him. hi last political conversation on earth was driving to the airport on ft. worth where he was in the car trying to figure out why ft. worth had been so welcoming to him that morning and why service to red-hot right wing. he was to the end a student of politics knowing what he needed, trying to figure it all out. and just as barack obama may be thinking how much he would rather run against rick perry than mitt romney, jack kennedy was hoping to run again the barry goldwater, worried about taking on the popular moderate governor nelson rockefeller of new york. i've been spending a lot of time over the past years trying to figure out jack kennedy, what he was like to be with in a room. my big book comes out november 1st. the tapes confirm a lot of what i've discovered from her and others. it will be fascinating to sit and hear this woman who rarely spoke publicly give her take and share her memories of all we

went through together in those great days. that's "hardball" for now. "politics flation" with al sharpton starts right now. the party of no is back, but the president may have an answer. tonight president obama sends his jobs bill to congress. can he get it past the do-nothing republicans? plus rick "ponzi keep" perry spent the week perfecting a new dance, the walk-back. but will social security send the cowboy packing? also, tim pawlenty becomes the new top mitten for willard mitt romney. and john mccain gets it wrong, really wrong, on america's exit strategy for iraq.

welcome to "politics nation" i am al sharpton. tonight's lead, what a difference a weekend makes. remember last week? it seems that just maybe we had a chance to get something done on jobs. speaker boehner was talking golf with vice president biden, and not once but twice boehner and congressman kantor said the president's jobs bill, quote, merits consideration, unquote. but that was then. this is now. today the president sent his jobs bill to congress, and called for more of the goodwill between the parties. >> this is a bill that will put people back to work all across the country.

this is a bill that will help our economy in a moment of national crisis. this is a bill that is based on ideas from both democrats and republicans. as this is it is bill that congress needs to pass. no games, no politics, no delays. i'm sending this bill to congress today, and they ought to pass it immediately. >> shortly after that, mr. "merits consideration" kantor said, quote -- i will tell you that over half, i think, of the total dollar amount is so-called stimulus spending. we've been there, done that. it doesn't produce the promised result. so half the bill is dead in kantor's mind? no stimulus needed with 9.1% unemployment? who's kidding? and it didn't stop there. senator rand paul also said

stimulus is a waster of money and added, quote -- much like obamacare, which was rammed down the throats of legislators, the president's jobs plan has fuzzy math. a top republican aide told politico, quote, obama is on the ropes. why do we appear ready to hand them a win? iowa republican steve king went so far as to say, quote -- we can maybe do some things together. beyond that, i will tell you that it's going to be important just to hang on and get a new president and a new configuration in congress. republicans are just hanging in there, holding out on the economy until they get a republican in the white house? too bad. it's at the expense of 14 million people desperate for work. joining me now is congresswoman

janet schakowsky. thank you for being here tonight. >> thank you, reverend sharpton. >> already republicans like congressman kantor have said they will not back any new stimulus spending. can you accept kantor's view of that part of the jobs bill being stimulus spending? i think we're talking about 35,000 schools that need immediate repair. >> exactly. it seems the republicans are willing to consider all parts of the jobs bill except the part that creates jobs. that is what the american people, those 14 million people, all those worried about the jobs earp listening for. are there going to be jobs? they continue to repeat the same old lie, which is the stimulus program the last time didn't create jobs. recent numbers by the congressional budget office says as many as 2.9 million jobs were

created by the stimulus program. we would be in a real depression, not just a real recession, had it not been for the stimulus program. it worked and it needs to work again. we need to put people on the job. >> that's what's so to me puzzling and insensitive. they're speaking as if this didn't work. let's look at your bill, the fast bill, again we're looking at almost 15 million people needing jobs. yours would provide 500,000 jobs immediately, as well as repairing schools. if we look tess effect of the stimulus on the gdp, the economy shrank 3.7%, fourth quarter 2008, the economy shrank 8.9%. 2009, the economy grew by 1.9%,

and added 2.9 million jobs. so the opposite is true of exactly what they're projecting. >> exactly. had it not been for the actions that the president took, we would have been in a deep depression. this president saved us, but they give no credit to him. kantor set the american people don't want this. he is wrong. almost 3:1 the american people are actually say they want job creation. that is more important than deficit reduction right now, and they're right. ed republicans at their peril are going to obstruct putting people to work. i think it's going to cost them the election, they think the opposite, i believe we are right.

congresswoman, thank you for your time this even. >> appreciate it. >> joining me now is msnbc contributor melissa harris-perry, a professor of political scientist and columnist for "the nation." and richard wolffe, an msnbc analyst. thank you both for joining me. now it's a stimulus plan that's dead on arrival, is when we look at how the president says he's going to pay for it, because sometimes when you get into the

detail, you find where people's interests are. he wants -- so it may be that because the president is talking about some of the wealthy and corporate interests that the republicans have of late then the big representatives, since he's saying they're the ones who have to pay for this job creation, that might be why they've got their backs up the beginning of the week, which is not like talking golf with vice president biden the other night. >> reverend sharpton, i wish it were that. in a certainly way, at least it would be substantive, either a philosophic all or a very real political argument. el or that they have political

interests that align them with these individuals who will see some increased tax burden. i don't think it's even that substantive. i think the speed with which they turned on and said, no, actually this is just stimulus, we're going to stand against it, is actually indicative of what they're most irritated with was the president's tone. in other words, what the president said was as so many on the left have been asking for, this is the plan, this is very clear, these are the results it will have, you should pass it now. >> so react a little like he was a -- >> a president. >> but he acted like he wasn't president, but if he was coming in some other tone, you think they could have accepted better, so it doesn't matter to them? they want the president to bow to them? >> exactly. but that's what you heard. they were saying if he would

only be nice, and come up to the hill and talk to us. it's bizarre, because of course this president has done a great deal of work to try to create bipartisan consensus, but at this moment, when we are facing an unemployment rate of 9.1%, the president said enough is enough. what they do not want to do is provide this president with anything that looks like a win. >> that's political, melissa. >> and they're willing to spite the realius of this situation to hold the entire country and all of these unemployed individuals hostage to this particular set of ideas. >> richard, can they do that politically? they're getting ready to debate again tonight. the tea party express debate, i might add. can they get away with telling the american o. we have just not

going to do it, it's dead on arrival. in the whole system will splinter apart. no one will be safe, not when you're sitting on a 13-point approval rating. so you've got to have either a have i narrow view or optimistic view. really this is a political problem that the republican leadership has created for themselves. they have demonized this president to such a degree that now it's impossible for them to

do reasonable thing. that's the problem. >> they're in florida, going to debate tonight. the governor of florida said he may turn down money on the -- and he may not be bluffing. he's turned down high-speed rail money, but look at what it would do to the people in florida. they would lose out on 7.5 billion, with a b, dollars for schools, roads and other projects. i mean, do they think people will sit by with these kinds of numbers being taken away from them? it is absolutely political insanity to me that they're playing with even doing these kinds of things.

it is problem is they don't care about the real world here. this jobs bills according to wall street economists will create something like 1.9 million jobs, add two percentage points to growth. the rhetoric and the idea in the republican party is they don't want to own this economy, because that's obama's economy, but if it gets worse, they will own the double dip, because they will have turned this down. that's the kind of dangerous politics, especially with the president on the campaign trail, that should keep them up at night. >> they have come not with any specific plan, but a plan that will protect the corporations and the wealthy. how long will it dangle? i don't think the american people can stand even the thought of that.

i think they're hoping that that sort every characterization can simply maintain through the rest of the presidential cycle, but even as the president was announcing his jobs plan and discussing it in richmond, there was a across the bottom of the screen saying bank of america was going to cut 30,000 some odd jobs. it doesn't take a lot to know that bank of america is not having a tax problem. their issue is not being overtaxed by the federal government. they are not paying taxes. their problem were poor business practices, which have led now to their own stability, so they're shedding jobs. anybody who is literally listens to the president saying we have got to create stable jobs and watching the boa with tax cuts supreme should be able see right away the math is not fuzzy, it's

very clear. the government has got to get in there and create stable, lasting jobs. >> that ticker across the bottom saying laying off jobs, that's the tone i don't like. i'm not worried about the president's tone. you're in louisiana, melissa, my mother is from alabama. she told me when i was growing up and used to drink tea, if you leave the tea bag in the water too long, it bursts, and what was a good drink becomes nasty. melissa harris-perry and richard wolffe, thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you. coming up. rick perry's senior moment on social security? it seems like he suddenly forgotten about ponzi schemes. plus -- you know mitt romney is in trouble when he's hoping that t-paw will add some pep and pill assist to his campaign. also, saving the life of an

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to my it is very simple. over 14 million are unemployed, trying to feed their families. the choice is whether we will be serious about creating jobs. we cannot do that without spending money. the republicans say show how we'll pay for it, the president says that those who have gotten the most will have to do their share. they say that's nonsense, that's stimulus. what about when we stimulated the banks and bailed out the big companies? it's a choice. do we want america to work for

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stops in florida. he's trying everything he can to clean up the mess we made last week. >> it is monstrous lie. that is what it is. that is just a lie. really, rick? the american people like that lie. a wlopg 87% say social security has been very good, or good for

america. now his republican opponents are looking to pounds on it. mitt romney sent this flyer to voters in sunny florida over the weekend. it reads, quote -- rick perry, how can we trust anyone who wants to kill social security? meanwhile, michele bachmann's advisory took a shot, saying, quote -- today he tried to have it both ways in an editorial titled "i'm going to be honest with the american people." oddly enough he left out his favorite social security buzz words like "ponzi scheme" "monstrous lie" and "failure." i wonder why did he do that?

is it because he's in florida today, where 1 out of every 5 residents is a senior citizen? joining mess now, wayne slater, senior political writer for "the dallas morning news." and bob franken, syndicated columni. wayne, what is perry up to? >> in the book he suggests at least social security oughting to abolished. that's on the record, in print, black and white. now he has to deal with that reality. >> that's only nine or ten months ago. it's not a book when he was a kid in college or 20 years ago. that's his position, he wrote it, he's got to live with it. the question is what do you do

about that on a political campaign where you said correctly social security is probably our most popular entitlement program, especially for those folks in florida. the campaign knew they had to fix that. >> now, let me ask you, bob, he also suggested in the book it was unconstitutional. now you had he says i meant to say you need to fix it. you don't fix something that is illegal, you eliminate it. >> i think that when he said

ponzi, he had just w567d and episode of "happy days" and meant to say fonzie scheme. in other words, he was just throwing words out there. here is a man, who his handlers are saying you can't just say this. rick perrys has a reputation for being a ready/fire/aim kind of guy. in facts, i wonder how he hit that coyote that time. he has to look more presidential now. >> they've got to take orders from the boss. rush limbaugh warned them today. we all know that rush carries a lot of weight, no pun intended, in the republican circles. rush limbaugh said this today. >> now, i'm not endorsing anybody. this is not an endorsement, but be very careful if you start

attacking rick perry on social security and ponzi scheme. there are too many of you out there who have already said that yourselves, mitt romney. mitt, you have already called it a ponzi scheme and worse, and i'm hearing that michele bachmann is preparing to lay into rick perry on his comments about social security being a ponzi scheme. i would like to warn everybody, be careful here. you're pandering to the media. let me shock and i maze you. rush happened to be right this time. it's rare for me to agree with rush, but a broke clock is right twice a day. michele bachmann was once questioned, and the question was, was it a lie? let me show you what she said. >> social security, i think it's

one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated. >> you're right, it's a tremendous fraud. no company could get away with this. they would be thrown in jail if they ever tried -- >> so, i mean, there you have it. rush and reverend al agree that backman and mr. ponzi scheme perry are on the same side of this one. you better not change your mind, michelle. we'll have a coalition of truth squad ready for you. what do you think, bob? >> first of all, it will be very interesting to watch the debate tonight. we all know everybody will be going after rick perry for what he said and what he's now saying he didn't really mean. when we talk about the debate, i think the strategy might be -- and you get a chance to tell me later if i was right or wrong, i think req perry is trying to deflect this by the old 5dage

that the best defense is a a good offense. now, let me ask you, do you believe that given they numbers, i just want to end on this, wayne. given these numbers of how the public feels about social security, 57% when asked, should social security -- 57% of republicans said no. how do you overcome that, wayne? >> the only way is to attach to this attack on social security the proviso that says, i want to save it, i don't want to blow it up. bob is exactly right. i'm looking for rick perry tonight to continue to attack. there's a saying here in texas, and it's that you don't have to worry about burning bridges behind you if you never retreat. rick perry is not going to retreat. he's trying to nuance the social security position. he's trying to explain, and as

karl rove used to say, if you're explaining, you're losing. look for him to attack tonight. reverend sharpton, you basically have been a friend of rush limbaugh tonight. also rick perry. look for perry to say exactly what you want tonight. that was you, mitt romney, haven't you questioned social security as fraudulent? and michele bachmann, haven't you done the same thing? >> i agree with rush. she can't have it both ways. we may agree for different reasons. straight ahead, rick, the only thing in your way is grandma. don't worry about it. wayne, bob, thank you for your time this evening. also, mitt romney is hoping tim pawlenty will help energize his campaign. uh-oh willard is in even worse shape than i thought. [ male announcer ] this is the network.

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if someone takes a life, they should face justice. if someone kills a policeman, it is our duties to make sure they face justice, but if they're accused and there's no physical evidence, no dna, and they are only convicted on eyewitnesses and 7 of the 9 of those recant s. you can't take their life and say it was beyond reasonable doubt. this man in nine days is scheduled to be executed in georgia. no evidence, no dna, and 7 of

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welcome back to the show. tonight rick perry enters the second presidential debate with the wind at his back and much of the republican elite quaking. a new poll shows 42% of republican voters think perry has the best shot of beating president barack obama. romney has just 24%. and today governor bobby jindal of louisiana endorsed perry, but romney supporters shouldn't worry. today he got a big endorsement from an electrifying political figure. >> i have standing right behind me here, the cochair of my national effort. tim pawlenty will be chairing my effort across the country.

>> joining me now is dana milbank, and michael steele, former rnc chairman and now an msnbc analyst. thank you both for being here. michael, is a man who thinks that social security is a ponzi scheme the most electable republican candidates? >> that will be something that would be left up to the individual voters in the various states. i think as you have noted, the governor is walking that back a bit. the language was very strong and el reaction was equally strong. when you have michele bachmann and others within the party are saying, wait a minute, we draw a bright line, the perry campaign has some retooling to do, and we'll see how he handles that, whether he stays that course or does he soften the tone a bit, which i think the smarter move would be to soften the tone, put

it in the context of the changes you think are appropriate, as op posed to giving the impression that you want to destroy or remove it from the books completely, which i don't think is the case. >> it looks like perry is starting to show alternates staying power. what does mitt romney have to do tonight to start trying to turn around this seemingly staying power image that mr. perry is getting, and what does michele bachmann have to do to get back in the game here. >> well, tim pawlenty who you just flashed on the screen, said after the fact that perhaps he should have had sparks flying out of his butt and that might have gotten him more attention. i think for michele bachmann if she doesn't have the proverbial pyrotechnics tonight it's probably curtains for her. she's not been able to sustain that momentum. i don't think romney has to do

that. i think he just has to stay looking like hi is the electable guy. the poll you put up isn't necessarily reflective of anything, because they're asking republicans who the most electable is. it's not up to them, it will be up to the independent voters who will be frightened when 24th see the sorts of things that rim perry has done. rick perry has said he couldn't get elected dogcatcher in california. that is probably also now true in florida and a lot of other places. so mitt romney needs to sit back. rick perry will try to temper this a bit, but i think he's constitutionally not ability to do that. he's just got this texas-sized mouth, and that's who he is, and he'll keep doing it. >> what needs to happen tonight, if you were vising rick perry. you're saying he ought to saying what he's going to do, as opposed to looking like going backwards? how does he deal with other issue that is have come up about him as governor, and taking care

of friends and perks, and all of that, ignore it? take it head-on? >> i think to the extent that a specific question is asked, you have to hit those it things right out of the park head on. you can't shuffle on it, you can't set it to the side, be up front and direct about those things, push it off the table. it's not as important as health care and social security and other issues. i think overall he needs to show, yeah, i have a lot of flash, but i also have substance. i have thought about these issues, not just calling something a ponzi scheme or making light of it in those terms, but hear substantive what i want to do to fix what i believe is a broken system. if he can begin to make that argument, i any a lot of the slippage you see, or at least beginning to hearing dissipates. if he can't, i think it grows, and in a week's time we're probably talking about another

front-runner. >> are we looking at a two-person debate now? look at this poll, where bachmann now is down to 4% under mccain. i mean, so what's about a week ago before the last debate, we were talking about a three-person raise. bachmann is below herman cain. i mean, are we dealing with this is really -- if romney can't stop him, this is a done deal? >> it seems that way, reverend, but these things can change. you have torts that the audience here is not all of america. it's a couple thousands people in iowa who are these tea party folks.

i think they're probably in a safe areas of doing that. it's so volatile because of this, so to the extent that rick perry tumbles, then -- they're not worried about language about frauds and moniesi schemes. it's a very small group of people. >> will the people that vote, michael, will they vote based on irthat anger? or will they vote on who they think can defeat the president? if you're a republican, what are you going to vote on? are you going to vote on, i'm mad, i don't like president obama for whatever reason? or this is the person i think can win the general? and how does one really feel, rick perry can win? that i think is the rub

philosophically as well as on policy, or is this just sort of we're angry, and we're not going to take it anymore, and this guy is the best one to make that point? if has nothing to do with getting elected in november of next year. it has everything to do with someone who will make the argument that we're angry. i think the electorate, as we tried when i was chairman, is to get to what it is we want to accomplish. if the goal is to make these policy goals attainable, let's shoot for that and put the best person in place to do that. >> dana and michael, thank you for joining me. i think people should judge mr. perry objective, listen to him, in fact get fed up, read his book, go straight to the ps, and look under "ponzi." ahead, the fight to save troy davis, a man who is

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fedex. solutions that matter. nine days from now, the state of georgia is scheduled to exercise the greatest power a government has by putting 42-year-old troy davis to death by lethal injection. davis was convicted of shooting an off-duty savannah police officer 22 years ago. there was no physical evidence linking him to the chuting, no gun and no dna. he was convicted based largely on witness testimony. now that's fallen apart. seven of the nine witnesses have recanted or changed their stories, some of them even say they were coerced and pressured by police to implicate davis. according to the affidavit, one witness said, quote, they made it clear that the only way i would leave -- and they would

leave me alone is if i told them what they wanted to hear. i told them that troy told me he did it, but it wasn't true. another witness said, quote -- i told the detective that troy davis was the shooter, even though the truth was i didn't see who shot the officer. think about that. he didn't steel who shot the officer. nine people have come forward identifying this man, sylvester red coles as the murderer, the same man who first told cops that davis was the shooter. one of the nine said, 123469 quote that redd once told me he shot a police officer and a guy named davis took the fall for it and, quote, i am pot that it was redd who shot the police officer. davis' life was spared three times already, but all of his appeals are exhausted, and a fourth execution date has been set for next wednesday.

his last hope lies with the georgia board of pardons and paroles. troy davis is desperately trying to prove his innocent. that's not how this system should work. there's too little evidence and too much doubt surrounding his guilt. if he is executed, it would be a great miscarriage of justice. joining me now is former georgia congressman bob bahr who supports the death penalty, but has questioned this case. thank you for coming on the show. usually we're usually fighting and arguing on different sides. though we don't agree on the death penalty, you've questioned this case of troy davis and questioned the execution scheduled. why? >> well, for the same reason you do, reverend. we both agree and both support true justice. true justice cannot be had where

you have such very serious and credible evidence that this man about to be executed did not commit the crime. some cases where you have a death penalty involved, the evidence is overwhelming. you have physical evidence, eyewitness, make other sores of circumstantial evidence, but in this case, reverend, as you already indicated, there was no physical evidence. it's primarily based on eyewitness testimony until very difficult circumstances. it was night 250i78, it was dark, a poorly lit parking lot. you add on top of that the fact that many of these witnesses have not just sort of cavalierly said that they were not sure or have recanted their testimony, but very, very credibly done. this case, if this execution goes forward, really is a textbook example of the sort of case in which the death penalty should not be applied. >> now as someone who supports the death penalty and a

republican of georgia that's a heavy statement for you to make, but i think we both agree that that's the heaviest thing to do, when a state takes a life they have to be certain beth yond a reasonable doubt. you can't redo this. you can't make this up? >> no, you can't. you know, there are no winners certainly in this sort of situation, reverend. you have a young police officer 22 years ago who had his life snuffed out, very tragic. there are family of his out there that want to see that justice is done certainly, but even though there are no winner in a death penalty murder case like this, we can limit the number of losers. that would be taking the life of a man against who there is very, very questionable evidence at beth that he committed this crime. here in georgia, of course, as you know, the governor has no

power at all to pardon somebody. >> what has to happened? what is next? what is the process now there? >> really only way that there is hope here for mr. davis is for the state board of pardons and pa rolls to grant clemency. it's the last resort in georgia, not the governor, but the board of pardons and pa rolls. i wrote a letter to them. many, many ear republicans ands alike have written letters. we'll just have to see if they understand what the courts thus far have not understood, and that is there is not sufficient evidence of culpability here. >> they will have their hearing on monday. i have supported mr. davis, have met with him on death row, but i also say, and i'm sure you will agree, the family of this

policeman deserves justice, just like mr. davis does, but giving the family of this policeman justice is not making the wrong person pay for the killing of their loved one. >> no, that's simply makes a very bad and tragic situation even more tragic, reverend. >> thank you, former congressman bob board. thank you for your time. we'll be staying on this story through next monday. up next, john mccain's exit strategy for iraq -- stay longer and with more troops. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] one-hundred-nineteen data points.

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nor john mccain has been proven wrong on foreign policy over and over again. now he says the u.s. should stay in iraq longer and with many more troops. mccain went on fox news to criticize reports that the obama

administration will keep only 3,000 troops in iraq after the official withdrawal at the end of the year. >> i tried to support the president as many as i can. these are very important issues. there is no military person that doesn't believe we need a residual force in iraq far in excess of the size that apparently is being planned. >> so mccain claims no military person supports this large withdrawal? i guess that doesn't include army chief of staff ray odierno, as think progress points out, odierno hasn't said if 3,000 is the magic number, but he said, quote, when i was leaving iraq a year ago, i always felt we had to be careful about leaving too many people in iraq. there comes a time when the u.s. presence becomes counterproductive.