they think the demographics are good for mitt romney. they think the politics blow his way in some parts of the state. how do you think what you're describing about the state of the republican party infrastructure in nevada affects the republican nominees' chances in november? >> well, i was getting e-mails and phone calls even while the caucus disastrous caucus was going on from representatives of the presidential campaigns. and from other prominent campaigns including we have the big senate race here between dean heller and shelley berkley saying we're going to avoid the party, won't have anything to do with it. we'll raise money outside. you mentioned the karl rove, we talked about him last time, crossroads will pour a lot of money in here. the rnc will pour money in here to try to make up for the lack of a state republican party. as i said to you back then and i believe it now, you can't just erect those things overnight or in one election cycle. the democrats here spent two or three election cycles building up the formidable organiz

under the state chairman's leadership, mitt romney won on election night. then it was a tie and it turned out rick santorum won. i'm sorry, i quit. the new iowa state chairman is known for being a supporter of ron paul. one telling politico, he's not a guy you have a lot of confidence in. we spoke to a veteran iowa observer who said there's angst among the party about their new chairman's ability to get the job done in iowa. state parties are important. the first thing that we think about are things like getting out the vote and the basic logistics for the presidential race. it's also everything else on the ticket. it's every other race that will be on the ballot in november. in states that are a total mess at the state party level, what's plan b? if some key state republican parties literally are not able the pay their rent so it does not seem like they will be able to do anything for the elections this fall. what's plan b? plan b is this guy. the $200 million war chest that karl rove has committed will start producing anti-obama campaign ads this month. i

bush got 44% and mitt romney is at 14. yes, there's a reason for that. >> the answer is self-deportation which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to run here. >> i'm running for office. i can't have illegals. >> if i were elected and congress pass the dream act, would i veto it. the answer is yes. >> he ran ads against rick santorum attacking him for voting for sonya sotomayor mitt romney attacked rick santorum for that as if she's turned tout be a scandal that politicians should be ashamed of. the republican party this year is in a fragile position. their nominee has taken policy positions that are wildly unpopular and latino voters are saying wildly unpowular with them. that said the last election cycle did see three latino republicans elected to state offices. yeah, george w. bush is kicking around again and latino voters did not like him as much as they disliked mitt romney. one thing to watch is how the republican party tries

mitt romney is scheduled to speak on friday. i think the combination here is only going to escalate and make this a much bigger political issue than any of us expected a couple of weeks ago. >> i think you're right. you think we've been transfixed by it thus far, i think that is set to increase now. michael isikoff, nbc news national investigative correspondent. michael, thank you very much for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> all right, supposedly, supposedly there are about 2,000 members of the communist party usa. turns out that a huge proportion of that membership is made up of members of congress. it's true. i heard that somewhere. that's next. ♪ i'm michael bazinet, president of creative digital imaging of bangor, maine. we have customers all over the united states. we rely on the postal service for everything that we do. the eastern maine processing facility is vital to our operation and our success. if we lose this processing facility we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. we would have to cons

mitt romney is scheduled to speak on friday. i think the combination here is only going to escalate and make this a much bigger political issue than any of us expected a couple of weeks ago. >> i think you're right. you think we've been transfixed by it thus far, i think that is set to increase now. michael isikoff, nbc news national investigative correspondent. michael, thank you very much for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> all right, supposedly, supposedly there are about 2,000 members of the communist party usa. turns out that a huge proportion of that membership is made up of members of congress. it's true. i heard that somewhere. that's next. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral

mitt romney is scheduled to speak on friday. i think the combination here is only going to escalate and make this a much bigger political issue than any of us expected a couple of weeks ago. >> i think you're right. you think we've been transfixed by it thus far, i think that is set to increase now. michael isikoff, nbc news national investigative correspondent. michael, thank you very much for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> all right, supposedly, supposedly there are about 2,000 members of the communist party usa. turns out that a huge proportion of that membership is made up of members of congress. it's true. i heard that somewhere. that's next. but my smile wasn't. [ female announcer ] new crest 3d white intensive professional effects whitestrips. it goes below he enamel surface to whiten as well as a five-hundred dollar professional treatment. wow, that's you? [ female announcer ] new intensive professional effects whitestrips. you're probably muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zy

we still have no idea whether mitt romney supports that. would he have signed it if he was president? most republicans voted against it. what should we read into the fact that the surrogates that are talking on this issue themselves voted no on the fair pay act. mr. romney once the wisconsin primary embattled republican governor of wisconsin scott walker. not only does scott walker not support the equal pay for equal work concept, he did just repeal wisconsin state level version of the equal pay act. he repealed that law on the same day that he signed abortion rights in wisconsin. this is not hypothetical stuff. this is not about whether they are using approximate pc language, showing up with nouf women around them or whether or not they are women themselves. this is policy. that's where the whole concept of the republican war on women and subsequent problem with women in the polls has come from and not recognizing that, not recognizing that it's subs stan sif, it's about policy, is i think why republicans keep striking out on this issue. t

here is a question to ask mitt romney. were most republicans in congress wrong when they voted no on the lilly ledbetter fair act? would mr. romney have voted yes if he were in congress? if he were president would he sign it into law? was scott walker wrong to replace the wisconsin version? why is it replaced, i meant repeal. he repealed it. does he think scott walker is right to have repealed fair pay legislation at the state level. this is not an impressionistic fake fight thing. there's a real difference between the parties. how about we focus on that. ♪ you make me happy when skies are gray ♪ [ female announcer ] you know exactly what it takes to make them feel better. ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] that's why you choose children's tylenol. the same brand your mom trusted for you when you were young. ♪ how much i love you [ humming ] [ female announcer ] children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade. [ humming ] [ male annou

romney has been all over the map on gun issues during his career, but the latest version of mitt romney proclaims himself to be a life-long member of the nra. mr. romney essentially just gave his stump speech at the nra convention today, but he did add in a few lines about guns. and frankly, what he added in about guns, was a really hard to understand few lines. >> we need a president that will enforce current laws, not create new ones that will only burden lawful gun owners. president obama has not. i will. >> okay. in order to understand just what mitt romney was trying to say today about guns, it's a very important issue, right? in order to understand what he's saying here you have to actually diagram his sentences. take that line we just played. >> we need a president who will enforce current laws. >> we need a president who will enforce current laws. okay, so far, so good, but then the next thing he says? >> not create new ones that only serve to burden lawful gun owners. president obama has not. i will. >> president obama has not, what? president obama has not enforced current law

. >>> it looks like mitt romney problem relating to women has intersected with mitt romney's problem relating to poor people. the romney notion of what work means up next. they have names like idle time books and smash records and on small business saturday they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express. >>> you guys remember the tea party and how every tax day we used to be treated to tricorner hats and the occasional misspelled racist sign. whatever happened to that? we sent a zermg party out for the tea party, just ahead. according to the signs, ford is having some sort of big tire event. i just want to confirm a few things with fiona. how would you describe the event? it's big. no,i mean in terms of savings how would you sum it up? big in your own words, with respect to selection, what woul

this was mitt romney's argument two years ago. it's not a new idea to mitt romney and isn't new to the republican party either. >> last year the house of representatives passed legislation to build on the successes of the 1996 welfare reform law. they did so because they want more americans to know the prize and success that come from hard work. the law passed the house, that passed the house, require 40 hours of work each week. >> the first stage of welfare reform brought unprecedented success. millions of americans now knows the rewards of work. welfare mothers have found their long lost self-esteem. >> we want to stop the dependency the government has created with all these entitlement programs. we want to give people the opportunity of dignity to work. >> in welfare reform we reached the conclusion that giving people money for nothing is a bad idea. >> the romney campaign was forced to respond to that clip of him we played from january even though i don't think they wanted to. their response was instructive. it was basically a

. >>> it looks like mitt romney problem relating to women has intersected with mitt romney's problem relating to poor people. the romney notion of what work means up next. lik it's me against my hair. [ female announcer ] weak, damaged hair needs new aveeno nourish+ strengthen. active naturals wheat formulas restore strength for up to 90% less breakage in three washes. for strong, healthy hair with life, new aveeno nourish+ strengthen. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. now, sleep number redefines memory foam, combining coolfit gel foam with sleep number adjustability. during the final days of our white sale, receive $400 in free bedding. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. >>> you guys remember the tea party and how every tax day we used to be treated to tricorner hats and the occasional misspelled racist sig

and his praise for mitt romney and how america needs to get behind mitt romney and if these blood kurlding patriots don't get behind him they don't know what he's made of. i feel like hearing that ma ini me feel like it doesn't matter no what. >> the republican members of the house are now sending clear signals to romney that listen, we understand you got to pivot a little bit here but nothing fundamental. nothing on the paul ryan budget. nothing on taxes with the rich. nothing fundamental can you give up and expect us to go along with it. i look back at like dole in '96, bush in 2000. i look at candidates that had some suspicion along the base. they didn't face what romney is facing. >> because we need you on tv talking about that perspective, you're great. thanks a lot. >>> have you heard, republican congresswoman michele bachmann says republicans are for women's right to choose, which is new for michele bachmann and it's deeply, deeply confusing. and she's looking directly at your new lumia, thank you at&t. first, why don't you show her the curved edge... now move on to the slick naviga

what is mitt romney's position on this bill? what is mitt romney's position on north carolina's anti-gay constitutional amendment? we don't know. which is a little bit weird, because the barack obama re-election campaign has taken a stand on it. the obama campaign says it is against the anti-gay marriage amendment in north carolina and usually when a campaign takes an overt stance like that, that's the kind of thing that calls for a response from the other side. but so far, nothing from the romney camp. our own campaign embed, garrett hake, confirms to us tonight that mr. romney, even though he is in north carolina tonight, the night before voting starts, even though mr. obama has taken a side on this issue, mr. romney has not taken any position on it. we have not heard beep from the romney campaign about this. which, again, is a little bit weird. because in the context of trying to win the republican nomination for president this year, mr. romney has not been shy at all about matters like this. he gave the rabidly anti-gay nati

if you like super anti-gay romneys in the primaries, apparently you will love mitt romney in the general election, too. the other top contender what he might abandon in order to seem more moderate in the general election is his stance on immigration. on that one, [ ding ] ding, we may already have a winner. the big problem is mitt romney has a really bad problem with latino voters. george w. bush had 35% of the latino vote in 2000 and he won. john mccain had only 31% in 2008 and he got creamed. mitt romney has 14% among latinos in some of the most recent polling. it is not possible to win a national election with a number that low. the romney campaign knows it. one of the things mitt romney was overheard telling campaigners last weekend, his campaign would be doomed if he can't get his numbers up among latino voters. how do you get your numbers up among latino voters when you say you would veto the dream act or self-deportation, please see yourself out. and you adopt as immigration adviser, the guy who co-wrote the arizona papers please law where they can walk up to you on the street and

mitt romney finally wins one. he finally finds his club. among men over the age of 50, mitt romney is the clear choice. an 11 point favorite. mitt romney over barack obama. he's losing every other age and gender demographic. when it comes to the older men, he's winning. there's one for him. one out of four. his advantage in his lone demographic cot goir is a little more than half mr. obama's advantage in the strongest of his winning three categories. romney's best among older men. his best is only half as good as obama's best. that's bad news for mr. romney. if only men were voting in the next election, if the race were being held a century ago, mr. romney would be delighted. in 2012, sadly for him women vote a lot. charlie cook spelling this out. mr. cook writing quote, given that women make up 51 to 52% of the electorate, when ever than lose women by men, they can skip ordering champagne on election night. it's great that they are winning among older machine and men overall because they are winning so much among older men just as they are

mitt romney over barack obama. now mr. romney is losing every other age and gender demographic, but when it comes to the older men, he's whipping. there's one for him, one out of four. and in his one win, his advantage in his lone demographic category is a little more than half mr. obama's advantage in the strongest of his winning three categories. romney's best among older men. his best is only half as good as obama's best. that's bad news for mr. romney. if you think about it statistically, if only men were voting in the next election, if the race were held a century ago, mr. romney would be delighted with these turn of events. in 2012, sadly for him, women vote a lot. charlie cook spelling this out. mr. cook writing quote, given that women generally make up 51% to 52% of the electorate, whenever republican candidates lose women by more than they win among men, they can skip ordered the champagne for election night. the romney campaign knows they have this problem. it's great for them they are winning among older men and

it's not what mitt romney said at all tonight. i think him coming out and saying i'm the food stamps guy, if you're on food stamps and you nevering thought you would be, i'm your guy. i think it's for him to be the paul ryan guy. >> i think what he is talking about is how we grow the economy and create opportunity. he outlines the countie contourt economic line. we have disagreements. i think there's big vision about how to create prosperity and economic opportunity. i think he outlined that speech tonight. >> you're hearing it, but he's not saying. it's great to have you. steve schmidt. we have news. nbc news is projecting that mitt romney wins the gop primary in the great state of new york. shocking. i know. lots more to come including latest primary election results. richard clark is here. stick around. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chroni

it's not what mitt romney said at all tonight. i think him coming out and saying i'm the food stamps guy, if you're on food stamps and you never thought you would be, then i'm your guy, i think it's amazing for him to also be the paul ryan budget guy. >> i think what he is talking about is how we grow the economy and create opportunity. he began to outline the contours of that economic message. it's obvious we have disagreements on it. i think there's big vision about how to create prosperity and economic opportunity. i think he outlined that speech tonight. >> you're hearing it, but he's not saying it. it's great to have you. steve schmidt. senior strategist for the mccain-palin 2008. nbc news is projecting that mitt romney wins the gop primary in the great state of new york. shocking. i know. lots more to come including latest primary election results. richard clark is here. stick around. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus

it's not what mitt romney said at all tonight. i think him coming out and sayi i know. lots more to come including latest primary election results. richard clark is here. stick around. >>> i don't want this to be a country where a shrinking number of americans are doing real well but a growing number of people but a growing number of people are struggling to get by. that's not my idea of america. i want this to be a country where everybody get a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share and everybody is playing by the same set of rules. this country has always made a commitment to put a good education within the reach of all who are willing to work for it. pit. that's what makes us special. that's what made us an economic super power. that's what kept us at the hugely important for democrats in 2012. and for this president in particular. when then senator obama beat senator john mccain there in 2008, that was the first time a democrat carried north carolina in a presidential election since jimmy carter back in 1976. the ob

remember, kris kobach is mitt romney's immigration adviser, and this is what mitt romney says should be a model for the nation. what is motivating these guys? why are they writing these laws? what do they think they are doing with these laws that mitt romney says should be a model for the nation? "immigration is on track to change the demographic makeup of the entire country. you know, what they call minority majority, says hethmon. how many countries have gone through a transition like that, peacefully, carefully? it's theoretically possible, but we don't have any examples." wait, that's why we need anti-immigration bills like the ones you guys wrote, that mitt romney says are a model for the nation. to make sure that america stays white enough. to keep the number of non-white people in america low? that's why we need immigration reform. that's what's motivating these bills. you know, what they call minority/majority. how many nations have gone through a transition like that, peacefully or carefully? it's theoretically possible, but we don't have any examples. if that kind of reason

officials advising mitt romney that that is not the case. chris hayes, up with chris hayes you can watch every saturday and sunday. nice to have knew always a pleasure. >> is this a situation we have two worlds that don't overlap, having the iraq war spokesman speaking on your behalf doesn't seem like a bad thing to republicans? >> i have pondered this for a long time. i genuinely don't understand this. you watch the republican primary debates and turn to foreign policy. there has to be some space between ron paul and dick cheney and no one is occupying it. either an incredibly isolationist agenda of ron paul not majority position of american politics or the most bellicose dick cheney neoconservative line that seems to have learned nothing from the lessons of iraq. the space between those are occupied by the president of the united states. they have a strategy problem they need to distinguish themselves from the sitting president. part of the way they've done this is gotten the old band back together. those are the people running foreign pol

points instead of eight putting governor mcdonald on the ticket does give mitt romney a one-point boost in virginia. obviously that's not enough. that said i'm sure the romney campaign expects the numbers to tighten and maybe a one-point bump from governor ultrasound might be good enough. even though he's not allowed to run for governor and he's not declaredfully other off, he started running, i'm bob mcdonald, vote for me tv ads. vote for you for what, big guy? he clearly wants to be picked. nestled within the obviousness of bob mcdonald's desperationç what the republican party is doing. what they are acting like in policy making terms, it's impossible to figure that out. republicans have introduced more restrictions on abortion rights than at any time since roe very issues wa erer issues wade. this year another 75 anti-abortion bills have passed. democrats are taking note of this trend. democrats are taking note of the anti-abortion, anti-women's health climate in the republican party of 2012. they see it in this election year as a real political weakness. want me to prove it? here

honestly, nobody knows who the campaign will pick more mitt romney until the pick is made. and more importantly, perhaps, the vice presidential pick usually means nothing to the campaign, other than the first initial blip once the announcement is made never has a fact on the presidential horse race except very occasionally in a negative way, john mccain. this is all unavoidable in election years. it's fun. i think it does have one useful and substantive purpose, which we are experiencing right now. watching people jockey to try to get picked as vice president turns out it can be a really clear window into something that's otherwise hard to figure out which is what are the limits test. what are the bright lines on policy within a party? what policies are acceptable or desirable to a particular political party? what's a policy position that you're not allowed to have if you want to rise in stature in your own party in way that being picked as vice president would mean? we're good in this country at covering the horse race. the who's ahead side of politics. we are less good in

in may mitt romney may have some trouble. mitt romney may face some states that may make this year's long slog of romney still longer and sl sloggier. we bring in john and steve. thanks for being here in in maryland and washington good night for mr. romney. he's leading in wisconsin. it's too early to call there. rick santorum is talking about may and future contests. that's in part to say i'm not leaving, don't call for me to get out of the race. does he have a point that he may do well in may and if the race is still seen as being alive that mitt romney might have trouble? >> yeah. the reason he could have trouble in may is because there's been a resistance to mitt romney that's been demographically per sis tent. if you look at the republican voting universe, if that voting universe is 50% or more composed of evangelical christians, rom has not been able to win it. nothing in maryland, nothing in the district of columbia and nothing in wisconsin will change that. if you heard that list that rick santorum rattled off there,

could noi say whether mitt romney would sign that bill. you voted against the fair pay act. it's about policy and whether or not you want to fix the structure discrimination that women face that republicans don't believe is happening. >> it's policy is the argument. >> it's policy. wish you were as right about what you're saying as you are passionate about it. >> that's really condescendsing. this is a tistylistic issue. >> may i share one fact with you. look at single women working in america today between the ages of 40 and 64, who makes more? men or women on average in men make 40,000 a year. women make 47. look at some economics. my point is that we're manufacturing a political crisis to get away from what this election wants to be about. >> manufacturing a political crisis. what i wanted to talk about there was policy. about why republicans would not support a common sense solution to a very specific part of the problem of women making less than men. on the way to trying to raise that question, i accidentally learned, i guess we all a

when mitt romney gets this nomination, what case can he make to those voters? that he hasn't already been able to make to them? what can he tell them that has not persuaded them already? or does he just have to count on them falling in line? it's going to be fascinating to watch. stay tuned. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow night. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." have great night. >>> after two quickly calle

romney tonight, going 3 for 3 in >>> a big, big night for mitt romney tonight, going 3 for 3 in today's presidential primaries. mr. romney is projected to win in wisconsin and in maryland and in washington, d.c. so three months to the day after voting began in iowa, governor romney has had the type of night after which republican voters should kind of be expected to rally around the nominee, right? i mean, that's the conventional wisdom. there's even a saying about that. democratic voters fall in love. republican voters fall in line. so is now the time that we can expect republican voters to start falling in line behind mitt romney? maybe? look at this. this is from the exit polls that nbc news conducted in wisconsin tonight. i think this is really interesting. if mitt romney is the eventual nominee of your party, will you, republican primary voter in wisconsin, be satisfied with that result, or will you be dissatisfied with that result? these are the overall numbers for people who voted in the wisconsin primary. 66% say they'd be satisfied. 32% say they would be dissatisfied if mitt ro

mitt romney does this all the time. in the speech that he gave last night when he won wisconsin and in a speech that he gave today, he used this tactic like a dozen times. it's kind of his only trick. all of his weaknesses as a candidate, he now just says are the weaknesses of barack obama as a candidate. so mitt romney lived in france instead of going to vietnam. he spent years and years in europe. so now mitt romney says that is barack obama's problem. he's the european! mitt romney signed on to the paul ryan kill-medicare plan, so now mitt romney says wanting to kill medicare, that's barack obama's problem. >> he has taken a series of steps that end medicare as we know it. >> mitt romney was 47th out of 50th in job creation when he served as governor of massachusetts and his record in private industry at bain capital is littered with all of these horror stories about shutting down factories and firing american workers. getting rid of american jobs for his own personal profit. so mitt romney opened his speech last nig

romney at the time was a student. mitt romney is a harvard man. that's how he got to massachusetts in the first place. after growing up in michigan and graduating from byu, mr. romney spent four years at harvard earning both a harvard law degree and a harvard business degree. this is mr. romney with a few of his harvard school business study buddy. they get together every five years for a mini-harvard reunion n a weird way it explains his line of attack today against president obama. >> we have a president who is a nice guy, perhaps he spent too much at harvard or not enough time working in the real world. >> mitt romney, as we discussed on this show last night, has exactly one trick as a presidential candidate. you take some perceived weakness about his own candidacy and you say that it's actually barack obama's weakness. does obama spend too much time at harvard thing, this is a favorite of mitt romneys. >> i didn't learn about the economy just reading about it or hearing about it in the faculty lounge at harvard. all of those years perhaps in t

mitt romney's tax returns. they were hoping to leave that behind, but it's not something they have been able to pivot away from because they will not answer questions about it. turns out that doesn't help. when abc news did get a formal sit-down interview with mr. romney on sunday, his answer to a question about his tax returns was that he would go look and see if he had ever paid a tax rate lower than 13.9% on his tens of millions of dollars on annual income. >> we know that there was one year when you paid about a 13.9% tax rate. can we clear this up by asking you a simple yes or no question? was there ever any year when you paid lower than the 13.9%? >> well, i haven't calculated that. i'm happy to go back and look. >> i'm happy to go back and look. now, typically, the way a campaign, not even a presidential campaign, but any campaign, handles something like that is when the candidates says i will go back and look, the campaign then follows up and releases a statement to the news organization answering that