political analyst, richard wolffe. politico executive editor, jim vandehei, melinda hennenberg and john chait. this is day four of the every town counts romney bus tour and he has so far made nine stops in four states. but is every town really counting? their campaign is having a hard time getting out of the shadow of president obama's announcement on immigration. in wisconsin this morning, romney spoke alongside congressman paul ryan, and governor scott walker. he said the president is creating distractions to hide his record. >> because of his failed record, his campaign's having a hard time deciding what to talk about, because they'd like to talk about the economy and they'd like to talk about his record, but you know, they know the last time his campaign slogan was hope and change. this time they're going with we hope to change the subject.

>> it is not often that we get jim vandehei in the flesh and not on a remote cam in the politico offices. it's a great day in america. i will go to you first with this. the immigration announcement seemed to have knocked team romney off course. what do you think they need to do right now? >> well, you see two very different campaigns here. you have one, all mitt romney wants to talk about is the economy. it's one size fits all for every single state. what president obama wants to do is basically look at the 12 states that matter, slice and dice the electorate and each week go after a little segment of that. that's why the obama campaign's been frustrated with all our punditry saying they're not running a very good campaign. they think they are on the ground. they think they are with the specific demographics. we saw it resonate i think pretty powerfully with the announcement on immigration. it clearly got the coverage they wanted it to get. they put romney in a box on this issue. does mitt romney care? i think what romney cares about is the economy looking sour and headed south and if so, he

thinks he will win election regardless of the day-to-day stuff. >> it was interesting when scott walker on this sort of magical mitt-stry tour, i can't get enough of that, walker clarified romney's assessment of the recall, saying he didn't want to fire teachers and policemen and firefighters and also said that romney quote, needs a vision and quote, a message, richard wolffe, which is not exactly what you want to hear. we know romney has a surrogate problem but that's not the greatest message to be hearing over the weekend and during -- >> this is a governor who is -- who just got a new lease of life in a state where president obama remains popular, right? also, the economic messages don't match up. if you go to a place like ohio as they have been on this tour, unemployment has actually been coming down. it's now lower than the national average, lower than it was in january '09 when obama took office. so the economy is terrible message, doesn't really resonate in these places. that's an irony when you're thinking about the rust belt,

traditionally, and also where you have strong energy jobs. whenever you hear candidates debating a message or slogans, they're really not dealing with their own substance. it's too processy. we make talk about this here, but you don't want the candidate to engage in political strategy, at least not on a podium. i think that's actually a sign of where mitt romney is himself off his game. >> let's talk, let's do a deeper dive into mitt romney's response on immigration. he had a sort of semi-awkward interview with bob schieffer where he sort of treaded this weird line, saying i don't know if -- i wouldn't repeal the president's decision because my policy, whatever that may be, would already account for it. how do you think he handled it, melinda? >> poorly. i think it's really interesting that he's sort of saying well, but this is all about politics. sure, everything that happens now is politics now and always,

but i mean, he had the hispanic vote locked up thanks to the republican primary season, so did he have to do this? no, he really didn't. look at the numbers of hispanic voters and then romney says well, this is very little, this is very late, he refuses to say that he would be doing anything differently than this policy. so it's sort of like that old joke about the food is terrible and the portions are so small. >> right. jonathan, melinda refers to the latest poll numbers show obama at hispanics, romney at 24%. i want to play some commentary from george will talking about the gop's hispanic problem. let's take a listen. >> they spent the primary season competing to see who could build the longest, thickest, tallest, most lethally electrified fence, and hispanics listening to this detected hostility. they're funny that way. and so romney has a big hole to dig out of because if he gets

under, say, the 31% of hispanic voters that mccain got, he's going to lose. >> there you have it. if he gets under 31%, he's going to lose. so how closely is the romney team listening to that message? >> i think they are listening to it but i disagree a little bit. i think obama does have a problem with turnout and enthusiasm with latino vote, because obama ran on passing the dream act, right, comprehensive immigration reform failed under bush. he said okay, here's a half loaf or quarter loaf bill, the dream act, that would at least help the most sympathetic people that we can help with this. that didn't pass either republicans killed it along with a tiny handful of conservative democrats. romney's plan was to basically blame this on obama, saying obama didn't pass the bill, basically republicans kill it, you vote against obama or don't vote for obama, so i do think they had an enthusiasm problem. polls showed latino voters were less likely to say they were excited. >> we know that every monday, there's sort of a flurry in the newsroom until 10:00 when we find out the supreme court is

going to hand out a decision. we know the arizona immigration law that's going to come down soon, how do you think that in combination with this position, this announcement on friday, plays out for the president in terms of either drumming up enthusiasm or dampening it? >> i think he has a major enthusiasm problem. let's face it, our politics today are extremely segregated. he needs to win 90% of african-americans, 70% of hispanics to offset the fact he might only win 35% of whites. that's how they're looking at this electorate. they have to go out there and make sure they don't give romney any room to fix what were huge mistakes, if you're thinking about broadening the appeal of the republican party, huge mistakes he made during the republican primary. he went so far right, further than he had to go certainly in his rhetoric on immigration. that's why a lot of republicans are concerned. i think you hit it on the head when you talked about scott walker's comments about the message, because the big frustration that almost every republican has with mitt romney, if you talk to them, is that there's got to be more there.

you can't just be hoping for obama to be bad and the economy to be bad. you have to say something optimistic. walker had success in wisconsin not just through hope. he did it by doing something extremely bold and now conservatives are saying hey, we want that from you, mitt, show us something bold. >> what about the counter argument that they sort of floated out, which is this is an executive overreach. rick santorum, let's play what rick santorum said this weekend regarding the president and an unabashed abuse of power. >> he's trying to walk a line not to sound like he's hostile to latinos and you know, and very important states, but at the same time, i think you need to hammer the president on this now habitual abuse of power. >> so richard, okay, is this a habitual abuse of power? we did a little data digging and this is president obama's bypass. in february of last year, the

justice department halted defense of the defense of marriage act. in august last year, the education department overrode no child left behind. in august of that year as well, justice department halts deportation of those in legal same sex marriages and in december, the justice department reinterpreted the law to legalize online poker which is not necessarily the same sort of bid -- i don't know, poker players, you probably want to lock down those votes. does anyone buy that this is an abuse of power? is that a winning message out of this friday announcement? >> not really. look, if rick santorum is the guy talking about overreach, then we're all in trouble. here's a guy who overreached consistently in his campaign, never seemed to stop him. the problem for mitt romney is that not only, he actually did take positions. it wasn't just his rhetoric. he said he would veto the dream act, he said he was -- he went to the right of newt gingrich and when you come down to this position, you can't take a position. he actually cannot say, if you really look at the words he actually used, there is no

position. he won't say which way he stands, which way he would go on what the president has done or what he would do. marco rubio had his own proposal on the dream act which never made it to a piece of legislation, was never actually drafted. so republicans don't really have a position right now. for the president to follow through at least in part on something that he has said explicitly that he wanted to see happen, that house democrats passed, is not outrageous and is only a temporary measure. the next president can reverse it in a heartbeat. it's hardly an expansion of executive power. previous presidents have done it. >> i think here's a recent example of how to do it. george w. bush, the first time he ran, did it extremely well. he dealt with latino voters in texas, took it to the national stage, won 40% plus of the vote, won the election. it's not rocket science. there's an obvious formula to use. >> how are you not going to bypass congress when congress won't do anything?

really the only option left for him is to act. >> it's impossible to share power anymore. congress can stop obama from passing a bill, stop him from appointing people he needs to appoint. the only thing he can do is do power unilaterally. so shared power is collapsing. the only kind of power is all or nothing, essentially. that's all that's left. >> curious to note the center for american progress outlined this strategy in a memo that was put out last year saying increase the use of unilateral power because you ain't got much else. coming up, does one of our political parties owe the american public an apology? we will discuss it. i went to a small high school. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number.

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i think matt's right that we ought to come forward and both sides, and the president should have a mea culpa. we have gotten into a place that was very different from what the campaign wanted it to be from 2008, one in which, look, i think you could blame more the republicans but i'm sure the republicans would say more you blame the president. but we got to back away from that. >> that was former economic advisor to the president, austin goulsbee. mitt romney attempting some mitts-chief with his traveling press corps this weekend. i just made that up. taped this note to the press bus saying you guys have it way too soft, nice ride, then added p.s., erased your hard drives. romney was perhaps trying to make light of the 2006 controversy that his administration wiped their hard drives before leaving the governor's office. in this presidential race, both

candidates may be trying to erase some of their records and past promises, should they instead follow advice and come clean. melinda, we love talking mea culpas. first of all, is there any prospect that the president will actually sort of 'fess up and say i underestimated the severity of the economy? >> i don't know what he should say. is he really saying that obama should get up and say damn, paul was right, we should have had a way bigger stimulus, yes, good-bye independent voters. that would he say? >> this town loves mea culpas. >> any admission against interest becomes big news. i think they say i'm sorry there was a fight, i'm sorry you obstructed everything we tried to do, we're sorry we tried to crush your efforts at obstruction more effectively and let's all get along now.

>> it's weird that mitt romney, mitt romney brought up the wiping of the hard drives to the press corps on his own accord. that is just plain weird, is it not? >> his family swears he's really funny in private. we have yet to see it in public. >> is that funny or totally awkward, though? it is totally funny but also, this is not something he wants to rehash -- >> it's a mini controversy, the fact they wiped away the hard drive so there wouldn't be e-mails or documents reporters could go digging around in. this is a dysfunctional mess. it's not going to change. obama came in, one of the interesting things, obama and bush came in with 60% popularity and independents liked them, they both said they would work with the other party and both quit doing it within a couple months because it's really hard. this city incentivizes partisan warfare. that's what president obama did. that's what romney will do if he gets power. it goes back to the only way you can get anything done in modern politics is through unilateral power.

you have to wait until you have your window or full control, then ram it through. that's what i would do. >> let me ask you, though. i have been talking about this a lot this weekend in terms of the president's missteps. i can't imagine why i would be talking about that, but in terms of thinking -- >> during your weekend? >> yeah. that and -- i won't even say what else. but the notion that he was going to come in here and he was going to actually have some sort of bipartisan consensus and bipartisan movement to push policy forward, do you actually, you're saying -- >> it's impossible. >> but do you think the administration understood that and sort of played ball when they could with their democratic -- >> i think aspiration, everybody wants to do it. the house of representatives because of redistricting is a dysfunctional mess that's going to get worse, not better, because it doesn't reflect the country at all. republicans are exponentially more conservative than most republicans, democrats much more liberal. this isn't posturing. it used to be posturing because there was a middle. these people come from two

radically different worlds. you can only win it through combat. you have to get victory, declare victory and exploit victory. >> you can also never therefore admit defeat. therefore, the probability that anyone would ever say i made a mistake is nonexistent. right? the idea of a mea culpa can't exist -- >> two truly terrifying things. president jim vandehei's administration would be -- >> a nightmare. everything would get done and nothing. >> it's like my kids, i'm sorry but you're to blame. that's a great way to apologize. there's something different this administration has labored under. it wasn't quite the same for president bush. after 9/11, even before 9/11, president bush had his major piece of domestic legislation with ted kennedy on education reform. post-9/11, democrats worked with republicans on all sorts of different pieces of security and war legislation and this administration, we had an economic 9/11 and the stimulus got two republican votes.

we know from robert draper's book that house republicans, congressional republicans, were plotting on inaugural day to bring down the president so the permanent campaign has become more permanent, more intense. we're obviously in a more volatile, more extreme type of politics. so this president, this administration, had no chance from day one. there was no honeymoon, no sense of coming together in a time of crisis, and yes, they made plenty of mistakes, but it's a different environment from even when president bush was in power. >> right. let me just push back a tiny bit on that. there were things the president could have done if he wanted to make an authentic effort. the fact he went almost a year before he sat down with mitch mcconnell. the fact he started we're going to have republicans over for cocktails, that lasted about three cocktails. he got no support on stimulus, even though a third of it was on tax cuts. a third on tax cuts. they didn't want to even work with a newly elected president. >> from the very beginning they wanted nothing, nothing, nothing, except to defeat him

and see him as a one-termer. >> while i think that's sort of despicable, it's almost like politics ain't bean bag. is that sort of to be expected -- >> or as your friend mitt says, politics isn't the bean bag. >> politics is not sport. jonathan chait, just playing that sound, in terms of we've talked about mitt romney's surrogate problem. the president has had some issue with folks who are supposed to be in his corner saying things that are not necessarily on message. how much of an issue do you think that is? >> everyone has a surrogate problem because there are hundreds of people who are surrogates and they're all on twitter, blogs, talk shows, and they're all saying something sometimes that's not exactly what the campaign wants to say. by that standard, everyone has a

surrogate problem. >> but his former economic council head saying we underestimated -- >> he was saying let's all get along. >> but democrats do have more i think of a problem with their surrogates because they tend to be more self-critical and to bring that into the open, i think that republicans generally have more message control. >> it's a less disciplined party than the republicans. republicans are a conservative party. democrats are a coalition of moderates and liberals. >> doughnut eating, self-hating, i'm just throwing adjectives out there. after the break, 24-hour news cycle, citizen journalists and rapid hyperpartisan response. is it still possible to have and age? [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters.

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sir, and the next time i prefer you let me finish my statements before you ask that question, is this is the right thing to do for the american people. i didn't ask for an argument. i'm answering your question. >> that was president obama's less than enthusiastic response to the daily caller's neil monroe, who interrupted the president's remarks in the rose garden on friday. reaction from both conservative and liberal media has been uncharacteristically unanimous. monroe was wrong to disrespect the president. but how much does a 24/7 news cycle serve to undermine respect for the office of president? i, as i frequently do, quote the great chris cillizza. he wrote this weekend talking about whether we can even have a two term president anymore. it's clear that the idea that the president can drive the hourly, daily or weekly message of his choosing feels outdated. the bully pulpit may still exist but it's far less bully than it once was. that's especially true not only because of the fracturing of the media makes it hard to push a clear message but also because roughly half of the american public doesn't want to hear the

message, whatever it is, because it is of the other party. this is directly what you were talking about earlier, which is not just partisan divide but the 24 hours news cycle. i would also say obama himself channels a certain -- his presidency has been more victim to i think a lack of respect than any other presidency. the question is how much is that precedent setting? >> i don't disagree with chris' assessment of the new media landscape and what it does to messaging. i don't think it has anything to do with whether someone can be a two term president. i would still much rather run as an incumbent. >> running again. >> president vandehei. >> you have institutional advantages. barack obama in a bad economy is still a 50/50 proposition of winning re-election. that undermines probably the thesis of that but no doubt it's really hard to figure out how you take advantage or how do you defend yourself in an environment where the message comes from a thousand different places. this white house was slow to get that i think in the beginning.

certainly the first three years, they thought the "new york times" was the only thing that matters and it turns out that it only matters for one small slice of the electorate when everyone else is going to other places. >> the other slice turns to politico. >> when you have a moment like this, this is very damaging to the media on the right, because tucker, tucker carlson, who runs the daily caller who himself is a gentleman of the old school, i wouldn't see him yelling at the president. says this guy deserves a raise and i think this underlines those who say that republicans show no respect for the office in a way that is unprecedented. >> i don't think it's respect for the office. i think any public speaker deserves the chance to finish his remarks without being heckled and interrupted. i think there's too much respect for the office and the dignity and imperial presidency in this town but any speaker has certain rights that obama wasn't getting in that remark. >> it brings it whole circle

with "you lie" at the state of the union. coming up, president obama and vladimir putin kick off the g-20 with a critical face-to-face. the details of their sideline summit when chuck todd joins us live. man: there's a cattle guard, take a right. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course. nature can surprise you sometimes... next time, you drive. next time, signal your turn. ...that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you.

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summit in terms of syria? >> reporter: well, you know, it's interesting. there's a lot of low expectations now. i think that one thing that we've known from past meetings between, there's been only one other time that president obama has met with putin, when he was prime minister still, still sort of running the domestic side of the country but supposedly not involved in international affairs. that was back in 2009. this is the first time the two of them are meeting face-to-face, both as president, and the reason they have low expectations, they know putin in many ways likes the world stage, if you will, likes the fact that he is -- can come across a little confrontational with the president. but there's been some mild optimism that they think they can perhaps play to putin's ego if you will a little bit and say hey, you're the only one that can solve this syrian mess and you can do it very eloquently, not having to over throw the entire regime but maybe provide

a safe haven for assad to try to get russia behind a deal that was similar to what the united states helped put together with yemen, where basically the government wasn't overthrown there, but they shifted the president out of power and they were able to get sort of some, if you will, a relief valve to those wanting a little more openness, a little more democracy, and have this slow evolution. they want to try the same thing in syria and they think playing to putin's ego as sort of being the guy that can solve this problem might actually play to their benefit. >> chuck, i want to ask you, has there been -- sort of what's the fallout from secretary of state clinton's remarks last week, she effectively accused the russians of sending helicopters to syria. she's in russia today talking about iran with the russians. there is obviously a delicate dance between the white house and state department on this. >> well, but you saw the white house stood firmly behind secretary clinton's remark. there was nobody disowning those remarks even after the report that came out that said well, maybe those weren't new

helicopters, maybe those were repairs. it didn't matter. they wanted that message to be sent and it seems that what the russians were doing today was sort of in response to that. this is old cold war era sabre rattling, if you will, just before the two leaders meet and try to come out of it maybe with some thaw. you do get that feeling, you talk to old cold warriors on this, it feels similar. you see sabre rattling right before the two leaders were to meet, then they would come out maybe not necessarily with hugs, but with what looked like progress and because both were able to sabre rattle up front, by backing off a little, there is the sense that neither had to give too much. perhaps that's what's going on here. but we'll find out in hopefully about an hour or so. >> i want to bring in our other folks on the panel here. richard, we were talking about cold war, vestiges of the cold war. mitt romney called russia our number one geopolitical foe. it will be interesting to see how any kind of deal-making in

mexico plays out on the domestic stage, specifically vis a vis the republicans and the democrats on foreign policy. >> just bizarre comments from mitt romney. they play into frankly putin's domestic politics. there's nothing but upside for putin in taking on america right now. he's done it previously. he's done it with president bush. you've got to remember, this president, president obama, tried to have that thaw, that reset with medvedev who was really the puppet of putin. that didn't really take him very far. they got the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty but it didn't lead to much else. i saw what happened with president bush up close. he thought he looked into his soul and they were friends and they started out great, but putin just enjoyed and it helped him politically to mess with bush. time and time again, it just got worse and worse and worse until they were arguing about in the end the sacking of dan rather and whether that was bush's doing and putin could do the same. that's how much these two sides are speaking past each other. i love the optimism from the

white house. i would be astonished if they can achieve anything. >> i do want to play an exchange between john mccain and david gregory on "meet the press" this weekend when they were talking about syria and the need for actions. republicans, specifically senator mccain has really led the charge saying we need to do more. let's hear that interaction. >> you are not worried about the kind of civil war we've seen elsewhere in the middle east by adding arms into -- >> you're not worried about continued massacre and slaughter of innocent people? >> leaders make decisions all the time about where to intervene or not. we're not intervening in darfur and women are being raped and kids killed there, too. >> that's an entirely different situation. we did go to bosnia and kosovo. >> chuck, if the president doesn't get anything done on syria, is this going to become a bosnia, a kosovo for this administration? >> reporter: i think that's unclear. this is a different sort of political reality domestically on this, how much, you know, how

much political capital would he have to say okay, we need to figure out how to put together a coalition of the willing, if you will, to try to deal with syria. you talk to any experts about this, and they say this is not like libya. libya was easy, if you will. libya, you could do with air strikes. can't do that with syria. you would need real ground forces. it would need the arming of the opposition and you would have to be confident that this opposition was going to be allies. i think there's a lot of uncertainty frankly about who the opposition is, how many of these folks would be friendly toward the united states at the end of the day, if they somehow got power. lots of concern on that front. so could it end up what it was, obviously there's a humanitarian crisis that everybody fears, but it may be like a bosnia situation, where it takes years before there is confidence in the world community that this is worth the effort, not months or weeks where it seems to be there

is some that john mccain, senator mccain is sort of leading a very small coalition in the senate of pushing this idea hey, move up the timeline faster. >> it will be interesting to see the role foreign policy plays heading into november, certainly a lot of unpredictability in that arena. chuck todd, thank you as always. i will say that swimming pool behind you looks super rough. stay strong. >> reporter: i'm with you. i tell you, i would love to see it. i would love to be in it. it just hasn't happened yet. >> we hope you get a chance to get your feet wet. >> reporter: that will work. after the break, while greek voters say opba to staying in the euro zone, it's unclear how the debate will play out on either side of the atlantic. ok! who gets occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life.

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eurozone, all eyes are on german chancellor angela merkel. her next move could prove critical to the health of the global economy and in a sign of just how important merkel is, president obama has scheduled a last minute meeting with her for this afternoon. jonathan, certainly there's a lot to unpack as far as the dynamics and what this means for greece. i will read two unsurprisingly opposing op-eds from the "new york times" and "wall street journal." effectively, the eurozone ministers have pledged to help greece but haven't -- sorry, they haven't effectively pledged to help them but he places the sort of lion's share of the blame not on the greeks but effectively, the europeans for not having a central government. you can't just sort of have fiscal policy and then sort of no central government to ensure -- to stabilize it. the "wall street journal" argues greece -- sorry, the "wall street journal" argues that the greeks overborrowed, supply side reforms are the only thing that will make it more competitive. but effectively what you have are two sides sort of digging in in terms of the contours of the

debate over austerity here in the u.s., you know, how do you think what's happening in greece either buffers or undermines this sort of classic paul ryan budget? >> it's got nothing to do with it in reality. it's just a dramatic example that conservatives are likely to seize upon to say -- to be the latest ex latest example of big government. france played the role. germany played the role of the big government socialist state that the democrats want to turn this into now and of course, germany isn't playing that role at all. greece is the latest example. there are particular things going on that have been going on in greece for years. greece is sort of a basket case for numerous reasons. this particular european crisis that have nothing to do with the debate over the size of government or even austerity versus nonausterity, it's just kind of a handy talking point. >> i will read what stephen biddle at the council on foreign relations in the "new york times" was quoted saying both candidates, speaking about romney and the president of course, have to pretend the u.s. presidency is far more influential over events than it really is but to admit this, is

to look weak or to seem to evade responsibility so both candidates tacitly agree to pretend their policies are capable of righting the american economy while their opponents would sink it. in reality, both are in thrall to opponent's choices to a degree. >> what we know from the financial collapse is that actually, the federal reserve bankrolled international corporations and international banks through the worst of the financial crisis. they may have to at least signal they are prepared to do the same this time around. if there is a collapse of the euro, there would be a collapse of european banks, they are all trading in america, in new york, and they will need to be able to draw on funds to stop the run from continuing. let's hope we don't get that far. but you know, if the europeans are serious about this, before they even get to a central government, they need to have a central bank, the ecb, that does the same kind of thing as the federal reserve. they played around at the edges. they haven't got there yet.

>> it is a weird and delicate ballet, a phrase i have been using a lot lately, in terms of how mitt romney deals with this. on one hand, he can't give the president a pass and say look, europe is sort of, you know, the conditions over there will have an effect on us over here and sort of take that arrow out of his quiver. at the same time, he doesn't really have a prescription to solve what's going on over there or potentially any sort of -- i mean, the u.s. president, if you believe what biddle is saying, the president's hands are effectively tied in terms of influencing rowdy greeks. >> i will play off your comments again. >> we like it like that. it's like a ping-pong game. >> the european backdrop provides context for a debate we're going to have. it will be a very profound debate. if romney truly embraces ryan, the ryan plan, which he has, he has not done it with total specificity but he basically is boxed in where he has to, that next to the obama plan for the economy, that is a radically different choice for the

country. i'm not saying one's better than the other. just saying that's a radically different choice. one is much bigger role for government, heavy on entitlements. one is dismantling the entitlement programs as we know it. that's a great debate to have. if conservatives are going to come down and he's going -- >> but even in the schieffer interview, on one hand he's semi-endorsing -- >> he can't be amorphous forever. >> if you're mitt romney, who knows how long you can be. >> he'll have to get specific. he'll have to say the ryan plan is not as specific as his initial one but it is pretty darned specific. he has said i embrace it. now he has to live with that. he can dance around it in an interview here and there. you can't dance around it forever. >> he was asked about the grover norquist pledge, asked about the ten to one ratio, the simpson bowles plan endorses a three to one ratio, three to one cuts to revenue raisers. those are very specific numbers and mitt romney is going to have to i guess land on one side or

the other. right now, he's straddling, effectively having his baklava and eating it, too. >> he told steven hayes that he would do the ryan plan in his first hundred days. i don't know why that didn't get more attention. that seemed to be a big newsy nugget. that's the best guide we have to the romney plan. pass the ryan bill, i think they have to do it through a budget reconciliation bill. no filibuster, strict majority vote to get 51 senators sign that sucker in the first hundred days. >> we will see how long mitt romney does that ballet. the toe shoes seem to be getting thin at the top. coming up, breaking with tradition. team romney lifts the veil and goes on the record with the "new york times" next. coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports," everyone in washington is trying to guess which way the supreme court will rule on the president's health care law. we talk to former senator tom

daschle. the muslim brotherhood declares victory in egypt. richard engel reports on the historic election from cairo and the military push-back. a ground-breaking study describes a life of discrimination for lgbt teens. chad griffin will be here. all that next on "andrea mitchell reports." back from the worst economic depression. almost 4.3 million new jobs we're still not creating them president's jobs plan firefighters, police officers, work. right now. wealthiest americans congress refuses to act. tell congress we can't wait. [ 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...

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welcome back. time for "what now." the "new york times" got up close and personal with ann romney for a 2300 word profile. melinda, this is one of the rare instances when team romney gave the mainstream media a glimpse beneath the veil, if you will. how do you think it played out for both the candidate -- well, for the candidate? >> i think that a profile is an inherently friendly forum and if you do it well, you show the person, so there should be more openness to this sort of thing.

i'm being serious, it really is. i think ann romney is a very attractive person and this was a smart move for the campaign and they really should do more. what i'm not sure that we really learned that much, you know, for people who have been following ann romney but there are interesting things. the thing that always comes out about ann romney are these kind of faux pas, you see something she has in common with her husband, you know, saying things like i don't even consider myself that wealthy, you know. that's interesting, but i don't like it when we play so much to the they're not like us, because the truth is, people in politics are not like us. people who do not have a lot of money or friends with a lot of money don't tend to get on the national stage. >> right. >> so i don't like to see so much focus on the dressage and i thought this was a positive. >> but it's worth noting, jim, i think your hometown paper, your

paper, politico, wrote about sort of media bias, specifically with the romneys, because the "new york times" of course ran a front page story on the dressage stuff, then i think just a few days ago, ran an article on the house and home section on romney's la jolla manse. this is a turning point. >> turning point but not a profile in courage to make available people to talk about the first lady and one of the first profiles she's doing, you know it's a slam dunk positive piece that will be written. she is his greatest asset. she's more likeable and approachable and normal if you go back to the primary than he is. she loosens him up. i think it's a great asset just like almost every first lady has been. so i don't -- it's getting him able to talk about the paul ryan plan we care about because that's the profile in courage. >> it's worth noting that ann romney did say of michelle obama she seemed gracious and lovely. no one is taking responsibility or credit for an outhouse labeled obama presidential

library with painted-on bullet holes that made an appearance at the gop convention in montana this past weekend. richard, we talk about sort of how the national conversation around this president has been marred by some very hate-filled and vitriolic commentary but this would seem to be beyond the pale, the notion, both the outhouse and of course, the suggestion of assassination or violence. >> look, people said bad things about bush but they didn't tend to do it at state party gatherings. anything that has an official event surrounding it or is part of an official event, party event, i think republicans have got to decide those state party leaders have got to decide what kind of message they want to send out, what they stand for, what values, because there are going to be republican presidents and you really want both sides to have a degree of civility. there has been an undertone about this president which has been very dark and we all thought would end with his

election, whether or not people disagreed with him, but this kind of imagery does take you back to a very bad place. we have to admit that race is a part of that and it's the ugly side of some of this opposition. you know, i doubt very much this was organized by the state party folks but again, anything around that, they've got to take some responsibility for. >> you think that someone would say this is wrong. it would be great for someone on the right to say this is unacceptable, this is not -- >> the chairman did. he said it was wrong. >> he did say it was wrong but in terms of a sort of full-throated, you know, i won't say criticism but the notion that in any way, this is happening on one side of the aisle i think makes a lot of americans -- >> but it's part of the republican base. it's a tricky thing for republican politicians to not alienate them on the birth certificate. >> it is. the birther thing shows no sign of ending. we have news to bring about. sheriff arpaio arresting a 6-year-old. we can't get to that today. the show isn't long enough.

that is all for now. see you back here in washington, d.c. tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific. until then, find us at facebook.com/nowwithalex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. good afternoon to you, andrea. hi, there. great to have you in washington. thanks, alex. praise for the president from south of the border on his new immigration policy. plus, squaring off with russia over syria. chuck todd joins me from the g-20 summit. and the latest developments from greece. and who are the obama-ians? james mann joining me. james mann joining me. all that next. [ male announcer ] this is genco services --

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