i'm concerned about student loans because i'm a young person who has student loans and i have friends who have these types of student loans and who are struggling to pay them back and to find jobs. that's why i was concerned about it. >> sandra fluke, sorry you had to go through another day of being rushed by rush limbaugh. thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks for having me. coming up tomorrow on "the last word," another exclusive former senator, bob kerry in his first national interview since returning to nebraska to run for his old senate seat and to try to help the democrats hold on to their majority in the senate. that's tomorrow's exclusive here on "the last word." "the ed show" is up nex good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. president obama is schooling mitt romney on the necessity of college loans for millions of americans. and i'm schooling sean hannity on america's hunger crisis. this is "the ed show," let's get to work. >> you share my faith in

america's future, and that's what drives me every single day, your hopes, your dreams, and i'm not quitting now, because in america, we don't quit. >> the big man on campus took republicans to school today. tonight, gene robinson and e.j. dionne on the stark contrast between mitt romney and barack obama's vision for america's youth. john boehner is fearmongering about an economic mushroom cloud. >> his policies will turn america in a direction that we may never recover from. >> the republican leader is way out of line. we'll set him straight. now legislators are running away from alec. tonight, a defect eor tells us everything we need to know about aleck. sales of the chevy volt are way up and conservatives hate it. >> catch fire. >> catch fire. >> which would contribute, i think, to global warming, because fire is hot. >> tonight, bob lutz, the former gm executive behind the the volt

and conservative, responds to the haters. >> the political right is constantly talking about the flammability, overheating, fire hazard. folks, it's a pure fiction. please get it out of your heads. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. president obama is passing the test on student debt. republicans are on the verge of flunking out of class. the president was at the university of north carolina at chapel hill today. he told students why he's able to relate with their own struggles. >> this is something michelle and i know about firsthand. i just want everybody here to understand, this is not -- i didn't just read about this. i didn't just, you know, i didn't just -- i didn't just get some talking points about this.

i didn't just get a policy briefing on this. michelle and i, we've been in your shoes. like i said, we didn't come from wealthy families, so when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. when we married, we good poorer together. >> "we good poor together." this is something mitt romney cannot say. heck, mitt romney didn't even remember to talk about student loan debt until he was already walking away from reporters. >> okay, thank you. how about that -- there's one thing i want to mention. i just -- by the way, there's one thing i wanted to mention that i forgot to mention at the very beginning. and that was that particularly with a number of college graduates that can't find work or that can only find work well beneath their skill level, i fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans. >> so we have a reversal. mitt romney is taking president

obama's position on student loan rates, but he can't take the position that the president has, and that is personal experience. president obama was still paying off student loans while he was in the senate. >> we only finished paying off our student loans -- check this out, all right? i'm the president of the united states. we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago. that wasn't that long ago. >> the president took his message to a taping of "late night with jimmy fallon." president obama's outreach to a youthful audience, well, it is working. a new harvard university poll of 18 to 29-year-olds shows president obama with a 17-point lead over mitt romney. it's a six-point gain since the end of 2011. unlike romney, president obama has been an honest broker with

the younger generation. and so have the democrats, if you look at it. in 2007, the new democratic congress passed the college cost reduction and access act. the bill lowered subsidized interest rate loans. the democrats worked on behalf of low-income students and got president bush to sign a very helpful piece of legislation. now republicans, what do they want to do? they want to undo all of that. congressman paul rooip of the house budget committee. well, they want to lock in the loan rate, lock it in, at 6.8%. the budget proposal calls on congress to roll back certain recent expansions. it says these should be returned to the pre-ccraa levels. this marvelous budget, as mitt romney calls it, makes millions of low-income college students pay double interest on their loan payments. "the ed show" called congressman paul ryan's office today to find out if the congressman stands by this proposal, and of course, we

did not get a response. but the progressive pact, american bridge, has responded to mitt romney's new position on student loans. a web ad shows what romney really thinks about student debt. >> our law school, and they're doing away with unsubsidized loans for grad students, which makes it almost impossible to pay off our debts, have a house, have a car, have a family before we retire. what are you going to do for people like me? >> you know, i wish i could tell you that there's a place to find really cheap money or free money and we could pay for everyone's education. that's just not going to happen. i would like to have more competition between schools. i hope you shopped around and tried to find a school that has the lowest possible tuition. >> let's see here, he said, cheap money, not going to happen, in front of the crowd. sorry, struggling students. in mitt romney's world, you're on your own. romney doesn't sound too different from congresswoman virginia fox, who has no sympathy for anyone with student debt.

>> i have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt, because there's no reason for that. >> president obama was quick to remark on fox's comments today. >> can you imagine saying something like that? those of you who have had to take out student loans, you didn't do it because you're lazy. you didn't do it lightly. you don't like debt. i mean, a lot of you, your parents are helping out, but it's tough on them. >> mitt romney just can't find the pulse of everyday americans, can he? not everyone is going to go to college and come away with a high-paying job, like a doctor or a banker. there are teachers and social workers. there are people with different dreams, career wise, and they're not going to be make big bucks, but they're going to be doing a lot of good work for the public good. don't you think they should be allowed to have a fair shot at a

low-interest loan, a reasonable rate, without republicans changing the rules on them all of a sudden? the president gets it, because he's lived it. and he's winning over young americans with common sense. now, think about this. if you're a student and you're sitting at home tonight in your apartment or your dorm room, you have to ask yourself the question, what did i do? what are the republicans want to make money on me for? well, see, you're banking on your future. and anytime there's a bank involved or the word "banking" involved, republicans see dollar signs and that's all they want to do is make money. because they're about profit, they're not about people. president obama is clearly about opportunity. he's lived it. he wants you to live it. clearly, there is one candidate and one party that understands your world. and there is one candidate and one party that doesn't give a damn and has no clue. just remember, in the ryan bill, what they want to do is make that higher interest rate permanent. they want to fix it in. that means no breaks.

you just heard mitt romney on the campaign trail say, and i don't know where you're going to get cheap money. he's not about cheap money. he's not about giving you the 20-somethings a break to get through college. now win understand interest rates, obviously. 3.4%. that's a good, low rate. what's wrong with 2%? the democrats need to start changing their thinking here, because an educated student is an investment in this country. it's an investment in america. it's not a dollar sign. it's an opportunity to make the country better. but romney, who hasn't lived it, just doesn't see it that way. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, do college-aged voters have any reason to trust mitt romney? i also want to point out that students, it's fair to say, i think, they're the working poor. you ever come across a rich student who might be working one

or two jobs to get through school? but for some reason, the republicans just have it out for the poor and the downtrodden or anybody who's trying to get ahead in this country. i'm joined tonight by e.j. dionne, msnbc contributor, "washington post" columnist, and senior fellow at the brookings institution. e.j., when you look at this and you see what the republicans are advocating, how in the world do they expect to win over younger voters? you just heard mitt romney say, i don't know where you're going to get cheap money. they don't believe in it, do they? >> well, i think what you saw is the reason why romney sort of shook the etch a sketch on this one. because -- and i think there's something important here, that we should appreciate, which is this is the first election where both sides are actually fighting for the votes of young people. and i think that's a product of the obama revolution in the last election. and in ten years of change, when young people really started

coming to the polls, and so this is a big deal. and i think mitt romney realized that the republican position in the house is totally unsustainable, politically. i also think he sees both that harvard institute of politics poll and another poll released last week of young people by georgetown, at the berkeley center there, shows that obama isn't quite where he was in 2008. obama was on that campus, because he knows he's got some work to do. he carried the youth vote by 2-1. but i think romney has to distance himself from the republicans in congress. and i think he's going to have to pressure them to vote for this change, but i don't think they're going to do it, or vote to avoid the change. so people's interest rates don't go up. >> the stafford loans in this country have helped 35 million americans get educated. and it just seems to me that the ryan and romney plan on student loans is just a handout to the banks. they view these students as a

commodity and not an investment. you agree with that? >> well, yeah. in fact, what the democrats did, i think a few republicans voted for it, but basically what liberals say is this is not something where the making a profit by a bank is the highest priority. the highest priority is to help students go to college. and so when government took over this program, it wasn't that they were still administering it, basically, when the banks did it, but they're saying, let's cut that profit out so we can share it with the students. there really are times when government programs can actually make things cheaper, even though no one on the republican side and a lot of americans actually don't believe that. >> you just made an interesting comment, that you think that president obama has some work to do. and he's hitting the late-night tv circuit. here's president obama slow jamming the news with jimmy fallon. here it is. ♪ >> now is not the time to make school more expensive for our

young people. >> oh, yeah. ♪ >> is that a good example of why president obama is winning over young people? there's just that connection there, and is this politically a smart move, to run that late-night circuit? >> i think it is. i think that you know it worked for bill clinton, it's worked for obama before. and i think that obama got some extra votes last time, because he was the cool candidate. and being for obama was the cool thing to be. that's not quite the same now, because you can't run as quite the same kind of hero after you've had a rough time for four years ago, but i think compared to mitt romney, he can probably pull it off again. >> well, with the way this is breaking down, i think you have to view the youth vote in america, going to be a make or break demographic in this election. e.j. dionne, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. >> remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of

the screen, share your answer on twitter @edshow. john boehner, speaker of the house, says if president obama is re-elected, the economy may never recover. the scare tactics won't work. and of course, the chevy volt is a great american success story, built by american workers. so why do conservatives hate it? what is it about electric cars they just don't get? former gm executive robert lutz joins me later in the program. stay with us. lots more coming up.

coming up, how speaker john boehner channels dick cheney with his dire warning about the president's economic policies. richard wolffe joins me for the discussion. the alec fallout continues after more than a dozen companies cut ties with the organization. lawmakers on a state level are now starting to do the same thing. i'll have one of the lawmakers resigning from the organization with me tonight. and sean hannity says "let them eat rice." we'll play you the radio host's outrageous claim about america's

poor later in the hour. share your thoughts on twitter using the hashtag ed show. we're right back. ? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] hey! there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. indescribably good. that could adapt to changing road conditions. one that continually monitors and corrects for wheel slip. we imagined a vehicle that can increase emergency braking power when you need it most. and we imagined it looking like nothing else on the road today. then...we built it. the 2012 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services.

absolutely essential that eight weeks from today on november 2nd we make the right choice. because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the united states. >> oh, yeah, an oldie but goldie. that was vice president dick cheney back in the day, september of 2004, warning of dire consequences if john kerry

were to become president of the united states. the scare tactics are being rolled out once again. this time about the economy. here's house speaker john boehner. >> america can't live for four more years with barack obama as president. his policies will turn america in a direction that we may never recover from. >> really? looks like boehner is the new cheney. of course, president obama has a record to run on. it isn't perfect, but let's see which part of john boehner, what he really objects to. let's go back, do a little history lesson here. on inauguration day, i was there, it was cold. january 20th, 2009, the stock market was where? about 7,900, not real good. a lot of people nervous. today the closing bell at 13,000. you know what this means? this means if you had the guts to put your money in the market now, look where you'd be today. what does boehner not like about that? looks like the job creators are doing pretty well. general motors, which was about

to bite the dust became the number one car manufacturer in the world under president obama in january of this year. now, you can't build rome in a day, but in 2012, this is pretty good news. who would have ever thought that gm, left for dead by the republicans, would have been able to do this? so mr. boehner, which cities do you think would be better off without the resurgence of the american automobile industry? when president obama took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. you remember january of 2009? there has now been 25 months, look at this, lots of purple, lots of good stuff. 25 months of private sector job growth. the unemployment rate has been dropping under president obama. true, it's not where we want it, but it's obviously moving in the right direction. now, two years ago, president obama called on the united states of america to double exports over a five-year period. that affects the manufacturing

sector. exports, where are they? they're up 34% over the last two years. so president obama has his plan on track to meet his goal. that is a hell of an increase. despite constant republican obstructionism, they haven't helped him do anything. president obama kept the economy from falling off a cliff, and it's now coming back. on january 20th of 2008, president obama moved away from the policies of george w. bush and the republicans. that must be part of what john boehner is really objecting to. richard wolffe, great to have you with us tonight for the discussion. >> my pleasure. >> facts are facts. will it stick with the american people? what do you think? >> well, i think it's very hard for the republicans to do what they're doing right now, which is to say, who are you going to believe? me or your lying eyes? you know, the economy is moving in a very different direction from where they want it to be. so they have two choices. they can try and say, the economy could've, should've,

would've better if a republican would have been there. kind of what mitt romney is trying to say. that kind of conditional argument is very hard to pull off. or they can do what john boehner is doing and say, you know what, it's actually terrible. no matter what you're hearing in the news, no matter what you're seeing, it's all bad. you can fool some of the people all the time, and some of the people are not ever going to work for this president. >> you've got 450 right-wing talkers across america who are hammering this stuff every day. you've gt the folks across the street giving boehner the platform. basically, it seems to me that he's going to the karl rove playbook, attack where you're weak. maybe we can get that head-shaking crowd, standing in front of ted nugent, believing something different. >> it's true 76% of the country believe we're still in a recession. and frankly we in the media have got some blame for that. people used the language of recession long after it ended, and that's just wrong. it was sloppy talk from a lot of

people in the media and in the public debate there. but you're also flattering. this is not karl rove sophistication. as fiendish as he was, this is much simpler. they're not talking about what they have done. you heard dick cheney, at least they were being selective about president bush's policies. these republicans in the house are not saying, we did this so go vote for us. we created the jobs we promised. we challenged the debt ceiling and took us to the brink of default. they cannot make that case. so they have to go the other way and say the stuff that's happening in the economy, it's not really there. >> here's john boehner talking about the deal with president obama during the debt ceiling debate. >> when you look at this final agreement that we came to with the white house, you know, i got 98% of what i wanted. i'm pretty happy. >> he says he was pretty happy. why isn't he happy anymore? >> why didn't he take the deal? you get 98% of what you want in politics, you don't take it? that's a tough sell for the american people. it really is.

if you think it's country first and not caucus first, you take 98%. >> should president obama run on his record? all the things that i just listed out, it's a lot. what do you focus in on that's really going to drive home with the american people? >> well, where -- part of what the obama campaign has to do is remind people just where we've been. i think there's selective memory for people about how -- >> generically speaking the -- >> how bad things have gotten. and i understand why. you want to have some amnesia here, because it was so awful. we didn't know where the bottom was going to be, whether our coworkers would be laid off, whether you'd ever get a job again, whether the stock market could come back. so without scaring people how bad it was, we've got to remind ourselves what the journey has been like and remind ourselves how much farther there is to go. that's not that easy either, because you've got to believe this president is going to keep things on the track it's been, but you've got to speak to where people want to go, not their fears about where they've been.

>> he says they'll never recover. that's what boehner's saying. it's a page out of cheney's negative talk, no doubt. richard wolffe, great to have you with us. coke and pepsi were the first to go. next, i'll talk to one lawmaker who's leaving the group, ted vick. alec whistle-blower joins me next. conservatives have spent ten years vilifying all things french. will they be able to handle mitt romney's french connection? stay with us. ♪ dave, i've downloaded a virus. yeah. ♪ dave, where are we on the new laptop? it's so slow! i'm calling dave. [ telephone rings ] [ male announcer ] in a small business, technology is all you. that's why you've got us. at the staples pc savings event, for a limited time get up to $200 off select computers. staples. that was easy.

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welcome back to "the ed show." the american legislative exchange counsel, or alec, as we've been reporting on, has been responsible for some of the most anti-union, anti-immigrant, anti-democratic and pro-gun measures in this country. from voter suppression to stand your ground, alec drafts right-wing legislation to better serve its corporate members. and it pushes it on state

legislators. but now folks are waking up to what's really going on. progressive groups are putting pressure on alec's corporate members as well as lawmakers. some of the most recognized brands in america from coca-cola to kraft foods have left this organization alec. 16 of alec's 76 democratic state legislators have now cut ties with the group. tonight, number 17. a democrat joins me on the program. south carolina state representative ted vick is currently a democratic candidate for the united states congress. he has been a member of alec since 2004 but is resigning from the group. mr. vick, thanks for joining us tonight. why have you decided to the leave alec after eight years? and i guess i should say, why did you join? >> well, i'll tell you, ed, alec was a group that offered a place for democrats and republicans come together and the private sector to come together, to

actually talk about real issues facing our country, to talk about policy issues that can actually move our country forward, and paycheck the economy better and make businesses work better and make government more efficient. unfortunately, alec over the last few years have gone more and more to the right and not done what its original intent was to do, which is jeffersonian politics, less government, but more effective government. >> so you consider, i understand, a conservative democrat. at what point did you serve notice that there was a shift in ideology? and was it a particular issue that moved you? and i keep thinking about voter i.d. why would alec ever get involved in that? what was the linchpin for you? >> well, the thing for me, it started about three years ago, ed. and i noticed the trend and i don't know if it was the tea party movement that was taking over alec or what the right-wing agenda was, but i can tell yo uh this. it started moving to the right and getting very extreme. you know, we're run for congress

because we're tired of the extremes. the american people are tired of the streams on both sides, and they want to see this country move forward. they want to see a congress that can work together. what did it for me, i was actually at a speech, a luncheon that governor jindal was up speaking, and i actually got up and walked out last year in response to -- he was bashing the president, bashing democrats. and i went and talk to the executive director as well as the president of our state here and said, you know, i'm not going to stand for this. we can't continue to do this. if alec doesn't change, i'm going to be leaving this group and i'm going to be encouraging other democrats to do so as well. what do you think the future of alec is at this point, mr. vick? >> well, you know, alec was, as i said, a very good tool where folks from opposing sides could come together and actually talk about the issues outside of the boxing ring of politics and actually work on things in a bipartisan manner, in a statesmanship manner. if alec would get back to its founding principles, which is

jeffersonian principles, those principles where folks from both sides of the aisle work together, trying to find real solutions, then it's got a place in this society. right now, if they continue to do the right-wing things that they're doing and pushing the agendas that have nothing to do with more efficient, more effective government, then it doesn't have a place in politics in my opinion. and that's why i'm resigning. >> do you think some of the sponsors, or contributors didn't know how active they were in the right-wing agenda until the social media got after it? i mean, obviously, the stand your ground law got a lot of attention with the death of trayvon martin, but then upon further review, they have been very involved in voter suppression. what in the hell does that have to do with business in america? >> thank you very much. and that's what the private sector's figured out. because, you know, they're a big part of alec as well. the private sector had a opportunity to come sit down with legislators from all over the country. this was the largest legislative exchange in the nation and they had an opportunity to come.

and we started having conversations with them as well. they were concerned about the direction that alec was going and they've revolted now by pulling their sponsorship in support and i think they rightly have done so. >> you think alec has done damage to the country with some of the radical legislation they've pushed and gotten through, like stand your ground? >> well, i think extremism, on the right side, has definitely done damage. we've seen that in our economy. the gridlock that's going on in washington, d.c. right now. as you said, i'm running for congress. folks are sick and tired of the gridlock. the folks are starved for jobs and they're starved for real leadership to move this country forward. and that's what we plan on providing when we get to congress. >> how many more of your colleagues do you think will distance themselves from alec? i mean, you've been very graphic about what you think the problem is and what the issues are. do you think all democrats are eventually going to leave? >> well, i think it would be a

good stand that democrats as well as moderate republicans ought to come out and take a stand and say, you know, look, we're interested in solving the real problems of this country. we're not interested in taking up right-wing agendas and right-wing issues. i encourage my the democrat colleagues as well as my republican colleagues to do the right thing and to make alec either change dramatically or either not join alec again. >> well, i don't think they'll ever be trusted again. south carolina state representative ted vick, good luck to you. thanks for your time tonight. appreciate it. there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. we've got a car for you. it's a volt. you're going to puke. >> a conservative former gm exec is calling out his fellow conservatives. >> those of you who listen to conservative radio will believe that the chevrolet volt catches fire, was a product of the obama administration, when, in fact, it is none of those things. >> you don't want to miss my interview with the man behind the chevy volt. walking around the city of

paris. >> how can righties stomach mitt romney's french connection? commentary ahead. and sean hannity reaches a new low. the right-wing media is going all in on the republican war on the poor. >> most americans, even in poverty, have a basic level of living. a luxury car with a standard power moon roof, standard keyless access, and standard leather-trimmed seats, then your choice is obvious. the lexus es. it's complete luxury in a class full of compromises. see your lexus dealer. let's start ar luxury in a cla insurance x.mpromises. this one does save people a lot of money and it's very affordable. it was very delicious. could you please taste car insurance y? this one is much more expensive. ugh. it's really bad. let's see what you picked. oh, geico! over their competitor. you are a magician right? no., oh. you're not?, no., oh, well, give it a shot.

i am so, so sorry. it was this close.

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for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. i've got to get inside a brand-new chevy volt fresh off the line and five years from now when i'm not president anymore, i'll buy one and drive it myself. >> welcome back to "the ed show." that was president obama praising the chevy volt back in february. sales of the car surged soon after that. the chevy volt really is an american success story. nearly 2,300 units sold in march. the car is on the leading edge and it's now being copied by other car companies around the world. it was named 2011 "motor trend"

car of the year and 2012 european car of the year. but back in december, memorial moirm said that the volt was an idea whose time has not come. whatever that meant. here is a small sampling of how conservative pundits have treated the chevy volt. >> does the car have a floor or is it like a flinestone thing? >> it's loaded with taxpayer subsidies and offered with a taxpayer bailout. >> you would have to give that to me for free, and i would rather roller skate backwards in the lincoln tunnel than drive that thing and break down. >> it is now official, the volt is a dolt. you hearing me, bloggers, it stinks. >> here it is. obama proposed another plan. give money to people without any strings attached. >> let's bring in robert lutz, he's a former vice president, chairman of general motors, and former executive vice president of ford, now a cnbc contributor. mr. lutz, great to have you with

us tonight. "it stinks" was the comment that one commentator said. what's your response to that montage of sound that we just played? >> well, that's why i'm so exercised about that this, because as you correctly said, i'm a conservative, and it bothers me when conservative commentators, and i think skr conservatism can stand on its own merits without telling, frankly, falsehoods about the technologically most advanced car on the planet. as you correctly pointed out, car of the year both in the united states and in europe. a vehicle where the average owner gets over 250 miles per gallon, and the electric vehicle credit, $7,500 is described as another subsidy that the obama administration puts on the car in order to -- and everybody fails to mention that the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles was enacted under the bush administration, and so forth and

so on. you heard many, many conservative commentators from bill o'reilly to the neil cavuto, et cetera, et cetera, talk about chevy volt fires and you had lou dobbs saying, yeah, they all catch fire. i mean, patently ridiculous. one volt can caught fire after a highly destructive government crash test and it caught fire three weeks later, which should be enough time for people to get out. go ahead. >> what was your role with the chevy volt? how involved were you with the design and the manufacturing of this vehicle? >> well, i led the team that did it. and i'll tell you, quite frankly, i was very annoyed with the fact that toyota seemed to become the darling of the environmental movement, was lauded to the skies because of the toyota prius, and the thing was, well, american car

companies are brain-dead. they could never do anything like that. and i said, you know what, let's do the moon shot. let's do something that is way beyond what anybody else in the world has done. let's use lithium ion batteries. and then one of my executives said, let's not make it all electric, because it will get too expensive. let's use a smallish battery to give us 40 miles of electric range, and then a small gasoline-powered generator will kick in, in case people want to go an additional 300 miles. and that's the concept that we worked out. showed it at the detroit show in 2007, almost a year and a half before obama was elected president, by the way, and it was a smash hit. everybody said, oh, they'll never build it, no, general motors would never do that. the japanese said they can't do it, lithium ion batteries won't work. so we had torrents of negativism. but you know what? it was a highly motivated, highly inspired team. and as "motor trend" said, a

bunch of michigan engineers in cheap suits just out-engineered the best engineers in germany. and it's the truth. >> it's also been a political football. here's darrell issa from the congress. here it is. >> do the american people really think that we should have put $375 million in subsidies into ge buying these electric cars so that everyone could make a statement about the future with a really bad car. >> i mean, that is, to me, that's archaic thinking. your thoughts on what -- i mean, if we'd listened to darrell issa, we'd still be in cartwheels, the way he's talking. >> i mean, it's -- it's highly unfair. it's wrong, and my problem with it is, it is so patently untrue and so patently wrong that everybody can see through it. and that arms the conservatism cause, which other than the chevy volt, i deeply believe in. >> mr. lutz, great to have you with us tonight. good work. thank you so much.

the right-wing smear machine spent the last two presidential elections slamming democrats for being elitist. but now the republican nominee is the one with the fond memories of vacations in paris, france. what will the conservatives do? ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] not everything powerful has to guzzle fuel. the 2012 e-class bluetec from mercedes-benz. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. [ male announcer ] you plant. you mow. you grow. you dream. meet the new definition of durability: the john deere select series. with endless possibilities, what will you create?

♪ learn more about the new select series x310 with power steering at johndeere.com/x310. coming up, after years of painting democrats as elitist, republicans are throwing their support behind mitt romney. his latest out of touch moment is coming up next. and in the big finish tonight, if you think mitt's out of touch, wait until you hear what sean hannity has to say about hunger in this country. don't forget to tweet us using the #edshow. we're right back. don't wait. go to afibstroke.com for a free discussion guide to help you talk to your doctor about reducing your risk. that's afibstroke.com.

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uh-huh. more evidence mitt romney has no connection with the middle class families in this country. at a press conference yesterday, a member of the foreign press, foreign press, asked romney what he remembered about his time in france. well, really, it was an easy

layup, don't you think? romney could have talked about being a missionary in france. instead he said this. >> i have a lot of memories of france. i think the best memories were with my wife on vacations, from time to time, in france. the last vacation we had there, walking around the city of paris and walking over to the jarden of luxembourg, and walking around the city, one of the most amazing cities in the world. and i look forward to occasional vacations again in such a beautiful place. >> aha, romney decided to talk about his much vacation as he had vacations in paris with his wife. well, less than a week ago, romney was complaining about president obama's quote, elaborate vacations. but the funny thing is, the republican party is is about to nominate exactly the kind of candidate that they have spent the last eight years trashing.

president obama was an arugu arugula-eating harvard snob who put fancy mustard on his cheeseburger. >> plain old ketchup didn't quite cut it for the president. >> do you have a faspicy mustar or dijon mustard? >> when michelle bomb took a trip to spain, right wingers like michele bachmann had a fit. >> there she is clomping around the beachside in her designer shoes, at a time when so many people, as you mentioned, are feeling the pain, that obviously michelle obama is not in touch with. >> and it's not just the obamas. in fwour, to become news was relentless against john kerry for his frenchness, as the film "out foxed" makes clear. >> they're saying john kerry looks french. >> john kerry looks french. >> kerry, who would be america's first french president. >> are the republicans going to

be able to effectively make john kerry french. good afternoon, everybody, or as john kerry would say, bonjour. >> so much time to break out the bordeux. the republicans have a french speaking nominee with two harvard degrees who is worth $250 million, plus he has zero ability to connect to anyone who doesn't routinely stroll around the foot of the eiffel tower. you're going to need it, dude. next up, sean hannity is challenging mitt romney for the title of the most out of touch person in america. i think sean may have the edge tonight. you won't believe what he had to say. stay with us. ♪ ♪

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trust mitt romney. 4% said yes. 96% said no. coming up, sean hannity doesn't think there's a hunger problem in this country. i'll have reaction from the president of feeding america, next. don't forget to listen to my radio show on sirius xm radio monday through friday and follow me on twitter at ed show and like the ed show on facebook. we are coming right back. s look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance. that's why only aviva rewards you with savings for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com.

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prts of the war on the poor is being in denial. sean hannity has proven he's the most out of the of touch man in america. on hannity's radio show this week a caller questioned mitt romney ability to relate to voters who were forced to go to bed hungry. the $20 million radio host responded by denying the existence of hunger in america. >> i have friends of mine that eat rice and beans all the time. beans protein, rice inexpensive you can make a big pot of this for a week for relatively little amount of money for your whole family. you should have vegetables and fruit in there as well. if you need to survive, you can survive off of it. it's not ideal. you can get some cheap meat too and throw in there. there are ways to live really cheaply. >> it's that entertaining conservative talk. he has no clue.

he has no concept of reality. this is the republican idealology, denial. under president george w. bush the united states government officially eliminated the word hunger. in 2006 the department of agriculture legally changed the term for people who can't afford to put food on the table to very low food security. the republicans eliminated the word hunger, but pretending hunger doesn't exist doesn't change the facts. 6.7 million households suffer from president bush's very low food security. 16.2 million children live in households that struggle to put food on the table. that's one in five kids in america going hungry. i want sean hannity to look at those kids in the eye and say you're not hungry or go to a soup kitchen and tell those people to go buy a bag of rice and a can of beans. heck, his friends do it according to him.

i'm joined by vicky, the president and ceo of feeding america. great to have you with us tonight. what is your reaction to this conversation to what sean hannity is saying about hunger in america? >> it's good to be with you. my reaction is hunger is a serious and critical problem. you cited the statistics. we know it's doubled since recession began. we also know that it affects every county in this country. we have done a lot of research. just because people think it's invisible and they don't know someone who is struggling with hunger, we know it exists across america. >> what does hannity fail to understand about the problem of hunger in this country when you hear that? >> i think he and a lot of people fail to understand that first and foremost, it's not a political issue. hunger has always been supported by both republicans and democrats. making this a partisan issue is

not what we're all about. i think he fails to understand that this recession, which has been the most impactful downturn since the great depression has affected millions of people, 49 million people. that's almost a sixth of the american population. we're not talking politics. we're not talking a partisan issue. we're talking about american people. >> how has changing the term or word hunger to very low food security affected the perception of hunger in this country? hannity thinks there's no hunger. go get a bag of rice and can of beans and everything will be fine. >> it doesn't matter what you call it. hunger and food insecurity are one in the same. it's not something that people want to talk about. i've traveled across the united states and met with thousands of people, thousands of mothers,

children, senior citizens that are not going to run out in the street and tell everyone i can't provide enough food for my child to eat a decent meal tonight. that's not something that most people are proud of. we work very hard to get people to open up and feel that they are welcome and that there's an understanding place around a recovery. >> more kids go to bed hungry in this country today than they did last year, is that correct? >> than ever before.one five c one in five children are at risk of not learning or at risk of serious medical issues or at risk of not being ready for the future. this is an american crisis that we have one in five kids in this country going to bed hungry. >> thank you for your time. i appreciate it. that's "the ed show." "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good