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a live look at arlington national cemetery as america remembers soldiers that paid the ultimate sacrifice on this memorial day. the president there for observances at 11:00 a.m. this morning. and in other parts of the country, bracing for beryl. high winds and heavy winds soak parts of georgia and florida this morning after that tropical storm makes landfall. so what can be expected for today? we'll have that. hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. great to have you with me today. i hope you are enjoying some time off. and the president and first lady are hosting gold star families this morning for breakfast. they have a full slate of events planned today for memorial day. kristen welker joins us, what else is planned? 11:00 a.m. at arlington? >> reporter: a very full day here. the president and first lady will attend a ceremony at arlington national cemetery, where of course the president will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown. he'll also deliver remarks there. then a little bit later on

today, he'll attend a ceremony at the vietnam veterans' memorial wall. the vice president will also be there. they will be marking the 50th anniversary of the start of the vietnam war. now, it's also a busy day for mitt romney. he will be attending a memorial day ceremony in san diego with senator john mccain. you know, it bears noting, thomas, on this memorial day, that the veterans' vote will be important in this election. veterans make up about 13% of voters. president obama lost the veterans' vote to john mccain back in 2008 by about ten points. recent polling has been a little bit mixed. one poll showed president obama fairing pretty well with veterans, but a poll just out today, a gallup poll, shows that he is trailing mitt romney by about 24 points when it comes to the veterans' vote. as you know, thomas, we've heard president obama talk a lot about some of the initiatives he believes he has enacted that has helped veterans. he's also right now pressing congress to pass tax breaks for

companies that hire veterans as a part of his to-do list. so you expect as this campaign season unfolds both candidates to be courting the veterans' vote. >> kristen welker, thank you. the other big story we're following today is tropical storm beryl. and it's battering parts of florida and georgia this morning. as much as a foot of rain could cause some major flooding in parts of the southeast, could make for some major headaches for your holiday drive home. the weather channel's mike seidel has the very latest from jacksonville beach, florida, where the storm made landfall just after midnight. mike? >> reporter: hi, thomas. we're still getting hit by wind and rain out here on jacksonville beach. last night, the winds were blowing down the beach from the north and we had gusts up at the naval air station in mayport and jacksonville as high as 62 miles per hour. now the winds have shifted away from the south because the storm has gone inland to the west. it's west of jacksonville, but the rain is still wrapping around. that's what we're getting out on the beaches right now, these bands. and right now we still have a flood warning for the metro

jacksonville area. that continues until 11:15 this morning. one band has dropped over the area, dropping rainfall at the rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour. there's been creeks and streams overflowing, still a big concern for that area. out here on the beach, it's the wind and blowing sand. look at the surf. that has came down too since last night. it's still a dangerous, certainly, swimming condition. we've got rip current risks from today, tonight, and tomorrow, but the waves now have came down to about 4-footers. we have 6, 7-footers up through last night. boy, the sand is stinging out here today. this is a slow-moving storm. it's slowly moving west at 8 miles per hour. it's going to make a slow right turn, picked up by a front, sent into sea, but not until wednesday. we're looking for another couple of days of rain heavy at times. some of the local total could be 10 inches in an area that has the worst drought in the country. too much, too fast, but overall,

a nice dent in the drought and lowering the fire danger here in this part of the state. thomas, back to you. >> thank you. republicans are defending mitt romney, even republicans who once criticized him, like rudy giuliani in 2008. jewel ygiuliani went after romn record of creating jobs. >> i was comparing what i thought was my far-superior record to his still decent record, but the numbers weren't as great. that's all part of campaigning. this is a man who ran a significant business, made it into a tremendous success, which used to be -- used to count for a lot in america. >> joining me now, republican strategist joe watkins and democratic strategyist, richard goodstein. joe, it's always tough in these campaigns when you're running against somebody, you come out against them, then you have to pivot and basically eat your words and say how great they are. >> that's how it works in politics. i mean, everybody knows that these campaigns are hard fought, when you're in a primary

setting, clearly you have to go say what's bad about folks in your own party. but when it comes time for the general election, it's time to show all the love. and you've got to kind of suck it up and say, hey, i'm sorry about what i said. the truth of the matter is, no matter what i said about this man, he's still better than the guy in the other party. >> how do people check their egos? >> you've got to if you want to continue to play. you've got to be humble, and heating humble buy is not a bad thing. i've eaten plenty in my time. >> richard, as we talk about rudy giuliani, he isn't the only one. he's been really critical of mitt romney, now out there defending him, but it's newt gingrich who is very critical, brutal during the primary. everybody remembers this. take a look. >> you call this time at bain exploitation. >> i was very careful. i didn't go after private equity. if you just heard the president just now, he's going after all private equity in a way, which someplaces why you had senator warner, you had the governor of massachusetts, who's one of his closest allies, you had senator

feinstein, you had cory boorkke on the show. there are 15 or 20 democrats now who have said, this iss an inaccurate and wrong approach for the president to be taking. >> david gregory reminding newt gingrich what exactly he had to say in the primary on "meet the press." does he sound a little hypocritical there, that he went after romney on bain, but it's wrong for the president to do it. >> listening to newt and even rudy giuliani make cory booker look like the surrogate of the year, we're kind of reminded of these trips down memory lane, vulture capitalism, the pious baloney that newt threw at romney. >> where's the love? >> and even mike huckabee saying that romney looks like the guy who fired you. you know, we have tape. it's a little different environment than we had several years ago, where you could say one with thing, and somehow think that it would just go away. here's the thing about newt's comments, thomas. you know, he admits that he said that bain looted companies, that romney looted companies and

walked away with tens of millions while people lost their jobs or health care or pensions. but he said, you know, i'm saying it doesn't work. well, it actually did work with in south carolina for him. and the reason it didn't keep working is he backed off the argument because rush limbaugh and people like that kind of shamed him against making that argument. i think it's actually going to be pretty effective. >> if you put that the pious baloney between toast with honey mustard, it's probably better for you when you're eating it out there. joe, before we talk more about mitt romney and the fact that there are people that are going to coalesce around him and prop him up as we ramp toward november, obviously, but does he have really strong defenders that are out there already, that are behind him 100%. who would they be? >> that would be everybody. that would be everybody in the republican party who wants to see a republican white house. they will be strong defenders of mitt romney. they will be pushing hard. you can see already in the national polling data that the numbers are tightening. that what was a race that was 10

points wi points, 20 points apart is now a very close race. that's because mitt romney is talking about what americans want to hear, which is how do you fix the economy, get people back to work. they want to hear that. every republican senator, every republican member of congress, every republican governor, every republican surrogate will be singing that same song. >> richard, lastly, though, defending mitt romney on bain, he doesn't need republican surrogates out there to do that if there are people like cory booker that are going to show up and do the work for them. >> you know, look, thomas, i think the fact is the predominant democratic view, and you really aren't even hearing cory booker or anybody else anymore dispute this, ed rendell, who's thrown out. you talked to them an hour ago. what they say is that the argument about bain brings up arguments about inequality, about the anger, still, at wall street, about who's going to stand up for the middle class and who's going to stand up for the 1% or the 1% of the 1% who own horses that cost $1 million a year, thank you, new yo"new y

time times", yesterday. >> richard, we were hoping that it would bring us together, that's what we were hoping, that the president would not try to segment us by attacking the population and attacking one segment. we hoped that he would bring us all together. and the folks in private equity are creating jobs, their doing good work. >> and barack obama is not criticizing private equity. he's criticizing this perversion of capitalism that lets mitt romney and his partners walk away with millions when the people have lost their jobs, their health care -- >> that's called risk and reward. >> no, no, no. >> this is capitalism, richard. >> no. the risk and reward is you gain a few, invest in companies that work, and you don't profit at the ones that fail. that's the perversion of capitalism. >> you profit if you do a good job, you make money. if you don't do a good job, you lose money, sadly. that's the way it works in capitalism. and mitt romney did an excellent job, so he profited. he made money. >> the companies that went bankrupt, joe. >> he put lots of people to work, and as the governor of massachusetts, he did the same thing. >> 47th out of 50th is not a job

record to thump his chest about. and you can't honestly say with a straight face that when you're looting companies you've invested and you've skimmed off all this money by virtue of loading them down with debt and having them go bankrupt, that is not a successful record. >> you don't loot companies. i got money from venture capitalist and private equity folks to start a business. these are the folks that take a risk. they give you capital so you can build a business and hopefully if you work hard, the business succeeds, and you make some money. that's what mitt romney did. that's a good thing. that's what the american dream is all about. >> no. the steelworker in youngstown, ohio, is the notion that mitt romney and his cronies would have walked away with tens of millions because guys just like that steelwork got hosed when their company got shut down. that's not private equity, that's a perversion of capitalism. and that's what, i think, is going to be effective as this rolls out for the obama campaign. we'll see. >> is the striving for the

american dream, is it worthwhile to say that somebody else's american dream gets discounted because mine's stronger? so his american dream is to make money, but is it to crush somebody else' american dream and take their pension? >> in capitalism, there are winners and losers, there are people who win and people who lose in capitalism. and sometimes people may lose their jobs in capitalism, but the good thing is that there's the opportunity for everybody and anybody to succeed. and mitt romney has made a lot of people successful, he's made a lot of people a lot of money, and i think he'll do the same for america as president. >> joe watkins and richard goodstein, thanks for your time this morning. i appreciate it. this memorial day, we honor the sacrifices of american's troops and take a look at the effort being made to find our returning vets jobs when they find home. and take a look at this, former british prime minister tony blair getting grilled on his relationship with rupert murdoch. the details from london, coming up. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 there are atm fees.

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so as the nation commemorates more than 6,400 troops who died in post-9/11 wars, it's a sobering statistic of the 1.6 million iraq and afghanistan war vets, 45% are now seeking disability benefits. that's more than double the number who filed for such claims after the gulf war in the 1990s. and i'm joined again by colonel jack jacobs, an msnbc military analyst, recipient of the congressional medal of honor, and john saltz, chairman of votevets.org joins the conversation. gentleman, great to have you here. and jack, as we look at that number, it is an eye-opening statistic for a lot of people. let's talk about the explanation for why that number has doubled over the past decade. >> well, for one thing, it's the way we fought. when you send people down unsecured roads on administrative and logistical jobs and you do not secure the

front and flanks of the road, you're making a big mistake. it's just an invitation to get killed or wounded by an improvised explosive devices and a large percentage of our casualties have been caused by improvised explosive devices. you can't do that. you've got to make sure you protect your force and make sure it's secure and we haven't done a very good job of that in this war. >> john, how much of these disabilities are posttraumatic stress disorder and the tentacle issues that then come off of that. >> with a 45% of people coming in for claims, the number we're, comfortable with in the military is one of every three troops who dies in iraq or afghanistan dies from an ied, and then we expect one in three troops who return

home to seek some type of mental health support for ptsd and these types of things. a lot of that has to do with the fact of the extent of the deployment. so you've got a lot of people going two or three tours. as the iraq war ended, you know, it's always a big question of how did you only go one time? there's a tremendous amount of wear and tear. the ptsd, the traumatic brain injury, which is something a lot of people seek treatment for, unlike other wars, for instance, colonel jacobs in vietnam, one out of every three troops who was wounded died, but in this war we've been able to save more on the battlefield and now we're losing one in eight. a lot of times when people are wounded and they survive, there are a lot of other issues they face down the road and that's where we're seeing the traumatic brain injuries. it is overwhelming. the va system is having a problem meeting the demand now. >> it's never had to face post-iraq, post-afghanistan, where we are right now as the drawdown continues for afghanistan. jack, the challenges the returning vets face in this

troubling economy, that's staggering enough, but when you think about the fact that they do return with issues with ptsd, it does, you know, logic would dictate that disability could be a big benefit in helping these young men, these young women while they are looking for work. >> well, there is a lot that's being done. a lot of corporations are working on getting veterans trained and hired. there are a lot of charitable organizations that are doing it as well. i think the defense department has to do a much better job of preparing our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who are leaving the service to prepare them for life outside the service. but i've got to tell you something. a lot of people view giving a job to a veteran as charity. i think this is complete nonsense. there is nobody like military people who get responsibility and authority at a very early age. there are people who are 20, 21 years old in the military who

have had authority and response way in excess of their age, way more than the people who are looking to hire them. so giving veterans jobs is not charity. you're getting absolutely the best people this country can produce. >> john, just from your personal experience, you took a one-year leave of absence to return to iraq and then returned to the current job you have now. what is your recommendation to veterans who return, to struggle to find the right job that fits what they want to do? >> right now i'm going to tell them that our foundation, the vet voice foundation has a relationship with an organization trying to help vets get jobs called america wants you. we have a relationship online with career builder. there's thousands of jobs on that website. i would ask people to go check it out. like colonel jacobs said, there's a lot of nonprofit organizations trying to help connect veterans who are unemployed with corporations who are looking to hire. but i would like to add that the economy's a bad economy right now, and we've done things in this that we haven't done

before. we've relied heavily on the national guard and reserve. public sector jobs are around attack in this country. the postal service is under attack. state government jobs are under attack, teacher jobs are under attack. these are traditionally the types of jobs that are required , if guard reservists are going to serve their country, they need to work in one of these jobs. it's hard for a small business owner to keep these individuals on, you know, to bring them back and guarantee they have a job. if there's no job for people who work for small business or private corporations that are under attack, there's no job when they come home, no job that can be protected under the soldier and sailors relief act. because we rely so heavily on guard and reservists, a lot of them come home and there's no job to return to. >> we appreciate your time this morning. stay with us, more ahead. a live picture and a beautiful shot of arlington national cemetery this morning. clear skies and the president will be there to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldiers at 11:00 a.m.. [ morgan ] lopez lomong started running when he was six

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heavy rains from tropical storm beryl are pounding parts of florida and georgia this morning. flooding possible along the coastline as well, just hours before beryl's landfall, though, a very different site in georgia. can you see that? a double rainbow over the beach at st. simon's island. we'll get all the details from nbc meteorologist, todd santos, next and this is what inspires us to create new technology. ♪ technology that connects us to everything the world has to offer and vice versa. ♪ technology that makes lightweight stronger, safer, and faster than ever before. ♪ technology that makes electric electrifying

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crazy, right ? well, with this droid razr by motorola on verizon 4g lte, you guys can stay in touch. ( grunts ) cool. you can video call on skype... send photos. yeah, okay. yeah, let's do it. get $100 off any motorola 4g lte smartphone, like the droid 4 now just $99.99. verizon. tropical storm beryl is putting a major damper on memorial day plans in florida and georgia this morning. this storm is packing 40-mile-per-hour winds and could bring as much as a foot of rain to parts of the southeast. nbc meteorologist todd santos has been tracking the storm and joins me now with more. todd, i have to admit, i keep wanting to call this storm "barrel." i've been struggling with a crisis of pronunciation all

morning long, beryl! >> if you do it fast and a southern accent, it works. >> that's what i do normally. >> i kind of put this on there with the infrared satellite picture so you can see the cold, high cloud tops. you can see some building up off the coastline. that implies we're dealing with some strengthening going on, pushing towards the low country of south carolina, including savannah. those are the best chance to see some of those gusts upwards of 50 miles per hour. we saw one gust over 70, mayport, florida, earlier this morning, at 73 miles per hour. there have been some bigger gusts. the system as a whole is weakening as it continues over land and even by the next advisory, maybe downgraded. but the very latest out of the national hurricane center, it's a 40-mile-per-hour tropical storm, west at 8 miles per hour, and that motion over the next couple of days carries that back across the carolinas. so we'll be dealing with this

right through wednesday. >> all right, todd. thank you, sir, appreciate it. we'll talk again shortly. so the temperatures are up again this memorial day weekend and the gas prices, they're down. a few cents below last year's level, in fact. and experts say that's good cause for americans looking to hit the road this year. the big question is, how far are they planning to go on the gas that they're getting for that lower price. coral davenport is the energy correspondent for the national journal and joins me now. let's go over there. the national average for a gallon of gas is down a few cents from last year. the estimates, nearly 35 million americans traveling 50 miles or more over the weekend. as we look at that, what is the opinion of that being a good or bad sign for how people are feeling about our economy? >> it's probably a good sign. and then we also see analysts are projecting that gas prices, normally they go up in the summer months, but right now

they're projected to continue to go down throughout the summer months and through the rest of the year. >> so, coral, there seems to be also this willingness for people, if they can equate the shorter distances in their head, that they're willing to pay the cash for the gas, and they know it's more expensive, but if they don't have to travel so far. is that a confidence that people should have or a caution about their fuel expenditures? >> well, right now, again, it looks like we're going to -- we're seeing a little bit more confidence about fuel expenditures, about what drivers are willing to pay, how about how far they're willing to go. and again, knowing that gas prices are projected to continue to go down, we should be able to see a little bit more confidence, and more driving. >> coral, that's the hook for a lot of people, though. because normally at this time of year, we're seeing the gas prices go up. traditionally, at the start of the summer season, memorial day, and here they continually climb,

week by week. since we had this kind of early burst in the beginning of 2012, where we saw gas prices go up so fast, it's kind of like seeing the christmas decorations at halloween time, so people get confused by that. are we expected to see this slow trickle-down, week by week, over the summer months? is that the forecast for us this summer? >> the current forecast from the energy information administration, which is the statistics branch of the energy department, is that for now, it looks like the gas prices are projected to go down week by week throughout the summer, and even throughout the rest of the year. they've done the forecast through the end of the year, and it's a very slow but steady decline. >> how much is that linked to the upcoming elections? >> it's not really linked to the elections. it's -- most of it is due to forces beyond the control of u.s. policymakers or the u.s. political system. it has to do with the terrible economy in europe, slowing

growth in china, the easing of political tensions over iran's nuclear program. these are the reasons that we're seeing that decline, and you know, anything going on -- you know, there could be some sudden change, also, beyond our control, that would, you know, that would stop that decline, that prices could spike up again due to unforeseen circumstances. but mostly, it's slowing growth outside the united states that's drawing -- that's driving that decline. >> coral, does it come, though, from more scrutiny put on speculators that ultimately drive the price up? >> there's debate on this. i mean, right now most experts would say that market speculation is one piece of the cost of oil and gasoline, but by and large, it's driven by the fundamentals on a global market. it's supply and demand, how much supply there is, how much demand there is. those are really the chief drivers of the price of oil and the price of gasoline. and what's going on right now is we're seeing less demand in

europe and asia. and those are really, you know, those are really the main forces behind the decline in cost of gasoline. >> certainly comes as a relief to those families who are scrapping to pull it together to travel, throw the kids in the car, and travel this summer. it is goobz d news on that fron. coral davenport, thanks again. president obama is getting political pressure here at home on the pace of the economic recovery and from republican leaders on his foreign policy decision making. >> this administration has a feckless foreign policy, which abandons american leadership. the only conclusion you can draw is that this president wants to kick the can down the road on all these issues until after the election. >> "washington post" political reporter felicia somez joins me again this morning. as we hear about that, hard to say, feckless foreign policy, and that was the speaker speaking earlier. but when we talk about russia or

syria or even iran, the president currently pressured from the right on his policies. can this grow into a bigger issue for the administration moving forward? or does his main opponent, governor romney, want to stick to the economy and those types of issues that are much closer to home for people? >> well, i think the thing that the romney campaign could hope for when it comes to turning around their fortunes on foreign policy would be for there to be some sort of unforeseen situation in iran or the escalation of the conflict in syria or something along those lines that would be a game changer internationally. because right now when you look at where president obama stands, just look at public opinion polling, foreign policy is one of the areas where he gets his highest ratings. i think it was 48% of respondents in the last "washington post"/abc news poll said they approved of his handling on that, and that's compared to about 43% on the economy. it's an area where i think the president is standing on pretty firm ground right now. and certainly, you've got top romney surrogates like senator mccain coming out here and criticizing the president. on the other hand, you do have people such colin powell on the republican side, sort of pointing the finger back at the

romney campaign and saying, wait a minute, maybe you guys -- or you don't have the advisers sort of best in place here to be doing this criticizing. i think if the situation goes as it is going right now, things look to be pretty good in the president's favor, but as with anything, the situation could change pretty quickly in a minute here. >> right. this is the weird dichotomy that's going, we see senator mccain saying a feckless foreign policy, then speaker boehner saying, where are the jobs, keeping focus on that point? so do they start pressing more on foreign policy? if colin powell is coming out saying, hey, you're really off the mark on this one, is it year's to say on what has worked for them, which is the fact that the economy is sluggish? >> i think it's real interesting, when you look at romney himself and what he says on the trail, he almost exclusively focusing on the economy. and you've got speaker boehner on the hill as well, several other top republicans making that their number one talking point, their number one issue. you've got a couple other surrogates here and there sort

of throwing the attention elsewhere, but i think, absolutely, from the romney campaign's perspective, they want to keep this as focused as they can, as tightly as they can on the economy. and look at, for instance, when the president came out and embraced same-sex marriage a few weeks ago. you had, speaker boehner was asked about that on capitol hill, and this was an opportunity for him to the turn that into a bigger issue. and he waved away questions about it and said, where are the jobs, sort of repeating his mantra on that. so i think that incident was sort of the latest instance of republicans sort of keeping very closely to felicia, i want to g take on this. this is david brooks on meet the press and i have a question for you on the other side. >> i question the obama administration's focus to start negative. and this seems to be self-destructive. people like obama, personally, they admire him. and i think he risks throwing that away by starting negative and going extremely tough. >> we're talking about the

president obama re-election playbook here. is it a mistake to go negative out of the gate? is it too early for that? >> i think it seems a little bit early, and that's probably because the campaign is wrapping up now at the end of may here when it comes to the gop primary, but i think strategically, it makes perfect sense for the obama campaign to do this. when it comes to how familiar voters are with mitt romney, there's still a large section of the population that's not that familiar with him, particularly when it comes to his bain record. so of course when the obama campaign goes out the gate here, it makes sense for them to try to define romney before romney gets a chance to try to define himself. and you'll have romney campaign surrogates like marco rubio from florida, the freshman republican senator, and maybe running mate for romney down the line, he has sort of dinged obama on that and said, he's not the same kind of candidate with the same kind of positivity and magic he had four years ago. and that, i think, is the one criticism that the white house opens itself up to by making this a negative campaign, but really, when it gets down to it, they would have to do that sooner or later, and i think the

sooner side of things make sense from a strategic standpoint. >> felicia sonmez, thank you. we move on to london now, and former prime minister tony blair on the stand about london's hacking scandal. interrupted by a hacker who callcall ed blair a war criminal after being removed from the court. he quickly resumed being grilled about rupert murdoch. stephanie gosk joins us from london to fill us in on this. it's been a heated morning so far, or afternoon, forgive me. >> reporter: it has. nothing compared to that pie-flowing incident with rupert murdoch in parliament last summer, but still a little bit of an interpretation. these hearings were triggered by allegations of phone hacking at the now-defunct "news of the world" newspaper, but their scope is much broader. in their final stages, it hopes to pull back the curtain on the media's influence over the government. tony blair had a close relationship with rupert murdoch

while he was prime minister, but was it too close? >> it would be strange, frankly, if senior people in the media didn't have that close interaction. >> reporter: but he acknowledged the the relationship can grow into something he called unhealthy. >> those papers that take a particular view on a policy, a party, or a person, then that is driven with an aggression and frankly a prejudice that means you crossed the line. >> reporter: murdoch's newspaper, "the sun," endorsed blair in the late '90s. murdoch was asked about the endorsement and his influence over blair's policies when he was questioned last month. >> you had extracted really, as much as you could from mr. blair in terms of policy promises, so you endorsed him? >> i think so. >> reporter: blair's personal relationship with the newspaper tycoon would continue to grow. the former prime minister is godfather to one of murdoch's children. a cabinet member in blair's administration testified he had

concerns that blair might appear too closely linked to murdoch. >> i didn't want him to say or do anything that might lead people to infer that he was under some obligation to mr. murdoch. >> later on, blair went on to say that his friendship with murdoch didn't really develop until after he left office and that he would never had said yes to being the godfather to murdoch's child if he was still prime minister. >> stephanie gosk, thank you. and "men in black" finally taking down "the avengers" after three weeks in the number one spot. and the summer movie season is just getting started. we've got a preview of all the biggest blockbusters of the summer, next. >> good afternoon! actually it can. neutrogena® ultra sheer provides unbeatable uva uvb protection and while other sunscreens can feel greasy ultra sheer® is clean and dry. it's the best for your skin. ultra sheer®. neutrogena®.

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there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? welcome back, everybody. it looks like the "men in black" beat "the avengers" at the box. they took in $55 million this holiday weekend.

"the avengers" came in second, earning $37 million. and those two are just the tip of hollywood's superhero iceberg for you this summer. brian joins me now with a sneak preview of some of the other big films that are coming to the theater near you. you should have been here in the commercial break, because we let them all have it. now we have to clean it up. so let's start with this. everybody's talking about "the avengers" was big money. now "men in black" came in to steal that top spot. >> "men in black" just debuted to over 100 million worldwide. you want to feel old? sure, it's been ten years since "men in black 2." if that doesn't make everyone feel sad. he has to go back -- will smith goes back to 1969. you see tommy lee jones there, to go back and see a young tommy lee jones played by josh brolin, who does an amazing job of

recreating the look and voice of tommy lee jones. >> there's j., right, and k.? >> they just unseated "the avengers." >> so let's go to "prometheus," this is a highly anticipated prequel of "alien." >> ridley scott is back in space, they love him. so "prometheus," it's amazing, because it's a little bit of a prequel, but obviously with better technology. charlize theron is in it, michael fastbender, and i think it looks intense. >> are the core audience, the core audience of alien going to get that connectivity, though? >> you know, you don't have to have seen the "alien" series to see this, but look at comic-con, it's huge. all those sci-fi people will see this movie. >> the other one that's coming out for the kids, young adults, "brave." >> yes, disney/pixar. they very rarely miss, disney/pixar. >> it's the little mermaid in

scotland. >> it's not! >> ariel with legs and brogue. >> you know the little mermaid, she's like, i'll give up my fins and get legs to the meet someone. but anyway, this archer, she's still a princess, but she's in scotland, and she's going to fight people to the death. she's a haeroinaieroinai herowi. >> and so then, "rock of ages," which i'm not sold on. it's tom cruise, alec baldwin. >> a broadway show that's in production right now. >> boy meets girl and they sing about it for like two hours. then there's tom cruise looking sure of himself. alec baldwin's going to steal the show, julianne hough.

everyone's saying it's going to be a big hit, but i don't know if it's for everyone. >> great to see you. always great to have you here. so was the biebs really in a brawl? singer justin bieber is wanted for questioning by the l.a. county sheriff's office after a photag complained that he roughed him up at a shopping mall. he claims it happened after he tried to get picks of him and his girlfriend, teen actor, selina gomez, after they left a movie theater. . germ party! eww! now the colgate total mouth. nice! [ female announcer ] colgate total fights 90% more plaque germs. i'm in. [ female announcer ] colgate total. less germs. healthier mouth. your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

so mitt romney wants to make up the gap that he's facing with latino voters before november's election, and a strong immigration policy would be the biggest first step. the founder of monument policy group joins me now. it's great to see you this morning, and as we talk about governor romney really banking on the economic message that he has, making this election a referendum on president obama and his policies on our economy. however, without this clear and

concise policy on immigration reform, isn't he going to struggle in places like nevada, colorado, this fall? i mean, he's not going to be able to pick those states. >> well, hispanic voters are clearly not monolithic. they care about a lot of issues, including getting the economy back on track. and i think the trick for governor romney is to take immigration and morph it into an issue where it fits into his economic plan of competing internationally. for instance, people thinking about immigration and think about the southern border issues that are absolutely critical, but we also need to think about getting the best and the brightest in from overseas, the people who can invent the next kinect xbox and will be our scientists and engineers. but i think most voters understand that we have invested a ton over ten years on enforcement and now's the time to take the next step, and rationalize the people who are really contributing to society. >> let's go over the piece you have in "the new york times" on policy announcements that romney should make, touched on certain key issues. and i want to go over just a few

first, temporary travel. explain that. >> well, we've seen a huge explosion of travel around the world as economies move into the middle class. china, brazil, rest of south america. and we have missed out, to some extent, on that gold rush of travel coming. president obama's done a lot over the last year or so to encourage temporary travel to come in to see our national parks and the disneys of the world. but there's certain things that governor romney could address, such as interviewing people by video conference, make it easier for business people to come into the country that would really be very helpful to our competitiveness internationally. >> stewart, let's get that list back up there. on the very bottom of it, we have the american dream amendment. explain that to everybody, what that would mean for romney's platform. >> sure. well, the constitution says you have to be a native-born citizen, which essentially means you have to be a citizen at birth. and i think, and many people think, somebody who's living and growing up in asia or south america wants to emigrate to the

united states, become a citizen, why shouldn't they have the chance to run for the highest office in the land. we broke down a lot of barriers in the last election. a lot of americans were considerably proud about that achievement. there's no reason that somebody who comes to this country shouldn't be allowed to run for president, just the way they can run for senate, house representatives. so a constitutional amendment's required. i think it would send a great message to the world that we want the best and the brightest to come here. >> and stewart, real quickly, the good neighbor visa? >> well, we've had a real battle over ten years on whether people who are here illegally should be allowed to stay and under what circumstances. people who are here working the clergy, law enforcement, the military, who have started small businesses, why not offer them an indefinite visa, not a right to citizenship, but the ability to stay here, continue their good acts in the community. we've had a big debate over the dream act, which is about kids and how they came into the country. how about somebody who's running a business employing people? somebody who's a community leader, let's put them at the

front of the line in terms of allowing them to stay, no special favors for citizenship, but let's not devote our enforcement resources to trying to kick these people out of the country. >> stewart verdery, great to see you. coming up next, tropical storm beryl, we'll check back on that. it's churning over southern florida and northern georgia this morning. tell you just how much rain to expect. and president obama continuing to fire at mitt romney over bain capital. is it all too negative and coming too soon? we'll explore that. and then on this memorial day, helping vets find homes and secure safe home loans when they return from combat. that many and much more. keep it right here on msnbc. [ woman ] for the london olympic games, our town had a "brilliant" idea. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen.

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♪ for always ♪ oh oh ♪ for always last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years. in florida we had more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spot on the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. right now on msnbc, tropical storm beryl targets florida and georgia, creating new worries about flooding and traffic trouble on this memorial day weekend. we'll have it for you. then, early offensive. the obama camp doesn't seem to