welcome to "weekends with alex witt." i'm craig melvin. alex is off today. here's what's happening right now, a big developing story in parts of the east coast this hour. tropical storm watches and warnings in at least three states. subtropical storm barrow could wash away memorial day weekend the very latest. good morning. >> craig, good morning to you. we have subtropical beryl. tropical or subtropical, we are still getting the same effects. now this is actually going to move westbound as we head over time. so into the weekend, we are going to see that rain coming in to florida, georgia, also into south carolina, but this is exactly where we need it. this section of the u.s. has the worst drought for the entire country. so the rain is going to come in.

as you can see over the next 48 hours, it doesn't like it will be too bad. heading into the saturday forecast for the rest of the country, showers and storms through the northern tier. some could be severe throughout portions of the plains and midwest. sunday, it is going to be hot. we could see records falling, especially through the midwest. otherwise, another chance of those thunderstorms from minnesota down into portions of kansas. and then on our memorial day, that system is moving eastbound. and we will see the rain anywhere from the great lakes down into the gulf coast and the southeast. also we could see a few showers into the northeast. craig, back to you. steph nye abrams, thank you. despite the weather, we have heavy traffic this weekend. aaa predicts half a million more than travelers than last year. nearly 35 million will travel by car or plane or train, but most will drive. and good news for those drivers as cheaper gas is around the country. the average is $3.67 a gallon, 12 cents cheaper than last year.

also, a report on social sentiment finds chatter about memorial day travel increased 46% this year over last year. new reports this morning say an alternate juror in the john edwards trial has been flirting with him in the courtroom. the associated press reports the young woman frequently smiles at edwards, he smiles back. the juror also nodded in agreement during the defense's closing arguments. it goes on to say all four alternate jurors and two others from the jury wore bright red shirts yesterday. a separate report says edwards wore a red tie that same die. it is all quite bizarre. at the bottom of the hour we'll talk to someone in the courtroom who witnessed all those strange happenings for himself. right now the man accused in the 1979 killing of 6-year-old etan patz is in a new york hospital at bellevue. 51-year-old ped drove hernandez was admitted after making

comments about wanting to kill himself. friday he appeared via video at his arraignment on a murder charge. he did not enter a plea. hernandez' attorney says his client is mentally ill. etan patz disappeared 33 years ago yesterday while walking to his school bus in the soho neighborhood of manhattan. the first child to have his picture on the milk carton in this country. hernandez was arrested on thursday after telling police he strangled the boy. the front page politics now, this morning president obama is honoring our fallen heroes. >> on memorial day, we come together as americans to let these families and veterans know they are not alone. we give thanks for those who sacrificed everything so that we could be free and we commit ourselves to upholding the ideals for which so many patriots have fought and died. >> also today vice president biden is headed to west point to deliver the commencement address

at the military academy later this morning. the vice president shared a very personal story with military families who lost loved ones friday. he met with them in arlington, virginia, and he talked to them about his own struggle after losing his wife and baby daughter in a car accident back in 1972. >> it can and will get better. there will come a day, i promise you, and you parents as well, when the thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. it will happen. my prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later. but the only thing i have more experience than you in is this, i'm telling you, it will come. >> the vice president also made that speech before the 18th annual t.a.p.s. national military survivor.

and he also made mention of his second wife jill he married in 1977. joining me more front page politics, david mcnamara, and rachel smoke, appreciate you both getting up so early on a saturday morning. >> hi, craig. >> good morning to you. >> let me start with the nbc poll here. this is president obama and mitt romney head-to-head. this is president obama leading in florida, virginia by an identical margin 44% in ohio, the president's lead there small, how is the white house reading this, good news or great news? >> any poll showing the president leading in the swing states is good news for the white house, but at the same time what you're seeing with this particular poll is also that mitt romney has been closing the gap, i think. a few months ago the president was leading by bigger margins. what that means is mitt romney is successful in consolidating

support among the base since the primary has ended. and i think when it all comes down to it, the white house sees it as a dead heat. we are still fairly early but a lot of people are not completely focusing in on this. the way the white house looks at these things is it could be good news, but we have a long campaign and things will change. let's not get too excited. >> david, can mitt romney pick up 270 votes to become president of the united states without winning one of the aforementioned states? >> i think it is really important for him to win states like florida. and, you know, you see the president putting a lot of time and groundwork into some of the states because each one he can pick off is going to be important, but it is true for both of them. these are very important states for romney and his campaign is very focused. >> rachel, one of the headlines on politico over the past few days, one of the more popular headlines, obama stumbles out of the debate, referring to the pet

relaunching his campaign. there have been a couple mistakes where you look at the cory booker thing last weekend, you look at vice president joe biden getting ahead of the president on same sex marriage. there have been a number of uncharacteristic mistakes to a certain tengts as well. stumbling out of the debate, is that a fair assessment? >> these are the early days of the campaign, i think it is fair to characterize them as a few unfair weeks. we saw joe biden getting ahead of the president and then president obama had to catch one the vice president and address an issue he had not planned to address at this time. his campaign says he was going to get there but maybe a few weeks before the democratic national convention. so we saw that. he's ahead in the poll. we just talked about that, but the gap is quickly narrowing. once the primary ended and the negative energy around mitt romney ended and the republican party is around him. we have seen that tightening heading into the general election season. and there's a money race that's very tricky. we have a very well-financed

republican money machine, so we have that going on. the president has also said there's criticism for the attacks on mitt romney in vain, while romney runs a disciplined message in a campaign over the last few weeks. >> i was struck a couple weeks ago that the president was in iowa, sleeves rolled up, very aggressive in may. he seems to be quite aggressive for it to be as early as it is in the campaign season, or am i reading too much into that, rachel? >> i have been surprised how aive president obama has been early on. the remarks you are referring to, president obama talking about mitt romney's characterization of his fiscal record as a cow pie of distortion. these are pretty tough words the president is using. we saw him come out hard against romney during the bain attacks in chicago earlier in the week. certainly the campaign does not

want to give romney or rom northeast' allies any opening to come after the president with unanswered attacks. they want the president to be aggressive and out there to finding both his own record and mitt romney's record. >> david, your colleague, ez rae klein, wrote an interesting piece about the one topic that neither president obama nor mitt romney seems to want to talk about a great deal, his days as governor of massachusetts. why is that? >> well, i think for both camps, it is the same issue because governor romney governed from the center. you have seen from the obama campaign lately they are really trying to tie mitt romney to the conservative elements that may turn off independent voters. the paul ryan budget, they are sticking romney with these ideas. romney wants to consolidate his base, so he's weary of talking about things he did in massachusetts like his health care plan that's very similar to the president's. so they both agree on one thing, and that's this. that we are staying away from

that to talk about bain, the economy and that's the key issue. >> at least for now. >> exactly. >> there's another poll i want to call your attention to, a new washington post/abc poll showing mitt romney leading president obama specifically among white middle-class voters who are struggling financially. not just leading the president here, but leading the president by a significant margin. is this -- is this a statistic that's striking to you? or is this about what you would expect considering the two candidates we have in the race? >> when you look four years ago, president obama lost the same demographic by a wide margin. this is even a wider margin that causes concern at the white house. you have seen them sort of focus on different group that is might be able to make up the gaps. the strong women voter base and gay voters as well. they have also sent vice president biden, who has always been thought to appeal this group of voters, white males in rust-belt states and things like

that, you have seen vice president biden in ohio and other swing states and he'll continue to be out there. >> rachel, why is that, the man over the message in terms of mitt romney? why does it seem like the president has trouble appealing to that type of voter? >> well, again, that's always been a tricky demographic for the president. and we have seen consistently in polls that mitt romney is doing well on handling the economy whereas president obama who has come in and inherited this mess and trying to turn it around is struggling with that and he has a lot out of his control. so that's a voter that the president's team really wants to step up his appeal to. it's challenging. and unlike the last campaign, we are really seeing him reach out hard toward the base, really going after women and minorities. of course, he wanted all the votes the last time around, but he has to solidify his support in the areas, really making sure he's coming in as strong as he can among hispanics, blacks and women. so they are using joe biden to

reach out to middle-class workers. he's had a couple rough weeks of being a little off message. as the president said, getting out over his skis a bit, but we also saw a very poignant moment that you showed earlier when he talked about his own dark days when he talked to the military families. >> rachel smoke, thank you so much. david macnara, always a pleasure. enjoy your memorial day weekend. >> thank you, you too. showdown in wisconsin. the republican governor fighting to hold on to his off. scott walker faced off against his opponent at a debate last night. the governor faces a special election june 5th because democrats in wisconsin and labor unions are upset he pushed a law through the state legislature stripping public sector labor unions of their power. his challenge in tom barrett went after him on that issue. >> we are really here because governor walker made a decision. he made a decision that he would

try to divide this state. scott walker started this political civil war. i will end this civil war. >> if you look at all the bills i signed into law this session, over 96% of them were bills that both democrats and republicans voted for. we can build off of that. but you don't do that if you replay the top battle we have had the last year and a half. the mayor and i talked about this throughout the primary, he wants to go back and completely restore collective bargaining. >> if he loses, scott walker would be the third governor in u.s. history to be recalled. >> are democrats poised to retake congress? what a new poll suggests about that. we'll take a look at that. also, is it a coin flip for the presidency? a route map shows you where we go. but not how we get there.

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a potentially alarming discovery but nuclear inspectors in iran. the united nations weapons inspectors found traces of radioactivity and underground bunker in iran that could mean that iran has moved closer to reaching the uranium threshhold, meaning to arm nuclear missiles. that follows more talks with iran this week that made little progress. joining me now is forming u.s. ambassador mark ginsburg. good morning to you. thank you so much for being here. let's start with the on question. do you think that iran at this point is even closer now to producing the nuclear weapon than they were a year ago? >> absolutely. the fact that they have been enriching uranium in exsays of 20%, which is the threshold you need to go to 90%, that's the

speed train that takes you there. it is clear that the international atomic energy agency is determined that they have exceeded that threshold. that's the reason why the talks have failed. because the iranians refuse to turn over the uranium that they have enriched beyond 20%. >> at the talks in baghdad, they agreed to more talks next month in moscow and with iran. do we expect anything to come from the talks or is this an exercise in futility? >> there are two trains of thought. the foreign policy experts in washington think the iranians always negotiate until the last possible second, last possible moment when they have to cave in. and then there's the other train of thought, which says all of this is nothing more than a decoy in negotiation while the iranians continue to enrich uranium and test detonation devices for a nuclear weapon. no one knows for sure. no one will really know, but the fact that the iranians permitted the talks to fail should be the best evidence that they are not prepared to make the concessions

necessary to the p5 plus 1 countries. >> what effect are the sanctions having on iran, and more specifically the iranian people? >> there's no doubt that the obama administration's economic sanctions have been extraordinarily innovative and effective. sanctions, however, are as good as change in behavior. the sanctions clearly have a huge impact on the civilian population of iran. and on july 1st the european iran oil import restrictions are supposed to take effect. that will really turn the screws further on iran. >> let's go back to the negotiations for a moment. because you mentioned that, for the most part, it is all a farce. and that perhaps the iranians are using this as a stalling tactic. is there any chance that the united states knew going in that this is what it was going to be and perhaps it could be used as justification for future attacks? >> look, the israelis and the americans have been coordinating

their diplomatic approach here quite quiteryquite risidulously. part of the reason the united states did this is to convince the world that they are going to help iran step back from the nuclear threshold. the united states has done that. it is not that in the iranians are totally isolated, but they are largely isolated in the world of court public opinion because of this policy, which did not succeed, so let's not give the president too much credit here, but the fact that the engagement process went underway was enough to convince the world public opinion. >> if you were a betting man, how does this play out? >> i believe the iranians ultimately blink because they do not want a united states attack on their country. >> ambassador mark ginsburg, thank you for your time. >> great to be with you. >> have a great memorial day weekend, sir. more on the abrupt halt to

the deliberations in the john edwards trial, but what's really getting attention is an alleged ongoing flirtation between one of the jurors and the defendant. let's ring you up. mary? what are you doing here? it's megan. i'm getting new insurance. marjorie, you've had a policy with us for three years. it's been five years. five years. well, progressive gives megan discounts that you guys didn't. paperless, safe driver, and i get great service. meredith, what's shakin', bacon? they'll figure it out. getting you the discounts you deserve. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

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♪ this is the next chapter for the rx and the next chapter for lexus. see your lexus dealer. ♪ all right. now to our three big money headlines on this saturday. gas up. housing rei'll have. and banking boost. regina louis is joining me now to make sense of it all. good saturday to you, regina. >> hi, craig. >>there's good news on gas prices. the good news could be better, i understand. what can we expect at the pump

this the moral day weekend? >> it could. right now the average price is $3.66. down 26 cents from april. the psychology of being south of $4 is really helpful. particularly on a big driving weekend. and it seems that we have less sticker shock as long as we don't see a four in the first-digit column. people are getting creative using grocery store promotions and using cash back reward credit cards. they have a gas strategy. having said that, aaa is reporting what we are doing. we are taking shorter trips, so the average trip this weekend is about 50 miles compared to previous years when it was 150 miles. >> i guess it is all, of course, relative. but i'm always just amazed when we celebrate $3.60 because we remember the days where, you know, it was a lot, lot lower than that. >> but that's the most striking part, the fact that we are now used to it. >> exactly. let's talk about home sales. i understand this past week

there was a rise in new home sales. does that mean we are maybe witnessing the start of a housing revival in america? >> hey, we'll take anything on the upside. here's how new home sales breakdown. the pace was 3.3%. here's where relativity comes in. we are adding 40,000 new homes on an annual basis compared to in the height of the housing boom in 2005 when that number was 1.3 million. so still way, way off, but directionally good news. new homes only account for about 20% of the overall housing market, so it's important to look at existing home sales as well. but they were also up. in fact, a two-year high in april. and the psychology of that is a big deal. even if you are not selling and if you drive by your neighborhood and somebody in your cul-de-sac just sold their home quickly, there's comfort in that. you feel that your home has more value, even if it may not, just

as you said, it's a good thing to see sold on all the real estate signs. so i think the combination of that data could show a revival. >> bank earnings hit a five-year high, but soon problems still remain. what's going on there? >> bank earnings is tricky to read because you're talking of tens of billions of dollars. this has a lot to do with the backside of the 2008 issues. banks had to put less money aside to curve against faulty loans. so that changes their balance sheet. what you really want to look at are loan balances for credit cards or mortgages. those are not up yet, which tracks back to people not having the confidence to spend. so until loan balances, until the balances were willing for consumers to carry go up, that would be a better read than just straight earnings. >> thank you so much. always appreciate you. have a fantastic weekend. >> thank you, craig. in this morning's one-minute playbook, newt gingrich and his love of animals. you might recall that gingrich

spent part of his presidential campaign visiting america's zoos. even got bit by a penguin at one point. gingrich on "hardball" thursday explaining to kris matthews what's behind his infactuation with animals. >> i love the natural world, i love animals whether they are out in the wild, i love animals in zoos. >> why do you like the reptile house? most people are afraid to go in there. >> because they are staunchly successful. they do it in a totally different way than we do, and they have been successful for a long time. >> favorite snake. >> probably a python. >> why? >> big and passive. >> constrictor. you like the constrictor aspect of it. you like that eats cow's hole. >> they don't eat cow's hole. instantly.

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt."

alex is off today. onedwards trial is in recess until tuesday, but it is bizarre courtroom behavior topping the news from the trial. a juror has been flirting with the defendant. and that john edwards has been responding. joining me live on the phone is "washington post "write, i understand that you were in the courtroom yesterday. what did you see and what are people saying? >> i sure was, craig. and i have to tell you, i have never seen anything like this. the lawyers that i talked to have never seen anything like this. you have four alternate jurors, all coming in, giggling almost every day, and one day they are all dressed in red. the day before they are all dressed in yellow. it's just a mind-blower. >> do you think it is anything more than a coincidence, perhaps? i know that sounds ridiculous of

four people wearing the same color, but any chance it was a coincidence? >> it seems unlikely to most of us watching what's going on. those four jurors who are at the courthouse every day, you can imagine, i mean, this deliberation has gone on now for six days. they are at the courthouse, but they are not involved in the deliberations with the main juror or jury. so there's an assumption that they are just bored out of their minds. >> they are just filling time. >> yeah, they are stuck there. you can imagine, we are all stuck there, too. but at least we are on the job. they are there in this sort of strange middle ground in which they are supposed to be on call in case one of the jurors has to be removed or got sick or couldn't continue with deliberations, but what are they

going to do to occupy themselves? they seem to have come up with the idea to do the silly thing, which is to dress the same every day. >> what have you observed between this one woman we have heard about, her interactions specifically with john edwards and what's been his response? >> well -- she has long black hairment she's a valuable person. she is not someone who is just sitting there quietly and expressionless. and a lot of people who have been watching her closely, and you can imagine in the last couple of days they have been watching her really, really closely, have drawn the conclusion that she acted in a sort of flirtatious manner toward john edwards. the alternate jurors sit on the same side of the courtroom as the defense. and so they are very close to

john edwards. and, you know, she flips her hair, she smiles, she makes eye contact, it seems as if she's trying to make a connection with him, but it may be that she's just a friendly gal. >> manuel roig-franzia, thank you so much from "the washington post"." perhaps we'll get a verdict before this gets any stranger. thank you for your time, sir. >> my pleasure. we'll be back tuesday. let's get to facebook now. new reports on who lost out on the facebook ipo and why it is really becoming a case of the haves and have-nots. controversy over who was told key information before the facebook fiasco. joining me now is brian shankman. thank you for stopping by on a saturday morning. >> thank you for having me. >> for those folks not following this as close as you and i,

what's happened here? >> a lot. we can talk for a half hour about it, but basically when they went public a week ago friday, it was delayed a half hour. when it finally opened it was a huge onslaught of trades that consider canceled and some people didn't find out for a whole day. on the trading side, the nasdaq, there were so many glitches. literally, i put in an order for 200 shares. i found out a day later i got the shares. the shareholder was upset there. then there's morgan stanley, the lead underwriter, that found out as they were raising the price and opening more shares to you and me in the public, they were telling some customers that facebook opportunity have the earnings power moving forward that some might have thought. they may have been restating what facebook said in the icc filing, so it may not be illegal, but with so many people skeptical on wall street, it doesn't look good. >> how uncommon is that? how uncommon for the investment

house like merrill lynch to say one big group of investors gets a set of information and then the mom and pop got a separate set of information. terribly uncommon? >> not uncommon but a lot of time on regular research. they put out the research note and it is our job to give it to the public. in this case, they probably have the conversations. it is not totally uncommon, but it is not something that's illegal according to the letter of the law. any common investor with look at the sec filing and get the same information. it is not like they are giving inside information if it's the way the story is being told, but this really does not seem fair. let's face it, there's 99% versus 1% in cultural in the conversation in the world that it is an inside job. >> i said meryl lynch and i meant morgan stanley, i apologize for that.

>> there could be a legal issue hire. i look at mark zuckerberg as a cultural icon. maybe he wants to be like steve jobs, but he's 28 and young and wants to be a programmer, that's great. but he's the ceo of a company that thousands of people have billions of dollars invested in. and maybe he needs to reassure his base. the thing i've been telling people is that just because facebook is a great company and a great business maybe doesn't mean it is a great stock. you can still invest in a stock no matter what they say and it can go down and you can lose money. it is not anyone's responsibility to cover your losses when you invest. >> thank you for stopping by, brooing brian shankman. more americans have negative views of bain capital than positive, but several people don't know much about this. romney's ties to bain have come

under attack lately. it's a tactic that some democrats are divided over, but the president has shown no signs of letting up. iran blake has been covering the president's campaign for "the washington post." goodni majority of the people unaware of the bain capital. evil if you listen to the president, good if you listen to candidate romney? >> we are at the stage in the campaign right now when the two sides are setting the parameters for the debate that we have going forward. and i think that the nbc poll is a great example of that because it shows that not only are most people not familiar with bain capital, only 28% know enough about it to say whether they like it or whether they don't like it. so what we are doing right now is kind of having the insider dialogue of is bain capital a

good or bad thing. once people in that insider world have kind of decided what's good and what's bad about ba ix n, then we can bring that to the masses and start paying attention really more in september and october. >> i want to talk quickly about the perspective of average folks. when you start asking about finance and you start asking about wall street, getting away from the money and power centers in new york and washington, where does wall street sentiment stand around the country right now? >> well, i think if you want to look at that, all you have to do is look at the 2010 election. the wall street bailout was very unpopular when it came to house and senate races in 2010. if you looked at a member of congress who voted for the legislation versus against it, it was almost night and day as far as who survived and who didn't. so i think that the obama campaign looked at that and said, hey, wall street is extremely unpopular. mitt romney worked on wall street and was very much a part of kind of the culture of making

money. and i think that they saw that as a silver bullet, almost. it hasn't exactly turned out that way, but it is still very much a valid issue and wall street really is not a popular thing to this day in america. >> bain defended its work in a letter to investors saying, in part, 80% of the companies in which it has invested saw revenues grow. this is a letter bain capital sent. 80% of the companies saw revenues grow, is that necessarily good for employees? you can grow revenues by cutting jobs and expenditures being cut, right? >> right. some of the companies didn't work out and mitt romney and his colleagues still made money. i think though that we shouldn't forget that this is wall street. people may not like it, it may not be warm and fuzzy, but the name of the game on wall street is making money. and, you know, obviously it helps in bain's investment that is the companies are success.

. they will wind up making more money that way, but there were cases when the companies didn't make money and the companies folded. but i think one thing that we have to remember here is that a lot of these companies were headed downhill to begin with. i think that's something we'll start seeing in mitt romney's campaign talk more about. >> aaron, thank you so much. new information on whether the raciest and most controversial book of the year is going to continue to be available at your local library. ♪

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america's guilty pleasure is getting a little messy today, perhaps. the best selling "fifty shades" book series has been banned in three states, but now one county library has decided to reverse its decision. brevard county, florida, will offer the books as early as next week. earlier this week the brevard county spokesman explained why the books were banned saying, quote, it's not what we deem as appropriate material for our book shelves." the county commissioner chuck nelson now says, quote, i never want to be in a position where we appear to be censoring or banning books. tamron is joining us live. for the 12 people out there not familiar with "fifty shades," what's all the hype about? >> well, this is an old fashioned romance between a naive college graduate and a multi millionaire entrepreneur

in seattle. think bill gates meets david beckham. and the relationship hinges on wild sex, bondage and domination. >> oh, my. oh! >> yes. >> all three of those things. are or where are the books currently banned? >> in brevard county, florida, they bought 19 copies of the book, put the book on the shelves, the book flew off the shelves and they promptly took the book back. and there were 200 people on the waiting list. and they decided after reading some reviews that the book was pornographic and didn't meet community standards. >> you mixed the waiting list. i want to put this up for folks at home to get an idea what the waiting lists are like around the country. sacramento, california, 600 people on the waiting list.

new york city, just over 4,000. the demand was so great that baa brevard and other county libraries had to change their minds? >> brevard did not like the reviews they got. they did not like the pornographic nature of the book. >> have you read the books? >> i have read the book. it's a trilogy. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers. you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word.

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. >> the numbers are out and the

latest nbc news polls show that obama and mitt romney are essentially neck and neck. a closer read of that poll gives us the early line of what voters will be thinking about come november. joining me, frank yang, partner at the yang-hart research group. let's start with the president's approval rating. 48%. historically, where does he need to get that number to lock in reelection? >> you know, i think historically, if a president is over 50%, he's in pretty good shape for reelection. so, you know, five months to go in the campaign, the president -- it's going to be a tough race, but i think the president has the upper edge right now. >> one of the things that struck us about this poll, the early reads on the congressional race, specifically. let's switch to those. the poll shows preference pretty

much split across the board when it comes to who someone might vote for congress. >> you know, i think so. i think one of the unknown variables is every ten years, all the congressional districts are redrawn because of the census. i think both parties are making what that is. that may artificially inflate one side or the other. i think in general, in terms of public opinion, this is a 50/50 election for congress. i think there's a good chance on paper democrats could take back the majority because of the unhappiness with republican congress. >> let's break down -- i'm always fascinated to see how people identify themselves in this country. what did the poll find in terms of what people say they are. >> well, you know, the latest nbc news wall street journal poll had about 35% of americans

identifying as democrat, about 35% as republican, which is roughly in line with past elections and then about a quarter of the electorate. >> do the poll numbers show where the 45% who are independent are leaning? >> right now, they are leaning towards mitt romney. independents are very concerned about the economy, as other voters are. they're shifting back and forth between the candidates. right now, governor romney has a slight edge. but, again, with all polls and all elections, this is a very close and competitive race. and i think the one thing -- i know i've said this before, there are still, you know, as of next week, five months left in this election. you know, five months ago, newt gingrich was going to be the republican nominee. there's a long way to go. >> one of the things that we all found particularly interest sg, well, the president's numbers on

foreign policy always generate pretty good. might not help him out at all come november, though. >> well, i think that, look, this election, fundamentally, will be about the economy and the direction of the economy. all the poll numbers show that's where the president has the biggest sell to make. that is clear. that's one of governor romney's alleged strengths is being a businessman. so no doubt about it, the economy is important. but i think one of the other responsibleties as president is commander in chief. and i think it's a strength for the president heading to november that some of the biggest successes have been keeping this country safe. >> fred yang from the hart-yang research group. be sure to join me at 12:00. i will be back for the noon edition of weekends with alex

wit. stragd ahead, it's "up with chris hayes." all of that and lots more straight ahead here on msnbc. [ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, what's next? [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. the next level of innovation. the next rx. the all-new f sport. this is the pursuit of perfection. wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ] then lead a double life! with new blast flipstick from covergirl.

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of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks.

more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. good morning from new york. i'm chris hayes. tropical storm warnings are in effect for much of the southeast u.s. from florida to south carolina with tropical storm expected to form over the memorial day weekend. and the first round of presidential elections is over facing a run off. right now, i am joined by dana goldstein, my colleague at the nation's magazine where she's a contributor and the fellow at the new american foundation,