from the guardian, mitt romney's olympic blunder stuns number ten and hands gift to obama. from the mail online, mitt romney's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in london. and the sun, mitt the twit. prime minister david cameron and london mayor boris johnson didn't let romney's comments slide either. >> we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiest most active bustling cities anywhere in the world and of course it's easier if you hold the olympic games in the middle of nowhere. >> i hear there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? >> nbc's peter alexander is traveling with the campaign and has more now from london. >> reporter: thomas, good day to you. just hours before the opening ceremony tonight where in attendance will be myth and his wife ann romney. this effort to come overseas his

first test on the world stage during this campaign has not generated the kinds of headlines the campaign was looking for. this was intended to be a risk averse trip, a chance his advisors describe to listen and learn and are getting an earful in the british press and from the british people. look at this headline in one of the tabloids this morning. i want reads myth the twit. that's a reference, the conversation with nbc's brian williams where romney appeared to be questioning london's preparedness for these games. another gaffe making headlines where he forgot the name of the opposition leader. then during a news conference yesterday he acknowledged he had some private discussions with the leader of mi-6 the intelligence agency in britain and it's taboo to acknowledge those meetings even if the private meetings allowed to have gone on as they did. nonetheless mitt romney will leave tomorrow morning after the opening ceremony. ep heads to israel, we'll be on the back of that plane.

he goes to warsaw, poland to complete his first foreign foray. his ann will be staying behind. her horse is kpeegt in the dressage event. back to you. >> peter alexander reporting for us there. okay. so on social media, hash tag romney shambles the twitter handle that launched a tirade against the candidate. we want to talk more about this with our panel. okay, gang great to have you here. first take a listen to more of what mitt romney had to say this morning matt lauer on the "today" show. >> all right. we don't have it. i wanted to play it. if we get that in the control room. leapt me know. let's take a listen.

>> after being here a couple of days it looks to me london is ready. course it is hard to put on games in a major metropolitan area. what they've done is they took the venues and put them right in the city. you'll be able to be on the back side of 10 downing side for beach volleyball. >> michael, he's talking directly now to all of those leaders in london like cameron and johnson who came out against him basically chastising his tenure in park city saying it's easy to do it in the middle of nowhere. >> his later comments, obviously are the comments he should have made in the first place and that is you go there. this is not about how you ran the olympics. not about any concerns you may have. it's about coming there and saying you know what you guys are going to put on great olympics. the world is watching. we're proud of the partnership between the united states and great britain. et cetera, et cetera. instead you spend the first 24 hours or so mired in this which now stains everything else that comes after because every

paragraph will have some mention back to this last two or three days of noise that shouldn't be there. but somehow you just stumble into it. it's an amazing thing to watch because you would think the campaign is careful and prepared as they were going into this that this is something -- >> coverage leading up to it, everybody says it's risk averse. can't mess it up. >> can't mess it up. >> okay. but chris, joe scarborough, governor howard dean and michael steele was there as well even if you invempbted the olympics no reason to talk about it. take a listen to how they were talking about it this morning. >> what's he is going to do in israel? look around and go, you know what -- >> i'm a tad bit worried. >> think the palestinians probably should have all of jerusalem. what is he going to do in poland

say hitler was right. >> this is disaster from one end to the other. do i think he'll recover? probably. this is probably the worst trip that any presidential candidate has taken. >> chris, is this really a gift to team obama and do they need to even say anything just let it play out as it is? >> what do you need to say? i mean, i know people are going to hate that i'm going to say this. mitt romney does deserve the gold medal for gaffes. if you look at the reality what he did, it kind of reinforces his narrative about romney he's not a discipline candidate, that he's not focused on, you know, delivering a message and that's problematic to say the least domestically but when you go overseas and in particular in really sensitive spots like israel, you know, you can actually cause international incidents and it just shows you he's not ready for primetime and for someone who likes to talk about their experience and their background it just, i think, is a serious crack. >> the president is out today with his own ad that will run

during the olympic opening ceremony. i want to show everybody a preview. take a look. >> i believe that the way you grow the economy is from the middle out. i believe in fighting for the middle class because if they are prospering all of us will prosper. that's the idea of america. >> so, if you're the president you want to keep it presidential. so to speak moving forward. if you're mitt romney how do you reset and turn what is a misstep out of the first leg of this trifecta trip into something better. >> it's tough. look obviously the obama people had that ad in the works before all of this happened but it's a nice counter point for them to see him being just presidential, talking about what's positive about america on the opening day of the olympics. that's obviously what mitt romney should have been doing. on some level you do have to feel for him, his background as a consultant, as a business guy is certainly to go into settings and notice what's wrong and try

to fix it. they bought failing companies and figured out how to turn them around. he was probably, the sin here is he was honor necht what he thought in london. that's not what you do when you're a foreign country. how he can recover, do what he's doing. move on. hope when he gets to a new country, new topic and no more of this happens. on the back end of the trip he'll have another story line to contend with and that's this horse that's competing and that want plays into the idea that he's very wealthy and this is a very rarified sport his family is involved in. he'll be announcing his veep pick. >> michael, 100 days on sunday will be the election day. gallup says this point is very important because nine out of the end of te ten were won by the leader. what does the poll tell you? >> voters are largely undecided in how they firm up.

you still have a significant enough, even though a small number of independent voters who still haven't made up their mind. the second thing is this, this is july. the world goes away. labor day is when this thing kicks in. polls begin to matter because everyone then focus. the conversation becomes much more serious leading up to the debates. the debates will define ultimately those independent voters where they line up at this point. this weekend, the 100 day mark interesting to see what the polls say right now 46-46 race that's pretty much where america sees it right now. >> chris, $100 million spent over the last three months in attack ads. independents may not be as tuned in as they should be. labor day will tell the tale. are people out there turned off? >> i'm not sure they are turned off. to some extent the problem with nasty campaigns, especially when there's a lot of negative attack

ads, it can kind of demobilize people. this thing stays pretty close, the debates when they are on the stage next to each other this thing will be clear to the voters where they want to go. >> thank you. victim number two, the shower room victim whose abuse by jerry sandusky really ended up cost joe paterno his job. why now? those voice males of sandusky released by his lawyers. plus we'll talk about this high stakes game of chicken. >> a feel good way of saying your homophobic cheapens your bible but disrespects your god. >> that's the outrage being

expressed and captured online after a popular fast food chain starts a food fight over marriage equality. what do you think about this, the chick-fil-a controversy. tweet me @thomasroberts. every communications provider is different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company. ♪ we link people and fortune 500 companies nationwide and around the world. and we will continue to free you to do more and focus on what matters.

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the young man known as victim two in the jerry sandusky child sexual abuse case has come forward through his lawyers filing a lawsuit against penn state. his identity still a secret. the young man's attorney has released two voice males they claim sandusky left their client.

again, these voice males were released by victim number two's lawyers and not obtained by msnbc news. take a listen. >> you know, there is nothing really to hide so, um, if you want give me a call. all right. take care. love you. uh. hope you get this message. thanks. just calling to see you know whether you had any interest in going to the penn state game this saturday. thanks. i love you. >> those voice males allegedly left by sandusky a week apart last september, less than two months before his arrest. victim number two never testified at sandusky's trial. joining me is criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor b.j. bernstein. b.j., good to have you with us today and a lot to talk about. this was the victim whose horrific assault ended up costing joe paterno his job,

starting this cascade towards justice in this case. we remember back 2001 and the eyewitness testimony of mike mcqueary who came forward to report this to the higher ups at penn state. victims number two and the attorney are saying their client suffered extensive sexual abuse over many years and this abuse happened before and after 2001 that shower incident. what is your reaction to this and why not release more information of this during the trial? >> you've hit it on the head. my concerns right now is the timing of this inasmuch remember sandusky has been convicted. he's going appeal his case. there are going to be some questions. prosecutor said this was an unknown attorney them, they didn't have the information and, you know, did they know? when did this young mango to these lawyers to start researching and putting together a case? i know from firsthand that, you know, yes, victims have a hard time coming forward, particularly with high-profile

defendants. but it takes months sometimes for me to go through and figure out what really happened. and so if that was going on during the time period that the state had any knowledge whatsoever, did they not turn that over to the defense and he may have created some sort of reversible error in sandusky's case. so that part, the timing, i have a lot of questions right now. >> another statement victim number two's attorney say they plan to sue penn state university and others to hold them accountable for the egregious and reckless conduct that facilitated this. how devastating is this with the millions of lawsuits occurring against penn state. this is all outside of the purview of what the ncaa just did. >> it's outside of what the ncaa did and it's a very necessary part. remember civil accountability has been the number one thing to

actually put in check, child abuse in america. whether it's the catholic church, whether it's been other religious entities or institutions, that's the only thing that's there and only thing that ties directly to these victims. it could well be that this young person didn't come, no longer so young, didn't come forward until after the safety of the conviction of sandusky because it is not easy -- it is not easy particularly my boys when they come in my the office tell me everything that happened. and because it was such a high-profile case it's very, very hard. it may be that this press release and these tapes are a way of approaching the university again without having his name put forward in a lawsuit in trying to resolve it that way to get the help that this, whoever number two is needs help. >> attorney b.j. bernstein. thanks so much. i appreciate your insight into this as always. >> thanks, thomas.

>> frightening sight as storms pound the northeast knocking out power to thousands. we'll bring you all the details straight ahead. plus, a jackson family meltdown. what is going on with kathryn jackson, the matriarch of this family often described as the glue and all the kids and grandkids. plus her jailhouse invite from conrad murray. courtney hayes has it all for us in the scoop. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more cash. [ russian accent ] 50% more rubles. eh, eh eh, eh, eh. [ brooklyn accent ] 50% more simoleons.

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we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. new battle brewing for the jewish vote. casino magnate is helping mitt romney to win over jewish voters. "the washington post" reporting democrats are now raising money to counter that effort. all of this comes as mitt romney prepares to visit jerusalem

tomorrow. we're going to say good morning to the executive director of the republican jewish coalition matt brooks. the president won the jewish vote in '08 with more than 70% of the vote. now your organization is launching a campaign called buyers remorse. this an effort to peel off some of that support this time around. explain tomb out there why should jewish voters feel remorse for supporting the president four years ago? >> well i'll tell you, thomas. i've traveled literally across the country in jewish communities from new york all the way to california and wherever i go people come up to me and said, you know, they really bought into obama's message of hope and change in 2008 but because of the way he's handled things like the economy, we saw the stagnant gdp numbers today. we've seen historic unemployment numbers. because of the way he's handling the u.s.'s relationship, because of his, the way he's handling foreign policy, a lot of them have come up and said they want

their vote back, they have obama buyers remorse an that really is the genesis of why we're launching this campaign. this is a campaign of real people in the jewish community talking about and telling their real stories about why they became disillusioned with president obama. >> let's talk about our relationship with israel. the president trying to upstage mitt romney's trip to israel by signing an act. oil play a brief bit. >> this is a program that has been critical in terms of providing security and safety for israeli families. it is a program that has been tested and has prevented missile strikes inside of israel. and it's testimony to the leadership of folks sitting here that we're going to be able to lock in that.

>> actions speak louder than words. what message will this send to american jews as matt says they are trying to start this campaign of buyer's remorse. >> the first message is there's a long standing bipartisan consensus around america's commitment to israel and israel's security. and i don't think that there's any chance that the republican party is going to be able to open up a wedge and i don't think they should try to open up a weather channel over the u.s./israel relationship according to israel's own defense minister security cooperation has never been higher this, president has been extraordinarily committed and trying to achieve peace in a two state solution. >> matt, before heading overseas, mitt romney really lit into the president's foreign policy towards israel but when we look at what the president has truly done he's arguably got isrealis biggest enemy, osama bin laden out of the way. he proposed a bid for israel statehood.

so, as you say, matt, you've gone around the country and people are concerned about what our country's relationship is with israel. how exactly has the president unmind israel and apieced its enemy which is the biggest concern. >> the president deserves credit for getting osama bin laden but hopefully any president would have gotten osama bin laden. the fact of the matter this president has said to a meeting with jewish leaders he prefers to have daylight between the united states and israel and we believe very strongly there should be no daylight. this president has used the harshest diplomatic language in our diplomatic arsenal to condemn israel's policy of building in its eternal capital of jerusalem. this president has also changed the entire paradigm in the middle east peace process to the point in which "the washington post" in a scathing expose the other day put the blame for the collapse. peace process at the president's feet because he is determined and laid out preconditions for

israel which is going back to the 67 borders with land swaps as a precondition which has stalled the whole peace process now. so by forcing israel to have preconditions in the peace process which will result in israel being weaker and less secure in terms of its border, by condemning its policies in jerusalem, and by wanting daylight between the united states and israel this president has demonstrated that he just doesn't get it and that's why jews all across the country who voted for him in 2008 will not be voting for him in 2012. >> prime minister benjamin netanyahu, mitt romney have known each other for a long time. does that give mitt romney an advantage this personal relationship with benjamin netanyahu and give the advantage to him among the jewish voters? >> it's important to understand jews are not a single issue constituency. they are americans. they care about the economy. they care about health care. they care about the environment. education. whole range of issues.

in poland you fine perhaps somewhere around 7% or 8% of american-jews make israel a voting issue. so i think that the trend that you're going to see in the upcoming election among the jewish population will fit with the last ten presidential elections when the democratic candidate more in tune with the values and principles of the jewish community is going get rough liver 70% of the vote of american jews and this effort by the jewish coalition to drive a partisan wedge into israeli and american relations does no service either for the united states or state of israel and it's our break over generations of coming together as a party behind our relationship. >> gentlemen, we have to leave it there. thanks so much. i appreciate your time this morning. >> greebt you. >> coming up next chick-fil-a under fire for marriage equality supporters because of controversial comments from the fast food chain's ceo. melissa harris perry sounds off.

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mitt romney may be out of the country but back here at home his potential veep candidates are stepping up the stumping with campaign events planned for this weekend. if former florida governor jeb bush has his choice romney's running mate with be mark rubio would will be in the swing state of nevada this weekend. bush said he personally lobbied on behalf of rubio's behalf. potential veep short lister governor bobby jindal is defending romney's gaffe. jindal said voters are not worried about overseas headlines adding romney expects the games to be a phenomenal success. jindal will be in florida over the weekend. and house speaker john boehner said he's partial to rob portman who he's described as a long time friend. portman is slated to meet with romney staffers in ohio and head to pennsylvania this weekend. all right, so the

chick-fil-a controversy continues to boil. it began earlier this month when the chicken chain's president dankathy made his ideas known. well guilty as charged. we are very much supportive of the family the bibleal definition of the family unit. er a family owned business. since then the backlash has been big and fierce with city officials in boston, chicago and philadelphia condemning the remarks and rethinking future business relationships with chick-fil-a. but there's also been support for the company from gop voices like rick santorum and mike huckaby. melissa, good to have you here, a lot of people have passion about where this conversation is going. chick-fil-a has made no bones about the fact that they do operate on biblical principles. this is a company that's closed

on sunday because of having a day off and respecting sunday is a day to go to worship. a private company. i want has ignite this firestorm. rahm emanuel blasting it, marriage equality supporters promise kiss ins. >> it goes right to the heart of sort of americans have two ways that we get to influence the world. or our country. one is through our vote and the other is through our dollars and pocketbooks and the companies we support or don't support. the vast majority of the time we don't know very much about the positions of these companies. you know, we buy the least expensive product or the best quality that's closest to hours. in this case, because the president of chick-fil-a has put it on the table that if you put your dollars here, your dollars will be supporting this world view it means -- it makes it political you have to make a choice about how you're spending your money. >> biblical principles line has gotten under a lot of people's skin. i found this woman who post this

five minute long rant on youtube about this and the biblical definition of marriage. take a look. >> to toss the word biblical out there as a pr decision and a good way to say your homophobic cheapens your bible and disrespects your god. >> she goes on to talk about the biblical definition of marriage is. how many wives you can have. concubines you can have. she's not talking about the stuff people in california. she's talking about being stoned, the big old rocks. don't they walk a fine line as she points out touting biblical principles, hiding behind the bible to promote bigotry and homophobia. >> it's to put out this vague discourse about biblical principles without any kind of actual biblical text or any in depth understanding particularly if one is a new testament

believer that at the point that want jesus becomes the leader of the church in that way he says the most important thing is to love your god and then to love your neighbor as yourself. that's a very clear sort of standpoint in the bible that says yes there are all these laws but the most important law is how we treat one another and he didn't say how you treat your white neighbor or heteresexual neighbor. >> chick-fil-a culture and tradition is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. have they hurt themselves moving forward? obviously, again, they have made no bones about the fact that not only do they have anti-gay views they fund anti-gay operations. like the national organization for marriage or exodus international. they made no bones about it.

>> if you spend your dollars on the delicious waffle fries. it's yummy stuff. if you spend your money there then you will in fact being contributing to someone who is not leaving the policy to the politicians, who will absolutely be in the policy game because they are going to be contributing your dollars spent to policies that will keep people from having equal civil rights. period. now you have to make a choice as a consumer. >> mike huckaby says august 1st is chick-fil-a appreciation day asking people to go out there and support them. if you like marriage equality and you go there you're a chicken eating judas. my thanks to you as always. you'll be on hiatus a little bit. ing tonight i'm sitting in f for rachel maddow. it's a come to work day with mom. some other stories topping the news right now four.

we start with this the northeast reeling as many as 16,000 buildings lost power when severe weather stormed the northeast. look at the ominous clouds in new york city. and a possible tornado toppled down treels and power lines in almira. two deaths are blamed. july is on pace to become the hottest month on record. with just five days left in the month, prelim data showing the heat can top the warmest july on record from 1936. five cities, st. louis, indianapolis, chicago, detroit and denver all on pace to shatter their all time monthly heat records. three shooting victims in aurora, colorado will be remembered today during funerals and visitation. 12 survivors remain currently in the hospital. this as the fbi analyzes a package apparently sent to the university of colorado medical center by the shooting suspect james holmes. a law enforcement officials telling nbc news this package

contained writings about killing people. the parents of the man accused of fatally shooting trayvon martin have launched a new website. robert and gladys zimmerman created robert and gladys.com on a message in its home page. the couple asks for financial contribution to help with their increased living expenses. kathryn jackson says the decision to take her son michael's children away from her was quote based on a bunch of lies. a judge put t.j. jackson, that's tito's son in charge of prince, paris and blanket after kathryn disappeared for more than a week without contacting the kids. she was reported missing on saturday night but she said she was on vacation. at one point the children were so upset not being able to reach their grandmother that prince michael tweeted what is a text conversation between him and his aunts. i want goes on the say this is enough. i'm texting you for the simple fact that we demand to speak to

my grandma now. the response from janet, don't let had them, please. nbc news.com, courtney haslett. the whole jackson, i'm confused. if she's their guardian how does she go away for a week and the kids don't know it. >> they didn't know where she was. paris jackson tweeted her grandmother is missing. she tweeted out a phone number saying if you have any information call this number. long story short he was pictured playing uno with family members in a spa location arizona. she was safe and sound. other jackson family members have come forward saying that really this confusion about her and who gets the guardianship is all masking this controversy over michael jackson's will. if you remember, everything was left to kathryn jackson. now some of the jackson brothers are saying that that will should not be valid because michael

wasn't there to sign it when the executor says he was there. that's what they are trying to focus on. this whole mess surrounding catherine jackson detracting from that. >> her health in good health she says this has been a budge ever lies about any type of condition or stroke or anything like that. but dr. conrad murray has reached out the her to come visit him in jail. >> so dr. conrad murray's attorneys have allegedly made this statement. i was trying to get in touch with them again before i came on right here to see the validity of the statement. i want seems outrageous he's inviting kathryn jackson to come visit him in jail. he just wants to have a conversation with her. he hears she has some questions and he thinks he can clear them up. so all of this has made far more complicated by all these jackson family members have internet connections and tweeting conflicting versions of everything and putting up clips of text messages and that sort of thing. what is going to end up happening in the short term we're going see if kathryn

jackson remains the -- i'm sorry if t.j. jackson remains the guardian. >> a soap opera. >> the jackson family golden rule is just when you think it can't get stranger it always does. >> good to see you. just eight hours until the opening ceremony of the london olympics. a look at the pomp ahead of those big games. but first, facebook sharing getting hammered again today. the facebook shares that is. shares are down another 14% to a new record low near 23 bucks. the stock plunged 18% yesterday. following this disappointing earnings report. company's first since going public two months ago at $28 a share. twitter apologizing for a worldwide outage that lasted for two hours. don't blame the jacksons. blame it on the failure of two parallel systems at a data center. follow me. chime in on stories of the day

@thomasroberts. sending taxes through the roof and hindering economic recovery. the consequences? millions of americans will see their taxes on dividend income spike, slowing investment in u.s. companies and jeopardizing development in energy projects that create american jobs. ask congress to stop a dividend tax hike -- for all of us. ♪ who is he? it's aaron cross. he's an outcome agent. we should go. if there is hell, now would be the time to bring it on. ♪ ♪ what are you gonna do? [ cross ] i'm gonna finish what he started.

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voters do not have the idea that they need to cast ballots this november and don't know about it. aclu found 1.2 million eligible voters believe incorrectly they have a valid i.d. some argue the outcome could help decide the presidential race. 93-year-old vivian applewhite is a plaintiff in this case. >> it's crippling the black race, this is what i think. i think when they made this law i think they particularly made to it cripple the black race so that obama will not get in there. >> jim burn, chairman of the pence democratic party. aclu is involved in one of these lawsuits against the law but the

study does offer some potentially revealing statistics. explain to all of us about those and your take on this. >> well, the stats that you've shared do concerns. that's why we have been working diligently here in pennsylvania with a variety of groups interested in making sure all voters have what they need to vote in outreach, identify and recruit these individuals who think they have the proper i.d. when actuality they don't. we've been preparing for this contingency. next week we'll aggressively push this to make sure pennsylvanians have what they need come november. >> so jim this report finds about 379,000 eligible voters who don't have an i.d. or one of the three documents necessary to be able to get proper i.d. for a lot of us this requirement doesn't sound very complicated.

let's talk about the requirements. explain them and why these concern you. >> they concern me and this is actually the crux of the lawsuit. many of the plaintiffs don't have what you need in the event you don't have one of the six forms of valid photo identification in pennsylvania. assuming you don't have one of the sucks and i can get into those with you you have to show up with a social security card, a birth certificate and two proofs of residency. a couple of the plaintiffs don't have either the social securitys is card or the birth certificate, which makes it impossible for them to get what they need to show up and vote. the six forms are military photo i.d., federal photo i.d. like a passport, a state photo i.d. like a driver's license, certain types of hospital, pennsylvania affiliated hospitals photo i.d., public or private schools of higher learning, state involvement there for a photo i.d. or a municipal photo i.d. if you don't have one of those

six you have to come up with one of those other criteria to get one, go a designated location in pennsylvania, some locations aren't in all of the counties so people have to travel miles outside of their counties. i want real crates many unnecessary steps and burdens for people to go and exercise a fundamental constitutional right. >> pennsylvania democratic party chair jim burn. thank you. >> senator scott brown is a youtube sensation. yeah that's right. brown's new campaign ad is a big hit. got over 350,000 view since monday. it's called let america be america and takes a page from mitt romney's playbook. >> if you got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> there's nobody in this country who got rich on his own. nobody. you built a factory out there, good for you. but i want to be clear, you

moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. >> senator brown picked up the endorsement of new york city mayor michael bloomberg yesterday. his reason because of his votes against his party and the nra on gun control legislation. the first lady is in london now to lead the u.s. delegation at the olympics. she teamed up with the soccer star david beckham earlier today for a let's move event. did so with hundreds of kids there. ann romney and her horse are prepping to go for gold in the london olympics. this sport is referred to sometimes as horse ballet. mitt romney won't thereabout to cheer them on. ann is okay with that. >> you won't thereabout to see it? it's your wife. she will be nervous. >> i would love to be there. it's a busy time for me. >> i give him a pass when it comes to my horses because he's so supportive of me. >> the house floor goes crazy

for the usa. but the cheers had nothing to do with the olympics. the floor erupting after a fiery speech about jobs. ♪

♪ ♪ that's the u.s. swimming team doing their best carly jensen there. the curtain goes up on the opening ceremony of the 2012 olympic games and organizers have a tough act to follow. 2008, performers captivated all

of us from beijing. take a look, a sneak peek at one of the rehearsals. the folks running this show are hoping for a big surprise, hoping for the 15,000 member cast to keep it a top secret in the world of social media rob simmelkjaer will anchor our olympic coverage on msnbc. he is back from london and is going to give us a little bit of a sneak peek of what we can expect tonight. we don't know so much about the rumors, because there are tons. we can't parse the facts from fiction. but do we know who will be lighting the cauldron? >> we don't know. they have done a good job of keeping this a secret considering the age of twitter. london bookies are pretty good at finding out anything and the odds on who is going to light the torch shifted dramatically this week, actually, in favor of roger banister who, as any track and field fan knows, was the first person ever to run the mile in less than four minutes back in 1955. so the odds are now in favor of him but there have been all

sorts of rumors from david beckham to queen elizabeth. pretty sure that's not going to happen. to a lot of others. we'll see. >> you bring up the queen, you bring up david beckham. they are most likely going to be in that stadium that will hold about 60,000 people this evening. who else is supposed to be there? >> well, there will be over 100 heads of state and first ladies in attendance. there will be a very impressive group of people. what's interesting is that the director of the show, danny boyle, who of course was the director of "slumdog millionaire" the academy award winning movie, has talked about using the crowd as props, essentially. it's really a television production at the end of the day and they will use these folks as props at the end of the day. >> we will see how they capture the london spirit. rob simmelkjaer, thank you. of course, watch the opening ceremony tonight on your local nbc stations starting at 7:30 p.m. eastern. as a reminder, you can catch and watch all 5,355 hours of coverage online at nbcolympics.com. they are streaming every single event for the first time in

olympic history. we have no excuse to miss any of the best stuff. that will wrap things up for me. have a great weekend. i will see you back after the olympics. until then, follow me on twitter or stay in touch through my facebook page. don't go anywhere. "now" with alex wagner coming up next. luke russert up from d.c. is filling in his host. you know, we're a little early for this thing... want to hop in the back and get weird? no. family vacation... vegas. ♪ no. no. give it a big yank! really? yeah! [ knock on window ] no! no. ♪ ugh, no! [ sighs ] we can have hotdogs for dinner?! yes. [ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes."

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love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. in sleepy london town, it seems there's no place for a gaffe-prone man. on the eve of the olympics, mitt romney makes the special relationship especially awkward and trips out of the starting block. can he shake off the kinks and make england his paradise? enough of the british rock pun. friday, july 27th, 2012. this is "now." i'm lukese