it's its own political act. virginia is for vajaja's. the cheerful but -- and then send us pictures of them. obviously that is the best new thing in the world today. right? now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. have a night. president obama went to mitt romney's home state of michigan and got thunderous applause. mitt romney went to the site of this year's democratic national convention. and just got thunder. >> be an effort by the "vast left wing conspiracy". >> the crazy right rears its head. >> mitt romney's vast left wing conspiracy. >> not part of some grand scheme. >> he believes in a vast left wing conspiracy. >> this is not exactly a grand idea. >> mitt romney is giving a pre butt al to president obama. >> set to be on a rooftop venue

overlooking bank of america stadium. >> site of the convention in charlotte, north carolina. >> o moved indoors due to rain. rain on mitt's parade. >> we'll continue to hear more. >> even if you like barack obama, we can't afford barack obama. >> he will contort his thoughts and beliefs to meet that. >> he's got these ideas. >> mitt romney has begun the process of choosing a running mate. >> we've got a long list of people. >> something with a different ethnicity who appeals to women. his first choice is president obama. [ laughter ] >> how do you move back to the center on immigration. >> republicans have been running on alienating hispanic voters. >> it seems like romney is regretting some of this rhetoric. >> the dream act, would i veto it and the answer is yes. >> romney has a strong lead among really, really white voters. >> sometimes we have to compromise. >> i support governor romney for president of the united states. >> the lesser of two evils. >> america is falling in love with the idea of liking mitt

romney. >> we will finish what we started in 2008. god bless you. god bless america. remember this? the much publicized mitt romney speech at ford field. that was the romney event that wound up with an audience of 1200 people, many of thechl members of the media forced to cover the event. there was another much hyped romney event today, so-called prebutt al to president obama's speech where the president will accept the democratic nomination in september at the bank of america stadium that holds 73,000 people.

romney planned to stand on the roof of a charlotte office building overlooking that stadium and ex core ate the president today. but once again in romney-land, it didn't go quite as planned. >> this is quite a reception. thank you. i thought we were going to be on the roof. it looks a little wet up there. >> so romney's big speech was to about 150 people in a room with a window looking out on to the stadium, although, as you can see, that window was completely blocked by the massive american flag. the subject of romney's speech was president obama's record on the economy. but mitt romney also used this speech to attack the president on issues of character. as reported here last night, a new cnn opinion research poll shows president obama has an advantage over romney on the 15

characteristics and qualities that voters were asked about. all 15. romney is losing every single one of those. romney tried to chip away at the president's advantage on some of the key characteristics and qualities. as much as he possibly could given that president obama is much, much more liked by voters than mitt romney is. >> even if you like barack obama, we can't afford barack obama. >> you won't hear him repeat an accurate statement. [ laughter ] he has navigated these storms and now he's ready to really lead to the future. really? he's really ready to lead now. he's over his head and swimming in the wrong direction. we know that it's time to have someone who has actually led. >> and mitt romney closed his pre--buttal speech by attacking the president for this. >> we'll recognize that it's

time that given the fact that we've learned who barack obama is and what he's capable of doing, that he's over his head. >> president obama speaking at a community college in ohio found ways to speak about mitt romney without actually mentioning his name. >> somebody gave me an education. i wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. michelle wasn't. but somebody gave us a chance. just like these folks up here are looking for a chance. >> and later, at an event in michigan, the president had no trouble reminding voters about his record. >> change is the promise we made in 2008 for the first time in nine years, there are no americans fighting in iraq. we have refocused our efforts on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. al qaeda is weaker than it's been thanks to our amazing troops. osama bin laden no longer walks

the face of this earth. we've begun the transition out of afghanistan. that's what change is. [ applause ] >> joining me now are editor of aol huffington post and karen finney. the former dnc communications director and msnbc political analyst. howard, there was the president in auto manufacturing country in michigan and the biggest applause he got was not the auto bailout, it was for getting osama bin laden. >> yeah. that's an applause line that's going to work throughout the year. i think the key is -- by the way, i think that the president who is leading by -- his first play was about the buffett rule for two weeks. i don't think that was the best way to start the fall campaign. that's what's happened. this speech tonight in dearborn, i thought hit all the best bases he could hit.

to me the key line was when he said we're beginning to see wha thins, with talking about how osama bin laden no longer walks the face of the earth. i thought it was a strong general election campaign speech because it hit all of his best points and didn't just lead with the idea of taxes. wasn't a tax speech. it was an overall speech and very well done. >> karen finney, it looks like the romney speech writers simply looked at that cnn poll of all the characteristics where the president has huge leads over romney and decided to write that speech directly to that poll. >> absolutely. i don't remember if you remember this game from a little kid. i know you are but what am i? i mean, they keep taking obamas strengths and trying to say that he didn't just go kick ass and get osama bin laden. more interestingly, in the language that romney has been using for some time now, the other two types of poll numbers,

other than likability that are very -- honest and trustworthy and shares my values. in the narrative today that the president talked about, people can see themselves in that story. this is a guy who came from modest means, worked his way up. even as a community organizer, worked to help people who needed jobs and needed to get back on their feet in different ways. again, he's got that connection, shares my values. people think he's honest and trustworthy. there's an abc cbs news poll coming out, six in ten people think that mitt romney will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. that's not honest and trustworthy. clearly, they're trying to attack those two virtues of the president knowing that they're weaknesses for romney. >> mitt romney was on fox news tonight telling shawn hannity what he wants hear. let's listen. >> i do believe if we continue to talk about the president's

record and the fact that he is over his head and swimming in the wrong direction, if we talk about those things, i think he's in real trouble. what he's going to try and do, he's begun it, is to try and find anyway to divert from his record, divert the attention of the voting public. frankly, i think americans are too smart for that. >> howard, in that recent cnn poll, mitt romney does not even lead the president on handling the economy. despite how weak this recovery has been and how high unemployment remains. >> yeah. i think that's the key number. let me say again, i thought the speech by the president tonight, if you look at it in its entirety, i think the best case he's made for himself so far. he touched on all the successes, succinctly, comprehend hence civil. he talked about laying out what he'd like to do and other projects for a second term. he said we can see what change begins to look like. i thought that was crucial. if he can make that case, all

the rest of the numbers don't really matter. couple other things, lawrence. don't forget, despite the similar numbers, the horse race number overall is pretty close right now. i think that's something that the obama campaign needs to worry about. but if they can convincingly answer this notion that barack obama is in over his head with the kind of speech he gave tonight, i think he's going to be in very good shape. as for mitt romney, how do you fix the likability problem? how do you do that? how do you do that? because if you -- >> got time. >> come up with a better dog story. >> if he could -- if he could do that, he could make more of a race out of this. instead, i was talking to david axelrod in the obama campaign earlier tonight. romney's words are hot, accusatory, broad, nasty, that's not going to help him on the likability front with independent voters. no matter what case he's making against barack obama. >> right. >> go ahead, karen. >> i was going to say, that's

part of why what you hear him saying is nice guy but in over his head. they know, people like president obama. so you can't go at him that directly. he's a likeable person. that's why their frame is in over his head. >> also, karen, the in over his head thing don't poll because you look at the cnn poland president obama has this massive lead over mitt romney on commander in chief. >> right. but that's -- that feels like the classic gop trying to convince us that there are weapons of mass destruction, that when the describe is blue, it's purple. what we see for ourselves and hear for ourselves is not true. that's going to be a part of their strategy. >> he's trying to do on -- romney is trying to do on the domestic side of things, on the market and economic side of things what the republicans did to mike dukakis a generation ago. remember, he was in the tank with the tank helmet and so forth. >> make fun of him, howard. >> exactly. >> no, no. they're trying to say, barack

obama is hopelessly in over his head, he's mike dukakis in the tank when it comes to domestic politics. obama has to answer that. i thought tonight he did a pretty darn good job of it. >> karen, let's listen to more of what president obama said tonight talking to people in his audience about giving them a realistic kind of frame for how much progress he was capable of making in his first term and how much time he needs to make progress. let's listen to this. >> i know the last 3.5 years, 4 years have been tough. i know there are times where we think change isn't happening as fast as we'd like. remember what we said during the last campaign. i said this was going to be hard. change takes time. sometimes it takes more than a year, more than a single term. >> karen, it sound like he's finding the language to rechallenge his audience to get the strength up to go at this

again, that there's more to do and it takes longer than four years. >> right. that's why you hear people talking about it took us eight years to get into the mess, it will take more than 3.5 years to get out. it's an important point he makes. a lot of times what you hear on the gop side is the metrics that they use, like the 92% number, the ridiculous number that the romney campaign was trying to use last year are a little bit inaccurate in terms of and give a skewed picture of what's really going on. if they were smart today, they went to two states, ohio and michigan where the job numbers are actually looking better than they were when the president took office and he can take some credit for that. again, i think the point will be we're moving in the right direction. he won't jump up and down and hoot and holler like we know we still have more dho. we know it's not as fast as we would like. again, it's hard to make people, ask people to change coaches mid-game without a really good reason. i think if they feel -- >> lawrence, i would suggest

he's got do as much hooting and hollering as he possibly can. >> i disagree. if you hoot and holler and try to tell things are better than they are, you lose credibility. that's one of his strongest assets. >> i don't think you say they're better than they are. but you brag about what ever scrap of progress you've made in terms of policy or the economy. i thought he did a good job of that tonight. >> howard, would you characterize it as hooting and hollering in a positive way, the way he was dealing with that crowd about osama bin laden, that earlier tape that we saw. is that the type of rallying cry stuff you mean? >> first of all, i misspoke. barack obama is not the hooting and hollering type. >> you mean -- kind of raise the roof rhetorically. >> yeah. raise it a little rhetorically. he talked about the loans given to students. he talked about 2.5 million people under the age of 26 on health care. he's got a constantly repeat,

call it what you will. >> sure. >> whatever good he has done and whatever progress he has made. i think the administration has done a terrible job so far of doing that. it's not enough to say the republicans left us in a ditch and we're climbing out. that's not good enough. >> i think when he hits the strides in a speech where the audience is rolling along verbally with him and they have their own oral reaction to him and clapping reaction to him, that's the spot in the obama. >> exactly. >> speech where it's really working. >> in general, the point is yes, tell your accomplishments, don't back away, don't back down from any of them in any way, shape or form. but don't overstate it. i think that's the balance that they have to walk. because the economy still is where it is. you can't oversell it because, again, i think he would lose credibility. >> karen finney and howard fineman, thank you both for joining me tonight.

>> thank you, lawrence. >> thanks. coming up, what republican vice presidential hopefuls are doing trying to get mitt romney's approval and attention. what happens when a mitt romney endorser threatens the president of the united states? mitt romney lies about the endorsement. that's in the rewrite. and there is a possibility that mitt romney just might make an appearance on saturday night live. but even if he never does, he's already given us so much to remember. he's made such a contribution to american comedy already, and that's coming up. [ tires squeal, engine revs ] ♪ ♪ ♪

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romney event today highlighting an issue the former massachusetts governor admitted could spell doom for us. those are his words. could spell doom for us. that's his unpopularity with latino voters. florida senator marco rubio stepped up to help romney's dream of winning the election and fulfill rubio's dream of being the vice presidential slot on that ticket. rubio announced today that he's working on a republican version of the dream act that would allow young, illegal immigrants to attend college in the united states, but it would not, would not provide a pathway to citizenship like the democratic version. here's what rubio had to say about the current "dream act" in march on fox news imt. >> i support the idea behind the dream act to help the young kids. i don't support it as currently drafted. it creates a pathway to citizenship that could

potentially encourage illegal immigration in the future. >> meanwhile, virginia governor bob mcdonnell is trying to clean up his image. his approval ratings took a hit after he signed into law a controversial ultrasound bill earlier this year. now, the washington post reports that the term limited governor is planning to air positive tv ads or in other words, campaign ads to be the vice presidential nominee. here's what mcdonnell had to say when asked about the ads this morning on msnbc's "the daily rundown." >> you know, you can't believe everything you read in the papers, chuck. i can only tell you that -- we don't have any plans at this point. but i tell you, we're always looking for ways to get out the positive message about what we're doing in virginia. >> joining me now are elise i can't menendez and crystal ball. here's a term-limited governor who i just can't think of a

reason why he'd be spending money on tv advertising. what could that be? i mean, can he tv advertise his way on to the republican ticket? >> this guy has been so blatant about how he's actively courting the vice presidential nomination. i don't know if i've ever seen anything like that. the bottom line is there is no way that bob mcdonnell is going to be the vp pick. >> come on, he's the governor of virginia. they need to win virginia. >> right, right. >> what could the problem me? >> let's start with transvaginal probes. >> who is going to -- >> even beyond that, if you put that aside which ween if you di thesis in 1989 for regents university called working women detrimental to the family, railed against fornicators and homosexuals and talked about how feminists were ruining the country and railed against special privileges for unwed single mothers.

there is no way that mitt romney, given the overall climate surrounding women and his numbers there and his aversion to risk, there is no way he will pick bob mcdonnell in my humble opinion. >> alicia menendez, marco rubio seems to be helpful, trying to come up with a republican dream act. i'm having trouble figuring out what the dream is in the republicans? that you get to go to college and then you can't be employed in this country, that's as far as they let you go? >> in fairness, your status gets somewhat normalized. you can do norm things like drive, work here. those are big things. that said, there are big problems with what we're hearing is being proposed, which is that these kids are not going to be able to become u.s. citizens, which means we create a permanent second class of americans that exist in the united states and he says, well some of them can become citizens. then it's circumstantial. that's not how you build good

policy. the timing is incredibly suspect. we have a house where we know this legislation won't move. why is marco rubio now proposing it in the senate? >> we heard that the fundraiser in florida the other night that we overheard what he was saying. he was actually saying to the rich republicans that they need some kind of republican dream act and here's marco rubio running out with one. let's listen to what kind of a problem this presents for romney with ann coulter. let's listen to what she has said about the way republicans handled immigration and how important it is to her that mitt romney remains really tough on all immigration issues. >> romney of the four remaining is the most conservative. he has the strongest position on illegal immigration. after obama care, the single most important issue is illegal immigration. if we lose that, the entire country goes the way of california where no republican will ever get elected. >> alicia, how can romney move

at all on this issue? >> you got to give it to ann coulter, because she says what a lot of people in the republican party are thinking. you're right. he comes into the election with a lot of baggage. he would have vetoed the dream act, pivot off of immigrants to self-deport. distancing himself from chris -- who authored the anti-immigration legislation in -- he's a supporter, not an adviser. on top of that, he needs to find a positive message to sell to latinos. that's a pretty heavy lift. >> go ahead, krystal. >> she's saying we can't take our ioffe the ball in illegal immigration, if we let the latinos start to vote, there's no way republicans can get-elected nip. it's part of a cynical voter suppression.

that's what she's focused on. that's why rubio's plan does not allow citizenship so they can't vote. that's what this is all about. >> so that they can't bring their mom and dad and grandmother over. this is about family reunification and making sure families aren't together. this is about one individual getting through by separating them from their communities and families. >> let's listen to the other vice presidential candidate of the night. we're examining the rubio and mcdonnell possibilities. answering the question of what he would say if mitt romney asked him to be part of the vetting process. >> i think anybody that gets a call from the nominee and says you can help our party, you can help our country, of course you would consider it. that's completely up to mitt romney. i'm not looking for campaigning it or expecting it. you'll have to ask governor romney what he's planning to do. >> he's not looking for it. come on. he's not campaigning for it.

>> furtherest thing from his mind, lawrence. he's humbly trying to do his job as governor of virginia and running ads to boost his popularity numbers. even though he's not running for reelection. one interesting element with bob mcdonnell, he was protecting someone -- the democrats had control of the senate until this year. they kept back a lot of the crazy legislation. consequently, he's had pretty high approval numbers. since the republicans have taken control of all of the branches of government in virginia and we've seen the crazy things like transvaginal probes, governor mock donl's popularity has plunged and he's concerned about that clearly. >> let's listen him talk about the transvaginal probe issue. he defended himself on this this morning. if this was the vice presidential nominee's defense, how it would play out. >> joins 23 states with some form of ultrasound laws as part of the statute to make sure that

women have all the medical and clinical and legal information that's available prior to making what everybody agrees is a life changing decision. >> he's so emphatic about this he managed to say it twice at the same time. did we all get a double on that audio? in my earpiece i heard it twice. >> we did. >> alicia, would that work if he was out there, would that get him through the election? >> i don't think so. i think an echo is what we're hearing. you have romney on stage with the governor of pennsylvania who had said don't worry about these invasive ultrasounds. women who don't like them, can just close their eyes as that erases the entire debate. i mean, republicans have clearly decided that they're getting the married upper class women who traditionally have voted for them and they're not going to play among other demos within women. >> something really cool it turns out about this vice

presidential discussion is in the cnn poll. who do you think in the cnn poll most republicans or most people would like to see as romney's running mate? i'll cut to the answer. it's no one we've been talking about. condoleeza rice at 26% is the number one choice. she is my favorite possibility. i would love to see her run not guilty the vice presidential slot. >> you know, i think that her popularity and the possibility of choosing her as a vp pick illustrates the problem that mitt romney has. she's actually pro choice and she's said favorable things about civil unions for gay people as well. she, i think, as a pro choice woman would be very difficult for the base to swallow once they learned about those positions. but she would be appealing to a general election audience. so mitt romney has to walk this tightrope of trying to apiece the base and continue to convince him that he's on their side while choosing someone who can appeal to a broad electorate.

almost an impossible task. >> i want to hear her answer questions about taxation and medicare. she could. it would be interesting. but the pro choice thing seems like a killer on that party. >> alicia menendez and krystal ball, thank you for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up, mitt romney asked for ted nugent's endorsement. that's ted's story. now that ted nugent is about to have a little session with the secret service about asking about his threatening comments about the president. what's mitt romney doing about the endorsement? he's lying about the endorsement. that's in the rewrite. but first, a new video takes a look at what president mitt romney would do to the supreme court. it's frightening and it's an essex cluhe is exclusive and it's up next. great shot.

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in a mitt romney presidency, i know it's hard to imagine. so in a mitt romney presidency, who would be an ideal supreme court nominee? you don't hear romney talking about this much, but we're going to talk about it, next. later, how ted nugent's endorsement of mitt romney is now being rewritten by mitt romney. ♪

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and always will be you are voting for the person who will choose the next supreme court justices. the most important appointed jobs that exist in government. and arguably, at many points in our history, the most important jobs in our government. we've seen what kind of supreme court justices president obama has selected. but who would a president romney send to the supreme court? >> mitt romney would make the court even more hostile to the rights of ordinary americans. >> now, let me note that the key thing the president is going to do is going to be would the longest legacy, appointing supreme court and justices throughout the system. as many as half of the justices in the next four years will be appointed by the next president. >> who has mitt romney helped chosen to help pick the nominees for the court.

>> judge bourque decided to join my campaign team. i wish he was already on the supreme court. >> a legal activist so extreme his own supreme court nomination was rejected by a bipartisan coalition 25 years ago in the senate. robert bork defended poll taxes and literacy tests for voters. and he called the civil rights act unsurpassed. he believes that politicians should be able to outlaw birth control. he believes that the first amendment shouldn't apply to literature, art or science. bork believes that the constitution's promise of equal protection doesn't apply to women. that a corporation can tell female employees to be sterilized or be fired. >> joining me now for an exclusive interview is maryland state senator, jamie ras can, author of the new report, borking america. what it will mean for the supreme court and american

justice. constitutional law professor at american university and a senior fellow at people for the american way, the organization that produced that video that we just saw. jamie, i am shocked. i thought i knew the robert bork history, the rough outlines of it. i had no idea that he was in favor of literacy tests for voters. in favor of outlawing, believes that the government can outlaw birth control. i'm looking at what i learned in your video. here's the one, i can't even fathom this. the first amendment should not apply to literature or art. we've seen people try to have the first amendment, you know, overruled in literature and art. he's saying it should not apply to science. what does he even mean by the first amendment should not apply to science? >> lawrence, the position he took on that was that the first amendment is only about the core

of political speech and this is a position as far as i can tell that he held for decades. recently, he's been saying that although he doesn't think in principal it applies to art and literature and comedy and so on, it's too divas a practical matter to disentangle what's political and what's not. he seems to have let that drop by the wayside a little bit. in order to write this report, i went back and read everything that robert bork has written for publication, all of the books, the on eds. this was ex cruise shating duty, i've got to tell you. it's shocking the things that he stands for. what's more shocking is that mitt romney presumably having researched this would go ahead and appoint him as his key constitutional adviser. >> you say that robert bork, he was a former federal judge at one point, right? >> sure. he was on the d.c. circuit. >> the circuit, right. right below the supreme court. he ruled that a corporation can

tell its female employees to be sterilized or fired? >> well, what happened was, there was a company that had a lot of lead in the air. and the secretary of labor said that under osha, the company essentially had to fix the workplace. the company said they wanted to fix the workers and they said to the women workers, either you get sterilized or you've got to leave the job. bork agreed with the company and disagreed and overruled the secretary of labor in that case. there was an interesting report done in 1987 by public citizen scrutinizing the record of the judge on the circuit and found something interesting. in close cases where the court was split, whenever the government was in litigation with the corporation, bork decided with the corporation 100% of the time. when there was a split decision and the government was being sued by workers or by consumers or by individual citizens, he

sided with the government. so corporations over government, government over people. that pretty much synopsizes the bork rule. >> back in 1987, people from the american way produced this video, also produced another video about robert bork to show you how long he's been scaring people. we're going to look at this one. this was narrated by gregory peck. >> robert bork could have the last word on your rights as citizens. but the senate has the last word on him. please urge your senators to vote against the bork nomination because if robert bork wins a seat on the supreme court, it will be for life. his life and yours. >> as we know, bork did not win the seat on the court. but now mitt romney seems to want to shape the supreme court if he's president in the image of a robert bork. >> the stunning thing is that bork faced rejection by the u.s. senate on a bipartisan vote of 58-42. in bork's radical move to the

right in the primaries to head off the attack from santorum and bachmann. he decided to support bork. he can't drop him now because the right wing will explode over it. when the american public, especially women, face robert bork as the person who will be hand picking supreme court justices and federal judges, the public is going to rebel about it. i mean, his views about women are absolutely retrograde. >> maryland state senator and constitutional law professor. jamie rascan. i thought i knew everything about him. i do not. thank you for joining us. >> pleasure is mine. how mitt romney is repudiating what one of his coveted endorsers said about the president, ted nugent. actually, romney is not repudiating ted nugent at all. he's lying about how he got the

endorsement. later, mitt romney still has to make a big decision about whether he's going to appear on saturday night live. we're going to show you the comedic abilities much mitt romney. coming up. ♪ there's a place i dream about ♪ ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines. it was in my sister's neighborhood. i told you it was perfect for you guys. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer together.

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you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ in tonight's rewrite, mitt romney has a nugent problem. >> our president and attorney general x vice president, hillary clinton, they're criminals. they're criminals. it isn't the enemy that ruined america. it's good people who bent over and let the enemy in. if the coyotes in your living room pissing on your couch, it's not the coyote's fault. it's your fault for not shooting him. we are patriots, we have brave heart. we need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in november. if barack obama becomes the president in november again, i

will either be dead or in jail by this time next year. >> now, presidents and good executives have to delegate. mitt romney knows that. so mitt romney has delegated the crisis management of his nugent problem to ted nugent. who today, tried to explain himself to friendly interviewers. >> if it wasn't for the federal government, my life would be perfect. bottom line is, glenn, i've never threatened anybody's life in my life. i don't threaten. i don't waste breath threatening. i just conduct myself as a dedicated we the people activist. i'm a nonviolent guy. i don't threaten. i wouldn't waste my time threatening. i've never threatened anybody's life in my life. i certainly wouldn't threaten the life of the president or anybody in public office or anybody anywhere. >> i'm a black jew in a nazi

clan rally. >> that guy knows something about damage control. and the only thing about ted nugent that seems to bother the romney campaign is nugent's claim that romney solicited nugent's endorsement. ted nugent announced his endorsement on twitter after a long heart and soul conversation with mitt romney today, i concluded this good man will properly represent we the people and i endorsed him. the very same day romney's son tweeted as we reported last night, ted nugent endorsed my dad today, ted nugent, how cool is that. he joins kid rock as great detroit musicians on team mitt. proving that team mitt knows nothing about what is cool and what a great detroit musician is. and now, the romney campaign is, in effect, calling ted nugent a liar. saying it's not how it happened. the romney campaign told nbc

news that they never solicited ted nugent's endorsement. and earlier today while walking the rope line at a campaign event, mitt romney would not answer when asked three separate questions about ted nugent by an nbc new reporter with the romney campaign. but on march 2nd shall the day nugent endorsed romney, one reporter for the texas tribune talked to ted nugent to find out who called who. and this afternoon msnbc's martin beshear talked to that reporter. >> got a phone call and to his surprise took the opportunity to solicit romney's pledge that there would be no restrictions to the second amendment under his presidency and at that point, nugent decided to give him his endorsement. >> just to be specific and clear and cat gore i can, so there's

no ambivalence, mr. romney called ted nugent and asked for his endorsement, yes? >> yes. that's exactly how nugent portrayed it on the day he gave the endorsement. >> and so tonight, america has a difficult choice. which one of these liars is lying about how one of the liars decided to endorse the other liar. ♪

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saturday night live. you've been asked. are you going do it? >> i hadn't heard that we were asked until i read about it over

the weekend. that sounds like a lot of fun. why not? i haven't made a decision. just heard about it. of course, it would depend on the nature of the skit. i want it to be funny. >> well, if mitt romney turns down saturday night live, at least we'll always have this. >> tell us something that we may not know about the governor. >> well, i think people don't appreciate actually his sense of humor. >> i should tell my story. i'm also unemployed. >> he actually is a very funny guy. >> who let the dogs out, who. >> he plays a lot of tricks all the time. >> closer. >> he's actually laughs most of the time. >> i live for laughter. [ laughter ] >> you know, in debates, you get asked questions, you answer the questions. you don't tell jokes. >> i'm mitt romney and yes, wolf, that's also my first name. i'm -- >> you don't tell jokes.

>> 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet. >> i'm running for office. i can't have -- i'm speaking. >> the newspaper -- >> i'm speaking. >> rick, anderson, are you going to keep talking? >> you don't tell jokes. i like jokes as well as things are fun. >> i like the -- >> a number of times. >> rodent and rabbit hunter. i also hunted quail. >> things i like best, cars and sports. >> i love cars, i love american cars. i like seeing the lakes, the cars. i love the lakes. i love you. >> any old girlfriend here? have to be careful. ann's not here today. don't tell. >> that sound like a lot of fun. most of our dinner table events were involving humor of one kind or another. most of which can't be repeated on the air. [ laughter ]