the last lap. the xxx olympic games coming to close today. but not without a final flourish of gold for u.s. athletes. the latest in a live report. and one phenomenon emerging from the games that's attracting more attention than some of the athletes themselves. the romney/ryan ticket. big questions raised this morning on how the vice presidential choice might affect voting in the swing states. will paul ryan help or hurt? and behind the numbers. how much will the expanding drought cost america and when will you start paying more at the grocery store? good morning to you. welcome to "weekends with alex witt" i'm richard lui. alex is off today. mitt romney and paul ryan wasting no time getting into

full swing of the campaign, kicking off a four battleground state bus tour with an event in ashland, virginia, last night. congressman ryan set the tone for the rest of the campaign, going after president obama and the economy. take a listen. >> we've got a choice of two futures ahead of us. we know that. president obama, with his party firmly in control, the first two years, got almost everything passed into law that he wanted. and now we're living under those policies. now we're witnessing a nation in debt, further in doubt, deeper in despair. >> now president obama's campaign is already hitting back, releasing a new ad attacking paul ryan's budget plan, which campaign manager jim messina says would take the country back to the failed policies of the past. >> put on a plan rewriting the health care system, medicare, social security, our entire tax system.

>> i think it would be marvelous if the senate were to pick up paul ryan's budget, and to adopt it. >> all right joining me now for front page politics, adam soerensen, associate editor of "time" magazine. we'll get to that very issue of ryan's budget plan in just a second. adam, who would have been a better choice than paul ryan? >> i think these things are very hard to judge until you have more of a result. sarah palin was judged very harshly after the fact, because she was going to be viewed as hurting john mccain's campaign in 2008. but i will say this, that, you know, i don't think that romney's team was making a judgment based on simple electoral math or even gambling on the state of wisconsin. i think that they were trying to shake up the race, and made a big gamble, and a bold choice based on turnout and excitement, and you know, we're not concerned with who is number is tallied up with. >> swing states doesn't seem to be the approach here.

didn't go after virginia, nevada or florida necessarily. >> sure. as i said, it was not a gamble on wisconsin. paul ryan is a member of the house. they don't often get picked simply because they're not widely known in their states. so i don't think that it was a really a targeted gamble. but, paul ryan excites conservatives. he's one of the biggest fund-raisers in the house. if not the biggest. and i think they're looking to boost turnout across the board. >> all right. certainly going after the base. the issue of the economy, which is an issue for many swing voters, whether they are independents, democrats, or republicans, when you look at that. did you see that article from nate silver that where he broke down basically all the possible vice presidential picks, and he looked at how the electoral swing might be, as well as where the actual popular vote swing might be, and ryan sat at the bottom of the pile here. were numbers part of this? or is it really more about the personality that he brings? what he stands for, what you were just talking about? >> romney seems to have spent a

lot of time looking at these candidates, the specifics of how they looked at each record, and considered which states they were from. but i will say this, nate silver's piece was about individual states. and ryan did not help in wisconsin as much as say rob portman would have in ohio. but he definitely does have a national effect, as i mentioned before, excitement. >> what do you think about this? as long as there have been polls measuring the popularity of congress, and it's something that we talk a lot about here in this sort of space, congress is the least popular of all time. does that baggage going to hurt this decision to pull in paul ryan as his running mate? >> i think it could. you know, there's going to be a struggle right now, the next few weeks, to kind of define ryan's personality in the greater national media spotlight. but another interesting thing about pick, is that not only is he a congressman, he's never really worked in the private sector. which is one of romney's biggest

critiques of obama. >> so that complementry asset does it help in the ticket? >> i think it can but it definitely muddies one of romney's main messages which is that obama doesn't understand the economy because he never worked in it. now he's touting ryan as someone who deeply understands the economy though he's worked in washington most of his adult life. >> in those seven terms he's been recently working on the budget plan, the ryan budget plan, which we started the segment with, as we look forward to what might this mean for the future, we only have to look back the last year to one example, and that is there was a special election that you remember in new york where a democrat won in a traditionally conservative district. this right after the budget plan came out from ryan. is there an overhang here, a little discomfort still perhaps even in with some conservatives with those that are in that swing vote space that would look back to that time and say, well, hmm, that might still be a bit of a problem going forward? >> well, there's no doubt certainly as you saw in the

obama ads that democrats are going to make a very big issue of the ryan budget, especially the parts that would give vouchers for medicare down the road. but, you know, it's tough to say. when you look at the polling, even conservatives seem to like medicare spending. they want to cut things like foreign aid, and entitlement programs are very popular. that's part of the reason why they're so difficult to cut. but, you know, it's a debate we're going to have and it's one of the fascinating things. >> talk about florida, then, since you're on that point of medicare. >> sure. you know, florida has a lot of seniors living there. and i would really expect obama and his allies to go back on tv advertising about medicare and paul ryan. >> you're watching yesterday as the two of them came to the stage, and they hit several spots along the way. chemistry has been one of the benefits, those who've been watching the two work together, at least in the past, when romney and ryan have been working the crowds together. is there a part of now ryan being part of the ticket that

may assist romney in coming out of the shell, shall you say? that has been one of the critiques of how romney has been approaching the campaign to date. >> sure, paul ryan has a natural ease. he's a bow hunter. he's a guy from wisconsin. i think that he has a lot of relatability that sometimes romney is criticized on. but also, you know, for all the people who were surprised about the pick, there were others who said, you know, romney is often looked too young, up and comer, smart guy. >> and unknown. so that might be a positive. i think only 46% of the folks polled in a recent cnn poll actually had an opinion of him. >> sure. that's really what's going to be behind the struggle to define ryan's identity for people in the country who haven't heard of him before. >> adam sorensen, thank you so much. for more on who is paul ryan we invite you to watch moment this morning. rhines priebus and scott walker will be david gregory's guests this morning. david axelrod the senior re-election adviser will offer the view on the pick from the

obama said. it's "meet the press" at a special time, 9:00 a.m. eastern on nbc. don't miss that. a frightening incident involving new york city police in times square has left one man dead. police say they chased and pepper sprayed a man wielding a knife in the area crowded with tourists. cops opened fire when the man lunged at them with a weapon. witnesses describe what they saw. >> like a machete-type knife. and he didn't want to stop or nothing. police were telling him to drop the knife. he didn't. and they shot him. >> see all the cops come out of no where. they chased him all the way down the street. >> police initially approached the man cause they say he appeared to be smoking marijuana. and new today, a report on accusations of racial profiling at one of america's biggest airports. "the new york times" says tsa officers at boston logan airport are making these allegations. the "times" says more than 30 officers claim a program intended to help identify potential terrorists based on mannerisms has led to racial profiling. they claim the operation targets

middle easterners and passengerers who fit other profiles, including blacks wearing baseball caps backwards. the tsa tells a newspaper that it's investigating the allegations and says if the claims are true it will take immediate and decisive action. some incredible pictures out of arizona. a massive dust storm blew across the phoenix area this weekend. the national weather service issued the dust warning on saturday afternoon. just look at these pictures. winds gusted from 25 to 40 miles an hour and poor visibility as you can tell forced some roads to be closed. dust storms in the area have been more common this summer due to drought conditions and higher temperatures. much of the west will simmer in triple digit heat today. temperatures in the western and southern states will be above average, but is there relief in sight? we always have to ask that question. weather channel meteorologist jeff morrow is here with us live. what do you got for us? >> richard, you're right. high pressure parked over the southwest. that means more hot temperatures, not only today, but probably for the next several days. talking about 115 degrees in phoenix. 108 along the strip in vegas.

palm springs at 113. but even closer to the l.a. basin, 97 at burbank and sacramento at 103. so, yeah, the heat rolls on and on here. not only today, but tomorrow, as well. not much change. boise as far north as boise, idaho, up to 103 degrees. no surprise at all that there are excessive heat warnings out. even in the desert areas, where you would expect it to be hot from phoenix all the way on over into parts of southern california, and the southern san joaquin valley, fresno and sacramento, all the way on down towards bakersfield. so some hot stuff in the west. you want to escape that? you head a little bit farther to the east. it will be a little rainy, but temperatures still in the 70s in boston. in new york city, we'll have some showers, a few storms down into florida. pleasant weather in atlanta, back into the ohio valley. chicago a nice day. looks like scattered showers and storms from the northern plains, but a hot one continues across parts of the southern plains, including dallas wand san

antonio. sorry, don't have much relief for you in the west. >> jeff, my pick is chicago. i mean, 80 degrees in chicago. beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. thank you so much. ahead, private ryan. who is the congressman from wisconsin? we talk to one journalist from that state who's been covering paul ryan for years. a big day ahead at the olympic games, tao. the u.s. basketball team goes for the gold. they could face a tougher challenge than you might think, though. and we'll take a look at the latest medal count. will the u.s. beat its closest rival on the final day as we look at a live picture of the olympic flame? my cut hurt! mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too.

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oh, beautiful. look at that. 14 minutes past the hour at 11:00 in london. you all wish you could be there. it's the last day of competition under way. the weather in london, well you guessed it.

some sun in the morning with increasing clouds. i don't see any right now, though. stray showers possible, though. the high near 80 degrees. today's competition including the much-anticipated gold medal match in men's basketball team usa taking on spain later this afternoon. we'll be watching that. a major upset in men's platform diving, u.s. david boudia defeats the chinese to make the gold medal. or rather take the gold medal. and final preparations, as well, are going on right now for tonight's closing ceremony. let's take a look at where the medal count stands this morning by the way. the u.s. is in the lead with 102 medals, including 44 gold. china in second with 87 medals overall, 38 of them gold. and russia coming in third at the moment. let's go to the london right now and nbc's tracie potts. and tracie, it looks like it's beautiful out there. starting, rather ending the way it started. and you'll be watching the big events in this last day of competition. what do you expect, what, what, what are we going to see? >> right. well, you know, we've got 15

more medals to be awarded today on men's water polo, although the u.s. isn't that one. but we've also got americans in the modern pentathlon, in the men's marathon, which is having a huge impact because it's closing some streets and transportation. we've got wrestling where the u.s. won a bronze yesterday. we've got more of that today. but the big one that you mentioned, for the u.s., is going to be men's basketball. the u.s. men's basketball team versus spain. this is another match-up, a rematch from 2008. the u.s. won four years ago. they're hoping to win again. spain has not won the gold ever in this one, and so they're hoping to get the gold today. >> now, last night, some amazing moments, fill us in on some of the highlights there. >> yeah, here's the deal. you know, when you win the same thing over and over one, two, three, four times, it's a big deal. but five times, five times in a row? that's what we saw with the u.s. women's basketball team last night. they had a five-peat i guess you

could call it against france. also the women's 4x400 relay and that was a huge one for the u.s. to win as well. and then you mentioned david boudia. he won diving medal. he won gold. and that was a big deal because the u.s. before these games had a 20-year medal drought when it came to diving. and so, now we're bringing some attention back to diving, and then also, the men's 4x100 meter relay, somewhat of a disappointment but not really, the u.s. won silver in that one. but, they were hoping for gold but the jamaican team, with usain bolt, fastest man in the world, man they just couldn't catch him. and afterwards they asked usain bolt about it. he said, yeah, the u.s. has got some work to do. we'll see them in four years. >> okay, laying it down right there, the gauntlet to the united states. closing ceremony unfortunately it is here, it is tonight, and what do you expect, what are you hearing right now? >> well, back here at the stadium, you know, 80,000 people in that stadium, it's expected to be packed.

there were still some tickets but pretty expensive ones available. in terms of the program it's going to focus on british music. we expect a lot of people that you know, big names like the spice girls, one direction to be involved in that. also bryshon nelem is going to be carrying the flag for the united states. he told me he wanted to carry the flag for the opening ceremonies but if you'll recall another person was selected for that, one of our fencers was selected to do that. he said he was sort of a backup. so he gets to carry the flag in on closing ceremonies. he said he's very excited and he'll be walking with a silver medal. >> tracie potts. i know you're cherishing every last moment there in london, as we make our way to the end of the olympics this year. thank you so much. we'll talk to you a little bit later. all right later, some of the stars of the london games. who is the most marketable? and does endorsing an olympian always pay off? we'll talk about that in 20 minutes. and if you can catch

freestyle wrestling this morning on msnbc that starts at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. the networks of nbc universal is the exclusive home of the london olympics. for a complete schedule of events and to watch the final games and closing ceremony live online just go to nbcolympics.com. the yellow shoes that became marketing gold at the london games. coming up. okay, here's the plan. you have a plan? first we're gonna check our bags for free, thanks to our explorer card. then, the united club. my mother was so wrong about you. next, we get priority boarding on our flight i booked with miles. all because of the card. and me. okay, what's the plan? plan? mm-hmm. we're on vacation. this is no plan. really? [ male announcer ] the united mileageplus explorer card. the mileage card with special perks on united. get it and you're in.

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welcome back. now to our three big money headlines for you on this saturday morning. crop crisis. profits lost in the mail. and nike takes home marketing gold. joining me with the details is author and retailing analyst who is here with us today. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with what we were just getting the weather report earlier in. hot all across the country. hottest year on record, right? >> right. >> droughts, worst in 50 years.

and this is affecting produce. what's happening right now? and how it will affect what we're paying in grocery stores? >> now, you're seeing the corn crops really come down. but what's interesting, because of this drought, it's really kind of affecting those corn crops especially in the midwest. but this is going to be the eighth biggest harvest that we've seen in, you know, in awhile. so, basically -- >> eighth biggest? >> now, what they're -- what the usda is expecting is 124 bushels per acre are going to be harvested, down from last year about 24 bushels per acre. but to put that in perspective, ten years ago farmers were producing 129 bushels per acre and there was no drought. it's almost an effect of five steps forward, two steps back. >> it's still amazing that we're going to have the eighth largest yield for the season, and so when we look at the prices, though, does that mean we're seeing no effect, really? >> well, exactly. we're going to have -- you're going to see an effect on prices

on things like cereal, candy bars, basically colas that use corn products. but we're not going to see that price effect until much later in the year. also, with livestock we're really going to see that effect happening to the price of cattle, and the price of poll try because of the feed, and right now, because the cattle and poultry can't go out and feed, graze, they're going to have a shortage on that as we get to the later parts of the year. >> in a sort of global economy the united states supplies a big portion of grain to the world. that's one consideration. another consideration might be, the ethanol, we know it's huge in brazil, they tend to take care of it on their own, but how might that affect those two issues as we look at what's happening with the yield? >> usda is saying that it's not really going to have an effect on the grain. the overall grain production for the world. so, yes, the strategy definitely having an effect on the farmers.

and we need to keep an eye on it. but overall, it's really not going to affect prices or the yield globally. >> all right. so big switch gears just a little bit, move over to the postal service, usps. according to the numbers right now, they reported not very good numbers for the third quarter. and how bad are these numbers? >> right, well for the last quarter it was a $5.2 billion dollar net loss. so, that, for that, for the u.s. postal service to put it in perspective, the same time last year they reported around a $3.2 billion loss. >> did they expect those $5.2 billion, didhey expect that range? >> i think they were expecting it, because what's happening now is that the u.s. postal service is going to have to pay all the retiree benefits up front. so right now you're seeing that and what's happening is that they're defaulting on that payment. so that's affecting the revenues for the postal service. overall, for the year, the fiscal year, they're going to report almost $11.3 billion

loss. that's compared to last year -- >> there will be some tough decisions -- >> yes. >> that debate continues. and finally for us in our big three, nike scoring a big coup at the olympics. >> a coup is -- >> yellow shoes that we've been seeing. >> a coup is the best way -- >> cash coup. >> the cash coup. right, i was over at the olympics, i was watching the 100 meter dash and when you saw the actual runners, all you would see is this yellow flash of of feet going by and that really has to do with nike's marketing strategy. they weren't an official sponsor of the olympics is they issued 400 athletes these volt shoes which are these bright yellow shoes -- >> that they're wearing right now. >> exactly. that you can see. that a lot of these athletes wore, and these athletes, they were saying that almost, they gave them about, about 400 athletes got them. about 40 of them medaled in those shoes. and that's 44% of the track and field also medaled in that.

so it was really interesting. to be an olympic sponsor, and you know, deloitte, mcdonald's, is $155 million these sponsors -- >> nbc. >> were shelling out. nbc. nike superseded that. ioc was thinking about suing them for it. they actually didn't end up doing that. but nike really got around that because athletes can wear whatever they want to wear on their feet to go for that gold. >> for thousands of dollars just 400 pairs of shoes. >> genius product placement for nike. >> i'm going to buy myself a pair right now. >> i like it. let's go after the show. >> let's do that. i'll talk to you a little bit later. ahead the morning papers. what are some of the op-ed and editorial writers saying about the paul ryan choice? plus what do polls inside wisconsin say about the home state congressman? there are projects. and there are game-changers.

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." i'm richard lui in for alex. the last day of the xxx olympiad already in full swing in london, 11:30 a.m. there. london counting down to the world's biggest after-party. tonight's closing ceremony at the olympic stadium will feature more than 4,000 performers, a celebration of british pop culture, is rumored to include the spice girls, the who, plus sup supermodels and comedians. first usa takes on spain in the gold medal game today. it's a rematch of the gold medal game in beijing. team usa players include lebron james, kobe bryant, and carmelo anthony. also today, the front pages of uk papers honored their own gold medal athletes. while commemorating the final day of the games, as well. right now the u.s. leads with 102 medals. 44 of those gold.

china coming in second, followed by russia with 78 total. now organizers of the games hope to go out on a new high this weekend. the games themselves set records in the field of attendance, ratings, and sales. nbc's annabelle roberts is live in london. we're just talking about some of the numbers. there's a lot of records to talk about. >> that's right, richard. as you say, london's been setting some olympic records itself. 7.4 million people have visited olympic venues, and the men's soccer final yesterday had a crowd of over 86,000. bringing the total number of spectators for men's and women's soccer events up to 2,186,000, and that's 50,000 more than watched in beijing four years ago. as for tv ratings, the opening ceremony was the most watched ever on nbc with an audience of 40.7 million. a further 22.5 million watched here in britain, and an estimated audience of 1 billion worldwide. of course as you said, the closing ceremony is tonight, and expectations are that the tv audience will also be impressive.

the medal haul is something the u.s. can be proud of. 44 golds. that's one gold short of the u.s. record for olympics not on home soil. and there are a few more in contention today, like the basketball. as for merchandise, that's selling well with 750,000 people visiting the mega store in the olympic park. most of them on the day i was there last week or so it felt. it was packed. anyway it seems that plenty have been splashing out. according to vis-a-vis fors to the uk have spent more than $1.4 billion here over the last two weeks. with people from the u.s. spending most. and there are plenty of unusual items up for sale, too. as perfect souvenirs of this incredible games. lots of memorabilia is being auctioned off online. for example, the netting from the men's basketball final, current bid is $2,700. how about a baton used in the men's 100 meter relay finals? that's at $2,800. and one of those may poles from the opening ceremony, the english countryside scene, you

can have that for $300. another important thing, as well, to point out, that the remarkable achievements that this games represents in terms of sporting equality. this is the first games where every single country had a female athlete competing. and also, one thing for london, very important, remember all the concern about whethered transport system would hold up? well it has. another record is the number of people traveling around london on the tube or subway. last tuesday, 4.5 million people took the tube, the highest number ever. richard? >> that's a lot of people in small spaces, annabel, i bet you might not mind a little bit more space come monday i'm thinking. >> yes. i think also apparently the weather forecast is bad for next week, back to rain. so i think we are going to be back to normal, normal british summer next week. >> so with the olympics, so goes the weather. thanks a lot, appreciate your time. annabel roberts on some of the amazing numbers coming out of the olympics. when it does come to olympians,

who deserves to make the most money? we'll speak with a market expert about that and the backlash against lolo jones in ten minutes. football player chad johnson once known as ochocinco was arrested over domestic violence dispute. police say the miami dolphins wide receiver head butted his wife, giving her a laceration on the forehead. no comment from johnson's agent. a deadly start to the ironman u.s. championship in new york city and new jersey, unfortunately. competitors were taking part in the opening 2.4 mile swim in the hudson river when a 43-year-old man experienced distress. he was pulled out of the water and teen a hospital where he later died. the ironman combines a swim with a 112 mile bike race followed by a marathon run. for the first time ever, it was being held in metro new york. a new nationwide investigation of more than 2,000 cases of alleged election fraud over the past dozen years found in-person voter impersonation on election day is virtually nonexistent.

this analysis was done by news 21, a carnegie knight investigative reporting project. concerns about voter fraud has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter i.d. laws to date. hot, dry weather helping wildfires flare up in parts of california. a brushfire near fresno forced evacuation of 200 homes on saturday. the fire is 20% contained. investigators saying it was started by a tossed cigarette along highway 168. and two powerful earthquakes hit northwestern iran killing at least 180 people, and injuring more than 1300 others. fear of aftershocks forced thousands of people to spend the night outdoors. the u.s. geological survey says the first quake measured 6.4. and the second measured 6.3. it's been a deadly week for u.s. forces in afghanistan. six u.s. service members killed in rogue attacks. that includes three marines shot dead at a military base in the helmand province on friday

night. and three special ops troops on thursday. nbc's atia abawi is live in kabul. >> hi, richard. it was a very deadly week for american forces here in afghanistan. at least 10 american lives were lost. the majority of those by green on blue attacks. that's when afghan forces actually attack their coalition partners, and it was a very deadly week in helmand, as you mentioned, those six marines lost their lives. the latest incident happened when apparently an afghan police officer, according to afghan officials, was upset that he wasn't allowed to use the gym facility on the base, and he pulled out his weapon and shot and killed those three u.s. marines. but let's also put other things in perspective, as well. just last night, an afghan police officer killed his own colleagues, ten afghan police officers lost their lives, and there are sayings and rumors it was because they may have broken their fast before the sunset. this is the holy month of

ramadan here in afghanistan. but also, in the battles itself, 45 afghan security forces have lost their lives. nonetheless these green on blue attacks have come drastically high this year and it has many coalition forces, including american forces, wondering if they can actually trust these afghan men that they're supposed to live, work, and fight with side by side. richard? >> atia what does it say about the overall readiness, the overall evolution of the afghan security forces, been a big focus as you've been reporting on over the recent years? >> well, what it says, richard, is it's something that i've tried to say the last few years, many people who have witnessed this firsthand, is, with the afghan government, and with nato for that matter, it just seems to be quantity over quality. there was a big push to increase the afghan security forces, to have them ready to take this security over. by 2014. so they've been recruiting,

recruiting, recruiting, and they haven't been vetting very properly. the taliban are claiming some of these police officers and soldiers have been part of the taliban. that's not necessarily always the case. but obviously, they haven't been trained enough and trusted enough to work and live and fight with these american and coalition forces side by side. so, it's actually a very scary thought when you think about it, with hundreds of thousands of afghans being picked and not vetted you don't know who's going to be good, and you don't know who's going to be bad. >> unfortunately that challenge remains. thank you so much. next, what the papers say about paul ryan, and perspective from someone who's been covering him for years. will he ultimately help or hurt the romney run for president? and back to the olympics and one statistic about all the medals the u.s. has won that might not have crossed your radar. these fellas used capital one venture miles for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use...

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day two of the romney/ryan ticket rollout and a lot more reaction to the announcement that the wisconsin congressman is now mitt romney's running mate. here's a little bit of what you'll read about in the opinion pages. "the new york times" has an editorial titled mr. ryan's cramped vision. the piece says quote mr. ryan has drawn a blueprint of a government that will be absent when people need it the most. the "los angeles times" has an editorial called the paul ryan choice. the board writes ryan is, in other words, quote no sarah palin but ryan is also the symbol of something more. a commitment to a particularly conservative version of a smaller government, a scaled-back safety net and a lower tax burden end quote. and on the daily beast, an op-ed titled be afraid, seniors, how the ryan pick changes the campaign, end quote. clift writes, quote the democrat strategy going forward will be crystal clear. scare seniors into choosing obama. joining me now is craig gilbert,

washington bureau chief for the milwaukee journal sentinel. this morning he writes mitt romney has gone bold by choosing paul ryan as his running mate. craig has covered paul ryan for many years. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> craig, let's start with this. you wrote recently, quote, you say, i, that, ryan said this, i hadn't planned on becoming a really high profile, well-known person. it wasn't really my thinking. you know me, i'm a policy guy. this is what he told you, end quote. talk about his ideology. you remark that he is really driven by free market economists like ayn rand in terms of the way he views the world. >> yeah, when he says i'm just a policy guy, which is how he describes himself, it kind of, you know, it misses the fact that this is a very ideological politician. he's got a very pronounced world view. and he's driven by, you know, conservative values.

he's not just sort of a guy, you know, playing with numbers. and so he comes out of this tradition of individualism, of free markets, he was very influenced by ayn rand as a young man. this is a guy who has a very definite, defined world view. >> yet he's also said -- >> -- >> and -- and you've written about that, too. he's evolved from that in what he told you. >> well, he's certainly not a pure libertarian, which is sort of the ayn rand tradition. he's a pretty devout catholic. he's a social conservative and an economic conservative but he's really mostly about economics. that's been his focus. that's what he likes to talk about. and that's what mitt romney is getting. >> now his absolute clear ideological pinnings based on what you've said so far, he also said in 2011, that the nation's facing a quote, a churchill

moment, and he goes on to say that we see the storm on the horizon, we know it's coming. that's what he told you. yet he said he wouldn't run for president at the same time. did he think in his seven terms as a congressman he could effectively fight this grand storm, this churchillian way? >> well, he's actually done that if you think about it. one of the remarkable things about ryan is that, you know, a congressman from southern wisconsin, took the job of budget chair, and turned it into the point person for the republican party on economic policy. and so he's come a very long way without ever running for or holding even statewide office, much less national office. so, yeah, he's kind of arrived in that sense. >> craig, is that why he didn't run for the u.s. senate seat? >> i think that's a big reason. it didn't really -- you know, there would have been some sacrifices on his part.

he has a young family. but, again, he managed to sort of create a power base for him in the house of representatives, which was very unusual, and he not only rejected the idea of running for u.s. senate, but he also rejected the idea of running for president this year. >> you've been watching these numbers along with us. the president won wisconsin in '08 by 14 points. he's ahead of mitt romney by about five points as you can tell from traction there. can paul ryan, can he swing the state into the republican hands? >> well, i don't think he can do it by himself. he can add a little bit. he certainly gives the republicans another reason to really contest wisconsin. they haven't really committed fully to wisconsin. they haven't been advertising in the state. so, he can't do it by himself. but wisconsin is not completely out of reach for republicans. i mean, they're down by mid single digits. they have a shot. but it's a heavy -- >> before we let you go, we do have -- we got to go.

but, all right. i will have to save that question for you another time. i got the big brass here. craig gilbert. thank you so much for your time today. marking the start of the london olympics, are the right people making the most money? and will the backlash against lolo jones this past week unfair? this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, 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. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com.

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hmm, beautiful. 11:51 local time in london, where a full day of competition is under way, including the men's marathon, plus the bronze medal game in men's basketball with argentina against russia. among the events scheduled, the gold medal finals in men's basketball, volleyball and water polo. there is nothing more satisfying for an olympic athlete than winning the gold no doubt and medals can also mean cashing in at the end. what about the athletes who fall short of expectations? we saw many ads featuring american lolo jones including a

billboard in times square but she ended up finishing fourth in the 100 meter hurdles. joining me is sports attorney steve o'lenick who represented professi professional and olympic athletes. let's listen to what lolo jones said on the "today" show after a fourth place finish and i'll get your reaction. >> i wasn't supposed to make the olympic team. like the u.s. olympic team they counted me out. i made the team. and then they're like she's not even going to make the final. i made the final. i went from eighth place and then to fourth place. so i just really hope that my story will give somebody hope. yeah, i didn't walk away with a medal or run away with a medal but i think there's lessons to be learned when you win and also to be learned when you lose. >> all right, steve, the article you and i both read and that's about jones that some are calling harsh, and jones was offered this ad money. she needed income in order to train. so, when we see that need, why the backlash? >> well i think because she didn't win. you know. when you have a company endorsing you as a pitch person,

you need to win. or else you receive backlash. 100%. it happens all the time. if you don't win, you receive harsh criticism. >> but, if you don't win, does that mean that you shouldn't take the money? she's already taken the money. but in terms of future endorsements? >> well, right. you know, and there's reasons why companies seek endorsers. one being maybe potentially that she's a sex symbol. two, because she overcame some an staobstacles. but three most importantly, if you don't win, you oftentimes see the backlash. but as you can see with a lot of olympians, they do need the money to actually train. >> yeah. moving past that, steve, what do you think, who is going to be the most marketable athlete all said after we see the closing ceremonies tonight? gabby douglas? is it going to aly. is it going to be u.s. women's soccer team? what's your thought? >> i think right now, i think with the american public,

potentially you're going to start to see gabby douglas. with the infectious smile, the young energetic, the person leading into the next olympics. i think she can really cash in and she's ripe to actually endorse some teen and preteen products. >> now what about athletes like missy franklin, who could make what 2 million bucks a year in sponsorships. that's amazing. what do you think? >> yeah, i think, look, she's ripe to take and really cash in. the question now becomes, does she forego her college eligibility to take the money end? and i think that with a lot of endorsements, and a lot of potential athletes, and olympic athletes, when you have to forego the college eligibility, you also have to realize that your window of opportunity to cash in is very small. >> yes, some tough choices for these athletes. thank you so much for your perspective on this saturday morning. the year of the woman at the london games. why they've had such an impact on the u.s. olympics team this year.

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welcome back. let's get a preview of what to expect on this final day of olympic competition. for that i'm joined by rob from nbc sports who's been working hard throughout the entire olympics. job, thanks for being here. any surprises during the last week that didn't get the attention you thought they should have? >> i think there have been a few stories that i've really loved that maybe haven't gotten the attention of the u.s. media as much as some should. one that i loved from a couple days ago. a guy named anthony obom winning the first medal ever for the country of gabon. he ends up getting a silver. great story for that country. katie taylor, the irish boxer wins the first gold medal for ireland since 1996. first olympics ever for a female boxing, and literally they stopped on the streets of dub lane apparently when katie fought her fight.

it was a huge moment for that country. and then my personal favorite, david rudisha. usain bolt is incredible. david ruddisha is the greatest 800 meter runner in history. broke his own world record in the final. seven of the runners in that race had personal bests and david rudisha crushed them. >> talk about women and how theye medaling and overall u.s. medals. both incredible story lines. >> the u.s. is doing phenomenally well. they're going to win the medal count going away because of the great weekend we've had. but if you look at the women for the u.s., that really has been the story. 27 of 31 gold medals for the u.s. have been won by women. the first time u.s. women have out-medaled u.s. men. on the 40th anniversary of title ix you can see the fruits that female participation in sports are paying here. >> an amazing