heart. >> the republican debate audience is starting to scare the candidates. >> the audience reaction was somewhat more surprising than anything. >> i have to admit i seriously did not hear those boos. >> then you had this -- >> we would reinstitute that policy if rick santorum was president. sex is not on issue. >> don't ask, don't tell doesn't have to do with sex. >> that gay soldier is their son. >> no one found a way to say, you know what, we honor his service. >> when you have a moment like that when you're buying a united states marine or an officer, it really bothers a lot of people out there. >> the death penalty moment -- >> with brian williams. >> your state executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. [ applause ] have you -- >> you had the let them die scream, shout-out by somebody in an audience with ron paul. >> that's not going to play well no matter who is the republican nominee. >> and the republican candidates are scaring everyone. >> the more rick perry debates,

the more uneasy some republicans feel. >> rick perry, looks as comfortable as a chimp opening a suitcase. >> you heard from republicans he was sort of bush without the brains. >> it was a rough night for rick perry. >> look at rick perry and he looks lost. >> painting him as clueless. >> he was just hanging himself. >> he was wooden. >> texas toast? >> how is it going to go mano au mano with barack obama. >> mitt romney is looking pretty darn good. >> and most republicans are still hoping for a miracle. >> everybody is still talking about chris christie. >> christie. chris christie. you hear it all the time. chris christie is passing up a once in a lifetime opportunity. once again, in last night's republican presidential debate, the audience was more interesting than the candidates. this season's debate audiences have revealed more about

themselves than we have ever learned from previous debate audiences. we knew that republican voters are in favor of the death penalty. we did not know that contrary to the christian values that many of them a spouespouse, they absy love the death penalty. just can't get enough of it. >> governor perry, a question about texas. your state has executed 234 death row inmates. more than any other governor in modern times. have you -- >> we also learned that some of these same people, vocal minority, would gleefully impose the death penalty themselves. on sick people if just given the chance. >> who's going to pay for -- if he goes into a coma, for example? who pays for that? >> in a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to take care of -- that's what freedom

is all about. taking your own risk. this whole idea you have to prepare and take care of everybody -- [ applause ] >> but congressman, are you saying the society should just let him die? >> no. >> at last night's debate we learned that the flag pin-wearing we support the troops crowd actually despises some of the troops. including this soldier who asked his question from iraq. >> in 2010 when i was deployed to iraq i had to lie about who i was because i'm a gay soldier an i didn't want to lose my job. my question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military? >> but there is nothing this bloodthirsty merciless mob of haters hates more than being called exactly what they are.

heartless. >> if you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there, by no fault of their own, i don't think you have a heart. we need to be educating these children because they will become a drag on our society. i think that's what texans wanted to do. out of 181 members of the texas legislate her, when this issue came up, only four dissenting vote. this was a state issue. texans voted on. it and i still support it greatly. >> senator santorum -- >> fox news pollster frank luntz who conducted a focus group with republican voters during the debate said, perry's defense of the texas dream act, which allows children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates, if they graduate a texas high school and are

accepted in a state university provoked, quote, the most negative reaction i've seen any republican candidate have among republican primary voters. only in the twilight zone did this presidential politics 2011 style, only in that twilight zone could we see a man be cheered for proudly presiding over the executions of 234 people and then see that same man booed by the same crowd, booed because that champion of death by execution called his worshippers heartless. campaigns for presidential nominations are sometimes called fights for the soul of the republican party, fights for the soul of the democratic party. no one has used that phrase this time around. for two reasons. first, because no candidate fits

perfectly into the current shape of republican orthodoxy and secondly, the republican party of the 21st century, if we are to judge by the debate audiences, has obviously lost its soul. joining me now, chris hayes, editor at large for "the nation" and host of "up with chris hayes." weekend mornings here on msnbc. and maggie haberman, senior writer for "politico." thank you both for joining me tonight. >> good to be here. >> thank you. >> chris, this twilight zone, how can this happen? here's their favorite killer, state sanctioned killer up there. they boo him after he calls them heartless. >> it was such a moment of cognitive dissidence for a liberal such as myself watching and saying, you know, i was tweeting, rick perry is right on this. not only was he right, i thought it was so interesting he clearly chose the wrong vocabulary to

defend the decision. right? first of all, the way that you defend that policy to that crowd which is essentially indefensible, in that context, is to talk in a hard headed practical way. i mean, he sort of got to it in the end, they're going to be a drag on our society. that's the kind of language he used. you do not defend a policy in this context by pointing to the policy's basic compassion. because compassion, the ethos of compassion is viewed are derision and contempt by the base right now. i feel like the republican base is in kind of a mean mood. i don't know how much they're worked up because they're at this event and full of adrenaline, how much it is substantive commitment. they're in a mean mood. you don't go in front of a crowd in a mean mood and talk to them about compassion. >> i personally believe they really mean it on the death penalty and really mean it on the dream act and anything involving immigration. i think a few of them got carried away on that let the guy

die in the street if he's sick and doesn't have health insurance. i don't believe that if can came to it they would actually force that. maggie, you're down there in orlando at the conservative political action conference today. in orlando. are these people as mean as they sound when they play the audience in these republican tv shows? >> no, wean you're dealing with people one-on-one, they're not repeating what they're hearing in the debates. however, you'll hear from a lot of people privately, certainly from the campaigns privately, things like the let him die moment did not thrill anybody. things like what you saw last night with rick perry is a bit different. what chris said is exactly right. where basically you're describing something that's supposed to be a hardline issue for the republican base right now in very compassionate quote/unquote weak terms. immigration is a hot button issue here. it's not a huge surprise that debate crowd reacted that way to

that. i think there were other moments that were a little more shocking in debates we've seen recently like the applause of the death penalty and so forth. >> let's listen to how mitt romney followed up at this today at the conservative political action conference in orlando. let's hear what he had to say. >> my friend, governor perry, said that if you don't agree with his position on giving that in-state tuition to inlegals that you don't have a heart. i think if you're opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn't mean that you don't have a heart, it means that withdryou heart and a brain. legal immigration, good for america. illegal immigration, something i will stop if i'm president. >> chris, how thrilled is mitt romney to find a spot to the right of rick perry? >> it's perfect. he has his chess board all set up, okay? he has his two rooks. one's on the left, one's on the right. the rook on the left he's going

to come up with is social security. he can get to perry's left on social security, he can reinforce his moderate bona fides. he can pick, make perry look unelectable in the general election. and on his right he has his immigration issue which has been dropped into his lap. he can attack from both sides simultaneously. you could see the palpable delight in mitt romney's eyes. the savoring smile on his face as he went after rick perry on this issue with every buzzword, every kind of, like, dog whistle. illegals, $100,000. all the kind of conjuring of liberal distributive justice that the base just loathes in that response. >> all right. now, let's listen to how rick perry picked himself back up today at the cpac conference. >> as conservatives we know that values and vision matter. it's not who is the slickest

candidate or the smoothest debater that we need to elect. we need to elect the candidate with the best record and the best vision for this country. the model for socialized medicine has already been tried and it failed. not just in western europe, but in massachusetts. >> maggie, it sounds like he had a better day at cpac. >> he's definitely had a better day. the problem for rick perry is more people in the republican primary electorate will have seen the debate last night than his debate at cpac tonight. his campaign's line is going to be to get more aggressive with mitt romney, define him better than they have. as chris said, he's attacking from the left and right. that does invoke the problem to mitt romney of flip-flopping and being all things at once. you'll see more of that.

for rick perry, things are getting to know him. the impressions from things like debates really do stick. i'm not sure saying we're not electing the smoothest debater or who communicates the best, i don't think that's going to quite cut it. >> chris, what to you think perry has to do now to -- he's going to have to deal with deba debating. sure, he can read a speech. his writers did a fine job for cpac. that's not the problem. what does he do? >> he has to bone up. it's hard, i mean, you know, i now talk on television for a living. it's tough. >> doesn't he have to somehow walk away from some of his past on immigration and walk away from some of his past on social security while pretending he's not? >> you know, yes, he does and he finally -- he finally got the hpv answered. this one silver lining. he got the hpv answer finally right after trying it ten times last night. he said it was about life and i got lobbied by a young woman who had cervical cancer. he framed it in the terms of

life. he said this is a pro-life decision. i thought he actually did a good job with that answer. he sort of put it to bed. he has to come up with those answers particularly for the state dream act. other thing he has to do that no one in lthe field has been able to do is kind of distill and make stick the anti-romney care argument. that it's been out there forever. i personally thought it would be -- it would really mean the death of his candidacy. i did not think he could overcome it in the moment of the most intense hatred toward the affordable care act. how could mitt romney distance himself from his signature policy achievement when it's so closely related to the president's? somehow he's been able to. i think it's still on the table for whoever can grab it, finding the argument that lands on romney care. >> i thought romney care was the cancer in the romney candidacy. i thought every one of them had something wrong with them. romney's was devastating. we're out of time for this segme segment. what do you have tomorrow morning? >> going to talk to the great economist robert frank about

taxes and inequality. >> at 7:00 a.m.? >> 7:00 a.m. and well caffeinated for that discussion. we're going to have ann slaughter who ran the department of state. she'll be my guest as well. >> chris hayes, maggie haberman, thank you for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up next, after last night's debate, republicans are more worried than ever that they don't have a winning presidential candidate. and later, first he denied his plan to tax the rich as class warfare and now the president says he's a happy warrior for the middle class. the president rewrites himself in the "rewrite" tonight. ♪

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republicans insist president obama's policies hurt small business in this country. but that's not what you hear if you actually listen to small business. we'll talk with a real live job creator in the "spotlight."

and next, is the prospect of mitt romney or rick perry being a republican nominee so scary that chris christie can be convinced to run for president? eugene robinson joins me next. [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ cellphone translating ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. ♪ look at the map. okay. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

i think americans just don't know sometimes which mitt romney they're dealing with. is it the mitt romney that was on the side of -- against the second amendment before he was for the second amendment? was it before he was before the social programs from the

standpoint of he was far? standing up for roe v. wade before he was against roe v. wade. he was for race to the top. he's for obama care and now he's against it. >> that was texas governor rick perry manfully struggling to deliver an obviously rehearsed but i guess underrehearsed bit of material about mitt romney. in that moment governor perry managed to demonstrate what a weak debater and what a flip-flopper mitt romney is. the debate left some republican commentators in a near panic. today fox news commentator bill kristol wrote in "the weekly standard," -- kristol said the debate performance was close to a disqualifying two hours before

him and kristol called romney, quote, a technocratic management consultant whose one term as fwom governor produced romney care. during the debate ann coulter tweeted, governor perry losing debate with his own tongue. last night's debate led to another call for new jersey governor chris christie to enter the race. "the wall street journal" argues in a column that the gop nomination is still up for grabs and there for the taking for governor christie. governor christie appeared yesterday with indiana republican governor mitch daniels at ryding university. both governors disappointed their fans when they announced earlier this year they definitely will not run for president. christie offered his thoughts on why republicans still want him to run. >> i think what the country is thirsty for more than anything else right now is someone of

stature and credibility to look them in the eye and tell them that. and say, here's what i want us to go to deal with this crisis. and the fact that nobody, yet, who's running for president, in my view, has done that effectively is why you continue to hear people ask daniels if he'll reconsider and ask me if i'll reconsider. >> joining me now, "washington post" columnist and msnbc analyst, eugene robinson. thanks for joining me tonight, gene. >> great to be here, lawrence. >> gene, as you know, opinions are in about this republican debate. the "new york post" today on perry says awful, just awful. after the first half hour he seemed unable to speak a coherent sentence even when he was carefully prepared. i could go on and on. it doesn't get worse than this. what are the republicans going to do? they fought for a very brief

period, a few weeks, a couple of weeks, perry's here, finally we have our guy. >> they did. we've seen this movie before. the movie we're seeing now, it's like -- christie, please, we need christie. they were doing that about perry a few weeks ago. perry gets in the race and all of a sudden he is, frankly, let's just say it, it's a huge disappointment right now certainly to the republican professional political establishment that thinks he's going to get eaten alive on the campaign trail and in debates by president obama. they see an opportunity to take the white house this time with the right candidate, and they don't think they got it. >> it's too much fun reading these republican reviews, gene. i'm going to give you one more. erick erickson from conservative blog "red state," he writes today, rick perry stands on the precipice. another performance like last night could push him off the edge of support of people who want an anti-romney alternative

but really want to beat barack obama even more. gene, this is their nightmare. they thought they, you know, there was something wrong. they could see it. there was something wrong with romney because of romney care. there was something wrong with each one of these candidates. finally here comes perry. he's perfect. that didn't last long. >> no, it didn't last long. and, you know, the old saying used to be, democrats fall in love with their candidates and republicans call in line. and that's kind of flipped now. and the republicans want to fall in love. they want the perfect candidate, and i was going to say the perfect guy. it's probably going to be a guy. and that person i think is not around. the republican party right now is a kind of a confusion -- it's a ball of confusion in some ways. you have the establishment, you have the tea party. bridging that divide wouldn't be

easy for the most dexterous politician which rick perry i think is not. and so i don't know that chris christie, if he were to wade into the race would be able to bridge it either. >> well, that's the thing. all these guys look great until they step in. i think christie has been very convincing in his language about not going to run for president. he's found every absolutely clear way to say it and he's said it. no hedging there. mitch daniels absolutely dropped out. you know, isn't going to do it. and so it's reasonable at this point to say, this is the field and there are two front-runners. it's going to be romney or perry. the obama campaign, it seems, would probably be better off with perry. that's what steve schmidt has said on this network that -- and the polling indicates they'd be better off with perry so far. do you think that's what the obama campaign is rooting for at this point? obama versus perry?

>> yes. i do think they would rather see obama versus perry. although it seems to me that they're still kind of trying to lay groundwork for obama versus romney. they seem to think that in the end it's probably going to be romney. and if perry continues at this rate, they'll be right, i think. romney is turning in solid performance after solid performance in the debates. they might be "b" performances or "b" plus. they're not "a" plus. he's a good debater and he manages to put the focus on perry and not the focus on his own flip-flops, on obamney care, on the reasons that republicans really don't like him that much. and, you know, the more he sticks around, the more he, i think, might come to seem inevitable. >> and romney, gene, has been running for president for more than five years now.

perry's been at it for about five weeks. that difference is really showing now. >> it sure is. romney is a much better candidate than he was last time around. he kind of knows how to do this. rick perry clearly does not. and he needs to be on an extremely steep learning curve because basically the next -- of course, there are a million republican debates, but in the next debate or so, he had better perform, you know, with a lot more skill and verbal dexterity than he has up till now or i think that we're going to see this front-runner status really start to come down. people -- this immigration issue, especially, is really going to hurt perry and it is, as chris hayes observed, in my opinion, it's an issue, perry is right. it's certainly a position that's highly unpopular with the

republican base. and that plus his fumble mouthedness might seal his doom. >> it doesn't look like there are any points to be scored by being right in this republican primary. "washington post" columnist eugene robinrobinson. thanks for joining me tonight. >> great. have a great weekend. >> you, too. coming up, we take a look at the republican myth that president obama is the worst thing that ever happened to small business. instead of talking to a politician about small business, we will try the novel approach of talking to someone who has actually created a small business. and president obama takes if not a page, at least a paragraph out of elizabeth warren's campaign playbook. that's in the "rewrite." [ horn honks ] ♪ oh, those were the best of days ♪ ♪ i still feel the summer rays

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moller barker, focused on teaching empowerment, optimism and gratitude, participants follow a ten week curriculum building up to a 5k running event. barker looks to build on lessons of team building, self-value and community one step forward at a time. this msnbc profile in progress is brought to you by capella university. matter. president obama succeeded in getting a piece of legislation passed this month. the senate voted 89-9 to reform america's patent policy, reversing two centuries of rules that president obama said were hurting america's economy by forcing inventors to have a finished product before getting a patent. the president says the u.s. will now catch up with many european and asian countries. still ahead in this hour, republicans keep saying that president obama's policies hurt job creation, hurt small business and hurt entrepreneurs. up next, we'll hear from an

entrepreneur whose book on starting companies is now number two on "the new york times" bestseller list. and in the "rewrite" elizabeth warren helps the president rewrite his response to the republican chant of class warfare. and tonight, the late night comedians will get "the last word." >> president obama is visiting the hometown of house speaker john boehner. yeah. obama plans to give a speech then visit the tanning bed that boehner grew up in. [ female announcer ] introducing new pronutrients from centrum. omega-3s go beyond heart health. probiotics go beyond digestive balance. and fruit & veggie has antioxidant properties.

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nearly 2.5 million of our citizens have lost jobs under this administration. $4 trillion in debt has been added to our children's burden. one in six work eligible americans cannot even find a

job. in washington they call this a recovery. and the rest of america, we call it a failure. >> that was rick perry speaking at today's cpac. at last night's debate, rick perry and mitt romney joined the republican chant to get big, bad government off the back of the biggest job creator in america, the small businessowner. >> you look at the state of texas and see what we've done there from the standpoint of lowering that tax burden, the regulatory climate in the state of texas. we've taken those types of regulations off of the throat of small business operators. >> our corporate tax rates, employer tax rates have to be competiti competitive. small business pays at the highest rate. we need to get the rates down to globally competitive levels. number two, we have to be allies of business, not foes. >> there is no group that is more publicly worshipped and met

tholjized than small businessowners. you'll be hearing about small businessowners every day during campaigning. tonight we decided to talk to someone with small business experience. joining me now, eric reese, entrepreneur in residence at the harvard business school and author of "the lean startup: how today's entrepreneurs use continuous intervention to create radically successful businesses." eric, i'm confused. here we are, i'm in the table of contents of "the lean startup." there's part one, vision. part two, steer. part three, accelerate. chapter one, start. chapter two, define. leap, start, pivot, grow, adapt, innovate. epilogue. where is taxes? what chapter, oh, oh, oh, index. all right. i got you. it's going to be huge in the

index. right? okay. let's see. tastefully simple. tax return innovation page 29 to 31. let me get this straight. 300 pages. taxes are three pages of this book? >> that's absolutely right. >> wait a minute. >> it can be -- >> it's everything. it's all small business think about is taxes are killing me. taxes are -- i mean, rick perry has taxes and government regulation at the throat of small business. how did you miss that? >> i don't know. i didn't get the memo. since the book came out a week ago i've been on book tour, i've been in cities all around the country and talked to literally thousands of entrepreneurs. marginal tax rates has not come up one time in my conversations with entrepreneurs. i don't know any entrepreneurs in this entrepreneurship boom happening now that's worried about what marginal tax rate they might pay, 33% or 35% when they timely become the next facebook and make $1 billion.

it's not on anybody's mind. >> warren buffett talks about his experience in business, he says he doesn't know anyone at the investment level, his level of the game, who ever made a decision about investment based on what the tax would be on whatever profit they made from the investment. >> yeah. i don't really understand who would be thinking that way. entrepreneurship is so difficult, so unlikely to be unsuccessful in the first place, the last thing you have to worry about is, you know, what will the tiny changes in the tax return you'll have to pay? most of us who have had a chance to write a big check to uncle sam, like mark cuban said the other day, felt like it was our patriotic duty. it was actually pretty exciting. >> they keep talking about how if you change the top personal income tax rate, you will hurt small business and small business creators tremendously. by moving it from 35% to 39.5%, by moving it 4 1/2 points, leaving all the deductions in place and all the ways in which business and individuals have of actually reducing their effective rate, why in the 1990s

when we did that, when we had a 39.5% top tax rate, why was business booming? >> what's driving entrepreneurship are technological and management things making it easier to start a company and therefore, making entrepreneurship available to people who never would have been able to try it before. i go so far to say entrepreneurship is now a career you can pursue. that's very exciting. that means a lot more people pursuing entrepreneurship. there are more startups operating today than at any time in history. although the overall economy is grim and there are certainly employment challenges, in the startup hubs, places like silicon valley where i'm from, we have so much entrepreneurial activity people are worried it might be a second bubble. >> in your checklist of creating a new business, where would -- of things you have to do -- okay, where would "get government off my back" be? would that be number 1, number

3, number 300? >> there certainly are regulatory things the government can do to encourage people to become entrepreneurs. those things are not on entrepreneurs' mind. how do we create a great product and service customers in a service of building a long term viable business? the book is really about how do we run those experiments cheaply, quickly, to learn what's working and what's not? there are regulatory things government can do. certainly making it so that you don't lose your health care if your company fails. certainly making it so that big companies can't file a bunch of bogus patents and put you out of business. things that are pro growth, investing in common infrastructure, internet, gps, which are government things that helped them build government sm. >> ignore the republican presidential candidates. read "the lean startup." entrepreneur and author of "the lean startup" eric reese. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. coming up, massachusetts senate candidate elizabeth warren rewrites the republican

accusation that the president's plan to make the tax code more fair is class warfare. that's next. the late night hosts tackle the deficit reduction plan, the repeal of don't ask, don't tell and of course last night's republican debate. the week in comedy is coming up. [ male announcer ] this is lara.

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still ahead, the late night comedians take on the political war over class warfare. the best of the week in comedy is coming up. and we will see how elizabeth warren helped rewrite the president's response to the republican chant of class warfare. [ venus ] what are they doing to stufy? they're making him triple double. why? this! new triple double oreo. ♪ yo stufy, come here! [ shoes squeaking ] looked better on paper. [ strike! ] looked better on paper. do you have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem? are you taking warfarin to reduce your risk of stroke caused by a clot?

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visit pradaxa.com. time for tonight's "rewrite." when president obama brought his jobs bill to congress and announced that he wanted to pay for it by making the tax code more fair, by impose what he called the buffett rule so that billionaires like warren buffett would no longer pay lower income tax rates than their mid-class employees, republicans did not bother to address the details in the president's plan. the republicans' rebuttal was a two-word slogan. >> class warfare. >> class warfare. >> class warfare. >> class warfare. >> class warfare. >> class warfare. >> class warfare. >> class warfare. >> at first, the president responded in classic obama style with logic and with, of course, the mandatory denial that it was class warfare.

>> this is not class warfare. it's math. the money is going to have to come from someplace. and if we're not willing to ask those who have done extraordinarily well to help america close the deficit, and we are trying to reach that same target, the $4 trillion, then the logic, the math says everybody else has to do a whole lot more. we have to put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor. we have to scale back on the investments that have always helped our economy grow. we have to settle for second-rate roads and second-rate bridges and second-rate airports. and schools that are crumbling. that's unacceptable to me. that's unacceptable to the american people. and it will not happen on my

watch. >> then a rookie senate candidate in massachusetts showed the president he could have a little more fun with this, that he could breathe a little more fire into his response. >> i hear all this, you know, well, this is class warfare, this is whatever. no. there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. nobody. you built a factory out there. good for you. but i want to be clear. you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. you didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did. now, look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea, god

bless. keep a big hunk of it. but part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along. >> okay. so the marauding bands thing might have been a little too much, but the president and his speechwriters were listening. and then they rewrote his position on class warfare. >> you can make millions. you can make billions of dollars in america. this is the land of opportunity. that's great. all i'm saying is, if you've done well, i've done well, then you should do a little something to give something back. you should want to see the country that provided you with this opportunity to be successful and be able to provide opportunity for the young people who are going to be coming up behind you. now, the republicans, you know,

when i talked about this earlier in the week. sh they say, well, this is class warfare. you know what? if asking a billionaire to pay their fair share of taxes, to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare, then you know what? i'm a warrior for the middle class. i'm happy to fight for the middle class. >> so the president goes from the safe political position of denying that it's class warfare to declariing himself a happy warrior for the middle class. and he does this in a matter of days and he does it after using the elizabeth warren idea about how the rich should pay it forward. then the president adds his own rhetorical flourishes and improvements. the happy warrior for the middle class. if we want to know what candidate obama is going to say

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that's what i was thinking. hmm. covering the things that make the outdoors great. now that's progressive. call or click today. the war over class warfare, the end of don't ask, don't tell, and another republican debate gave the late night comedians and their writers everything they needed this week. >> oh, there was another big republican debate tonight in orlando, florida. this one was sponsored by google. sponsored by google which is tricky for rick perry because he's a yahoo!. actually, you know, orlando, the home of disney world. that's the perfect fit for these candidates. i mean, mitt romney's prince

charming. ron paul is grumpy. rick perry's dopey. michele bachmann thinks she's snow white. it's fantastic. >> yesterday obama unveiled his deficit reduction plan with yet another fiery speech from the rose garden. by taxing the rich, there is a name for what obama is trying to do here. >> i don't think i would describe class warfare as leadership. >> yes. it is class warfare. and that is unfair to rich people who generally speaking would prefer not to fight our wars. >> this is not class warfare. it's math. >> since when, since when does math settle anything? like evolution, i believe math is just a theory. >> that's how you're going to sell your program to americans? it's not war. math? the thing we're, the top 10%? >> if barack obama begins taxing

me more than 50% which is very possible, i don't know how much longer i'm going to do this. i like my job, but there comes a point where taxation becomes oppressive. [ laughter ] >> so if taxes are raised, bill o'reilly might quit his fox show? [ cheers and applause ] well, that -- that brings us to our new segment, "no." "stop." "bill." "don't, please. no." >> according to new reports,

house speaker john boehner has accepted money from bp to support his campaign. while mitt romney has accepted oil from bp to support his hairdo. >> today president obama is visiting the hometown of house speaker john boehner. yeah. obama plans to give a speech then visit the tanning bed that boehner grew up in. >> if you're watching the show e fr from a military base and noticed your fellow soldiers seem somewhere between 2% to 10% happier today, the figures are very hard to get. there's a reason. >> starting today the policy that banned gays from serving openly in the military is now history. >> from now on, gays can serve openly in the military. the 13,000 who were discharged under don't ask, don't tell, can reenlist. >> that's how ridiculous this policy was. the apology for the affront is, all right, sorry, you can go to

afghanistan and fight for your country. by the way -- i know -- they're lucky it was gay people they discharged from the army. only gay people would remain in good enough shape to be able to reenlist. >> now that don't ask, don't tell, has been repealed, the marines, this is true, the marines said they want to recruit the most gay soldiers of any branch of the military. that's true. the marines said they want to -- yeah. when the navy heard this, they said, oh, bitch, it is on. the tea party, did you hear what the tea party is up to now? the tea party is forming its own debt supercommittee. a supercommittee on debt that's going to meet this week at a florida denny's. yeah. trust me, you do not want to be the waiter who has to add the tax to their check. can you imagine?

socialists. >> the late night comedians get "the last word" for friday. it's going to be a big week here on "the last word" next week. on thursday, former presidential candidate tim pawlenty. my former favorite republican presidential candidate will make his debut right here on "the last word." he will explain to me why he dropped out after i predicted he had the best chance of actually winning the republican nomination. does he wish he was back in there now? you can have "the last word" online at our blog thelastword.msnbc.com. follow my tweets @lawrence. the rachel maddow show is up next. good evening, rachel. >> lawrence, if you can convince tim pawlenty to get back into the race, i'll buy you and him and anybody else in the room dinner. >> it can't be a don't ask, don't tell thing. you can go back