pennsylvania avenue. today, these are the numbers on everyone's mind. 13.7 million. that's how much mitt romney made on his investments last year and on that income he paid an effective tax rate of 14.1%. the battle over what the gop nominee's newly released tax returns means tops the day's political stories. the romney camp says they demonstrate how generous mitt and ann romney are they donated about $4 million in charity in 2011. >> i think what this show this is romneys are extremely generous people. they gave away 30% of their income to charity. romney has always believed to whom much is given much is required and he's living proof of that. meanwhile, the obama campaign is out with a new web video attacking governor romney urging him to release more than two years of returns. romney released a certified summary for the last 20 years but the obama campaign says that's not good enough. >> this is only the tip of the iceberg. romney has only released two years of tax returns, both after he started running for president. why won't he come clean with the american people? what else is he hiding? >> the romney campaign also released late friday the medical assessments of mitt romney and paul ryan. romney's physician calls him a quote vigorous man with reserves of strength, energy and stamina. paul ryan's doctor says he's in excellent health and makes important preventive lifestyle choices. congressman ryan was at a rally in florida and former governor george bush was there lending his support. the president meanwhile travels to the battleground state of wisconsin today, his first campaign trip there since february. he will be visiting milwaukee for two campaign events. more on these stories throughout the next three hours. we hope you'll stay with us. today, mitt romney is in california trying to raise some campaign cash at a series of fund-raisers there. peter alexander is in san francisco traveling with mr. romney and joins us on the telephone on a saturday afternoon. good after noon to you. >> reporter: mitt romney is en route to san diego, has events in san diego and los angeles trying to raise money. the campaign isn't just trailing in the polls, also trailing in some campaign cash now. you were focusing on numbers with the taxes, one of the points made to me specifically yesterday when i asked if they were politically motivated putting these numbers out on a friday, they said we did it because they were simply done. the reality when you do it on a friday and give estimates of their last 20 years of tax returns, it's done on a day when fewer people will pay attention to it. in many ways their hope is after a bad series of weeks they can wash this away with other bad headlines and avoid bad had lines in the weeks ahead. >> you have spent more time with mitt romney than just about any our journalist at this point. talk to me a little bit about the mood of the campaign right now. what's going on behind the scenes in terms of mood. >> reporter: i think campaign advisors will acknowledge they were a little shaken by the last week or so with the fact the hidden videotape came out with the 47% comment that romney referred to them as victims and government dependence and viewed that as a self-inflicted wound, said it took them off message. their priority is get back on offense. it's a lot harder to catch up, particularly in those key swing states when they're constantly playing defense. romney thought he saw an opening last week during the univision forum suggesting he was unable to change washington from within, romney said if he can't change it from within, we will, that is a message they continue to stick with as they head into next week. tomorrow, the romney campaign we will be traveling alongside them down 5 points in the wall street maris poll, they think they can do well and like to do well but have ground to make up. they have only been there once in the last seven weeks and will make two stops there in the next two days. >> peter alexander the man who rarely sleeps covering the romney campaign for us on a saturday afternoon. trading to our political panel, managing editor and national syndicated radio show host, both msnbc contributors. thanks for your time. let's start with a rough week for governor romney. rough could be a conservative description. he decided to cap it off with the relse of those 2011 returns and summary for the last 20 years, the obama campaign wasting no time responding you saw in that web video. what does this release do for the questions about governor romney's taxes over the last two decades? >> craig, it does absolutely nothing. i described this in an earlier program on msnbc to attempt to replace this with the tax returns. this was an attempt to get the media to chase another story even though the romney camp knows the other story is bad, too. i think the 47%, that video was so damaging and so jarring to the romney campaign they decided they needed to distract the press at all costs even if the underlying story they were using is also bad, romney paying a lower tax rate than average americans. >> michael, senate majority leader harry reid accused romney of paying no income taxes seized on the friday document dump saying in part quote mitt romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he's seen fit to show the american people and then only to conform with his public statements, reid said that raises the question what else in those returns has romney manipulated? is the governor in a situation, is he in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation? >> only he would know that. he can certainly produce tax returns like his predecessors have done, those seeking the highest office in the land including his father, well-known. if there's nothing to be afraid of he ought to release them. i think peter alexander released the answer, his timing. if you can get ahead of the curve because you have a story that's legitimate and has rationale behind it, you don't release it on a friday. you release bad news on a friday. the fact they released this summary from an accountant on a friday let's you know all you need to know on this issue. >> julian epstein raised an interesting point on the martin bashir show yesterday. i want to show you about trying to change the subject from the 47% remark. >> what they actually did, reinforced the narrative here. but for the manipulation that gets romney from 9% tax rate to 14% tax rate, he would be paying less in taxes than the majority of 47% of people he insulted as moocher moochers. >> if the governor was in fact trying to change the narrative, did he just -- did he make things worse? >> i think, yeah, julian epstein was exactly right. here's the problem. mitt romney has an underlying narrative about him that is negative, he will do anything to get elected and that's his only ideology. the idea they only released tax returns dealing with the year he was already running for president and he clearly manipulated the results on those returns to incree the rate of taxes he paid, it makes it look like a very cynical move. the other issue is -- without doing it -- even the tax rate he put himself at, 14%, even that is significant lower than what the average american pays. when people understand that even their payroll taxes are higher than the 14% romney paid, it doesn't look good in any way, no matter how you manipulate it. >> michael, refusing at least four times to talk about romney's controversial comments, joe biden let loose yesterday. >> these folks believe they're entitled, they've become dependent, they see themselves as victims who won't take responsibility for their own lives. how could he be so profoundly wrong about america? not in my neighborhood. not where i grew up. not the people i know. >> michael, you know pennsylvania pretty well. how did those comments play in the vice president's birthplace, which, of course, is a battleground state? >> well, they're firing up both bases. supporters of the president are so put off by that which was said by governor romney, many supporters of governor romney, i have to tell you, because i took phone calls from them all week long are offering a hell yes. how is it playing with independents j. yesterday, susanne page had that front storytelling us independents not surprisingly are breaking against romney for those comments. that's the net net of all this. >> we will take a break now, in 40 or 50 minutes. we will bring you back. michael i want to talk to you about the huff post and the future of the gop and what happens in november. get you some water, take a quick bathroom break, see you in a few. after a week like this, how much of a reboot does mitt romney's campaign really need? we will get a handle on it with two political veterans. yeah, i'm gay, i always have been, known since forever. >> you probably know that. that video went viral and since then serving in a post "don't ask, don't tell" military. we will ask what happened since this. a little later, what if gore had won? we'll take you back to 2000. next hour. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! 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[ yawning sound ] a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. there you have it, a live picture there. that is air force one, in case you're unfamiliar with that airplane. president set to be in milwaukee, arrived in milwaukee. that plane is on a tarmac in milwaukee, wisconsin, holding two events, one a campaign event, the other a fund-raising event a little later in milwaukee. 10 electoral votes up for grabs in wisconsin. it is what we like to call a battleground state. more on wisconsin a little later. despite the criticism coming from within his own party, mitt romney says his campaign is fine as it is, in an interview set to air tomorrow night. romney pushes back against calls for change inside his operation. >> you're the ceo of this campaign, a lot of republicans and donors would like to know how do you turn this thing around? you have a little more than six weeks. what do you do? >> it doesn't need to turn around. we have a campaign tied to the incumbent president of the united states. >> joining me now in our war room, a former pennsylvania congressman, joe sestak and bill clinton and romney surrogate and george w. bush white house aide. good afternoon to you. congressman sestak, let me start from you. i want to play another clip of that "60 minutes" interview set to air tomorrow night when he was asked about the campaign and the video 47%. >> that's not the campaign. that was me. i have a very effective campaign, doing a very good job. >> peggy nounen writing in the "wall street journal," i called it in competecompetent, i was b polite but really meant rolling collam ca l ca lamty. >> what is it you're trying to say? >> mitt romney is the campaign. you represent that ship and how well it does. he's made these gaffes on his own both about the egyptian embassy and 47% of americans he spoke about that he said didn't have personal responsibility. i really truly believe mitt romney is a decent man. but he's twice shown by these gaffes, if that's the word you want to use, as commander in chief, is he willing to be a resolute type of leader that's thoughtful when he speaks about our crisis overseas. second, when he said about 47% of americans, that they don't have personal responsibility, he was speaking about our veterans coming home. those with post traumatic stress disorder, those students who get student loans republican president eisenhower in initiated that. in short, he hasn't demonstrated that himself and why he took that issue on himself about the fabric of america. i don't think it's over for him. others have come back. you've watched harry truman and bill clinton in his primary. it's not over but he has to grab ahold of it now. >> joe, you mentioned something and joe watkins, i want to bring this to you now. mitt romney not the first presidential candidate to open mouth insert foot while on the trail. we dug up a few others. take a look and listen. >> i took the initiative in creating the internet. >> the fundamentals of our economy are strong. >> those are just two. there are lots more out there. you worked with bush 41 who infamously said, message, i care. all these men lived these gaffes down to some extent, some elected, some were not. how does mitt romney recover from his series of gaffes? >> i think the way you do it is by being steady and not too upset about mistakes made. he has to play offense not defense. as long as you're playing defense, you probably can't win. you have to score points and the way to do that is play offense by sharing your message. no matter what anybody says about words misspoken you have to consider the fact 12 million americans aren't working. you have to speak to them, undecided voters not hard "d" or hard "r"s. >> is mitt romney's campaign designed for those people? is he running a campaign designed for independent voters? >> he is running a campaign designed for independent voters. he knows he has to win in the swing states and people who haven't yet made up their mind. the point he has to stress to them is i'm the guy that can put our economy back on track. you have a majority of americans who feel we're heading in the wrong direction and he has to show them he can take them in the right direction. >> joe makes a couple good points. one, he has to show persistence and not show he's panicking. number two, to what joe said, he does have an ability to demonstrate he is not only a caring family man but he cares about others. you can see it in his charity. but he hasn't done that. hasn't been captain of the ship, a future president of the united states demonstrated to half of americans he does understand they are personally responsible. i think his failure to do that is most harming. joe is right but he hasn't demonstrated that. >> 45 days out, can you really redefine yourself? if you haven't humanized yourself yet, can you do it now? >> i don't think it's a matter of redefining yourself. you have to make sure you reach the people that haven't made up their minds yet. >> there's like 23 of those people. half live in iowa and the other half in hohio. >> he has to convince people in ohio and florida and wisconsin and pennsylvania and swing states he has the answers. these people have not yet made up their mind, on the brink, doesn't know which way to go yet, haven't made up their mi s minds. >> joe, i know your mouth is up but we have to go. write that thought down. joe sestak, joe watkins, thanks to you both. the guy with the catchiest catch phrase of the gop primary. you remember him, right? he has a very different view of things when it comes to how he would have matched up against the president. we're always very interested in what her man cain has to say about things. a little bit later, 45 days to go to election day has the candidates trying to win over voters' hearts and minds been on the campaign,enough? ♪ [ female announcer ] one drop of ultra dawn has twice the everyday grease cleaning ingredients of one drop of the leading non-concentrated brand... ♪ [ crowd cheering ] ...to clean 2x more greasy dishes. dawn does more. so it's not a chore. dawn does more. and every day since, two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country. in fact, over the last five years, no other energy company has invested more in the us than bp. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. today, our commitment to the gulf, and to america, has never been stronger. time now for the campaign trail mix. our hot topic, lawmakers making cameos on nbc. among them olympia snowe, barbara boxer and even congressman campaign found himself inside the coat closet. >> excuse me, i just need to get my coat. >> can you give me a minute? >> are you okay? >> i would like you to leave and give me a little bit of privacy. >> all right. sorry. hope everything's okay. >> nosy people have no respect for personal space. >> from jon mccain to raising cain, as in her man. not to be left out of the latest headlines. the presidential hopeful said if he had been the gop candidate he would have a substantial lead over president obama by now. his reason you ask, according to the gainesville sun, i have some depth to my ideas, cain who famously touted his 9-9-9 tax plan made those comments at a speech at the university of florida. all hands on deck you scurvy pirates. the president wants your vote. that was my best pirate impersonation. sorry i disappointed you. not one to leave land lubbers without a laugh, the president tweeted a photo on himself on "talk like a pirate day." there he is sitting in the oval office. it could be captain jack sparrow, captain morgan. the white house says that peick was original ly snapped for a 2009 correspondent dinner. >> congresswoman michele bachmann, the presidential contender raised and spent more money than anybody else in the house. 16 million bucks in july alone. she is fighting democratic efforts to oust her from office. coming up, how a 400 pound tiger at the bronx zoo ended up tearing into a man's back and arms. also, guess who's come hat in hand looking for a loan? it's the guy that made a whole bunch of money when he was running for president. we'll tell you why. up next. you're watching msnbc. the place for politics. ♪ bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. 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