issue that a lot of people believe in. a lot of people who believe in the birther talk made donald trump the front runner for the republican nomination early last year. trump was never an official candidate. he just talked about the president's birt certificate a lot. here's the other reason romney needs to use issues like welfare and the birth certificate to appeal to white voters. because he can't win without them. john mccain beat barack obama among white voters in 2008, 55% to 43%, and it wasn't enough. romney needs to do a heck of a lot better. it makes sense for romney to defend his birther joke this way. >> it was great to be home. to be in a place where ann and i had grown up and the crowd loved it and got a good laugh. >> that's what this strategy is really all about. give the crowd a good laugh about the president being a scary foreigner. and hopefully the crowd is going to reward you with votes. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, which party is playing the race card? text a for democrats, text b for republicans to 622639. you can always go to our blog and leave a comment. we encourage that at ed.msnbc.com. i'm joined by msnbc political analyst and washington post associate editor eugene robinson and msnbc contributor and washington post columnist e.j. dionne, also author of the book "our divided political heart." by the way, there's no sense in me being down at the convention because no republicans want to talk to me anyway because all i do is point out the lies they throw out. gentlemen, this is about keeping the lies alive in a campaign as i see it. i mean, the power of fact checking, it seems like in modern day campaigns has diminished greatly. and i think that there was a time in american politics where there were campaigns that were really concerned about putting out commercials, god forbid if they were wrong, what we're saying, because the media might call us on it. those days are clearly gone. this is one lie after another and keep it going. so the power of fact checking, i think, has diminished quite a bit. has the romney given up trying to really reach anyone of these white voters and just has seen the polls as of late and feels the best way to do it is just to continue the lie? >> well, i think the campaign seems to have felt the need to move the needle. however, the needle could be moved, and so they're making this sort of appeal. look, obama is african-american. and that's a fact. and it's a fact there to be played on if the republicans want to play it that way. and that's what they seem to want to do. so all the stuff gets called out by the fact checkers and shown to be demonstrably false, the medicare attacks, the welfare attacks. yet, just repeating them and repeating them, the romney campaign clearly believes that will move the needle. >> e.j. dionne, why is the welfare lie still being repeated as if it's gospel, the truth? why are they doing that? >> i guess the theory is if you put enough money behind something, it will sell whether it's true or not. and as gene said, it's very disturbing that something where a rules change that was asked for by among others, two conservative republican governors, this wasn't some radical liberal thing that obama did to welfare, and it doesn't end the work requirement. but i think the romney campaign was looking at the polls and seeing that the bain attacks were seeing that mitt romney is not exactly a natural fit with a lot of white working class voters and that obama has because of romney's candidacy a real opening with the white working class. so they are looking around for whatever could move some of those voters back toward mitt romney. and i think unfortunately they're going down this particular road. and the best part of it for them is that if anybody calls them out on it, they're going to say, we're not talking about race. it's those folks playing the race card. that makes it pretty effective. >> eugene, do you believe republicans when they say, ah, mitt romney was just making a joke. it was just an off the cuff thing. he was having fun? we have to have levity in the campaign. your thoughts on that. >> har, har, har. it was hilarious, wasn't it? it wasn't much of a joke. and the only reason to go to birth certificate from this is my home town, that's not a natural leap. you don't go to birth certificate unless you have a reason to do it. and clearly, it was an obvious renchsh to the whole fake ke kerfuffle about president obama's birth certificate and an attempt to sort of blow that dog whistle. >> e.j., there doesn't seem to be any down side of romney doing this because the african-american vote certainly isn't going to be there, the luteatino vote is going to be there. this is all upside. you might as well drive it home and make sure the radicals are out there in full support. >> i'm not sure in the long run it's all upside. we don't know what african-american turnout is going to be. we know president obama is going to win the african-american vote, 97%, 98%, 99%, but it matters a lot whether african-americans vote, and stuff like this is going to send a message that it's important to vote. i think secondly, there are middle class moderate voters who don't like racially tinged politics. and i think they're going to see what's going on here. and so i think there is a longer term risk to this, to romney, and that's why even though people will accuse those who call him on it of playing the race card, it's got to be called out because i think that can have some effect between now and the election. >> eugene, you think we're going to hear any of this talk on the convention stage? >> i think they will be much more circumspect on the convention stage. what we'll mainly hear are attempts to tell mitt romney's story, to humanize him as a candidate. i think they will talk about medicare. that's been certainly in the air here in tampa today. they will talk about welfare, but i think they'll do it in a somewhat softer way from the stage. that's my guess. >> they're talking about medicare down there at the convention? >> oh, yeah. >> the latest poll shows they're fooling a lot of people. we'll have more on that later on in the show. but i really do believe that these -- this is the most dishonest campaign we have ever seen by a national figure in mitt romney and his campaign. he's got these lies, they're working on some americans. the polls are showing it. why should they back off now? >> it's only august. it's only august. so save the superlatives for later. >> eugene robinson, e. jempt deion, thank you for your time. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen, share you thoughts on twitter at ed show and on twitter. >> coming up, the republican lies on medicare which we just talked about. what are they doing? they seem to be working. which is amazing because why would americans ever trust republicans to save medicare when they have been fighting it for generations? howard dean joins me on how the obama campaign should respond. that's next. stay with us. 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[ male announcer ] spend less time at gas stations. with best in class fuel economy. it's our most innovative altima ever. ♪ coming up, the romney campaign medicare lies. what are they doing? if you believe the new poll numbers, they're working. mitt romney leading president obama with americans 50 and older when it comes to his handling of medicare? former dnc chairman howard dean with his reaction next. and paul ryan says the term forcible rape is just stock language. while a republican congressman compares out of wedlock pregnancy to rape. we'll have the details. >> as the seventh anniversary of hurricane katrina approaches, new orleans braces for yet another storm. we'll have the latest on the tropical storm isaac later. share you thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using the hash tag ed show. we're coming right back. introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. tap into a single pool of shareable data and add up to 10 different devices, including smartphones and tablets. the first plan of its kind. share everything. only from verizon. get $100 off select motorola 4g lte smartphones like the droid razr. in communities across the country. that's providing training and employment opportunities, investing in the revitalization of a neighborhood in the bronx, or providing the financing to help a beloved san diego bakery expand, what's important to communities across the country is important to us. and we're proud to work with all of those who are creating a stronger future for everyone. welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching. what a difference a week can make. it looks like republican lies about medicare could be working. keep in mind, this is a program championed by democrats since it was signed into law back in 1965 by president lyndon b. johnson. and of course, with president harry s. truman, the first p beneficiary, the democrats did this despite all of the republican cries of socialism. here's the famous actor, some guy named ronald reagan back in 1961. >> now, the american people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. >> really? five decades later, it looks like republicans are still lying about medicare. they've come up with some brand new lies. romney's latest ad repeats the lie about how president obama is hurting medicare to the tune of $716 billion. >> obama has cut $716 billion from medicare. why? to pay for obama care. so now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is going to a massive new government program that's not for you. >> and the problem is this line of attack appears to be working. on the question of who they trust more to handle medicare, romney beats president obama 45% to 42% in a washington post poll. in another poll, president obama beats romney on the medicare issue but only by one point. and among those 50 years of age and older, president obama loses on this issue by five points. ever since candidate obama ran against senator john mccain four years ago, polls have shown seniors are pretty much predisposed to vote against him. republicans are now praying on that bias and doing a pretty good job of selling misinformation on medicare. it's still hard to believe the american public could see republicans as the ones to save medicare and handle it better. what's going on here? let's turn to howard dean, former governor of vermont and former chairman of the dnc. good to have you with us tonight. >> hi, ed, how are you? >> i'm doing fine. sometimes polls grab people. this one has grabbed me because of the lies that have been put out there about medicare and it's absolutely hard to believe that we're so -- americans can be disconnected from this issue. what has mitt romney done to give the american people confidence that he's going to be a better steward of the program, medicare, which has served the country's seniors for generations? >> my own guess is these are lies. the $700 and whatever million dollars comes out of the insurance companies pockets, and romney's plan makes medicare go broke by 2016. it's a fat lie. there's two problems. the first is that these enormous corporations, the business community, has funded these lies, to hundreds of millions of dollars go behind this stuff. if you repeat it often enough, people believe it. it's sort of the old russian propaganda stuff. exactly the same technique. the second problem is this age group was not disposed to like obama in the first place. this is the hardest age group for president obama. i think a lot of it has to do with their age, to do with the enormous change, the first african-american president, a new generation. and they're just resistant to change and frightened. i think it is a sleazy tactic by the romney people, but it's not surprising. politics is a tough game, but there's so much money behind the lies, that's what's making them effective, and they're told to a population that didn't like obama much to begin with in the first place. >> in the same washington poll giving romney a three-point advantage on medicare, another question was asked about ryan's plan to voucherize medicare, and 64% said they oppose it. does the obama campaign need to do more to educate the american people? >> yeah, they do. they really do need to do this. it's hard because of course they're being outspent hugely by the koch brothers and the other right-wing corporations who can give money now because of the roberts court. without thinking twice about it. but they do need to defend it. they really need to go after the voucher system. the democracy for america has done a lot of polling on the question of the voucher system. it's a huge winner for the democrats in the swing state. in florida where they pay a lot of attention to medicare, romney is still down by four. that's important to know that. people are more educated about medicare in florida because so many people are on it. they pay attention to this issue. that was an interesting issue in tonight's poll. >> down by four? shouldn't he be down by like 25 the. >> yeah, but don't forget, we have the demographic problem. you know, obama does very, very well among young people, among the democrats, the classic democrats, the very, very diverse party, but he doesn't do so well against older white seniors. so with older white seniors. so the fact he's leading by four in florida where the older white population is pretty well informed about medicare which they might not be in other states is significant. of course, if obama wins florida, the election is over for mitt romney. >> this goes right in line, actually, the medicare lie, with the birtherism, with the other type conversation that is out there. >> right. >> and with the welfare fraud and lie that is out there about it. i mean, they're going -- >> this is nothing new. this is the 1968 nixon southern strategy. when wallace did as well as he did, nixon decided he was going to get those southern democrats who were voting for wallace on racial issues and it's been done ever since. i'll never forget ronald reagan talking about welfare queens and pink cadillacs. this is a core republican staple. if you look at the republican pa party, it's almost entirely white, christian, and older. they're going to appeal to race because there's a racist wing of the party. it's not the majority, but enough votes to matter. >> he's got to do better than john mccain did even though mccain won with white voters. it's clear what is happening here. >> the reason he does is he's in such trouble with latinos after his anti-immigrant stuff, he's never going to recover from that. he's got to make it up by talking about race in code words to his own base. that's what he's hoping to do. >> howard dean, great to have you on "the ed show." thanks so much. coming up, paul ryan says the term forcible rape is just stock language. and mitt romney makes his pitch to women. it involves romney care. joan walsh will weigh in on that. and a republican official in florida is standing up for voting rights. governor rick scott isn't happy about it. we'll tell you the whole story when we come back. stay with us. many of my patients still clean their dentures with toothpaste. but they have to use special care in keeping the denture clean. dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident is designed to clean dentures daily. its unique micro-clean formula kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why i recommend using polident. 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is that something you would -- do you have a way to explain that? >> i live something similar to that with my own family. she chose life, and i commend her for that. no, don't get me wrong. it wasn't rape? >> similar how? >> having a baby out of wedlock. >> that's similar to rape? >> no, no, no. but put yourself in a father's situation, yes, it is similar. >> joining me now is joan walsh, editor at large for salon.com and author of the new book "what's the matter with white people?" i thought it was white men. okay. >> all of us. >> great to have you with us tonight, joan. how do you consume the comments of candidate tom smith? how does this -- this kind of tone deafness effect the gop ticket? >> i mean, do thaw think we're stupid, ed. do they think we're not listening. it's just crazy. but one problem i have is on the one hand, this language is disgusting and ignorant. on the other hand, the real point, the real reason paul ryan can say it doesn't matter on some level and it's stock language is that there is no exception. they don't believe in any exception for rape and incest in our abortion laws. so you know, paul ryan just the other day said, well, the method of conception doesn't matter. as though rape is just another method of conception. so you know, i can see why todd akin and tom smith are kind of stumbling, because their ignorance is so widely accepted and it really doesn't matter how -- >> so congressman paul ryan says the term forcible rape is stock language. meaning really don't pay attention to it, but it just happens to be in our platform. what does that tell you? >> i think that they're just -- they continue to wink and nod to their base. they continue to say that this election is going to be all about the economy, but they're being sure to gin up the culture wars with this abortion language. it's been in the platform. the reason ryan can be blase about it is it's been in their platform since 1992. they're sort of surprised that people are taking it seriously, but i think the right wing, the really extreme right is also making this a culture war sort of election in the republican party. they're really asking them to stick to this language and talk about it. >> now we've got mr. romney out telling cbs evening news that he would support abortion in consequence of rape and abortion. i mean, they're all over the map on this, but also, will the real mitt romney please stand up again? here he is touting the health care plan in massachusetts, okay? and then he says, well, i'm going to sign a law that's going to get rid of obama care. what's happening here? >> right, he says that his massachusetts law was good for women, but he's going to get rid of it nationwide. and i think that the women of wisconsin and the women of florida who are going to lose their preventive health care, pree preventive health care they get under obama care and lose their birth control with no copay, i don't think they're going to be hugely reassured by what goats on in massachusetts. the president's point is we have to nationalize these standards and your health can't depend on whether you live in mississippi or massachusetts, and that was what was so bold about his move. right, he's shaking the et etch-a-sketch again. remember when andrea saul made the same mistake, a mistake for her, but it's what mitt romney says. he thinks we're just going to forget about it. >> she was chastised pretty good by say hannity and coulter, and now romney is saying it. >> i think they called her a moron or something. >> address the title of your book. tell us what it is and why it's titled that. >> well, i am very concerned and very interested in the way that the republican party has pulled the white working class particularly in the white middle class over from the democratic part a. you and i have had this conversation several times. you know, i think that liberals need to be a little more cognizant of the strategy as you an governor dean talked about. it was a deliberate strategy in the '60s and '70s, but it also -- governor dean said one thing about southern whites. george wallace won the michigan primary before he was elected. it was a northern phenomenon where white ethnics got very nervous, not only about racial change, but about crime and a perception that government was given their hard earned taxpayer dollars to people who didn't deserve it. the cadillac driving welfare queens as we know. >> it's interesting, back then, america figured out george wallace. >> right. >> is america going to figure out mitt romney? >> you know, i think so. we have the story over the weekend saying his own advisers are concerned that he cannot close the deal with these white working class and middle class voters. they don't believe he cares about them. i think there's an opening for president obama to do better than people had expected earlier in this year because this candidate just isn't winning over those people. >> joan walsh, great to have you with us. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. if everyone had competed fairly and honestly, i probably would be the nominee being nominated this week. >> the pizza man makes a startling accusation about his fellow republicans. we'll investigate the charges. rick scott's plan to steal florida hits a major snag. we'll tell you why one republican with a conscience continues to hold up the florida voter suppression effort. and is the city of new orleans ready for another big one? >> brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. >> republicans are partying in florida as the big easy braces for isaac. we'll take you there live. ♪ why not use all your vacation days this year? 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[ female announcer ] and that's what makes the moment we enjoy it, a little richer. ♪ real belgian chocolate whipped with philadelphia cream cheese. new indulgence. the moment just got a little sweeter. is now in our new starbucks refreshers™ -- a breakthrough in natural energy. made with real fruit, starbucks refreshers™ are delicious low calorie drinks you can feel good about. ♪ rethink how you re-energize. ♪ get a boost of natural energy with a new starbucks refreshers™, in three ways. natural energy from green coffee extract, only from starbucks. get two times the points froon dining in restaurants with chase sapphire preferred. welcome back to "the ed show." i have said repeatedly on this program, this is the biggest story in this election cycle. here's a slice of it again in florida. florida governor rick scott is working harder than ever to block the vote as republicans kick off their convengsz in tampa. scott gained national attention in recent months for his attempt to purge 2700 voters in the swing state of florida. governor scott also signed a law cutting early voting days in florida from 12 days to 8 days. where have we heard that? so far, monroe county is the only county in the state of florida that has not agreed to scott's early voting measure. republican county elections supervisor harry sawyer, he's holding out. he's holding the line. he plans to keep the 12 early voting days in monroe county, saying there is no reason to crunch these early voting hours. they let people participate. we're supposed to make it easy for voters, not hard. governor scott is not impressed with sawyer's actions. last week, scott hinted he might fire sawyer. in a statement, he said, i will continue to take all necessary and appropriate action ensure that the laws are faithfully executed. sawyer responded to governor scott by saying, i honestly do take that as a threat. they're threatening to remove me. monroe county, where is it? what is it? it's a swing county in a swing state. it's gone democratic by a very thin margin. in the past three presidential elections. and if governor rick scott has his way, he will hand monroe county to mitt romney come november. we're joined tonight by mitch seizer. he's also on the executive board of the democratic national committee as a representative of the 14 southern states. mitch, good to have you with us tonight. explain to us the power that the governor has over harry sawyer here. can he fire him? i understand sawyer is an elected official, or am i wrong on that? >> no, you're exactly right, ed. he is an elected official. he's a republican, which makes this even more astounding. and he's basically said, kind of reminiscent of the 1970s, when gerald ford said to new york, drop dead. it's very, very similar to that. he has said, i think it is discriminatory, i don't agree with it. you want to try to remove me, come and get me. it's courageous. of course, we have to remember he's not up for re-election. it gives him more courage, perhaps, but we're appreciative. he has never melt an early voting day he didn't want to cut because he doesn't like when people vote, especially if you're a democrat and absolutely if you're a minority. >> what were the reasons? why go from 12 to 8? >> well, the problem is that the legislature, which is very republican in florida, had decided to cutu early voting days. which was very detrimental to democrats and minorities and he cut the sunday early voting day from two times to one time which adversely affects african americans who go to church and almost march to had polls as a civil rights rite of passage. they're doing whatever they can to suppress the vote. >> the federal courts are ruling on scott's measure in five counties. what's this going to look like? can you tell us about the court cases? and there's the map there that shows the counties we're talking about. and i think we can come to the conclusion that this has got to be heavy obama territory if he's going to win florida, am i correct? >> well, it is. it's hillsborough county, which is tampa, where the republican convention is right now. it's the keys, which is monroe and several other counties. these are civil rights counties, as designated based on the civil rights voting rights acts of the '60s. in which the justice department must approve certain plans and they basically have been at war with this governor, saying you're being discriminatory, you can't do these things. so what the governor did is he tried to have his secretary of state, the head of the elections division, go forward and say, hey, i'm going to pressure these five counties and they all caved except the keys, monroe county. >> all right, so what -- the stance that sawyer is taking on this, did his statements, are they going to have an impact on the outcome here? >> it's really hard to tell at this point because he's really kind of a lone voice in the wilderness. as i said, he's really taking the governor head on with a lot of courage and said i think this is discriminatory. the federal courts, the three-judge panel said to do it otherwise wouldn in effect be like closing polling locations, eliminating voting for african-americans. they were var, very clear. this governor, what he's doing, the republican party, mitt romney, and rick scott have a political problem. their political problem is they don't want certain people to vote. that's a problem to them. so what they have done is they have taken a political problem and come up with what they think is a legal solution to a problem that really doesn't exist as a way to suppress the vote as you have talked about continually and because florida is a swing state, they're doing everything they can do to make sure. >> well, the governor of florida, pennsylvania, and ohio, they must have been smoking big cigars when they came up with this plan because this clearly is what they're trying to do. suppress the vote. steal the election, deprive people of their rights. making it a hell of a lot harder for folks. it's unfortunate. mitch, great to have you with us tonight. thank you. coming up, the pizza man is back. herman cain says if people had played by the rules he would be receiving the gop nomination for president? interesting. we'll bring you the latest next. stay with us. coming up, the pizza man is 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. coming up, do you know how much more fun we would be having if it was herman cain on the stage instead of mitt romney. he sounds off on the republican primary fight and what we says kept him from winning the nomination. >> and to the big finish, while republicans celebrate in tampa, residents of the gulf coast prepare for tropical storm isaac. >> and our radio show is on sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday and on progressive talk stations throughout the country. noon to 3:00 p.m., hope you check it out. follow me on twitter at ed show and like the ed show on facebook. we're right back. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. welcome back to "the ed show." 999 is back in the game. herman cain is down in tampa shaking things up in the republican convention. on sunday, the pizza man said if his competition had played by the rules, there's a good chance he would be receiving the republican nomination. >> the process is fair, but many of the people that are involved in the process are not fair. and they're not honest. if everyone had competed fairly and honestly, i would probably be the nominee being nominated this week. >> we can only assume the competition cane was talking about includes people like michele bachmann, rick santorum, newt gingrich, ron paul, rick perry, and mitt romney. cain is partying with these unfair and dishonest people down in florida all week long. he might not have the guts to say it to their face, but it sounds like he has something up his sleeve. >> the attack on my character came out and it was coordinated. it had to be coordinated. >> by whom? >> we can't tell you by whom because we don't have proof, but we know it's coordinated. >> can you tell us if it was cordinated by a republican? >> i can't because i don't want it to jeopardize what we may do in the future to expose what happened. >> when it comes to lying, it's party before country. tonight, in our survey, i asked you, which party is playing the race card? 12% of you say the democrats. 88% of you say republicans. coming up, as republicans gather for the convention in tampa, most of the gulf coast is in a state of emergency. doug brinkley joins me next. stay tuned. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then find out how to get lunesta for as low as $15 at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. now is a time when i sense there is a high level of anxiety. the timing of this storm coming on as fate would have it, the anniversary of katrina has everybody in the state in a sensealertness. >> that was mitch landrieu just after he declared a state of emergency in his city of new orleans. tropical storm isaac is projected to become a category 2 hurricane by the time it takes landfall between tuesday and wednesday. but the name on everyone's mind is katrina. isaac is set to hit new orleans almost seven years to the day after hurricane katrina made landfall. and devastated the city. which is still struggling to fully recover. in the meantime, the show will go on in tampa for republicans. and after an abbreviated session today, the republican national convention is scheduled to resume as planned tomorrow. it looks like isaac will spare tampa and some conservatives see an opportunity to joke about it. >> you know, we have so many things to be thankful for, so many blessings. including even, we can be thankful for hurricane isaac. if nothing else, it kept joe biden away. >> let's bring in doug brinkley, presidential historian, professor at rice university and auor of "the great diluge." is it appropriate to be making light of this kind of situation? >> of course not. it's dieeply irresponsible. this is the moment where the gulf south is in a near panic mode. anybody living in the ragged boot hill of louisiana or along the mississippi coast or in the city of new orleans is getting very worried. as you mentioned, katrina memories are very alive, and the fear is can we survive another hit like this? so it's not the time for champagne and balloons and jokes. and that was an irresponsible comment you just played. >> this is also an opportunity politically, is it not? for the democrats to prove that government can work and be prepared as opposed to what happened at katrina. or is that a bridge too far? >> no, i mean, look, mitt romney just last week when in new mexico, said he doesn't know what the public lands are for. he said that he doesn't know wh what they're for because he wanted to open them up for oil and gas drilling. they're for the wild life refuges. that's our hope right now. the brighton island barrier islands. the it's the story of the wetlands disappearing in louisiana and the destruction of the barrier islands that allows these hurricanes to come in and hit louisiana, just pound it without anything to slow it down. so that part, i think, of mitt romney seems to me to not understand the need to save america's wetlands in louisiana and how important that is for american security. beyond that, you're seeing taxpayer dollars hopefully at work. new orleans has new pump houses, billions of dollars of money has come in through the army corps of engineers to try to fix that levee system, and only time will tell whether the city endures this. >> does this bring us to a discussion politically in this country about disaster relief? what should the federal government do, how far should tax dollars go? and i think there are conflicting philosophies, and it's ironic this is happening at convention time. the republicans first. but you know, their position on disaster relief has not been the best. >> no, and it began with george w. bush who took fema, which was a jimmy carter innovation, and they, you know, they gutted it. they dumped it in homeland security, and you remember seven years ago, that brownie, you're doing a heck of a job, about mike brown of fema. since then, the obama administration has revamped fema. they're prepared much more so with this. we have a mayor like mitch landrieu in new orleans who is not a fool like mayor nagin was. and you have a city much more prepared to handle this. unch unfortunately, part of it is because new orleans is a smaller city because so many people weren't able to return home to the lower ninth ward or jen tilley or east new orleans. but it is weird that you're going to be having a spectacle of a celebration in tampa and at the same time, on a split screen, seeing the devastation. mitt romney is going to have to change the tone of temper of his speech. >> that's what i wanted to touch on, the optics of this. if isaac hits new orleans, how do the republicans handle this? in terms of the convention, the split screen you're talking about. what do they say, how can they be partying? how can they be doing the normal convention business, with you know, enthusiasm so high, when just across the gulf, there's a lot of hurt taking place? >> well, that's a big question. i thought today you would have thought the republicans would have gone with their full program on monday and with the idea of not convening on thursday. but if you're getting a large part of america could be in a blackout, let's hope not, but it's possible if this becomes a hurricane category 2. it's going to be very hard to have a festive mood in tampa because, ed, you'll come up with clips like you played in the beginning of my segment of republicans celebrating, laughing, while you're watching fellow americans in despair. this is going to be a moment when our federal tax dollars, the federal government is going to be there. it's our coast guard we're going to be turning to. we're going to be turning to our national guard to keep control problems here. and on and on. so when sometimes we beat up on the u.s. federal government, and when you're in a dire situation after a storm, that's who you need, is uncle sam on your side. >> doug brinkley, thank you for joining us tonight on "the ed show." that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. the "rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening. >> good evening, ed. i'm looking forward to our long term nights long commitment starting tomorrow. >> i'm taking my watch off right now. >> that's right. there's no use counting the minutes. >> we don't wear watches on convention coverage. looking forward to it. >> thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. contrary to what you may have heard, the republican national convention did actually get under way today. today was day one of the republican convention. and it lasted precisely seven minutes. actually, the opening and closing gavel were only about 30 seconds apart, but the overall proceedings around that did go on for a few moments longer. the republican convention has of course been delayed to account for the impending arrival of tropical storm isaac which is now on track to make landfall as a tropical storm or potentially as a hurricane somewhere on the gulf coast late tomorrow might or early wednesday morning. even though the broadcast networks had never intended to cover today's proceedings even when it was going to be a full day of rnc activities. the cable networks including this one have committed to being there gavel to gavel. so all of us cable networks were there today for the seven-minute-long session. it was a short instance of rnc coverage, but still it was exciting. if you're a politics dork, there's always something exciting about the conventions. at least something in one of the conventions every year goes amazingly not according to plan. the first year that the conventions were broadcast at all was 1924. they were broadcast on nbc radio. and that turned out to be a great advertising hook that year to try to sell people radios. we found this in the archives today. cheer with the galleries when the delegates march in. no influence needed for a political seat at the convention. get it all. it used to be all for the delegates' wives and all of the big folks of politics. now it's for everybody. listen in, get it all with the newest radiola. buy a new radio so for the first time ever, you can listen to this year's political conventions because they're going to be broadcast. the very first convention ever broadcast was the one that came first that year, the republican convention in cleveland, ohio. the republicans renominated calvin coolidge, and then nothing else happened. it was historic because it was covered on the radio for the first time and technologically, that was an exciting thing. but even when not much happened at the republican convention that year. the whole broadcasting for the first time thing really paid off at the democratic convention because the democratic convention that year was nuts. it took the democrats 103 ballots to get their nominee that year. the democrats had a huge fight with the ku klux klan at the nomnalting convention that year, and the klan won the fight. for the first time in history, a woman's name was put forward for nomination for vice president, and there was an actual bloody fist fight between delegates that was caught live on the radio and broadcast as a play-by-play fight by a man named norman brokenshire who happened to be covering the mike at the moment the fight was breaking out and he was sitting close enough to it that you could hear it on the radio. he later called it, quote, one of the finest donnybrooks i had ever seen. delegation signs were banged on opponents' heads, chairs and decorations destroyed. i had a ringside seat. i was letting the listening audience in on the fracas. the excitement of the coverage of the democrats' convention was about as good as it got that year. it turns out them being divided to the point of beating one another bloody on the convention floor and taking sides both against and for the klan did not carry the democrats very far into the general election that year. they got beat to a pulp by calvin coolidge. that sort of airing of dirty laundry, having a national broadcast of the donnybrooks in your own party, the warfare among factions in your side, were a real problem for the democrats the first year it was broadcast, but they're often a concern and a vexing concern for the planners of this year's convention for the republican party. here's a visual clue from today's short coverage as to that worry. look at the news coverage today, the few seconds that did technically exist of the rnc proceedings. there's reince priebus in this big arena that haas not all that many people up. they have the signage, the vertical signs for when the sign will fill up with delegates. they seat delegations by state because of the one important piece of business that has to happen at these conventions. they have to do a role call, so every state one after the other, declares who that state's choice is to be the nominee for the republican party of the president of the united states. this is technically the business they need to get done. it's the whole purpose of the convention. it can also be a dramatic and exciting thing. it creates this sense of momentum for the party and nominee. each state says we want him, we want him. they all commit one after another to pick this candidate as nominee. it's exciting and builds and builds and builds, and when you get to the end, usually they do it on the last day of the convention, it's followed by the candidate himself named by all of the states giving his big triumphant speech at the nominee. want to know what ruins that for you as a candidate? when some of the states don't pick you. or when something else is happening out there when they're supposed to be shouting your name with adulation. the republican party this year moved up the role call vote ahead of schedule. apparently out of fear it was not going to be the big, dramatic, seamless building for mitt romney thing they hoped it would be. the "new york times" reporting last week that some supporters of ron paul were puxing to make their voices heard during the roll call vote. several supporters had signaled in making their admiration known for mr. paul on the convention floor. afraid that the ron paul delegates were going to ruin the momenti in the sun for mitt romney as the republican nomnay this year, the republicans took all of the heavy ron bapaul delegations, they took those states and moved them up to the nosebleed sections. way out of the main section of the forum, you've got nevada and maine and minnesota and all of these other ron paul heavy state delegations. just exile to the outer fringe of the convention floor. while arguably less consequential states and territories whose elections don't affect the outcome on election night were moved right up front. right up front, you could even see today were the northern mariana islands and puerto rico and american samoa. sure, their votes don't count in november, but what is more important for the tv cameras is they are unlikely to yell about raw milk and the gold standard. they have tried to move the roll call process out of the view of network cameras by shifting it to monday, today, the one day the networks were not going to cover the convention. now that the weather has canceled the proceedings all together, there's no way to keep the roll call totally out of network view. so the next best thing they can do is move the ron paul folks out of network view. but it turns out it's not just the ron paul folks who are planning to make the proceedings a less predictable, more spectacular broadcast moment. in addition to the ron paul delegations, a whole slew of different conservatives from the longtime antiabortion lawyer james bop to a bunch of supporters of rick santorum to a virginia delegate named martin blackwell, to pro life groups, all of these folks now say they're planning to force another roll call vote at the rnc to protest republicans pryipr trying to change the nominating process for 2016. the romney folks have tried to change the nominating process for 2016 to make sure the front running candidate can essentially shut down insurgent and rival candidacies by locking up delegates at their own whim. republicans do not want those kinds of fights to be on the news. this is supposed to be the yay mitt romney convention and instead it's going to be that and also lots of other republicans, many of whom have big constituencies of their own arguing loudly in a big room in frint of cameras about how mitt romney is big footing the process and shutting down the little guy and forcing a hostile takeover of the republican party's processes. they don't want that on television. the democratic party wouldn't want something like that on television. as much as this sometimes seems like a prescripted pageant, it isn't all a pageant. it's a working political event. when your party has divisions, those divisions tend to show at times like this. one of the largely forgotten great moments in televised party dissent that doesn't get talked about much but is an interesting parallel to what is happening right now is what happened in 1960. richard nixon had been vice president. the party was poised to pick him as the presidential nominee, which they did. two days before the convention was due to convene in chicago, then vice president nixon sat down with nelson rockefeller, the governor of new york, they met in rockefeller's fifth avenue apartment in new york city, and they wrote the party's platform without anybody else's input. it became to be known as the compact of fifth avenue. as much as they thought it might keep unseemly fighting off the screen, everybody eventually found out what these guys had done, and a number of people were visibly angry about it. none more so than this guy, barry goldwater, then a senator nomarizona who himself had been nominated for president but who walked out during the convention to a nine minute long standing ovation. and then he gave a speech angrily announcing he wanted his name taken out of nomination for his own party. he declared his party to be essentially misguided. >> what has gone on here in chicago has been a demonstration of our serious intent to present to this nation a republican party capable of uniting divergent view points and presenting to the nation a true republican philosophy dedicated to the preservation of the eternal values of our society. >> barry goldwater chastising his own republican party that year for giving up its conservative roots. he said if republicans were going to stick with establishment business as usual as embodies by this secret maneuvering by nixon and rock rockefell rockefeller, well then, republicans were going to lose in 1960. and republicans did lose in 1960. and when the republicans came back four years later at their next convention, the guy they picked to be their nominee was the guy who told them what was going to happen, barry goldwater. republican party right now is still unsettled as to what its new identity is post-george w. bush. the mccain/palin ticket didn't prove to be a stepping stone to the broader republican party. sarah palin was not even invited to speak at this year's convention. the tea party waxes and wanes, but dehas been largely co-opted by government establishment by any other name conservative mega donors and mega special interests. tea party uses the idea of small government as a brand. tea party doesn't even promote small government policies. among the politicians that adopt and drop the tea party name as is convenient with what audiences they're speaking to and what election they're running in at the moment. ron paul folks have enough support that they have held shadow conventions. in minneapolis in '08 and yesterday at the university of south florida, ron paul spoke before a crowd of estimated at 7,000 very, very, very, very inthoous assic supporters. he explains he does not fully endorse mitt romney for president, but amid all of that sort of persistent factualism in today's politics, the figure who has the best chance at being this year's barry goldwater, the guy who comes in this year and says we're not huing to conservative principles, we're going to lose this year, but i'm the guy for the future, the guy who has the best chance of being that guy i think is this guy. i know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. when john mccain won the republican nomination in '08, the guy who came in second was mike huckabee. he got the second highest number of delegates after mccain. although highly placed democratic sources admitted huckabee was among their most feared competition for this year for 2012, mike huckabee decided not to run again. instead, he has been building an empire outside of direct electoral politics. he hosts a radio show that competes directly by the show hosted by rush limbaugh. his show is syndicated on hundreds of stations. he has released a number of history dvds that portray his own sometimes peculiar view of history. he stars in an antiabortion dvd for views like personhood and not exempting rape victims and incest victims. he has formed a political action committee called huck pac, which has supported like minded conservatives, including a missouri candidate who was once thought of as a long shot, his name is todd akin. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> after those comments and the ensuing fire storm, he went on mike huckabee's radio show and then the next day, he went on mike huckabee's radio show again to explain himself and to bask in the support he was getting from mr. huckabee even as the republican establishment was trying to shut him down. mr. huckabee then send out a fund-raising pitch on behalf of akin railing against the republican party establishment both in that letter and in a conference call this past friday with baptist leaders. mr. huckabee saying i have never seen an effort like what i have seen this week with party leaders coming together expressly for the purpose of taking one of their own wounded soldiers on the battlefield. and instead of coming to get him off the field and to the hospital, basically, opening up rounds and rounds of fire on him, and then running over him with the tanks of the trucks, leaving him to be ravaged by the wolves of the other side. huckabee said. comma, speaking from his fox news office in new york city. oh, right. he also has a fox news office because he has a show on the official media organ of the republican party, which is the fox news channel. huckabee is the whole package. he's well liked, has a real constituency. has been organizing outside the party, and channeling barry goldwater from 50 years ago by paring his consent that the party will lose because it's not conservative enough. or even -- or he's been pairing that contention for himself with hints or outright assertions he'll still be young enough to run in 2016 after presumably his party losing this year after not taking his advise for not being more right wing than the party is. weather permitting, he is speaking at the republican national convention on wednesday night. we'll see what happened. parties like these things to be scripted, nonsuspenseful, but still vaguely exciting things. sometimes they get their wish and sometimes you end up fighting with the klan while the whole country listens in. sometimes someone ends up angrily denouncing their own nomination and laying the groundwork for them to come back as the nominee four years later. sometimes these things end up being god's gift to the radio and tv news biz. joining us now, steve schmidt. senior strategist for the mccain sla mccain/palin campaign in '08. tell me how wrong i am about huckabee and barry goldwater in 1960? >> huckabee when you give consideration to him as a political figure, timing matters in politics. if he had run this time, there's a tremendous chance he would have wound up as the republican nominee, but presuming a romney victory, he won't have a chance to run for eight years. presuming an obama victory, i think you will see great fishers in the republican party, some of the unsettlement below the surface, you know, will come up. there will be a big debate in the republican party about the direction of the party. and mike huckabee is someone who will absolutely if he wanted to run for president, would be a formidable figure in the party. >> do you see what is going on in the republican party right now as people trying to set themselves up for 2016 in the event of a romney loss? right now, nobody can protect what is going to happen, but it's no shoo-in that romney is going to win. i feel like what we're seeing is people trying to set themselves up as the conservative alternative. >> when you look at the people scheduled to speak at the convention. chris christie, rand paul, marco rubio, paul ryan, mike huckabee. all of these people in their own right are people who may have presidential aspirations and the ability to run a formidable campaign. you may see the next generation of rivalries in the republican party, people whose careers are intertwined with the future history of the nation, but also the political history of the republican party. you may see them all previewing what's going to be many, many years of history to unfold in front of us. >> with this akin thing still going on, mr. romney tonight made new comments about the akin thing, new strange comments about the akin thing to cbs news. still being asked about it, paul ryan still being asked about it. the republicans are pugging it, but now people like mike huckabee are pushing it on the right as well. do you think the social conservatives actually sort of have a good tow hold for the future. everybody talked about the social conservatives fading away. they don't seem to be doing that. >> if you're pro life, you want to recruit people to the cause. you want to have people open their hearts up to the message of the pro life movement. and i would say that trying to do that through the todd akin issue is the wrong strategic approach to accomplish that. i think just like the royal family is learning in england and the republican party is learning with akin, it's really hard to fix stupid. that's what he is. todd akin -- >> he's the naked prince harry? >> tough to fix stupid, and we're going to lose a u.s. senate seat. a high price to pay, a braung issue for people to draw a line in the sand on. it would be much beter for the party if akin would get out of the race. >> what about the ron paul folks? we see the delegations being exiled. seeing the northern mariana islands next to reince priebus and there's minnesota up there. they have the number of delegates ron paul was going to get. they changed the rules so the ron paul delegates that exist this year could never exist in 2016 even if things go the same way. the argument from the ron paul folks is, listen, you want more republicans, not fewer. you disagree with us on some things but you agree with us on most of the important things. engage with us, don't ignore us and pretend we're going to go away. >> think of an iceberg. most of it is below the surface. you only see a small part above the surface. with all of these conventions, you have some groups of people there to cause chaos, to upend the rules, and other groups of people, many more with the rules on their side, that are determines to prevent any eruption of spontaneity at all over the course of the entire convention. the weight of the party's rules are on the side of the people trying to snuff out any spontaneity. these are scripted, made for tv events. they're as highly produced as the olympic games, for example. you don't know what's going to happen 100%, but these conventions have become less about having an undetermined nomination and much more about delivering a message to the american people every four years. i think that's what you'll see. >> and logistically, this year, that means american samoa, come on down. >> absolute lay. >> steve schmidt is going to be part of the convention coverage going to start in earnest tomorrow. fun couple weeks. >> exciting. >> tonight on a special republican national convention edition of debungz junction. ♪ >> a little death metal, i know, finally rths right? that and other tampa centric clarifications next. welcome aboard! 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[ villagers gasping ] reverend? ♪ can i have some? ♪ debunktino junction, what's my function. true or false, inside the event zone in tampa this week, you may carry six feet of this legally? you may carry six feet of this legally. you may carry six feet of this legally. but you may not carry six feet of this legally. this one is illegal. inside the event zone around the tampa bay times forum where the republicans are holding their convention. true or false? that is true. back in april, we reported that the tampa city council has voted on and passed a new set of special security rules and regulations for the duration of the republican convention. their first draft prohibiting any rope, string, cable, or wire longer than six inches. handguns, of course, were still allowed. heaven forbid there be any restriction there, but a seven-inch piece of string, that was way too dangerous. >> don't be afraid. i have weapons on me. i have six and seven-inch pieces of string. this is not a weapon. somehow, this is. what is it about the string? what does seven inches -- i do have one made into a tiny noose. that's as best we could figure that seven inches of string might do some harm. >> after reported on tampa's proposed ban on string longer than six inches, the city decided to tweak their new rules. here's the new rule. prohibited items in the event zone include rope, cable, strapping, wire, string, line, tape, having the tensile strength of greater than 30 pounds and a length greater than six feet, not six inches. six feet. so this 20-pound fly fishing tippett is legal. this 30-pound test is legal, too. even if you have 6 1/2 feet of it, but this 40-pound test, this is illegal. well, actually, five feet and 11 inches of this is legal. but 6'1" of it, that's illegal. that's all true. those are the rules. and now it's the job of police officers to eyeball the tensile strength of various lengths of string to discern the difference between this and this. true. amazing and true. all right. next up. true or false. tampa, the fine, fine city of tampa, the host city, weather permitting for the republican convention, tampa is the strip club capital of the country. the magazine gq called tampa the strip club capital of america, the dalea news calls it the strib club capital of america, chris rock calls it the strip club capital of the world. the strip club capital of the country or the world, is that true or false? >> false, no matter what you have heard. in terms of strip clubs and adult entertainment percap taw, tampa looks into this and concluded that las vegas is actually number one. put tampa doesn't even come in second. tampa has fewer strip clubs p s capita than las vegas and fewer per capita than cincinnati does. so tampa strip club capital of the country, no matter what you have heard, that is false. cincinnati, it turns out, is way strip clubbier, way. and finally, true or false. while tampa may not be called the strip club capital of the country, may not be called that accurately, you may have also heard in advance of the republican national convention, that tampa is the death metal capital of america. if you watch a death metal music video with the sound off, it sort of just looks like hair metal maybe with a little extra eye makeup, a little more blue filter on the lens. when you turn the sound up, ah, then you realize it's something else entirely. it's the kind of metal that has the deathly guttural howling and the yay for satan anti-jesus plot lines. tampa, florida, the site republicans picked for their convention may not be able to hold a candle to cincinnati when it comes to strip clubs per capita, but america's death capital mecca, is that true or false? true. it's a true thing. tampa is considered the birth place of death metal. it's home to such famous death metal bands as deicide, that was their music video we played a clip of. also the well known band obituary. also hate eternal and morbid angel and the band cannibal corpse, which bob dole tried to make very famous in the '90s when he criticized them publicly the year before he ran for president. his friends at cannibal korms are not from tampa, they're from new york, but they moved to tampa because tampa is america's home sweet home for death metal. that is true. death metal is the honest to goodness tampa experience. if you're in tampa for the republican convention, don't gee to a strip club. wait in tuntil you go to cincinnati. check out death metal, and depending on where you go to the show, you're probably safe bringing in 6'2" of string with this tensile strength. maybe. with no fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog. begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. you expect something $40in return. billionaire oil tycoons charles and david koch and their special- interest friends are spending $400 million to buy this year's elections and advance their agenda. what's their payback? politicians who will pass laws that benefit special interests, but hurt the middle class; more tax cuts for the rich, eliminate the minimum wage, big cuts to our schools, but big subsidies for oil companies, learn what you can do at... the forcible versus legitimate rape storyline that the republican party really did not want to drag into convention week has been dragged into convention week by the party's presidential nominee himself tonight. rather unexpected comments from mitt romney personally on the subject. we have that straight ahead. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t. the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. at&t. rethink possible. yeah, maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what's your number? is now in our new starbucks refreshers™ -- a breakthrough in natural energy. made with real fruit, starbucks refreshers™ are delicious low calorie drinks you can feel good about. ♪ rethink how you re-energize. ♪ get a boost of natural energy with a new starbucks refreshers™, in three ways. natural energy from green coffee extract, only from starbucks. in 2008, john mccain lost african-american voters reali s really badly, and he lost latino voters really, really badly. he lost asian voters really badly, and he lost other rashs really badly. even though he still lost overall, the only way he was able to get the race as close as he did was because he did win a majority of the white vote. he won 55% of the white vote. right now, the romney/ryan campaign is doing about the same with latinos, worse with african-americans. we crunched the numbers and determined if white people make up the same proportion of the electorate as they did in '08, the magic number that mr. romney needs to reach among the white voting population is 61%. he needs 61% of the white vote. that means he needs to capture a lot more of the white vote than john mccain did four years ago. he needs more of the white vote than george w. bush got when he was re-elected in 2004. he needs more of the white vote than george w. bush got the first time around as well. he needs to beat bob dole in the white vote by 15 points. he needs to do more than 20 points better than papi bush did when he lost to bill clinton. he even needs to do better than papi bush did when he won. he needs better numbers than any republican candidate has in 28 years when ronald reagan was elected. the only other modern election in which a republican got a higher portion of the white vote was nixon in '72 when he won the election overall by 25 points. so essentially, he won everyone. even among people who think mitt romney is going to win the election, nobody thinks he's going to win it by 19 points the way reagan did or by 25 points the way nixon did. and in the absence of a landslide, an overall landslide that pbig, how on earth can you plan to get that huge a proportion of white voters. who knows if it's feasible, but lord knows he's trying. >> i love being home in this place where ann and i were raised, where both of us were born. ann was born at henry ford hospital, i was born at harper hospital. no one has ever asked to see my birth stroift. they know this was the place we were born and raised. >> amazing, no one is curious about my origins and my status as an american, unlike some other secret kenyon presidents we know, am i right? what's the difference, peeps. the romney campaign is also running ads about welfare, ads that are blatantly racially charges, showing images of hard working white people and telling them their black president is going to start handing out welfare checks to people who won't even look for a job. as a special bonus, the policy claims behind the highly racially charged ads has been thoroughly debunked as the birther nonsense has. it's just made up entirely in terms of policy matters. but the romney campaign is sticking with the strategy of campaigning on welfare. as ezra klein pointed out today, the romney campaign is running more ads about welfare than any other issue right now. of the 12 ads posted to his website, five are about welfare. that's more than dedicated to health care, more than the number dedicated to introducing paul ryan, more than the number dedicated to the economy, the jobs, jobs, welfare queen platform. let's talk about welfare. mr. romney for his part took the stoking welfare strategy further this weekend defending the welfare ads to usa today and accusing the president of taking this action he didn't actually take on welfare as a calculation that was designed to shore up the obama base before the election. as if people on welfare are barack obama's base. especially the lazy ones. don't expect this to stop, though. the romney folks need to get to 61% of white voters somehow, and the romney campaign apparently believes this welfare queen thing is working. romney campaign aides insisting to cbs news their racially dog whistling factually inaccurate welfare ads are totally working. they're helping the campaign gain ground with middle class voters who are anxious about the economy. i wonder what other kinds of ads might help the romney campaign gain ground with the middle class voters they're reaching out for. the big media guy at the main pro romney super pac is the man who produced one of the most racist television ads in history, the infamous willy horton ad. maybe he'll have some ideas. a republican strategist told the national journal, quote, this is the last time anyone will try to do this. meaning this is the last time anyone will try to run a presidential campaign aimed at winning a slim majority of votes overall by winning a big majority of white votes. presumably, this is the last time we'll see this strategy because white voters alone will not be enough to win an election in the coming years as the country changes. and it might not be enough this year. but this year, the republicans are almost 90% white. the new pew numbers say in terms of self-identified republicans, it's 89% white now, and the calculus the romney campaign appears to be making is if they can maximize that vote, maximize the white vote by any means necessary, maybe they can win with nobody else supporting them, which means we're about to find out if you can win a presidential election in this country in the year 2012 by deliberately running against minority voters. joining us now is bob herbert. bob, thank you for being here. >> how are you, rachel? >> i hear you reacting to the way i was laying that out. is it because you can't believe they're doing this or do you think that their reasoning is faulty? >> you know, mitt romney has so many problems. he's an unappealing candidate. he's not a very good politician, and he's running a campaign without a message. it's a campaign that doesn't have a theme. so what he's essentially doing is going all over the place, saying, you know, white people please vote for me. it's the only route that he and his advisers see to an electoral victory this november. but, you know, i think -- i think in 2012, in the 21st century, you can't win an election if that's the only thing that you've got going for you. i still think that racial appeals work. i still think that there is -- there are a fair number of people in this country who -- a fair number of whites who are haasile to blacks, who do not want a black president. i don't think it's anything close to a majority of whites. so if he needs to attract white votes to win this election and he does, it would seem to me that what would be better is to try to put forth a campaign that honestly appeals to the concerns of white voters in this country. you could start with having a plan to develop jobs, having a plan to build a stronger economy, and that sort of thing. and especially if they're talking about middle class white voters because i think that is a crucial voting bloc. if you're talking about middle class suburban voters, for example, i don't believe they like racist appeals. i don't think they like extremist appeals of the right or the left. you know, so it just seems to me that it's not a great strategy. >> the other thing that's going on around the convention, obviously, beyond the party's control is the weather and the rescheduling and the rejiggering of the schedule that that entails which involves losing a little bit of the message. they wanted to have sort of theme days for each of the convention. they're trying to stick with some of the themes but that's screwed up, but the other thing that has happened is they have brought a lot of the socially conservative issueinize to the discussion this week. the welfare stuff is so blatantly racial that it brings the racial discussion into mainstream discussion about what their strategy is. this isn't a cockamamy theory that i have cooked up about what romney is doing. there's also the stuff going on about abortion, and there's a split in the party about that, which is going to be aired out a little bit i think with the mike huckabee speech and some of the foits on the floor, but they're also bringing that up themselves. mitt romney and paul ryan both doing interviews about that in the last few days. what happens in terms of their appeal racially to bring -- when they put forth those social issues up front? does that affect any of the racial inflection they've got? >> you know, i think it's all of a piece, and i think it's -- instead of forward looking, it's really backward looking. when you start talking about the social issues, what mitt romney is allowing to happen now is that he's becoming identified personally with all of these issues. he's got paul ryan on the ticket now, so you have that whole rape/abortion issues that they don't know how to talk about. they're on the wrong side of the issue and they don't know how to try to explain it. and then they're doing these blatant racial appeals, you know, and then they've got, you know, an economic program that consists solely of tax cuts for the very wealthy. what is happening, i think, is that the voters are seeing that this is who mitt romney is. that he is not the moderate who has had to sort of play along with the right wing of his party in order to get the nomination, but he's basically a practical pragmatic moderate guy. but now he's being identified with all of these extremist issues. and i don't think that overall that plays well. >> i don't think it's the narrative he intended, certainly. it's interesting to see him off his game. part of what presidents have to do is talk when the script goes wrong. >> exactly right. >> fascinating. bob herbert, great to see you. >> you, too. >> the leader of a conservative poll watching group reportedly said he wants to make voting like driving and seeing the police following you. there was some fresh action on that today, an important update about how hard it will be for people to vote in perhaps the swingiest of all swing states this year. update on that is next. ♪ [ male announcer ] it started long ago. the joy of giving something everything you've got. it takes passion. and it's not letting up anytime soon. at unitedhealthcare insurance company, we understand that commitment. and always have. so does aarp, an organization serving the needs of americans 50 and over for generations. so it's no surprise millions have chosen an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they help cover some of the expenses medicare doesn't pay. and save you up to thousands in out-of-pocket costs. to find out more, request your free decision guide. call or go online today. after all, when you're going the distance, it's nice to have the experience and commitment to go along with you. keep dreaming. keep doing. go long. to go along with you. mom: ready t♪ go to work? 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challenging voters? why do we have laws on the books that allow for challenging voters at their polling place? well, in ohio, the answer to that question is particularly ugly. in the mid-1800s, ohio passed it a law that made it the duty of election judges to challenge anybody who showed up to vote and had a, quote, distinct and visible admixture of franklin blood. the voter would then be asked a series of questions about their heritage and where their kids went to school and the voter had to produce two witnesses about their heritage. any judge who accepted the vote of a person with a distinct and visible admixture of african blood faced up to six months in jail. that was how challenging voters worked in ohio in the mid-1800. in 2004, a judge blocked a vote by republicans to put 3,500 poll watchers in ohio precincts, the way the republicans wanted to use those poll watchers, the way the courts rejected, it would have meant that 97% of new voters in mostly black precincts would face a challenge, compared to only 14% of new voters in majority white precincts. this year, the challenge in ohio -- the question, i should say, in ohio is about when you will be allowed to vote. ohio's new republican majority cut out the last three days of voting before the election, including the weekend hours that had been especially popular with ohio african-american voters. ohio's republican secretary of state, john husted, at first also went along with the plan to allow more early voting time in ohio's republican counties, and less early voting time in ohio's democratic counties. under public pressure, mr. husted, instead, announced that he was cutting early voting for everyone. so it's limited hours at night and no weekends. as we reported on this show last week, ohio's embattled secretary of state then showed up here on the list of featured speakers for the tea party challenge the voters true the vote summit in ohio this weekend! after we reported on that late last week, well, wait, suddenly his name fell off the list. ohio secretary of state suddenly was not going to attend the true the vote summit anymore, even though he'd previously been on their schedule. true the vote's summit did happen. john husted's appearance did not. so now mr. husted's office is not returning our calls. they used to return our calls, but since we started asking about his scheduled appearance at true the vote, they have gone radio silent on us. and that's not all. god bless ohio. among ohio's several troubles with running elections is that a great many people tend to turn up at the wrong polling places or even at the wrong precinct table in the right polling place. by the tens of thousands, ohioans end up throwing out those people's votes. it's a known problem in ohio elections. but a judge today in ohio put that law on hold. the judge said it was not acceptable for so many thousands of ohio voters to have their votes wasted because a poll worker made a mistake and told a person to vote in the wrong spot. this might be my favorite john husted favorite sentence of the day. "a husted spokesman said an appeal was likely." the husted spokesman did not say that to us, of course, but, still, apparently they're going to appeal, because they want were of those votes thrown out. anytime, mr. husted, you would like to talk about this with me one on one, i would love to have you hear on this show. anytime. for such heavy measures with olay. regenerist micro-sculpting serum for firmer skin in 5 days. pretty heavy lifting for such a lightweight. [ female announcer ] olay regenerist. it's the only way to get fresh coffee. not in my house! this new flavor lock pack from maxwell house helps seal in freshness. wow! that is fresh! am i still yelling? 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to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. on cbs news tonight, republican presidential candidate mitt romney was asked again about abortion rights. there is some stuff to clear up on this issue, right? he chose for his vice presidential nominee a man who co-sponsored legislation with the famous todd akin, redefining specific kinds of rape for the purpose of abortion policy. since then, when paul ryan has been asked about his own hardline position on abortion, even for rape victims, mr. ryan has responded by assuring his interviewers that only the president makes abortion policy, so don't worry. >> but let's remember, i'm joining the romney/ryan ticket, and the president makes policy. >> so don't worry about my policy, it's the president who makes policy, and there's no chance that as vice president, i would ever become president. see the problem with that argument? well, now watch how mr. romney himself compounded that problem tonight on cbs. >> this is the decision that will be made by the supreme court. the democrats try and make this a political issue every four years, but this is a matter in the courts. it's been settled for some time in the courts. >> "this is a matter for the courts." abortion rights are settled law in the courts. only the supreme court could change that. and it's not like the president has anything to do with who's on the supreme court. you see the problem with this as an argument, right? why have they not come up with a better answer for this stuff yet? it's almost like they don't want to. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." have a great night. mitt romney's six-year campaign for the republican presidential nomination ends right here tomorrow night. >> today the republican national convention is set to convene. >> mitt romney begins the most important week of his political career. >> and then immediately suspend all activities until tomorrow. >> isaac is stealing some of the convention spotlight. >> this monster storm, tropical storm isaac. >> it just seems like mitt romney can't catch a political break. >> it's important that romney accept the nomination this week. >> pre-season's over. >> there isn't much time. >> this week, regular season starts. >> the clock does start now. >> the republican party is now one day away from making governor mitt romney its official nominee. >> is mitt romney ready for his big moment? >> can he connect to the american people? >> i'm doing my very best. >> does anyone know who mitt romney actually is? >> all i can do is be who i am. >> the romney campaign is trying to fill out his story, trying to break through. >> i am what i am and that's all what i am. >> mitt romney has to round himself out. >> can mitt romney catch a break? >> this is an opportunity for him on thursday night to reintroduce himself. >> he does have an opportunity to do that. >> the people i'm talking to say he's got to be nimble. >> this should be a winnable race. >> the country is going to be watching this. >> this is going to stay a pretty close race. >> anything can happen. >> it will be quite something. >> so it is my privilege to proclaim the 2012 republican national convention called to order. ♪ good evening, from tampa, florida, where the republican national convention will reconvene and officially nominate mitt romney tomorrow, after tropical storm isaac forced the party to cancel proceedings today. on thursday night, mitt romney will deliver a speech here. the audience here in the hall will, of course, applaud and cheer on cue, but mitt romney seems to know, he might not be this party's dream candidate. >> some people in your party don't like you. are you a candidate for the entire republican party? >> well, we're a big party. and there are, i don't know, how many million people or so are republicans. and i'm sure not everybody's going to think i'm the ideal person. >> with 71 days until the presidential election, a new "washington post" poll shows the race locked in a statistical tie among registered voters. president obama polls at 46%, mitt romney polls at 47%, within the poll's margin of error. when asked which candidate is more likable, 61% of registered voters say president obama. only 27% say mitt romney. chris wallace asked mitt romney about the likability problem. >> governor, does it bother you that according to the polls, people don't like you more or is that not important? >> you know, all i can do is be who i am. remember that popeye line? i am what i am and that's all what i am? >> in an interview with "usa today," mitt romney says that during his speech thursday night, we won't be talking about my life, we'll be talking about policy. president obama says that congressional republican party policy will become mitt romney policy. >> i don't think that if congress presented him with some of the items that are in the republican platform, at this convention, that would, for example, entirely roll back women's control over their reproductive health, that he would stand in the way. >> joining me now here in tampa, nbc news special correspondent tom brokaw and msnbc's joy reid and jonathan capehart. tom, we, with of course, go to you for history on nights like this. two questions, the last time a presidential candidate quoted popeye, and then secondly, when is the last time a presidential candidate has been struggling so much with the likability factor in polls? >> well, it's been a while, i think, since we've had anybody who's struggled as much as we have with the likability factor. and i think that's because, in part, he had to become something that he wasn't naturally, as a political candidate, during the primaries. and people emerged from that process uncertain about just who mitt romney is. so thursday night, it seems to me, lawrence, that he has to do a couple of things. one is he has to hang out with the people who have given him that nomination. he has to make sure that people in the tea party remain comfortable enough with him, that if they're so determined to get rid of barack obama, they'll hang on to mitt romney and not run somebody else, even as a written-in candidate. and then finally he has to say to that independent couple in iowa, in wisconsin, in ohio, in virginia, who have not yet made up their minds. they may have voted for obama the last time, but now they're a little bit uncertain about his capacity to lead the country out of the economy. at the end of the speech, does she turn to him or does he turn to her and say, you know, i could live with that guy. i'm comfortable with him. i know he's got a good background, and now after tonight, i could see him for what he may be in our lives. i think that's the real test, ultimately. >> and joy, with this likability in the polls, it's astonishing, you look at that number, you don't expect to turn to the big number and see that they are tied. >> i think part of that it's a registered voter sample rather than a likely voter sample. registered and likely tend to diverge a little bit. but i think that mitt romney in a lot of ways is sort of -- when he says i am what i am, that sounds like a ceo. ceos don't have to be liked. they have to be seen by the board of directors as compcompe. and i think he's going back, mitt romney, in a lot of ways, to his original campaign model, is i'm going to run this country like a business model. the challenge for him, like tom just said, in the room, when he's giving his acceptance speech, he's got a completely different audience. this isn't a board of directors. this is a party that now doesn't want to hear, i'm a competent guy, barack obama's a nice guy, but not so competent. it wants to hear, barack obama's a socialist. it wants to hear a much more extreme message. and how do you deliver that message for your base and still sound like, you know what, you're sober and sane enough to run the country? >> well, let's listen to mitt romney's attempt at a joke, which actually echoes one of the most extreme messages that we've heard this year, which is that president obama may want even be american. let's listen to the joke. >> now, i love being home in this place where ann and i were raised, where both of us were born. ann was born at henry ford hospital, i was born at harper hospital. no one's ever asked to see my birth sector. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. >> jonathan, a well-known professional comedian called me today and said about that joke, you know what happens to jokes? people laugh. no one's laughing. they're cheering. that is a very different reaction. cheering that response is a different reaction than laughing at a joke. >> right. it's not uncomfortable laughter, it's cheering. the thing i find most significa fascinating about that clip is how governor romney soaks it in. he soaks up the applause. when you hear jokes like that. when you hear some of the -- you know, who knows what he's going to say thursday night, but if it plays to the tea party base and if it plays to the far right wing of the party, how is that couple, the independent couple in iowa, that tom just talked about, what will they turn to each other and say to each other after they've heard some of the possible red meat that might be thrown out here tonight? i remember the speech that was given, i believe it was by our former colleague, pat buchanan, at the convention, republican convention in '92, i believe -- >> '96. >> when? >> '96. >> that frightened a lot of people. tt romney cannot afford to come out of a convention where a lot of the american people are frightened. he has to come out of this convention, he has to come out of this hall, not only having told the american people where he wants to take the country, but he must put meat on the bones. there is not enough specifics out there for people to turn to each other and say, okay, president obama hasn't done a good enough job. this guy has an idea of where he wants to go, and at least i know where specific -- what he -- what specifically he wants to do if he gets four years. because right now, he hasn't done that. >> tom, one of the easier aspects of analyzing politics is they tend to run the same plays. we get that feeling like, oh, yeah, i know that play, i know that play. i don't know this play about suggesting that the president of the united states is somehow alien, foreign. you hear that concept of foreign raised a lot. i've never seen that play before. >> i have a contrary point of view about what he said. my own impression is, and i don't think any of us know really what was in his mind. my own impression is, and we've seen one demonstration of this after another. he's about as awkward with humor as anybody i have ever seen on the stump. and as i watched him talk about where he was born and where she was born, he was obviously riffing at that point. he threw that out there. if that were part of a longer narrative from him, i would take it much more seriously than i do. i just don't know whether his clear intention was to raise that once again. by the way, the pat buchanan speech, that was a long, very strident speech. and it was molly ivins, the late and lamented great, great humorist from texas who said it sounded much better in the original german when he gave it. that was a different time. so i honestly don't know whether we can pin this on governor romney, that he was trying to exacerbate, again, the birther question. and my guess is, lawrence, why, next week at this time, we'll have the half-life of an amoeba. not that i know the half-life of an amoeba. >> although, tom, the day after that joke was aired, "the new york times" ran the story, and i believe it's a front-page story, talking about how the romney campaign has made its decision. they are going for a working class white voters. and doing all sorts of things to appeal to them. so whether it's the welfare ad, whether it's -- whether this was intentional or not, it plays into that -- >> yeah, listen, i think the time is well passed to even raise that question, by the way. >> right. >> i'm just saying, i don't know for sure the depth of ulterior motives here at that point. and if he doesn't come back to it, if they don't make it part, if you will, of the thematic campaign, then i think the country will be better served all the way across the board. you know, i was watching donald trump earlier today, saying he was trying to decide whether he would come here or not. if he comes and he's allowed to appear in some fashion, that's a different matter altogether. because he will not let go of this, and he's the one who's tried to keep it alive as much as possible. and my hope is that -- my guess is that the romney campaign doesn't want to have donald trump appear in this rn, or even outside of it, in the next couple of days. that's just a guess. >> joy, some of the analysis has suggested that -- and trump himself has suggested that he, of course, have a speaking role here, but maybe he got rained out today because the convention got rained out today. but apart from romney's motivation or how he might stumble into something, what he did stumble into was something that does echo because of donald trump spending over a year on it, others in republican world talking about it for some period of time. and that's one of the reasons why romney's intent aside, people thought they were hearing something in the crowd, in the crowd response that was conditioned by months of preconditioning in republican world on this. >> yeah, what's amazing is, it's sort of like i feel like romney's running an endless primary. like he's constantly trying to re-appeal to the people who's already nominated him. so it's that pat buchanan crowd that we remember are the '90s, they're now the majority of the base and he still feels like he has to cater to them. at some point, he's got to pivot to a general election message. he hasn't found a comfortable way to do it. and the party has taken great pains to hide some of the crazies. there's not going to be a speech by herman cain or sarah palin. but they still represent the majority of the base and romney still feels like he has to speak to them. i think to jonathan's point, because they're working on workiwork i ing white voters. >> this is the most inauthentic candidacy i've ever seen. i must say. we used to talk about the woodenness of al gore. i mean, al gore looks like a stand-up comedian compared to this guy. >> yes. >> and that's a test he's going to face on thursday night. he was candid enough to say, i am who i am. and i don't know anyone of his age who can undergo a personality conversion in front of a national television audience. what he needs to do is what i said earlier. he needs to make the independent voter out there who's undecided comfortable with him. i don't think they're going to vote for him for homecoming king. but they may vote for him for president. i don't know. >> tom, it's not my 20-sec convention, but i did watch every one of those conventions that you anchored from one of these booths, and i cannot thank you enough for coming in here tonight and giving us the honor of sitting -- >> absolutely. >> joy reed, jonathan capehart, tom brokaw, thank you all for joining me tonight. coming up, paul ryan was not mitt romney's first choice for vice president, according to the "new york post." they have a report today indicating that chris christie turned down mitt romney's offer for the vice presidential slot because he believes mitt romney is going to lose. steve kornacki and krystal ball will join me on that. and more interviews mean more questions to mitt romney about his secret tax returns. and republican senators warns mitt romney that he is going to lose. gonna lose if he continues to alienate women voters. that's coming up. humans -- even when we 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[ sighs ] so how did it go? he's upset. [ male announcer ] spend less time at gas stations. with best in class fuel economy. it's our most innovative altima ever. ♪ what's the difference between paul ryan and crazy republican congressman todd akin? the answer is absolutely nothing. that's coming up in the "rewrite." 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to do is put on a show and giggle every time i talk, then i have no interest in answering your question. >> did i say "on topic"? are you stupid? on topic. on topic. next question. do you want to hear the answer or don't you? because i'm not going to put -- i heard you. okay. next question. go ahead. yes, sir? and let me tell you something, after you graduate from wall street, you conduct yourself like that in a courtroom, your rear end's going to get thrown in jail, you idiot. >> in 24 hours, that man, that occasionally occasionally intemperant man will speak at the republican national convention. today he woke up to this headline in the "new york post." according to the "new york post," christie told political insiders that there was a fat chance that he'd be mitt romney's running mate, because christie doubted that romney could actually win. that, of course, means that chris christie has been watching this program and realizes that the losing vice presidential candidate has no chance, a fat chance, not even a fat chance, no chance of ever becoming president. that means chris christie has seen our big wall graphic of the vice presidential losers in the television age, all of whom watched their political futures end the night they lost the vice presidency. chris christie was, of course, right to hope for a bigger political future, than taking his place beside sarah palin on our big wall of losers. in an interview that will hair tomorrow on msnbc's "morning joe," chris christie responded to the "new york post"'s report this way. >> yeah, well, it's just completely shoddy reporting. much of what was said in that story just wasn't true. so -- and they never talked to me. >> joining me now, hosts of msnbc's "the cycle," steve kornacki and krystal ball. steve, you are our senior new jersey political analyst here at "the last word." i noticed that christie's denial there was not the standard really tough complete denial. he just said, much of what's in that report was not true. there are stronger denials to issue. what do you make of this whole story? >> well, i think christie and people around him are happy that the story's out there. maybe not exactly this way. but i don't buy the idea, if the idea that they're trying to put out there is, hey, look, romney wanted him and christie thinks he's a loser and doesn't want to be on the ticket, there's other issues that kept him from saying, yes, i don't think that's what happened at all. the reason chris christie is not on the republican ticket, the reason mitt romney did not ask chris christie to be on the republican ticket is because of stories like this. because things pop up in the press that christie or someone around him puts out there, that puts christie's interests ahead of mitt romney interest. and i think there was a consistent concern on the part of romney's people that christie would not be a family player, whether it's as a candidate or in any romney administration. but i think christie clearly has an incentive for this kind of thing to be out there. because more than most governors, he really has a balancing act in the eyes of the national stage. he's up for re-election next year. new jersey, his popularity is not bad there. he's in pretty decent shape for re-election next year, but new jersey's still a blue state. it's still a state where he's going to be doing well to get 53 or 53 or 55% of the vote. so he has to be very careful if it looks like he's angling too much. he flirted with the presidential race last year, if it looks like he's trying goto get out of the job, trying to get on the romney ticket. but now he's like, no, they wanted me. >> and another reason they cited the fact that he thought romney was going to lose, is he was so committed to his post at new jersey that he didn't want to leave it. if you're christie, other than the fat chance headline, it's a pretty beautiful story to have out there. >> and steve, political insiders, when they watch these things develop, they always know that the people within the party who are contenders for the presidency actually want their nominee to lose, because that opens up their opportunity to run four years later instead of eight years later. and this is one of those stories that makes it, i think, a little extra uncomfortable for christie that when he's giving this speech down here in tampa, there's some reason, according to the "new york post," to believe that not only does he think mitt romney is going to lose, he's actually rooting for him to lose, so that christie gets his shot in four years. >> well, we don't need anonymous sources in the "new york post" to know that. christie himself has basically said that. it was an interview with oprah winfrey a while back when he basically said that he would be ready in 2014, as if it's a foregone conclusion that the republican nomination will be open in 2014. that's another one of those moments, the romney people looked at it and they're obviously miffed by it, and he said, this is a guy out for himself more than he'll ever be out for us. and think about the tax controversy about mitt romney. it was back in january when romney at that point was trying to get away with releasing nothing about his personal tax records, that chris christie, his top surrogate, went on the "today" show and said, yeah, mitt romney should put his taxes out there. this is not the kind of thing they were ever looking for in a running mate. >> right. and i think the fact of the matter is, chris christie would, if he actually thinks that any republican would lose in general or else i think he would have run this year himself. so why would he want to be the number two when he could himself have run for the nomination and i think easily beaten mitt romney. so he certainly doesn't think that mitt romney has a better shot at winning than he had. >> i agree with that, krystal, completely. no one chooses not to run when they think they can win. >> exactly. and christie, you know, is the hottest guy in republican politics. i mean, he's the most -- he's kind of the heat-seeking guy. paul ryan, also, but i think christie even more so as a national figure. ann coulter was out there publicly begging him to run. there were so many people begging him to run. and he knows people won't be begging him next time. you only get begged once. so steve kornacki, he knew that this was the hottest moment in his career. and his choice not to run had to include the calculation of what the ultimate outcome would be if he did run. >> well, you know, and i think what christie -- one thing that i think was on his mind here was his own sort of past in politics. because there are two sort of telling examples, i think, from his rise. one goes way back to the mid-1990s, when he was just starting out in politics, he won a county seat, very ambitious, made a lot of noise, and immediately tried to move up to take advantage of the attention he was getting. ran for the state legislature, a big advantage for him, got smacked down in that race, then lost his county job, and he was completely wiped out in new jersey politics in 1997. looked like this cautionary tale for people. he miraculous rejuvenated his career, by raising big bucks for george w. bush in 2000, to the point that in 2005, republicans across new jersey begged him and tried to draft him to be their gubernatorial candidate. and it looked like this is christie's big moment. here it is, open governor's seat, jim mcgreevey's just resigned, republicans all want christie to get in, and he said no. and i remember covering it at the time thinking, this guy is passing up his one golden opportunity to have the governor's office. and he calculated that the republicans would lose in 2005, and he'd get a better chance in 2009. and that's what happened. and i think he's thinking history will repeat itself here. >> krystal ball and steve kornacki, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up, mitt romney gets asked the big question. why, if you knew you were running for president, did you continue to stash money overseas? that's coming up. and later, if you thought todd akin said the craziest thing about rape last week, there's another crazy thing that another republican had to say, and paul ryan agrees with both of these republicans on policy. that's in the "rewrite." 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[ dad ] i choose great taste. i choose boost. you've been running for president for almost eight years, and the question is, why didn't you, years ago, somewhere over the last eight years, go to the people running your blind trust and say to them, let's get out of this swiss bank accounts. let's get out of the investments in the cayman islands, even if it means we have to pay more taxes, so we can clear the decks politically? >> well, first of all, there was no reduction, not one dollar reduction in taxes by virtue of having an account in switzerland or a cayman islands investment. the dollars of taxes remained exactly the same. there was no tax savings at all. and the conduct of the trustee in making investments was entirely consistent with u.s. law, and all the taxes paid were those legallywed and there was no tax savings by virtue of those entities. >> why not just go to them a long time ago and say, get out of these things, because you knew -- >> and don't invest in anything outside the united states? i don't know why a trust -- i could have said, don't make any investments in any foreign companies, any foreign bonds, any foreign currency. only u.s. entities. by the way, don't have any foreign products, don't have any japanese tvs or foreign car. >> here it is, republican convention week, and mitt romney's secret tax returns are still in the spotlight. and remember, mitt romney has experience with elaborate, illegal tax avoidance schemes. when mitt romney was the head of the audit committee for marri t marriott's board of directors, he authorized marriott to engage in the notorious son of boss tax shelter, so-called son of boss, in involved creating fake paper losses to lower the company's taxable income. joining me now are julian epstein, former house counsel for the house government reform committee, and karen finney, former dnc communications director and an msnbc contributor. julian, mitt romney goes to elaborate lengths -- and let's remember, i just want to -- as we set the table for this discussion, he helped marriott participate in a tax shelter that was ruled illegal by the irs, and ended up costing marriott a lot of money. this is not someone whose hands are completely clean on illegal tax schemes. and so here he is, trying to tell us that there was absolutely no tax reason to stash money in the cayman islands, to stash money in switzerland, when the cayman islands is all about -- in fact, there's no other reason for anything happening in the cayman islands financially, except tax shelter. >> that's exactly correct, lawrence. i mean, let's put some noncontroversial facts on the table. the purpose of investments in the cayman islands is, primarily, tax avoidance. the congressional research service has estimated that it costs the u.s. taxpayers somewhere between $40 billion and $70 billion a year. secondly, the statement by romney that investments in the united states and the cayman islands are treat ed the same i just wrong, as a legal and a factual matter. things like depreciation, things like unrelated business expenses, things like the use of derivatives for interest income, are all treated very, very differently and romney knows that. third is the question of information. because of the secrecy in places like the cayman islands, it is almost impossible for the irs to get information, to determine whether somebody is adhering to the law or not or whether they're bending the law. in fact, the irs has to use, as you know, lawrence, has to use things like qualified intermediaries, which has very, very limited windows of information into things like what deductions are being claimed. so look at the case of mitt romney, in the year 2010. he had $2.7 million in foreign income. he had a tax burden that he paid for that of, at the very most, $52,000. that's 2.5%. now, how he got from a $2.7 million income in foreign, in foreign income, how he got from that to a $52,000 tax liability is almost impossible to determine, because of the secrecy rules, you can't figure out what kind of deductions he was making and whether or not they were, in fact, compliant with the law. >> karen finney, i want you to listen to the way mitt romney talks about this, when he's with his friends, when he's with people he trusts, when he's with people who he knows understand and appreciate and applaud hiding money from the government any way you can. and of course, i'm speaking of his very rich campaign donors. and this is last week, in minneapolis, he's talking to his donors, and he says, with big business is doing fine in many places. they get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. they know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses. karen, there he is, saying we go and we look for low tax havens. >> right. and, you know, you guys have raised this question of maybe there were some things that were not legal, but the kinds of things he's talking about, a lot of it is legal, was legal. so when they technically say, we followed the law, that's another example of how the romneys are essentially trying to parse their words, but really not telling you the truth behind those words. and as you know, as julian pointed out, the reason people put their money in foreign countries is to get out of their tax obligation. but what does that mean to the rest of us? and this is really the thing i think they don't want the rest of us to know about. that means the rest of us are paying their share. what they're avoiding, we get stuck with that bill. and that bill gets bigger and bigger and be bigger. and these companies and these individuals are able to take advantage of all kinds of tax loopholes and schemes that i wish the rest of us had access to. and yet, here's the thing. he wants us to trust him to revise our tax code, so with our money, but he won't show us how he may have utilized the tax code to make his money. >> go ahead, julian. >> karen hits on a very interesting point on the word "trust" there. because as you know and as you pointed out many times on this show, lawrence, mitt romney claims that he sees business activities in bain capital in 1999. and then we learn in the year 2010 that he's taken $500,000, a half a million dollars in deductions, for what he calls active business activities. >> right. >> those, according to the irs, you can only deduct those if you are deeply involved in the everyday activities of the organization. so romney has been caught not being particularly straight on this question before. and if you look at the number of investments bain capital has just in the cayman islands, it's something like 138 investments, active investments in the cayman islands. romney has an interesting in 12 of them, and he may have -- all of which may be valued at close to $30 million. so the idea that romney says, just trust me, i was following the law, the tax burden was the same, most tax experts will tell you that the very -- the cloak of secrecy with these investments in the cayman island is what allows for the gamesmanship. so while we may not be able to say it was illegal, i think many would say that given how much he reduced that tax burden, again on the $2.7 million many income to a $52,000 tax rate, that there were some rules bending that was certainly going on. >> julian epstein -- sorry, karen, we've got to get out of this. julian epstein and karen finney, i want to thank you both for joining me in this, the latest episode of mitt romney's secret tax returns, the story that's not going to go away. thanks for joining me tonight. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, crazy republican congressman talking about abortion and rape. and one of them is paul ryan. that's next in the "rewrite." and a republican senator warns mitt romney and the republican party about their problem with women. ana marie cox will join me later. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women w are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. why does the political media think that paul ryan is a serious person and that todd akin isn't? that's next in the "rewrite." and a republican woman tells the party to stop alienating women voters. that woman, of course, is a republican senator. ana marie cox will join me on that later. e throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? out! your kind is not welcome here! nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd. [ villager 1 ] it's evil! if you'd try it, you'd know. she speaketh the truth! [ villagers gasping ] reverend? ♪ can i have some? ♪ rape is rape, period. end of story. >> sorry, paul. it's not the end of the story. republicans continue to get into rape trouble, being opposed to abortion in all cases, including rape, incest, and the life of the mother is the official republican position on abortion, but for decades now, republicans have been having a very easy ride with the political media who have been relentlessly incurious about the details of republican anti-abortion doctrine. until now. thanks to republican congressman todd akin, who showed reporters just how crazy republicans can be on the issue of abortion. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> though the republican establishment tried to marginalize todd akin and pretend his views are aberrant, the truth is most republicans have crazy and indefensible thoughts about abortion policy, including paul ryan. here is the republican senate candidate in pennsylvania dealing with a very important question that all republicans must be asked now. what would you say to your daughter or granddaughter about the abortion option if she were raped? >> so in cases of incest or rape -- >> no exceptions. >> well, how would you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, god forbid, would be the victim of a rape, to keep the child against her own with will. is that something -- is that something that you would -- do you have a way to explain that? >> i lived something similar to that with my own family. she chose life, and i commend her for that. she knew my views. but, fortunately for me, i didn't have to -- she chose the way i thought. >> all right, then. so there's a man of principle. there's a man with the courage of his convictions, and his daughter apparently has the courage of his convictions. she was raped, got pregnant, and chose to have the baby, and didn't even have to listen to a sermon from her father about doing the right thing. >> now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't rape. similar. >> similar how? >> uh, having a baby out of wedlock. >> that's similar to rape? >> no, no, no. but, well, put yourself in a father's position and it is similar. it's similar b-- but coming bac to the -- i'm pro-life, period. >> they always try to end the discussion with an emphatic, verbal, punctuation point. >> rape is rape, period. >> pro-life, period. >> obviously, the republican pro-life talking points instructs republicans to use that word "period" whenever rape comes up to make clear to any inquisitive reporters that it is time to move on. so now, out of wedlock pregnancy is somehow comparable to rape. she got pregnant out of wedlock, and she had the baby, and we've never heard her ultra-conservative republican father say that that was a particularly stressful decision process for the family. what that republican buffoon in pennsylvania doesn't seem to know is that not all out of wedlock pregnancies are unwelcome, but all rapes are unwelcome and criminal. but we shouldn't get distracted by the nutty rationales that the no-rape exception republicans cling to. we should care only, only about the governing policies that ose crazy rationales make them vote for. and the policies that they vote for are identical to the policies that vice presidential candidate paul ryan supports. there is not one bit of difference between todd akin and paul ryan on abortion policy. >> should it be legal for a woman to be able to get an abortion if she's raped? >> well, so i'm very proud of my pro-life record. and i've always adopted the idea, the position that the method of conception doesn't change the definition of life. >> paul ryan is, of course, opposed to rape. paul ryan wants to punish rapists. but when it comes to abortion policy, for paul ryan, rape is just another method of conception. and when it comes to abortion law, for paul ryan, the rape victim is the person he chooses to punish. the rape victim is the person whose constitutional rights paul ryan refuses to protect. today, rape victims have the constitutional right, as interpreted by the supreme court of the united states to choose what to do if the violent crime committed against them leads to pregnancy. paul ryan does not want women to have that constitutional right. paul ryan actually believes that women, and yes, rape victims, have one constitutional right too many. for rape victims, there is absolutely no difference between paul ryan and todd akin and the freak running for senate in pennsylvania. no difference at all, but the media seems to think that there is a difference. they treat paul ryan as a serious man, while recognizing that the akin types are just goofy. i can't wait to see the media explain that distinction to rape victims, if paul ryan and his party get their way. if paul ryan and todd akin manage to rip away the constitutional right to privacy, which is the basis of women's constitutional right to choose abortion, then there won't be a rape victim in america who thinks there is a difference between todd akin and paul ryan. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. the platform does not allow for exceptions on abortion with regard to the health of the mother or rape or incest. is that where you are? >> no, my position has been clear throughout this campaign. i'm in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest and the health and life of the mother. but recognize, this is the decision that will be made by the supreme court. >> that was mitt romney tonight, trying to distance himself from his party's platform on abortion and rape. and from his vice presidential nominee on abortion and rape. in that response, romney was following the advice given by republican senator olympia snowe in a "washington post" op-ed today. senator snowe writes, this is not where i hoped my party would be in 2012. today the republican party faces a clear challenge, will we rebuild our relationship with women, thereby placing ourselves on the road to success in november, or will we continue to isolate them and certainly lose this election? in a new abc news/"washington post" poll, 51% of registered voters trust president obama to do a better job addressing women's issues. just 35% trust mitt romney to do a better job. joining me now, ana marie cox, political correspondent for "the guardian" u.s. ana marie, here is olympia snowe, saying right out loud, this party's got a problem. you've got now just the weeks between now and november to fix it, or mitt romney loses. >> i think that there's a lot to that argument. if you look at the states where the gender gap is the largest between romney and obama, some of the states have taken the strongest stances against women's issues, have taken the most extreme anti-abortion stances, pennsylvania, ohio, virginia, and women are paying attention, you know? and she also talks about women in medicare and medicaid. and of course medicaid something that we're not talking about as much as medicare, but affects -- >> talk about it right now. >> well, it affects women much more dramatically than men. and the cuts to medicaid are going to happen in the paul ryan budget, would happen immediately. there isn't this idea that, oh, you don't have to worry yet about it. and in making that economic argument, though, i kind of wish that she would say something, or we would say something, and here i am, going to say it, that when we talk about women's rights in terms of their bodies, that's an economic argument too. and women recognize that. women recognize that control of their bodies is the way that we participate in society. that right, that fundamental right being recognized is how we achieve equality. >> because it includes control of participation in the workforce. >> yeah, control of your life choices. i mean, and it's having your choices taken away is not just a matter of like having the baby or not having the baby. there's a whole array of chases in front of you that are taken away when the right to control your own reproductive system is taken away. >> and mitt romney has chosen to be his vice president, someone who is opposed to exceptions for the life of the mother. that -- so let's move beyond the rape thing, which we've dealt, to some extent. but life of the mother, i think, has gotten not enough volume in this discussion. >> i agree. there's a few different things in that bill that are very disturbing, aside from the original "forcible rape" language, and it is life of the mother. and again, i feel like that's something that to me, when i look at the republican party and i see the absence of women in leadership, i just have to believe that must be why they don't understand how valuable it is, or how important, how unthinkable it is to a woman to present her with a choice like that, or a lack of a choice like that. and i'm so glad that you brought it up. because, again, another thing in hr-3, that paul ryan voted for, is they also don't allow forr abortions in the case of incest if the woman is not a minor. so -- you know, it's only really -- >> what are they thinking?! you know, i think i get what they're thinking when they do this stuff, and then they come up with something like that. >> to me, it's almost like, do they not have women in their lives? >> ana marie cox gets tonight's last word. "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans, welcome to the ed show from new york. 71 days until the 2012 election as the republican national convention starts. mitt romney's lies to scare old white voters about president obama are starting to work. the polls are interesting. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> mitt romney blows the dog whistle on welfare and calls it shoring up his base. >> no one ever asked to see my birth certificate. >> tonight, our guests on the romney effort to make this electtion about race. new polling numbers on medicare. now show the republican lies are beginning to work. howard dean is here with reaction. >> i don't think anybody anticipated breach of the levees. >> almost seven years to the day since the botched response to hurricane katrina, new orleans is bracing for hurricane isaac. we'll give you a live update from the big easy as the republicans get ready to party in florida. good to have you with us, folks. thank you for watching. racial identity politics is the number one strategy of the romney campaign. mitt romney added a new twist to the false claim about president obama removing the work requirement from welfare. there's no question in my mind that the president's action was calculated to shore up his base. folks, the work requirement has not been removed from welfare. but mitt romney continues to lie about it. it is his campaign. now he says this imaginary change was done to make poor minorities vote for president obama. the romney campaign is currently running count them, five separate campaign ads hammering the president with this lie. five of the last 13 endorsed by mitt romney are about welfare claims. this is the latest dog whistle to white middle-class voters across america. comes on the heels of romney's so-called joke about the president's birth certificate. >> no one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. >> and on the defensive today about romney's comments. he says, you know, people should just lighten up. >> the fact of the matter is he is from michigan. he was born in michigan. yes, making the point that i was born in michigan. we have gotten to a place in politics that any moment of levity is totally -- frowned upon by guys like you. mitt romney continuously said this president was born in the country. it's a nonstarter. it's a distraction. >> part of the new strategy. he claims romney meant no harm and we should praise romney for being a good guy about the birther stuff in the past. karl rove tested this line out on fox news. >> the one guy who said dismiss this and defended the president having been born in the united states in the mid hell of a primary was mitt romney. the white house never said thank you, governor romney, acknowledging this and defending president obama. the romney campaign is using a lot of reverse psychology these days. here is a good one for you. the former governor, told a reporter, to me, haley barber, the guy who kept a confederate flag in his office and said segregation during the civil rights movement wasn't that bad. now, he is the romney surrogate on race relations. the comments are not coincidental. mitt romney is heading into this nominating convention, with his advisers convinced he needs a more combative footing against president obama to apepeal to white working class voters. makes sense. romney is no stranger to portraying obama as a foreign menace and some one who hasn't had the white american interest at heart. >> sometimes i just don't think that president obama understands america. we have on one side, a president who wants to transform america into a european style nation. and you have on the other hand, someone like myself that wants to turn around america, and keep america, america, with the principles that made us the greatest nation on earth. i watched today a president who i've don't think understands america. the course we are on right now is foreign to us. it changes america. >> expect to hear a lot of these comments and stuff like that in the coming weeks. there are two big reasons. the romney campaign is diving head first into racial identity politics. first of all it works. remember this? >> i am going to have food stamps versus pay checks. president obama is the most effective food stamp president in american history. >> newt gingrich didn't even have a fully staffed campaign. but his racial dog whistling about food stamps paid off some where in the south. he won south carolina with 40% of the vote. in georgia his home state the win was bigger at 47%. then of course there is always donald trump, the king of the birthers during the primary season the yesterday trump told reporters he was glad romney addressed the president's birth certificate. it happens to be an issue that a lot of people believe in. a lot of people who believe in the birther talk made donald trump the front-runner for the republican nomination early last year. trump was never an official candidate. he just talked about the president's birth certificate a lot. here is the other reason, romney needs to use issues like welfare and birth certificate to apale to white voters. because he can't win without them. john mccain, beat barack obama, among white voters in 2008, 55% to 43%. and it wasn't enough. romney need to do a heck of a lot better. it makes sense for romney to defend his birther joke this way. >> it was great to be home. to be in a place where ann and i had grown up. and the crowd loved if the and got a good laugh. >> that's what this strategy is really all about. give the crowd a good laugh about the president being a scary foreigner. and hopefully the crowd is going to reward you with votes. get your cell phones out. want to know what you think. tonight's question -- which party is playing the race card. text a forfor -- for democrats. text b for republicans. we'll bring you the results later in the show. i am joined by msnbc political analyst, and "washington post" associate editor. and contributor, "washington post" columnist, author of "our divided political heart." there is no sense in me being at the convention. no republicans want to talk to me any way. all i do is point out all the l lies they throw out. gentlemen this is about keeping the lies alive in a campaign as i see it. the power of fact checking in modern day campaigns has diminished greatly. i think there was a time when campaigns were concerned about putting out commercials, god forbid if they were wrong what we were saying the media might call us on it. those days are clearly gone. this is one line after another. keep it going. the power of fact checking has diminished. eugene, you first. has the romney given up trying to really reach any one of these white voters and just seeing the polls of late feels the best way to do it is to continue the lie? i think the campaign seems to have felt the need to move the needle. however the needle could be moved. they're making a sort of appeal. look, obama is african-american. that's a fact. it is a fact there to be played on if the republicans want to play it that way. and that's what they seem to want to do. all of the stuff gets called out by the fact checkers and shown to be false, the medicare attacks, of the, welfare attacks. yet, just repeating them and repeating them, the romney campaign believes that will move the needle. >> why is the welfare lie being repeated as if it is gospel and the truth. why are they doing that? >> i guess the theory is if you put enough money behind something it will sell whether it is true or not. as gene said, it's very disturbing that something where a rules change that was asked for by among others two conservative republican governors, this wasn't some radical liberal thing that obama did to welfare and doesn't end the work requirement. i think the romney campaign was looking at the polls and seeing that the bain attacks worked, seeing that mitt romney is not exactly a natural fit with a lot of white working class voters. and that obama has, because of romney's candidacy, a real opening with the white working class. they are looking around for whatever could move some of the voters back toward mitt romney. the best part is if anybody calls them out on it, they'll say we're not talking race. it's those folks playing the race card. it makes it effective. >> do you believe republicans when they say mitt romney he was making a joke. just an off the cuff thing. a little fun. got to have a little leaf tef in the campaign. your thoughts on that. >> har, har, har. it was hilarious, wasn't it? it wasn't much of a joke. and the only reason to go to birth certificate from this is my home town, that's not a natural leap. you don't go to birth certificate unless you have a reason to do it. and clearly, it was an obvious renchsh to the whole fake kerfuffle about president obama's birth certificate and an -- clearly an attempt to sort of blow that dog whistle. >> e.j., there doesn't seem to be any down side of romney doing this because the african-american vote certainly isn't going to be there, the latino vote is going to be there. this is all upside. you might as well drive it home and make sure the radicals are out there in full support. >> i'm not sure in the long run it's all upside. for one thing, we don't know what african-american turnout is going to be. we know president obama is going to win the african-american vote, 97%, 98%, 99%, but it matters a lot whether african-americans vote, and stuff like this is going to send a message that it's important to vote. i think secondly, there are middle class moderate voters who don't like racially tinged politics. and i think they're going to see what's going on here. and so i think there is a longer term risk to this, to romney, and that's why even though people will accuse those who call him on it of playing the race card, it's got to be called out because i think that can have some effect between now and the election. >> eugene, you think we're going to hear any of this talk on the convention stage? >> i think they will be much more circumspect on the convention stage. what we'll mainly hear are attempts to tell mitt romney's story, to humanize him as a candidate. i think they will talk about medicare. that's been certainly in the air here in tampa today. they will talk about welfare, but i think they'll do it in a somewhat softer way from the stage. that's my guess. >> they're talking about medicare down there at the convention? >> oh, yeah. >> the latest poll shows they're fooling a lot of people. we'll have more on that later on in the show. but i really do believe that these -- this is the most dishonest campaign we have ever seen by a national figure in mitt romney and his campaign. he's got these lies, they're working on some americans. the polls are showing it. why should they back off now? >> it's only august. it's only august. so save the superlatives for later. >> eugene robinson, e. jempt -- e.j. deion, thank you for your time. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen, share you thoughts on twitter at ed show and on twitter. on facebook. we sure want to know what you think. >> coming up, the republican lies on medicare which we just talked about. what are they doing? they seem to be working. which is amazing because why would americans ever trust republicans to save medicare when they have been fighting it for generations? howard dean joins me on how the obama campaign should respond. that's next. stay with us. welcome aboard! 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[ honk! ] it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ coming up, the romney campaign medicare lies. what are they doing? if you believe the new poll numbers, they're working. mitt romney leading president obama with americans 50 and older when it comes to his handling of medicare? former dnc chairman howard dean with his reaction next. and paul ryan says the term forcible rape is just stock language. while a republican congressman compares out of wedlock pregnancy to rape. we'll have the details. >> as the seventh anniversary of hurricane katrina approaches, new orleans braces for yet another storm. we'll have the latest on the tropical storm isaac later. share you thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using the hash tag ed show. we're coming right back. we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? t dog. every bite goes above and beyond the call of deliciousness. that's a big 10-4 kosher. with no fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. 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[ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching. what a difference a week can make. it looks like republican lies about medicare could be working. keep in mind, this is a program championed by democrats since it was signed into law back in 1965 by president lyndon b. johnson. and of course, with president harry s. truman, the first beneficiary, the democrats did this despite all of the republican cries of socialism. here's the famous actor, some guy named ronald reagan back in 1961. >> now, the american people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. >> really? five decades later, it looks like republicans are still lying about medicare. they've come up with some brand new lies. romney's latest ad repeats the lie about how president obama is hurting medicare to the tune of $716 billion. >> obama has cut $716 billion from medicare. why? to pay for obama care. so now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is going to a massive new government program that's not for you. >> and the problem is this line of attack appears to be working. on the question of who they trust more to handle medicare, romney beats president obama 45% to 42% in a washington post poll. in another poll, president obama beats romney on the medicare issue but only by one point. and among those 50 years of age and older, president obama loses on this issue by five points. ever since candidate obama ran against senator john mccain four years ago, polls have shown seniors are pretty much predisposed to vote against him. republicans are now praying on that bias and doing a pretty good job of selling misinformation on medicare. it's still hard to believe the american public could see republicans as the ones to save medicare and handle it better. what's going on here? let's turn to howard dean, former governor of vermont and former chairman of the dnc. good to have you with us tonight. >> hi, ed, how are you? >> i'm doing fine. sometimes polls grab people. this one has grabbed me because of the lies that have been put out there about medicare and it's absolutely hard to believe that we're so -- americans can be disconnected from this issue. what has mitt romney done to give the american people confidence that he's going to be a better steward of the program, medicare, which has served the country's seniors for generations? >> my own guess is these are li. the $700 and whatever million dollars comes out of the insurance companies pockets, and romney's plan makes medicare go broke by 2016. it's a fat lie. there's two problems. the first is that these enormous corporations, the business community, has funded these lies, to hundreds of millions of dollars go behind this stuff. if you repeat it often enough, people believe it. it's sort of the old russian propaganda stuff. exactly the same technique. the second problem is this age group was not disposed to like obama in the first place. this is the hardest age group for president obama. i think a lot of it has to do with their age, to do with the enormous change, the first african-american president, a new generation. and they're just resistant to change and frightened. i think it is a sleazy tactic by the romney people, but it's not surprising. politics is a tough game, but there's so much money behind the lies, that's what's making them effective, and they're told to a population that didn't like obama much to begin with in the first place. >> in the same washington poll giving romney a three-point advantage on medicare, another question was asked about ryan's plan to voucherize medicare, and 64% said they oppose it. does the obama campaign need to do more to educate the american people? >> yeah, they do. they really do need to do this. it's hard because of course they're being outspent hugely by the koch brothers and the other right-wing corporations who can give money now because of the roberts court. without thinking twice about it. but they do need to defend it. they really need to go after the voucher system. the democracy for america has done a lot of polling on the question of the voucher system. it's a huge winner for the democrats in the swing state. one other interesting thing is, in florida where they pay a lot of attention to medicare, romney is still down by four. that's important to know that. people are more educated about medicare in florida because so many people are on it. they pay attention to this issue. i thought that was a really interesting point in tonight's poll. >> down by four? shouldn't he be down by like 25 >> yeah, but don't forget, we have the demographic problem. you know, obama does very, very well among young people, among the democrats, the classic democrats, the very, very diverse party, but he doesn't do so well against older white seniors. so with older white seniors. so the fact he's leading by four in florida where the older white population is pretty well informed about medicare which they might not be in other states is significant. of course, if obama wins florida, the election is over for mitt romney. >> this goes right in line, actually, the medicare lie, with the birtherism, with the other type conversation that is out there. >> right. >> and with the welfare fraud and lie that is out there about it. i mean, they're going -- >> this is nothing new. this is the 1968 nixon southern strategy. when wallace did as well as he did, nixon decided he was going to get those southern democrats who were voting for wallace on racial issues and it's been done ever since. i'll never forget ronald reagan talking about welfare queens and pink cadillacs. this stuff has gone on, willie horton. this is a core republican staple. if you look at the republican party, it's almost entirely white, christian, and older. they're going to appeal to race because there's a racist wing of the republican party. it's not the majority, but enough votes to matter. >> he's got to do better than john mccain did even though mccain won with white voters. it's clear what is happening here. >> the reason he does is he's in such trouble with latinos after his anti-immigrant stuff, he's never going to recover from that. he's got to make it up by talking about race in code words to his own base. that's what he's hoping to do. >> howard dean, great to have you on "the ed show." thanks so much. coming up, paul ryan says the term forcible rape is just stock language. and mitt romney makes his pitch to women. it involves romney care. joan walsh will weigh in on that. and a republican official in florida is standing up for voting rights. governor rick scott isn't happy about it. we'll tell you the whole story when we come back. stay with us. ♪ why should saturday night have all the fun? 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[ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. always good to the last drop. has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use... but mr. single miles can't join his friends because he's getting hit with blackouts. shame on you. now he's stuck in a miniature nightmare. oh, thank you. but, with the capital one venture card... you can fly any airline, any flight, any time. double miles you can actually use. what's in your wallet? alec jr? it was a gift. why not get buried in something other than work? get two times the points on travel, with chase sapphire preferred. welcome back to "the ed show." the gop is still reeling from the mess congressman todd akin left behind. paul ryan says he approved removing the term forcible rape from a bill he co-sponsored with akin. in fact, ryan is now claiming that the term forcible rape was only included in the bill as stock language. >> this is language that was stock language used for lots of different bills, bills i didn't author. and that language was removed to be clear and i agree with that. removing that language so we are very clear. rape is rape, period, end of story. >> this is how republicans frame the issue of rape, in terms of stock language. in the meantime, the akin remarks aren't going away, and his fellow republicans are having to respond. like republican tom smith. smith is running for the senate seat in pennsylvania. against senator casey. today, he was asked about akin's comments and abortion. smith went on to compare an out of wedlock pregnancy to rape. >> how would you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, god forbid, would be the victim of a rape, to keep the child against her own will? is that something you would -- do you have a way to explain that? >> i live something similar to that with my own family. she chose life, and i commend her for that. no, don't get me wrong. it wasn't rape? >> similar how? >> having a baby out of wedlock. >> that's similar to rape? >> no, no, no. but put yourself in a father's situation, yes, it is similar. >> joining me now is joan walsh, editor at large for salon.com and author of the new book "what's the matter with white people?" i thought it was white men. okay. >> all of us. >> great to have you with us tonight, joan. how do you consume the comments of candidate tom smith? how does this -- this kind of tone deafness effect the gop ticket? >> i mean, do thaw think we're stupid, ed. do they think we're not listening. it's just crazy. but one problem i have is on the one hand, this language is disgusting and ignorant. on the other hand, the real point, the real reason paul ryan can say it doesn't matter on some level and it's stock language is that there is no exception. they don't believe in any exception for rape and incest in our abortion laws. so you know, paul ryan just the other day said, well, the method of conception doesn't matter. as though rape is just another method of conception. so you know, i can see why todd akin and tom smith are kind of stumbling, because their ignorance is so widely accepted and it really doesn't matter how -- >> so congressman paul ryan says the term forcible rape is stock language. meaning really don't pay attention to it, but it just happens to be in our platform. what does that tell you? >> i think that they're just -- they continue to wink and nod to their base. they continue to say that this election is going to be all about the economy, but they're being sure to gin up the culture wars with this abortion language. it's been in the platform. the reason ryan can be blase about it is it's been in their platform since 1992. they're sort of surprised that people are taking it seriously, but i think the right wing, the really extreme right is also making this a culture war sort of election in the republican party. they're really asking them to stick to this language and talk about it. >> now we've got mr. romney out telling cbs evening news that he would support abortion in consequence of rape and abortion. i mean, they're all over the map on this, but also, will the real mitt romney please stand up again? here he is touting the health care plan in massachusetts, okay? and then he says, well, i'm going to sign a law that's going to get rid of obama care. what's happening here? >> right, he says that his massachusetts law was good for women, but he's going to get rid of it nationwide. and i think that the women of wisconsin and the women of florida who are going to lose their preventive health care, free preventative health care, get under obama care and lose their birth control with no copay, i don't think they're going to be hugely reassured by what goes on in massachusetts. the president's point is we have to nationalize these standards and your health can't depend on whether you live in mississippi or massachusetts, and that was what was so bold about his move. right, he's shaking the etch-a-sketch again. remember when andrea saul made the same mistake, a mistake for her, but it's what mitt romney says. he thinks we're just going to forget about it. >> she was chastised pretty good by say hannity and coulter, and now romney is saying it. >> i think they called her a moron or something. >> address the title of your book. tell us what it is and why it's titled that. >> well, i am very concerned and very interested in the way that the republican party has pulled the white working class particularly in the white middle class over from the democratic party. you and i have had this conversation several times. you know, i think that liberals need to be a little more cognizant of the strategy as you and governor dean talked about. it was a deliberate strategy in the '60s and '70s, but it also -- governor dean said one thing about southern whites. george wallace won the michigan primary before he was elected. it was a northern phenomenon where white ethnics got very nervous, not only about racial change, but about crime and a perception that government was given their hard earned taxpayer dollars to people who didn't deserve it. the cadillac driving welfare queens as we know. >> it's interesting, back then, america figured out george wallace. >> right. >> is america going to figure out mitt romney? >> you know, i think so. we have the story over the weekend saying his own advisers are concerned that he cannot close the deal with these white working class and middle class voters. they don't believe he cares about them. i think there's an opening for president obama to do better than people had expected earlier in this year because this candidate just isn't winning over those people. >> joan walsh, great to have you with us. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. if everyone had competed fairly and honestly, i probably would be the nominee being nominated this week. >> the pizza man makes a startling accusation about his fellow republicans. we'll investigate the charges. rick scott's plan to steal florida hits a major snag. we'll tell you why one republican with a conscience continues to hold up the florida voter suppression effort. and is the city of new orleans ready for another big one? >> brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. >> republicans are partying in florida as the big easy braces for isaac. we'll take you there live. out! your kind is not welcome here! nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd. 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so far, monroe county is the only county in the state of florida that has not agreed to scott's early voting measure. republican county elections supervisor harry sawyer, he's holding out. he's holding the line. he plans to keep the 12 early voting days in monroe county, saying there is no reason to crunch these early voting hours. they let people participate. we're supposed to make it easy for voters, not hard. governor scott is not impressed with sawyer's actions. last week, scott hinted he might fire sawyer. in a statement, he said, i will continue to take all necessary and appropriate action ensure that the laws are faithfully executed. sawyer responded to governor scott by saying, i honestly do take that as a threat. they're threatening to remove me. monroe county, where is it? what is it? it's a swing county in a swing state. it's gone democratic by a very thin margin. in the past three presidential elections. and if governor rick scott has his way, he will hand monroe county to mitt romney come november. we're joined tonight by mitch seizer. he's also on the executive board of the democratic national committee as a representative of the 14 southern states. mitch, good to have you with us tonight. explain to us the power that the governor has over harry sawyer here. can he fire him? i understand sawyer is an elected official, or am i wrong on that? >> no, you're exactly right, ed. he is an elected official. he's a republican, which makes this even more astounding. and he's basically said, kind of reminiscent of the 1970s, when gerald ford said to new york, drop dead. it's very, very similar to that. he has said, i think it is discriminatory, i don't agree with it. you want to try to remove me, come and get me. it's courageous. of course, we have to remember he's not up for re-election. it gives him more courage, perhaps, but we're appreciative. he has never melt an early voting day he didn't want to cut because he doesn't like when people vote, especially if you're a democrat and absolutely if you're a minority. >> what were the reasons? why go from 12 to 8? >> well, the problem is that the legislature, which is very republican in florida, had decided to cut early voting days. which was very detrimental to democrats and minorities and he cut the sunday early voting day from two times to one time which adversely affects african americans who go to church and almost march to had polls as a civil rights rite of passage. they're doing whatever they can to suppress the vote. >> the federal courts are ruling on scott's measure in five counties. what's this going to look like? can you tell us about the court cases? and there's the map there that shows the counties we're talking about. and i think we can come to the conclusion that this has got to be heavy obama territory if he's going to win florida, am i correct? >> well, it is. it's hillsborough county, which is tampa, where the republican convention is right now. it's the keys, which is monroe and several other counties. these are civil rights counties, as designated based on the civil rights voting rights acts of the '60s. in which the justice department must approve certain plans and they basically have been at war with this governor, saying you're being discriminatory, you can't do these things. so what the governor did is he tried to have his secretary of state, the head of the elections division, go forward and say, hey, i'm going to pressure these five counties and they all caved except the keys, monroe county. >> all right, so what -- the stance that sawyer is taking on this, did his statements, are they going to have an impact on the outcome here? >> it's really hard to tell at this point because he's really kind of a lone voice in the wilderness. as i said, he's really taking the governor head on with a lot of courage and said i think this is discriminatory. the federal courts, the three-judge panel said to do it otherwise would in effect be like closing polling locations, eliminating voting for african-americans. they were var, very clear. this governor, what he's doing, the republican party, mitt romney, and rick scott have a political problem. their political problem is they don't want certain people to vote. that's a problem to them. so what they have done is they have taken a political problem and come up with what they think is a legal solution to a problem that really doesn't exist as a way to suppress the vote as you have talked about continually and because florida is a swing state, they're doing everything they can do to make sure. >> well, the governor of florida, pennsylvania, and ohio, they must have been smoking big cigars when they came up with this plan because this clearly is what they're trying to do. suppress the vote. steal the election, deprive people of their rights. making it a hell of a lot harder for folks. it's unfortunate. mitch, great to have you with us tonight. thank you. coming up, the pizza man is back. herman cain says if people had played by the rules he would be receiving the gop nomination for president? interesting. we'll bring you the latest next. stay with us > coming up, do you know how much more fun we would be having if it was herman cain on the stage instead of mitt romney. he sounds off on the republican primarfight and what we says kept him from winning the nomination. >> and to the big finish, while republicans celebrate in tampa, residents of the gulf coast prepare for tropical storm isaac. we'll look at the storm's potential impact to the region. >> and our radio show is on sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday and on progressive talk stations throughout the country. noon to 3:00 p.m., hope you check it out. follow me on twitter at ed show and like the ed show on facebook. we're right back. welcome back to "the ed show." 999 is back in the game. herman cain is down in tampa shaking things up in the republican convention. on sunday, the pizza man said if his competition had played by the rules, there's a good chance he would be receiving the proo exactly by whom and -- >> can you tell us if it was coordinated by a republican? >> no, i can't tell you that either because i don't want to say anything that might jeopardize what we might do in the future. >> you heard it from the pizza man himself. when it comes to lying, it's party before country. which party is playing the race card? 12% say democrats. 12% say democrats. 88% say republicans. ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. it once stomped a stain with such force, the results could be felt around the world. 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fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog. now is a time when i sense there is a high level of anxiety. the timing of this storm coming on as fate would have it, the anniversary of katrina has everybody in a state and sense of alertness. >> welcome back to "the ed show." that was new orleans mayor, mitch lan droe. tropical storm isaac is projected to become a category 2 # hurricane by it time it takes landfall on tuesday and wednesday. the name on everyone's mind is hurricane katrina. isaac is set to hit almost exactly seven years to the day that hurricane katrina hit. in the meantime, the show will go on in tampa for republicans. after an and abbreviated session, the national republican convention is scheduled to resume as planned tomorrow. it looks like isaac will spare tampa and some conservatives see an opportunity to joke about it. >> you know, we have so many things to be thankful for, so many blessings, including, even, we can be thankful for hurricane isaac. if nothing else, it kept joe biden away. >> let's bring in doug brinkley, author of "the great deluge." professor, great to have you with us tonight. is it appropriate to be making light of this kind of situation? >> of course not. it's deeply irresponsible. this is the moment where the gulf south is really in a near panic mode. anybody living in the ragged boothill of louisiana or along the mississippi coast right now or in the city of new orleans is getting worried. as you mentioned, katrina memories are very alive and the fear there is, can we survive another hit like this. so it's not the time for champagne and balloons and jokes and that was an irresponsible comment you just played. >> well, this is also an opportunity politically, is it not? i mean, for the democrats to prove that government can work and be prepared as opposed to what happened at katrina. or is that a bridge too far? >> no. look, mitt romney just last week went to mexico and said he doesn't know what the public lands are for. he said that he doesn't know what they are for because he wanted to open them up for oil and gas drilling. what our public lands are for, wildlife refuges in louisiana, for example, delta national wildlife refuge, the barrier islands, it's the story of the wetlands disappearing in louisiana and the destruction of the barrier islands due to oil and gas drilling that allows these hurricanes to come in and hit louisiana and just pound it without anything to slow it down. and so that part i think of mitt romney seems to not understand the need to save america's wetlands in louisiana and how important that that is for american security. beyond that, you're seeing taxpayer dollars hopefully at work. new orleans has new pump houses, billions of dollars of money have come in through the army corps of engineers to try to fix that levee system and only time will tell whether the city endures this. >> does this bring us to a discussion politically in this country about disaster relief? what should the federal government do? how far should tax dollars go? and i think there are conflicting philosophies and it's ironic that this is happening at convention time, the republicans first. but, you know, their position on disaster relief has not been the best. >> no. and it began with george w. bush who took fema, which was a jimmy carter innovation and they -- you know, they gutted it. they dumped it into homeland security and you'll remember seven years ago that brownie are doing a heck of a job about mike brown of fema. since then, the obama administration has revamped fema. they are prepared much more so with this. we have a mayor like mitch lan drew who is not a fool like mayor negan was. unfortunately, because new orleans is a smaller city, so many people weren't able to return home to the lower ninth ward or chin tilly or east new orleans. but it is weird that you're going to be having a spectacle of a celebration in tampa and at the same time on a split screen seeing this devastation. mitt romney's going to have to change the tone and temper of his speech. well, that's what i wanted to touch on. the optics of this. i mean, if isaac hits new orleans, how do the republicans handle this in terms of the convention, the split screen that you're talking about? what do they say? how can they be doing the normal business with enthusiasm so high when just across the gulf there's a lot of hurt taking place? >> well, that's the epic question. i thought today you would have thought the republicans would have gone with their full program on monday and with the idea of not convening on thursday. but if you're getting a large part of americans that could be in a blackout, let's hope not but it's possible if this becomes a hurricane category 2. it's going to be hard to have any kind of fested mood in tampa. you'll come up with clips, republicans celebrating, laughing, while you're watching fellow americans and other despair. we've got to remember, this is going to be a moment when our federal tax dollars, the federal government is going to be there. it's our coast guard that we're going to be turning to. we're going to be turning to our national guard and to keep control problems here and on and on. so sometimes we beat up on the u.s. federal government and when you're in a dire situation after a storm, that's who you need is uncle sam on your side. >> doug drink clbrinkley, thank you for joining u.s. the rachel mad doe show start right now. >> i'm taking my watch off right now. >> that's right. there's no use counting the minutes. >> we don't wear watches on convention coverage. >> thank you for staying with us for the next hour. contrary to what you just heard, the republican national convention did actually get under way today. today was day one of the republican convention and lasted precisely seven minutes. actually, the opening and closing gavel were only about 30 seconds eye part but the overall proceedings did go on for a few moments longer. the republican convention has, of course, been delayed to account for the impending tropical storm isaac, which is now on track to hit somewhere on the gulf coast late tomorrow night or early wednesday morning. even though the broadcast networks had never intended to cover today proceedings even when it was going to be a full day of rnc activities, the cable networks, including this one, have committed to being there gavel to gavel. and so all of us cable networks were there today for the seven-minute long session. it was a short instance of rnc coverage but still it was exciting. there is always something exciting about the convention. at least something in one of the conventions every year goes amazingly not according to plan. the first year that the conventions were broadcast at all was 1924. they were broadcast on nbc radio. that turned out to be a great advertising hook that year to try to sell people radios. look at this. we found this in the archives today. cheer with the galleries when the delegates march in. no influence needed this year for a gallery seat at the big political convention. get it all at the super and it used to be for the big folks of politics. listen in, get it all, with the newest radiola. that was the pitch back in 1904 buy a new radio so you can listen to the convention because they are going to be broadcast. the very first year of the convention was in cleveland, ohio. the republicans re-elected calvin coolage and nothing else happened. technically that was an exciting thing but even when not much happened at the republican convention that year. the whole broadcasting for the first time thing really paid off at the democratic convention. because the democratic convention that year was nuts. it took the democrats 103 ballots to get their nominee that year. the democrats had a huge fight with the koo klux klan and the klan won the fight. for the first time in history, a woman's name was put forth for vice president and that was broadcast as a play-by-play fight by a man who happened to be covering the mike at the moment the fight was breaking out and you could hear it on the radio. he later called it, quote, one of the finest donnybrooks i had ever seen. i had a ringside seat. i was letting the listening audience in on the fracas. the excitement of the democrat convention was as good as it got for the democrats that year. turns out being divided to the point of beating one another, bloody on the floor, taking sides against and for the klan did not carry them far into the election. they got beat to a pulp by calvin coolidge. that's sort of airing of dirty laundry. it's the warfare among factions. the first year things were broadcast in 1924. they have been a concern and have been a vehiclesing concern for the republican party. here's a visual clue from today's very short coverage as to that or worry. listen to the news coverage that technically existed. there's reince priebus. and they've got the signs up. you can see the vertical signs. they seat delegations by state because of the one important piece of business that has to happen at these conventions. you have to do a roll call though, right? so one state after another declares who that's state chooses for republican party of the united states. this is technical business that they need to get done. this is the whole purpose of the convention. it creates this big sense of momentum for the party and nominee. each state says, we want him. we want him. they all commit one after the other to picking this candidate as their nominee. it's very exciting and building and build and builds and when you get to the end, it's followed by the kid himself vlg been named by all of these states, then giving his big triumphant speech as the nominee. want to know what ruins that for you as a candidate? when some of the states don't pick you or when something else is happening out there when they are just supposed to be shouting your name with agilation. the republican party moved up the roll call vote out of fear that it would not be the big dramatic buildinthing for mitt romney that it would be. the "new york times" reporting that some supporters of ron paul were pushing to make their voices heard during the roll call vote. several reporters have signaled their interest in makes their admiration known for mr. paul on the convention floor. afraid that the delegates were going to ruin this moment in the sun for the republican nominee, the republicans took all of the ron paul heavy delegations. they took all of those states and they moved them up to the nosebleed sections. so way out of the mainstream of the -- way out of the main section of the forum, you've got nevada and maine and minnesota and all of these other ron paul heavy delegations just exit to the outer frames of the floor. while arguably less territories whose electoral votes were moved right up front. and so right up front you could see see today were the northern mariana islands and u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico. they are right down front. sure, their votes don't count in november but what's more important for the tv cameras is that they are unlikely to start yelling about raw milk and the gold standard. republicans have tried to move the whole roll call process out of the view of the cameras by shifting it to monday, today, which is the one day that the networks were not going to cover the convention. now that the weather has canceled today's proceedings altogether, there's no way to keep the roll call totally out of network view. so the next thing they can do is move the ron paul folks out of roll cal view. it's not just the ron paul folks. in addition to the ron paul delegations, a whole slew of different conservatives, long-time abortion lawyer, james bach to baunch of supporters of rick santorum to a virginia delegate and long-time rnc black well and now saying that they are planning to force another roll call vote at the rnc to protest republicans changing the nominating process for 2016. the romney folks have tried to change the process for 2016 to make sure the front-running candidate can essentially shut down surgent nominees at their own whim. republicans don't want that kind of stuff on the news. instead it's going to be that and also other republicans, many of whom who have big constituencies of their own arguing in front of the tv cameras how mitt romney is shut telling the little guy and forcing a hostile takeover. and the republican party does not want that on television. the democratic party would not want something like that on television. as for much as this seems like a pageant, it isn't a path jept. >> the divisions tenltd tend to show at times like this. one of the largely forgotten great moments in televised party descent that doesn't get talked about much but i think is an interesting parallel with what happened in 1960. richard nixon, vice president, the party was poised to pick him as their presidential nominee, which they did. two years before the convention that year was due to convene? chicago. then richard nixon met in new york city and the two of them personally essentially wrote the party's platform without anybody else's input. it came to be knowns as the compact of fifth avenue and with that scheme, as much as they thought that might keep unseemingly fighting or descent off the tv screen, everybody eventually found out what these guys had done. some were visibly angry about it. some no more than this guy, berry gold water, who himself had been nominated but walked out after a nine-minute long standing ovation and gave a speech saying he wanted his name taken out for his own party and declared his party to be essentially misguided. >> what has gone on here in chicago has been a demonstration of our serious attempt to present to this nation a republican party capable of united die ver jent view points and presenting to the nation a true republican philosophy dedicated to the preservation of the eternal values of our society. >> barry goldwater chastising his party for giving up his conservative roots. he said as embodied by this secret maneuvering by nixon and rockefeller, he said republicans are going to lose in 1960 and republicans did lose in 1960. and when the republicans came back four years later at their next convention, the guys they picked to be their nominee was the guy who told them what was going to happen, barry goldwater. the republican party right now is still unsettled as to what its new identity is post george w. bush. the mccain/palin ticket and sarah palin was not even invited to speak at the convention this year. establishment by any other name conservative mega donors and mega special interests. the tea party uses the idea of small government as a brand. the tea party doesn't even promote small government policies. depending on what audience they are speaking to and what kind of election they are running in at that moment. the ron paul folks shadow conventions for two elections in a row now. in minneapolis in '08 and yesterday. ron paul spoke before a crowd estimated of 7 thurks very, very, very enthusiastic supporters. he will explain he does not fully endorse mitt romney for president. all of that persistent factualism in today's unset selled republican politics, the figure who has the best chance at being this years barry goldwater who says we are going to lose this year but i'm the guy for the future, the guy who has the best chance at beating that guy i think is this guy. i know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. when john mccain won in '08, the guy who came in second was mike huckabee. sources admitted that huckabee was among their most feared for 2012, he decided not to run again. he hosts a radio show that now competes directly with a show hosted by rush limbaugh. mr. huckabee is syndicated on hundreds of dvds and his peculiar view of history. abortion policies like personhood and not exempting abortion bans with called huck pac. and his name is todd akin. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> after those comments, todd akin went on mike huckabee's radio show and the next day he went on mike huckabee's radio show again to explain himself and to bask in the support he was getting from mr. huckabee even as the republican establishment was trying to shut him down. mr. huckabee sent out a fundraising pitch railing against the republican party establishment, both in that letter and in a conference call this past friday with baptist leaders. mr. huckabee saying i've never seen an effort like what i've seen this week with party leaders coming together expressly for the purpose of taking one of their own wounded soldiers on the battlefield. basically opening up rounds and rounds of fire on him and then running over him with the tank of the trucks, leaving him to be ravaged by the wolves of the other side, huckabee said, speaking from his fox news office in new york city. oh, right. he also has a fox news office because he has a show on the official media organ of the republican party which is the foxkabee is well-liked, he's been organizing to be scripted, nonsuspenseful,en consequential but still vaguely exciting things. sometimes they get their wish and sometimes you wind up fighting with the klan. sometimes someone denounces their own nomination and laying the ground work for them to come back as the nominee four years later. sometimes these things end up being god's gift to the radio and tv news business. joining us now is steve schmidt, senior strategist for the mccain/palin campaign in 2008. >> good to be here. >> tell me about how wrong i am about mike huckabee and barry goldwater in 1960. >> when, timing matters in politics. i think that if he had run this time, there's a tremendous chance he might have ended up as the republican nominee. but presuming a romney victory, he won't have a chance to run for eight years. presuming an obama victory, then i do think you will see great fissures in the republican party, some of the unsettlement below the surface, you know, will come up. there will be a big debate in the republican party about the direction of the party and mike huckabee is someone who would absolutely, if he wanted to run for president, would be a formidable figure in the party. absolutely. >> do you see what is going on in the republican party right now as people sort of try to set themselves up for 2016 in the event of a romney loss? right now nobody can predict what is going to happen but it's no show-in. i think people are trying to set themselves up for the conservative alternative. >> chris christie, rand paul, marco rubio, paul ryan, mike huckabee, all of these people in their own right are people who may have presidential aspirations and the ability to run a formidable campaign. you may see the next generation of rivalries in the republican party, people whose career are intertwined and also the history of the republican party, you may see them all previewing what is going to be many, many years of history to unfold in front of us. >> with this akin thing still going on, mr. romney tonight made new comments about the akin thing, new kind of strange comments about the akin thing to cbs news. he's still being asked about it. paul ryan is still being asked about it. obviously the republicans are pushing it. but now people like mike huckabee are pushing it on the right as well. do you think that social conservatives actually have a too-hold for the future? they don't seem to be going and doing that. >> well, if you were pro life, you want to recruit people to the cause. you want to have people open their hearts up to the message of the pro life movement and i would say that trying to do that through the todd akin issue is the wrong strategic approach to accomplish that. i think just like the royal family is learning in england and the republican party is learning with akin, it's really hard to fix stupid. and that's what he is. todd akin's an idiot. we are tough to fix stupid. and we're going to lose a u.s. senate seat. it's a high price to pay. it's a wrong issue i think for people to draw a line in the sand on. it would be much better for the party if akin would get out of the race. >> what about the ron paul folks? we see them being the delegation being exiled. seeing the northern mariana stickers right next to reince priebus, they have changed the rules so that the ron paul delegate could never exist in 2016 not the same way listen, you want more republicans and engage with us, don't pretend like we're not here and make us go away. >> well, think of an iceberg. most of it is below the surface. you only see a small part above the surface. you know, with all of these conventions it's true at the democratic party convention as well. you have some groups of people there that are there to cause chaos, that are there to upend the rules and you have many more rules on their side determined to prevent any eruption of spontaneity at all over the course of the entire convention and the weight of the party's rules are on the side of the people trying to snuff out any spontaneity. these are highly produced as the olympic games, for example. you don't know what is going to happen 100%. but these conventions have become less about having an undetermine tif nomination and much more about delivering a message to the american people every four years and i think that's what you'll see in this one. >> logistically, that means america samoa. steve schmidt, it's going to be a fun couple of weeks. >> absolutely. tonight, on a special republican national convention edition of debuncktion function, that and other tampa clarifications next. 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[ laughs ] inside the event zone in which they are holding the republican convention in tampa this week, you may carry six feet of this legally. you may carry six feet of this legally. you may carry six feet of this legally. but you may not carry six feet of this legally. this one is illegal inside the event zone where the republicans are holding their convention. is that true or is that false? true. that is true. back in april we reported that the tampa city council had voted on and passed a new set of special security rules and regulations for the duration of the republican convention. the first draft prohibited any rope, string, cable, or wire longer than six inches. handguns, of course, were still allowed, heaven for bit there be any restriction there. a seven inch piece of string, that was way too dangerous. >> don't be afraid, i have weapons on me. i had six and seven-inch pieces of string. this is not a weapon. somehow this is. what is it about the string? so what does seven inches of string -- i do have one made into a tiny noose. that's as best we could figure that seven inches of string might actually do some harm. >> after we reported on tampa's proposed ban on string longer than six inches, the city decided to tweak their new rules. here's the new rule. prohibited items in the event zone include rope, cable, line, string, or tape or anything of a similar nature having strength of 30 pounds and a length greater than six feet. not six inches. six feet. so this 20-pound fly fishing tidbit is legal. this 40-pound test, this is illegal. well, actually, five feet and 11 inch of this is legal but 6'1" of it, that's illegal. that is all true and those are the rules. now it's the job of police officers to eyeball the strength of various lengths of string to discern the difference between this and this. true. amazing and true. all right. next up, true or false. tampa. the fine, fine city of tampa. the host city, weather permitting, tampa is the strip club capital of the country. magazine gq calls tampa the strip club capital of america, the chris rock calls it the strip club capital of the world. tampa, florida, the strip club capital of the country or even the world, is that true or false? false. no matter what you've heard. in terms of strip clubs and adult entertainment per capita, las vegas is actually number one. but tampa doesn't even come in second. tampa has fewer strip clubs per capita than vegas and fewer strip clubs per capita than cincinnati does. so tampa strip club capital of the country, no matter what you have heard, that is false. cincinnati, it turns out, is way strip clubier. you may also have heard in advance of the republican national convention this week that tampa is the death metal of america. if you watch a video with the sound off, it sort of looks like standard hair metal. a little extra eye makeup, filter on the lens, when you turn the sound up, then you realize it's something else entirely. it is the kind of metal that has the deathly howling and the yay for satan. florida may not be able to hold a candle to cincinnati when it comes to strip clubs for america but is that true or false? that's a true thing. tampa really is considered the birth place of death metal. it's home to such death metal bands of deicide. also, obituary. also, hate eternal and morbid angel and the band cannibal corps which bob dole tried to make them famous when he was trying to run for president. they were not from tampa. they were from new york but moved to tampa because tampa is america's home sweet home for death metal. that is true. death metal is the honest to goodness death metal experience. don't go to a strip club. wait until you're going to si s cincinnati. death metal is what you should check out. r insurance claim. 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[ villagers gasping ] reverend? ♪ can i have some? ♪ the forceable versus legitimate rape line that the republican party did not want to drag into convention week has been dragged into the convention week by the not knee himself. comments by mitt romney personally on the subject. we've got that straight ahead. 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. so, what's the problem? these are hot. we're shipping 'em everywhere. but we can't predict our shipping costs. dallas. detroit. different rates. well with us, it's the same flat rate. same flat rate. boston. boise? same flat rate. alabama. alaska? with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. dude's good. dude's real good. dudes. priority mail flat rate boxes. starting at just $5.15. only from the postal service. it's the only way to get fresh coffee. not in my house! this new flavor lock pack from maxwell house helps seal in freshness. wow! that is fresh! am i still yelling? [ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. always good to the last drop. john mccain lost african-american voters really, really badly and latino voters really, really badly and asian really badly. even though he still lost overall, the only way he was able to get the race as close as he did was because he did win a majority of the white vote. he did win 55% of the white vote. right now the romney/ryan campaign is doing roughly the same as latinos and roughly worse with african-americans. the numbers were crunched over the last few days and it was determined that if white people make up the same proportionate of the electorate as they did in '08, the magic number that romney needs to meet is 61%. he needs 61% of the white vote. that means he needs to capture a lot more of the white vote than john mccain did four years ago. he needs more of the white vote than george w. bush did when he was re-elected in 2004. he needs more of the white vote than george bush did the first time around as well. he needs to do better -- more than 20 points better than poppy bush did with voters when he lost to bill clinton. he needs to be better with poppy bush when poppy bush won. when ronald reagan was re-elected with a nearly 20-point landslide margin. nixon in '72 won the election overall by 25 points so essentially he won everyone. even among people who think mitt romney's going to win this election, nobody thinks he's going to win it by 19 points the way regular are began did or by 25 points the way nixon did. and in the absence of a landslide, an overall landslide that big, how on earth can you plan to get that huge of a proportion of white voters? who knows if it is feasible but lord knows he is trying. >> i love being home in this place where ann and i were raised, where both of us were born. i was born at harper house hospital. nobody's asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place where we were born. >> just curious, nobody has asked my origin as an american, unlike some other kenyan president. am i right, peeps? romney campaign is running ads about welfare, showing images of hardworking white people and telling them that their black president is going to hand out welfare checks to people who won't even look for a job as a special bonus the policy claims behind these very racially-charged ads has been thoroughly debunkt. the romney campaign is sticking with the strategy of campaigning on welfare. the romney campaign is running more ads about welfare than any other issue now. five ads are welfare. that's more than dedicated to health care or introducing paul ryan, more than the number dedicated to the economy. so it's the jobs, jobs, welfare queen platform. let's talk about welfare. mr. romney for his part took the whole stoking white racial strategy a step further this weekend defending the welfal ad and accused the president of taking the action that he didn't actually take on welfare as shoring up the obama base before the election. as if people on welfare are barack obama's base, especially the lazy ones. don't expect this to stop. the romney folks need to get to 61% of white voters somehow and the romney camp believes that this welfare queen thing is working. insisting that their factually welfare ads working and helping the campaign gain ground with middle class voters anxious about the economy. i wonder what other kind of ads might help gain ground with the middle class voters reaching out for the specific type of middle class voters that they are reaching out for. the big media guy at the pro romney super pac is the man who produced one of the most racial television ads in history, the infamous willy horton ad. maybe he'll have some ideas. he said, quote, this is the last time -- this is the last time anyone will try to do this, meaning this is the last time anyone will try to run a presidential campaign aimed at winning a slim majority of votes overall by winning a big majority of white votes. presumably this is the last time we will see this strategy because white voters alone will not be enough to win an election in the coming years as the country changes. and it might not be enough this year. but this year the republicans are almost 90% white. the new pugh numbers say in terms of self-identified republicans, it's 85% white now and the calculus the romney campaign seems to be making, if they can maximize the white vote by any means necessary, maybe they can win with nobody else supporting them. we are go about to find out by deliberately running against minority voters. joining us now is bop harper, advocacy group. bob, thank you for being here. >> how are you, rachel. >> i hear you reacting to the way i was laying that out. is it because you can't believe they are doing this or do you think that their reasoning is faulty? >> you know mitt romney has so many problems. he's an unappealing candidate. he's not a very good politician and he's running a campaign without a message. it's a campaign that doesn't have a theme. so what he's essentially doing is going all over the place saying, you know, white people, please vote for me. it's the only route that he and his advisers see to an electoral victory this november. but, you know, i just think that -- i think that in 2012, in the 21st century, you can't win an election if that's the only thing that you've got going for you. i still think that racial appeals work. i still think that there is -- there are a fair number of people in this country who are a fair number of whites who are hostile to blacks, who do not want a black president. i don't think it's anything close to a majority of whites. so if he needs to attract white votes to win this election and he does, it would seem to me that what would be better is to try and put forth the campaign that honestly appeals to the concerns of white voters in this country and you can start with, you know, having a plan to develop jobs, having a plan to build a stronger economy and that sort of thing. and especially if they are talking about middle class white voters, because i think that is a crucial voting bloc. i just don't believe they like racist appeals, i don't think that they like extremist appeals of the right or the left, you know. so it just seems to me that it's not a great strategy. >> the other thing that's going on around the convention, obviously beyond the party's control, is the weather and the rescheduling and rejigerring of the message. they wanted to have theme days for each of the convention. they are trying to stick with some of the themes but that screwed up. the other thing that is happening is they have brought the socially conservative issues in the discussion this week. the welfare stuff is so blatantly racial that it brings the racial discussion into mainstream discussion about what their strategy is. >> right. >> this isn't a cockamanie theory. there is also the stuff about abortion and a split in the party about that which is going to be aired out with the mike huckabee speech probably and some of the fights on the floor. but they are bringing that up themselves. mitt romney and paul ryan both doing interviews about that in the last few days. what happens in terms of their appeal racially to -- when they put forth those social issues up front? >> you know, i think that it's all of a piece and i think that it's -- instead of forward looking it's really backward looking. so when you start talking about the social issues, when -- what mitt romney is allowing to happen now is that he's becoming identified personally with all of these issues. eats got paul ryan on the ticket now so you have that whole rape/abortion issues that they just don't know how to talk about. they are on the wrong side of the issue and they don't even know how -- >> they can't even come up with an answer for it. >> exactly. >> and then they are doing these blatant racial appeals and then they've got, you know, an economic program that consists solely of tax cuts for the very wealthy and what's happening, i think, is that the voters are seeing that this is who mitt romney is, that he is not the moderate who has had to sort of play along with the right wing of this party in order to get the nomination but he's basically a practical pragmatic moderate guy. but now he's being identified with all of these extremist issues and i don't think that overall that plays well. >> i don't think it's the narrative that he intended certainly. it's interesting to see him off his game. part of what presidents have to do is talk with the script goes wrong. >> exactly right. >> bob herbert, thank you. >> appreciate it. the leader of a conservative pole watching group said he wants to make voting like driving and seeing the police following you. there was some fresh action on that and an important update about how hard it will be for people to vote in perhaps the swingiest of the swing states. that's up next. en the unexpecte, there's one brand of battery more emergency workers trust in their maglites: duracell. one reason: duralock power preserve. it locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. guaranteed. so, whether it's 10 years' of life's sunny days... or... the occasional stormy one... trust goes a long way. duracell with duralock. trusted everywhere. atct wi cme introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. tap into a single pool of shareable data and add up to 10 different devices, including smartphones and tablets. the first plan of its kind. share everything. only from verizon. get $100 off select motorola 4g lte smartphones like the droid razr. trick question. i love everything about this country! including prilosec otc. you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so you can enjoy all this great land of ours has to offer like demolition derbies. and drive thru weddings. so if you're one of those people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day, block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place. 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[ dad ] i choose great taste. i choose boost. news and lots of it from the great state of ohio where we've been covering the republican party attempts in that state to make voting a lot harder. last week we told you about a company called true the vote. true the vote exists to challenge voters registrations and then they challenge voters when they turn up at the polls. the first time they challenged voters at the polls was in the houston area where they are from in 2010. they have targeted mostly blank voting precincts sending white challengers to stare down voting booths with black voters. there were so many reports of intimidati intimidation that the justice department sent in on election day. they are planning to have a million poll watchers trained in time. true the vote has been holding summits in key swing states. they held one in florida last month. they held one where the secretary of state took time off from colorado voter roles to give a speech to the group. and in ohio where this tea party organized planned for this past saturday. you might ask yourself where this power comes from, right? challenging voters? why do we have laws on the books that allow for challenging voters at their voting place in in ohio the answer to that question is particularly ugly. ohio passed the law that made it the duty to challenge anybody b who showed up to vote and had an admixture of african blood. they were questioned about their heritages and where their kids went to school. any judge who accepted the vote of a person with a distinct and visible admixture of african blood faced up to six months in jail. that's how challenging voters worked in ohio in the 1800s. much more recently, the courts blocked a plan to put 4500 poll watchers. t that would have meant that 97% of new voters in mostly black precincts would face a challenge compared to only 14% of new voters in majority white precincts. this year, the challenge in ohio -- the question, i should say, in ohio is about when you will be allowed to vote. the new republican majority cut out the last three days of voting before the election, including the weekend hours that had been especially popular with ohio african-american voters. secretary of state john hughsted went along with more voting time in ohio republican counties than democratic counties. he instead announced that he was cutting early voting for everyone. it's limited hours at night and no weekends. as we reported on this show last week, ohio ds embattled secretary of state then showed up here on the list of featured speakers for the tea party challenge the voters true the vote summit in ohio this weekend. after we've reported on that late last week, suddenly his name fell off the list. ohio secretary of state suddenly was not going to attend the true the vote summit even though he had been previously on their schedule. true the vote summit did happen. john hughsted's appearance did not. so now his office is not returning our calls. they used to. since we asked about his appearance at true the vote, they have gone radio silence on us. a great many people tend to turn up at the wrong polling places or even the wrong precinct table at the right polling place. it's a known problem in ohio elections. but a judge put that law on hold. a judge said it was not acceptable because a poll worker made a voter to vote in the wrong spot. a hughsteb spokesperson said an appeal was likely. they did not say that to us but still they are going to appeal because they want more votes thrown out. mr. husted, any time you'd like to talk about this one on one, i'd love to have you here any time. use your computer, your smartphone, your tablet, whatever. the point is, you have options. oh, how convenient. hey. crab cakes, what are you looking at? 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he chos a man who co-sponsored legislation on an abortion policy. since then, since ryan has been asked about his own hard line position on rape victims, mr. ryan assures his interviewers that only the president makes abortion policies. don't worry. >> let's remember. i'm joining the romney/ryan ticket and the president makes policy. >> don't worry about my policy. it's the president that makes policy and there's no chance that as vice president i would ever b compounded that problem tonight on

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