this 3-d cloud picture. the deeper clouds are the ones that have the rain. we're not getting any rain from the coast today. the impact we'll see along the coast is a rip current risk. it's high from the outer banks southward into the northern florida beaches with a moderate risk below that. that's a concern. and that concern will remain again tomorrow. as we track this thing, it is going to potentially strengthen to a 50-mile-per-hour subtropical storm. the rip current risk and the rain coming into this area, those will be the concerns as we watch this make more of a direct impact tomorrow evening into tomorrow night. that's the timing of that. in the meantime, we have this big ridge of high pressure dominating the story for this holiday weekend. record highs falling across the mississippi valley and into the ohio valley. and storms will fire tomorrow. that's a concern across the central plains from kansas up towards minnesota. we'll be tracking this area for

the chance of isolated tornadoes tomorrow. craig, back to you. >> jennifer, thank you so much. for more on the storm and the weather where you are, all you have to do is head to the weather channel's website, weather.com. jurors in the john edwards trial are in recess until tuesday. but it's their strange behavior, even apparent courtroom flirtation that's topping the news from the trial. there's a new report out that says an alternate juror have been flirting with edwards himself and that the defendant has been responding. joining me live, "washington post" writer who was in the courtroom all last week. manuel, we talked a few hours ago. all this is quite bizarre. first of all, for folks who haven't been following the story, what is it that's come out of the courtroom over the past day? >> this is all just so weird. i've never seen anything like it. lawyers i've talked to in north carolina, never seen anything like this.

all four alternate jurors are dressed in the same color, yellow tops. we come back friday, they're all dressed in red. clearly, something going on. >> do we know at this point what might have been going on? any chance that it was a coincidence? >> well, here's the situation. they're alternate jurors, right? that means that they're not involved in the deliberations. >> they're bored. >> they're bored to tears. they have to be. they're stuck in a different room. they don't get to talk to the main jury. but they have to be there hour after hour after hour. they must be talking with each other about something and clearly, although we can't hear it directly from them, the supposition is they have to be talking about what they're going to be wearing tomorrow. >> what about this woman who is apparently flirting with edwards. >> yeah, she's interesting. once you lay your eyes on her, you can't turn away because she

just has a very expressive face. she's a pretty woman, young, in her 20s, dark hair. and she has just a way of smiling and looking at edwards and flipping her hair. everyone who watches her is drawing the same conclusion, that she is being flirtatious. and then -- this was really wild. on friday, she came in with a red top that had a strap on one side and her right shoulder -- mind you, she sits so that her right shoulder is facing directly at john edwards -- that shoulder is bare, just a one-strap top. so i don't know. >> was edwards responding? what was his response to all of this? >> i personally have not seen him respond to that. but other reporters in the courtroom have had a different angle on john edwards, have said that he has smiled back. have suggested that he's interacting with her in some way. that wouldn't be unusual. john edwards knows his way around a courtroom.

he made a fortune as a lawyer in the courts in north carolina. and it wouldn't be a surprise if he was trying to make eye contact with somebody who potentially could be standing in judgment of him. >> all of this surveying as a bit of a side show to what has become quite the deliberation here, six days, 34 hours. there are very few people who thought the deliberations would take this long. eight men, four women. they won't come back until tuesday. at this point, any indication when we might see a verdict down there in north carolina? >> hey, you're guess is as good as mine and as good as anybody else's who's involved in this case. this jury has been really particular. they want to know everything. they have asked for 43 different exhibits, 43. that is a lot. 42 of them are prosecution exhibits, if you want to draw a conclusion about whose case they're most interested in. one of them is a defense

exhibit. but, you know, this whole thing with the alternate jurors and the bare shoulder and possibility fof flirtation seem so fitting. this was a case that was about a soap opera. this was a case that was about an affair, a child born during that affair, about deception, tawdriness, sex, money. it's not a stunner that there would be a soap opera element to deliberations. >> manuel, thank you for your time, sir. do appreciate you. >> my pleasure. to front-page politics and new today, vice president biden at west point. he delivered the commencement address just a short time ago for the u.s. military academy's class of 2012. >> only at west point and the other outstanding service academies does the entire united states of america swell with pride at the accomplishment you're celebrating today.

>> meanwhile, republican governor scott walker of wisconsin faces a special recall election june 5th. democrats and labor unions are upset he push add law through the state legislature. his rival, tom barrett, went after him on that issue. >> scott walker started this political civil war. i will end this civil war. >> the reforms are working. the mayor wants to go back and completely restore collective bargaining. >> two big economic numbers out this morning that could play into the election, first, u.s. consumer confidence jumped to its highest level in 4 1/2 years in may. and second, gas prices, today the average for a gallon of regular unleaded, $3.65. that's down 18 cents from a month ago. down 16 cents from a year ago. joining me now for more front-page politics, james

holman and erin mcpike. good afternoon to both of you. i want to start with this consumer confidence number. two-thirds of this economy, essentially folks going out buying stuff. it's up, up pretty significant here. first time, 4 1/2 years, gas prices. no one's talking as much about them. james, what might these numbers mean for the obama campaign and the romney campaign? >> well, craig, the economy is going to determine the outcome of this election, unquestionably. but there's some bad economic numbers too. jobs have not been coming back at the pace the administration would hope for, obviously the number that voters are paying most close attention to. >> right. >> and the economic situation in europe is pretty bad. and it's scary to the folks at the president's reelection campaign because it could have ripple effects that don't get over here until the late summer when people start to really pay attention and finalize their take on the election and how it

shapes their vote. >> erin, i want to call your attention to the latest nbc news/marist poll, specifically looking at swing states here. president obama leads mitt romney in both florida and virginia, also leads in ohio as well, 48% to 44% in ohio, president ahead by 48% to 42%, as you can see there in virginia as well. huh getting any since how the romney camp is reading this? >> the romney campaign thinks they had a great week this week. they're starting to see some movement in the polls and are excited that they might be really challenging the president in a number of battleground states. i also talked to the obama campaign about this this morning. while they're confident about some of these numbers, they're not putting too much stock into them because they know the races are tightening in each of these states and there's a long way to go. so there's confidence on both sides and some excitement. but nobody's putting too much stock into any of these numbers

just yet. >> any idea -- you mentioned that you've been talking to the obama campaign. what are they saying about the president's continued problems with white voters who are struggling financially? >> well, that's a great question. when i talked to the campaign just this morning and said i wanted to talk about some of these polls, the aide said, so you want to talking about working class whites, i assume? in other words, they know it's a problem for them. and this aide said to me, that's why we've been making this big push with bain capital over the past two weeks. we want to show voters and especially these white working class voters who's on their side. we think the president has a case to make to suggest that he is on their side while mitt romney is not because of bain capital and that he's not for workers and he's not for job creation. he's simply for wealth creation, instead is the case they're making. >> and we should note the president has always had a pretty difficult time with that particular segment of the voting

population, white folks who are struggling financially. james, headline, politico, obama stumbles out of the gate, referring to the president officially launching his reelection campaign, a number of missteps. erin mentioned the bain capital stuff we've been talking about for the past few days. joe biden getting out in front of the president on same-sex marriage. we've also seen his poll numbers shrink somewhat dramatically in certain areas. has the president stumbled? is that a fair assessment? >> it is, craig. the guys in chicago would agree with that, that this has been a tough month for them. they didn't get to roll out gay marriage the way they would have liked to. some of the economic numbers we were just talking about. and romney has run a better campaign than they expected. they thought he would make some stumbles. that he wouldn't react to bain the way he has. the money race is a lot closer than they had expected, too. romney's raising tons of money and it looks like it's going to be competitive on that front. so all of that kind of combined,

top democrat we talk to this washington and top republicans agree, obama really lost the month of may. as you say, there's going to be a lot of ups and downs. but the last couple of weeks haven't been great for the president. >> erin, i want to turn our attention now to wisconsin. we talked about it a few moments ago. the recall election coming up here in just a few days. what do we think is going to happen there? wisconsin gop governor scott walker being recalled. there's been a lot of outside cash pour into the that race. republican organizations have spent more than $17.5 million on ads. democratic organizations have spent more than $5.5 million. what do you see happening? >> at this point, strategists on both sides of the aisle are starting to suggest that scott walker is going to pull through and end up winning. we won't know until anyone votes, of course. but that's the expectation, that scott walker will win. the implications nationally are this, so many outside groups have started to pour a ton of money into that race, that's money they won't have to be spending on the presidential election over the next five months.

big labor's put millions of dollars that they can't help with for the president to get out of the vote in other states in october and into early november. that's a piece of it. the other piece that's very interesting is that republicans are saying now they're starting to see a pathway to victory potentially for mitt romney. wisconsin is not usually a swing state at the very end of the day in presidential elections, it tends to go blue and stick with the democrats. but republicans now think it could be up for grabs and mitt romney has a chance there to be competitive this fall. >> any talk whether dems are going to have egg on their faces after picking this fight? the white house hasn't weighed in on what's happened in wisconsin. and the dnc has waited a long time to spend money as well. james, are you hearing anything in that regard? >> absolutely, i am.

just yesterday, republicans aare emboldened, getting excited. i expect scott walker is going to be buzzed about as a leading candidate for republican in 2016 assuming he loses. >> thank you so much. have a great memorial day, folks. >> you, too. philadelphia mayor michael nutter on why mitt romney's education plan deserves an "f." i'm going to talk to him about that at the half hour. >> he supports policies that hurts our ability to educate our children and prepare them for good jobs and a good future. pull on those gardening gloves. and let's see how colorful an afternoon can be. with the home depot certified advice to help us expand our palette...

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some headlines making news on the west coast. the "los angeles times" as a front-page story on how i.c.e. is stepping up the effort to deport criminal immigrants. 150 agents have been pulled from desk and backroom jobs to search for fugitives around the country. critics are denouncing the push as a political stunt. in oregon, the tight security at oregon state university. the first lady will be giving the commencement address there tomorrow. her brother coaches there as well. in montana, there's an article about how western lawmakers want to elevate the plains' bison to a status similar to that of the bald eagle. lawmakers want to declare the animals america's national mammal. it would provide added protection for the bison. new reports today of

facebook investors who think they got a raw deal. the controversy is over essentially who was told key information before the facebook flop. and how small investors paid the price for nasdaq bungling trades. joining me now live is evelyn roosen with "the new york times" who's been writing about the facebook fiasco. welcome to you. >> thanks for having me. >> first of all, investors heard about earnings from facebook, some of them. >> yes. >> who heard, who didn't hear? and etch if it's legal, was it fair? >> so the whole process was -- and this is not atypical for an ipo process. but facebook was talking to its analysts. when companies are in the process of going on their road show and going public, they do talk to the analysts of their underwriters. they briefed them a few months ago. they told them about their forecasts. and later on when they issued a

new prospectus, they were noting weakness in the mobile platform. because of that, they had another conference call with analysts and said, it's going to be on the softer side of our prior forecast. so these sell side analysts go talk to the clients of morgan stanley, et cetera, telling them, this is what we're hearing, this is how we're advising. >> did the analysts tell the smaller investors? >> they can't release the information. they can only call and talk to them and talk through the numbers. the brokerage firms and underwriters have hundreds and hundreds of clients. so there was only a select group that really were able to be briefed on this information before the ipo. >> we've seen several stories start to trickle out about folks facing some big losses here, some of them lost thousands of dollars on the bungled trades. any chance that some of these folks can get their money back, any of these little guys? >> for a lot of these bungled trades, just to clarify, it was

glitches that nasdaq had on the day of trading, the first day of trading where they can't tell if they were able to cancel an order, they weren't sure if their orders were confirmed at all. they thought they bought it at this price and they actually bought it at that price. >> how does that happen? nasdaq's been doing this for a while. >> the volume, the massive volume on that first day of trading -- >> caught them off-guard? >> exactly. they hadn't fully anticipated the type of action they were going to see that day. because of that, there were bungled trades, about 30 million shares were affected. we'll be able to see who will get their money back in the next few days. nasdaq is working with morgan stanley and e-trade, et cetera, and how to reimburse some of these clients. >> and there's an s.e.c. investigation. >> they're looking into it. it's prudent at this point for

regulators to look at the entire process. obviously a lot of people are upset. and they're going to see whether or not facebook was fully transparent with what they were d disseminating in their information, whether or not it was a contradiction with prior filings and they're going to see how the underwriters were able to give the information to their clients. many steps in the process they have to look at. it's unclear if any action -- >> we just saw mark zuckerberg there. where has he been in all of this? >> well, last weekend he got married. there's that. mark, i imagine, has been kind of heads down and focused on building the business and proving to the naysayers he does have a great business and they can grow revenues moves forward. >> but we haven't heard from him since all this hit the fan. >> you look at these companies, they go public, the line usually is, this is just another moment in our history. what we really need to focus on is building the product, making

our users happy. so that's where he's tending to focus on. i think that makes a lot of sense. >> evelyn, thank you so much for your time. number five of our first five stories trending this hour, there she is, beyonce, she got back on the stage last night in new jersey. and, folks, she proved she's still got it. the 30-year-old wowed the sold-out crowd in atlantic city. it was the first time she's performed since giving birth to her daughter, blue ivy, back in january. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and who doesn't want 50% more cash? ugh, the baby. huh! and then the baby bear said, "i want 50% more cash in my bed!" phhht!

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the united states failed to break the top ten. but we did come in at number 11. to the best places to be a pet. it's scottsdale, arizona, where average monthly spending on a furry friend is about 48 bucks. that's about $10 more than second place, durham, north carolina. tucson, arizona, comes in at third there. and attention, leadfoots. the new list out, states where the drivers are most likely to gate speeding ticket. topping that list is nevada, georgia, then alabama. on the other end of the speeding spectrum, not saying go there and drive fast, but it's wyoming, montana and alaska. and dr. beach has released his annual top ten of america's best beaches. the one that he thinks is best? california's coronado beach, near san diego. he clearly has not been to south

carolina. for the entire list, go to our website, msnbc.com. those are your number ones on "weekends with alex witt." ok! who gets occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. then lead a double life! with new blast flipstick from covergirl. it's the lipstick with a flip side. you call this a flip side? creamy color on one end, shimmery color on the other. expertly matched so you can flip your look. from demure, to daring. you be demure! day to night, naughty to nice. get gorgeous lips not once, but twice! now your lips can lead a double life. new blast flipstick from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl. she would help her child. no. no no no no no. mommy's here [ male announcer ] with everything. but instead she gives him capri sun super-v.

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." i'm cig melvin. alex is off today. developing now, off the southeast coast, subtropical storm beryl will gather strength in the coming days, expected to drop several inches of rain. we'll have the latest report at the top of the hour. right now, history is being made in space. at this moment, astronauts at the international space station are unloading supplies from the spacex company's "dragon" capsule, now linked up with the space station. it is the first private space capsule to dock in earth eers orbit. the capsule will stay there for a week before returning to earth with a load of experiments.

to politics now, mitt romney unveiling his education plan in philadelphia this week where he was met with some protest, a grilling by teachers. philadelphia mayor michael nutter weighed in as well. >> the candidate who has suddenly somehow found west philadelphia, somehow now wants to talk about education, romney has always opposed investigating in their children's education and yet i don't understand why he's here today. >> joining me now, philadelphia mayor michael nutter. mayor, first of all, good afternoon to you. >> good afternoon, craig. thanks. >> did you protest earlier this week only because of your disagreement with mitt romney's education proposals or were you motivated by something else as well? >> he was there to talk about education in west philadelphia. he released his plan. i care very passionately about education. i've made that a centerpiece of my time in public service and

certainly as mayor. so it's interesting that he would decide to come to west philadelphia. this is a person as governor who cut funding for education, both secondary and postsecondary education, eight years ago while he was governor. he had the second highest per-pupil reduction in funding for students. he has come out and said he didn't think that smaller class size was the answer. as a matter of fact, he seems to think that it would be a problem. none of this makes any particular sense. >> how much of -- >> it's a little baffling. >> how much of romney's visit to the real philadelphia, as i call it, how much of romney's visit to that part of philadelphia do you think was substance and how much of it do you think was optics? >> i think it was total optics. it was about all of a sudden being out in a neighborhood in west philadelphia, at a school. he really has no particularly

good record on education and got to shake hands with some students. and act like he was concerned about education. he talked about this being the civil rights issue of our era. i have no recollection during the entire republican primary of hearing him use those two words in the same sentence. but suddenly, start talking about it in west philly. >> we've heard that part of this was designed to -- it was an attempt to reach out specifically to african-american voters and that was the backdrop that he chose to do that. are you opposed to mitt romney reaching out to african-american voters? do you think that's a bad idea? >> no. he's running for president. he should reach out to whomever he wants to reach out to. he can go wherever he wants to go. my whole point is if you're going to come into philadelphia at least where i'm the mayor and we know on the ground the things that work and the things that we need, then i'm not going to allow you to have a free pass to

just come in and say whatever it is you want to say without at least me and others examining your record. so if you want to run around this town, fine. but you're going to face people who actually know something about the topic. i actually know something about education. i have a daughter in public school. i stay focused on public education. everyone knows that smaller class size is better than larger class size. people know that strategic investments in our children is better for them than cutting funding. we know that supporting teachers and high-quality teaching tools in schools is better than less. so this is a presidential campaign. it's a debate about real issues on the ground. i know something about it. and everywhere he goes in this city or possibly anywhere in this country, i'm prepared to engage in that kind of fight because president obama is actually doing something about education and trying to support young people to go on and live great lives. >> last question here, mayor,

the critics have said in the past that when conservative white politicians especially go to black neighborhoods or go to black schools that they're criticized. when they don't go, they're criticized. there are critics who say, it's a lose/lose for politicians like mitt romney. whus your take on that? >> no. if you have something to say, whatever your party, if you have a real message, things you believe in, things you've done in your past and didn't suddenly find political religion about an issue or you're trying to get the best optics that you possibly can because you know you have no record, when you get criticized. so come everywhere, go everywhere, but have a record to stand on. mitt romney has no record, no real record of supporting education. and so that is why he's going to be criticized.

romney nomics is not affordable for parents and children as it relates to his radical education proposals that every second-grader knows doesn't make any sense. >> philadelphia mayor michael nutter, mayor, thank you for your time on this afternoon. >> sure. new today, wisconsin election officials are reminding voters that posting photos of their completed ballots on facebook and twitter is apparently against the law. the warning comes after officials in the state posted pictures of their absentee ballots on social networking sites. the ballots are for that june 4th recall election for gop governor scott walker. officials took them down after finding out the postings break a state law there. a spokesman for the state's government accountability board is not aware of anybody being charged. the law was designed to prevent people from trying to get paid for their votes as and using photos as proof. cameras captured a funnel

cloud in the middle of kansas yesterday, one of numerous tornadoes spotted last night. the severe weather destroyed several homes and actually injured one person as well. now to "must see, must avoid," after four years, will smith makes his long-anticipated return to the big screen starring alongside tommy lee jones and josh brolin in "men in black iii." here's a clip. ♪ >> alicia joins me to tell us what we must see and must avoid this weekend at the box office. you've seen all three of these movies. >> i have.

>> let's start with "men in black," must see or must avoid. >> it is a must see. this one is in 3-d. this is memorial day weekend. it's all about the family. the family can enjoy this. >> what makes it so good? >> seeing josh brolin play a young tommy lee jones, he hits his voice spot-on. >> and will smith put out a video with jazzy jeff -- >> he got on the microphone with the family. he was wrapping with will ow an jaden n. jaden. it's going to make some money. >> another movie is called "moonrise kingdom." >> this is about two

12-year-olds who run off, fall in love but all the adults in the town are looking for them and go a little bit crazy. it's an excellent movie. >> bruce willis and ed norton are in that one? >> this is a master class in acting. >> what's the early buzz? >> excellent reviews. great buzz. a lot of people say this is the best movie that wes anderson has done. >> ever? >> ever. >> and i love the "paranormal activity" movies. >> you're not going to love this one. "paranormal" was very good. but "chernobyl diaries" is not good. it's about tourist that is want to go extreme touring. >> and they didn't put it out ahead of time for critics to decide? >> that's a sign. two other very good movies for

you to see. >> "men in black". >> and "moonrise kingdom." >> if they're garbage -- >> you know where to teeth tweet me. >> thank you very much. number two, the vatican says the butler did it. vatican officials confirm the pope's butler has been arrested in a leaks scandal. police found hundreds of confidential documents at his house. it's believed he leaked the documents to the media including a reporter who wrote a book about vatican kocronyism. [ male announcer ] if you think tylenol

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roundup. no root. no weed. no problem. "meet the press," tomorrow governor martin o'malley and newt gingrich as well. it's an exclusive on "meet the press." now time for "strategy talk" where the presidential campaign took on a new and urgent tone. president obama rolled up his sleeves, amped up the energy and directly engaged mitt romney. >> i know governor romney came to des moines last week, warned about a prairie fire of debt. that's what he said. prairie fire. but he he left out some facts. his speech was more like a

cowhico cowpie of distortion. >> joining me now is mr. watkins and governor ed rendell. governor, i want to start with you. is the new tenor of president obama's campaign going right after romney, after a couple of weeks of perceived stumbles -- is it early, is it too early to be this aggressive in a presidential campaign for an incumbent? >> i don't think so. i think the obama campaign is following a strategy that has worked in the past in a number of different campaigns and that's to get out there and define your opponent, define your opponent before your opponent has a chance to define you, to make your opponent part of the issue of the campaign. and i think the president's doing it fairly effectively. it is early, but i think this year, people's attention has been focused on the presidential race. a little earlier than usual.

that doesn't mean that it may not come down to the three debates in the fall. i think it will. but they're trying to define governor romney, define him now and have that set in with the voters. >> joe, how long can either campaign sustain a fighting posture, from both sides? >> well, i think they have to fight hard. it's going to be a close campaign. and there are a number of states that are going to be in play. it's going to be very hard-fought. the numbers have tightened significantly in the last few weeks. it's become clear that governor romney's going to be the republican nominee. i think to have to fight hard and not let up. i think governor romney will point out to americans and democrats and all americans that if you think that you're not doing as well as you were four years ago today, give me a look. if you're not satisfied. if you were working four years ago and you're not working now, take a look at me. doesn't matter whether you're a republican or not. listen to what i have to say and give me a look.

>> i just talked to mayor michael nutter a few moments ago. mitt romney in our old stomping grounds just a couple of days ago, at that school in west philadelphia, a largely black neighborhood, largely black school there. what do you think he hoped to achieve? >> well, i think he's obviously not going to go in there to get african-american votes. african-americans are going to stick with the president, no ifs, ands and buts about it. but looking at the moderate democrats and independents in the philadelphia suburbs, that's where elections were won and lost in philadelphia. he's saying, i care about issues, i care about urban issues, i care about children. he's trying to soften an image which had to attack very, very far to the right during the primary season. >> joe, is that a strategy -- i understand we just lost joe.

>> we lost joe? >> yeah. he was with us via skype. it's just me and you, governor. i want to listen to something mitt romney said during that meeting with teachers in philly. take a listen. >> sure. >> i come to learn, obviously, from people who are having experiences that are unique and instructive, not just to me, but i think to the nation. >> we got you back there, joe. joe, let me pose this question to you. i'm not sure how much of what i just said you heard. i'll restate it here. mitt romney in philadelphia, essentially going not so much after black votes but as governor rendell just mentioned there, going after moderate voters who like to think that they are inclusionary. is that a strategy that works fenlgts it's a smart strategy. you want to reach voters who might not be satisfied, who might be a little disappointed

with some of the promises made four years ago about hope and change. you want to reach those voters. we know that there are lots of voter that is don't dislike the president. we want them to know that mitt romney can get the job done for them. that's why they ought to look at mitt romney, especially if you're not working. look the double-digit numbers in unemployment in so many minority communities around the country. mitt romney is saying, take a look at me, ki bring about the change you've been waiting for. >> joe, i want to pose the same question i just posed to mayor nutter as well. this is an interesting discussion that's had fairly often conservative white politicians, they go to neighborhoods like the one they went to in philly and they go and then it's like, what are you doing here? you're pandering. they don't go, it's, you've forgotten about us, you've forgotten about our neighborhood, you don't care about poor black voters. it's almost damned if you do, damned if you don't, governor. >> i agree with that, craig.

i think governor romney did the right thing going in and campaigning. when i ran for office, i went into republicans areas that i knew i was going to fight hard to get 35% of the vote. one, i wanted to get any votes i could, and, two, i wanted to show that, as you said, that i intended to be an inclusionary governor that was going to take care of every area of the state. >> we're going to leave it there. thank you both so much. here's a story from the freaky file this saturday. check this out. thousands of moths are invading a nebraska television station. you can see them there, swarming around the lights outside knop. hundreds have worked their way inside the station as well, crawling on equipment, crawling through the nightly newscast as well. safe to say the moths are just passing through on their seasonal migration. science test.

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♪ in today's "then and now," the fight to collect sales taxes from catalog sales, on this day 20 years ago, it was the top story on the "nbc nightly news.." >> congress can change the tax rules to help states cost consumers and maybe hurt the mail order business. nbc's carl stern. >> reporter: in most cases, buyers don't have to pay sales taxes on goods ordered from another state. 25 years ago, the supreme court said that states can't compel companies in other states to collect their taxes. that cost states like north

dakota millions of dollars in lost revenue. >> i think it's safe to say we're looking at close to a quarter of sales -- at least something close to that at this point in time going through the mail. >> reporter: one-fourth of retail sales? >> yes. >> that was then. now a new sales tax fight is on. this one over internet sales. a bill has been introduced in congress to allow states to collect sales taxes from out-of-state online retailers. the house judiciary committee is expected to hold a hearing on that issue in july. and if you think catalogs are gone forever, take a look at these numbers. more than 12.5 billion catalogs were mailed out to homes in the united states last year alone. and here's the reason why. more than 89.6 million americans bought at least one item from a catalog last year. the best of "office politics," highlights and alex's conversations with rachel

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how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. good day to you and welcome to "weekends with alex witt." i'm craig melvin. alex has this saturday off. 1:00 in the east. 10:00 out west. here's what's happening right now. developing now, off the southeast coast, subtropical storm beryl, watches and warnings in effect for parts of florida, georgia and south carolina. jennifer carfagno is here with the latest. jennifer? >> we just got the new advisory in for subtropical storm beryl and as it continues now to move towards the southwest, it's taken a little more of a jog.

winds are still at 45 miles per hour. and it's fairly far off-shore right now. about 230 miles off the coast. as we track it for you and show you what's going on with the higher clouds, the bigger clouds. look at this 3-d cloud picture. the deeper clouds are the ones with the rain. and they are all so far away from the coast. we're not getting any rain from the coast today. what the impact that we'll see along the coast is actually the rip current risk. it is quite high, from the out e banks southward into the northern florida beaches on the east coast with a moderate risk below that. that concern will remain again tomorrow. as we track this thing, it is going to potentially strengthen to a 50-mile-per-hour subtropical storm. the winds, it won't be an issue. the rip current risk plus the rain coming into this area, those will be the concerns as we watch this make more of a direct impact tomorrow evening into tomorrow night. in the meantime, we have this big ridge of high pressure dominating our story for this holiday weekend. record highs across the

mississippi valley into the ohio valley. and then we have storms that will fire tomorrow. that's a concern right here across the central plains from kansas up towards minnesota. we'll be tracking this area for the chance of isolated tornadoes tomorrow. craig, back to you. >> thank you so much. for more on that storm and the weather where you live, all you have to do is head to weather channel's website, it's weather.com. to front-page politics and a special address for the u.s. military academy. moments ago, vice president joe biden wrapped up his commencement speech at west point. >> as each of you awaits the officer's oath that will take you across one great threshold in american life, on behalf of president obama, your commander in chief, your entire government and i believe the entire nation, it is my honor to simply say, congratulations. >> and the gloves came off last night in wisconsin. republican governor scott walker sparred with democratic opponent

tom barrett ahead of that june 5th recall election. the recall was prompted by democrats and labor unions upset with the governor for pushing a law through stripping public sector lab e unions of much of their power. >> scott walker started this political civil war. i will end this civil war. >> the reforms are working. the mayor, my opponent, talked about this all throughout the primary, that he wants to go back and completely restore collective bargaining. >> and mitt romney's campaign has selected a new senior communications adviser. her name is tara walsh. she'll also work on coalitions outreach for the romney campaign as well. joining me for more, "the washington post's" felicia sontez and perry bacon. perry, let's start with you. your latest article on thegrio.

what's tara walsh going to be doing for the campaign. >> her goal is, in part, to appeal to the women's vote, minority vote and particularly the african-american vote. and the romney campaign doesn't think large numbers of african-americans are going to suddenly abandoned president obama and vote for romney. but they do want to make sure -- you saw romney go to a school in philadelphia this week as well that was mainly a black school. they want to make sure they're campaigning to every voter and sort of presenting tharg messi voter. >> and they want to reach moderates in this country, correct? >> that's correct. if you're a candidate, you want to appeal to every bloc of the electorate, campaign in front of latinos, blacks and women voters. >> is there a risk of appearing to be too open to certain types of voters, perry? >> i don't think there's a risk -- there's never risk when you're campaigning in front of

voters. it's always good to be out wherever you campaign. the only danger is that event on wednesday, particularly in philadelphia, was kind of bloody for romney in some ways. he got aggressively questioned on his comments about class size. and he said the amount of students in a classroom doesn't matter that much. and the people in the audience pushed back and said, what are you talking about? >> felicia, let's go to your latest article here. you talk about the romney campaign's continued struggle with hispanic voters, with latino voters specifically. the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows 61% of latinos supporting president obama. 27% favoring mitt romney. what's not so much really in this poll are the specific subsets of hispanic voters out there. what can we glean from some of these subsets of hispanic voters? are there certain types o of hispanic voters more inclined to vote for mitt romney than for

president obama? >> some say the hispanic vote is not a monolithic vote. every latino group has its own sort of interest in the race here, some of them will historically vote democratic, some historically republican. what will be interesting coming up will be, yes, romney is about a 27 percentage point ceiling right now among hispanics. historically there's been about a 30%, 35% share of the vote that the gop nominee has gotten in presidential races. but this summer could be a turning point when you see the dream act start to surface as an issue here. it could be a moment where mitt romney gets to change the conversation when it comes to hispanic voters. >> is there also a generational gap with hispanic voters? >> sure, i think so. you've seen mitt romney try to reach out to younger voters in the same way this week we've seen him reach out to hispanics, reach out to african-americans. and that is a sector of the electorate that has in the past

overwhelmingly been won by president obama. but even so, you're seeing mitt romney make an appeal to those voters. he gave a speech at a college in ohio last month. he is definitely trying to make the case to those voters when it comes to the economy and their future and the fact that half of those young people who are graduating college right now are not able to find a job, those are areas where president obama has failed. i think that's definitely a case that he is doing well and making. but, again, when it comes to hispanic voters, there is a lot more at play there. there are issues such as legal immigration and the dream act. >> perry, if and when the dream act begins to dominate the political discussion in this country, whom does that benefit? >> it almost certainly benefits president obama because romney's had a hard time figuring out what his position is on it. he's opposed it sharply at times. he's not opposed it at others. the issue is not great for him.

anytime the debate is not about the economy, romney talks about the economy almost exclusively. and the president wants to talk about more divisive issues among republicans. >> one of the things that neither campaign seems to be really intent on discussing, mitt romney's time as governor of massachusetts, we have not heard a great deal of talk about that. why do you think that is, felicia? >> i think it's -- there are some good things in that record and there are some things he would probably rather not focus in on. i think many voters in massachusetts have mixed feeling about his time as governor there. on the one hand, democrats will point to the fact that as governor -- while romney was governor of massachusetts, the state was 47th in job creation. there are all kinds of statistics there that are not exactly a good one for romney. then his campaign counters that he created about 40,000 jobs as

governor. i think it's something that they would just rather sort of move past that and it's an easier argument for him to make that when it comes to private sector job creation, that's something that he has succeeded in. but whether he elects to or not is definitely something that's going to come up in the campaign. >> we love talking about the swing states here. i want to throw some numbers on the screen for you here. florida, ohio, virginia, three key states there. the president leading right now, according to the latest nbc news/marist poll, leading romney in all three of those states. granted, it is may. and one of those polls -- i think one of those polls may be within the margin of error. but how significant is that for team obama and what's the romney camp saying about that? >> there's two good things in there for team obama. if you look at the electoral map, romney basically has to win ohio, virginia and florida if he's going to win the election. he probably has to win all three of those. if obama wins one of those, he's

almost certainly going to win the election. in ohio and virginia, particularly, you see data that shows a lot of americans in those states believe the president's message that the economy is improving. and that's a big challenge for romney because the unemployment rate in virginia and ohio is lower than the national average. it's harder for romney to campaign in those states and say, things are not going well. the one advantage, of course, romney -- within the margin of error in a couple of those states, he's leading in north carolina. he still has a chance to win this election. >> perry bacon and always a pleasure to have felicia sonmez, thank you both. >> for the latest political headlines, check out firstread, updated daily, sometimes hourly. be sure to check back often. strange jury behavior in the john edwards case, even apparent courtroom flirtation?

that tops the news from the trial. deliberations resume on tuesday but there's a new report out that says an alternate juror has been flirting with the defendant. john edwards himself, and that edwards has been responding in some fashion. joining me now live, criminal and civil attorney raul reyes, defense attorney, former prosecutor, karen de soto. thank you both for coming in on this saturday. we thought this was something that was terribly uncommon. and apparently it's not? >> no. when you're trying a case, understand the amount of stress. this is a criminal case. you're in close quarters for a very long time. i've had witnesses flirt with me. i've had juries smile at me. it is not that uncommon. so i know -- it sounds like a big to do about nothing. and it's also an alternate jury. i can tell you for sure that i have never had a juror smile at me and then convict my client. i can tell you that for sure.

>> very interesting. because we know the judge talked to the attorneys, talked to the jurors yesterday before dismissing them for the memorial day weekend. any chance that the judge was talking to them about some of this courtroom behavior? >> well, i think one of the things that the judge was speaking to them about was there has been some discussion that the jurors had divided into small groups and were discussing the case -- >> okay. >> not in the presence of all 12 jurors, which is a big no-no. but there's also some other things we're seeing with these jurors and the alternates that has been a little strange. eye contact and -- >> showing up and they're all dressed alike. >> one day, they're all in yellow. the next day, they're all in red. the day that they were all in red, two of the regular jurors were also in red. that is potentially a troubling issue. that was also the day where john edwards, after the whole trial of wearing only green ties for good luck, he also wore a red tie. so there's some fishiness going

on -- >> or could it be that we are grasping for anything because we have become so bored with what appears to be -- >> so bored, they're dressing alike. >> it's been six days now -- six days. they'll go back on tuesday. you've been involved in a number of these types of cases. what the heck is taking so long? >> i'll tell you what's taking so long. this is a criminal case wherein you don't have as many exhibits in a civil case. in a civil case, sometimes you have thousands of exhibits. here in this criminal case, there's thousands of exhibits. and on top of it, the jury's instructions are extremely lengthy. they probably have to refer back to these exhibits. on top of it, i think the election law violations and statutes are very vague and i think that they're very confusing. so that's probably one of the reasons that's holding them up in this. >> raul, the longer this goes on, better for edwards, better for the prosecution? >> generally speaking, ting longer that it goes on, the greater chance you have of a split jury, of a possible hung jury. so i do have to agree with karen

about, it's -- the jurors received 45 pages of instruction. but there are other huge challenges. this is a case with so many salacious elements, a mistress, a reclusive heiress, the senator, the wife dying -- >> it's a soap opera. >> so many great elements. and yet the jurors have to separate that and get to the legal issues. that's a huge challenge for them. that's very difficult. they've asked for so many exhibits to review that the judge just said, why don't you take all of them. >> raul reyes and karen de soto, thank you so much. >> thank you. there's a new warning that the united states may be heading for another recession if congress fails to act. we will explain next on "weekends with alex witt." [ male announcer ] the inspiring story

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credit agencies are once again warning that the united states government is at risk of another downgrade. the hill reports that the agencies are worried lawmakers will fail to deal with the debt ceiling. bush's tax cuts and the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts before the january deadline. standard & poor's is the only ratings agency that's downgraded the u.s., going from aaa to aa-plus rating. but moody's and fitch have ni e initiated credit outlooks. the cbo released a report this week that says the

so-called taxmaggedo could happen. specifically for folks who have not been following this story, what are the programs that could lead to the so-called fiscal cliff? >> a slew of things are all set to hit at the same time. the bush tax cuts, enacted in 2001 and 2003, basically are benefiting every taxpayer, are set to exspire at the end of december. president obama's payroll tax holiday is also set to expire at the end of december. and then you've got a bunch of other things, various business credits, deductibility of tax cuts are set to expire at the end of december. and then you have spending cuts approved as part of the deal to raise the debt limit last

summer. all of this is now ready to plop right down in the middle of of congress' lap at the end of december. >> is it essentially a question of deciding between cutting the deficit and growing the economy or is that an oversimplification? >> it is an oversimplification. cbo said last week, if you don't do anything, the economy is going to take an enormous hit in the first six months of next year and it's likely to be recessionary. in other words, we'll have negative growth because of these policies. it's likely to be brief f that happens, according to cbo and growth will pick up in the better half of the year and we'll be better off in the long run because we've dealt with our deficit problem. but nobody wants to see the economy go back into recession. the smart thinking about this is, let's figure out a way to bring the deficit under control that doesn't involve $600 billion sucked out of the economy in 2013, that involves a more gradual plan.

>> what are lawmakers saying about this, about some type of legislation to evert this? >> well, it's suspended animation in washington right now. nothing can happen until the election sort of tells us what people want, to the extent that it does tell us what people want. so neither side is really in a position to figure out -- this is going to require a compromise. nobody is going to get everything they want. so the voters have to speak before the two sides can figure out who's got the advantage and how to proceed. >> we have this toy that we keep here at msnbc. i want to throw it up on the screen there. this is the running debt clock in this country. there it is right there. the current u.s. national debt, about $15.7 trillion, at least at 1:20 on saturday. as you can see there, just continues to go up and up and up. if we push that number back, you can see the cost per taxpayer and per citizen as well.

but it's staggering. we all know that it's staggering. we just went through this last summer. will we ever get a permanent solution or is this the new normal, this constant threat of crisis in the capital? >> that's an excellent question. and you forgot to mention the other part of taxmaggedon, that we will be facing a new debt limit. probably have to raise the debt limit, probably in february. that's likely to get rolled into this whole ball of wax. and the fear is that people in washington will strike a temporary deal and just roll this thing down the road six months and then six months and then six months and just keep everybody all stirred up -- >> they'll kick the can. >> exactly. >> lori montgomery, thank you so much for the bad news. >> thanks for having me. new jersey governor chris christie hoping to battle his state's budget problems by allowing sports betting. but that would run afoul of federal law.

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does it post it instantly to facebook with sound ? droid does. droid with color for facebook. it's the ultimate status update. get a droid razr maxx by motorola for only $199.99. gas up, housing revival and feeling confident, consumer expert regina lewis joining me to help make sense of it all. good afternoon to you. first of all, let's start with gas prices. good news here and i understand it may be getting even better. what can we expect at the pump over the next few weeks? >> it could be getting better. to some extent, it matters less to people. so that's good news because right now, the average gas price nationwide is $3.66. "usa today" did a big cover story ant travel outlook for the

summer. and 54% of people said, gas prices aren't affecting my travel plans. it is affecting the distance they're willing to travel. they're saying, we're going to go, no matter what. but we may not just make quite as long a trip as we usually do. about 50 miles versus 150 miles from their home. >> we also saw a new rise in home sales last week. are we starting to see the start of a housing revival in this country? >> new home sales are very interesting. they make up about 20% of the overall real estate market. one of the draws right now -- this makes sense, craig -- is that people say, ki get what i want, as opposed to buying an existing home where given how difficult it is to get a mortgage these days, the down payments are so high that once you manage to fork over that, there's nothing left, meaning you better buy a house you really like because once you get the keys, you can't afford to make any changes. so people are really gravitating towards new homes and builders are accommodating that sentiment. interesting to see how new -- brand-new home sales are

rallying before existing home sales. and that could be one of the reasons. >> let's talk about consumer confidence here. consumer confidence at its highest level in more than four years. temporary spike or is it sustainable? >> that's the key question. and consumer don't like head fakes. that's a big difference between your sentiment if you're making more than $75,000, which generally means you have a job, or less. and so your head fake may be the housing market, if you're making more than $75,000, or less than that, you're looking at your job prospects. and so those are the things that need to be there on a consistent basis in order to really sustain -- increase sentiment. we'll take it. but you're right, everybody's looking for consistency before they really feel it. >> regina lewis, always insightful. thank you so much for your time. >> sure. coming up in "office politics," rachel maddow on whether candidates should put their families on the political stage. you are watching "weekends with alex witt." does this faucet make me look fat?

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." i'm craig melvin. alex is off today. at the half hour, new report today that iran may have enough uranium for five nuclear bombs. united nations weapons inspectors in iran say they found traces of radioactivity at an underground bunker at one of the nuclear facility there is. and now a think tank says that iran's stepped up its uranium enrichment. joining me to talk about is p.j. crowley. welcome, mr. crowley. >> hello, craig. >> do you believe that report, five bombs? >> well, there's no question that iran is getting close to the point at which it could build a weapon if it chooses. it has the technical know-how and the uranium necessary. the intelligence community doesn't think it's made the

strategic decision to actually build a weapon but obviously the trend is very worrying. >> wicks world powers held talks with iran in baghdad earlier this week. did they do anything beyond arranging for more talks in moscow next month? >> i'm not surprised there wasn't a breakthrough. i don't know that there will be a breakthrough throughout 2012. there are geopolitical, substantive and historical obstacles in the way. i think there is the emergence of a real diplomatic process and you did have an interesting give-and-take in these talks in baghdad. the international community has said you get these potential benefit ifs you halt your nuclear program where it is. iran said, those benefits are not good enough. on the other hand, iran said, we want you to recognize that we have a right to this program and a right to enrich. and the national community said, we're not going there. and some sort of concession like that would come after the process, not in the front of the

process. so that sets the stage for these talks next month in moscow. >> was the process itself -- were those talks last week, were they a farce? >> i don't think they were a farce. i think at the beginning of any negotiation, you have posturing on both sides. the real question here is whether they can move from a real process to an actual negotiation. but this is where a lot of things get in the way, not only politics in this country, can president obama okay a genuine concession to iran in the middle of his reelection campaign? and there's also politics in iran. they have a presidential election coming up in 2013. they've got hardliners who want to see this process fail as well. >> what about the sanctions that have been in place on that country for some time now? are those sanctions -- we know they're having an effect. what kind of an effect are they having and how might that effect play into all of this?

>> the sanctions are having increasing effect. and this is the unknown. the international community is raising the cost to iran to have this nuclear program outside of its international obligations. iran is the only country that ultimately can decide whether the increasing costs of this program outweigh any benefits they think it has. so over time, this is the real calculation here. can the international community raise costs sufficiently that iran changes its calculations and ultimately changes its behavior? we simply don't know the answer yet. >> how do you think this plays out, mr. crowley? >> i think -- the one thing i think is that we have actually more time to resolve this diplomatically. there are military options on the table, either from the united states or from israel. and those are real options. but they come with real consequences. if the united states' policy is to actually prevent iran from

getting a nuclear weapon, the most likely result of a military attack is to delay a program but not end it. and it makes a nuclear bomb that much more likely. so i do think that there's more time to have this play out diplomatically. it may actually play out into 2013. i don't think we have deadlines coming up this summer or even deadlines necessarily at the end of the year. >> former assistant secretary of state p.j. crowley. thank you so much for your time. >> all right, craig. right now, astronauts on board the first-ever private spacecraft are unloading food, clothes and other supplies as well. earlier, crews opened the hatch between the "dragon" and the international space station. the capsule connected with iss yesterday. the "dragon" will remain there for a week before returning to earth. to the best of "office politics" now, from author, filmmaker and war correspondent, sebastian to our very on rachel

maddow, we talk war, we talk politics. but alex also goes inside their offices and shows us a side to them that you haven't seen. take a look. >> the president's the favorite for reelection, no matter what the state of the economy. i will say that until election day because he's a well-funded, talented, likable incumbent. >> what do you think are obama's strengths? >> well, i do think he's a big campaigner. i think he was a lot bigger in 2008 when he wasn't as well-known, when he represented a real outside force. i don't know that he's the most natural campaigner that i've seen. >> i don't particularly care about individual candidates. i don't care about any potential parties other than using them to explain what's going on in the world. >> does mitt romney have a chance of winning, in your mind, realistically? >> i think he has a chance no matter what the state of the economy because the president has been in office a long time and even if the economy's

getting better, i think governor romney bears questions about, are these the right questions going forward? >> i don't think romney is a good campaigner. he's stiff, a little nerdy. that's just him. he's very bright and very accomplished who doesn't have the natural political gifts. >> the first time i was deeply, deeply frightened was at a rebel check point during the war. and the rebels were all really, really high on drugs and very, very angry. and they all cocked their guns and looked like they were about to shoot. >> i was in mogadishu before black hawk down. and i had to get on an u.s.s.r. to go to nairobi. things were going to hell in a handbasket.

>> we've had less than 1% of the population doing the fighting. >> i spent 15 minutes thinking we were going to be execute and we weren't, obviously. but that really left a mark. >> how much did you love this last election, as referenced by not one, not two, but three books that you ultimately write? it's interesting looking at the cover of this book. fred thompson, where is he now? >> he does infomercials. >> and rudy giuliani and then there's john edwards. not having a good time at all. >> you've been compared to ernest hemingway. many say you are this generation's ernest hemingway. how does that make you feel? >> he didn't really work in journalism. he's known for his fiction. i've never written fiction.

>> is this your mascot? >> he is the guy. it's actually a photo of him. they changed the base to make the base into the united states. >> very clever. >> yeah. >> i moved to little rock, arkansas, in 1983 where there was this unknown little governor whose wife happened to practice family law. so that adopted daughter of mine 26 years ago, the adoption was done by our president's secretary of state. >> you're carpooling in the morning, making lunches in the morning -- >> yeah. or arranging play dates or arranging babysitters when that's necessary. i'm very insistent about taking them to the dentist. >> in the wee hours of the morning, you're at msnbc so early, i'm all this energy and you're like, oh. >> that's just an act.

there's some people in makeup rooms who like their quiet. >> i don't like the quiet. >> i grew up in l.a. and l.a. is just huge. i get frightened when i go out and drive in l.a. now. >> come on. >> i swear to you. >> you're speaking to an l.a. girl. i drive very fast. >> you're part of the problem. >> for sure. favorite spirit, what is it? >> rye whiskey. >> get out! i had whiskey last weekend, not at all. i'm a tequila girl. >> i knew i loved you for a reason. >> you're doing this interview barefoot. love your blue toenails. in next week's "office politics," alex goes one-on-one with "today" co-host matt lauer. she'll talk with matt about his views on presidential politics and ahead of matt leaving for

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last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. time for the big three. today's topics, inside the polls, taboo topic and wisconsin recall. let's bring in my big three panel here. msnbc contributor krystal ball, dana milbank and susan del percio. good afternoon to all of you. let's start with what's become a bit of a taboo topics. ezra klein wrote about why neither president obama nor mitt romney appears to want to talk about romney's record as governor of massachusetts. why is that?

>> a little bit of a problem here. romneycare is working out fairly well in terms of holding down costs and getting everybody covered. so romney doesn't want to bring this up because then it would look like, well, actually -- it would remind everybody that he sponsored something very much like obamacare. obama doesn't want to bring it up because then it might let people know that romney was a pretty good governor of massachusetts. so we have to let the whole thing rest. >> susan, if romney knows he's going to get that conservative vote, why not talk about his record as governor and possible make some inroads with moderate independent voters? >> well, i think he's looking to make those inroads. but when you look at any generic ballot, you'll see that being a businessman or business executive is a much bigger plus than being a former legislator. the nbc poll that came out last week, it mentions that -- would you support mitt romney, would you consider that an advantage, that he was a businessman most of his professional life?

and overwhelmingly, the answer was, yes. so that's why he's focused on it. >> krystal, besides bain capital, which we have talked about a great deal over the past couple of weeks, what else in mitt romney's record could be used against him that the obama campaign so far has not used? >> well, one thing they have been somewhat highlighting is the fact that when he did actually go into government and was the governor of massachusetts, the job creation record wasn't too great. they were 47th in job creation, which is another reason probably why mitt romney doesn't want to talk about it that much. but i think also you can show a pattern with his governorship in massachusetts that was very similar to what he did in bain capital. he essentially loaded the state up with debt. industrial manufacturing jobs declined. so he killed a lot of blue-collar jobs. then in his last year of governor, he was essentially absent in running for president. took the prestige from the position and used it to do something better for himself. in that way, there's actually a

parallel with bain capital. >> i want to look inside some of the poll numbers right now. we've talked about the new nbc news/marist polls showing president obama leading mitt romney. inside the margin of error, we should note, but specifically in three battleground states, florida, virginia, ohio. there are the numbers right there. obama at 48%. romney at 44% in florida and virginia. 48%, 42%. how does the romney camp read these numbers? >> i think the romney camp and the obama camp will read the numbers the same way. it shows it's a very close race. what it does also show is that president obama's been capped out at about 48%, where romney has been closing the gap. but, again, these are a snapshot in time. mostly they're the most beneficial to the candidates because they can raise money off of them. >> can mitt romney win in november without winning one of those states? >> well, the map for romney is particularly difficult. so the way he's looking

nationally is actually better than he's looking if you look at the various swing states. he could lose these states if he wins others that we weren't expecting thoim win. but we're so far out from an election, the national polls and the battleground polls really are fairly meaningless at this point. things can change enormously between now and then. and everybody expects this to be a race within a few percentage points. this is always going to be within the margin of area. >> dana, did you say those polls are meaningless? >> the nbc polls are terrific. all the others are terrible. >> thanks so much for piling it on there. you mentioned, dana, that we are five months out. i was struck earlier this week by the tenor of the campaign. we saw the president in iowa with his sleeves rolled up, he was talking about cowpies. we've heard aggressive language from both sides of the campaign. krystal, are you surprised it's

gotten this aggressive this early? >> i'm not. i think we all pretty much saw this coming. and i don't know if you all saw this today, but joe ricketts who's now become infamous because of the ricketts plan, now he's decided launch attacks on reverend wright, he decided to do attacks on obama as an anti-colonial tribes smith. >> mitt romney is denouncing he has no connections. i'm not sure where that plays in. >> it plays in because he's putting up millions of dollars and will be part of the campaign. i didn't say he was linked to mitt romney. i'm pointing out the campaign is nasty. >> he's not part of the obama campaign. when we were talking about the two i thought maybe i misunderstood you. >> i love when you make nice at

the end. we'll take a quick break. stand by. could a republican governor lose his seat over a law he pushed? we'll talk about wisconsin. [ female announcer ] with swiffer dusters, a great clean doesn't have to take longer. i'm done... i'm going to read one of these. i'm going to read one of these! [ female announcer ] unlike sprays and dust rags, swiffer 360 dusters extender gets into hard to reach places so you can get unbelievable dust pick up in less time. i love that book! can you believe the twin did it? ♪ [ female announcer ] swiffer. great clean in less time. or your money back. ♪

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we can't do over the decision of scott walker to start a political civil war which resulted in this day losing more jobs than any other state in this entire country in 2011. >> jobs were created 2011. since what is first sworn in as your governor, more than 30,000 people have gone back to work. we are turning things around. we are heading in the right direction. >> republican governor scott walker, wisconsin squaring off in a debate with his democratic challenger tom barrett. walker facing a recall election june 5th because of that anti-collective bargaining law he pushed through. our final topic for today's big three. let's bring that panel back.

thanks for coming back after the commercial break. a lot of money has been poured into this race. dana, we are talking millions of dollars both by gop and democratic groups. we should note the gop has a significant fund-raising advantage so far. do you think democrats when they launched this thing, do you think they thought this is how it would play out? >> i think so. everybody expected it would be this national conflagration. everybody has been able to get their message out. the polls are tightening and shows that walker is in some trouble. it's nearing a dead heat at this point. it has symbolic value, whether this guy, for doing something outside the realm of normal politics in this country will be punished for it. that will have national significance. >> susan what happens if governor walker is not recalled? what is your take away on that? >> i don't expect that he will.

i don't think the democrats think he'll be recalled either. we saw the chairwoman debbie wasserman-schultz soften the ground that it doesn't matter if he is not recalled. in the end, the biggest problem is for unions that had to spend millions of dollars here and won't be able to spend that money in november. >> kristal, what do you make of the fact that we have not seen a great deal of involvement by the dnc? >> in some ways, this has been a good thing for the movement. it's given them something to rally around and a reason to organize and get ready for november. i agree with susan though. i think the democrats have been trying to lower expectations on this race. i think that's a big mistake. the polls are tightening. tom barrett had a very effective performance in the debates last

night. he could just pull it off. >> if they don't pull it off, how much egg on their face would the democrats have? >> it depends if they are able to win one of the state senate seats being recalled. they can flip to democratic control and ameliorate the damage. >> that has to be it. thanks so much. have a fantastic memorial day. you, as well. that wraps up "weekends with alex witt." i'm craig melvin. stay with us for headlines and breaking news throughout the afternoon. and let's see how colorful an afternoon can be. with the home depot certified advice to help us expand our palette... ...and prices that keep our budgets firmly rooted... ...we can mix the right soil with the right ideas. ...and bring even more color to any garden. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get memorial day savings with 4 bags of earthgro mulch for just 10 dollars.

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