grizzly, she's a momma grizzly who's probably packing. >> they're hopping in and joining the jacuzzi. >> i'm really honored and i'm really proud that i was able to do something that nobody else could do. >> whoever is speaking at the convention, i'm sure they'll leave many of us speechless. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. obama takes the lead. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm michael smerconish. chris matthews is off tonight. it's been true that the election is this close.

it will be nip and tuck until november. that election day may turn into a long election night. all that may turn out to be true. over the past few days, three major polls not tracking polls, have shown president obama with a lead of between seven and nine points. and one sure sign the romney campaign believes the polls mean trouble came when an unnamed romney adviser said polls don't matter. that's what you say when you're behind. one way republicans can even things out is making it harder for democrats to vote. in ohio they're voting to extend voting hours in republican hours and limit them in democratic areas. it sounds farfetched, i know. but it's true. also if you want to know who your enemies are in politics, wait to see who criticizes you when you make a mistake. mitt romney's campaign has made a few of them lately. why the right might never trust romney. and the funny d.l. huguely will tell us how the audacity of dopes is ruining america.

that's half of his title of his book. the other half i can't say on tv. and stephen colbert takes bachmann's side kind of. he says since he's a muslim and a brother, he's part of the muslim brotherhood. we begin with the slide show. ed rendell was governor of pennsylvania. he's now an msnbc analyst. gentlemen, take a look at three new polls that have come out in the past few days. all have the president with wide margins over mitt romney. in the reuters poll, obama leads by seven points. the cnn poll released yesterday also has him up by seven. and according to the latest fox news poll, the president leads by nine points. last month the president was ahead by only four in that poll. the margins are even more dramatic among independent voters. in the cnn poll, they broke for

obama by 11 points. that's the same margin in the fox news poll. nate, i love your blog. you think there's more to the story. tell me why you're not necessarily buying this. >> we get 15 to 20 poles a week. you're going to have outliars. if you look at the broad trend in the race. gallup still has it tied for instance. i think obama has had a good month. this really looks to me like it's still a two or three or three and a half point race. i don't think the consensus will point towards a seven or nine point race. to have that much of a game changer in the mid-summer when people are watching olympics is not likely. wait until after the conventions to have sustained movement in the polls. >> and governor, the polling data was just released. but it means that those polls were out in the field a couple days ago. if not longer. i can't think of anything that's transpired in the last week to ten days that could account for

this sort of a swing, can you? >> well, i think the biggest, most important number is in the cnn poll. 64% of the people polled said that they didn't think -- they thought mitt romney was basically a person who didn't understand the problems of ordinary people. and i think this -- the negative campaign that obama has waged to try to define mitt romney cumulatively has taken effect. there's no question in my mind that's the case. i agree with nate. i'm not sure these numbers nationally are correct, although they're certainly very correct in the swing states right now. where the election will be decided. so i think they have taken a toll. having said that, i want all of us, particularly we democrats to remember we left atlanta in 1988 dukakis versus bush 18 points ahead in the national polls. until the convention speeches, until the debates, until the fall campaign starts to focus,

polls really don't mean much. i still believe this is going to be a close election and i still believe every person who wants to elect or re-elect the president had better vote. this is going to be a close one. >> here's an explanation to what could be going on out there. roger simon asked a logical question. given the state of economy, shouldn't romney be ahead by now in the polls? then he wrote, but what do the opinion polls sthoe? they show a country who still likes obama more than it likes romney. and by quite a bit. and as i have written for years, i have a simple minded way of determining who is going to win the presidency. the more likable candidate wins. not always, but almost always. nate silver, could it be that simple? >> it could be in part if you look at the approval ratings for obama. they're about break even now. 47% approve and 47% disapproves. yet he has a lead of points.

so it's mostly referendum on the indumb bent. but the part is a personality contest. it may pick up votes around a margin in an election that is close. winning on two extra points by likability could flip the entire outcome in november. >> governor rendell, as you look at the mile posts coming up, the v.p. selection, the debates. which gives romney the best opportunity to turn this around? >> i think first and foremost, v.p. election will be important but i don't think it's a game changer. i think the convention speech is very important that mitt romney connect with the american people. and i think he should talk a lot about himself, a lot about the things that shaped him. i actually believe he should talk about his mormon religion and how his mormon religion informs his values and decision making process. he should talk about the importance of his family. and then yes he should criticize

the president. but he should also begin the pros of trying to convince the american people that his plan, his economic plan will actually work. and he's got to give them some meat, some detail. if he makes a terrific convention speech, i think he can wipe away not all the battering he's taken. remember, he was battered by his republican opponents prettily badly too. rick perry said vulture capitalism. so that convention speech begins the turnaround process. and then in the debates he has to make the case he can turn the economy around. he's got to say barack obama is a good guy. but he hasn't been able to do the job, turn to me. does he have an opportunity to do this? yes. does he battering he take make it harder that he's taken make it harder? absolutely. >> nate, one last question on these polls. we tend to fix sate, those of us

in the media, on the surveys of course we don't elect a president by a popular vote. does a seven to nine point lead for obama comport with what you're seeing in the analysis of the electoral college? >> we thought the numbers were better than the national tracking polls. they've been steady. you haven't seen a ton of movement in ohio or florida. but obama's numbers have held steady there. the fact the republican candidate trails in most polls which is a slightly gop leaning state is not good news for him or that he trails in more polls of not in florida or virginia. so really, i think if you look at the state numbers, they tell a steadier story about the race. also one that says romney has work left to do. he maybe does need to start pulling in the lion's share. not just breaking even to win the race. >> and look at the polls there show obama with an 11 point lead. that's what we won by in '08.

for him to be at the same level with the economy, it's incredible. >> mitt romney told our own chuck todd yesterday he would like to see the campaigns put a moratorium on personal attacks. watch this. >> i can assure you our campaign can be helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues. and that attacks on business, family, or taxes -- this is just diversion. >> are you going to throw out a pledge or something? >> i would love to say we will only talk about issues. >> that's a somewhat ironic challenge coming from romney because during the primaries his super pac overwhelmed his opponents with negative ads like this one against newt gingrich. >> why is this man smiling?

because his plan is working. brutally attack mitt romney and hope newt gingrich is his opponent. why? newt has a ton of baggage. like the fact that gingrich was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. or that he took at least $1.6 million from freddie mac just before it helped cause the economic meltdown. then there's the $37 million gingrich took from health care and industry groups. >> governor, if one of the issues of the campaign are tax rates for the wealthy and if you're wealthy and paid a tax rate that we're not quite sure of because you haven't happened over your tax turns, how is that not personal? >> the problem with that type of pledge is number one as you said, mitt romney has been a practitioner of negative campaigning. number two is who defines what's an issue and what's personal? since tax structure is an important issue, vital issue going forward, is it relevant as an issue or is it a personal

attack that mitt romney hasn't revealed his taxes which may show that he paid a far, far lower rate or nothing at all compared to the average american taxpayer? what is that? is that an issue, michael? or is that personal? >> nate, does it properly inoculate romney coming forth with this pledge you heard him offer to chuck todd so he looks like he's the guy who doesn't want the campaign to get personal or do you think the people will see through this? >> i think the voters know it will be a nasty campaign somewhat like it was in 2004. look. both sides are going to attack. when you have an election this close, this is what they have to do. he ran a negative campaign anyway. it's not going to get much better when we get to the real stretch for the campaign after labor day. >> i'm afraid you're correct. thank you governor, thank you nate silver. we appreciate your being here. coming up, gaming the

system. republicans in ohio are trying to extend voting hours in countries that lean republican and shorten hours in counties that tend to go for democrats. sounds crazy, i know. but it's happening. this is "hardball," the place for politics. ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable solutions from the olympic village to the stadium. solutionism. the new optimism.™ ♪ this dream by what's getting done. measure commitment solutionism. the new optimism.™ the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious.

last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. new poll numbers out of the key battle ground state of wisconsin. let's check the "hardball" score board. according to a new poll, president obama leads mitt romney 50 to 45. and that five point lead stretches to seven among all voters. the poll found that a majority of wisconsin voters view president obama favorably while romney's negatives outweigh his positives. we'll be back. the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world.

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welcome back to "hardball." in the past months we've done a lot of stories about voting rights and access to voting. whether it be voter i.d. in pennsylvania. now there's another twist on the

early voting in ohio. early voting has been extended in republican leaning counties and not democratic leaning counties. how's that possible? here's how it works. in counties that voted heavily for mccain, the two democrats and republicans that make up the board of elections voted to extend voting hours. but in heavily democratic countries, they voted against extending voting hours. and the republican secretary of state then broke the tie. in the crucial swing state of ohio where obama beat mccain in 2008 by just 270,000 votes these early voting limitations could tip the election. barry horsman is for the cincinnati inquirer whose piece is about early voting. mark halperin of course is msnbc's senior political analyst. mr. horsman, enough at stake here to alter the outcome of ohio and the entire presidency? >> absolutely. the election everybody likes to point to is in 1976 when jimmy

carter carried over ford. if you go forward to 1992, in that election bill clinton carried ohio by slightly under a hundred thousand votes. in 2004 president bush beat john kerry by slightly over a hundred thousand. you can see very easily this has the capacity to change the outcome in ohio and by consequence, the nation. >> i know from reading your report on the subject, that in defense of not extending in certain of those areas, money gets raised. financing. is it possible that there is funding available in certain of those counties where they could pay for the extended votings but not in those counties where they're scaling back. does that hold any water? >> it doesn't, because we really haven't heard the counties themselves saying there would be an issue with extending hours. when you're talking extra

weekend and weeknight, some extra time is involved. but the complaint is from though democrats. this is nol short of an attempt to stack the deck in a way that is going to close down for many democrats found attractive. they say despite the burden on outstretched counties. look at the long lines that were around blocks, it was a predominantly black crowd. and the republicans are going to do anything they can to prevent that from happening easily this time. >> mark, i know of no scenario where mitt romney is elected president of the united states without capturing ohio. but i don't have your expertise. >> he needs ohio. barry has done a great piece. i think since 2000 we in our business have succeeded in upping our game in how to cover these issues fairly and

completely. what's failed is the political process. situation in ohio with the reality barry writes about in this piece is probably the worst to the country. but there are other states like your pennsylvania, like florida, like others where we've got a real problem. 23 . it could be a disaster that makes it look like a tea party. that's a joke. >> discussing ohio's not alone. there are moves afoot in nearly three dozen states where changes have been made. i'm curious whether mark halperin in his reporting has discovered signs of coordination among the states that are all tweaking their voting requirements. >> i don't know that it's coordinated nationally, but you've seen some officials. again, in pennsylvania, some officials being more open than they probably mean to be about what their intention is. republicans always are worried about voter fraud and people voting improperly. democrats tend to be more

worried about equal access to the polls. i think republicans have gotten the upper hand in making law changes in some of these positions like having a secretary of state behave in a way that helps republicans. the tragedy for the country is we need to have faith in the result on election night. you can't have a perfect election, but people shouldn't think the system a rigged and stacked in favor of one party or the other. >> barry, i understand in the buckeye state you have 88 boards of election. why not uniformity across the state? >> the argument you hear made there is if you impose a statewide imperative, you get to the local financial problems that could enter into this. it's better to leave it into the hands of the individual counties to have this on a county by county basis. the difficulty is the secretary of state said his tie breaking votes against allowing extra hours in the major earning hours, he said that's a step

toward ensuring uniformity statewide. in fact, in the area you only have to look to two suburban counties. butler and warren which are heavy and went strong for mccain. he did not intervene in those cases. the democrats went along with republicans in allowing the extra hours. the democrats feel they're being penalized for saying let's make voting easy. whereas republicans are being much more selective and much more strategic in how they approach that. >> the chairman of the hamilton county republican party has said reportedly that voting access will not be restricted. quote, this year every registered voter will get an absentee ballot application so the people can vote 24/7 from home for weeks before the election. there will be plenty of hours to vote early. it's just not true that we're trying to restrict access. mark halperin, is that enough of a remedial pressure that every

person in the recipient of an absentee ballot application? does that make up for what we're talking about? >> not completely. one of the things republicans not only in ohio but generally say is if you're going to vote you've got to take responsibility for it. if you get bad advice in your polling place or wrong deadline, that's your problem. you've got to fix it. democrats would like to see more ease and access. if your poll worker gives you bad information on how to cast your ballot, you shouldn't be penalized. so it's great that ohio is doing that in terms of absentee voting, but i think in general, as long as we have the right monitors in place and conditions in place it should be easier to vote and not harder to vote. >> gentlemen, thank you. thank you for your reporting. up next, michele bachmann gets some backup on absurd accusations on the muslim brotherhood by stephen colbert.

and if you want to follow me on twitter, just figure out how to spell smerconish. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ obama ] i'm barack obama and i approve this message. [ male announcer ] you work hard. stretch every penny. but chances are you pay a higher tax rate than him... mitt romney made twenty million dollars in two thousand ten but paid only fourteen percent in taxes... probably less than you now he has a plan that would give millionaires another tax break... and raises taxes on middle class families by up to two thousand dollars a year. mitt romney's middle class tax increase.

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[ male announcer ] try the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. back to "hardball." now for the sideshow. first up, florida tea party congressman allen west is taking hits from american sunrise. take a look. >> allen west fancies himself a fighter. maybe so. west has socked it to seniors voting to end medicare as we know it. he's whacked women with his votes for huge cuts in women's health care funding. and he's mauled middle class families by supporting a budget plan that would cut taxes on the rich while eliminating our tax breaks for mortgages.

>> congressman west wrote to his voters saying the ad playing on stereotypes and it cheapens the very real tragic occurrences of violence against women and seniors. stephen colbert looked to the muslim brotherhood. last night colbert tried to connect the dots. watch this. >> are you a muslim? >> yes, sir. >> do you have siblings. >> so you are literally a muslim brother. >> i guess. >> you realize that i've just caught you. i just caught you in a lie. >> look, that's a whole other organization in egypt. i don't have anything to do with that. >> as usual colbert finds the funny. a campaign out west? mailers were sent out by ben quayle's opponent congressman

david shwiker. on the back of the mailer it says on important conservative issues. that's an important distinction. a spokesperson said the mailer is utterly false regarding congressman quayle but accurately demonstrates the two sides of dave schweikert. the base is getting increasingly anxious with the romney campaign. especially after the series of mistakes they've made lately. if the right can't trust him, who can? you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought.

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i'm milissa rehberger. here's what's happening.

attorney general holder spoke to the families of victims at the sikh temple. a new report says corn farmers could face their lowest crop yields in 17 years due to the drought plaguing much of the u.s. and stocks ended the week higher. the dow gained 42, the nasdaq up two. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." you know times are tough when even your own teammates aren't with you. and mitt romney is learning that lesson this week after a rough couple of days. conservatives don't trust him and many of them are telling they better stay to the right and pick paul ryan for v.p. here was laura ingram this morning issuing a warning.

>> i might be the skunk at the picnic but i'm going to say it and clearly. romney's losing. i don't pretend to have all the answers but i know one thing. conservatism wins. >> so can romney gain the trust of the right? jennifer ruben writes right turn and is a contributor to cnbc's kudlow report. jennifer, you wrote yesterday that this week was quote, a lesson that the campaign dare not be oblivious to sensitivities from conservative foot soldiers. i keep wondering what exactly and i'm aware of course of the comment from andrea saul. but what has gone astray? i haven't seen any sign of mitt romney tacking towards the middle which i thought he would do and needs to do in order to win independents. >> he is a center right candidate. the republicans nominated the

least conservative person that was running. so there is a degree of nervousness as there is in any arranged marriage that the person you've been set up for is going to do you wrong. and conservatives are known for having candidates do them wrong once elected. there was a scuffle this week. i wrote on it extensive will in terms of the foreign policy personnel. i think two things are important. first of all, the conservatives have been pleased with two developments. one, he went overseas and stood firmly behind israel. very important in the conservative movement these days. and two, he has really stood up for free enterprise and for small business which really oppressed conservatives. i also would urge that your viewers take a look at some of the polls and look at the resurgent poll which i wrote about today. shows that conservatives and specifically republicans who are going to vote are incredibly optimistic and excited and enthusiastic. they're going to go and vote. whether it's voting for mitt romney or voting against obama. they have an enthusiasm advantage on the right which is

not going away. and despite these little scuffles, despite people toing and froing, romney will have a tremendous turnout as the republicans did in 2010. i think that's why -- >> that causes me to ask if any of this really matters. because as jennifer is pointings out, the conservatives are coming out. their antipathy is such that wild horses won't keep them away. >> i think it's a leadership test for mitt romney. is he their prisoner or their leader? and he has not pivoted to the center as so many people expected him to do. he's not gone for independent voters. and so recent polls have shown that he's losing independent voters. he can't win the election without independent voters. but if he moves too much to the center on things like health care, he will alienate the base and perhaps dampen turnout. but i agree that the anti-obama

feeling is so strong that most conservatives will turn out anyway. which allows him the opportunity, i think, to move a little more than he has. and you could argue that maybe the conservatives bark is worse than its bite in this election since the turnout will be heavy. again, romney has to show that he is their leader. you know, grover norquist put it really well. he said all we need is somebody with enough digits to sign bills that we've passed. if that's what they are expecting their president to be, he should be disabuse them of that notion if he wants to get props for being a strong leader. >> the reason he hasn't had to pivot is he's already in the center right. for example on social security reform, not proposing individual accounts. that was a big thing for the right. on for example tax reform. did never got behind a flat tax reform. this is a mainstream

conservative. >> no, he's not. >> yes, he is. in the scheme of all of the folks that you on the left like once they've lost elections -- >> the center of gravity has moved so far to the right. >> well, the country is more conservative than it was in 2008. >> jennifer, maybe you could make the argument -- >> let me get in on this if i might. jennifer, we led the program with poll results from both fox and cnn that show that governor romney trails by between seven and nine points in the popular vote. and by as many as 11 among independents. it seems to me that if the criticism from the likes of laura ingram or rush limbaugh or ann coulter because i've seen them all say something condemning. if those comments are successful in keeping romney to the far right and i agree with jonathan westbound that's where he's run thus far.

then he never closes that gap with independents. and by listening to these folks he loses the campaign. >> first of all, you point to two polls both of which have a very strong advantage in turnout for democrats. if you talk to the romney campaign and if you talk to the obama campaign, they think the electorate is going to look a lot more like 2010, 2004 which is an even division between republicans and democrats. the polls you just pointed to have an advantage plus seven, plus eleven, those are not realistic polls nor polls of likely voters. i think when you look at the polls that do try to zero in on more likely voters and when you look at an electorate that's a little bit more balanced as it is expected to be, those numbers are much closer. and i think we are now beginning the point in the election where the famous independents, the ones that slosh around in the middle of every election, begin to perk up. and the romney campaign thinks they'll have a successful convention.

so i think anyone who takes national polls seriously in the month of august probably isn't too sophisticated. >> i agree with that. >> jonathan, does this all boost the odds of paul ryan becoming the pick? i mean, that would quell the discontent on the right. >> yes, it would. look, ryan's advantage is he's young. he's very bright. and he would satisfy all the conservatives and unify the republican party. the disadvantage is that he is id ideologically out of the mainstream of american politics. the ryan plan is very unpopular in its particulars. it's a radical plan. it dramatically cuts taxes further for the wealthy. it cuts $800 billion out of medicaid which helps the poor and seniors. medicaid helps a lot of seniors as well as voucherizing medicare. these are very problematic in the fall campaign.

so the romney campaign has to make a decision. does it want to have essentially a medicare campaign going forward? and i would imagine that might be very perilous for them. >> jennifer, let me show you what eric erickson responded to romney's spokesperson andrea saul's comments this week. he tweeted omg this might just be the moment mitt romney lost the election. wow. i have a question for you. the folks that i've talked about on the right thus far, whether it's eric erickson or limbaugh or coulter, laura ingram, would they rather lose this election than see mitt romney win the election by running a more moderate campaign designed to reach that 11-point gap where he trails among independents? >> well, i don't tend to plum the mind of eric erickson. if he had his way, i think rick perry would be the nominee. so let's put him aside. i think there's two things going on. first of all, paul ryan is not

some whacked out right winger. he runs from a district that has run democratic for president every year since 2004. his medicare plan -- excuse me. it's the ryan medicare plan. his tax plan does not cut tax rates for the rich. [ overlapping speakers ] >> hold it. i really want an answer to this question. would folks on the right, the that are right, the prognosticators, pundits and talking heads i'm addressing rather lose the election than have mitt romney win as a moderate. i maintain the guy who was the governor of massachusetts would be winning this race if he were running as he governed in massachusetts. unless he moves in that direction, he will lose this campaign. and i'd love jennifer rubin to respond to that process. >> i'm sure there are people out there because they get better ratings or because they get more clicks on the blog would like to

go down in flames. but i think the overwhelming number of conservatives have such antipathy towards barack obama that that trumps any concern they have about mitt romney. so no, i don't think they would rather lose. and more importantly the people who vote don't want to lose. pundits which they were a majority of the country unfortunately were not, are we jonath jonathan. so i think in the conservative body politic, there's no sense of cutting off your nose to spite your face. >> thank you both. thank you jennifer rubin and jonathan alter. up next the funny d.l. huguely will be with us. his new book is all about politics even if i can't say its title on tv. this is "hardball," the place for politics. had kraft mac & cheese without me. so this time, i took precautionary measures. looking for these? [ rattling ] [ male announcer ] kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. mine hurt more!

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congressman jesse jackson jr. may be back to work soon. the congressman disappeared on a secret medical leave of absence two months ago. now his wife says he'll be home by september 1st and will campaign vigorously for re-election. jackson is being treated for depression and medical issues at the mayo clinic. we'll be right back. these fellas used capital one venture miles for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use...

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there are also those who claim that our reform efforts will this too is false. the reforms, the reforms i'm proposing would not apply to those here illegally. >> we're back. we all remember that infamous bit of doctor's appointment by congressman joe wilson as the president addressed a joint session of congress back in 2009. well, comedian d.l. huguely says the president's response to that shaped his presidency and not for the good. in his new book huguely tackles the sensitive issues of politics and race. does president obama need to learn how to stand up to bullies better? it's called i want you to shut the blank up. and d.l. huguely joins us now. easy for you to say, d.l., because you had to contend with

bubba ranken as a kid. and the president had it easy in hawaii. who is bubba ranken and how could the president have learned from that kind of an experience? >> i think that everybody at least has had some level of experience with a bigger, stronger guy who was determined to do what most bullies do which is pick on the weakest, easiest target. and he was that guy for me. and i think i learned as much from him about myself as i ever did from a lot of books -- let's face it, i've never read a lot of books. but obviously bubba ranken was instrumental in shaping the way i view the world. you learn that reason doesn't tend to work with them. >> so you depict the president in the pick as carl ton banks. are you getting a workout from the community in the way in which you've presented the president in that regard? >> i think that the kind of comparison was i thought more people hoped for a wesley snipes and what we got was a carlton

banks. and i think he's incredibly -- let's face it a wesley snipes could not have gotten elected. but i think he is a thoughtful and intellectual guy. i think he thinks like intellectuals do. and they tend to think they can reason with people who are unreasonable. >> you got to hang with mitt romney in a green room, but you didn't come away saying wow what a smart guy. you came away saying something else. what was that? >> i think i say what even republican operatives say. he is the most empty vessel of a human being -- i think he's the worst presidential candidate i have seen in my life time. and not because he's a bad human being. but i think he doesn't seem to have a core. i think he seems entitled. i think he seems aloof. i think when he went over to england and he basically -- the british came away saying that he was arrogant and boring. that's quite a compliment considering they are the people who invented arrogant and

boring. >> you have respect, and i know how you use the word in the book. it's not meant derisively. d.l. huguely has respect for guys to hustle. we don't mean it in a nefarious way. we mean it in a guy who make stuff happen. isn't romney a guy who has made stuff happen? >> if you consider being on third base and walking to home plate making stuff happen, then i guess he does. >> obviously he's done well. he's done well with a good head start. the guys i'm referring to not being able to take much of anything and make gains. and i think that he doesn't -- when i think of hustler, i certainly don't think of him. i think of people who find a way despite all the odds to kind of triumph. or get there. i think my father was a hustler. i think a lot of the cats that shaped the way i see the world were hustlers. i think that bill clinton was a hustler. so i think that people who find

a way despite the circumstances find a way to pers fear and make things happen. >> in the book you talk about how clinton went back to work as if nothing had happened and said only a black dude is going to be able to do that. >> yeah only a black dude is going back to work after he get fired like nothing happened. obviously in 20 years almost two decades after he's been out of office to be -- i think we were talking about this earlier, he is positive has never been higher. he's still relevant on the international scene and national scene. it's because of everybody knew he was slick. but he also had enough components that people could respect. i think he found a way to get stuff done. reagan worked with o'neil. i think it's the ability to cut through all the stuff going on and find a way to move forward and make things happen.

>> d.l., you had some strong words on another controversial topic. the flap over chick-fil-a last week. they talked about appreciation day after gay activists protested for comments by its president attacks gay marriage. then you wrote a letter to the restaurant chain saying you've been speaking with a fork tongue spewing hate instead of frying love. so chick-fil-a, baby, i guess what i'm struggling to say as i fight back the tears and wipe the grease from my fingers is this. it's not that i don't love you. we know that's not true. i know i'll never find another like you, but we're growing in two different directions. i'm afraid i won't be able to see you anymore. what thoughts can you add to that? >> i think obviously mr. kathy has a right to his opinion and it's a strong one.

and a and the is well and good. but to acknowledge that he speaks for him but thatactually only does he speak for him but he can actually impart his view on -- enforce his view on somebody else, seems patently unreasonable to me. lord knows i'm going to miss the chicken sandwich, i hate to say it on national tv. i feel a sense of resentment he made me break up with one of my favorite snacks. >> i enjoyed the book emimmense. i think you defy labels. we only have 30 seconds left together. how doo y you characterize yourf if they ask about your politic snz. >> i try to be a man, stand for what i believe in, i try to say what i believe, i try to be my own captain of my own team, i

try to have my own thoughts and stand for the things i believe. most of all, if i'm nothing else, i try to be as human and humane as possible. >> d.l. hughley, many thanks. here's the book, it's called, "i want you to shut the blank up." we'll be right back. hritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness.

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let me finish tonight with this. john harwood wrout an interesting piece this week for the "new york times" in which he discussed the difficulty posters are having in this presidential

cycle as they try to reach one segment of the electorate. those who rely exclusively on cell phones. bill mcinturf a republican pollster and peter hart, his counterpart, they recently increased the proportion of respondents who rely exclusively on cell phones to 30% from 25%. and to home in on them, the p t pollsters ended calls answered on cell phones if the respondents said they also had a land line. they tend to be more democratic in their political views than those with land lines. there are other nonpolitical ramifications to our tendency to rely on cell phones only. namely, that total reliance on our individual phones actually limits communication. you can trace this to the days when the only phone ringing in the house was a house phone, usually in the kitchen. whoever was closer, handed it

off to the caller's intended resilliant after someone shouting out phone. today, my kids, they don't move a muscle when our land line rings. we're all reliant on our own devices. for me, that's an iphone, laptop, and desktop computer, but i don't use any of those to reach out to the people on the periphery of my own social network. give you a great example. nigh in-laws, sure, we'rec congenial at the thanksgiving table, but we don't call one another. ours was the sort of relationship kept in tact when i served as an intermead air for communications between my phone, or consider the case of your daughter's boyfriend or son's girlfriend, remember howia got the first impression of him or her? their phone manner. hello, you immediately knew if he was courteous. maybe he would say, may i please speak with? you got a hunch as to whether he was appropriate. no, sir, i would never dream of that, and wheth