galvanized, not just small business owners but employees. against some of the things that president obama has said about small business. you denies that this was a slur to small business but if you listen to that tape as i have done five or six times it is clear what he meant. he really believes government is the inspiration for small business, not the kind of sweat equity that people put in those companies. martha: steve, always good to talk to you. have a good weekend. okay, martha. see you soon. president obama s campaign offering governor romney a deal of sorts on this whole tax return issue. should we even be talking about this? should the white house focus on the job crisis in this country? a fair and balanced debate coming up on that. martha: two women surrounded by fire, trapped in their burning suv. how a group of strangers raced against time and saved their lives. it is an incredible story.
he and mitt romney will be teaming up again in new hampshire monday night. but they won t be taking the bait. thanks but no thanks to the obama campaign s offer to call it quits if romney were to release five years of taxes. he has a penchant for secrecy and thinks he can play by a different set of rules, and no, i don t accept his word on what his taxes say. let the public see it. and another deadly day for u.s. forces in afghanistan. two separate attacks today by afghan security men, turning their weapons on americans. two are killed, two others seriously injured. good day. i m andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix today, paul ryan will cap one week as mitt romney s running mate wh a trip to florida tomorrow, his eighth battleground state in only seven days. while ryan is defending the ticket on medicare, can mitt romney finally put the tax return issue to rest? chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor
american politics came to this. the most important political interview of the day was done on entertainment tonight. the romney campaign is going on offense now, on medicare. the president s cuts $716 billion. $716 billion from the medicare program to pay for obama care. they leave out the fact that they re for the same cuts. the campaign of big ideas has degenerated into sniping attacks. the issue of tax returns. tax return issue. the more we release, the more we get attacked. ann romney there s going to be no more tax releases. no more tax releases, period. will that put an end to it? john kerry never released the returns of his wife. you said something i didn t say. now, shove it. mr. president, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to chicago. here we go again. this is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like. getting downright nasty. nastiness. the strategy of demonization.
releasing. all right. is the tax return issue, which is, of course, something that the democrats were hitting on a lot pre-vp pick. is it back or is it going to come back? robert, let me start with you. is the tax return issue does it just get put on the back burner or is romney ducked this? here s the analogy that we use. i think this is a pebble or rock in the shoe. it s going to be an annoyance, if you will. at the end of the day, it s the average american voter that goes into the voting booth who says, i m not going to vote for paul ryan or mitt romney because of a tax issue. celinda, you were saying during the break that all of the congressional candidates are going to be doing this so it lives, it festers. so it a pebble a fair i think it s a great one and i think it s going to cause an infectious blister. dan, mitt romney will have to
the president only 45-49 for social security. liz sidoti, i think the most important split here is the fact that romney wins on substantive and economy and jobs and the president leads big on the values portion on who looks out for the middle class. so, here s what has happened. the democrats have gone after romney. in the first is economic fairness in the question of rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy and the second component of it is the personal release of his personal tax returns. and so the democrats are looking at their polling and they are saying, we ll really got something. it s a value thing. it s the romneyhood as the obama team would say. and they are gaining ground on this point. republicans argue that they are not. but they do acknowledge that the personal tax return issue has become a liability for romney. senator, i m a believe that every presidential election is won by the candidate who basically represents a majority