>> donald trump's crazy conspiracy theories are causing trouble for the romney campaign. >> there's something on that birth certificate he doesn't like. >> nobody's come forward saying i delivered that beautiful baby. >> first of all, i haven't seen it. i'm looking to that. i'll look at it later. >> mitt romney's refusal to cut ties with his out of control surrogate. why aren't big name democrats coming to wisconsin to support tom barrett? my commentary and my advice for the president are ahead. good to have you with us tonight. thanks for watching. republicans are still crying foul over the obama campaign strategy against mitt romney's record. president obama is keeping hids foot on the gas when it comes to talking about mitt romney's credenti

credentia credentials. >> i know governor romney came to des moines last week. he left out some facts. his speech was more like a cow pie of distortion. >> mr. romney has to rely on a cow pie of distortion because he can't rely on the truth. romney likes to say president obama has made the national debt larger than all other presidents combined. actually, the debt is up by about half under president obama. it tripled under ronald reagan. don't forget the majority of our current debt is from the bush tax cuts and unpaid wars in afghanistan and iraq. federal spending under president obama is growing at the slowest rate since the 1950s. mitt romney needed to distort president obama's record in iowa because romney seems to have problems when he tries to talk about his own policies in iowa.

>> there are various ways of doing that. one is raise taxes on people. that's not the way -- corporations are people, my friend. we can raise taxes on. of course they are. everything corporations raise goes to people. where do you think it goes? people's pockets. >> there was also a time when a struggling iowa worker asked mitt romney how he could keep jobs in it state. he said the term is called productivity, out put per person. our productivity equals our income. in other words, go work harder. i guess he's never seen this chart. income has levelled off over the last 30 years but productivity just keeps going up by american workers. president obama certainly understands how out of touch mitt romney is when it comes to american workers. >> the problem with our economy isn't that the american people

aren't productive enough. you're working harder than ever. productivity is going up consistently over the last decade. the chase we face right now. the challenge we faced for a decade is that harder work hasn't led to higher incomes. bigger profits haven't led to better jobs, and you can't solve that problem if you can't even see that it's a problem. >> mitt romney has a hard time seeing a lot of problems. he's still coming to grips with the time he said this. >> i like being able to fire people and provide services to me. if someone doesn't give me the good service i need, i want to say i'm going to get somebody else to provide that service to me. >> in a wall street journal interview, romney said he regretted that comment, but he only regretted it because it made him look bad. he said it made he want to kick myself in the seat of the pants. i've had a couple of those during the campaign, but i'm sure before this over, it will

haunt me a lot. mitt romney is a guy who really looks out for himself. this is why president obama will continue to hammer mitt romney over his record in the private sector. this is why bain capital is no doubt fair game. romney says the successful ventures of bain capital qualify him for the presidency. president obama takes issue with romney's lodger. >> sometimes it goes the other way. workers get laid off. benefits disappear. pensions are cut. factories go dark. in some cases companies are loaded up with debt not to make the companies more productive, not to buy new equipment, to keep them at the cutting edge, but just to pay investors. that may be the job of somebody who is engaged in corporate buy outs. that's fine. that's not the job of a

president. that's not the president's job. there may be value for that kind of experience but it's not in the white house. >> the republicans picked this fight. they decided mitt romney's business background was his greatest strength. it might be his biggest weakness and right now it's the best talking point and presentation for the obama administration and campaign. get your cell phones out. will mitt romney get away with his cow pies of distortion? text a for yes. text b for now. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring the results later in the show. joining me is independent senator from vermont, bernie sanders. senator, go to have yod to have us tonight. have the democrats done a good job in defining mitt romney early in this campaign? what do you think? >> i think they have done a

reasonable job. democrats can do a lot better. at the end of the day after everything is said and done, what romney's economics is about is trickle down economic theory. that's what george w. bush practiced for eight years. we lost during that period 600,000 jobs. median income went down. the rich got richer. poverty increased. i think what the democrats have got to be very clear about and what the president has got to be very clear about is to say we cannot afford to give more tax breaks to the richest people in this country when we already have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any mayor country on earth and it's far greater in this country than in any time since the 1920s. we can't do more deregulation of wall street when deregulated wall street caused the

horrendous recession which has led to so much suffering in america. in my view, you can't do more unfettered free trade when we lost 6,000 factories in the last six years. that is mitt romney's economic program. end of discussion. that's all he has. >> there's no doubt about it. what do you see his biggest weakness right now? the romney campaign as they seem to be counter punching on the defensive. what is their biggest weakness as you see it? >> i think the biggest weakness is when you pair away all of the rhetoric, they've got nothing to say about how they're going to create decent paying jobs in america. they're biggest weaknesses, they support the paul ryan republican budget, which will devastate medicare, medicaid, education. his biggest weakness is he doesn't want to invest in

infrastructure or transform our energy system. bottom line, this guy is as clear as i can see a candidate of the rich and large corporations, and i think if the democrats go after him effectively, he's got no legs to stand on. >> it is just the extension of the bush years as i see it, senator. there's an associated press report out that shows that top ceo pay in this country is equal to 3,489 years of pay for a typical worker in this country. how can republicans go around denying the existence of income inequality in this country? just those numbers alone tell the story. what are your thoughts on that? >> i think as a nation we have got to focus on this issue. let me give you one fact. the latest statistic we have from 2010 showed that 93% of all

new income created during that year went to the top 1%. the whole economy, all of the economic growth is going to make the richest people richer while ordinary people are working longer hours for lower wages. that is the kind of economic mentality that a mitt romney has. obama was quite right in saying that we have to make sure when economic growth occurs the middle class benefits, working people benefit and not just the wealthiest people in america. >> senator, i don't want to take you off topic or blind side you here, but you're one of the revered voices of liberals in this country, and there's been a lot of discussion starting to heat up in what's going on in wisconsin with the recall with relationship to citizens united. you've seen the governor defending himself with outside money. he's out spent his opponent 25

to 1. i want your thoughts and i think the audience wants your thoughts on what's unfolding in wisconsin. we heard a lot of republicans coming in defending scott walker saying this has big ramifications beyond the vote on june 5th. what are your thoughts on what's unfolding in wisconsin, and what does it mean? >> well, two thoughts. i hope that tom barrett wins. i hope we can show the entire country that right wing extremism as practiced by governor walker is not going to work. the other thing that you just indicated that we are seeing is with citizens united billionaires and corporations can pump as much money as they want into the political process. we're seeing it in wisconsin. we're seeing it in the presidential election. we're seeing it all over this country. i just saw an article the other day where the bankers association is saying we are prepared. you want to oppose us, you want

to have protect consumers, we're prepared to spend a half a million, a million dollars on your opponent. what you're seeing right now is big money exercising their power in way we have never seen in many, many, many decades. >> senator bernie sanders, always great to have you with us. appreciate what you do. thanks so much. remember to answer tonight's question. share your thoughts on twitter. trump embraces birtherism and romney embraces trump. that's a big problem for the republican candidate. how much will mitt romney's car elevator cost? our panel will take a guess at that. lots more come can go up. stay with us. we're right back.

coming up, does mitt romney

need to denounce his birther surrogate? donald trump is becoming a big problem. that's next. republicans are trying to win the presidential election before a vote is cast. we'll have a report on the latest voter suppression in ohio. with a possible dead heat in wisconsin, could president obama put democrats over the top? my commentary on why the president needs to get involved, coming up. share your thought on twitter. we're coming right back. stay with us. everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment.

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don't believe it. >> i'd like to see obama's. >> welcome back to "the ed show." they can joke about donald trump's embrace of birtherism but it's a problem for mitt romney. here is the invitation to dine with mitt and donald. trump, romney and newt gingrich will hold a fund-raiser in las vegas next week at the trump towers. today trump fired up the crazy talk about about president obama. a literary agent mistakenly written that president obama was born in kenya and trump went nuts over this. that's the way life works. he didn't know he was running for president so he told the truth. a literary agent wrote done what he said. he said he was born in kenya. now they are saying it was a mistake. well, of course, trump is flat out wrong but he wants to stroke all this insanity one more time.

here is what romney advisor said today. >> i can't speak for donald trump, but i can tell you that mitt romney excep mitt romney accepts that president obama was born in the united states. he doesn't view his place of birth as an issue in this campaign. >> it's not enough. this is the man that mitt romney is embracing. >> they make these birthers into the worst it is. why didn't he show his birth certifica certificate? >> why? >> there's something on there that he doesn't like. >> you have to be born in the country. there's no birth certificate. there's only a certificate of live birth. >> how come there are no records that his mother was ever in the hospital? he's got a scertificate of live birth. that's not a birth certificate. he's got a grandmother in kenya who said he was born in kenya at the hospital. either he wasn't born in the

country or he doesn't have a birth certificate or there's something on the birth certificate that he doesn't want people to see. >> what do you think that would be? >> i don't know. >> maybe it says he's muslim. >> you don't have a doctor or nurse. he's the president of the united states and no doctor, no nurse, nobody's come forward saying i delivered that beautiful baby. >> first of all, i haven't seen it. i'm looking at that. i'll look at it later. i don't need to look at your copy. >> let's turn to host of new york city inside city hall and james peterson with us tonight. gentlemen, let's have a discussion about this. we know this dog and pony show about a birth certificate has been going on since the day barack obama was sworn in and people like donald trump won't let it go. it's well-documented the

president is a american citizen. it was settled a long time ago. romney won't distance himself from it. what should romney do? >> i almost have a little sympathy for romney. he's trying to raise money and reach people. he's trying to do what candidates are supposed too. here you have this guy who is just addicted to these kind of side show antics. it's pure show biz. donald trump is a smart guy. he likes to see people spin around and to be the cause of it. he's just stealing the spotlight from his candidate. i don't know if he knows how much damage he is doing to a guy that wants to be president. >> james peterson what about the candidate? has romney done enough? >> i have no sympathy for romney here. he got to make it clear he doesn't ride with this basis

elements of republican party. it's all well and good for donald trump to run the side show because that what he does. that's how he stays in the news. a presidential candidate has to conduct himself much differently and romney has to rise above this if he wants the aspire to be the president of the country. >> here is another romney advisor speaking today. >> governor romney had made clear that he disagrees with comments like that. he's made it clear every single time it's become a topic of conversation. >> he makes it very clear. is that sufficient? he doesn't make it clear because romney turns around and goes and raises money with donald trump. what about that? >> that's right. if nothing clear he's got to make clear the campaign is his message on the topics that he and his campaign have determined will tbe the story of the day, the week. if he can't do that that does

call into question issues of leadership and not just campaign discipline but the ability to lead the country. if he can't lead his own campaign and keep a couple of crazy backers in line, it does raise the question of what will he do if he has real responsibility in the oval office. >> he's right. erro will is right. this is the time to move to capture the independent voters. he can be the do that following behind donald trump >> here is what obama's national campaign secretary. >> if i can put the president's birth certificate on my forehead and mr. trump wouldn't accept he was born here. it raises a question as to whether romney will embrace the extreme voices in his party or stand up to them. >> dr. peterson, this cost romney votes and the campaign knows it. >> yes. >> is romney smart enough to put a stop to it? >> no, he's not.

he's not going to stand up because he hasn't done so up to this point. i don't think he has the hard core conservative to convince them he's one of them any way. he hasn't shown any indication he will stand up. >> it's not just mitt romney. the gop leadership handles this with a wink and a nod. i think it's disgraceful. it shows how far romney will go. i gist don't think he's really man of character. he ought to tell his surrogates not to mislead people in the country. will this birther nonsense be taking place if we had a white president? >> that's hard to say. a question with john mccain was brought up four years ago. he was born in panama. there are people that never

accepted the outcome of the election. they don't like the philosophy. they don't understand where obama came from. this is sort of a short hand way of saying, i just can't accept what happened in 2008 that most of the people in this country wanted barack obama to be president. >> dr. peterson, would we be putting up with this if it was a white president? >> absolutely not. we put that issue to bed with john mccain. there's just some folk who is cannot accept the fact that we have a black president. that's really outside the realm of politics. they will keep the kind of birther otherism stories alive for the entire time that president obama is occupying this office. >> otherism, a new word. there's no doubt about that. that's what it's all about. great to have you on the program. thanks so much. we all know that ohio helped george w. bush win the 2004 election. will it put mitt romney over the top in 2012?

we'll take a look at the republican efforts to suppression voting. it's pretty amazing. president obama is nowhere to be seen in wisconsin in the recall battle. tonight, i'm urging the president to take a stand. stay tuned. ♪ [ man ] when i went to get my first new car, my dad said to get a subaru because they last. ♪ he drives a legacy, but i'm nothing like him.

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welcome back. florida helped put george w. bush over the top in the 2004

election. last night we told you about the effort under way to sunshine state to purge democratics from the polls. now republicans in that state want to punish voters for the mistakes poll workers make. republicans are seeking to overturn a 2010 consent decree issued by a federal judge. it established a valid ballot cast by an eligible voter should not be thrown out in the case of poll voter may recollecking a m. republican lawmakers filed an action but the judge who issued the decree ordered the law maikers to stop challenging it. now the republican secretary of state is starting to step in.

he said he will seek to invalidate the decree. it's the latest effort by oh republicans to suppress the vote. the republican party also tried to prohibit poll workers from assisting voters. if a voter showed up at the wrong place and started asking questions, you can't help them. they are banned from answering simple voter questions about where do i go if i'm at the wrong place. the republicans don't want that question answered. it was set to be jerejected by voters in a referendum. this is a power play. how will it play out? i'm joined by attorney and co-director of the advancement project. great to have you with me. this is real power struggle. you have a federal judge and secretary of state in ohio locking horns on this. where does this stand right now and who will win this thing?

>> well, it's at a stand still for the moment. we have to put ohio in perspective. what's happening to ohio is part of the pattern that's happened across the country where states are trying to make it harder to vote for those who turned out in record numbers in 2008. black voters, latino voters, students, college students and the elderly. this is really about suppressing the vote. the idea by the right wing is that if you make it harder for those groups to vote, they won't turn out. if they don't turn out, you win. that's what this is pattern of. this is ridiculous. if you show up at the wrong polling place, the poll worker doesn't have to tell you where to go. why are we making it harder for people. the reason we're making it harder is because we don't want them to vote. that's the right wing conspiracy. >> well, i think it speaks volumes about how they feel about the elderly in this

country. the elderly come in. they may not be as secure as younger voters. they ask questions. they don't get answers. i'm amazed that the republicans would go so far to have workers, what are the workers there for? they're there to help the people to make sure that democracy works. this is not about voter fraud. don't you think this is the big message. this is not about voter fraud at all. >> this is not about voter fraud. they are not preventing fraud. they are preventing voting. we need to understand the right wing had a plan. the plan was to make it harder to vote for those who turned out in 2008. you think about it, ohio we have to put it in context. we have a fight over collective bargaining in ohio. the same people who want to take our jobs. who have taken our homes now want to take our vote so we cannot participate. they know what they are up to, and they're trying to make it

harder for partisan gain. >> do we know when the ohio supreme court is going to intervene on this or you've got the federal judge telling the secretary of state to back off. what has to be done? what can ohio residents do about this? what's the next alert? >> the great thing in ohio is there's been a lot of activity by the unions, by civic engagement groups and by the citizens. they keep pushing. we have to keep the heat on. not only in ohio but states like florida and pennsylvania where they have passed these voter p suppression laws. in florida they are trying to purge hundreds of thousands of people. we have to keep the pressure on. the bottom line is the secretary of state of ohio could do something about this. unfortunately, he wants to do the wrong thing. he doesn't want to be on the side of voter participation.

he wants to be on the side of voter suppression. >> we will contact him next week and try to have him on the program. we want him to explain what's the mission here. why are they doing this? this seems so partisan after a federal judge has made a ruling on it. we'll follow up on it. there's a lot more coming up. stay with us. in his heart he's not an american. he's just not an american. >> the birther congressman who attacked the president makes it even worse today. the john edwards trial take a crazy turn. was john edwards busted flirted with a juror. a big panel is all over it tonight. in wisconsin, the numbers keep getting better for tom barrett. could president obama put him over the top in the walker recall. my advise for the president is ahead.

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welcome back. earlier this month, republican mike kaufman told a group of right wingers that president obama is not an american. he followed that stunt with this bizarre performance. >> i think that, i stand by my statement that i misspoke and i apologize. >> who are you apologizing to? >> i stand by my statement that i spoke and i apologize. >> coffman offered another halfhearted apology posted in the denver post. now he's making the rounds on right wing radio and admits he is walking back his assertion for political reasons. >> were you just at that moment speaking what was in your heart and are you now feeling you need to walk it back for political reasons? >> to some extent that's true

because i think that when republicans are not talking about jobs and the economy, when we're not on message, i think the other side is winning. look, i think that's a horrible issue for republicans. i think that's a victory for, every day that we're talking about that is a victory for the president. >> these people will not get it right when it comes to picking on the president and going so far as to say he's not an american and walking it back and walking it back the other way again. what do we make of this? >> ed, i think this is the new southern strategy. it's using racial fear. if you listen to representative coffman's words. he didn't say obama wasn't born in the u.s. he said he's not american. he's playing upon fears of certain whites that in order to be american, you have to be

white. this is the most absurd racism. birthers have more racial prejudice, not surprising given these comments. >> mike, they're never going to dial it down, are they? >> they can't. this man's doing the same thing that mitt romney is doing. he's trying to appeal to the tea party in a way where he says, i'll one of you. it's almost like he's throwing a party and inviting the tea party, but asking him to use the service elevator or the back door. it's almost, we see mitt romney doing it. we see this man doing it. he's trying to appeal to this fringe. it's like with mitt, it's the same tactic. mitt knows he can't embrace these people. he can put his arm around them, but he can't pull them in too close. the crazy talk that comes from that fringe ailenates people.

coffman is in the same boat exactly. you can't really embrace this crazy talk. that's why he says it and backs off. >> jimmy, what the democrats do about this, just keep calling it out? >> my old boss once told me about newt gingrich. he said what do you do when train is going to hit a wall? i said i don't know. he said get out of the way and watch it. here's the deal. this guy is in the a political novice. he was secretary of state of colorado. he was the state treasurer. he was elected statewide. it's not like he hasn't done this before, and it's not like he's been in the national spotlight. the only thing i can deduce is when an idiot say idiotic things we let them keep saying and make sure we talk about it. he's right. i would say he's right. every day that he's talking about this and we're talking about this, they're not talking about the things that people

care about like the economy, jobs, lower education costs, et cetera, et cetera. i'm a big fan of this guy. i think he's fabulous. i think we should keep talking about him every single day. >> all right. this next story really, i'm surprised by it. it was day six of jury deliberations in the john edwards trial. abc news reporting that edwards is flirting with one of the alternate jurors. the alternates enter the courtroom giggling among themselves. one of the alternate, an attractive young woman has been spotted smiling at edwards and flirting, flipping her hair in what seems to be some of a fl flirtatiuos manner. with your courtroom experience, mike, what is going on here? >> well, sometimes you don't know what to make of it. i've had trials where the juror

has been throwing kissing to my opponent and at the end of the trial they pull my opponent out. it's tough to read into all this. this is an alternate juror. the chance of her having any input is slim to none. it does raise the question. i think he had enough sense to minimize it, not respond. his defense lawyers told him whatever you don't, don't respond to this. one of the reasons the defense didn't put him on the stand is they were afraid he might turn into his herfect hair character. he might turn into his presidential campaign and not do that well on the stand. the truth is people do respond to that, like that with john edwards. they did on the trial. this guy is fighting for his life and it's something that could cost him 30 years. he knows better. i don't think he responded in any meaningful way. >> one other story. median household income is just

under $52,000. the car elevator for mitt romney's california home is expected to cost $55,000. listen to this. >> reporter: this is the garage at mitt romney's home. there are big plans for it including a sophisticated car elevator called phantom park that will take his cars and lower them into a 3600 basement. clients include harrison ford and britney spears. now mitt romney wants to install one. he will build one that's 11,000 square feet. >> how do you talk to the middle class when you have digs like that? >> exactly. this is a person who has had a silver spoon in his mouth for many years. for many candidates that wouldn't translate into being tone deaf when it comes to the working class, but in his case it does.

he's talked about being happy in firing people and being a vulture capitalist. this is just the mitt romney and his silver spoon lifestyle. >> jimmy, don't you have an elevator like that? >> just kidding. >> i live in the log cabins in virginia built in 1979. i would pay for an elevator like that. it's hard getting up those stairs. >> great to have you with us on this friday. national republicans are going all in to help scott walker in wisconsin. tonight, i'm asking the president to get involved. stay tuned. we're right back. whoa. right? 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.

i asked will mitt romney get away with his cow pies of distortion? 13 said yes. 87% said no.

republicans are standing by scott walker as the recall election approaches. my commentary on why president obama needs to get involved in wisconsin. new polls show that tom barrett within striking distance of scott walker. stay tuned. we're right back. 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. and on small business saturday bothey remind a nations of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again.

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dear mr. president, the window on wisconsin is closing. there's still time but not much. what we are seeing playing out is entirely predictable. mr. president, you called it in your 2010 state of the union speech. the supreme court made a radical ruling in the citizens united case and now it's being used to subvert democracy in wisconsin. over the last several months, we've witnessed enormous sums of money. get behind an effort to distort the facts in the state of wisconsin. in recent days republicans with

national standing have flooded the state in an effort to rally voters to re-elect a leader who believe that millionaires and billionaires should be able to continue their agenda against the middle class. your campaign has correctly pointed out that the election in november will be about fairness and equality for all. it will be about giving those with huge sums of money a fair shot at making a decent living and taking care of families. those who are deprived will have a better chance. you've talked about leveling the playing field when it comes to education. you're fan of public education. you want to advocate for it. you have. look what you've done for health care and what about jobs. we've hadded four million jobs. no one can argue with that. those are numbers. wisconsin is about the very same thing. south carolina governor talking about scott walker said it best. >> if he loses this, it will take the spine out of every governor across this country.

if he wins this, we'll see more power and strength across the governors than we have seen before. >> yes, the republicans will have more power and strength to carry out their attacks. they will be em bolden. this is not just about wisconsin. how about kasich, schneider in michigan. i think democrats understand that wisconsin is just the beginning. mr. president, there's no doubt smart political observers would be wrong to question your strategy and tactics. time and time again we saw those who did in 2008 get it wrong. democrats know you're team is absolutely the best in the business. what i want you to know tonight is that the middle class americans who are under attack from millionaires and billionaires, they need you mr. president. they need to see you stand with them before june 5th. nobody is better at rallying the

troops than you. you have a gift that very few people possess. i hear if the people of wisconsin every day. they are fired up. they want it. they know this is a fight they can win. what they need right now because they see all of these commercials and all of these republicans pouring into the state, they need a final push. they need to know it's just not a campaign talking point. when there's a fight over fairness, you are going to be standing right with them and that's what this fight is all about. it's a fight that can be won. it's a fight that will have an impact across this nation. it's a fight that matters to the middle class in every corner of this country. mr. president, the people of wisconsin are calling you tonight. please, answer the call and get to the badger state before june 5th. coming up, new numbers show tom barrett within striking distance of scott walker. stay with us. t there.

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of the progressive magazine. great to have you with us. what would a visit by president obama or vice president joe biden do for presidetom barrett. >> i think it would be a big boost. i think there's no doubt it would be a big boost. i think it would be good for obama because he's going to need the voters who came out force in 2008 and stayed home in 2010. it would be really significant for the obama campaign in 2012. >> his presence would give a real psychological, have a psychological impact on the voters to the point of really motivating them. we're seeing the polls moving right now. i've never seen a situation where one candidate is so out

done yet the people are still keeping this thing close. i think the president could put bar receipt over the top. what do you think? >> i think it would be a great serve. i think it could be exciting. i think the people of wisconsin could put obama over the top and that's how the president should be looking at it. in 2008, incredible turnout that we saw in 2010, it dropped off by 800,000 voters. the president will need those people back at the polls. despite all the spending in our state, we have incredible motivation and incredibly motivated group of voters that want to come out to the polls. >> president obama is fairing well in the polls in wisconsin? >> he is up in the polls. we are a swing state. we're a closely divided state. this is a national political issue. this is where the idealogical

battle is being fought. we see our governor as a right wing rock star traveling the country. i think it's really clear that this is it. this is the battle of this year. >> ruth, how important is tonight's debate and there's going to be one more debate. it seems that tom barrett wants to focus on the e-mails that are not being released and the lying commercials about jobs. it's going to get a lot of coverage. how is this going to play out? how important is it? >> i think it's very important. walker has agreed to only two debates. he's agreed to come back to wisconsin and talk to his opponents. most ll lly he fund raises aroue rest of the country. as you point out, this criminal

investigation of walker has been very significant. there are ads on the air for the first time this week talking about this and voter awareness of this issue has increased. that's going to be very significant tonight. >> ruth, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. that's the "the ed show." "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evening. this has been a tough hour for me. i've been breaking out in sweats and i'm running a fever. it's called wall eye fever and the only thing that cures it is 200 fish on memorial weekend. >> we need to rush you to the lake. stat. get ed to the lake. >> have a great weekend. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. the friday before memorial day weekend there's not supposed to be a lot of news going on, but this election season and this news cycle in particular have not been following the usual conventions. tonight we have to up with rather serious