rundown" with luke today. have a great day, everyone. repeal, check, replace. republicans say that may have to wait until november as the house records its 33rd vote to gut health care reform. the president tried to put the gop on defense on taxes. mitt romney gets an earful from conservatives who want him to hit back harder. who better to hang out with some tough talk than dick cheney? romney heads to cowboy country for a fund-raiser with the former veep. and more information leads to more questions about the conditions of congressman jesse jackson jr. we'll have the latest from capitol hill. good morning from washington. it is thursday, july 12th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i'm luke russert in for chuck todd. let's get to the first reads of the morning. mitt romney had this message yesterday for conservatives who say his campaign has not been aggressive enough in responding

to attacks on his business record at bain. >> i, of course, respond to the attacks that come, but, you know, they say in politics, if you're responding, you're losing. >> but today the romney campaign is responding in a new tv ad and it is quite a barn burner. >> when a president doesn't tell the truth, how you can we trust him to lead? the obama outsourcing attacks, misleading, unfair, and untrue. there was no evidence that mitt romney shipped jobs overseas. candidate obama lied about hillary clinton. >> so shame on you, barack obama. >> but america expects more from a president. obama's dishonest campaign, another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama. >> in just over an hour, vice president joe biden will offer rebuttal of romney's economic argument when he speaks to the naacp convention in houston. yesterday, romney received, shall we say, a mixed reception before that audience.

>> i'm going to eliminate every nonessential expensive program i can find. that includes obama care. and i'm going to work to reform and save -- [ booing ] >> nbc senior political editor mark murray joins me now. thank you for being here. let's talk a little bit about the ad that mitt romney came out with today, using hillary clinton, an outreach to walmart moms, a real punch saying the president is a liar. was this brought on by a lot of conservatives saying he wasn't being tough enough? >> the context was that mitt romney's found himself on the defensive. outside of that friday jobs report, whether on immigration, on health care, on bain and the outsourcing charge, so they're firing back and essentially saying that president obama isn't telling the truth on this issue. there are a couple of problems for romney on this front. there is some bad timing where the argument the romney campaign is making, a lot of the

outsourcing, if it did occur, can happened after mitt romney left bain, worked for the olympics in salt lake city. the boston globe is reporting today and following up on a report that some s.e.c. filings show that mitt rmny said he was working at bain capital past 1999 when some of the outsourcing was occurring. >> in china, right. >> a bit of a pickle for the romney campaign. maybe the biggest problem is this, the obama ad hitting romney on outsourcing and bain running for eight, nine days now. we're getting the response from the romney campaign on this. not quite rapid response. >> similar to '04 when kerry would respond on the swift boat attacks, it is all about definition. on the issue of tax returns that plagued mitt romney for some time now, keeps getting pressed about it, he said this on fox yesterday. >> i think we expected that, of course. but, you know, i'm going to give the same message to the naacp i give across the country, which is that obama care is killing

jobs and if jobs is the priority, then we're going to have to replace obama care. >> well, that wasn't the clip we were talking about, but he was, in fact, talking about how his financial statements that says we, of course, released all the financial statements that are required by law in years of tax return. tax information is there. other financial disclosure is there. the same information level that john mccain and john kerry for that matter released when they were running for president. we went out and looked back. we have the graphic of how many tax returns previous presidential candidates have released. john mccain, 2008, did two years. barack obama, 2008, did eight years. john kerry, 2004, five years. george romney, 1968, 12 years. how much is this going to be a problem for mitt romney or can he keep up with this defense that it is the big bad media coming after him on it. >> one of the biggest developments in the past week is this increasing drumbeat for him to release tax returns.

it was a similar drumbeat that occurred in january, february of 2012, during the republican primary season where he eventually relented and released that one year of tax returns and in an estimate for 2011. and so we're seeing the same drumbeat and, you know, the big difference between earlier this year and now, the obama campaign is much saphiev savvier, has a response team. >> yesterday, house republicans cast a 33rd vote in order to repeal health care reform. it seems the debate we saw yesterday on the house floor we saw in 2009, 2010, 2011, now 2012. republicans say they're really trying to do that to appeal to independents, sort of repeal republicans equal repel. democrats say there is too much focus on this health care repeal, it should be more on the economy. how does this play out? was yesterday just a political ad vote?

>> i think it was political. the next turn is going to be on the election come november. if republicans are able to hold on to the house, take over the senate, mitt romney gets elected, all of a sudden we'll be talking about repeal the health care again. but if barack obama is re-elected, i think the issue is pretty much going to end. and so the real debate is actually going to come on november 6th on this issue. >> going to be fascinating. mark murray, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate it as always. when former vice president dick cheney opens up his wyoming home tonight, to hold a $30,000 a couple fund-raiser for mitt romney, it will be romney's first campaign stop with cheney, making it his first event with one of the two men on the most recent winning gop ticket. he still hasn't appeared with former president george w. bush on the campaign trail yet. peter alexander is covering the romney campaign and joins us now. peter, what do we know about this event tonight out there in wyoming? we heard that foster freeze will be out there, liz cheney, what

is the campaign going for out there? >> who you will see will be dick cheney for first time opening up his home for the romney fund-raiser tonight, expected to raise roughly $2 million which luke, in itself, is historic. most money raised at a fund-raiser in wyoming state history it is being reported right now. the people you are not going to see there tonight no karl rove, condoleezza rice, the head of a private equity firm and another beef executive, beef company executive expected to be there as well. what this really says more than anything else, it says a lot about this relationship between dick cheney and mitt romney. and in some ways it is the passing of the torch. dick cheney is the living thread of -- for four of the last five republican presidencies. in the words of liz cheney this say person, mitt romney is, that dick cheney says he believes

would be a great president, he thinks he's the man for the job. he hasn't been active on the campaign trail, but this is the passing of the torch of sorts. >> peter, it seems to be the question on the front of everybody's mind, the veepstakes, and ed rollins said this yesterday on fox, i'll get you on the other side. >> i would get the vice presidential choice out of the way as quickly as i could. and then basically -- >> quickly. >> quickly. before he goes to europe i would pick a vice president. the conventions are so late this time that the end of the day, you're not going to create -- you're not going to create a buzz. the buzz is your candidacy. >> so the great ed rollins saying sooner rather than later. is camp romney hearing that same advice? >> camp romney couldn't have been a lot more vague when asked about this at a town hall in colorado earlier this week. the question was posed. have you decided who you're going to select and are you going to make that decision public soon? and romney really was vague. he said the decision, i think

his language was, will be made down the road. that's a quote. but if they are going to make this decision, really want to capitalize it in any way before that european visit, mr. -- governor romney is going to london for the opening ceremonies of the olympics and then off to israel with another stop in europe's schedule. next week is the only full week before that trip. so unless he's going to do it in the beginning of august, if he wants to take advantage of the full week before he heads out of town that would have to happen next week. a lot of people are speculating that's when it will occur. this campaign is, as you heard ed rollins say, doesn't have much anticipation. this is a big buzz decision. if anything, it is likely to be a candidate he would select who they think would help him gain more money in that battle that they have going with barack obama right now to try to outraise one another as they head into the general election. we'll have to wait and see what plays out. >> well, we'll keep an eye on rob portman and paul ryan very closely on capitol hill for you. peter alexander, thank you so

much for joining us this morning. appreciate it. the big question today on capitol hill, where in the world is jesse jackson jr.? the son of the civil rights leader has been missing from the halls of congress since last month. his staff says he's at a medical treatment facility in arizona. joining me now is my colleague on the hill, nbc's congressional correspondent, the great kelly o'donnell. kelly, i'll read this statement from the congressman's office. they say, quote, the congressman is receiving intensive medical treatment at a residential treatment facility for a mood disorder. he's responding positively to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery. do we know anything else? >> reporter: well, part of what made this so complicated is you have a sense of people who do have compassion, members of congress, constituents, who accept that this is a physical, emotional condition, taking it on its face. but then also there is this pressure because he's a public servant, serving nine terms here in congress, he has a name with national recognition, that he

owes the public more. so that clash is always what is at the heart of these personal matters that come into the public -- the public realm. the office for the congressman made things a little more difficult because the initial response, as you remember, was he was being treated for exhaustion, a sort of vague term. then with more questions being asked they did acknowledge it was more serious, and now this third installment of an official response. now what you read came from a physician, they will not name, and that is certainly within his rights. they point out that under federal law, any patient, even if you're a member of congress, who is on medical leave, is not required to make any public disclosures about a diagnosis, about treatment, about who the doctor is. but, again, the standard is different when you're a public official. today, his father, reverend jesse jackson sr., was again asked. he, of course, is such a prominent figure. cameras have been around him all week. he talked about this again saying that there is a need for privacy, not wanting to say more than his son's office has

released, and at the same time, there have been reports to nbc news through sources, people who are close to jackson, who say there is some division among those close to him about what is really going on here. a mood disorder is a specific kind of disis they'agnosis they talking about and also the overall stress he's under, suggesting drinking may be a problem as well, clinical depression. those things are talked about. the congressman's office gives it that term, mood disorder. that could be a number of things. so there has been pressure to say more, but this may -- you know, this may trigger more questions, luke. >> yesterday, kelly, leadership on the democratic side had to field these questions. i want to play this real quick. >> i hope that we will hear soon that he's on the way to recovery. >> i think congressman jackson and his office and his family would be well advised to advise the constituents of his condition. >> kelly, it seems that

democrats have one of these issues every single anthony wein weiner, but on a different scale, how long before it becomes a thorn in the side of the leadership and becomes a distraction upon their message on the economy? >> reporter: they'll be asked about it again and it will be up to the public to say, is this enough information? there will be continued pressure on this. there will be a question about whether will the public actually see the congressman, have him in his own words describe what has been going on. these sort of personal illnesses, personal circumstances that happen to anyone, do happen to members of congress and have before, but it is how do they handle it? other members of congress have come forward and talked about issues that they were suffering, and that tended to kind of quiet the storm. of course, we're in an election year and jackson himself beat democratic field to get the nomination again in a redrawn district. he's up for election again for a tenth term in november. there are questions about is he able to continue in that campaign?

is he able to serve. is the recovery, his family and associates are talking about, going to be enough to bring him back to a full public life? we just don't know. >> we just don't know. kelly o'donnell from capitol hill, great to see you this morning. thanks so much for joining us. up next, promises, promises, promises. republicans pledge to repeal and replace the president's health care law. now after the 33 votes to repeal it, what is the plan? we'll ask the deputy republican whip next. and the china syndrome. fiery rhetoric is all the rage on the campaign trail, but is mitt romney making promises he can't keep. first ahead, a look at the president's schedule and mitt romney's schedule. you're watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day men's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin

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i hold in my left hand a copy of the affordable care act. i hold in my right hand the replacement bill that my colleagues across the aisle have been talking about. i shall now read the replacement bill in its entirety. >> it's been the constant complaint from house democrats. republicans want to eliminate the president's health care law, but they're short on details about what would take its place. greg walden is a deputy gop whip and joins me now. good morning, sir. >> luke, good to be with you this morning. >> i want to talk to you about the health care repeal vote, 33rd vote yesterday. jake sherman from politico this morning, good point, says back in 2010, you were part of this transition team, you guys promised to do the following, you would enact medical

liability reform, put legislation forward to buy insurance across state lines, expand health savings accounts, allow access for patients with pre-existing conditions, and make sure there is a permanent -- permanently prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion. you've done the medical liability reform and the abortion deal, but you're only about two out of five there. how come there has been nothing to allow insurance to be bought across state lines, allow for those folks with prekisti pre-e conditions to know they can get care. >> i like the theatrics on the floor. the problem is, we had 107 amendments that the democrats under speaker blopelosi said co not be considered. they voted down every single opportunity to amend that law that the republicans had and were gleeful about it because they wouldn't allow us to page the 227 page bill that i don't think anybody had a chance to really read and understand. our first principle is let's see if we can repeal that. we sent one full repeal to the

senate and harry reid has not taken it up. we thought after the supreme court decision, when the court makes it really clear, despite what president obama said, it was a penalty and told congress and argued with george stephanopoulos on another network, it was a penalty, not a tax, he sent his lawyers to the supreme court to argue it was a tax, which is the only way it survived. our first mission is let's repeal it, then we can go into the work of replacing it. but right now -- >> mr. walden, you guys have been in power since january of 2011. there is over 30 million americans who are uninsured that this democratic legislation is going to cover, no matter how problematic you may think it is. don't those americans deserve to know where the house gop stands on health care reform? >> sure, they do. we do stand for important principles. i was on a community hospital board for about five years. i understand the plight of those who need access to care.

i helped reform some of oregon's insurance laws to make sure people had access to care. you can do that through high risk pools. you can do that by expanding access. i was a small employ, luke, in the radio business, my wife and i paid for the insurance for our employees. i want the ability to group up to buy insurance across state line to create a competitive marketplace, but one that puts me in charge, not the insurance companies. i want one that puts me in charge, not the federal government. people talk about how broken washington is, what a disaster washington is. why would they want washington to take over their health care, which is what this law does. now, we haven't voted up or down on repeal 31 times. we had a couple of major full repeal votes. but we actually have passed into law some repeal provisions and as you know, the administration itself backed off on the class act, which was a $70 billion fraud in terms of the law itself. they backed off and said it is a disaster house of cards. and the president signed one of those repeals that we put in

place on the extra reporting requirement on small business. look, this is a burden on small business, i think you're going to see insurance rates go up and jobs go down. i was in small business. i get this. >> indeed. i want to shift the focus -- shift the focus to china. it has been an interesting thing because you're a romney supporter, romney talked about chinese currency manipulation on the campaign trail. he said this back in march of 2010 in cleveland, quote, if i'm president, i will label china a currency manipulator and apply tariffs to stop them from unfair trade practices. there have been a few votes about this in congress. back in september of 2010, there was the currency reform fair trade act. it passed the house 348-79, 99 republicans support it. you were one of the 79 opposed to it. then in october of 2011, the senate passed a china currency bill, 63-35. 16 republicans joined with democrats and said yes, let's

crack down on chinese currency manipulation. speaker boehner and eric cantor refused to allow that legislation to the floor. how does mitt romney say he will crack down on chinese currency manipulation where house republicans very much like yourself will not move on it? >> well, luke, you know, you don't have to be from buffalo to understand there is what you can do publicly, and keep the pressure on in terms of negotiations that are going on behind the scenes, between our two governments. you have to be careful, especially, i think, with the chinese in that sometimes if we take an action that goes too far, it causes them to back up. we don't want that. now, i want them to live by the rules. i supported putting them into the wto so that all the nations could come together, we could get china to operate under a set of laws and rules that are global. and so far i don't think china has been the best player at that. so i welcome either president romney or president obama making sure that china plays by the rurals. right now, we got a real problem with intellectual property rights being stolen.

you note cybersecurity issues we're facing with china and other countries. they need to be a better player on the world stage. we have to be smart about how we put that pressure on to make sure we accomplish our goal and not have it come back in our face. >> greg walden from oregon, we appreciate your time. thank you for joining us. >> you're welcome, luke. take care. >> be well. up next, diplomatic defection. a senior diplomat quits in syria. that's one of the other stories on our radar this morning. plus, capital corruption. the mayor of washington, d.c. is in hot water today. but first, today's trivia. who is the only man to serve both as president and vice president without ever being elected? tweet us the answe answer @dailyrundown. the answer and more coming up. rolling stones, their 50th anniversary today. we're playing all stones throughout the break today. my mom hung out with them in the '70s. i hang out with chuck todd. my mom is so much cooler than i am. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?

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open our radar, new relations with myanmar and d.c.'s capital scandal. first, syria's now former ambassador to iraq has become the highest official to defect. the ambassador announces his defection citing with the revolution with the syrian government. he becomes the second prominent figure to lead the regime in a matter of days suggesting cracks in president assad's regime. last week, a member of the inner circle and son of a former defense minister fled to france. secretary of state hillary clinton will meet with the myanmar president today in recognition of recent reforms implemented in the southeast asian country. the visit comes after president obama said the united states would ease sanctions on myanmar and allow u.s. companies to do business with the country. over the last year, myanmar officials have released hundreds of political prisoners. scandal out of the washington, d.c.'s mayor's office today. may mayor vincent gray's campaign is

under scrutiny. mayor gray is resisting calls to step down from fellow members of the d.c. council saying his administration is not corrupt and in recent months, two d.c. city council members have pled guilty to criminal charges related to their public service. he's also getting a huge plethora of editorials here in d.c. calling for him to come forward. some even for him to step down. up next, was there a cover-up at pep stann state. who knew what and when in the jerry sandusky scandal. the school's internal investigation has been released to the public. and still to come, party pressure. democratic leaders want an explanation for congressman jesse jackson jr.'s month long absence. we'll talk to jackie spier next. you're watching "the daily rundow rundown", only on msnbc. phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon

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-- of an internal led by former fbi director louis freeh. the report reveals how much top university officials knew about jerry sandusky's behavior and the failure of them to do anything about it. sandusky was convicted on 45 criminal counts of child sex abuse last month. joining me now is nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff. and, michael, a lot of moving parts here. louis freeh's report just hit the presses, rather damming to penn state. >> reporter: to say the least. we expected, luke, this report was going to be scathing. and it is even more than i and i think anybody else who is following this expected. some of the language in the key findings, total disregard for the safety and welfare of jerry sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at penn state, the most powerful men at penn state failed to take any

steps for 14 years to protect the children who sandusky victimized. who were those powerful leaders? graham spanier, the president of penn state university, since been fired, tim curley, indicted, the former athletic director, gary schultz, the former vice president, also facing perjury charges and most importantly, and this is the big news here, joe paterno. this report is absolutely devastating for joe paterno's legacy. it says, among other things, that joe paterno knew about the 1998 investigation into jerry sandusky, totally contradicting what paterno testified to the grand jury. louis freeh finds e-mails showing that joe paterno was kept apprised of that '98 police investigation, that investigation, of course, did not lead to criminal charges against jerry sandusky, buttyre

events of 2001 when mike mcqueary reports to paterno seeing that sandusky in the shower with a young boy, saying extremely disturbing, extremely of a sexual nature, paterno reports that to tim curley, and then what happens? according to the report, there was a plan by curley, the athletic director, schultz, the vice president and spanier to report that shower allegation to local authorities. that would have led to another investigation of sandusky. but what happened? it was never reported and, why? according to louis freeh's report, the only known interv e intervening factor between the decision made on february 25th, 2001, to report the incident, and then agreeing not to do so was paterno's february 26th conversation documented in an e-mail with tim curley. in other words, it was the conversation with paterno that led the top leaders of penn

state to turn themselves around and decide not to report that allegation. and, of course, having covered the trial, we know that at least three of the victims of jerry sandusky were after that 2001 incident. this is an extremely damming report. >> and, mike, the ncaa weighed in saying they're reviewing this report right now. they said there was four key questions concerning compliance with constitutional control and ethics policies. we expect penn state continued cooperation, our examination of these issues, so possible sanctions from the ncaa. just -- you're there in the community, joe paterno, as you know, was god there, there was a paterno sandwich shot, paterno ice cream shop, everyone has joe paterno shirts, cutout cardboard of the coach. are people still refusing to accept this? >> reporter: luke, this is going to take this to an entirely new

level. there were a lot of people after the initial arrest of jerry sandusky last november who were defending joe paterno, of course, his family was out there defending him saying, and even as recently as this morning saying the e-mails that have been leaked about the free report, it was taken out of context, there shouldn't be a rush to judgment. now that we have the new additional facts, people that have been out there sympathetic to joe paterno, trying to defend his legacy, are going to have to absorb this and there is a lot here to absorb. >> michael isikoff, from penn state, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. jesse jackson jr.'s absence from capitol hill for an intensive medical treatment is drawing questions from his constituents and caucus leaders. it is creating more questions and curiosity. california congressman jackie speier joins us now. good day to you. >> good morning.

>> talk to us about jesse jackson jr. mr. hoyer said yesterday, his constituents would be well advised to know where he is. do you want to know his location and how much is this going to affect the democratic caucus's ability to message on the economy? will this continue to be a distraction? >> i don't think it is going to be a distraction. people get sick in congress frequently. and when they get sick, they seek medical care, medical attention, that's what jesse jackson jr. is doing now. i think he deserves to have his privacy. i think his constituents should have a clear understanding of what his condition is, but beyond that, let him recover. >> yesterday, the gop and the house, the leadership repealed health care reform through the 33rd time and when we have some recent numbers here from a quinnipiac poll, it says do you believe the health care laws affect a tax hike? 55 yes. 36 no.

how does that play for you in november? is this going to be a problem for house democrats trying to win back the 25 seats that america now believes health care reform is a tax hike? >> well, it is not a tax hike. it is really important to realize that less than 1% of americans are going to be paying this penalty for not carrying health insurance. let's remember that three people an hour die in this country because they can't access health care. 26,000 a year. what this law is going to do is make sure that people get the preventive care they need, so that they're not going to have the extraordinary care associated with advanced cancer, that they'll go to the doctor when they need to, regardless of how much it is going to cost because there is going to be a means by which they can pay according to their income. >> will you look further into this poll and one of the reasons i heard from gop yesterday, the reason why they were doing this was to appeal to independents.

should congress try to repeal the health care law, all voters say should repeal it 49 to 43. independents, 49 to 41. so you have a majority of independents saying that this law should not be in there, are republicans gaining by associating themselves with the party with repeal. are they gaining with independent in this very close election? >> i don't believe so. kyzer family foundation poll released yesterday says the american people believe that we should get on with creating jobs in this country. and i think if you ask the american people, you to like the fact that now your kids can stay on your insurance policy until they're 26, do you like the fact you don't have a co-pay when you go in for a mammogram or a colonosco colonoscopy, that's not money out of your pocket, they say yes. do you like the idea if your child has a pre-existing health condition, they can get insurance. they understand it, they like

it. we need to do a better job of messaging how much better it is going to be, how many lives are going to be saved. our outcomes in this country are worse than they are in virtua y ly every other industrialized country. i believe we should be screaming with great interest and enthusiasm what the american people are gaining. you know, when social security was created, when medicare was created, they were all found to be less than optimal. until you received the benefits and fully appreciate what you're really getting. >> and lastly, real quick, you were in the majority obviously almost two years ago, had huge margins in the house. looking back on it, do you feel that you guys should have paid more attention to perhaps some economic programs like the

tennessee valley authority or infrastructure things instead of health care reform that it would have been better for you politically? >> i do think that we need to take a page from president roosevelt's book, when he has brand-new president came in and within three months created three million jobs, by creating the tba, ccc, wpa, all those various programs. now, they didn't work in the short-term. it took, you know, five to seven years and we weren't out of it until world war ii, but, yes, we are focused on creating new jobs and we want to work with our republican colleagues to create those jobs. >> jackie speier from california. thank you very much for joining us this morning. take care. our political panel will be here next. but, first, the white house soup of the day. toasted cumin and tomato. i've never had that. but i love the rolling stones. "wild horses" right s n roses c.

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bloomberg review. chris kafi and sharyl ropowitz with roll call. thank you for being here. mitt romney reflected upon his speech to the naacp and said this in hamilton, montana, yesterday, where musburger of all people was, quote, remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government, tell them to go vote for the other guy. more free stuff. but don't forget, nothing is really free. now, he said that free stuff before in some speeches, but it could seem a little culturally harsh after a speech to the naacp, democrats continue this welfare estate to bring on the african-american vote. is that tough language there from mitt romney? >> i think slightly so. i think he was also trying to make up ground because the speech for most part did not go over that well. i think what we'll remember were

those boos we just played. i think his language in the speech was particularly interesting. i'm still questioning why he went there first place to do it. if you look at the text of the line that preceded the booing, he was defensive in some of it already. he was saying, if you seek to understand me, if you want to understand me and went on to say something. it is quite defensive tone. >> he said, if you saw what was in my heart, you would support me. but is it enough just for mitt romney to show up? >> i think it is a start. i think he deserves credit for going to an audience that is not going to by and large be for him, making his case, he got some applause as you mentioned, when he talked about marriage, and saying things even though he knows the audience is going to disagree with him. >> chris? >> it was interesting speech. i give him a little credit for going there. the problem with the speech is the problem with the romney campaign in general. there is no substance to the policies. it is nice -- a lot of nice rhetoric, sounds good, but when

you scratch past the surface there is nothing there. so that's problem number one. problem number two is it is a little bit tone deaf to go into, you know, an audience like the naacp and almost be on the offensive when you're talking about the president. >> too much on the offensive or should he -- >> he's not supposed to make the case against the guy he's trying to deprive of office? he's running against mr. -- >> that's part of the romney problem. he hasn't made his case. he's good at attacking the president. he's not really good at attacking the problem that he has. >> i want to ask a conspiracy theory here, nancy pelosi said this on bloomberg yesterday about the booing. >> i think it was a calculated move on his part to get boos at the naacp convention. >> calculated. did mitt romney do that on purpose? >> i think that was the calculated move on former speaker pelosi's part to make that remark. look, i mean, the idea that the

romney strategy -- we're going to give a speech and we'll make sure to get applauded in some parts and boos -- no. >> we're still talking about it today, aren't we, in part because nancy pelosi said this. i think it was calculated on her part. i think it was a gutsy move for. if he softened his tone, we would have taken note as well. it looked like he was pandering. >> interesting stuff. still a lot to come back with our panel. first, we have trivia time. we asked you who is the only man to serve as both president and vice president without ever being elected? the answer, gerald ford. he became the country's first appointed vice president. a year later, ford became president when nixon resigned. so he was never elected to the white house. do you have a political trivia question? e-mail us.

we'll be right back. this song was written about david beauy's wife that mik jager wanted.

the romney campaign just released a statement about "the boston globe" article about when did mitt romney leave bain? "the article is not accurate as governor romney has said and has been confirmed by fact checkers. governor romney left in february of 1999 to run the olympics and had no input on management of the companies after that point." going head to head with the hometown newspaper. real quickly, let's talk about the tax cut issue. president obama this monday wanted to go with the $250,000

threshold. chris, a lot of democrats wanted that $1 million number for saying let's lower $1 million or below. why is that number better you feel? >> i don't know if it's better, but it just -- in their perspective, it's a higher threshold. it covers more small businesses. politically, i think there's a couple ways to look at this where it's kind of interesting. the $250,000 fits the president's narrative in make ing a strong distinction between him and romney. the million-dollar threshold allows them to make a distinction between them and republicans but between them and the president. >> that leaves a lot of daylight. >> democrats are willing to talk about real tax reform and republicans whose idea is to extend them all, which is a deficit disaster.

>> we went long with the rolling stones today. shameless plugs. >> an article on how amazon.com is going to revolutionize shopping again. >> my plug is for homeowners everywhere who live near the convention. put your houses on craig's list so we can rent them. >> that's what we want. we just got this information. foster frieze will not be at the fundraiser. that's my shameless plug. he will not be at the dick cheney hunting mansion. we'll see you back here tomorrow. i'm in for chuck todd. coming up, "jansing and co."

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