tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then we actually listen to the answers tdd# 1-800-345-2550 before giving you practical ideas you can act on. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck online, on the phone, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or come in and pull up a chair. a surprise trip to afghanistan. arriving in time to hear criticism regarding his speech, sustained mitt romney's latest attack lines, witness newt gingrich exit from the race and watch congress skip town. home, sweet home. it is wednesday, may 2 in this, and this is "now." joining me today, rick tyler, senior adviser of the pro newt gingrich super pac, winning our future.

the intrepid maggie haberman of politico is here with us, msnbc lovely karen finney and mr. shouldn't morning himself hugo lindgren confident "new york times" magazine. president obama is back in washington, d.c. after a surprise trip to afghanistan. meanwhile, militant attacks killed seven people and injured more than a dozen in kabul this morning. the violence came just after the president said this from bagram air base. >> here in the predawn darkness of afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon. >> karen, i want to go to you first on this. surely the juxtaposition of the violence in afghanistan right on the heels of the president's departure, he's delivering a message of hope, but is there any reason at this point to be optimistic about what will happen to afghanistan after we leave? >> i think we can't know. but the president -- i don't know that the president's goal was so much about hope as much as it was sending the political

message and the psychological message for the audiences at home and the afghani audience. clearly we needed to send a message we will be here with you. that is one of the things we've heard over and over again in terms of their anxiety. the second thing is we will respect your sovereignty and make sure those borders are respected. to the american audience, he was clearly trying to say -- he couldn't say we're getting out right now which is what most people want to hear but kept trying to reiterate we're starting to get out walking the fine line knowing he wasn't going to tell anybody exactly what they want to hear but trying to lay out a process. i think in doing so, he laid out the process through which if those goals are not met between now and next ten years, i think that gives the next president the opportunity to leave. >> hugo, you are smiling that wicked smile. >> i'm not smiling on the subject of afghanistan. what you just described sounds

like an almost impossible kind of needle to thread. it's like 20 needles in a row with one piece of thread. it's like -- i think the subject of afghanistan is just a nonwinner for, you know, for obama for pretty much anybody at the moment. i think he had to go. he had to say what he had to say and needed to move on to other stuff. >> i thought he didn't necessarily need to go. he could have stayed at home and gone to ground zero. but the fact that he chose toes go to afghanistan, the president deserves some credit for that. it is a difficult need to thread. some of the pillars he outlined transitioning to afghan head forces, training security forces, enduring partnership with afghanistan, in the mold of israel or pakistan, that will be very interesting given where releases are with karzai, reconciliation with some in the taliban. i want to read a quote from the

dan balz in the "washington post" who gave fairly strong kudos. gave his kudos to the president saying rarely has a president blended the role of commander in chief with chief. quite as vividly as president obama has done in the days surrounding the first industry of osama bin laden's death. maggie, what do you make of that? >> i think it's true. i actually don't read that paragraph as praise. i do think that this was a pretty remarkable thing that we were seeing yesterday. we have not seen this type of address from a war zone before if memory serves. i think that in terms of the specifics as you were talking about, there are some very vague outlines there. it does leave room for a predecessor to change things and commits the u.s. to a longer term goal than i think a lot of people want, certainly than republicans have expressed an interest in, and there has been a lack of clarity on the side of the republicans without getting into the politics what they would do differently. i think against that backdrop, i think obama had a very strong

moment, but i don't think there was anything shocking in terms of what he said. >> i thought it was important though, alex, to your point, if you're going to sign an agreement like that, either karzai comes here or we go there. to say we're with you remotely would not have sent the right message. he does deserve credit for going therein an it's a big deal he chose tols take air force one, the marked plane, usually for security situation you want to take an unmarked plane. they want waed the visual of the plane that says united states of america on ground in afghanistan to send a signal we are here. we're going to be here, again, most of us would rather be out. >> i realize that they do want to send that -- >> for policy, it was part of their foreign policy. >> they certainly don't want attacks in kabul within hours of the president's departure. rick tyler, i want to bring your

attention to what the president said when he was addressing some of the troops before he made his official address and signed the packet. this is from yesterday. let's listen to that. >> the battle is not yet over. some of your buddies are going to get injured. and some of your buddies may get killed. and there's going to be heartbreak and pain and difficulty ahead. but there's a light on the horizon because of the sacrifices you've made. >> this actually i thought was, if you talk about the moment, the moment that really struck me from this entire visit, it's him talking to the troops and reminding us all that it ain't over and people are going to get killed. rick, what did you make of that? i mean, you know, we talk about the difficulty of threading the needle in terms of policy but here you're talking to guys still on the frontlines and saying trying to reassure them

that the ultimate sacrifice will not be made in vain. >> this may surprise you and my reticence is i think the president's visit the way it was orchestrated the optics of it will were nearly pitch perfect. the whole idea that it was america's victory i think going on the death of osama bin laden was a perfectly opportune occasion. i think it was destroyed, absolutely destroyed because they ran then political ad. >> you mean -- >> because it put? >> exactly. it's like a bad sit-com that you have to tell me when to laugh. i get it. the performance was magnificent. except that they run the stupid ad. i could have enjoyed that moment as an american but not have to look at it through a political lens. >> we very not discussed the political aspect, about you. >> i can't avoid it. >> it is a fair point of discussion. we have to go to break. we'll get into that on the break, the political optics of

this. i do think as commander in chief, temperatures a singular moment. >> i do think to the substance, there will be no lasting peace. we will have enemies. i don't think afghanistan will be a self-sustaining government society. i have no evidence of that. i think it will fall part. as an event, it was terrific. >> in terms of his address to the troops, i think that was is actually significant given there have been a lot of issues in terms of the mideast and the troops. that was where this was the most important moment. >> it was probably the most important part for president obama as well who's made a real point of going to dover when the caskets come home. coming up, playing politics. we'll take a look at how both sides of the aisle are navigating washington when david frum joins the conversation. that's next on "now." does aspirin even work on headaches?

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let us remember why we came here. it was here in afghanistan where osama bin laden established a safe haven for his terrorist organization and one year ago, from base here in afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed osama bin laden. >> president obama mentioned osama bin laden twice in his address from afghanistan last night. but he's facing sharp criticism from some republicans who are calling the speech a political stunt. senator james inhofe said yesterday "this trip to afghanistan is an attempt to shore up his national security credentials because he has spent the pacht three years gutting our military. the security improvements and the killing of osama bin laden are great american victories that should not be politicized." joining us is david frum, former special assistant to president

george bush and writer of the daily beast, the author of the new novel "patriots." thank you for joining the program. your book is -- it's salacious. it is a juicy read and at the heart of it is the notion that washington is a very much political town where we're perhaps dreams and hopes are dashed. i want to talk a little bit about that sort of in the background as we discuss the president's speech. insofar as it seems to be now an item in the political football game, and we heard rick tiler in the last block saying look, the white house and team obama should not have the bracketed what was a great speech with political rhetoric and political campaign ads. what do you make of that? >> i think one of the things we tried to talk about in the book is that everybody's got angle. it's not just a romantic clay. it's an attempt to explain how the city functions, how it's driven by money and ambition. and it points to some of the

problems that every president has, this president, president romney. in the book, the first black president has just lost an election and there's a new president who's got big plans and he is wrecked by a mutiny within his own party and the story tells how do you put together a mutiny like that. if you're interested in understanding how exactly you put together this strange astroturf that was behind the tea party, it sort of shows you. there's been a lot of reporting. we can tell you how it's done. i think it's also interesting to see it. >> in terms of the president though and this moment that we're sort of living through, you know, it would seem when the president steps into the role of commander in chief, frequently that's an insulated capsule where partisan politics aren't necessarily at play or especially on foreign policy where there seems to be a modicum of bipartisan support for nebulous policy. what do you make of the rhetoric around the president's speech? >> what the president does when he goes to a place like afghanistan, it's a show. everything the president had to

say, not the interfacing with the troops, but everything he had to say to the nation could have been said from the oval office. and certainly the agreement signed with president car zil, that didn't need the president to travel to afghanistan in person to do it. what you are doing, the president is above all things, he's a symbol and an actor. he's a leader too, but you make him a visual symbol. that makes him powerful and also what makes him vulnerable because he becomes a target for everything. what we see in the obama presidency we see in my book is that the -- the personality of the president becomes something that people manipulate, use against him, and that he himself almost vanishes as a real person. >> speaking of varnishing acts, i call everyone's attention to an article written by dayne fa milbank in the "washington post" talking about congress this week. it's another recess week for our lazy leaders. sorry, con stit unit workweek they're calling it as if they

were pill filling potholes rather than raising campaign cash. members will have been working on just 41 of the first 127 days of 2012 and that was the busy part of the year, karen finney. >> they're not even pretending to say we are working as hard as the american people with the number of breaks that they've had. you would think that just for show, you might want to say let's be here in washington because we know americans are at home working hard. wouldn't they all love to take a week or two off here and there, but they can't. they're not even trying it. no false pretense. they're pretty open about the fact they're not working, not interested in getting much done. >> david, in the book, walter shots ski, he is considering running for the senate seat he used to work for and learns 0 how to play the darkside of d.c. politics. what are the darkside of d.c. politics, david? >> my protagonist is aimless,

he's inherited a lot of money, a very typical member of the upper middle class, selfish and indifferent. he discovers that he has to be more of a person with a heart and the dark arts are that he becomes kind of a national hero. you have to raise an enormous amount of money. even in the good people are constantly taking envelopes and stuffing them into their pockets and rivaling through them to see what's in it. money, press, these things are so much driven by ego, by ven det taz never disclosed and to really -- to really play that will game, you know, they play that when they're at home and working, despite dana milbank, those members of congress are at their business wherever they are. the question is who are they serving? who is really in charge? >> i like the dark arts money and you know raising money. that seems to be just the art of washington these days, rick tyler, i will look at you in terms of raising money for the dark arts. i'm going to read a quote by

david frum to you, rick, for your reaction. this is from david in the you the new york magazine november 20th saying my party, the republican party's economic ideas sims seem to have shrunk to just one, more tax cuts for the highest earns. when i entered republican politics in the late '70s and early '80s, the movement got most of the big questions, crime,ern, inflation right. this time the party is getting the big questions disastrously wrong. >> we are in a hyper partisan time where the balance of power is real. that's why you get this hyper partisanship in which case all this money david talks about that goes into washington has a real influence. and i think it has a screw detrimental influence coming from aipac who raised a lot of money, i've said many times super pacs are a disaster, an aaffront to a free society and we should figure out how to

return it back to the candidates. >> how can you bemoan the state of money in politics and say don't get rid of super pacs? >> we've taken the candidates who have their names and fortune on the ballot and made them the least able to get out their own message. i'm saying return that freedom to them. others say let's keep that the same. >> the super pacs don't give the candidate more of an opportunity to get the mess and out. they give the donor the opportunity to get their message out. members of congress don't listen to what their constituents want. if they did, we would not be where we are. 70% of the americans agree with a lot of the things obama has been trying to do. >> how is it harder for candidates to get their messages out? >> because there is limited to $2500 contributions. while somebody can give a super pac $5 million to put out all the ads they want, the candidate has to begging for $2500 at a

time. >> or go out and meet constituents and do the work. how about that? >> i could support an idea. raise money from your own district or state. we could probably agree on that. >> a lot of people think mitt romney hasn't had a hard time getting his message out. super pacs are pretty much the wind at his back. david frum, i want to leave you with this one quote from the book. i learned some important lessons from my first washington experience. don't try to change everything at once, don't look for a grand bargain that will transform the political system. above all, don't wait for the people to rise up in righteous indignation. the book is "patriots." david, we look forward to trying to convince you to come back on the show sometime soon. after the break, he's given us so many moments in this presidential race, but today, newt gingrich will bid adieu to the campaign trail. we will pay tribute to the angry teddy bear next on "now." this at&t 4g network is fast.

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i want you to know that we're going to continue out there on the road 37 we'll be talking, campaigning, making speeches doing everything we can to help defeat barack obama. i hope you'll join us in this historic effort because this is still the most important election in our lifetime. >> that was a new video from newt gingrich sent to his supporters where he discussed suspending his campaign later today. americans spent nearly a year watching newt gingrich on the trail. now it's time to look back at the self-proclaimed cheerful candidate's greatest moments. >> by the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be american. >> newt gingrich's candidacy always hovered somewhere in the stratosphere between heaven and earth. >> nothing person except christ has ever been perfect. i don't claim to be the perfect

candidate. >> at times he struggled to get off the ground. >> ♪ love hurts >> a half million dollars of jewelry on credit. >> no, it's a -- go talk to tiffany's. >> you're an embarrassment to our party. >> i'm sorry you feel that way. >> why don't you get out before you make a bigger fool of yourself. >> any ad which quotes what i said on sunday was a falsehood. >> at times, his head was in the clouds. >> i expect to win the nomination. originally, it was going to be mitt and not mitt. it may turn out to be newt and not newt. i'm going to be the nom >> he. >> but inevitably, newt always fell back to earth. >> candidate gingrich was a visionary, especially when it came to his own success. >> all this is going to happen about two hours after the inaugural address before we get to go to the various balls that night. >> he never sold himself short. >> you can make an argument that i helped mitt romney get to be rich. he should be thanking me. i was charging $60,000 a speech. normally celebrities leave and

they he sell speeches every year. and always had a theory to sell. >> the wind industry kills about 33,000 birds a year. if you read the rez's energy speeches he's in cloud cuckoo land. >> each individual brain has as many neurons as there are stars in the universities. >> through it all, he never lost his focus. >> the zoo is very nice. >> some of you probably have an additional interest. i got bit by a penguin. it was great fun. >> there are lots of rabbits that run through. i'm the tortoise. >> i have a passion for dropping by zoos. this is part of my valentine's day to come out and hang out with elephants awhile. i found a tiger named callista. >> no matter what, newt was always honest. >> guess get a job after you take a bath. >>. >> i'm giving up desserts. >> i'm giving up my opinion. >> there are dozens of things i've learned. penguins bite snees we salute you, newton leroy gingrich,

professor recent and the man who could have been our next president. >> and newton leroy gingrich, dropping out of the race in just a few hours. but rick tyler -- >> be where on the snark factor was that? >> i hope you all had your fun. i mean, people took that penguin thing wrong. i looked at the odds of newt getting the nomination and looked at the odds of getting bitten by a penguin in chicago. had i hope. >> i teared up a little bit. >> that was a great -- >> it took a lot of stamina to go out and face guys like that. >> i'm going to miss him. if we're all being honest here. >> newt gingrich brought a certain cayenne pepper heat to this race. those of us who enjoy a little spice in this 2012 race will miss the nonsec question tors, the theories and all the other

highlights we just played. rick, the game is not over yet. he's suspending his campaign. there's some debt. and the super pac, the newt gingrich super pac is still sitting on 5 58$5 million. is there plans for that money? >> the plans are from going on helping defeat barack obama to giving the money back. i mean, there are lots of -- but newt's going to leave this campaign at 3:00. it's now in the noon hour. >> used to pay off his debts? >> it can't be. tiffanies bill? does he still have outstanding debts? >> he could end up having some rol in it if it converts to a c4? >> there's a lot of things you can do with it. you can't pay off the debt. that's the one thing you can't do. >> rick, if you need some ideas how to spend $5 million, many of us on the panel are happy to weigh inning. >> i have loads of ideas.

>> or he could go to tiffanies and spend it. just how bad is the climate in washington these days? worse than you think and worse than we've said earlier in the show according to the authors of a new book that will explain the problems and a few solutions when they join the panel next on "now." ♪ ♪

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♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. it's no secret that congress is now more dysfunctional and partisan than at any other time in recent history, but the big question is why. according to a new book, one party is largely to blame for the authors call the politics of hostage taking. joining the panel are the authors of the work it's even worse than it looks" how the american constitutional system col collided. thomas mann and norm ornstein. welcome. we have talked during the break

about your study at some length previously. we're very glad this book is out and encourage everybody in america to buy a copy as soon as possible. but in the book, you put the blame squarely on the republican party. i want to talk about that. you say the center of gravity within the republican party has shifted sharply to the right. it's legendary moderate legislators in the house and. >> the are virtually extinct. >> both parties have changed for a variety of reasons. the democratic party has probably moved from hits 40 yard line to the 25. the republicans are sharply behind their own goal post now. it's a center of gravity that is not within the normal bounds. you can see it from mitt romney's position on immigration, for example, which has become the new normal. or the general party position and litmus tests on climate change. then if you put that together with a willingness to use weapons like the filibuster in a fashion unprecedented you come

to the conclusion we've come to. it's not that the democratic party consists of angels, but the republican party. >> i think even the democrats would agree with you. thomas, democrats under the presidents of clinton and obama by contrast have become the sent tryst protectors of the government willing to trim retirement and health benefits in order tord maintain the government's commitments in the face of global economic challenges. not something a lot of republicans credit the democrats with doing insofar as moving the goal posts, if you will, on the economy or on social safety nets. >> i think that's a fair statement. republicans don't accept that. but we're looking at it as scholars, as long-time observers of the congress. we're drawing on a rich body of research. this is the most conservative party in over a century, in

congress. there's no question about it. and the fact is, it is partly a matter of ideological commit kmt, but it's really more than that. they've -- the republican party has become engaged in a war, a strategic war so for example, if obama embraces a republican position thinking that will pull them in, then they withdraw from that and attack it. >> you have a chapter on newt gingrich, rick tyler, and the role he plays. gingrich deserves a dubious kind of credit for many of the elements that have produced the current state of politics. he crystallized the approach of crafting a cohesive style minority party and using it as a battering ram to stymie and daniel a president of the other party. of course, newt gingrich author of the gop bus words bedra, anti-flag, anti-family, pathetic, lie, cheat,d of this s

-- >> norm and tom didn't mention we reformed welfare. we increased intelligence in defense spending. we got a lot of things done. also, as you'll recall, newt brought clean water and clean air act on the floor, one of the first things he did. both the parties haven't gotten to the idea of the governing majority. gingrich zood decided he wanted to be in the majority. i will say there's an inherent problem and that is that the left and the democrats feel entitled to power and entitled to govern. the republican party doesn't want to govern. >> that in and of itself is probably an issue too when you have people elected to office that don't want to govern, then you have an obstructionist government. >> if you're a defender of the government, you think government is the solution to all the problems. why wouldn't you be entitled to govern. >> let me say, alex, i give newt credit for working with bill clinton after the first two years of his speakership which

ended in the debacle of a government shutdown. and -- >> four years of balanced budgets. >> which was a collaboration and i think a lot of it started with the 19939 budget that clinton passed without a single republican vote in either house. but the fact is, we got to know newt in the 1978 when he first came to congress and we creates a set of dinners with new members through two years. he already had the strategy for how he was going to create a republican majority. it worked. 16 years later. what we say about newt though is, perhaps inadvertently he left behind something, including his progeny, rick santorum moving to the senate and others that created the criminallisation of policy differences, the sharp tribal politics that we have now. much of it came from that era. >> and now what we see, maggie is the retirement of many of the moderates who were actually getting things done, olympia snow, kay bailey hutchinson, ben

nelson, joe lieberman all leaving us. >> olympia snow has been pointed saying she feels being driven out by washington. in some of these cases are are other reasons why some moderates you're seeing lugar, would be an example of that right now, he has his own state specific issues. he's been there for 36 years. i think that -- i think there is a general sense that moderates can't survive and there is a fear on the part of the establishment after the 2010 cycle of openly trying to defend some members of the establishment. we saw this last week with some defenses of lugar that were taken through a side channel, not directly through the leadership. and i think you're going to see more of that. >> okay. so we know that thing are we're hoping at the bottom of the graft showing how bad it's gotten. do you guys see a road forward? >> alex, we do. not immediately. i mean -- >> several generations hencence.

>> yeah, what this election could do but probably won't is have the public make a decisive choice. outlier parties idea logic extreme are supposed to be reined in by the electorate, but that's complicating our system when power is divided, you don't know who to hold accountable. if the republicans took a beating, they would change. they'd be pragmatic. other leaders would emerge and we'd have two pares somewhere in the mainstream of american politics. but for the long haul, we've got to move with our electoral rules that increase public participation, mandatory attendance at the polls would be a wonderful thing. i know rick would love that. but then we need to change the rules of the governing system. the filibuster worked when it was used occasionally formatters of great national moment. now it's become nothing but a

weapon to oppose, to kill, to discredit. it's very destructive. >> how much of it is the balance of power? it's really at stake, the balance of power is at stake. nobody has gotten to a sustained governing majority. that hasn't happened in a long time. then things settle down historically. >> unfortunately i have to go to break. it is interesting one of the solutions you just outlined was republicans may need to take a drubbing at the polls. this coming from gentlemen scholars at the brookings enstatute and aei. thomas mann and norm ornstein, thank you so much for your time. concluding a very bummer segment. i'm not sure what we call it. after at break, as romney makes a new campaign stop with another potential running mate, new questions arise about his positions on income and equality. we'll discuss that next on "now."

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focus on trying to make the environment better for small business. for entrepreneurs, for innovators. for job creators, small businesses, big businesses, middle sized businesses. democrats say they like a strong economy. they just don't like business very much. >> that was mitt romney earlier today courting business women in virginia. later in the day, he'll meet with the state's govern bob mcdonald. his trip comes as an upcoming "new york times" article examines a new book by one of romney's business partners that claims income inequality is great for the economy. it's your magazine. >> we're hoping a lot of people talk about it. it is a fascinating article focused on edward connard who makes the case that income inequality is a sign the economy is working. the super rich invest their money and it's not just

trickling down to the 99% pep makes the case for every dollar they get, the public gets up to 99%. >> it's up to 20 to 1. the more conventional number that most use is five to one and at his expanded that that figure a little bit. he says up to 20 to 1 but it's probably between somewhere between 5 and 20. >> it's the idea, i thought this example insofar as it illustrated the point. google founder sergei brin might be very rich but the world is far richer than he is because of google. >> that's the crux of the argument. >> easy to say that when you're a billionaire. keep going. >> i don't know that he's a billionaire but would like to be one. the crux of the argument is that the improvements in the u.s. economy depend on risk taking and that there's a lot of highly educated complacent people in the united states who are really not taking enough risks and the answer to that ed argues is to increase the rewards for

success. it's like he uses a comparison like the lottery. when the jackpots gets huge, what happens, a lot of people who never play start buying tickets. that's going to strike a lot of people as simplistic. ed spent the entire book supporting it with a lot of research and it's interesting. >> one fact we should note about ed connard, he was the person who made the $1 million donation to romney's super pac through a company that was essentially a shell company. >> so that he could make the donation. >> has nothing whatsoever to do with his book. >> he did mention the story. >> if we talk about romney's views on income inequality and his idea about the top 1% or.1%, this is illuminating. "the new york times" magazine says are his views the politic version of the man he hopes will be president in the romney campaign said they wouldn't comment in any way on unintended consequences and connard wouldn't share with me anything about his private conversations

with his old friend. romney economic adviser glenn hubbard said only at a broad level, romney and connard share beliefs about innovation and growth and responsible risk taking. >> i have a couple problems with this argument. number one, i think part of the problem in business in america is that the focus has been shifted to how do we make money. that's what boyne was about, not how do we create industry and make things, how do we start a new industry that will create more jobs. instead it's what tax loophole can i make. even the corporate profits now, why are they so high? because they're trying to do more with less. they're not hiring people. i don't buy the argument about risk taking. secondly, this whole argument about rising tide lifts all boats hides the disparity between the 1% and the lowest of the 99% and it means you're not disaggregating the data to look at what is life really like for people in the 99%? i would challenge him go live in lima, ohio for a month working a

minimum wage job and see if you still think it's all good for the 1% of let it trickle down. >> if the wealth is all gathered aggregated at the top 1%, there's the thesis in the story that it makes it harder for other people to have a chance. they rig the political system and perhaps the market system in a way that no one else can get a piece of the pie. >> look at these people you're talking about, the people who invented google, these people were not the 1%, they were the 99%. they've been in the lower 99% and game the 1%. i was taught the difference between the haves and have nots are the difference between the dids and did notes. >> that presumes it everybody has the same opportunity to make good choices. >> we try to do that. >> we don't. >> bhaewhat's your solution. >> people should be able to keep the fruits of their labor. they shouldn't pay all the taxes. >> we're talk about a fair and starting chance here. education is one of those areas where this there used to be agreement that this gets everybody off the starting blocks at the same time or gives

everybody some semblance of? >> certainly bill gates didn't have an education. >> i don't think a bill gates or steve jobs are possible in this kind of climate. part of the reason that they are what they are. >> in this kind of climate, it's more possible than ever. >> to get the funding to build that company? >> in new york city there's all kinds of companies get diagnose money for crazy ideas. one of them will turn out to be the next apple. >> there are singular facebooks and apples but as a broad plan i don't know that saying everybody is going to become steve jobs seems a little bit -- >> i have yet to see the magazine piece, but what was his hope in writing the book now? it's hard for me to see how this is at all helpful for mitt romney? >> that's a good question. i don't know the answer to it. but i do think that's a fair question. i think ed will be around doing interviews and that's a good question to ask. >> i'll ask him.

>> but if the premise was would that we could all be millionaires and have shell companies and offshore accounts, that's great. but that's not the pes allege we get. it's good for us to be up here and you guys to be down there. >> let's create more opportunity for everybody. >> i don't think that's his argument. someone could see it that way. he's not saying protect the rich at all costs. he's saying create more opportunities for people to get rich. >> this is stuff that mitt romney will be tackling on the campaign trail. come up, we'll talk about the resignation of richard grinnell, romney adviser as well as new developments in facebook world coming up next on "now." with the spark miles card from capital one, thor's couture gets the most rewards of any small business credit card. [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! here's my spark card. and here's your wool. why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! the spiked heels are working. wow! who are you wearing? uhhh, his cousin. [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one.

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yesterday, mitt romney foreign policy adviser richard grinnell resigned saying my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the

discussion of personal issues that sometimes come from a presidential campaign. maggie, you've written about this. from fallout from this as far as mitt romney goes, how bad is it? >> i think it's minimal. a far bigger deal is what's happening in terms of bin laden and the fact that the campaign seemed unprepared for the fact that this anniversary was coming up. i do think that they seemed caught off guard by what a big deal this became and the fact it became a big deal, there are different versions of what actually happened in terms of grinnell, but irrespective of that, it probably would have been a good moment for them to ged ahead of the evangelical criticism and say we don't tolerate this and don't feel this way. it sent a signal whether they meant to or not that they were concerned about the conservative right. i think that's what's become sort of a problem. >> because richard is gay and openly gay. >> and is very -- has been very active on twitter and a blog. and he's very pro gay marriage.

one thing i think in fairness to the romney campaign is a, i think they did try to keep him. i think they genuinely are frustrated with how this sort of played out. they didn't expect this. >> rick, matthew staffer writing on grinnell's hiring yesterday said that's like throwing salt into a wound and that's the sluts wrong decision if romney wants to reach out to the conservative base and unite them. is that saying there's no place for gays in a romney campaign? >> i think grinnell made it an issue himself. he got shut out of some important decisions particular little with obama's trip. and he got mad and he quit. he said it had nothing to do with him being gay and so did the campaign. i'll take them at their word. >> we have to leave it there. thanks again to rick, maggie, rich and hugo. tomorrow, i'm joined by former governor ed rendell, patricia murphy. until then, you can find us at

facebook.com/nowwithalex. andrea mitchell is next. >> good afternoon, alex. suicide bombers attack kabul less than two hours after president obama ep leaves the capital. we'll hear about the delicate diplomacy over the chinese dissent's future. brian williams will be here with his compelling interviews describing the moment by moment account in the situation room during the raid on bin laden's compound. anddon torture techniques lead us to bin laden? cia former clandestine service head jose rodriguez joins us next right here on "andrea mitchell reports."

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devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," explosions and gunfire in kabul. suicide bombers strike less than two hours after president obama lifts off from his surprise trip. >> this time of war began in afghanistan, and this is where it will