right now, the va has a shortage of mental health care professionals. and anytime a veteran is unable to receive timely health care from the va system, he or she will be allowed to see a tricare provider at the va's expense. i've said before that this must be an american century and to accomplish that, we must have the strongest military and the strongest economy in the world. regrettably, president obama has failed on both counts as his term in office comes to an end, we're now further from making this an american century. our economy's weak. and our military is bracing for devastating cuts. when a country is hurting at home, the biggest political debates are understandably about domestic issues. how to get small business growing again, how to get jobless americans back to work. how to show people who feel trapped in the stagnant economy that the hard times won't last forever because a better future is about to dawn. you and i know our debates can change suddenly with a ringing phone in the dead of the night or a grim-faced reporter in the middle of the day or a plume of smoke on a clear blue morning. the first job of government is to keep the american people safe. and as president, that will be my commitment to the american people. >> okay. president obama addressed that same veterans group via video on tuesday. this is actually the first time since 1932 that the republicans presidential ticket will not have a veteran on it. the party officially nominated romney last night in tampa. he will formally accept the nomination tomorrow in his primetime speech. tonight on teenage will be his running mate paul ryan along with tim pawlenty, mike huckabee and condoleezza rice. we expect to see congressman ryan on the floor this hour. let's talk for a minute about paul ryan's speech tonight and what we expect from this. i think to me, the biggest surprise last night was that primetime hour 10:00 to 11:00, we didn't hear any mentions of president obama. if there's a traditional role for a vice presidential nominee in a speech it's to be a little more aggressive and forceful in going after the incumbent president. i'm thinking of al gore in 1992 with hits refrain it's time for them to go, then dick cheney trying to throw that back in the democrats' face saying now it's time for them to go. i'm expecting we'll see a little more of that from paul ryan tonight. i was surprised last night. maybe i'll be surprised again tonight. s.e., you're down there. what are you thinking? >> first of all, you have to forgive the band practice that's happening behind me. this is sort of like rehearsal at the r nancy pelosi c. but yeah, i think you're right. that this will be a speech that addresses obama specifically. obama's policies, you know, last night chris christie talked a lot about chris christie. i think paul ryan is not there the to give his life story. he's there to talk about mitt romney and president obama. i think that's what he's going to do tonight. >> yeah, and i think paul ryan, i actually think that chris christie had a pretty big lift last night. ann romney had a tough job trying to humanize mitt romney. i think the bar for paul ryan is relatively low here. the base loves him. they already know his budget, who he is. they love him. but and for everybody else, all he needs to do is do a decent job drawing that contrast, not talk about rape, which i don't think is probably in the plans and i think he'll deliver a solid performance. >> as chuck todd keeps reminding us, this is not the second most important speech of the week. ann romney did the second most important speech of the week. this is the olympics of politics. everybody is doing their performance aspect. some can do a speech, some people can't. a lot of this stuff cannot be taught, how to emote and project for basically the whole nation. tonight we will see if paul ryan can do it. he's the only one in the congressional district which contains no big cities. we'll see what he can do when he gets on the big stage. >> i want to bring in contributor meghan mccain right now. m megan, you've been through a convention like this before. we should add today is your father's 76th birthday. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. >> less stressful this time. i'm thinking four years ago today, there was that rally. i think it was columbus, ohio, where your father introduced sarah palin as his running mate and this week long so opera played out at the republican convention. go back in time and tell us, what was that week like and you being at the heart of it? >> well, i think the week that happened four years ago with my father and sarah palin is almost a completely different experience than what's going on right now. sarah palin was a very new person to the party. had to be introduced to the world. as krystal was saying, most republicans are familiar with paul ryan and his policies. i think the point of the convention is to introduce the candidates and their families which obviously i was a part of to the american people so they can see exactly what they're getting. >> meghan, this is a little bit of a hard question to answer. i watched some of the speeches from the rnc in 2008. i found the atmosphere in the room electric. there was so much energy, so much excitement. last night, based on what you saw there, do you feel like there's that same level of enthusiasm and passion in the room? >> i think four years ago was a different time. i remember four years ago it was the only time i've cried on television was when my father spoke. it is a different energy. this time around we're living in scarier times and the republican party as republicans we're living in fear of for more years of obama. i think the reaction to ann romney really was one of if not electricity, definitely genuine happiness and really connecting with her. >> meghan, how are you? >> i'm good, how are you? >> i want to continue with the hard questions. i know you didn't expect a bunch of hard questions from us. you got swept up in your father's ambitions and spent many years running for president along with the fathers. can you talk to us on a personal, emotional level what's it like to be in the family that has to go through this grind for many years and then has to deal with this ultimate disappointment? because one of these families, obama or romney will have to deal with the disappointment. >> i always say that no man could ever break my heart as much at the election did. it's the hardest thing i've ever done, the hardest thing i will ever have to go through, god for bid a death in the family. you can't help but not take this personally. if the american public doesn't like you and your family, you take it personally. i remember thinking we aren't good enough, the american public doesn't think we're good enough which is ridiculous. i said i was never going to get emotionally involved and i don't envoy what's going on in the romney family right now. they're putting on a very brave face. i saw them last night and i remember panicking inside because the eyes of the world are on you. i drank a lot, which i don't think they're doing. last time around. >> hey, guys, i just want to let you know what's going on behind me right now. paul ryan has just taken the stage. he's going through his walk-through. he's going to do his rehearsal. i just overheard a mic check. i think you can see the an the bottom of your screen is a gaggle of press taking his photograph and trying to capture this behind the scenes moment as it's unfolding. >> yeah, actually, paul ryan there sort of raises an interesting thought to me. we've looked at the partnership between romney and ryan here and there's a lot of talk there's real chemistry, a real rapport between them that will mitt romney really wants paul ryan out on the campaign trail with him. it seems to bring him to life a little bit. you know, i wonder, type cas han, i'm curious about the dynamic with your father and sarah palin in 2008. what was the -- at a personal level, what was the relationship like there as that campaign unfolded? >> well, i mean, four years ago, you know, my father and sarah palin when they were on stage together, it was electricity. it's the way i imagine being in guns n roses is like with the way people reacted to a rock 'n' roll band. i think in any situation when you have baby not with joe biden but i think anytime ryan is with romney that electricity comes across. i do think ryan does a great job of humanizing mitt romney and making him look more comfortable on stage. >> besides alcohol, be what advice do you have for the romney boysen an their wives and or malia and sasha who have butterflies in their stomach every day wondering what's going to happen. >> my heart goes out to malia and sasha. other than drinking and that keel la, the power of prayer worked well with me and just hunkering down and keeping your friends close and your family close and you know, it will be over in a few days. it's liberating too, and it's exciting. it's just emotionally draining. >> type casman mccain, thanks for joining us from down there. try not to drink too much the rest of the with he canning. >> coming up later this hour it, president obama makes a campaign stop. battleground virginia. we'll bring you his remarks live, plus the latest on isaac and paul ryan's an rival at the rnc all ahead as the cycle rolls on for wednesday, august 29th. [ female announcer ] the power of green coffee extract 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. breaking news. isaac has just been downgraded to a tropical storm, but it's still not letting up on the gulf coast. the associated press is now reporting the first death caused by the storm. more than half a million people are now without power and new have the yaks are under way exactly seven years after katrina hit. the plaquemines parish president said this had storm is worse than katrina was for his town. plaquemines is where water went over a rural are levee. the national guard is aiding in rescue efforts and now stis officials are considering intentionally breaching a levee to help relieve the pressure. let's bring in reynolds wolf in new orleans right now. what's going on out there? >> reporter: well, i can tell you in plaquemines parish that is the biggest concern. the levee's been overtopped. they've hch evacuations and rescues taking place. it is a tremendous mess to our south. so far, new orleans, there has have been floodings but most taken place on city streets, spots where you pour drainage where you happen to have low-lying areas. there has been reports of flooding and creeks and also small streams. but the flooding has been right into the flood plain. it has not been widespread. we're expecting the he all but a certainty for that to happen. what i can also tell you is that the wind and the rain are going to be constant through much of the day. the wind is expected to decrease. the rain is the big kicker. it's not going to be the idea that the rain is just intense. it's that the storm is going to be so slow moving that it's going to give account rain the ability to begin to stack up in a lot of spots. heavy rainfall. falling in that long duration means that flooding is not a possibility. it is all but a certainty in many places. keep in mind, when we had katrina, there were many mistakes made here. those mistakes lessons learned were used during gustav. those improvements during both of those episodes certainly helped them be prepared for this particular situation. $10 billion were put into the levee system around new orleans, almost making it like a for the re rest -- fortre rfortress. this is almost like a canyon on canal street. the effect of the winds zooms down and intense phis. from viewers from say out west, you heard of the santa ana winds, one of the things that gives them the strength is when the wind goes through the mountain passes, it tends to accelerator. same effect happening right in the city streets of new orleans. we've had a lot of damage here and expect more. we're going to let the guys coming through, not only am i a correspondent but at times a little bit of a traffic guy at the same time. >> reynolds. >> we've got the hotels that are full. the hotels are full. not just with the tourists stuck here but you've got power crews from all over the country that are here not for the storm itself but for the aftermath. over half a million people without power. we expect those numbers to go up. it's going to be a lot of work. one little factoid i want to leave you with. you see the lights coming by? new orleans finest police. no reports of looting inside the city. there there have been reports of looting in places like slidell but it's been minimal. over 29,000 law enforcement around the region doing what they can to keep order. they've done a heck of a job. now let's send it over to crystal ball. >> thanks so much for the of the update. please stay safe out there. it was one of the most anticipated speeches last night, but did republican fire brand and new jersey governor chris christie actually deliver? let's take a listen. >> you see, mr. president, real leaders don't follow polls. real leaders change polls. and that's what we need. that's what we need to do now. we need to change polls through the power of our principles. we need to change polls through the strength of our convictions. tonight, our duty is to tell the american people the truth. >> tell the american people the truth. i mean, i thought it was a fine speech for chris christie but it had nothing to do with myst romney. a lot was made and i think rightly so of the fact that he didn't mention mitt romney till 16 minutes into the speech. even beyond that, it's excusable to do some bio to tell your story, but even when he got to the part that was alledgedly about mitt romney, it was about mitt romney the hard truth teller who doesn't watch the polls. that's not mitt romney. that's chris christie's persona. this speech, nothing about it was actually about mitt romney. >> no, absolutely not. i thought it was a great speech. i thought he came across as a bully. he came across as a real guy, a guy that america would like. it made me think this is a formidable guy and crist oit versus clinton could be an amazing race for the ages. last night, i counted 17 minutes before he mentioned mitt romney. i kept expecting a romney aide to run out on the is taken and say you know you're not the nominee, right in the why do you keep talking about yourself? no mentions of romney. it was very awkward. you could see in romney's face he perhaps was not very happy about what was going on. you might think from all that energy that christie injected that the faithful would walk out thrilled and happy. peggy noonan was there. and she writes in her blog, that's not quite the case. they marched out of the hall tuesday night on fire for their side. but i was there. they did not. they walked out like people who weren't quite sure what to think or how to feel. but they were hoping for the best. s.e., i'm sure that's not the feeling that you got. >> no, chris christie's speech absolutely lit up the room. a couple things on this. i think for one, romney was pleased because nothing is happening here that romney has not approved of. i'm sure he knee p knew what the speech was going to lay out, and he's fine with it. a lot's been made of the fact that christie took so long to come to romney. this is sort of a rhetorical device like a witness speech. he makes the case himself to say here's why you like me. you like me because i answer to my mother. you like me because i took on the unions. you like me because i made education better in new jersey. well, if you like that, let me introduce you to this guy. i vouch for him. so that was the sort of the layout of the speech. i think i it was a lot about the chris christie but ta only speaks to his star power and the fact that i'm sure somewhere in the back of his mind, he's thinking about 2016 himself. >> i don't think so much in the back of his mind. what do you think? >> no, this is a guy who has spoken in the very recent past about the 2016 republican nomination as if it's a foregone conclusion that there will not be a president romney running for re-election. i take as his point there, and i assume that is the thinking of the romney campaign because certainly they read a draft of the speech beforehand. i think you're seeing in the reaction to the speech, this is one of the reasonsence i don't think christie was a serious contender to be romney's vice president. whether by design or not, when he chris christie speaks or puts a story in the media or opens his mouth, the story invariably ends up being about him. this was a near the romney campaign had. if you put him on the ticket, he's going to overshadow romney. let's look at 2016. the keynote spot launched presidential careers before. .barack obama most famously. mario cuomo who spoke in 1984, could have had the '88 or '928 nomination, never ran for it. how does this position christie for 2016? i'm looking at the reviews. you have peggy noonan. i think her taking is fairly representative what i'm hearing. it speaks to something i was talking about yesterday, there is a disconnect between the chris christie who talks to hecklers and journalists and has these colorful off the cuff comments and the chris christie who reads from a prepared text. he gave a perfectly proficient speech last night but i do wonder if republicans out there just have the this image of him they don't understand and were expecting more. >> steve and i were positing maybe they should have planted a union teacher in the front row that they could ask their pensions. we'll have to see what happens tonight. up next, we've got former world champion lumberjack, real world reality tv star and representative ryan's fellow wisconsinite. freshman congressman sean duffy pumped up the crowd in tampa and joins us live in the guest spot straight ahead. whoa, look at all those toys. insuring that stuff must be a pain. nah. he's probably got... 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[ voice of dennis ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds. ♪ bundle and save with an allstate agent. are you in good hands? mornings are a special time for the two of you...)agent. and now you can make them even more special... with new fancy feast mornings. mornings are delicious protein rich entrées... with garden veggies and egg. each one perfectly designed... to start her day with a little love. new fancy feast mornings gourmet cat food. the best ingredient is love. from the real world to real world problems, our next guest is in tampa representing the 7th district of wisconsin. an mtv reality star. two years ago, he was selected to serve with 4435 strangers under a single roof in the capital. and tuesday, the freshman member of congress was in the spotlight addressing the delegates at the convention. >> if you will voted for obama and you have buyer's remorse, let me tell you, mitt romney is the hope and paul ryan is the change. a vote for romney ryan is a vote for a dream ticket. a dream ticket that will end the obama economic nightmare. >> he knows paul ryan personally and is here to tell us what we can expect to hear from the vice presidential candidate later on tonight. sean duffy from wisconsin. >> s.e., how you doing? >> i'm good. so paul ryan, reince priebus, scott walker, i was talking with ron johnson earlier, why is your home state of wisconsin having the best year ever and is wisconsin in play? >> by the way, it is having a great year. we don't have the this hierarchical structure in the party and it set up a situation where young conservatives could rise to the top and we have had a great movement from the reince priebus as the rnc chair, scott walker, paul ryan. we have a movement going on. some say there's something in the water. we say there's something in the beer. but listen, i think we bring a different brand of conservative yim. paul ryan exemplifies that. a guy who is well educated, well informed but he brings a happy he demeanor the happy warrior to the argument. as politics become so vitriolic, you look at a guy well informed but a nice guy, you see commentators who say i think he's a good guy. this could lead the way to bring in better dialogue politically going into the debate and not the personal attacks. >> well, and russ feingold ousted in in 2010. the state's essentially top to bottom red now politically. do you think wisconsin's in play in 2012? >> we also lost 42 incumbent congressman dave ol have i, the carom of the appropriations. i took his seat. don't forget that. listen, i do think it's in play. if you look at recent polls, there has been a great movement since paul's been on the ticket. we saw scott walker do incredibly well in the recall election. and so i think the state as the country is ready for big bold ideas to fix the problems that we face. we saw ready to fix the problems in the state of wisconsin. now they want to see wisconsin lead the way and help fix the problems we face nationally. >> so congressman, one of those big bold solutions that is out there is the medicare plan that paul ryan has put together, a plan that you voted for. obviously, that's something the democrats think is a winning campaign issue for them is running against that. i want to ask you a little bit about that plan because it seems to me you guys might be coming at this the wrong way. i look at it this way. medicare costs obviously rising, but medicare costs are just a function of health care costs. health care costs are going up. therefore there medicare costs are going up. so the solution you guys are offering is basically offering what amounts to a voucher to people to give them a fixed amount that will limit growth in the program to a half a point gdp and give them that filmed amount. if people have a voucher and health care costs continue to rise, what happens to them when the voucher they're getting doesn't meet the cost of health care? >> government's off the hook but people are on the hook. >> what i think is great about this conversation is paul ryan brought the real debate to medicare to the forefront. it's not about what our plan is for premium support which brings choice and competition to the consumer. wa we've exposed is barack obama has taken $716 billion. >> wait, wait, wait. >> out of medicare. >> i'm sorry -- congressman, i'm sorry to interrupt you. my question may is been too long winded. what i was trying to get at there, and a apologize, but the short question is this. what happens to that senior when the voucher does not pay for the rising -- for the cost of full health care? >> listen, they have a choice in our plan. they can pick traditional medicare or they can go with premium support. but the way the president has it today, they won't get there. they won't get there because the program is going broke. when a program has gone broke like medicare, why would president obama take $716 billion out of the program. >> congressman, i got to stop you there. because i mean, that just is really misleading and untrue. not to sneengs but it's not. >> let me finish. the same $716 billion that you're talking about in savings from medicare is also in the paul ryan budget plan which again you voted on and let me say, i think it's very strange, you're someone who believes that medicare needs to be reformed. i believe that, as well. don't you find it to be counterproductive to the debate for you to be demagoguing against legitimate savings in medicare where benefits aren't being cut? >> krystal, you have to be honest. come on now. >> i am being honest. you be honest. >> no, you're not, no, no, no. $716 billion in savings that would stay in medicare to preserve and protect it is one thing. but to take that money out of medicare and use it for someone else, that is a shame. >> that is just -- that is not true. that is not true. >> you need to be honest. >> i am being honest. >> tell the american people that that money is being spent for somebody else. our seniors paid for it. they should get it. >> and who is that is somebody else? i think that is such an underhanded tactic. who is that somebody else? congressman, that $716 billion in cutting the growth of medicare savings comes from insurers. it's not reducing benefits. it's reducing a taxpayer giveaway to insurers and hospitals and you know that and that's why you voted for it in the ryan plan. >> krystal, hold on a second. if you can say -- if the president says he can save $716 billion, our seniors paid for that. they're entitled to to. why does he lift that men out and use it for someone else when the program is going bankrupt? >> they're getting the same benefits. they're getting increased benefits. nothing is being taken away. >> krystal, listen. per the cbo, per the cbo, medicare is going bankrupt in ten years. the trustees. >> then why are you demagoguing against savings? why are you demagoguing against savingsing? all right, congressman, that's. >> the savings stay in the program. but you're taking them out of the program and using it it for someone else, that's wrong. >> all right. congressman duffy, i feel your pain. thank you for joining us. from the convention floor to the campaign trail, president obama right now before the a college crowd in virginia. we'll have it for su live just 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. we take you now to charlottesville, virginia, where the president is delivering a message targeted at young voters on the campus of uva. let's listen in. >> thank you. listen, i couldn't really hear what those young people were saying but that's good that they're getting involved. and -- but what i'm trying to tell you here is don't just chant. you got to vote. you got to vote. the decisions we make, war, peace, the economy, the environment, all those things are going to be decided, and they're not just going to affect you. they're going to affect malia and sasha too, my daughters. so, this is how our democracy works. you know, your generation is going to have to push the generations in front of you to make sure that they're making the right decisions. your generation will choose not just between two candidates or two political parties but will choose the path that we take as a country, and it will affect your lives in very personal profound ways. so you think about the questions that are at stake here. are we going to make sure the good jobs and opportunities take root in china or germany or are we going to make sure they take root in charlottesville and richmond right here in virginia and all across america? are we going to make sure that an honest day's work is rewarded? so that somebody who really works hard, they can afford to have their own home and they'll have health care when they get sick and they'll be able to retire with dignity and respect and most of all, they'll be able to make sure their kids are doing better and dreaming bigger than they did? are we going to make sure that not just you but folks who follow you can afford to get a college degree? and are able to pay off their student loan debt? are we going -- are we going to build more good schools and hire more good teachers and make sure that our young people are prepared to attend colleges like uva? will this be a country that keeps moving away from foreign oil and invests in renewable sources of energy like wind and solar and biofuels and help our economy, make our are plan for secure? will this be a nation that leads not just with the strength of our military but the with the power of our example and fidelity to our values? is that the kind of country we will continue to be? >> that's the president down in virginia courting young reporters at uva. coming up, ann romney tried to get other ladies to love her hubby last night. did it work? does the nation feel like a 15-year-old girl who has a well coifed boy taking her home from the dance? we're going to ask melissa harris-perry. atd buoe rtalenre tu. bsidinsindh arle p haca't d ouf-. woouwi , u'levi r diat woouwi , plrkv nare ts e to ra en anizlpf re't- it co xpod ersu neve d peeaesla sap ut..yoho p fheieco like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. it's the moms of this nation, single, married, widowed who really hold this country together. we're the mothers. we are the wives. we're the grandmothers. we're the big sisters. we're the little sisters and we are the daughters. you know it's true, don't you? i love you women! >> well, she loves them but will they love mitt? that's ann romney last night appealing to female voters a demographic that has already been fought over tooth and nail by both parties each oo accusing the other of waging a war on women. make no mistake, women typically outnumber men at the polls by a margin of 10 million.did her speech last night do enough to help connect with female voters that may have been alienated by the abortion debate? joining us is melissa harris-perry. you are the first ever noncyclist to sit at the cycle table. so welcome. >> thank you. >> we couldn't think of anyone better to have. i wanted to ask you a little bit about this because it strikes me that the predicament the republicans find themselves is interesting to me. there's been an unspoken rule in republican politics at republican conventions where they have a very conservative abortion platform but don't like to talk about it except for pat buchanan and the family values of '92, they have pro-choice speakers and try to convey a softer image. this year it's been forced into the headlines by todd akin and all this stuff. do you think ann romney has any effect? >> i think what happens is we sart talking about women as votersen an then it collapses into reproductive rights. reproductive rights are critically important and obviously the profound right word drift and to you racing to the right of the republican party is in the news, but i feel liking what ann romney needed to do was not so much connect around the question of republican rights but that the republican party understands that women are not just reproduction. to reflect a broader understanding of all the roles that women play as citizens. let me be clear, i am no fan of mitt romney but i was rooting for ann. i feel like it's tough to be the spouse of the person running for office. >> it is. >> you're not the public speaker. so i was hoping for a compelling speech not because i wanted people to vote for mitt romney but because i thought she deserves to have a good moment on the is taken. >> did it. >> no, because all she could do was talk about women as mothers which once again recuses women to their reproductive functions which just draws all the attention to abortion, to birth control. at one point she said what about the family that's thinking about having another child but can't afford it in well, if you guys are going to take away birth control and abortion, actually that's going to be a situation that a lot -- you can't -- she just kept talking about women in their relational roles, women are mothers, widows, are wives women are lots of other things. >> i'm really glad you said that. when i watched that speech, had i that same sense of like i'm being pandered to here. but i couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that was really bothering me about that speech. you put your finger on it really well. s.e. has another take. what did you think about ann romney's speech? >> well, a couple of things. i think it's hard to make the case that the wife of a candidate who is out there to talk about her role as a wife and mother is pandering. and when you compare that, for example, to the dnc's lineup of sandra fluke and lily leadbetter and the president of planned parenthood, it's hard to make that argument. i think sheep did a good job with the speech. was it a knock it out of the park oh, my god, ann romney should run for president speech, no. but i think she did what she was put there to do, which was to soften mitt around the edges, tell a personal story or two. and get people rooting for him. >> but s.e., she does have really compelling personal stories she chose not to tell very much about. i have a big sister living with ms. it's a brutalizing disease. it's not that i needed her to pander on it but i was surprised how quickly she sort of said there's one chapter about breast cancer and one chapter about ms. she actually didn't give us her story. >> i think you're right. that's an interesting point. and i can only speculate that they were very afraid of going too far with that narrative looking for sympathy votes. i think she touched on it. she mentioned that this is a real marriage. we've had real ups and downs, realtive bulations, we've had to deal with real problems and then moved on. i think that's more a modesty thing than anything else. >> i do think it was a missed opportunity though. i was frankly surprised by it. i have seen her be very poignant in discussing she was really struggling with ms, for example, when governor romney was running the olympics. she's told this story about how he would come home and stop by the grocery store and she couldn't get out of bed and he would say, ann, it's fine. that was a very moving story. it's not enough just to say he's a great dad. give us the picture. paint it for us. i was surprised she didn't do that. i don't want to be go too far here. i think she gave a strong delivery of a not very poignant speech. >> she's a lovely woman but this idea we don't want to ourselves is endemic to the campaign. i expected anecdotes, as we said. she has those anecdotes but won't give them. crucial line was we don't use our life for political talking points. i'm like -- what is that? is it the religious -- modesty? is it that mitt will be the strong, silent type, get it done and not talk about it and not be emotional. what do you read that as? >> it is odd. as she was giving us her picture of mitt and says, you know, here are all the things she does. she talks about his scholarship fund which is lovely. it is very nice that they have a scholarship fund but it is also sort of, you know, most -- nfl players have one. and a lot of hip hop. it is a kind of standard thing wealthy people do. it is not so much like a reflection of him as a leader. he does have an actual record. he has an actual story of being governor. of running the olympics. she didn't -- i mean, it is an odd sort of decision not to give us a more complex image. she continued to give us sort of the wooden cutout mitt romney when she is the one person that could give us something else. >> yeah. we know man or person by the battles they deal with. she didn't talk about valleys he dealt with. just to wrap up, you have been going through with something in your home in new orleans and are sorry you had to deal with that. >> yeah. i mean -- we, you know, we like -- other folks are trying to invest to build our community back up, the home we were not living in but was across the street from us that we bought, collapsed in isaac. you know. obviously it is seven years to the day since hurricane katrina. but the things that matter are not things. they are family, my family is safe. that's what matters. and for all of white house are watching what's happening, the one thing i will say is this. last night the thing that irritated me was not ann romney's speech, it was the language about who built and it who didn't. the fact is, look, live in place where we need levees. small businesses don't build levees. government builds levees. right now the levees are holding. for that i'm the earnly grateful that they don't -- if they don't hold, that's about government. we have real problems that require collective solutions to solve. >> thank god you are safe and your family is safe. >> it is a busy week in politics. our thoughts are with you. >> thank you. >> true for all the viewers, too. please know that. melissa harris-perry. thanks for being our first ever "the cycle" table guest. next up, tough talk from chris christie. did he say anything? 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[ dad ] i choose great taste. i choose boost. for nearly 50 years, we carried them all to new levels of comfort and security and dignity, even affluence. remember this. s some of us in this room today are here only because this nation had that kind of confidence. it would be wrong to forget that. >> that, to may ears, was and still is the best keynote address ever. mario cuomo, then the governor of new york delivering a moving and eloquent statement of what it was to be a democrat at the height of the reagan era. you have to agree with the content of the speech to recognize its power. it was clear statement of what cuomo and his party believed government's role should be. you listened and you knew what the -- who the democrats were and how they wanted to govern. it was so strong in fact, if you take out the references to the soviet union, it could still stand today as the definitive statement of democratic values. i even joked to a friend a few weeks you a go, democrats that invite cuomo to charlotte give an updated speech, he could pull it off. speaking about all of this last night as i watched chris christie's keynote speech, i heard republicans say it was the pep talk they were looking for. heard democrats ridicule it as an exercise in narcissism in 2016 ambition. i heard a lot of people what i was say before the speech. christie who reads from a prepared text is a lot different and less exciting the christie who covered for the jabs of reporters and hecklers and town hall questions. my verdict, technically proficient and i doubt it will help mitt romney in the fall or in the future. it was for gettable. important the republican party it was a giant wasted opportunity. problem isn't really christie talks so much about himself, it is that he talks so little about what his party actually believes in. he told us over and over that we face big problems as a country and we need real leaders to tackle them and leaders who aren't afraid to tell the country the hard truths polling be damned. who is against that? he didn't spell out what the hard truths actually are. here is an example. christie mentioned the slow economy and deficit and mentioned education as major problems. what should we do about them? well, take a look. >> it is simple. we need politicians to care more about doing something and less about being something. >> so that's the secret. jonathan, really smart political blogger put it, nothing wrong with a big themes type of keynote speech. there is a difference between big themes and cliches. christie's problem is his party's problem. policy has been almost incidental to what they do. the result is when we heard from christie last night. million different ways of saying we are going to do something different. without ever once saying what that something is. okay. we do not have time for a debate on that. i guess. that's the end of the show. that's it for this cycle today. martin bashir, it is all yours. >> steve kornacki who says chris christie was a giant wasted opportunity. thank you, steve. thank you, guys. good afternoon. wednesday, august 29. here's what's happening. ♪ president obama rules like he's above the law. >> democrats depend on dependence. >> guy walked into bar and heard that story and he said well, if you have a business, you didn't build that. well, you