mitt romney. >>> a couple of new polls out. the new nbc news "wall street journal" poll -- >> polls -- >> polls indicate -- >> we've got months of this. >> this is the first full week of the full-on campaign. round one of the general election. >> i'm probably going to need a helmet between now and november. what do you think? >> a poll out today shows the president up. >> 42% of registered voters have a favorable view of the president -- >> this is a snapshot in time. >> does 29% see romney in a favorable light? >> president obama leads by ten points in the enthusiasm gap. >> the likability factor is part of all of this. >> and the trustworthy thing. >> romney has a lot more baggage than the president. >> i wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. >> i know the president likes to attack fellow americans, particularly those successful like my dad. >> the "new york times" poll shows the candidate lost in a dead heat. >> i'll use my energy to help the american people go to work. >> everywhere he

i know you like romney. if you're president obama are you feeling vulnerable or confident ton in the. >> i think we've seen that president obama's having a little bit of a mini-meltdown. he went after the supreme court on the health care ruling and said you dare not turn it over. he started throwing around words like trojan horses against paul ryan's budget. it seems to me he's having a falling down moment here. from my gatherings, it seems like he's having a little bit worry around what's going on right now. >> yeah, let me ask you, amy, obviously president obama is a very skilled campaigner, he's going to be very well funded. he's a formidable opponent and yet i think only one president in history has ever had this unemployment figure and been elected. been re-elected. >> well, certainly i -- >> what do you think. how do you deal with that? >> the white house is hoping in terms of unemployment that the trend is going in the right direction for them. that is that unemployment is dropping as they head toward

romney by six points. as we all know, presidential elections are won and lost in those crucial swing states. and unfortunely for that gop, new polling from fox news suggests republicans are in a real battle for those battlegrounds. in ohio, the president leads romney by six points. 45-39%. almost an exact flip from a few months ago. not exactly the direction romney wants to go. in florida, it is the president up by two. a tight race within the margin of error. but the difference is much more stark with the nonwhite vote. breaking two-thirds for the president with just one in five backing romney. just one more thing, mr. romney, as bit of back ground and position. florida's hispanic population, up 54%. black population, up 26%. it's the white vote that is actually shrinking. our political panel is here with us now in minneapolis. ana marie cox. jonathan capehart, an opinion writer for the "washington post" and strategist julian epstein. one is hispanic, where he is down about 70 to 20, depending on which po

mitt romney knows that. so mitt romney has delegated the crisis management of his nugent problem to ted nugent. who today, tried to explain himself to friendly interviewers. >> if it wasn't for the federal government, my life would be perfect. bottom line is, glenn, i've never threatened anybody's life in my life. i don't threaten. i don't waste breath threatening. i just conduct myself as a dedicated we the people activist. i'm a nonviolent guy. i don't threaten. i wouldn't waste my time threatening. i've never threatened anybody's life in my life. i certainly wouldn't threaten the life of the president or anybody in public office or anybody anywhere. >> i'm a black jew in a nazi clan rally. >> that guy knows something about damage control. and the only thing about ted nugent that seems to bother the romney campaign is nugent's claim that romney solicited nugent's endorsement. ted nugent announced his endorsement on twitter after a long heart and soul conversation with mitt romney today, i concluded this go

will the real mitt romney please stand up. with his three primary wins yesterday he has all but won the nomination. now the task of defining romney is on, and the obama campaign is happy to paint him as a wealthy flip flopping tool of the right. today romney responded and said that the president is hiding his intentions until after the election. one thing that everyone agrees on is that romney needs to do something to jump start his campaign. is there anyone out there who could join a romney ticket and make a difference? meanwhile is it possible that the only person in america that doesn't know that rick santorum is dun is rick santorum? does he think he can win, or is it erasing the legacy of a big loss in 2006. americans are divided between black and white and democrat and republican for the trayvon martin shooting. and what republican senator is staying close to obama and away from romney. we begin with the race to define romney. michael steele was chairman of the republican party, david corn is the author of "show down" bo

they start to move towards romney. dead even among basically middle income folks that make less than $100,000. look at this one here. our next graphic here among college graduates. there it is. move too fast. a little touch screen tonight lawrence. romney won that catcategory. this is where santorum won among non-college educated republicans. not the case in wisconsin. the evangelical vote which was not large in wisconsin in comparison to ohio. look at this. santorum is going to win them, but only by two points. so what we're seeing in our exit polls, what we're seeing in the actual raw returns is that that co-lessing is starting. in wisconsin when you think about it, lawrence, there were two big popular republicans in the conservative movement who got behind romney over the weekend. one is ron johnson, the big tea party favorite and the other one is paul ryan. watching ryan introduce romney tonight and seeing how base republicans reacted to president obama targeting paul ryan today in that speech, i think there's goin

david, i think ann romney comes across as more regular than romney and that's why he uses her. >> yeah, both obama and romney struggle to come off as regular and both their wives kim off as more regular. clearly that's a help. what's complicated for romney is congress. we have a very conservative republican house who believes quite deeply in a lot of conservative principles that don't poll especially well with women and as romney is trying to tack to the center he's often going to have the house sort of pulling back to the right on all sorts of issues and that's going to be complicated. >> state legislatures have made things hard for him too. the war on women issues, georgia, around the country. chris: and finally, look at hispanics. among those who would definitely made their choice, obama gets 47%. half the hispanic voters inn this country have made up their mind for obama. particularly astounding when you look at his record. he said he was for immigration and hasn't pursued it at all. he has deported more than any other president. there is enormous latino disappointment yet there is

the romney's charity, with the romney's money, supports a lot of conservative causes that the romneys support. cnn did a report on this the other day, finding out that this foundation has supported like pro-gun groups and the conservative think tank at stanford and some medical stuff. but they also support to the tune of $10,000 in one year alone a group called the massachusetts family institute. the massachusetts family institute is an anti-gay group based in boston, massachusetts, that advocates all sorts of anti-gay causes. and that explains that if anybody is gay, well, you should quit that. "we encourage the healing of individuals who wish to change their choice of lifestyle through the work of exodus international, love won out, and parents and friends of ex-gays and gays." and how do these recommended groups from the romney-funded organization propose that you do that? they promote magic therapy by which you can be cured of your affliction. like our old friend, richard cohen advertised. >> another technique, bioenergetics, designed to help clients release memories stored in the

mitt romney. >> the question is, if i were elected and congress were to pass the dream act, would i veto it? and the answer is yes. the answer is self-deportation is people decide they could do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here. i think you see a model here in arizona. >> tonight, romney strategists are staring at what may be a latino lock on the electoral college. a democratic source outlined this scenario to politico. "assuming that obama wins all the states that have been won by every democrat for the last 20 years, luing both gore and kerry, and romney wins all the states that mccain won in 2008, that leaves 10 states. with those ten states, there are 1,024 possible combinations. out of those 1,024 scenarios, obama wins 939 of them, and romney wins 85 of them. all 85 scenarios require mitt romney to win florida." a new robo poll of florida registered voters shows president obama leading mitt romney in f

mitt romney says he supports education. i thought he supported ryan plan that cuts pell grants by $170 billion. we'll sort it out right now, this is "the ed show, let's get to work." >> congress needs to keep interest rates on student loans from doubling. >> the president is leading and mitt romney is following. >> i fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans. >> van jones of rebuild the dream on the progressive movement to end the war on the poor. and the economic victims of the romney budget. >>> another big brand dumps alec, and now they may have a big problem with the irs. robert greenwald is here to explain. bill o' reilly joins the scare. >> do you know robert reich? i. >> i do -- >> tonight former labor secret robert reich is here to respond. >>> and the player formerly known as ron artest is in trouble for in assault. should he be tossed from the league forever? >> i got emotional and excited, if was unfortunate that james got hit with an unintentional elbow. >>> good to have you with

let's get behind mitt romney. the damage that is being caused now could be certainly detrimental in the general election. i can talk even specifically, rick santorum taking on mitt romney regarding health care and basically saying that there is no difference between what mitt romney, passed and signed as governor of massachusetts, and what right now is before the supreme court of this country. and he made for those conservatives out there, i think, a very easy argument as to why they should not get behind mitt romney. especially those, andrea, who are hell-bent on repealing what they refer to agency obamacare. >> how many times, a good point you make. how many times have we heard rick santorum on the stump saying that the whole health care issue would be denied to the republican party with mitt romney as the nominee because he could not make the argument effectively against the president's health care plan. he's going to have to take back a whole lot and that makes the very awkward to see what kind of announcement

the romney confirmed with national journal that these are mitt romney's believes. moving welfare recipients into work was one of the basic principles of the bipartisan welfare reform legislation that president clinton signed into law. romney's own book no apology goes even further. romney wrote, welfare without work erodes the spirit and the sense of self-worth of the recipient. it conditions the children of nonworking parents to unproductive lives. well, ann romney is right. last week's made up controversy was a gift. it allowed mitt romney to shake the old etch a sketch and tell women in this country he understands their problems. it allowed the romney campaign another opportunity to run from the truth. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. will mitt romney's war on women stunt backfire? text a for yes. text b for no. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you results later on in the show. i'm joined by ed walsh and e.j. dion. great to have both you have with us tonight. joan, i want to ask you first. daz

mitt romney is at 37. what do you see in the republican menu of issues that could possibly help mitt romney close that gap? >> i think this is romney's real on problem, i look at the average. obama's up two to three percentage appointments in the past week. it isn't that much. it's a swing of 1.5 to 2% of the electorate. so i don't think romney's getting that far behind. the problem is, what romney has is this argument for competence is an argument that i know what the economy needs. the issue for him is that he's not been able, either because of internal party politics or a look of creativity or political courage to come out with an agenda that seems in any way relevant or in proportion to the severity of the economic condition right now. he comes forward and says, look, i've got a very big tax cut. i've got some very, very big cuts to spending. i have some regular -- deregulation i want to do. i'd like to repeal obamacare. i'd like to repeal most of dodd/frank, most of sarbanes-oxley. people talk about h

romney's bare ankles. today, three years after the freedom of information act requests were filed for it, today the "wired" magazine reporter, spencer ackerman, and the national security a archive at george washington university finally got their hands on a document written by this man, phillip zelikow, he ran the 9/11 commission, was condoleezza rice's lawyer at the state department. at the beginning of the obama presidency in 2009, the obama administration released memos in which the bush administration had told itself that torturing people was legal. that as they read the law, cia interrogators couldn't be prosecuted for torturing anyone, because torture was legal, as they saw it. torture is not legal. torture is illegal. and as a top lawyer at the bush state department, philip zelikow circulated a letter within the administration saying that essentially the administration was kidding itself in trying to say that there was some way around the law here. they were trying to give a legal green light to cia

talking about ann romney as his secret weapon. >> ann romney is not a secret anymore. she is a very potent and capable advocate for mitt romney, and she will continue to be so. in pennsylvania, you're going to see her all around suburban philadelphia continuously and anywhere else that it's important for the romney campaign to connect with suburban voters, male and female. to the point you raised for the conventi convention, this is terribly important for mitt romney. the alternative needs to be a central one. a divided party that's divided deep into august doesn't look like a party that's ready if you're ready to fire the incumbent president. >> so romney focusing on the general election, bringing out ann romney more. did you hear him on the radio. she was basically asked, is your husband a stiff? here's what she had to say. >> well, i guess we better unzip him and let the real mitt romney out because he is not. it is so funny to me that that is the perception out there because he is funny, he's engaging, he's witty. he's always playing jokes. when i met him when he w

romney gets none of that. and that's why he's had problems with the right end of the republican party, and i think will have problems with swing voters who just want to know what does he really believe? >> jonathan, there's good news for the romney candidacy in this poll, based on the basic pitch that they're making to the electorate. they've polled the issue of opportunity versus the issue of fairness. and this week we're going to hear a lot from the obama administration about fairness, the buffett rule, paying your fair share. and opportunity would be the case that romney tries to make all the time, that he's going to give you a playing field where you will have the opportunity to some day pay his very low millionaire's tax rate. and so opportunity actually polls with these voters at 51%. fairness polls at only 43%. lik with these kind of swing voters, the romney campaign should be able to get in there and gain some ground. >> yes, there is an opening there and it's a very surprising opening, because we have

the same is true for mitt romney. you've heard about battle ground states that swing these elections. there is a good baker's dozen of them. >> they're in every region. there is new hampshire in the northeast and florida in the south. >> there is 16 states widely seen, none are in the south. >> will you help me become the next president of the united states? >> analysts placed 22 states in the romney column, including some, like indiana that the obama biden ticket carried in 2008. >> republicans have to recapture three states have that been republican. indiana and virginia. and north carolina which voted for democrat in 1976. 39 electoral college votes shifted 78 in the electoral college. >> in three battle ground states mr. obama won, iowa, new mexico and wisconsin again go his way. it's is meaning a gain of 21 electoral votes. let's suppose romney picks up north carolina. ask that he reclaims virginia for the g.o.p. where it's been for all but one of the last 12 elections, let's suppose romney takes nevada where une

mitt romney is no longer running against republicans. >> mitt romney has already pivoted to the general election campaign. that whether rick santorum stays in or not is now basically irrelevant. gwen: and president obama, like all incumbents, is defending his own policies. >> under president obama, domestic oil production is at an eight-year high. so why is big oil attacking him? because he's fighting to end their tax breaks. gwen: the economy, the voter, the supreme court, the candidates, all caught up in one big political stew. covering the week, jackie calmes of "the new york times." john dickerson of "slate" magazine and cbs news. karen tumulty of "the washington post." and david wessel of "the wall street journal." >> award winning reporting and analysis. covering history as it happens. from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill." produced in association with "national journal." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we know why we're here. >> to chart a greener path in the air and in our factories. >> to find cleaner, more efficient w

romney must accuse the president of trying to create a new religion, a religion newer than mitt romney's. religiously mitt romney lives in the glass house of american politics. that's what these polls tell us. 22% unwilling to vote for a mormon for president. mitt romney knows that the press wouldn't let him get away now with accusing barack obama with being a secret muslim, which is an even bigger glass house in american politics. polls show that 46% of voters would be reluctant to vote for a muslim candidate. so instead of calling barack obama a muslim mitt romney is now calling him an atheist. >> i think there is a desire to establish a religion in america known as secularism. and i know that based upon reports the obama administration gave this a lot of thought, a lot of discussion. >> so having failed to make barack obama a muslim, republicans led now by mitt romney are hellbent on making him an atheist. and here's why. in the politics of religion in this country, the only thing that's worse than being a mormon or a muslim in the eyes of our extremely religiously intolerant electora

mitt romney has. won enough delegates yet to secure the delegation, but talk of his vp selection is beginning. john hidelman wrote that the search for the ticket's number two is always a big deal. but for romney, it may be especially significant given the severity of the damage that he suffered in the past months with key segments of the electorate. among them, latino and female voters. who will it be? does he need to choose someone bold and interesting, a game changer, someone who can improve his image with the conservative base, or someone safe, someone who won't overshadow him? all right, men, we are strategists for romney. we're in a room together, we need to pick a vp. eugene, what is the top of our priority list in terms of what we're looking for? >> the top of the priority list i think for mitt romney would be someone whose conservative credentials would not be questioned. it doesn't have to be a total tea party type, but it needs to be somebody who isn't seen as a massachusetts moderate, and w

look at that, romney, romney, romney, romney. one county out here that seems to be leaning santorum's way. when you get up here to this state with rural areas and little cities. look at who showed up today. it's an open primary. 12% of the voters were democratic. see who they chose. 30% independent. it will be interesting to see what happened with them. look at this, the biggest group were the moderates or the liberals in terms of who showed up by ideology and how they see themselves. ief u lo if you look at born-again evangelical christians, we know rick santorum has done very well all over the country but 64% of people do not put themselves in that category. that's very different from louisiana where he had a big sweep so we'll have to see if that works against him and whether or not these people who are not born-again evangelical christians then get on board with mitt romney. 57% of the people support that, and that should work in favor of rick santorum. again, we'll have to see if it does because there has been some endorseme

romney needs to do the same. >> the other issue is that people forget mitt romney is surrounded by romney trying to explain why her family strapped the family dog to the top of the car. >> you said it was the most wounding thing in the campaign. >> the dog loved it. >> but the dog got sick. >> once. we traveled all the time. and he ate the turkey on the counter. i mean, he had the runs. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. new v8 v-fusion smoothie. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect. >>> mores on pretty de

mitt romney finishes third. the republican establishment goes to work and romney walks away with the delegates, the majority of the delegates. i understand the rick santorum camp is pretty hot about this process. isn't this ignoring the will of the people when they caucus? what do you make of this? >> this isn't a general election. it's a caucus process in the republican party. the romney campaign is ready for prime time. they followed the rules. they got the delegates. another example of rick santorum's campaign not being ready to play at this level and that's why his campaign is all but over as we come to tonight and mitt romney is on the edge of being the nominee. >> romney did have some of his attorneys to that campaign this weekend. they must have done some pretty fast talking. romney looks like he's going to be get it, we might as well go with him? what about that? >> it's very powerful. the idea of being the insurgent is that you can steal momentum and build on it. we have seen a number try to get it and

contradicts mitt romney. and in our side show, we took a look back at the hits that newt gingrich leveled at mitt romney. take a look at this one, for example. >> there is something so grotesquely hypocritical. will team obama use biting comments like that to slam mitt romney in the general election? newt seemed less than concerned. >> when somebody wins this nomination, can those of you who have been running stand together and honestly say, i support the endorsement? >> absolutely. it doesn't matter, we just make stuff up, anyway. >> once the obama campaign gets ahold of newt's own statements about mitt romney, they lose any shred of truth. up next, republican senator oren hatch says the obama campaign will play against mitt romney. who says obama is a mormon? by the way, you can twitter me at smerconish. >>> welcome back to "hardball." our hardball strategists are back tonight to discuss two trending topics on the campaign trail this week. number one, rick santorum met with conservatives today to try to bri

romney. that win for mr. romney in wisconsin tonight puts him one step closer to securing the republican presidential nomination. it escalates the calls for his rivals to drop out of the race. it solidifies his image as the presumptive republican president ideal nominee. it's all good for him. the bad news for mr. romney is that he might be going to jail. i don't think he will, but theoretically, i mean, mitt romney campaigning in wisconsin today appears to have broken the law. i'm not kidding. what you're looking at right now is a mitt romney campaign event this morning in waukesha, wisconsin. he is at a sub shop with paul ryan called cousins subs. they are not taking money. they are handing out free submarine sandwiches to wisconsin voters dug an event that was billed by the romney campaign as an election-day lunch. what you are looking at there is against the law. see mr. romney? watch. against the law. that's illegal. right there. when you hand the submarine sandwich to the person and don't take the money

that is what mitt romney is. in addition to that the unbelievable budget cuts and cutting our way to deficit reduction that really is not a path to prosperity, it's a path to poverty, is something that the american people need to know. >> you've got a couple of things going on. here one, this messaging. but you've got external factors. are you in joe biden's catmp? he thinks this campaign could turn on external factors, things like gas prices, iran. what do you think? could those things eventually be the biggest threat to derail the president's re-election? >> well, what i think that is -- this election is going to turn on is jobs and the economy, on the president's record of taking us where we were bleeding 750,000 jobs a month when he took office, after three years 24 straight consecutive months of job growth, almost 4 million jobs created. you've got a resurgence in the manufacturing sector. mitt romney just a year ago said that you know, we could never again be a manufacturing economy. now we've had the most

. >>> with president obama's lead over mitt romney increasing, romney is looking for ways he can agree with the president. and today, he found one. >> their new theme is the war on women. there is no war on women. >> there's really not a gender problem in the republican party. >> the fact of the matter is, it's a fiction. >> snap out of it. >> last year, there were 1,100 anti-woman provisions introduced in state legislatures. >> there is no war on women. >> we have eight states that are trying to de-fund planned parenthood. >> i also feel the government should cut off funding to planned parenthood. >> we have 13 states trying to push the same mandatory ultrasound bills. >> you have to close your eyes -- >> i could go on and on. >> the democrats said we had a war caterpillars we'd have a problem with caterpillars. >> the republicans really embarrassed themselves. >> we do suffer from p.m.s. -- >> new controversy at augusta national golf club. >> a question of whether women should be members of augusta. >> women are not allowed to become members. >> jay carney has spoken out -- >> the pr

but romney, in romney world when there's something new that's there, and oh, by the way, rush limbaugh has a position on it, we've never seen -- >> this is kind of a gimme, right? when you are battling the perception that your party and your candidacy is waging a war on women, you cannot come out for gender -- >> here's my point. would he, say, three months ago before this war on women started raging. would he have answered that that quickly? he's being asked about a private golf club and what should they do -- wouldn't he have gone all hands off -- >> he might have talked about kind of -- >> and talked about how many members he knows there and how many friends of his own it? >> yeah, i have many friends who own golf clubs and their wives are excellent players, something like that. but i think, the thing is he can't come out on any of the issues that are really have women so worked up, right. he can't change his position, at least not right now on contraceptive coverage. he can't change his position on choice, can't change his position on privatizing medicare and medicaid. this is an e