track down bin laden? reaction from the leading party. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix today, the election will be decided in a dozen battleground states. that's clear. new nbc marist polls show the president has a narrow lead in three of them. florida, ohio, and virginia. has he hit his ceiling? nbc news chief white house correspondent and political reporter chuck todd is host of the daily rundown and our resident poll maven. well, here he keeps sort of cruising at 48, edging up to 48. is that a ceiling? >> that's the knife's edge. 48. that's a good question. the remack bl consistemarkable . he's at 47% in the ballot test. where is he in florida? virginia, 48%, ohio, 48%. you're can't fall forward and get to 50% with it. 48% if that's where he's sitting the whole time that means it's a turnout election and that's what he has to do. if the number is going to drift

down, that would be a troublesome sign for him. 48, those are re-electable numbers, winnable numbers. it's work to. another thing i noticed, romney obviously got better in all of these polls from the last time we tested it. he has more room to grow. see he's not coalesced all of the conservatives, all the republic republicans. >> he's not coalesced all the conservatives and republicans but boy does he have a problem with latinos and gender gap with women. >> it's huge. the hispanic stuff, it messes up the map for him. it's big poll week in the five families of nbc, telemundo, with the poll. you look at this map, you know there's a viable scenario for the president to get to 270 electoral votes without winning flori florida, ohio, or virginia because he could sweep the west thanks to hispanics in nevada, colorado, new mexico, and then just winning iowa, new

hampshire, putting that together, he could win. he doesn't need any of the southern states. he wouldn't need ohio. that's a huge, huge -- it's all due to this hispanic issue. it is all due to that. romney's numbers are sitting at 27. he's got to get that a lot closer to 35. >> his approach to them yesterday to the latino business group at the chamber of commerce was to appeal to them on education and talk to as we refer to that -- >> an important issue to a lot of hispanics -- a lot of people. >> he can't get past the immigration issue. >> the question is, when you're having a conversation with a voting growth that is upset with you about what feels like a -- something that's a personal attack, and to some hispanics the republican rhetoric on immigration has felt like a personal attack, not some sort of policy difference. and the question is, are they listening? does mitt romney get a fair hearing from them because he won't address sort of the real elephant in the room which is this issue? i was surprised. now, look, the romney belief is, and stewart stevens will say this to you over and over again, the chief strategist for mitt romney, this is all a larger question.

it's about how do you feel, the economy, education, fits into that? we're here to win a larger argument. the obama campaign, if they want to have this segmented argument and they're going to have a message for women here, and a message for hispanics there, a message for young voters there -- >> >> that's a turnout message. >> one is a turnout message, one is trying to win the larger argument and basically tip all swing voters your direction. it what happened in 92s '92 and. >> one of the quick questions, while i have you there, the whole question of looking forward, the future. >> yes. >> mitt romney's talking about day one, two day in his new advertisements. and you have the obama campaign talking about bain capital. now, they think that's really successful, but where is that optimism, that looking toward the future for what we will do positively that you're hearing it all from the democratic side? >> well, it's funny you say that.

that's right. the campaign that talks about and sort of paints a more optimistic picture usually does win on this front. what's interesting is the president does better among people that feel better about where things are going. and mitt romney is doing better obviously with people that feel -- i do think these ads are important for romney. you've got to -- when you're running against a sitting president, you've got to make that unsure swing voter who might say, boy, i don't want if i want to change courses, uncomfortable doing that. you have to make them feel comfortable with you in office. i understand what they're doing with these day one ads sort of saying, go ahead and picture him in there, this is what he'll do. they're trying to say, he's going to do things that's not going to scare you is there intent on this. we'll say, it's funny you pick up -- i think there's going to be some debate. we'll see where the numbers are. there's some debate already among some democrats, is the president engaging too much, too negatively, too soon? we'll see. >> chuck todd. thank you so much. >> you got it. and negotiations over iran's

nuclear program appear close to deadlock. then they decided to at least meet again. talks in baghdad today. iranian officials rejected calls to curb its program. a condition the u.s. and other nations insist on before easing international sanctions. ali aruzi is nbc's tehran bureau chief and watching it all close up. thanks so much for running out of the news briefing to come to us today. first of all, they're going to meet again in moscow, so they at least are going to meet again. they didn't totally deadlock. that's going it be reassuring to a lot of people that we're not edging toward some sort of a preemptive military strike. >> reporter: andrea, i'm having some trouble hearing you but what i can tell you is there doesn't seem to be a lot of progress having been made here. the european union foreign policy chief just gave a presser right now and said that there was some common ground between the iranians and the p-5-plus-1.

but there were a lot of differences. the iranian diplomats on the sidelines of the meetings, they felt the americans were trying to scuffle these talks. they felt they were being strong armed and being given unreasonable demands. the iranians put in a five-point plan of their own which an eu diplomat told me didn't really make sense because it was addressing issues which have nothing to do with the nuclear program and that's not the point of these talks. so there's still a lot of ground to be made up here. i think contrary to conventional wisdom, there was not going to be a breakthrough moment here at all. not here or in istanbul talks. this is going to be a very long, dawn out process. the p-5-plus-1 and iran have agreed to another round of talks in moscow on june the 16th. we know on the sidelines here that some of the arguments here was what was the next venue for these talks going to be? the iranians wanted it to be in

a country they were comfortable with, the p-5-plus-1 suggesting geneva rule that out. they've agreed on russia where everybody seems to be comfortable but not exactly a neutral country. no huge progress or breakout moment in the negotiations here, a breakthrough moment in the negotiations here. a long protracted talk, the next round in moscow, on june the 16th. we just to see if the -- they're not going to lift the sanctions off iran in the meantime, so that's going to mean more economic pressure on iran and an agitated israel waiting to see what's going to happen. and rewra? >> thank you so much, ali, for powering through that. i know it's hard when you can't hear so well on the satellite. clearly, it's not stalemate but very little progress made. and there had been talk by the europeans of letting iran at least sell oil to asia as a stop gap measure. that is not agreed to by the americans and by many of the other players because the feeling is if you left them off

the hook, they will stall forever. so to be continued. meanwhile, delaware democratic senator, senator, you just heard we're all sort of on hooks waiting to see what happens with iran. some people are suggesting delay is not necessarily a good thing because israel will charge that delay means that they are keeping to make progress in secret and that this could potentially cross israel's red line. >> well, andrea, i'm having a little difficulty hearing show, but let me say in response, i think one of the things on which there's the strongest bipartisan consensus in the senate, we need to keep enforcing the tough sanctions we already have in place and work in partnership with the obama/biden administration to make sure we absolutely prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapons capability. the only reason they're at the table in baghdad is because the sanction are beginning to have

effect. the idea they're debating now over whether to have the next round of negotiations in geneva or moscow suggest to me that the iranians are not yet really serious. they are a genuine threat to our ally, israel, to america, to the region and our allies. we have to keep up the pressure and insist if they have remaining nuclear capability that it be open to regular inspection, clearly limited to solely civilian means and we end any nuclear program that could possibly lead to a weapons capability by iran. >> senator, i hope you can hear me. i want to talk to you about your new jobs program, visa availability for educated, highly educated foreign students. first let me ask you about pakistan. the senate foreign relations committee today voted to hold up $33 million from pakistan out of anger in really fury over the fact that pakistan has jailed the doctor who helped us find bin laden. jailed him for treason for 33

years. that's $1 million a year. what is your reaction to this? because pakistan is at the same time, many say, extorting us on the cost for re-opening those supply routes to get in and out of afghanistan. critically important supply routes. >> well, andrea, i think you're asking me about pakistan and a vote that the appropriations subcommittee took about our aid program to pakistan. we have a very important but very conflicted relationship with pakistan. obviously they're closing off supply routes to our soldiers while they're in the field fighting for freedom. afghanistan is an enormous source of frustration. it's in part in response to an incident the pakistanis took great offense to. we need to find ways we can sustain this critical relationship, for the troops on the field in afghanistan and long term security. we shouldn't continue to give them assistance to any regard what they're doing that put our

national security or our troops at threat. i believe members of the senate have tried to send a strong signal the relationship with pakistan has to be a two way street and the route in and out of afghanistan needs to open. >> senator, i hope you can hear me, because i want to ask you also about your proposal to change the immigration law and i don't know how it would work exactly but this is something that business leaders have been demanding, have been asking for, to permit highly educated foreign students to stay in the united states. and when you look at the numbers, it's just extraordinary that so many of these foreign students who are the real entrepreneurs of the future are forced to go back to their home countries. >> that's right. in the united states, we have a real challenge right now. we need to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math education programs and opportunities for americans. but we are educating tens of thousands of non-u.s. nationals who are getting master's and doctoral degrees in these programs. there are tens of thousands of jobs that our most competitive, fastest growing companies can't

fill and because of our current immigration laws, we've forced these highly educated folks to go home to the countries from which they came. we won't let them stay here, start jobs or take jobs, so in a bill, a bipartisan bill that senator warner of virginia, senator rubio of florida and i introtduced earlier this week, e make a number of important changes to support small business job growth. one is to create a new class of visa that encourages stem graduates to stay in the united states. another is a new class of visa that encourages entrepreneurship. investing money and hiring americans by those who graduate after pursuing a degree at an american higher institution. there's also two critical tax provisions, andrea. one that allows per te s permand another that creates an innovation startup credit that makes the rnd tax credit accessible to early stage companies. the positive message here i think is you have four senators, two republicans and do democrats

continuing to work together. this bill was based on a bill, the agree act, that senator rubio and i introduced together last year, we keep coming back to find ways to get things enacted. there was recently signed into law by president obama the so-called jobs act that helps senator up companies access capital. these important changes on a variety of fields, intellectual property, capital formation, tax rates and immigration are just the next step in trying to work together across the aisle and across the current partisanship here to find a positive pathway forward to support small high growth, high potential young businesses in the united states. >> one question is, do you think you can get democrats to vote for this without getting republicans to agree to take some steps to help those already here illegally get citizenship? >> well, on the issue of immigration, andrea, i am someone who is a co-sponsor of the dream act who supports family reunification efforts.

we need comprehensive immigration reform. immigration is a federal responsibility. and we have invested significantly in strengthening border security, in ending -- significantly reducing the amount of illegal immigration flowing into some of the states that have acted i think rationally at the state level. the federal government does these need to take a strong lead in dealing with illegal immigration. that doesn't meanwhile we wait for comprehensive immigration reform that we shouldn't introduce and debate and consider other bills that would help deal with high-skilled immigration, family reunification, or the resolution of the status of those who were brought here as young children by families have grown up here, this is the only country they know, and who wish to serve in the military or pursue higher education. there's a variety of different bills, andrea. it's my hope republicans and democrats can jointly agree we need to fix our immigration system to move our country forward. just because there's an election in november doesn't mean our

competitors in brazil or india, china, or russia, are taking the year off. in the next six months i'm going to remain optimistic i can find republicans and democrats willing to work together on broad bipartisan proposals. at the very least, if i'm wrong, after the election, we'll have worked together on the policy ideas that can form the basis for a strong bipartisan solution to the longstanding problem. >> senator coons, thanks so much. pleasure to see you today. >> thank you, andrea. coming up next, facebook falls on its face. and still ahead, the trouble with pakistan. we'll talk to the leader of pakist pakistan's ruling party who is also the son of president zardari. [ woman ] for the london olympic games, our town had a "brilliant" idea.

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the fallout from the facebook ipo continues today as investors express anger over alleged misconduct by morgan

stanley for not properly disclosing information about the company. although the company's stock has begun to stabilize, after a rocky start, lawsuits are now popping up across the country over the way the ipo was handled. joining me now is cnbc's steve liesman. thanks so much. first of all, these lawsuits and all the talk about morgan stanley, is this a case where they did something that is done regularly? or did they actually cross some line, ethical or legal? >> you know, it's a good question. they claim it is. they followed normal procedures. even if it is normal procedures and there are substantial doubts if they are, the question is, why don't they make a much more public case or announcement that they have lowered the earnings outlook for the company that they're underwriting? andrea, you know, let's make a list of things that went right in this deal. facebook got a lot of money and wall street banks made a lot of commission. but that's it. you know, from fidelity shareholders who had trouble, or account holders, who thad trouble getting the stock to the

way the nasdaq trade was handled to now this morgan stanley issue, everything went wrong. what's important to think about is the bigger picture here. there's a reason why these things have to go well. because the initial public offering, the ipo process, is a critical part of how, why entrepreneurs create companies and how we fund new ideas and innovation in this country. if this doesn't go well, it's going to hurt the next innovator down the road. >> is there talk now that facebook might leave the nasdaq? how vulnerable is the nasdaq, itself, in the way it handled it? >> i think nasdaq is very vulnerable here. they messed this one up. it didn't work out the way they had promised it would. and there are rumors of discussions with the new york stock exchange, though. i'm not clear those have been confirmed yet, and rera. certainly there's more than one exchange that would have been happy for this business. >> at the same time, this does sort of reinforce the notion that the little guy, the small investor, was really messed up or screwed, frankly, and that

the insiders, the preferential traders, the big customers, got all sorts of advance information. >> you know, you're absolutely right, andrea, in the sense that's the second big knock-on effect from this. future ability of innovators to raise money. the second one is faith in the stock market. put that together with jp morgan, together with what's happening with facebook and wall street looks like it has a black eye, looks like it's a place for insiders and discourages people from using the stock market as a place to put their retirement money. >> steve liesman, always a pleasure. thank you so much for joining us today. and up next, the battle for wisconsin. outside money and wisconsin's recall election. big business versus big labor. the political briefing next right here on "andrea mitchell reports."

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rights for many public employees last year. this election less than two weeks away new polls show wisconsin governor holding a lead over the democratic candidate. meanwhile, joining me now is politico's dave catney. dave, i know it's two weeks away but it looks like scott walker with a lot of outside money is edging up in the polls. >> yes, absolutely, there's not a public poll that's shown tom barrett, his opponent, in the lead for the last two weeks and no poll coming out this week. the internal democratic poll shows scott walker up narrowly. i think my colleague, ron, encapsulated the feeling if her piece perfectly. if you shoot at the king, you better not miss meaning labor, democrats, you know, put their all into this. getting almost 1 million signatures. if they fall short, walker is going to be put on a pedestal and i think it's going to really lift the hopes of republicans nationally, basically saying, you can do big, bold reforms and it went politically hurt you.

people will stand with you. they're ready for change. >> first of all, the democratic national committee, as far as i know, has not put money into this. other democratic leaders have not played in wisconsin. what is their reluctance? do they see this as a losing game? >> the reluctance on the part of the democratic national committee is focusing on their priority. to their defense, they put some money in late on behalf of barrett but they're being outspent by the republican governors negotiation who even put in $6 million. the reason walker is in such good shape is he's had a huge financial advantage in this race. he's raised $25 million. tom barrett's only around about $2 million. now, labor has helped somewhat within this state, but as far as national support, it's pretty lopsided toward the governor. >> dave catanes, thank you very much. this is a race to watch. coming up next, how could pakistan jail the doctor who

helped find bin laden? a closer look at mitt romney's massachusetts record with the woman who served as his lieutenant governor there. morning, pa. wait... who's driving the...? ♪ 99 bushels of wheat on the farm, 99 bushels of wheat ♪ [ male announcer ] yep, there's 8 filling layers of whole grain fiber in those fun little biscuits... so they stick with you, all morning long. kellogg's® mini-wheats cereal. [ mini ] yee haw! a big breakfast in a little biscuit. [ thunk ] sweet! [ male announcer ] the solid thunk of the door on the jetta. thanks, mister! [ meow ] [ male announcer ] another example of volkswagen quality. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 jetta for $159 a month.

as with we reported earlier today a senate panel slashed u.s. aid to pakistan by there are $33 million today. pakistani court has now sentenced the cia informant to 33 years in prison. the panel's cut is symbolic. $1 million for every year of that sentence. nbc is in islamabad and joins me now. there's a lot of anger here about this. what is the explanation from pakistan about the treason conviction? >> reporter: you know, andrea, pakistani officials are saying that the process by which he was tried, the legal process was their sovereign right, that this was in accordance with pakistani laws and this should be a respected process by anyone looking at it from the outside. you mentioned, of course, some

of the anger coming from the u.s. senators carl levin and john mccain saying that this man who was working with u.s. intelligence to try to locate, pinpoint bin laden's location in pakistan was courageous. he was acting on behalf of both the u.s. and pakistan to go after an about enemy of both states. the pakistanis, of course, have said this is a man who was acting against their own state and working with an intelligence agency. as one told me today, if you work with the foreign intelligence agency, convicted for treason. >> amna nawaz from pakistan. joining me is bhutto zardari, the chair of the people's party and the son of benazir bhutto.

what crossed my mind in seeing what happened, your mother whom i knew and who was widely respected here in the united states, i recall her speech to a joint session of congress. your mother was killed by al qaeda according to the u.n. commission report. how do you feel when someone who helped track down osama bin laden is put in jail for 33 years? >> unfortunately, andrea, that anyone collaborating with foreign intelligence, even of a friendly country, anywhere in the world, that's a crime. look at the case of jonathan pallard here in the united states where a u.s. court convicted him for life imprisonment for spying for israel. >> at the same time, pakistan has suffered egregiously from these terror bombings, these killings. as hillary clinton says very often, pakistan has suffered from terrorism as much as the united states has suffered, so why wouldn't you view this man's

work as something that's honorable and why wouldn't pakistan explain who are the people who helped cover up for bin laden being there for so many years hiding if plain sight? >> we have independent judiciary, installed an independent judiciary for the first time in our country. whether i wanted them out or not is irrelevant. i can't put pressure on the judiciary to decide either way. as far as to the explanation as to why osama bin laden was in pakistan, we formed a commission on that. i have full faith they'll come to the truth of the matter and we'll find the people responsible if in fact they're in pakistan. >> do you believe it was possible for him to be hiding in a military community without some complicity from pakistani officials? whether in the intelligence community, in the military or somewhere in the government? >> well, the united states found a treasure-trove of evidence in the compound, none of which point to any link between osama bin laden, the pakistani

government, the pakistani army or pakistani intelligence agencies. >> the other big issue which has caused quite a division between the u.s. and pakistan, your father, the president, was asked to only to the nato meetings. at the same time, it was expected there would be an agreement there on re-opening the supply lines to and from afghanistan. critical military supply lines. well, once he got there, he did not get a one-on-one meeting with the president because that agreement did not materialize. there's a lot of concern that the demands from pakistan for payments really amount to extortion. for these trucks going in and out. >> my father received an unconditional invitation to the nato summit and he attended. the relationship between pakistan and the united states has deteriorated over the last year. we weathered a series of crises from the raymond davis fiasco where a cia agent shot innocent civilians in the back, to the

raid by nato that killed 24 innocent pakistani soldiers and did not result in apology. however, both countries are working together. i'm hopeful they will resolve their differences because we have a common goal and we can only achieve it together. >> does there have to be a formal apology for that raid which the u.s. decided that there was fault on both sides? there has not been a formal apology, we know, for five or six months. this has been debated and negotiated even within the u.s. government. does there have to be a formal apology before those routes will be re-opened, do you believe, at what we would consider normal rates? >> i think that an immediate apology was the humane, appropriate thing to do. i'd like the american public to consider what their reaction would have been had 24 american soldiers been killed in such a way on the border with mexico. i think an apology would have been appropriate. >> is it too late now? >> it's never too late for an apology, andrea. >> can you understand why the

u.s. government would be angry, though, with these supply lines so important to both our war in afghanistan and our ability, frankly, to get our supplies out of afghanistan? how angry the u.s. would be after all of the aid to pakistan over the years to have this demand from your country for us to pay so much? >> we don't measure our soldiers' blood in aid. i understand why america is angry, and therefore, i would urge them to please apologize for the loss of lives their action caused on the border with pakistan. >> there was another drone attack today. >> there was. the constant drones is not only counterproductive of the war on terror, but it's a violation of the u.s. war powers act as well as international law. and i -- america was supposed to be that city on a hill, setting an example to the world. i do hope it returns to that status soon. >> do you acknowledge that the

drone attacks have helped really battle al qaeda in a way that frankly pakistan's government was not able to? you never had control over those territories. >> no, i actually completely disagree. the drone attacks have not caught any big boys. they've been counterproductive. you can ask their own military, they admit, barring osama bin laden, pakistan provided actionable intelligence, has caught, captured or killed more al qaeda operatives than any other nation on earth. >> it's very, very nice to meet you, and, again, we thought highly of your mother and, of course, there's a lot of respect for what you've been trying to do in pakistan on human rights. thank you for being with us today. >> thank you very much, andrea. and back in politics here, mitt romney talked about his plans for education this morning. at a struggling charter school in west philadelphia. romney has blamed teachers unions for what he calls a third world education system. outside democrats led by philadelphia mayor michael

nutter said romney has no history of successful education reform. >> if you're going to talk about education, it'd be nice if you had an education record. it'd be nice if you had an education platform. it'd be nice if you seemed to know something about education. you can go wherever you want to two. that's the beauty of the united states of america. but the guy's got no record to run on. >> former massachusetts lieutenant governor carrie healy served with mitt romney in massachusetts and is co-chair of the group political parody, to increase the number of women in office. let's talk about that education record. mitt romney's whole record on education in going to west philadelphia was to say that the teachers union are really the problem. how does that play out in terms of what kind of president he would be? >> well, let's first address some of those very ill informed comments. governor romney has an incredibly strong record on education. we were actually the first state, massachusetts was the first state under mitt romney to

have both their fourth graders and eighth graders evaluated as being first in the nation on the national report card test. mitt romney had schools that were the best in the country in massachusetts and insisted on extremely high standards, he absolutely made sure testing -- made sure students had to be at a very high level before they were allowed to graduate from our schools was in place. he pushed to open up options just as he's proposing now, options for parents in charter schools throughout the state and got the cap off of charter schools to help raise those standards an he pushed for many of the proposals that you are seeing here that he rolled out yesterday, talking about giving parents more choice, more options and making sure that the special interests, the teachers unions, don't stand in the way of achieving those reforms. >> one of the things he said in a closed-door fund-raiser, one

of his comments on april 15th was that if elected the department education, i will either consolidate with another agency or perhaps make it a heck of a lot smaller. so is this part of the romney plan? >> certainly you will look at the romney education proposals that came out yesterday and see that a lot of responsibility is shifted to the states for figuring out exactly how to reach these high goals that he has in place. he wants to make federal moneys movable for students who are poorer students, students who have special needs. if they're not getting what they need from the school they're in, he'd like to see them take that federal money and two to a school that will help them meet their needs and also achieve. he wants to make sure there is a broad range of schools available to those students to choose from. so do you need a giant department of education to do this? probably not. but what you do need is high standards. you need a vision. and governor romney laid out

that vision that focuses on enabling the best teachers and enabling parents yesterday. >> you are leading an effort to get more women into politics. the gender gap is persistent. our new nbc news/marist poll today shows among women voters in florida, i think you're in florida today, there's a ten-point gap in florida, in virginia also a ten-point gap with women. and in ohio it's even larger. it's a 12-point gap. what does he do to try to narrow double-digit leads, the gender gap and try to persuade women that mitt romney should be supported? >> one of the top issues for women across the nation is the education of their children, and they don't need to be told that education is in crisis. literally one in four students does not graduate from high school right now in america, and if you're in one of the top 50 urban areas in the country, that number is actually 50% that don't graduate. those mothers, those families, are going to want more options

for their students, for their children so that they can go to the best schools. and whether those schools are charter schools, public schools, private schools, as allowed by state law, those are the options that governor romney wants to give parents, and women are going to look at that and say, yes, why isn't my child receiving the best possible education? and they're going to understand that sometimes teachers unions stand in the way. >> thank you so much, kerry healey. up next, are the bain attacks back firing? this is "andrea mitchell reports." ard! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles

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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. hi, everyone, i'm tamron hall. coming up in 15 minutes on "news nation" they say one is the loneliest number. could 48% be president obama's magic number? what the number 48 reveals about where the president stands now with some voters in key states. plus crisis control. nasdaq executives are reportedly today attempting to stop the

bleeding after facebook's ipo's fall. and we'll have more on mitt romney's comments regarding the education system, comparing the country's education system to a third world nation under president obama. we'll have more on what the mayor of philadelphia is saying. and what's turned out to be a pretty hot topic. by the way, it's our "news nation" gut check. president obama has escalated his attacks on mitt romney's record at bain capital. again last night at a silicon valley fund-raiser. could it back fire in his campaign? >> governor romney, he's saying, well, my 25 years in private sector gives me a special understanding of how our economy works. well, if that's true, why is he pedalling the same bad ideas that brought our economy to the brink of collapse? >> nira tannen previously served as director for public policy for the obama/biden campaign and

then in the white house. tony previously served as deputy press secretary in the george w. bush white house. thank you, both. what about the attack on bain? it has really exacerbated the business world's suspicion, concern about barack obama. >> you know, i think that the issue really here is that the country went through a significant economic crisis. that had something to do with wall street. so, you know, the president is really acknowledging that to some degree, but really the mitt romney has made his bain experience front and center. i mean, it wasn't too long ago he was talking about the 100,000 jobs he allegedly created at bain as his unique business experience to be president of the united states. that was later challenged by numerous fact checkers. he's put that experience front and center really demonstrating to people -- being president is a big deal. you should have your record

vetted. vetting that is part of the process. >> tony? >> i think actually mitt has a terrific story to tell and private equity has a terrific story to tell about investing in firms in america. american people understand -- i grew up in pittsburgh. we knew something about steel mills. if someone's going to come in and invest in the steel mill in the '90s that was a pretty big deal, a positive deal and a hopeful, you know, aspirational arrangement. that's what bain was doing and private equity firms were doing. americans understand if those factories are going to grow and create jobs for the long term, someone has to come in and finance them. it doesn't come from government. it doesn't come from, you know, trees. it comes from people collecting money, putting it together, investing it and increase standard of living. >> that would be a great story if that's what mitt romney did. >> over and over. >> he went in many times -- let me say, it wasn't democrats who called mitt romney a -- >> a former adversary.

>> yes, definitely. newt gingrich. basically said that mitt romney's experience is going in and taking the value out of companies. now, everyone supports free enterprise. everyone supports the ability of companies to move capital. the question is, when a corporate, you know, what seems like corporate raiding happens, taking the value out and firing everyone. that is not an experience, when we have unemployment, that's not an experience people are going to champion. >> what about, tony, the instance, after making a lot of money under bain, investors made money, some people laid off, denied their pension benefits. why not make $80 million and let people have their pensions? >> there's no question you need to go in and look at firms when they shut down and how you deal with -- people laid off is a critical component of that, critical whether we're talking

about gm auto dealers. >> it's a values argument. >> people who lost their jobs. >> it's an issue across the country. this case you have what happened after the firm went bankrupt. we have a broken pension system. lots of firms around the country. >> those are decisions that -- >> tocountry. to be clear here, this was not a corporate raiding. get the money, leverage it up and flip it. this was a company that bain went into. it was eight years. we've seen marriages last that aren't committed that long. this was a long-term commitment. it would have gone longer had we not seen the steel prices collapse at that time. they were committed to it. they were committed to growing it and keeping those jobs. it was a failing firm when they bought it. all right? so this was about hope and growing the business which they did for a very long time. >> i think the challenges from the perspective of workers and

independent folks, what really happened was that bain was actually a profit at the expense of workers and that's what i think people are really concerned about. >> to be continued. this won't be the last conversation in this campaign. good to see you. coming up next, what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next. re to unleash my inner cowboy. instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilosec isn't for fast relief. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw! home protector plus, from liberty mutual insurance, where the costs to both repair your home and replace your possessions are covered. and we don't just cut a check for the depreciated value -- we can actually replace your stuff with an exact or near match. plus, if your home is unfit to live in after an incident,

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor jonathan capehart with the "washington post" joins me. let's be hont here. we've both been having a lot of fun with a piece from the aarp. the 21 sexiest men over 50. old guys, of course. and of course, george clooney tops the list. but listen up, brian williams, this means you. the number two person on this list is brian williams. >> uh-huh. >> what do we say about these folks? never thought of them as being old. >> yeah. i guess it's all relative, you

know. i'm not 50 but i'm hurdling toward 50 and we're looking at people on this list who are highly accomplished at what they do from all facets of life. we've focused, we mentioned george clooney, the actor accident brian william. our big boss at nbc news. there are other people. jon huntsman, governor huntsman, ambassador huntsman is on there. wes clark, general clark is on there. and also, colin powell is on the list. there are some questionable people though, in terms of sexy. i don't know. but you know, i won't call them out. >> let's just say bow ties are sexy. jonathan capehart. thank you very much. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." my colleague tamron hall is next. >> quite a topic with you and jonathan. in our next hour, they say one is the loneliest number but could 48% be obama's magic

number? what it reveals right now for some key voters. plus, crisis control. nasdaq is trying to stop the bleeding after facebook's ipo fall. and mitt romney said american students are getting a third world education under this administration. well, now philadelphia's mayor michael nutter is going after romney. the question for our gut check, did governor romney go too far? to get people to try on these new depend silhouette briefs, and today we are rocking the red carpet. look it's lisa rinna! lisa hiii,i know you don't need one but will you try on these new depend silhouette briefs for charity and prove just how great the fit is even under a fantastic dress? are you serious? i am serious... sure why not! she's doing it! the best protection now looks,

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