>> we begin with mitt romney a stumbling, bumbling candidate and with just three days to try and reverse a whole slew of troubles before the republican convention begins monday. and so, he decided it was time to play the all-american angle with a rally in romney's home state of michigan. perhaps mr. romney was overwhelmed by the crowd's enthusiasm and the bright sunshine because right after calling for healing in the wake of a tragic shooting this morning the empire state building in new york, well, mr. romney suddenly leapt on to the birther bandwagon. >> and was born in henry ford hospital, i was born in -- no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. >> oh, how hilarious. how funny to be a rich white man who doesn't face racist assumptions as our current president does. i can see mitt now behind the scenes. i was completely defined. >> they had no trouble coming out with a response. >> should give pause to any rational voter across america. the romney campaign issued a statement, "the governor has always said and has repeatedly said he believes the president was born here in the united states. he was only referencing that michigan where he is campaigning today is the state where he himself was born and raised." yeah, right, but there were plenty of ways to say that like talking about the little lakes or the trees being the right height. something like that from his lexicon, especially from a man who said this literally two minutes later. >> it's time to have a president that believes in uniting the american people not dividing the american people. prompting a crowd to laugh and cheer about racist attacks on the first black president. that's probably not what we have in mind when most of us think of unity. thank you, mr. romney. let's get right to our panel. msnbc political analyst is a columnist of bloomberg view. editor at large, joan walsh is with us and author of the new book, what's the matter with white people? a fabulous title. and professor james peterson, blogger for the huffington post and esteemed academic. welcome to all of you. professor peterson, i've always believed the only difference between donald trump and mitt romney is their hair stylist. and this outburst by mr. romney proves it, doesn't it? >> it sure does. striking, shocking, it certainly shows the desperation of the campaign. we have asked mr. romney repeatedly for him to show us his taxes. so instead of making jokes about birtherism, he could get on to the business of that. but this shows you the desperation of this campaign. what we're basically seeing is the campaign needs to make some points and head waves with white male working class voters. michigan is a good place for them to do that. we're not making any movement with the dust up this week. no movement with latino voters and zero for african-american voters. so they've got to increase their white male working class voter advantage by any means necessary at this point. and this is where you get this kind of crazy racist strategy in place. >> joan, we've seen only a third of republicans according to a cbs "new york times" poll in april last year, only a third of republicans actually believe the president was born in the u.s. 33% say he was. that leaves 22% of undecideds on his birthplace. is that whom mr. romney was appealing to? >> i think so. i think a long time ago, he could've made his decision and the rest of the party leaders could've made a decision that this is disgusting, we're going to take it off the table. we're not going to traffic in this sort of thing. and over and over and over again, martin, they pass up those opportunities. john boehner comes to power, becomes a speaker and says it's really not my business to tell people what to think. rick santorum has a chance to shoot it down and say, oh, the president's a big boy. mitt romney has done this before. he'll say he has it on the record. he believes the president was born here. but how convenient, go search the files. in public, he feels free to make a joke like this to double down on whiteness and i've written this book what's the matter with white people and mitt romney just keeps giving people excuses to ask that question. it's appalling. >> joan, what do you take in terms of romney judgment. because if this was deliberate, let's say it was accidental in some way or casual, what does this say about mitt romney's judgment? >> not very good things. >> not very good things? >> i want to take issue a little bit with what we've just heard. not in my condemnation of this actually quite pathetic comment. but in terms of whether there was a strategic motive behind it. i don't believe there was. i think you can sort of see from a statement from the headquarters they were not thrilled this got in the way of the message they were trying to convey today. they have a gaffe-prone candidate who does not have control over his own mouth. it's true they are now pursuing a base strategy, but this did not help them get new votes. who out there who they might get would be convinced by this kind -- >> donald trump, ted nugent, sheriff arpaio are all friends and supported mr. romney. we understand according to reports that seven birthers will be speaking at the republican convention. >> and that is disgusting. sheriff joe arpaio is the closest we have to a home grown fascist in this country. he uses his legal power in arizona to abuse people. so i'm not defending them doing this. i'm going to a question that is ultimately speculative which is some sort of strategic choice because they're desperate? they are not desperate. they are very much in this election. their polls are actually ticking up right now. so the idea that this is some sort of hail mary pass by them is not accurate. i tend to go with the idea that they have a candidate who over and over and over again sticks his foot in his mouth. in this case, there might be some advantages to him saying this disgusting thing. i do still think it was a gaffe, not a strategic -- >> you know, i won't say that it was absolutely intentional, nobody got together in headquarters and said we were going to do this today. but the fact this could come out of his mouth. it's the sort of thing when he told the nascar fans that he liked their -- where did they get their raincoats, ponchos? he's got this cruelty, he's got this kind of i'm better than you -- >> treating people with contempt because they bought cookies -- >> insulting the cookies, so in some ways i'm validating what you're saying. but i also think you take this issue off the table because you know how poisonous it is. if you're not willing to go with a double down on the white base strategy. it's always there, it's always possible and slipped out today. >> just one thing. >> just one second. >> okay. >> but professor peterson, did you notice that after he delivered that wondrous line he basked in the applause. >> he did. there's no way for me to interpret this as being a gaffe. if you compare this to his other gaffes which seem like mistakes, the actual clip of what he's talking about, the extent of e analogy he's trying to make is too long to be a gaffe. and here's the thing, whether it's strategic or not, the bottom line is this is absolutely divisive. and for a campaign has been complaining about the divisiveness of politics from the president's side, this is pure hypocrisy. whether or not it's a gaffe, that's fine, we can continue to debate that. it pollutes the body politic of -- we can't afford to do right now. >> he's now been trying -- even today, he was trying to take the high road, trying to say oh, president obama's the bad guy, he's the negative campaigner, he can't say that anymore. >> he's dropped the most divisive line. one interesting thing, it's worth noting mitt romney's comment is not something new in terms of the romney family. >> right. >> take a listen to mr. romney's son matt speaking in december. >> you know -- as soon as president obama releases his grades and birth certificate and a long list of things. >> now, joan, to be fair to matt, he did apologize subsequently. >> i think he said my bad. maybe he said more than that. >> do you think his father's going to follow his lead and apologize? >> it'll be interesting to see. >> no way. there's not going to be any apology. and listen, here's another thing to keep in mind. research has shown there's data out there saying these kind of ads like the welfare ads and other sort of comments that are playing to race actually do make headway with those folk who are a little bit more conservative racially speaking. so whether it's strategy or not, it still operates strategically and divisive politics. >> coming on the heels of these awful welfare ads, a, they're lies, and b, they're trafficking in the oldest republican stereotype out there. there's no doubt about it. and he's also got the problem that, you know, all hell could break loose next week around akin with mike huckabee saying he's a martyr, we're going to support him. he's got -- every once in a while he locks the base down and then things get uneasy. >> pursuing a base strategy. what james and joan are saying. he has decided by picking paul ryan he's not going to move to the center and try to do what a lot of people expected, including the obama folks and drove for independence. he's doubling down an base strategy to drive turnout. >> one thing on what you said earlier, you were suggesting. and of course, it's all speculation. we don't know what romney was thinking. but the president himself who has been the victim of this abhorrent, relentless contempt for his birth actually said it gives pause for any rational vo voter across america. is his opinion not worth considering as far as it applies to the seriousness. >> and here's the thing i found the most disturbing about this comment. when i first heard about it before i viewed it, i thought it was a joke. you know, that he was -- and i give people broad latitude for jokes. like obama joked about his birth certificate in speeches. >> right. >> it was kind of a needling joke, but clearly on the humor side and you go, okay. but it wasn't a joke. it was at best a gaffe. and at worst something more sinister than that. >> thank you all so much. next, what's worse? 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>> we can have a long debate about this. >> would you repeal this order if you became president? >> well, let's step back and look at the issue. >> would you leave this in place while you worked out a long-term solution? or would you just -- >> we'll look at that. we'll look at that as we reach that. >> i don't know exactly when it balances. i don't want to get wonky on you, but we haven't run the numbers on that specific plan. >> here in new york, joy reed, an msnbc contributor, good day to both of you. joy, the campaign probably doesn't want reporters asking romney about his birther joke earlier today, does it? >> yeah, i mean, this is a campaign that i think is not only -- only are they not specific, they seem unprepared for a national level campaign, particularly one of the seriousness that they themselves claimed the issues, you know, are at this time in our history. ironically enough, mitt romney put paul ryan on the ticket supposedly for his seriousness and they've stripped everything about him that made him that made him a suitable vice presidential candidate. he's no longer giving specifics, no longer defending his medicare plan, he's not prepared to defend his beliefs on apportion. i'm really not clear why he's there. >> well, he's good-looking and fit young man. julian, the gop convention begins monday as you know, the romney message machine has been basically we don't like the bain or income taxes talk, so let's talk medicare and now we don't like the medicare and abortion talk so i'm going to make a birther remark. is that a successful concoction for a coming convention? >> yeah, i think it's ask me no questions and i'll tell you no lies. and look, martin, you wouldn't want to answer questions, as well, if you were running on a campaign that wanted to end medicare as we know it, tax breaks to the rich even though we're at the lowest tax burden in this country in the last 60 years. if when it came to social issues you were running on an archie bunker platform. and i think the response to this despicable birther comment ought to be, you've had a birth certificate of the president that's 51 years old, we can't get your tax returns from three years ago? are you kidding me? i think if they want to take the question to -- if they want to take the question in to this really below-the-belt kind of politics, democrats have lots of very, very fun answers to come back on. and certainly this theme of secrecy, not only in the public policy issues, but as you saw from the document dump yesterday, scores of new pieces of information are coming out about how mitt romney was engaged in tax avoidance schemes. he says that's not relevant. he wants to be the chief enforcement official for over 300 americans in how they pay their taxes and he doesn't want to answer questions about how he's been engaged in tax avoidance schemes for years. this was a despicable comment today on the birther -- on the birther thing. i think it shows this was a guy who is essentially a coward. it fits into a larger theme this week. if you notice it took him over 36 hours to respond to the akin controversy the same way he couldn't stand up to rush limbaugh. and for him to then go to this kind of cheap shot with clear racial overtones, this shows you a campaign going far to the right when anybody involved in these kind of campaigns will tell you. even if this is a play to the base, this is not going to be a winning strategy at the end of the game. >> to that point, joy, he's published this op ed which goes to his bain experience again. and julian was referring to the document, which reveals all kind of interesting things about the way bain used blocker corporations, which were typically set up in tax havens, places like the cayman islands and so on. the whole document durp semp seo reflect mitt romney's personal finances. why does he want to write about bain capital when all we hear about is how tax evasion policies were deployed where people -- as if they were profits from shares. what on earth has been going on here? >> the thing is, mitt romney's entire life, his entire adult life seems to have been a compounding scheme to avoid paying taxes. and he's done lots of creative ways to hide money and avoid taxation. and it seems that the most creative of all, it turns out, is to try to run for president, win, and get rid of the capital gains tax and so the tax rate would go to zero. almost looks like his run for president is strictly for the purpose of putting in place the kind of policies that would make himself and people like him tax-free, absolutely pay zero taxes. but when you dig into the details of the bain, sort of the way it operated and the way mitt romney has operated. we've got to guess because he won't show us, you do see something that is fundamentally un-american, almost setting up an aristocracy of people who receive, and receive, and receive from government but want to pay zero, not less, zero. >> the other thing quickly, when you tell the media you don't want them to ask questions about how you were involved in tax avoidance schemes in the cayman islands, how they are the same when it comes to the legislative record, exactly what they would do in terms of killing medicare and voucher -- as sarah palin told you, the moment you try to quarantine the presses when they start asking those questions even more. and particularly when you try to change the subject in a despicable and a classless way the way romney did on the birther movement. on the strategic matter in terms of handling the media, this is one step forward for him and ten steps backward. >> i'm so sorry, and it's not a smart strategy, look, if you're trying to ingratiate yourself to birthers at this point, you're losing by a landslide. >> you're in trouble. >> thank you so much for -- do stay with us. much more ahead. a hurricane headed directly for the republicans. and more proof that god is a woman. 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[ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. from akin shutting the whole thing down to romney and ryan refusing to open up. the week in review, let's go to tampa. >> my apologies for getting slightly heated. >> what a treat. >> governor romney and his running mate. >> this trickle down -- >> we all hate yankees -- but not you, sir, we love you. >> governor romney pay less than 1% in taxes. >> it would save me tax dollars. >> taxes are not an issue. >> my tax returns are extensive. >> disclosure indicated he used swiss bank accounts. >> smart enough to use a smoke screen. >> i think everybody wanted to know everybody's playing by the same rules. >> more of their income is sheltered from taxation. >> i'm not looking to reduce taxes for wealthy people. trillions, what kind of ballpark number? >> my intentions and supporting stimulus. >> governor romney told a crowd of young people, if you want to go to college -- >> -- with the margin of error, he could have negative 2.5%. >> the dirtiest, sleaziest, the slimiest, they've accused romney of murder. >> we can whine and complain. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> has he made some kind of new scientific discovery? >> i can't defend him. >> rape is rape. >> the fact is rape can lead to pregnancy. >> you sponsored legislation -- >> romney and ryan are disclaiming any association with the akin remark. >> know when to fold them. >> that's not the liberal media. >> you're right on that. >> there was a condition, i'm not asked about abortion. >> we will not duck the tough issues. >> they sound like squealing pigs. >> i'm looking forward to debating joe. >> you going to florida? >> they can't buy that vote. >> the republicans have proven themselves to be pretty good at handling hurricanes. >> you're doing a heck of a job. >> plans for tampa depend upon the airport being open and people like myself we need to get there. >> hurricane headed directly for the republicans. more proof that god is a woman. >> let's get right to our panel now. we're joined by msnbc jimmy williams. this is a late friday in august. it's very busy. we're hearing that todd akin was going to give a press conference at 5:15 today. we were completely taken aback by his birther comments earlier today. you might have thought preparing to go to tampa that wouldn't be the best way to begin the akin overdraft or overhang followed by him then offering what seemed like a joke about the president's birth. >> i think that's right. and what unites these two scandals that the republicans don't want to have, obviously, in a week leading up to the nomination is a very old concept in politics, which is the gaffe hurts the most when it reveals a truth. the problem with akin isn't that he's an obscure figure, but he was giving voice to a premise that has gained currency in the mainstream of the republican party and many people feel is completely anti-women. and the problem for mitt romney today, whatever he meant in his heart by the joke, which he can further explain if it was a mistake he should say it was a mistake. the problem, it speaks to the people that he's invited to be a part of this nominating convention in tampa. the donald trump and the sheriff who traffic in this kind. governor romney has to decide whether he wants to be responsible about it and say this was a mistake and i want to move on or whether he thinks like so many other gaffes that reveal a truth, this can just be swept under the rug. >> right. jimmy, i was wondering about what the biggest applause lines could be next week. and so we as a team went back and looked at some of the big ones during the campaign. take a listen. >> your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. have you -- >> do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military? >> no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate, they know this is the place. >> during executions -- >> if this is a party, i would suggest they go to home depot and buy a bigger one. it's pathetic. listen, it's code, it's code. the governor should not have stepped into what he did today. and i think that was a gaffe. i think it was a mistake, and he should say it was a mistake. he can't now sit down on the level with trump and bachmann and rush limbaugh, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. those people are the spoke people for the party, the republican party to date. a reason i left the republican party in 1992 when i saw this kind of right-wing extremism when they were anti-gay, anti-equal rights, anti-women. and here's what bothers me the most. akin is now going to have this press conference this afternoon at 5:15, radight? he's going to say i'm in it to win it. that still doesn't mean you think, mr. akin, congressman akin, a sitting congressman for a number of terms that rape sometimes leads to pregnancy. that's your opinion, that's what your belief is. and if that's your belief and what is the republican platform? farther to the right than mr. akin. if i'm a woman in this country, i would be scared to death at this point. >> really. >> ari, i noted earlier today that rush limbaugh noted that mitt romney may have even been attempting to trial that joke in michigan today in preparation for next week. surely that's speculative nonsense, he couldn't be doing that, could he? >> that's what we get from rush limbaugh. whether he's right or wrong, he's happy to see that this kind of aspersion, which is based on the color of the skin of the president of the united states is still alive and well in the republican party. and, again, i would echo what jimmy said. if mitt romney sort of just awkwardly ran into it, it's very easy, he has a big platform and he can quickly resolve that. he doesn't have to stand back and let everyone wonder. i think it's important because what you see here is this pattern with donald trump. and if you go to politifact.com, it's the number one item on their site ever. i think that does turn a lot of americans off. >> and isn't that the problem, jimmy? it's not just the joke and the gaffe, we've got seven speakers who are birthers at the republican convention. we've had ted nugent make the most appalling remarks about the president. we've had donald trump, sheriff joe arpaio, really? >> these are the leaders of the republican party today. it's extremism. let me be clear. i'm a democrat. democrats have extremists, as well. you have extremists on the left and extremists on the right, i call them foamers, they foam at the mouth they believe it so much. much of the country is slap dab in the middle and they move this way or that way, but the foamers on each side. here's the problem, the foamers on the right are so much more vicious than the foamers on the left that it blows my mind just the concentration of their hatred for a man who, by the way, ari just mentioned the color of the president's skin. the president of the united states is, indeed, an african-american, he's a black american. he's also a white american. i hate to break the news to america, his mother was whiter than me and i haven't been in the sun in two years. >> it fries the circuit of the objective press and the d.c. press that only wants to keep score because they have to find something that democrats have done that's as bad. but they don't have an echo repetitive racist argument coming from the democratic party. so they say, well, you made jokes, or the president's spending a lot of money attacking mitt romney. >> it's false equivalency. >> and that's another big problem. this is not a place where the jokes are equal. and i think it's very hard for a lot of the scorekeepers in d.c. to handle that. they don't know what to do with that. >> i think it's difficult for all of us. thank you so much. and as we gear up for the convention, you can join the conversation on twitter at bashir live with msnbc2012, and chris matthews will have much more ahead on the countdown to tampa next on "hardball." up next, the real paul ryan stands up and america's most vulnerable should take note. stay with us. >> this is a path we believe reignites and renews the american idea, reclaims the opportunity of society with a safety net which we do believe must exist for people who cannot help themselves, people who are down on luck and can get back on their feet. we don't want to turn this into a hammock. that allows able-bodied people to rely on complacency. 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[ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! the sweet reward, making a delicious choice that's also a smart choice. splenda no-calorie sweetener. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust. splenda makes the moment yours. republicans in tampa are just dotting the "is" and crossing the ts on one of the most conservative platforms ever to be adopted in party history. and they are severe on the subject of immigration. the gop's immigration plank opposes any forms of amnesty and even echoes mitt romney's call for illegal immigrants to self-deport. joining us now in washington, our msnbc contributors. good afternoon to both of you. the republican platform on immigration offers no prospect for resolving the issue, only the romney idea of self-deportation. is this really the best they can do on the subject? >> it's a little shocking. they've -- romney came from supporting marco rubio's plan saying i'm not only going to support the architect of the anti-immigrant, show me your papers law, but become an official platform for the republican party. and i think the first, karl rove is dumping millions into this campaign hoping to have romney as the presidential nominee, but recognizes he cannot win the white house without courting the latino vote and getting 40% of the latinos to vote for him. so with this type of legislation and platform, there's no way to woo the hispanic vote. >> the president announced a two-year deferral from deportation of any law-abiding illegal immigrants who had been brought to the united states before their 16th birthday. the president has said repeatedly he'll sign the dream act. if it ever comes across his desk. he wants to address the issue. meanwhile, republicans are offering what exactly in terms of policy. can you spell it out? >> well, two things, first and foremost, i think we should remind the viewers out there, martin, this is a non-binding resolution that the republican platform seems to have adopted. that's number one. number two, i'll remind you and our viewers out there that george w. bush was the first president out there that really pushed comprehensive immigration we form and readily. the republicans of the conservative -- >> i do -- i do appreciate your knowledge of history, but we are now on the precipice of the republican convention. we are at about to have a presidential election. i'm asking you specifically what is the republican party offering on the issue of immigration. >> rule number one is to enforce the law. rule number two is to enforce exactly what the supreme court and what others have said here is that this is a federal issue and that the united states federal government should enforce the current law. i think that's exactly what jan brewer has said, that's what the supreme court has said. and that's what all the republican and democratic governors have said, that's number one. number two, and that's where i was trying to go with this in terms of party history here is that republican presidential candidates have always run against sometimes republican platform. ronald reagan did that in 1980 when the republican platform specifically said that they were not for tax increases. ronald reagan obviously increased taxes all throughout his eight years in office. my point simply is that if the republican platform may say one thing, but when the actual candidate gets into office, it's something different. >> interesting. maria, the federal government has actually deported more illegal immigrants from the u.s. for the last fiscal year than ever before in history. there's something like a record 380,000 illegal immigrants removed from the u.s. in the last fiscal year. in terms of arizona, the director of immigration and customs enforcement says there's an average removal of 1,500 illegal immigrants from the state. i mean, it appears to me that the government speaking to robert treanor's point has been very robust in enforcing the law. >> right. and president obama who actually had an historic number of deportations of undocumented more even so than bush. and right now, unfortunately, if bush was running as the presidential nominee, he wouldn't be elected by his own party because he would be considered so liberal. that's the crux of the discussion. romney who was considered once a moderate and heading to tampa, and tampa, usually the conventions are used for nominees to reset themselves and go into moderate, this platform that's unveiling is basically making him closer to the right and become a tea party candidate and that tea party candidate is going after undocumenteds, but also against women. it's going to be difficult for romney to win, i think, the presidential elections come november. >> indeed. >> can i say something on that? >> very quickly. >> the republican party has put itself in a box. there's no question about it. the self-deportation primary rhetoric that governor romney said is not going to help them. >> indeed. and that position has been rehearsed by the presumptive nominee. our thanks. thank you. we'll be right back. i have never encountered such a burning sensation... until i had the shingles. it was like a red rash. like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. it's something you never want to encounter. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com it's time now to clear the air. and after two weeks of crashing and running away from offshore bank accounts and forcible rape. the romney/ryan ticket is about to face the most critical week in the short and difficult life. and as we noted on thursday, the presumptive republican nominee has a little bit of ground to make up among african-american voters. it's also worth noting that mr. romney's well behind with latinos by a margin of 2-1. and that he's not doing particularly well with women either. but surely in this vast and varied country, there must be some people who have taken mr. romney to their heart. what about white americans? well, it turns out that mr. romney does, indeed, enjoy a comfortable lead among this particular demographic. he's up 53% to 40%. but even this turns out to be more glitter than gold for their campaign. because that's almost exactly what john mccain got in 2008 and he lost by a lot. and so what is mr. romney to do? faced with such an indifferent and lukewarm response? well, normally an honorable candidate would propose some genuinely fresh and persuasive ideas. but mr. romney's platform as you well know consists of a bonfire of platitude. so instead on the eve of his convention, he's chosen to lower himself into the gutter. and here's what the republican nominee said just a few moments