tough road for president obama. for republicans, the script writes itself. >> this is terrible. i mean these job numbers are pathetic. i think it just really cries out for us to actually try something new now. >> i'm not going to go down the path of i'm not an economist. all i can say is that they would have taken our advice and worked with us, the economy would be better. more americans would have better jobs, more americans would have better incomes. that's clear to us. >> i guess the only news this morning is that 3 1/2 years lauter, the president's policies are still failing. >> richard wolffe, #from the republican twitter feed is probably i told you so. or i sort of muscling glee. i don't know how you put that in a #. they are certainly dancing all over this. how bad is it for the president right now? >> well for a start nobody should be dancing or gleeful about poor job numbers.

if you want to know what the republican policies can do, you just have to go back to the end of the bush term when this economy was losing 700,000, 800,000 jobs a month. so we've got this collective amnesia going on. it's understandable because it was so painful, who would want to remember it. that's the hard thing for the obama campaign. remind people just how bad things were and say things are getting better, about you they're still not that good. if you compare it globally, it's a much better situation here than it is anywhere in the world. if you look at what the republicans care about, their friends leading businesses, they're doing great. they're not just doing great personally but corporate profits at record highs, the stock market 80% up from its low march of '09. you can't campaign because it doesn't feel good. if you want the policy debate, republicans did not leave a great situation when they were cutting taxes and had no regulation that would have maybe avoided some of this stuff.

>> there are a couple numbers i think are worth looking at. i think this is something we pay attention to, we give a fair amount of attention to on this show which is the long-term unemployment numbers. they are not good. those numbers went up by 300,000 in april. they're 5.4 million americans now out of work for over 27 weeks. this is structural unemployment that has very dire repercussions for the american economy. but the silver lining i suppose, jodie, is the unemployment numbers in swing states which are not as bad as the natural average. if you're playing this game which is the electoral math game for november, it may not be as bad as all that for president obama come november, given the fact that in iowa, virginia, pennsylvania, colorado, and ohio, the unemployment rate is lower than of course, the national average. >> i think that's right. also, remember that mitt romney is essentially making one argument to the american people. if you elect me, the economy can get better.

and that may be an easy argument to make in these kind of broad cartoon shl political ads but when he's up there on debate podium with president obama as we get closer to november, i wonder if he'll be as effective. what we really know is that the economy is weak because of the massive crisis we underwent a few years ago. it's weak because of things happening in europe and the truth is, that no president is fully in control of the economy. >> do you think voters given that past, jonathan, like we point out, there are five dates coming up where it's not do or die but they're definitely circled in red on the white house calendar? >> the voters aren't going to give the president a pass, not going to give mitt romney a pass. when they go into the voting booth, they're going to say how am i doing, how is the country doing economically. and at this point, it's not clear how anyone's going to feel. as jodi said once they get into the debates, mitt romney has to get away from the -- these

cartoonish commercials and sort of generalities what he's going do about the economy and get specific what he's going to do. the republicans and conservatives slam the president for blaming others for the economy's problems, but as jodi pointed out, there are a whole bunch of things happening around the world that the president of the united states, whether that person is a democrat or a republican, has nos control over. and can't do anything about it but just hold on for dear life and hope that whatever they can do, tinkering around the ends, will make these problems easier or better, not worse. >> holding on for dear life is painful and i guess realistic mess and. but kurt, we played all the republican response there, which is predictable i would guess. >> uh-huh. >> what's been interesting is to see how democrats sort of embrace or don't embrace this moment. it's interesting to look at the differing responses between the white house and congressional

leadership. and you know, the chair of the president's economic council alan krueger, unsurprising had a positive spin which was basically look, we're increasing jobs. there's growth. we are not in recession anymore. nancy pelosi says damn it, democrats have put our proposals for jobs and the middle class tax cuts on the table. the time is now for republicans to join us in moving forward on behalf of the middle class. so president obama is looking out for his best interests. congressional leadership saying this is republicans and congress's fault. >> jodi made the right point. there are two things going on. the politics of 8.2% unemployment, 69,000 jobs created. that's terrible. there's no way around that, that's terrible politically. then there is the economy which operates not only not fully under the control of this president or any president but not very much at all under the control of a president so the question is, are people when they get in the voting booth having heard the republican platform for economic revival going to say, yeah, this

hasn't been so good but is this going to be better. i don't think people are stupid. they may feel bad and that may incline them to say let's try something different but when they get what that different is that romney is proposing, that's going to be where push comes to shove. i'm not sure that's going to look so good come november. >> if you think back to the last president going for re-election, president bush around this time iraq was spinning out of control. it was a disastrous mess. democrats then were tempted to go and dance up town every time there was bad news out of iraq. not a good at all at any point. republicans have to be very careful about cheering on a struggling economy. but secondly, president bush triumphed in spite of everything that was going on in iraq right then because he said i have the leadership to get us out of this. you may disagree with the decisions but i'm still the best guy. remember, it's not just a firing decision but a hiring decision.

they're all wrapped up together. so for this president to go out and say yes, this economy is not going as well as i want but i have a plan to get us out and i have the character to get us out of it and the other guy doesn't is a mirror image of what we saw new 2004. that's where they're at. >> having john boehner say if we had just done what we told him to do, the idea is to your point, if the republicans manage this message and say it's not our problem and he should have followed our prescriptions, that -- it's on a vote of confidence for the republican party. >> we have to pay attention to things like jod's colleague nate silver. he's done the math fairly well to say that something like 150,000 new jobs a month is the obama administration's probably okay or not. 69,000 is really bad news. i mean, there's -- >> and downward projections from the previous months, as well. yes, it is overwhelmingly not good news. i want to talk quickly before we

go to break about optics yesterday. the three competing moments. we had george w. bush and president obama having a sort of bipartisan moment at 1600 pennsylvania avenue or 16 pennsylvania avenue as i led off saying. we had david axelrod getting cheers angiers on the steps of the massachusetts state capitol and, of course, we had mitt romney in a secret surprise visit to solyndra. jodi, did you think -- did either side play this well, excluding the president which is to say the re-election team versus the romney campaign. >> >> i'm so struck by the sheer thee atricality of it. we have entered into stunt season. by the way. >> caller: think social media is pushing this, right? because every campaign is trying to create video clips that their side can joyfully post on facebook the next day saying isn't this cool, isn't this cool? we're watching theater as much as we're watching substance now. >> and not good theater. >> not good theater at all.

you know, the portrait unveiling yesterday which completely overshadowed mitt romney and his solyndra stunt was fantastic. i think it was a great moment for the country to see two presidents who really, if you just listen to the one-liners from george bush and the one-liners from barack obama, these are two guys who are in that the world's most exclusive club who can still be gracious, who can still be respectful. but ding each other in a way that lets people know who are all in on the joke, if you will, that yeah, we know the truth as we see it. but who can still sort of celebrate each other and what their service to the country. when can we have that in the presidential campaign? when is that moment going to happen? maybe it's after the conventions. >> i believe it's officially on the calendar for next nevuary.

that will very moment of bipartisanship thrown into sharp relief by the split screens of -- >> living in utopia, but there's got to come a time when we can talk about the tough issues facing this country and the other side is not evil. other side is not trying to kill innocent people. they're just two different camps with two different points of view who want to come together and at least get 80%, 60% of what they can. >> i believe neruary is actually a month on the mayan calendar. coming up, the judge may have declared a mistrial in the edwards case, but will there be an impact on campaign finance laws? savannah guthrie is here to talk to us about it next on "now." if you're one of those folks who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... well, shoot, that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt!

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>> i think that he had some knowledge. imoin, where the money was going. >> he was just smart enough to hide it. and we could not find the evidence. >> the evidence wasn't there. >> i think there needs to be some change in campaign finance law before you go through this process. >> those were three members of the jury who yesterday found john edwards not guilty on one felony conviction and remain deadlocked on the other five counts. all three jurors who spoke on the today show this morning thought he was guilty of misusing campaign funds, but sources tell nbc news that the department of justice is not likely to push for a retrial. joining the panel now is the inimitable, the lovely savannah guthrie, nbc's chief legal correspondent and co-host of the third hour, the power hour of a

show called "today" on nbc. thanks for joining us. >> nice to see you. >> let's talk about the optics of the doj here. this was sort of led by the public integrity section of the doj and it would seem to be a colossal misfire, is it not? it cost the estimates are something like $2 million in government funds, and for what? >> well, look, trial prosecutors win and lose cases all the time. just because they lose a case doesn't mean that a prosecution was ill founded. however, this one was criticized because many, many people who prosecute these cases or have prosecuted these cases who know the campaign finance laws thought this was a real stretch, kind of the outer limits, very aggressive prosecution of the campaign finance laws to say that money, given by somebody to basically hide a mistres to call that a campaign contribution many, many people thought no one, even john edwards, a lawyer himself, would really have been on notice that that would be considered a campaign contribution that needed to be reported on fec filings.

actually, the fec itself to this day does not consider it necessary tore report that on john edwards' own financial disclosure. so i think that's the reason the criticism is here today that the prosecution was too aggressive, too expansive, too novel and at the end of the day they lost. >> do you think it undermines the public integrity section of the doj? >> they've tried a lot of cases. they've gotten some embarrassments in the last few years, the prosecution of ted stevens because the prosecutors involved in that case where is reprimanded for failing to turn over evidence that was favorable to the defense, a huge no, no, a big deal in the legal world. but i have to say they try -- i know some of these prosecutors. they try cases that are much less high profile around the country. i'm not ready to impugn an entire section of the department of justice. >> thank you for reserving your -- >> i wouldn't do that, yeah. >> curt, the irony in all of

this is this is coming as we're dealing with the gigantic elephants in the room which is to say the super pacs. of course, if one of john edwards' associates had left his campaign and perhaps started a super pac all of this could have happened, quote unquote, legally. >> elephant in the room, the barn door open. the barn door has been open and blasted in terms of effective finance regulation that adheres to common sense. and here in the john edwards case it seems, they're fiddling with this board in the back of the barn that maybe was not square. it just seemed to me an absurd waste of time although perhaps if they would have tried him in a military bunal. >> got to get a gitmo reference in there. richard, politico reporting that place an expectation that the gop super pacs and outside groups will spend $1 billion in this race. there is broad agreement or at least the semblance of broad

agreement that the super pacs, we have to reform the system. the election hasn't even happened yet. do you think we will see some kind of reform, some kind of change in rules at least make the process a more transparent one? you are already smiling which to me says no. >> i'm an optimist by nature. i do think look back at what happened in 2000. there was a complete disaster about counting elections. something as basic, fundamental to legislators well-being as being able to count elections correctly. reforming that part of the system was extraordinarily difficult and it was rehard to actually execute on any of it. if you think about this, if legislate torz -- could seen say the supreme court has got citizens united and that's it. the constitution has been settled on this issue, but they could something. if for them the choice is do i want to be raising money forever and spending less time actually

dealing with positions, the things, the people that put me in office in the first place or do i just want to be on the phone to fund-raisers all the time either raising money for myself or kowtowing to a super pac and try to beg money from them or some help from them? that's the life they've got to choose. that choice for them is going to be ultimately what decides whether they change the law. i just don't think they're going to make that choice. >> what about the super pac hon chose themselves? there's another article quoting restore our future donor frank van der sloot. you go back to the dark ages when they publicly human mill yeaed them. this is frank's talking about the treatment that some super pac donors have gotten. they've been vilified, profiles made public. perhaps there is some motivation there for i don't know, no says richard. >> it's all new to them. and -- but the whole point of the super pacs as it's emerging

is to do the things that the campaigns can't do that's too dirty, too lowdown for them to do. look at the rickets affair with the german irate ad that they didn't make. that obviously burned him. and i do think that these, you know, super pac zil airs will think i thought this was going to be a way to help my side and in this giant loophole way keep my hands clean. if it's not, they mail over time over the next -- over this cycle think, ah, heavy not. >> the unless it's a uper pac that doesn't have to disclose donors. the point is, do you want to just be a rich guy or a rich guy who can have access and influence things. that's always going to be tempting for people. the question is, and really we're not talking about the democratic super pacs don't deserve the word super. they haven't got anywhere close to that level. but do you want to be a

candidate who is overshadowed by these donors and their strategists? karl rove was in the white house yesterday, you know, cheering on that moment of bipartisanship. he's been a prime mover in this kind of thing. he's more powerful, too. do you want to be shaken down by people. >> the romney campaign having to defend off the jeremiah wright stuff when that wasn't hatched in their own laboratory. let's talk about john edwards and play his statement on the steps of the courthouse yesterday. let's take a listen. >> if i want to find the person who should be held accountable for my sins, honestly, i don't have to go any further than the mirror. i don't think god's through with me. i really believe he thinks there's still some good things i can do. >> savannah, is there a second act for john edwards? >> it's hard to fathom i'm being elected to office in north carolina or any other state although life is long. there have been public redemption stories. it happens. the first order of business is

for him to, of course, not face retrial. that's something the department of justice could do. they have the opportunity to try him again on the five counts for which there were deadlocks but i think as a practical matter they probably will opt not to. they got their crack at this. it was a controversial prosecution from the start. i'm not sure they'll go down that road. >> but i don't think, there's still a lot left to understand. that clip you just played about god is not done with me yet. this is why aaron sorkin is writing a movie about this guy, right? this is one of the great shakespearean tragedies in american politics. you know, my job at the "times" is to do biography on the candidates and get beyond the public images and find out who these people really are. as i watched this trial, i said, you know, what is going on there? is this the john edwards that elizabeth edwards married when she was young? did he change over the course of public life? what was the role of his participation in the political process? did it change him, did it

corrupt him in some way? >> did fierce ambition give way to hugh brus. >> he says it didn't. >> that's how he assesses the situation. but of course, he was still lying about his an fair first time he said that the problem was me. i got too arrogant. it all went 0 my head. i'm not sure there be a second act for him but i'm thinking the path if it were to happen is to do something privately quietly that's good for humanity, good for his family. >> let's not forget we had a president who, of course had a effectual affair in office and is beloved, was beloved by majorities at the moment and beloved now. i think a second act is possible if it's not in politics. >> who is stumping right now and arguably one of the more powerful voices in american politics? which is to say never say never in politics. savannah, thanks for your insight. after the break, did former president bill clinton pull a cory booker last night? why talking about mitt romney's

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[ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside. so i don't think that we ought to get into the position where we say this is bad work. this is good work. there's no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office, a man who's been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold. >> bad news for the president's team in chicago. another surrogate has come down with a case of booker syndrome, bookeritis, booker flu. whatever you prefer. jonathan capehart, we know we're going to hear more about bain. but that is -- president clinton talking about bain being part of a sterling reputation and that it's good work certainly doesn't

help president obama's case. >> no, we now have a mayor, now have a governor, deval patrick on "morning joe" yesterday and now a former president of the united states all saying in one form or another this bain argument is not exactly working. you know, i would think that, or i should say i would hope that the people in chicago who put this strategy together, that you know, bain been recede and other issues will come to the forebecause i think yesterday they tried to talk about governor romney's stint as massachusetts governor. it didn't go so well. but they have five months to keep coming back at romney's record as governor of massachuset massachusetts, which i'm sure they can fine for plenty of things to hang around romney's neck. >> but you know, jodi, we're talking about the relationship between president clinton and president obama. certainly bill clinton is a new yorker now, he has a relationship with the business community. he has a wife who is, you know, leaving a cabinet position but who knows where her -- what her

next act may be. is it megaawkward, kind of awkward or just plain awkward to watch the two men interact? >> it's always been awkward. they're doing a bunch of fund-raisers in the next couple days. when you put bill clinton and barack obama together, it is a little bit like the political equivalent of one of those buddy movies where two very, very different people get stuck in the same car for a night of adventure and hillarity ensues. who is arnold schwarzenegger. >> first black president. >> yes, that is the name of the film. >> i want to say one more thing. i do think that this is a little bit dangerous for the obama people because president clinton has a genuine critique of the obama way of doing things that i have heard him state himself. he talked about this at georgetown university in the fall which is he is worried that the obama people are not openly pro business enough. he often says something like americans believe in success and we're an aspirational country. we look up to people who have

made it big and the administration needs to understand and reflect that more. so anything coming from president clinton that makes it sound like president obama is the least bit anti-business is a little bit sensitive i think. >> but richard, what does this do to -- does team obama circle the wagons and a we've got rejiger this line of attack or do you think they're even listening at this point? >> it's interesting we're now having the message about the message. >> we're very -- >> we're all doing that. and to a certain degree, re-elections end up in that point anyway. the attack was not on bain as bain. the attack was on romney's claim that bain made him qualified to know how to create jobs. because that's what romney has been saying. i know how to create jobs because that's what i did at bain. that was always a stretch. in fact, when mitt romney started out his campaign in that video of his announcement, he didn't say -- his line was if

you want to go out and create jobs, it helps to have had a job. so his first line of attack was the other guy has never had a job. that didn't really work. then it became if you want to create jobs, it helps to have created jobs. the problem is, bain never did that. chicago folks had to go out and address that. it's ugly. it's negative. it takes you down in the polls, negative campaigning never does you a whole lot of good. but the hope is that it gets the other guy in a worse position. they have really lost control of the debate about the debate because their campaign tactics have become caricatures. >> bill clinton says there, it's a qualifier for being president, having the executive record in massachusetts combined with his business acumen, it's a qualifier. which does i think undermine the president's assertion that it is not a qualifier for being president. no, curt in. >> like all politics, there are double or triple messages going on. you want to remind the people inclined to think and therefore,

vote against him that mitt romney is an unfeeling rich guy who -- to whom employees are just expenses and can be gotten rid of. at the same time, you have to take the high road and say which is true is the guy is obviously as president clinton said can get up and go to work in the morning and understand spread sheets and crosses that threshold. so you have to do both. you have to do boast those things in an election. and as richard said, i mean, it's not as though the anti bain attacks formally and officially by the obama campaign have been saying capitalism and its less seamly parts like private equity perhaps arguably are wrong. they've just been reminding the world that this was not a -- it is not about the job creation because much of the economy and much of capitalism is not about job creation. it's about creating an efficient set of markets.

>> but as you just proved, it is a new aunsed point that does require some explanation. that's not the last time we say bain on this channel. we will see what they cook up in the coming months. after the break, on wisconsin. are we witnessing the beginning of the ends of organized labor? we'll discuss that next on "now." [ male announcer ] considering all your mouth goes through, do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine® cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. listerine®... power to your mouth™. of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la

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one a day women's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day women's 50+ healthy advantage. >> the great thing about not being president is you can say whatever you want. cooperation works, constant conflict is a dead bang loser. and you need to get rid of it. so, let's just look at the choice. who's got the best record on dealing with this budget crisis? tom barrett. >> that was former president bill clinton in wisconsin stumping for milwaukee mayor tom barrett. barrett is hoping to oust

republican governor scott walkner tuesday's recall re-election. a new poll shows walker with a seven-point lead. he's outspending barrett nearly eight to one. how scared are democrats? we know that debbie wasserman-schultz is planning a trip over there, martin o'malley has been over there. richard, a lot has been made about this recall effort and it being a bellwether for the president's or what may happen in november both on the congressional and presidential level. >> i don't think wisconsin is going to be in romney's column come november. but certainly it's high profile. there's a chance to take a scalp here. seven points that some of the internal polls suggest it's closer. you can never really trust those. it's worth it at this point. organized labor has bigger problems than walker. it has a long-term decline. it needs to show it's got relevance to especially younger workers. that's the bigger fight going on here. it's not going to be decided sadly by one recall. >> that is actually the bigger

question here. is the declining momentum of organized labor. we know that in terms of union power in wisconsin, teachers union, 35% of members have resigned from the teacher's union for quit the union since walker signs his law. afscme, membership fell 54% last year. and you know, curt, we talk about the narrative here as we've talked about budget cutting. the american worker has been vilified i think and union power has been undermined in a dramatic way in the course of the last years. >> public employees unions on the one hand, that is where organized labor in this country has grown over the last 30 years as manufacturing has declined, public employee unions have grown. politically, there's public employees and unionized public employees are in a different category. i think there are lots of people who are progressive who vote democratic who wonder really? i'm given $100,000 pension after

retiring at age 60? i don't get a pension anymore. pensions are withering away in the private sector. i think there is a -- there's a problem for what has been given top public employees in so many places as a result of organized labor's power in negotiating with states and cities. and i'm not sure that the average person in the center is necessarily with them as we go forward. >> and that's the question, too. because barrett has sort of asked in a matter of sorts for president obama to come and sort of help him out. president obama is in the area, chicago, minnesota, and is not going to wisconsin. and that i think is indicative of sort of how much the independent vote is at stake here and also the president not wanting to be seen as sort of his guy to getting defeated and indictment of his power in wisconsin. what do you make of it, jodi? >> mon cap davy is covering the

story from wisconsin. i was struck by that category of person you were talking about. she interviewed people who want walker to remain in power but are for president obama. and those are the people president obama doesn't want to offend. it's such a toxic situation. what people say on the ground is that the level of ugliness in wisconsin, which is a state that was always characterized by a relatively con generallial political culture is just off the charts. this is neighbor against neighbor and brother against sister. >> wow. a bloody war over there. but the money is certainly part of it. you have a vast differential in terms of walker's spending and barrett intending due in some part to the fact that walker could raise unlimited funds up to a certain point. jonathan, when we're looking at president obama's re-election chances, big labor is a big spender when it comes to democratic politics. expected to spend i believe $200 million to get democrats elected in 2012. the president can't exactly turn

his back on labor either. >> labor a big part of the democratic party coalition but when you're president, you're juggling a whole lot of priorities, constituencies. i do think that the president's doing the right thing by staying out of wisconsin. i don't think it does him -- it doesn't do him any favors to get involved in what some might think is a local issue in a state as rich or richard you said, that wisconsin will go to the president. so why get this this fight if you can stay out of it? >> plus bill clinton's there doing the work anyway. coming up, when does a to-do list get done? we'll talk about presidential priorities versus congressional once when luke russert joins us next on "now." if you're one of those folks who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... well, shoot, that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc.

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obama is set to sneak minnesota where he will push congress to pass his to do list. but once gin, political bickering is causing paralysis. >> there are a number of places we have found common ground. but it's a constant search. it's hard to sit down and find common ground when the president's always out campaigning every day. >> joining us now, the sage of capitol hill himself, nbc's luke russert. my friend, it's been awhile. >> happy friday, alex. a pleasure to be back with you. and dana, the best ep in the business. >> name checking her, i'm going to pay for that after the show. luke, the president has a to-do list, among it -- the things on the list include american jobs, tax credits, clean energy manufacturing. the question is, does anybody in congress actually know about this list and are they planning to do anything about it? >> well, his colleagues in the

democratic party certainly know about it. nancy pelosi, steny hoyer, harry reid will talk about it at their presses. to be honest with you, it's running into a stone brick wall, which is the house gop leadership which will not allow any of these on the floor, mainly because they say they've tried to work with the president before and have not been able to find common ground and already passed their own job creating bills sitting in the senate. speaker boehner holds up his list of job creating bills he feels they've passed which mainly have to deal with deregulation. you see standoff with no side attempting to move forward because they have their sights set on november and whoever wins that will get the mandate to pursue what they want in the first six months of 2013. >> we love talking about john boehner behind closed doors. politico reporting that john boehner gathered members of his caucus and chastised them for putting social issues front gronk they couldn't pass a bill

outlawing sex selective abortions yesterday but boehner basically said let's call bsbs. he told house republicans talking about obama's ploy to drag the gop into a battle. this election is about jobs, jobs, jobs. two questions for you, are they going to listen? one question for you. are people going to listen? is the republican caucus going to listen to john boehner on this? how powerful is he at speaker? >> if there's one thing that keeps him up at night it's the worry there will be some sort of social issue, there will be some sort of scandal, something that does not have to do with the economy that will knock the republicans off message. i spoke to a bunch of leadership aides yesterday. they weren't thrilled having to put forward the abortion bill that would have outlawed sex collection abortion which is not a problem in this country. it's very hard to find a documented case of this happen. but as they said it's a red meat issue to give to their base. the idea though as you're going to see for the next few months

is a really think correlation between the romney campaign and the house gop leadership to put things on house floor that pertain to jobs. they want to put forward in the next few weeks a passage of the bush tax cuts trying to get democrats as being in favor of higher taxes, things of that nature will be very prevalent as we march towards november. there's nothing getting done here. that's the bottom line. everything is being structural -- putting both sides, getting in terms of their positions for the november election, the fight. >> you are effectively just on capitol hill waiting for lunch? i'm not being serious. >> no, we've had this conversation amongst the press corps which literally it's slim pickings right now on capitol hill. that's because everyone's in their trenches sitting back, maybe they'll shoot at each other a little bit. i don't like to use military analogy and that's it. there is no constructive will to work together because it doesn't benefit the extreme on either side.

if you work together, that helps the president get re-elected, it helps the gop get reelected so the democrats don't want to work there and republicans don't want to help the president. it's an endless game of bickering. >> luke russert with a decidedly abysmal weather forecast for the next few months. luke, it is always great to see you. >> keep on rocking in the free world. take care. >> stay strong. next up, is tattoo removal a bellwether for a bad economy? we're going to tell you coming up in what now. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink? ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8.

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welcome back. time for what now? " there may be a silver lining in today's tough job markets. it's reportedly creating a booming business for tattoo removal. jonathan, you seem the logical person to go to with this. if only for the mock outrage.

the apparently people are trying to increase their prospects of getting hired whatever way possible. so many folks who have tattoos are getting them removed. most tattoos are being removed on the neck and the wrist. >> yes, because those are plays i guess future prospective employees can see. you don't want to freak them out depending on what those tattoos say or depict. >> yes. richard wolffe is someone with a bevy of homemade tattoos. you can speak to this. >> the things you can wash off. >> the difficulties you've had getting hired because of neck tattoos. >> a pocket square tattooed. if people are -- the challenging thing i think for young people is actually not what they're tattooing. it's what they're posting online. for employers to check out the stuff now is anyone thinking about this kind of thing when they're 16? probably not. >> the ask rick grinnell. even for older people, what your

twitter trail may be a trail of tears depending on who your employer is. i will move onto the next topic of discussion, urban outfitters sued last year for selling t-shirts with the famous obama hope image in 2008 is now marketing mitt romney merchandise. curt anderson, would you buy a too legit to mitt t-shirt? >> i several already. >> is that for real. >> you can purchase one at urban outfitters. >> i'm going to go home and talk to the focus group of young women who live in my household and ask them if that makes them not want to go to urban outfitters anymore. it's lame. >> you know what is really weird? i have to tell you something. it is a tiny bit art mimicking life. there was one moment in 2008 on the campaign trail when romney started rapping spontaneously. >> he did do his version of who let the dogs out. >> exactly. >> it was the greatest. >> dmx, i don't know that there's a dmx mitt romney coming out.

i wonder what mc hammer thinks of the too legit to mitt? we'll call him. moving on, facebook is still struggling to recover from its less than stellar ipo. now the amazing it cress gin kels new york magazine that facebook is going down. this just seems sort of like filing on. i don't know, jonathan. in 2016, will we still all be on facebook, amazing capehart? >> you're asking me? >> i don't even know how to -- look, if it's still here fantastic. i'm very happy about that. i would be if it's still here. >> why are you asking me this question? >> richard wolffe. >> yes, it will be here. if it's going down, wait till it goes further and buy it. >> that's true. we have to leave it at that. thanks again to curt, richard, jodi and jonathan. that's all for "now." i'll see you back here monday at noon eastern/9:00 a.m. pacific. when i'm joined by the nation's

ari berman. till then, you can find us at facebook.com/"now" with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. happy friday to you. >> thanks so much. coming up, a devastating jobs report dragging down the marks today. maria bartiromo will be joining me on what it means for the economy and we'll talk to chris cillizza about the election. plus, what's next for john edwards with an all-star trio? and we'll celebrate queen elizabeth's diamond jubilee we msnbc's martin bash here and th" yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall.

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