current presidential liabilities, two stand out -- solyndra and donald trump. can team romney make the failed clean tech company a win on the campaign trail? can president obama make the birther with a cotton candy qualify a romney liability? tuesday may 29th and this is "now." joining me today, politico senior white house reporter, glenn thrush, who is unfortunately not wearing a hat inside today. lynn sweet the washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times." and msnbc contributor steve kornacki of salon.com, and the "boston globe's" scott helman co-author of "the real romney." mitt romney will officially become the rominee tonight as long as ron paul doesn't mount a surprise landslide victory in texas. romney needs 58 of texas's 155

dell greats. the romney campaign and super pacs are launching a new line of attack against the president, pushing back against the bayne criticism with a web video that highlights the troubled green technology companies that received energy department funds u under obama. this new web video from the super pac. s. >> obama invested tax dollars in solyndra, lost half a billion, 1100 workers laid off without fair warning. >> risky investment strategy did not stop there. >> 11 green energy companies besides solyndra, billions of tax dollars, declared bankruptcy. >> glenn thrush, is this scary? is team obama scared about what si si solyndra might do on the campaign trail? >> 1100 lost jobs, how many are we mustering with bayne nose are

100s. >> the bayne math over jobs is porous math insofar as you gain some, you lose. >> so is solyndra, the truth of the matter is, there was a wholesale collapse of the solar industry, but none of this stuff matters in terms of ads. >> steve, it's not just about sort of failed green tech and an an indictment of alternative sources of energy and potential criticism of cronyism but the president is a job killer in this investment. >> job killer. there that is subtle or not subtle counter to the bayne stuff, hey, obama cost us jobs, too. just a shot at his cotense there, economic anxiety is so high. they failed here, they failed there, it's giving people that kind of reason. the only thing that give me pause, and it's a good thing for them to try, i feel that

solyndra's an issue that 99% of fox news viewers know all about and it animates them and excites them but that name has no currency outside that universe. people hear solyndra and they go how? >> talking about government investment and private enterprise and the riskiness, can obama turn around and say, remember the auto industry? her how we rescued banks? more people know about those things than solyndra, i'm not sure how that's going to work for the romney team to push one thing when many more know about the successes. >> the point on why the obama camp walked into the lair of romney by attacking -- by attacking romney on bayne, you're talking about jobs. that is what the conversation -- the romney campaign wants. so since so many people are unemployed or worried about their jobs, it's a harder job now for obama to not only push away the attack from the romney camp but to defend his own

record. so he walked into their territory. >> i'll say two things. we should talk more about the bayne line of attack and whether it is still a potent weapon for the obama re-election campaign. in terms of government investment in new and green technology, this is something we need to do, this is something we have traditionally done. a lot of great things have come out of government investment including the internet. making that case to the american public, i think, is a different thing entirely. and certainly there is some merit to government investing in a lot of the upstart, new technology companies at critical periods in their life cycle. that notwithstanding, let's talk about bayne, glenn. robert gibbs defending use of bayne as a campaign tactic. take a listen. >> this is nothing to do with being anti-business. this is a criticism and a good criticism, honestly of mitt romney's only thesis for being president of the united states, that he's some kind of economic savior. >> i question the obama decision to go after to start negative.

they've decided to focus on a negative way be and this seems to be self-destructive. >> david brooks offering his thoughts on it. how has bayne work ford team obama? >> i'd like to say it's good to see gibbs has a tan. >> whereas he been? >> i don't think -- i talked with david axelrod a couple of days ago, their sense, and this is the point that steve is making with regard to solyndra, building brand recognition, to a certain extend nobody knows who these entities are and anytime anyone says bayne or solyndra it's a net positive for either campaign. we're in a boring period we're trying to make very exciting which is just beating into the center parts of the human brain these two names. >> let me ask, to lynn's point, lynn, i'll ask you, david brooks' contention, both on "meet the press" and in the pages of "the new york times," he said, this is not a good sort of message for the president, setting assigned bayne and the

brand recognition. >> this is negative campaigning, i'd like to know where david brooks has been. okay? this is nothing as negative campaigning goes. this is not even close to below the belt. you're still in the upper chest area. >> like to the jaw. >> you're still debating a record. there's a lot of fact checks going on if you're doing it right. point is, it is clear that the democratic team has wanted to make bayne an issue and just started a few weeks ago. talking about bayne in january in iowa, the democratic national committee had to team up in des moines bringing up laid off workers from bain companies. they want bain to be the one word reason not to vote for mitt romney. >> we've seen in recent days romney's record as governor of massachusetts a parallel line of criticism. this is former new york city mayor rudy giuliani who needs no

introduction, talking about his record as governor compared to mitt romney's. it is worth mentioning that he's someone who has endorsed mitt romney and theoretically a support. >> friends like this. >> friends like this, who needs friends? who needs enemies? i know. >> maybe circumstances or whatever but i had massive reduction in unemployment. he had about 8%, 10%, 15%. i had a reduction in unemployment of 50%. had a growth of 40,000. we had a growth of 500,000. i was comparing my far superior record to his decent record. >> scott, that is -- >> that is priceless. from an empty restaurant in sag harbor. what is that? how is that not a corey booker moment for rude rudy giuliani? >> it is. theres no love loss between the

two. they're from opposite ends of the social spectrum, right, rudy giuliani, mitt romney here. >> go ahead. >> so they've never been close. it's not that surprising. and rudy's an ambitious guy and going to use any tv appearance to make his points. but you know it shows there's a series of people who have come around to mitt romney as the nominee on the republican side, some way to the right of giuliani and some maybe more toward the center where he is, and there's just not a tremendous level of excitement. >> but he's going at him on his record, as governor. which romney's going to have to address and undermining it. >> sure. you'll see that throughout the campaign with surrogates on both sides. >> but not presumably surrogates from your own side. >> i think you will. we already have. i saw rachel maddow play two dozen similar ones romney endorsers said something vaguely critical of him. does it matter yet? is anybody paying attention yet? i don't know. >> the thing -- i think you're

dealing with those persuadables, undecided in the key states. a lot of this is the experimental period. they're testing these melsages, getting feedback to refine for later on. we're in the laboratory here. >> it's like a jam fan. >> the thing to keep in mind, when you listen to giuliani, romney has a tendency to really bother at a personal level the people that he runs against you saw this with john mccain 2008 and with rudy giuliani. he really bothered them. they sort of saw a transparent phoniness and calculation in what he was doing, how he was positioning himself and mccain's gotten over it, because barack obama really bothers john mccain, too. giuliani doesn't really have that, and i think that's what you're seeing there. >> but nobody bothers anyone anymore than rudy giuliani bothers people. >> that is true, glenn thrush nailing it on the head. mitt romney warns that in sh rinking the military budget can

put the u.s. on a path to becoming europe. does that sound like someone bullish on spending cuts? the discrepancies in the republican austerity plan next on "now." [ female announcer ] did you know the average person smiles more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth. you walk into a conventional mattress

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the world is not safe. we have two courses we could follow, one follow in the pathway of europe, shrink or military smaller and smaller to pay or four social needs. the other to commit to preserve america as the strongest military in the world second to none with no comparable power anywhere in the world. >> that was mitt romney speaking yesterday at a memorial day event, staking america's future on the strength of our military. steve, does anyone in the world believe that europe is having the problems its having because

their military isn't strong enough? >> it's a way to use the holiday a military themed holiday to introduce the europe bashing back into the campaign. >> this is mitt romney's whole thing, right, the military needs to be strengthened, the military needs to be strengthened and that's never squared with how you slash spending. i will bring to everyone's attention, paul krugmanryan bu ryan's magic asteri asterisks, increase revenues and cut spending in ways he refuses to specify, you're left with plans to increase, not reduce, federal debt. the same can be said of mitt romney who claim his will balance the budget but whose proposals consist of huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, of course plus a promise not to cut defense spending. i believe the cbo analysis, glenn -- sorry, if we're talking about defense cuts you look at defense spending and cuts and tax cuts for the top 1%, the top

5%, as mitt romney has sort of proposed, his plan adds to the deficit. so it begs the question, how legitimate, is this just good marketing on the part of the gop? >> it's throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks. i mean, six months ago, when we were on the hill and we were dealing with this debt meltdown we were starting to have a frank exchange with both democrats and republicans seeming to embrace, a, notion that entitlement spending needed to be addressed and the fact that the military spending in the last decade has been nuts, i mean dealing and with the two wars not in terms of you know qualitative judgment. but you know, that consensus, which is sensible, and one of the few good takeaways from the debacle has dissipated in the presidential campaign. >> we're already spend 6% of our gross domestic product on defense top to say that is the exact right number between now and the foreseeable future doesn't sem liem like the smart

government. when romney says this speaking to a group of people leaning towards him that think he really, if i'm translating he wants to say, obama's weak on defense. that's what this is about, it's not about the number. >> and, scott, this is part and parcel with him vilifying russia and china and taking a really aggressive posture towards the chinese, saying day one he'd reframe the relationship with the chinese. >> he has to say these things, per our conversation before the break, it's all about branding. so he has to come out of the box saying these things. what's interesting is, you know, you listen to what he's saying, warning about the future, we're going to be weak. but look at the last four year obama's been tough on foreign policy and hawkish. how man thousand word story in the day of the kill list of him approving drone missions? it'ser hard to argue that he has not acted hawkishly or to some

degree of having some degree of hawkishly. >> yeah, talking about extraordinary rendition and military commissions. the list -- >> the surge in afghanistan, added troop there's. >> but what's interesting, talking about what mitt romney wants to do in terms of spending i will drive everybody's attention to this quote fromm invut, if you take a trillion out of the first year of the federal budget that would shrink gdp over 5%, by definition throwing us into recession or depression. i'm not going to do, of course, what you do make adjustments on a basis that show in the first year actions over time get you to a balanced budget. all of this talk on capitol hill about slashing and spending immediately, mitt romney actually says, i'm not going to do that and throw the country into a recession. >> he's say, the government needs to play a role to prop up grow during the recession. you have the defense sequestration cutting the budget. you have revolt from republicans, you take that money

out of the military, that's going to hurt the economy. there's an argument, i don't know whether i buy it but i'll put it out if you're interested in kansyian economics and the stimulus to get us over the hump, romney might end up being a better president because of this. the republican party wasn't always opposed to stimulus, they became absolutely opposed when obama became president. even under bush they were approving stimulus. if you accept that approach, if mitt romney gets in there maybe that opposition to stimulus relaxes in a way that it won't if obama gets a second term. >> great segue to what happens at the end of the year. we know the lame duck session's going to be anything but lame, or maybe ultralame i don't know, and sequestration kicks in january 1st. how much are republicans on the hill taking their marching orders or how easy are they going to make life for candidate romney? over the student loan question romney led and said, i'm not going to get the rates go up.

and the house republicans had to fall in line with that. jim demint said i'm not opposed to doing this, ensuring the loan rates are low, but i'm glad romney was smart enough not to take the bait because he's got to pick his battles and not jump on everything the democrats are throwing out to try to trip him up. >> i think john boehner articulated it best, described the conference ace wheel barrel full of frogs, right? this is not going to be easy for anybody to do. i think it's going to be nice to have a daddy of some kind presiding over this pros else are you saying john boehner's not daddy enough. >> feels like uncle john. what was striking about the romney quote there is, identical to what you hear the president saying. there's little daylight in terms of governance on that stuff, the other area, getting back to military, if you can find a lick of daylight between obama and romney, a real difference on afghanistan withdrawal, tell me about that. all of that criticism is ginned

up. >> president obama and anybody in conservative circles in terms of articulating foreign policy plan different from the one in place, i have yet to see it. >> that might be the big secret of the campaign for the extreme rhetoric in terms of actual policy preferences and the narrow lane these actors can function in, isn't that much room to maneuver the big secret revealed months before the election. donald trump continues to push the birther thing, mitt romney doesn't agree with everything his supporters say. we'll tell you about romney's new 50% explanation next. >> time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. former british counterterrorism expert developed tough mudder. based on special forces training a miles long obstacle course that inspires people and bills teamwork. with more than 30 events, it will earn more than $70 million.

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he may have one, but there's something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he's a muslim. >> that was a new web individual grow president obama's campaign released ahead of mitt romney's fund-raiser with donald trump tonight. about response to the video, trump tweeted today, an extended tweet, barack obama is practically begging mitt romney to disavow the place of birth movement. he's afraid of it and for good reason. he keeps using john mccain as an example. however, john mccain lost the election. don't let it happen again. lynn sweet, the place of birth movement, how -- is this effective? does this get people to think twice about mitt romney? he's in cahoots with donald trump? >> trump will help him get a lot of money at the fund-raiser in las vegas at one of the trump properties. once you get past the money, there are so many ads that trump is making for obama in putting out these tweets, that people have a sense of fair play and

for the people who really -- the real birthers, they're probably never going to vote for obama anyway, and i think that in the end the negative could you'd weigh the positive. >> it makes romney seems like he'll be friends with anybody for a buck. listen to what mitt romney said about his fund-raiser with donald trump. >> you're going to spend some time with donald trump. he's associated with the birther movement. >> i don't agree with all of the people support me. my guess they don't agree with everything i believe in. i need 50.1% or more. i'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of people. >> a big difference between mean nor followers and someone doing a fund-raiser top tab $250,000. >> joe rickets, the news about the superpack, running adds about jeremiah wright, he didn't say i'm not going to say anything, he said i disavow

this. >> after eight hours. >> but he did say it. >> he's doing a fund-raiser with donald trump who is giving him money and who he's appeared with multiple times. this seems like weakening. i need 50.1% or more and i'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people. >> we're in a period now, i remember four years ago on the other side where romney has to define himself, he has to figure out where in the republican party he lies and where that sort of power center is for him, where he's going to get support and where he's going to be assertive and say that doesn't represent me and what i believe. and i think this is an opportunity for him to really be assertive and say, this is not what we're about, i disavow this. we haven't seen him take the road yet. he has to know this won't play well in the end. part of being a presidential candidate telling hard truths to people. >> it's worth noting he's meeting with sheldon adelson,

also in vegas, where a door may close a window may open. coming up, international efforts intensify in syria after a bloody weekend crackdown kills dozens of women and children. the white house faces new scrutiny following another round of deadly drone strikes in pakistan. we'll look at these challenges ♪ [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we began with the rx. [ tires squeal ] then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx and the next chapter for lexus. see your lexus dealer. woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods?

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secretary of state and spokesman for the state department during the clinton administration. >> nice to be with you. >> we know that in the talks with president assad, kofi annan said the tipping point is now, appealed for immediate action. how optimistic are you there's a peaceful u.n.-led solution to this? >> i think the annan mission was well-intentioned, to see whether the whole world got behind one envoy and stuck with him to see if he could impress upon the government there to make change. the plan that he put forward if it worked, would be great. there's just no evidence that the government in syria intends to follow the plan, namely to stop shelling neighborhoods, to stop using heavy weapons, and to begin a serious dialogue. the government there is -- said it would abide by the plan, but it will not, we've seen that for weeks and months, maybe kofi annan has reached a point he's going to give them a deadline. it's signaling maybe by this

phrase tipping point that he wants to set a deadline and say i can only work if you're going to follow the plan and i'll work for another x number of weeks. i think that would be very important, if annan just continues to do what he's doing now, i think he will discredit the united nations and himself because he's losing any semblance of cred interon the ground and around the world. nobody thinks that this plan is working. >> would you say that we are now in a sort of diplomatic crisis for the united states? we know there was a lot of criticism the president weathered over the pace which which he got involved in libya. the death tolls higher, some say 9,000, some say 12,000 have been killed going on for nearly a year. where does the president go from here? >> we need to distinguish between libya and syria in the following way. they both involve moral calculations about how many civilian deaths you're going to allow before you intervene.

clearly in syria, that number is way beyond what was happening in libya. but the big difference is not the moral difference. the big difference is this strategic difference. after gadhafi was gone, the middle east hasn't changed, it was good for the people of libya, they were saved, and some form of government better than gadhafi will be in place. however if we got rid of assad, if the world decided to do in syria what they decided to do n. libya the world would change for the better in my judgment. people have said what comes next? i don't know what comes next but what i know is that iran is a -- ability to operate in the middle east is only there because of their relationship with assad. if that goes away, iran is seriously weakened and the middle east is a better place. >> jamie, in the buildup to the libya resolution and the u.n., we were told time and time again by administration officials that syria was not analogous there were conditions on the ground in

syria that made that intervention less practical particularly the air defense systems and all of that. do you think there was a mistake by the administration that early in the process to signal that we were not willing to take military action? >> i think that if we want to achieve our objectives, the stated objectives of getting rid of assad and ending the mass murder of his own citizens, it's going to require diplomacy backed by force. the assad regime is not going to change what it's doing based on sanctions or diplomacy, it's going to only do that if it at ul as a result of diplomacy backed by force. if you're asking by removing from the table the idea at all of force, and not leaving it as a potential option, that probably weakened the diplomacy, i would agree with you. the problem is the administration is looking at the options in syria, and they are

more difficult than libya. the only answer i give, but the result would be far more important. it's harder to do, the air defenses are better in syria than they are in libya, the rebels are not as unified in syria as they were in libya. but if you were to succeed, the consequences would be far, far better than the consequences in libya, which really were none beyond libya. >> do you think the president feels as much pressure to take action on syria as he did in libya before we went in. >> i do not, particularly in light of the issues that we're dealing with pakistan and the drone issue and what we dealt with at the nato conference in chicago. i think there's a real sense on part of the president at the moment that we are very happy to be moving in the opposite direction. and i think any determination is clearly contingent on the election. i don't think the president is in any way looking forward to getting nus something thus into might be messy.

>> in the case of libya, you had two powerful leader in the world, leader of france, sarkozy, and the leader of britain, determined to do this with or without the united states. >> right. >> and they had their own reasons for doing that and we could get into than the defense now there are no other leaders pushing for action and that's why i think glenn is actually correct that without some pressure, some new element, i think the administration -- >> the lead from behind strategy is easier if there are other people in front, which is to say sarkozy. >> the iranian part of the equation is interesting as well. we saw stories over the weekend about a more deeper level of involvement on the part of the iranian military in coordinating with syria. do you think that is a wild card and could affect the dynamic. >> this is a personal view, and it's not very popular, i believe the president could solve the risk of israel attacking iran

because israel is going to come back to that in the next few months, there's going to be another round of this before the election, the israeli ministry, the key person made clear if assad goes israel is safer in a big way because iran can no longer operate. so i would argue, if you want to avoid a battle with the israelis over whether they should strike iran, the easiest, best, and morally correct thing to do, would be to help overthrow assad because that will eliminate iranness ability to threaten israel directly. >> short term pain, long term gain. we didn't get to talk about the "new york times" epic today -- >> i'm on the second page. it's pretty long. >> quickly, jamie, i mean, it's a long story and there are a lot of nowances, the president's counterterrorism strategy is not that different from the bush administration in terms of

rendition, military commissions and definite detention. it's still going on. what do you make of that? >> what's happened here john brennan, who is mentioned in the story, the lead adviser on counterterrorism, operated in the bush administration as well, he's a professional, and on the key questions of how to troy al qaeda, he was playing a crucial role in the past administration at the cia. he's now the decisionmaker in this administration. he makes recommendations to the president and as far as i can tell in 10,000 words there is no indication the president disagreed with mr. brennan. the point here is the continuity is in the form of mr. brennan, who is a professional, disagree or agree with him, and on the main points how to destroy al qaeda through drones, through rendition, if necessary, mr. brennan's views seem to be ones the president is comfortable with despite the fact that guantanamo is still

open which is something he wanted to close. >> the president is a pragmatist. i was surprised at level of rolfment lookirolf me involvement of kill lists, who is staying, who's going. >> brennan makes the recommendation. despite 10,000 words there's no evidence they said, no, i disagree with you, we're going to take this guy off or put this guy on. that's what i learned from the story, how over to the degree to which john brennan really is running the terrorism for the president, but running it. >> jamie ruben, a pleasure to have you on. thanks for your time. after the break, joint talks. a congressional candidate from california is running on a platform to legalize marijuana. is the country ready for a year long 420? [ jennifer ] what if i can't do it? what if i can't lose the weight? what if weight watchers can't help me? what if i'm not ready for change? what if i fall back into old habits? what if i lose control? what if i gain it all back?

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tells you i'm on the side of the fish, against the drones in the national forest and i'm a medical marijuana patient ipd like to introduce a friend of mine. see, i'm the only candidate who is willing to get arrested on the steps of the capitol, doing this. >> that was andy caffrey, running for congress in california. detailing his unique platform at a rally this month. he wants marijuana legalized and if elected promises to light up on the capitol steps to draw national attention to the issue. joining us now, andy caffrey who labels himself monstrously green in the democratic party. great to see you. >> thanks, alex. nice to be here. >> so, i want to draw some attention to your overall platform, the monstrously green moniker you've adopted, you're interested in the legalization of marijuana, taxing the

superrich, and ending presidential crime by punishing it and ending electoral reform. folks feel like the wind may be in the proverbial sails given the fact there are folks on the conservative side of the aisle proponents of legalizing it including grover norquist, glenn beck, pat robertson. do you think now is the time for if not decreation the war on drugs changing our national positions on certain drugs? >> yes. i call it ridiculous prosecution, because a -- persecution. the time is long past. one of the lines that gets laughs in my campaign is it would be a big trav esty if the hippies died off without legalizing pot first. i lived in the north coast region for 25 years and used to have a thriving timber industry but it was throttled now we have

a narrow range of opportunities in the rural parts of northern california and marijuana is providing anywhere between 25% and maybe 60% of our total income. our entire economy on the north coast has made a transformation over the last 15 years and now it's just time to stop throwing people in jail. no one should be in jail. over 800,000 people a year are arrested for marijuana in this country. it's just not right. >> i want to play a little bit of sound, the president weighed in on the subject of drug legalization when he was in cartagena. let's hear what he said. >> i personally, and my administration's position, is that legalization is not the answer. nevertheless, i'm a big believer in looking at the evidence, having a debate. >> i want to open this up to our panel for a second. steve, there are 17 states plus washington, d.c., where medical marijuana is legal. the president there not -- i don't know, keeping the door

sort of open to a conversation around legalization. what's your prognosis on this taking a hold in terms of a national policy? >> i think it's going to take some time. what you have with andy, it's an interesting story, what he's talking about his something that's unique in terms of the role that marijuana plays in the economy there. he's sort of the most expressive candidate in that race when it comes to his support for legalization. but he's not the only candidate running up there who supports it. it's becoming in that neck of the woods something you have to do if you want to be a successful polpolitician. another primary in texas where reyes is being challenged by a guy who may beat him in the primary. the issue of the challenger who lives on the mexico border is marijuana legalization. so there are pockets of the country where this has strong resonance right now. i think overall, talking about national politics, people like obama who are thinking about all of the states, swing states i think it's a long time before it catches up in states that aren't

like that. >> andy, it's worth noting that i thoit thougught this was a te quote, the drug czar said to the a.p. may 13th of 2010, in the grand scheme it has not been successful speaking about the war on drugs. 40 years later the concern of drug problems is if anything magnified, intensified. that sort of -- that verbiage, that's powerful coming from one of our national -- one of the folks crafting our national drug policy -- why isn't that national broader line of argument adopted by the pro-pot legalization community? >> it's adopted bay lot of people april lot of issues to argue on. one of the things i learned about in trinity county if you're a mother and give birth they measure thc, if they find thc there's a good chance they'll take your kid away, put it in foster care and the counties get paid $15,000 for

that. it's just that people don't know what it's like to live in a culture of marijuana. people have all of these strange images and we have these vested interests who just perpetuated this horrible persecution for so long. it's just -- it's just alien to most people. most people think of it as something to be defensive about and that's hopefully one of the things going to change because of my campaign. no reason why medical marijuana smokes are should feel shy or defensive about taking their medicine. improves lives of thousands of people and there's a huge area of research yet to be done on health effects. one of my opponents is a medical marijuana doctor and tells extraordinary stories about removing seizures, 400 a day in one patient down to four. >> it is part of a larger cultural bat that will play out. and states whereas steve said you wouldn't think there would

be a lot of debate of legalizing marijuana. andy caffrey, thank you for joining us. good luck. we'll be watching the campaign with bated breath. >> thank you very much. first lady michelle obama speaks out about her new book. beets, beets. whether she would ever run for president. we'll hear her latest comments next in "what now?" [ female announcer ] e-trade was founded on the simple belief that bringing you better technology helps make you a better investor. with our revolutionary new e-trade 360 dashboard you see exactly where your money is and what it's doing live. our e-trade pro platform offers powerful functionality that's still so usable you'll actually use it. and our mobile apps are the ultimate in wherever whenever investing. no matter what kind of investor you are, you'll find the technology to help you become a better one at e-trade.

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so many ways to serve. being president is one of the hardest ways and that's one of the reasons why i tell barack, i'm a little smarter than him, i picked the easier job. >> i have no interest in politics. never have never will. >> that was first lady michelle obama on "the view" this past hour, whether she would consider running for office. making several tv appearances to promote her new book "american grown." nobody knows the first lady like

lynn sweet. michelle obama has never been interested in politics, she has no appetite for that. on the sweet truth owe meter, where does that statement rank? >> i take her at 100%. she's the daughter of a precinct captain, she saw the process growing up. she doesn't want to put her personal life on the line, she likes keeping her own schedule, her kids are still young and doesn't want to be controversial. she enjoys her popularity, picking and choosing targets and does not, not, not want to deal with a legislative body. >> always michelle obama. sort of a nobody climbing his way, she was resistant, thought politics were dirty, thought he was too good for it. >> if she has to put in all of that effort doing something she should puts in a job paying more money. >> moving on to another race -- we weren't talking about the presidential race -- looking for

segues, massachusetts senator scott brown's re-election campaign is out with a new ad promoting his bipartisanship. it says that, he's helped pass all of these laws, working across the aisle. tauting compromise may be political suicide but not in massachusetts. >> it worked for mitt romney when he was running in massachusetts. >> that's true. that's true. >> i guess we'll see scott brown make his adjustment when he goes national. really surprising to me, maybe you guys could talk about it, too, is just how little this controversy is over elizabeth warren's apparent indian heritage has knocked her down. she seems to -- the last poll had her within a point. doesn't sem liem like brown, smy positioned, really seems to be able to pull away here. >> if the race were purely a popularity contest he would win this thing kind of easily.

reminds me of the massachusetts senate race, weld and kerry in 1996 where that same dynamic would have existed. the party label's drag for weld in 1996, he couldn't win that race. the party label's a drag for scott brown. the thing that i hear, from massachusetts originally, from people is, if scott brown doesn't win this year, he'll probably end up running for governor in 2014, and he could probably win there because the party label wouldn't have the same effect. >> they're neck and neck, 48, 47. >> that's absolutely right. it's all going to come down to what massachusetts votes are going to do. massachusetts voters love to elect moderate republicans and also democrats at the same time. check the box for obama and might check the box for scott brown. it's a contradiction but makes sense in massachusetts. >> as do so many things in massachusetts. so many things that come from massachusetts are a contradiction in terms. thanks to glenn, lynn, steve, scott. see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern 9:00 a.m. pacific

joined by the notorious michael steele, john heilemann, senator kay bailey hutchison after the texas primaries. follow us on twitter. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. hello, happy primary day to you. >> same to you. thanks so much, alex. mitt romney's big gamble on donald trump as trump comes out questioning president obama's birth certificate. former missouri senator jim talent representing the romney campaign will join me next. the u.s. and western allies send syrian diplomats home after friday's massacre in hula. the international crisis group's robert mali joining me next on "andrea mitchell reports." [ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes,

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my brother doesn't look like a heart attack patient. i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i'm a fighter and now i don't have that fear. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," donald trump does it again, only hours before hosting a fund-raiser tonight for mitt romney, trump goes on cnbc and questions whether president obama is a natural born citizen.