two, his position may be different from mitt romney's and three, it may be an issue where mitt romney himself has shifted his position over the years. >> i know this has come up in some general election campaigns that he's been in in the past with his democratic opponents trying to raise this. there's lots more here to learn about paul ryan and to talk about. craig gilbert, washington bureau chief from the milwaukee sentinel. i really appreciate your time. >> thanks, anytime. >> all right, if you think the day is coming when americans will have to leave the country in order to get something they're supposedly able to legally get here, if you think that is something that's sort of far fetched, if you think that's something we use as hyperbole but it doesn't happen, it's really happening. it's happening in the american south, and that amazing story is coming up. to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contai

it's not the platform of mitt romney. >> oh. the republican party platform, that has nothing to do with the republican party's presidential nominee. rnc communications director, if you didn't exist somebody would have to make you up. sean spicer, tried it as well. this was even better. his answer on the republican party having a platform on abortion that is the same as todd akin's platform on abortion. no exceptions for rape and incest, watch. >> our platform is just a simple set of principals, there's no additional language. so to talk about exceptions or whatever is just not found in the platform. >> our platform not having rape exceptions in it doesn't mean there are no rape exceptions in it -- i know we say we're banning abortions and there's no exceptions, that doesn't mean there's no exceptions. want to try that again? when vice presidential nominee paul ryan was grilled on the fact that his policy on abortion is the exact same as todd akin, here was his answer. >> mitt romney is the top of the ticket, and mitt romney will

before mitt romney republican governors -- mitt romney republican governor, the massachusetts governor was a republican. and before that, the republican governor was a republican. and before that republican governor, the governor before that was a republican. massachusetts wasn't against republican governors. we had four in a row. but then after mitt romney, massachusetts went democratic. and mitt romney left office with an approval rating so bad it's basically george w. bush territory. now he's saying people who hired me in the past have been pleased that they did. that is not true at all of the last time mitt romney held public office. see this is why it's going to be so awesome to watch the republican convention next week. how are you going to explain a, why you didn't run for re-election and b how massachusetts thought of you at the time and how they think of you now? if the "wall street journal" won't call him on it when he says the people were happy to have hired him, will the press covering the rnc call him on that? i can't wait. it's going to be a lot of fun. >> i intend to get

and that's who mitt romney hired to clean up bain. and that's who mitt romney has hired. some of them have ethical constraints on what jobs they would take. but some don't. this firm was also hired by the gap in 2007 to clean things up for them after it was discovered that gap clothing was using 10-year-old slaves in india. >> for gap, a retailer that has long promoted itself as responsible, the pictures could not be more embarrassing. children as young as 10 showing clothing carrying the gap label in a sweat shop in india. the photos got immediate response from gap's president. >> i am grateful that this investigative reporter found this. because we can do something about it. >> good answer. when the gap needed some good answers when they wanted to clean up, not necessarily that problem, but the image problem created by their child slave labor problem, they hired this pr company called brunswick group. they also got the call when bp befouled the gulf coast with the spill. brunswick was who bp called not to clean up the problem of the oil but the image problem created by

mitt romney has a tell. but you have to be willing to look back to the earlier part of his time in public life to see it. hold on, wait, there's more. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] >>> there's. more from the previous public life of mitt romney ahead right after this. >> and we have big news from the great state of michigan. a while since those words have been uttered, but tonight, it's true. big news, stay tuned. organic artichokes, organic lettuce, organic kale... does your cauliflower have a big carbon footprint? not at all. that's great. melons!!! yeah! well that was uncalled for. uhh... mr. gallagher. incoming!!! hahaha! it's wasteful. you know jimmy. folks who save hundreds of dollars switchg to geico sure are happy. how happy, ronny? happier than gallagher at a get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. with tums freshers! concentrated relief that goes to work in seconds and freshens breath. ♪ tum...tum...tum...tum... tums!

it was a video to get us psyched about mitt romney. it was a good ten-minute introduction video for mitt romney that was really well done. really might make you like him even if you didn't like him already or haven't been paying attention and fell asleep for a second at the end of "rookie blue." they had this done, ten-minute film, but they did not air it during network coverage, so most people did not see it. it was done by the time the networks started covering the convention. they had scheduled it to run before the networks were switching over to convention coverage. for a specific reason. they did that in order to make room in the golden hour, in the network coverage hour for this instead. look. to be announced. their big surprise. a toe announced speaker. a surprise, wow, and then of course, they blew the surprise. word about who it was going to be leaked out a day early so there was no suspension at all about who the suspensieful speaker would be, but apparently they thought it was going to be so good, this speaker was going to b

mitt romney has a tell. but you have to be willing to look back to the earlier part of his time in public life to see it. but hold on. wait. there's more.. >> i'm usually checking up on my kids botional drink to help get the nutrition i was missing. now i drink it every day, and i love the great taste. [ female announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to help keep bones strong and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a delicious taste. your favorite patient is here! [ dad ] i choose great taste. i choose boost. then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com for a great retirement plan with low cost investments. ♪ >>> there's

not unless you're john mccain or mitt romney. not even ranks priebus who has healthy rage issues of his own. >> as far as harry reid is concerned, listen, you might want to go down that road. i'm not going to respond to a dirty liar where. >> you think harry reid is a dirty lie snr. >> i just said it. >> ranks priebus for all his righteous indignation has offered no proof that harry reid is a liar, clean, dirty, or otherwise. neither for that matter has politifact which says harry reid is lying. but they produce zero evidence to support their claim that harry reid is lying. but you know, that's politifpol and par for the course which is why it's okay to not take them seriously on anything ever. it's also worth noting how senator harry reid continues to comportd himself on the issue. taking criticism from left, right, and center, and stupid for the way he has been pursuing this allegation. he gets trashed on the sunday shows, calmed a dirty liar, and how does he respond? he digs in deeper, telling reporters today, quote, the whole

mitt romney, in the republican coalition, more resistant to mitt romney in the republican presidential primaries, he had a nomination locked up and still voting for rick santorum in primaries. it's a huge group, about 44% of the republican party. they are very hostile to mitt romney and equally or much more hostile to barack obama. so romney himself can't go to that group with much credibility but a guy like ralph reed, believe it or not, still can. >> i look at the -- to serial if reed and tim phillips and these anti-voting rights people out there at the same time, to me it's like the rats who survived the sinking ss abramoff. i can't believe they are in public at all. but their very survival maybe ought to be sentiment to how good they are at playing the political game. as a liberal i look at the right like that and think, wow, rib brals cannot survive hardball politics stuff. am i just being liberal about that, though? is the left just as good at playing this game? >> i think we're seeing real differences between the two parties. voter i.d., when we talk about the effect that that c

mitt romney is just so out of touch. >> mitt romney opposes requiring insurance coverage for contraception and he supports overturned roe v. wade. he backed a bill that outlaws all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. >> contraception is so important to women. it's about a woman being able to make decisions. >> i don't remember anyone as extreme as romney. >> cut off funding to planned parenthood. >> i don't think mitt romney can even understand the mindset of someone who has to go to planned parenthood. >> three separate ads on women's reproductive rights over the last month from the obama campaign. and these are not just running on the web or in a liberal market here and there. these are big official campaign ad buys. these are on tv in places the president is trying really hard to win. and in the swing state of colorado tomorrow, introducing the president at his big campaign event in denver is going to be the woman who accidentally made conservatives say what they meant when they launched their republican offensive earlier this year against american women's access to contraceptio

they called it, i heard the clip you played, mitt romney say, funneled money out of medicare. no, that is not true. we made medicare for beneficiaried better. of course, the republicans confused the voters. and you saw that seniors voted by, you know, i don't know what the president is, more for the republicans. their campaign of confusion actually did work. but, chris, i think i read differently the boehner letter about the structural changes that they want to make, meaning the voucher system. voucher care that they wanted to go back not only to raising the edge of medicare, but to turn it into a voucher program and turn it over back to the private insurance companies. a very unpopular, inefficient, bad idea that would cost seniors up to $6,000 more a year to pay for medicare benefits. >> one of the things i really like about the plan that you put together during the simpson/bowles commission, is that it questioned a lot of the underlying premises that guide the conversation we're having about fiscal policy right now. and i guess i want to ask you, given the fact that we have

it appeared in mitt romney's plan. and that caught the eye of a politician. he said he he has demonstrated when he stepped into government that he could work in a difficult environment, take good ideas like private health insurance and apply them to the need to have everyone insured. they came up with the idea an alternative and they made it the law in massachusetts and got democrats to embrace it. for a thinktank that is the dream. today both the foundation and the new president agree that the individual mandate is not just about policy, it is terrible no good constitutional policy. their idea. now horrible and only judged that way until they began endorsing it. flip-flopping to try and make health care reform. i don't want to call it his job, but it is not shocking. it is what you do. but it is not what you do if you are a thinkingtank. his ascension to the head of the foundation is both a perfect match and a disturbing one. they are where the politicians get their ideas and where the media figures look to get an informed take on whether something make sens

. >> mitt romney is campaigning saying he would like to end --. >> ask the bishops. >> he would like to end all family planning support at the federal level, eliminate title x. rick santorum would like states to make contraception illegal. you can try to make this an issue that democrats hate religious, churches were ex-emmed from the beginning. this is about health insurance, the republican party is waging war on contraception. >> i think she is the best arguments in favor of her parents using contraception. i would be all for that. all the rest of the crowd at msnbc, too, for that matter. >> that happened at cpack at conservative political action. mr. fox news person i'm sorry i feel i wish i had never been born, personally, i'm glad that you were born. otherwise how would republicans get the special fox news bat signal that it's time to be outraged now about what used to be republicans own policy idea. joining us now is jan schakowski, thank you for joining us, nice to have you here. >> thank you i'm awfully glad you were born, rachel. >> thank you, i sort of feel that should beco

be a home field for mitt romney. it's an attempt for mitt romney to reinforce his conservative bona fides. newt gingrich having his wife introduced him that says -- well, says he's married to that person now. which is maybe particularly important given his grandstanding on catholic doctrine on sexual morality for the past couple weeks, given the rest of his history. of all of these the romney one is the most important, how hard mr. romney is trying to show up his -- to shore up his standing with conservatives. john mccain never successfully did that in 2008. he still ended up getting the nomination. it is enot that you can't get te nomination without seeming like a red, red, red conservative fire breather, right in that does seem to be the weakness in his campaign right now and what he's working hardest to fix. mr. romney lost a number of contests to not only newt gingrich but rick santorum. the santorum thing is not a fluke. we put a national poll that rick santorum is leading. gallup, rick santorum is climbing fast

would mitt romney really walk in a bar? your introduction at an event like this is a form of politician framing, like picking a running mate or where you choose to announce the candidacy or what metaphor you use in your stump speech, all important parts of political framing. usually in presidential politics your political framing is about compensating for some perceived weakness you have as a candidate. bolstering something about your candidacy that maybe is a little bit wobbly. john mccain seen as being the guy who has been around for a long time, old man of the party, picks for his running mate a young, previously totally unknown republican governor. barack obama perceived to have the baggage of a divided democratic party after his long fought, bloody primary battle for hillary clinton. hillary clinton is the one who essentially introduces him as the democratic nominee. hillary clinton is the one who moves formally at the convention that barack obama be nominated by the democratic party for president. the idea between all

oakland county is supporting mitt romney for president. mitt romney is from michigan. his dad was the governor there. oakland county is for him. that should be good news for mitt romney, right? the bad news? oakland county appears to be the only county in the entire state of michigan that is for romney. the polling from public policy polling released their latest poll out of michigan today finds not only is mitt romney now losing his home state to rick santorum by 15 points, 15 points, but "rick santorum is ahead of mitt romney every where in michigan except oakland county" that's it. oakland county, home of the chrysler mumuseum. they are the only ones behind him in michigan. the rest of mr. romney's home state is going for rick santorum. i am on record over and over and over and over and over again saying mitt romney has this race locked down, saying no way anybody but romney had the slightest chance and i have been steadfast. i ignored it, newt gingrich laughed, i dismissed rick santorum when he won iowa. now for the first time you can tell i can tell a plausible st

and that winner is mitt romney. excuse me. >> according to the maine republican party, mitt romney won maine's caucus with 39% of the vote. ron paul with 36%. the margin of victory for mr. romney was a razor thin 194 votes. case closed, right? ha, not by a long shot. remember those three maine counties i mentioned, washington, waldo and kennebec, lots of republicans living in those counties who voted in the presidential preference poll never actually had their votes counted by the maine republican party. republicans in washington county postponed their caucuses on saturday because of a snow storm they expected to hit the area and even though they are planning to vote instead this coming weekend, that is when they postponed the caucus to, the state republican party has said, washington county your votes won't count. no additional votes will be counted. sorry, washington county, you don't count. republicans in waterville main, in kennebec county did vote but their vote total, as you see here, shows up look on the righ

mitt romney did not win iowa. had the iowa result been clear the night of the caucus, had the iowa republican party not screwed it up, had rick santorum been declared the winner that night i'm not sure that would have had a huge effect on the overall race anyway. iowa republicans are seen as having kind of a mike huckabee problem. iowa republicans pick guys like mike huckabee and rick santorum, has no effect on the overall race it's iowa, kind of irrelevant, another case for iowa not going first at least on the republican side. in iowa, historical terms it was amazing that iowa republicans screwed up their caucuses so badly they wrongly reported the results and had to flip them after the fact. historically amazing. but in terms of the impact of the race, not so much. now though, if another state pulls an iowa, that would have a huge impact on the narrative of the race. therefore, it would have a big impact on who is likely to get the republican nomination for president. i think that is where we are right now. head

mitt romney signed that. he now calls essentially the same rule from the obama administration an assault on religion. it's his own policy. mike huckabee, former weight loss guru, no longer trying to hawk that, now he's just a fox news personality and he's trying now to set off a national campaign under the heading we are all catholics now basting the obama administration for attacking religious liberty. remember what mike huckabee signed into law in his state when he was governor was the same thing that the obama administration proposed that mr. huckabee is now attacking. apparently it's okay if you are a republican. in terms of this kind of rule as federal policy, the same type of regulation that contraception had to be covered in health insurance prescription plans was upheld as part of federal employment law. federal employment law in the year 2000 when the bush administration took office they had the opportunity to roll that requirement back. they decided not to. they didn't even try. why would they? it w

mitt romney is in trouble. mitt romney is in trouble. this is a crisis moment. the single best thing that could happen top mitt romney in michigan and therefore for his presidential campaign overall, the single best thing that could happen would be for something to come along to split the vote against mitt romney. to split the anti-mitt romney vote, to split the support that for these last couple weeks has been going all to rick santorum. the only thing that could save mitt romney right now is something like a $10 million injection in the newt gingrich campaign. tada, thank you sheldon adelson, casino guy. thank you for keeping alive the one guy that can split all the anti-romney vote that is out there. newt gingrich may have had a terrible, horrible no good bad couple of weeks. at this stage, newt gingrich is the single best thing mitt romney has going for him. >>> joining us is steve schmidt, senior strategist for the mccain campaign and msnbc contributor, thank for being here, nice to sigh. >> great to be with you, rachel. >> you have played this game from th

here is mitt romney's record on foreign policy. i mean, obviously he's got no record on foreign policy, so that is his record on foreign policy. here is his record on him talking about foreign policy. the last time he ran for president, mitt romney was in favor of a timetable for ending the iraq war. >> people have to have goals and benchmarks and things which they're moving towards with flexible timetables and schedules. those are things which of course exist within our military and within al maliki's military. of course you have a series of milestones and yardsticks. >> you believe there should be a timetable in withdrawing the troops? >> well, there is no question but that the president and prime minister al maliki have to have a series of timetables, milestones that they speak about. >> you have to have that. so the last time you ran for president, mitt romney was in favor of a timetable for leaving iraq. mr. romney was also against a timetable for leaving iraq. >> i do not support and have never supported a timed withdrawal. s

hence, michigan mitt romney ads featuring mitt romney with his dad, also ads showing mitt romney driving a car, he has been doing that as well. do we have the car ad, too? he's driving a car, notable thing about the one he's driving the car it's him driving a car made in canada. but still you get the idea. he meant it to look american. what can mitt romney do in michigan to turn around his fortunes on his campaign? we got word the next campaign move for mr. romney in michigan was going to be to bring back donald trump, mr. trump doing radio interviews on behalf of mr. romney in flint and traverse s s city. it made me wonder what the romney campaign expects from that. how the donal trump endorsement has worked so far for the romney campaign and prospects. turns out, there is an app for that. this is the realclearpolitics.com versus obama versus romney head-to-head race starts in october. president on top, mr. romney the red line, the point at which things start to go badly for mr. romney, that date, february 3rd. february 3rd, why is that date -- what was going on for mitt romney february

hence, michigan mitt romney ads like this one featuring mitt romney with his dad, also ads showing mitt romney driving a car, he has been doing that as well. do we have the car ad, too? he's driving a car, notable thing the one he's driving the car it's him driving a car made in canada. but still you get the idea. he meant to it look american. what can mitt romney do in michigan to turn around his fortunes on his campaign? we got word the next campaign move for mr. romney in michigan was going to be to bring back donald trump. mr. trump doing radio interviews on behalf of mr. romney in flint and traverse city and detroit and lansing, when we learned it was a donald trump phase made me wonder what the campaign expects from that. how the donald trump endorsement worked so far for the romney campaign and prospects. turns out, there is an app for that. trackable, graphically, we did it on the blog. this is the real clear politics.com graph of an obama versus romney head-to-head race, starts in mid-october. president obama on top the blue line, mr. romney the red line coming in lower. the po

finally a little bit of good news for mitt romney in arizona, mitt romney has a small lead in arizona right now, beating rick santorum 36 to 33. watch what happens if you take newt gingrich out of the picture. watch. oop, hey that is a reversal. rick santorum goes to losing to beating by 2 points. the next three contests on the republican side are michigan, arizona and washington. the latest polling shows if newt gingrich gets out of the race before those contests, rick santorum wins all three. the tipped presence of newt gingrich in the race is the only thing keeping the words front-runner and mitt romney anywhere near each other. and that brings us back to the billionaire casino guy. when newt gingrich received his first $5 million injection from the casino guy last month, mr. gingrich supporters spent the money going after mitt romney. remember the half hour long king of bain documentary they purchased and aired in south carolina? that was thanks in larnl part to sheldon adelson's $5 million. according to new reporting in "time" magazine, the casino guy was not all that psyched abo

some guy named mitt romney. by the fourth debate tim pawlenty was gone and then by the fourth debate we got a new character. new guy. rick perry. by december in the debate show we had lost herman cain. after iowa, we lost michele bachmann. after south carolina we lost rick perry and by the season finale, by the season finale last night of the republican debate show, by number 20, we were used to just seeing these four remaining characters. the whole cast narrowed down to these four. throughout this show, throughout the whole season, the most interesting and most unpredictable and most outrageous character of all of them for the entire series of this show has been this character. this character. the audience. >> in 2010 when i was deployed to iraq, i had to lie about who i was because i'm a gay soldier and i didn't want to lose my job. my question is under one of your presidencies do you intend to circumvent the progress made for gays and lesbian in the military. >> boo. that was debate number six when they booed