[ all ] i'm with scottrade. jie i'm toure i'm toure. we're fired up about the race for president. can paul ryan carry the torch for mitt romney? can this team take political gold or is this golden for the president? >> i'm missy cupp. he tells me whether his political kryptonite will take him all the way to the whoois. >> i'm steve her naky. plot fiction. >> i'm crystal ball and as you can see we're back from the olympics. today the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and the life-changing moments we'll witness together. >> all that plus my thought on how the race for the white house just got big. it's monday, august 13th and you're back in "the cycle."

and then there were four. unless you have been wrapped up in the olympics, you know mitt romney picked paul ryanny. the congressman/cheesehead/v.p. pick was in iowa state. he was heckled at times. >> i'm delighted to have picked as my running mate paul ryan, a great leader. he looks to find ways to find common ground, to bring people together. he's come up with ideas very different than the president. the president's idea for medicare was to cut it by $700 billion. the race in a dead heat. both the president and the vice president biden were this afternoon out trying to ensure that paul ryan doesn't help mitt

romney pull ahead. >> congressman ryan has given a vague definition. they called when they talk about their plan, not just their budget plan but their plan across the board. they call it gutsy. i'm serious. now, look. what's gutsy about giving millionaires another tax break? what's gutsy about gutting medicare, medicaid, education? what's gutsy. >> i know congressman ryan. he's a good man, a family man. he's an art tick lat spokesman for governor romney's vision but it's one that i fundamentally disagree with. >> i've gotten to say prognostication, progrenosticatn is true. s.e. cupp.

you were one of the people banging the gong saying pick paul ryan, pick paul ryan. >> yeah, i don't want to take credit because i didn't say romney was going to pick him. in fact, i'm surprised that he did. however, i'm glad. i thought paul ryan for weeks if not a month now should be the pick and not just because i'm on board but i think this is the right pick. i think he's a good choice for romney. i think he injects his campaign with some energy. proof of that is romney raise third degree.5 million in 24 hours since announcing ryan. who knows if that will last the duration of the rest of the campaign, but certainly it was a great jolt. >> i just think what's interesting about this is this is one of those unusual cases where it kind of dictated this pick for romney. i don't want to be policy

specific, i don't walk to talk about big broad sweeping themes. and not giving them anything that might muck it up. i think we would have had rob portman or tim pawlenty a month or six weeks ago but mitt romney looked up and said the economy is two, three, points behind, it's not getting me behind or ahead. i need something else. >> i absolutely agree with that. i think the interesting thing here is elections are all about framing. in 2010 republicans were able to frame the debate right around deficit reduction. this year he's wanted to make it a choice rather than a referendum. paul ryan as a pick makes it more of a choice. he wanted to frame it as running against republicans in congress. paul ryan makes that possible and he wanted to frame it around arguing against the paul ryan

plan and obviously there's an opening about that. i would caution democrats about being too confident about this pick because i think there are pitfalls but i think this is romney capitulating. >> i love this pick for two reasons. you know, for one i love the theater of politics and this takes us from what we had, a very small election that seemed very petty to something about a discussion of big ideas. i like that. i also love that these ideas are kind of crazy. krugman calls him sloppy and done honest. as barack obama says you don't want to be educating during the campaign. that's what governor romney is going to have to do. that's going to be a long and difficult slog. joining us now to pontificate david cantanese.

thanks for joining us. from politico. some people thinking this is a good pick, some thinking maybe not such a good pick. what are the arguments on both sides? >> i won't argue that this pick is more of a risk than a reward. look at statements coming out from republicans. they're all glowing but all general. it's that paul ryan is bold, he's courageous, but then they stop short of endorsing the details, sort of the bread and butter of why he was even picked in the first place. look, without the ryan plan, paul ryan probably isn't picked at all, but if you get into the details of the ryan plan, you know, the guy at the top of the ticket says, no way, i've got my own budget. look at other republicans running around the country in competitive senate house races. you saw them. glowing praise for paul ryan but you get to specifics and that's where they part.

you have one candidate who says he's courageous standing up to his own party. i think that's a symbol that he could be radioactive. that being said, democrats do have to make the case that's where the framing comes in that you guys mentioned before that it's going to be very, very important. in 12 weeks or so if we're talking about the ryan plan, i think that's a good frame for the democrats. if it's more about bold, courageous bold looking, that's a win for the republicans. >> let me ask you about that. you know, can't republicans, paul ryan, mitt romney, say, well, look, at least paul ryan has a plan. it might not be perfect, but where is obama's plan, where is rahmny's plan? at least he's tried. >> shurks but then you have to own the plan which, you know, thing that's a fair argument and you're seeing a lot of that in the rhetoric on the campaign stump that, you know, president obama wanted to cut $700 billion

from medicare. you're already seeing that. but if you want to put your plan up saying we've got a plan, they don't, then you're opening up yourself to getting into the details of that plan. i think that's where republicans are a little bit uncomfortable. >> dave, you were mentioning about how some republicans were responding. do you have any sense of how republicans who are vulnerable in swing districts are responsible for this choice? >> i think they're a little nervous. just looking at statements and i think you look at in states where you have a higher proportion of seniors, look. the polling is pretty clear on this from what they know. i mean the kaiser poll had it at 79%. people opposing the guts sort of this approach that ryan put forward, you translate that to montana, north dakota, florida.

i mean again, florida, florida, florida. all you need if you've got a tight election is 20,000 say staying home because they're not happy about obama but they're not sure about paul ryan. that could mean trouble. again, it has a trickle-down effect. bill nelson is in a tough senate race in the state of florida. he was out this weekend timing, framing his race around paul ryan and around medicare. i think you going to see that increasingly in the coming weeks. >> dave cantanese, thanks so much for that. >> sure. so is it us or is ryan giving romney an extra pep in his step? and in honor of ryan's ipod, here's a little from one ofis favored rock bands, led zeppelin. ♪ i'm a traveler of both time and space to be where i have been ♪ [ male announcer ] hey, isn't that the girl

who tore out your still beating heart? [ bowling pins ] ok, how's this gonna play? mi amore. [ chicken clucking ] [ male announcer ] bit needy, g. ok don't sweat it. just do your thing. hey! hey! [ male announcer ] definitely a little bit epic. stride.

hey! hey! i just wish it wouldn't fade away so fast. let me show you something. [ dr. rahmany ] as soon as you leave here... plaque quickly starts to grow back. but now there's a way to keep the clean longer. introducing new crest pro-health clinical rinse. it's a clinical breakthrough that actually keeps your teeth 91% clean of plaque at 2 months after a dental visit. plus, it gives you these key benefits. new crest pro-health clinical rinse. crest. life opens up when you do. also try new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste.

ideas and he's out of excuses and we're going to make sure florida puts him out of office. >> that was a fire up mitt romney this morning in the battleground state of florida, the sometimes awkward candidate appearing a little more confident since the selection of paul ryan, his running mate. let's take a look at how he handled a heckler over the weekend. >> we have 23 million people out of work. 23 million people.

you see, young man, this man is respectful of other people's rights to be heard and you ought to find yourself a different place to be disruptive because here we believe in listening to people with dignity and respect. so are we seeing a new mitt romney here? we'll pullt it through the "spi cycle" i believe we're seeing more confidence and all that. my take and what i got in the last segment, i wouldn't say it's clearly a desperation move on romney's part. i believe there's a chemistry, a real rapport and though goes back to some time. i think he was submit within the idea of putting ryan on the ticket but this is a profoundly risky move for all of the reasons dave coutlined.

obama is being propped up in part by memories of what he inherited. people still, you find this in poll, blame george w. bush more than they blame barack obama for the state of the economy. what you see when you look at the numbers, they're higher than what they should be relative to where the economy is. there's that. two, i think there's concern on the romney part that the bain attacks, all the attacks that obama has thrown at them, you look at the effect. romney's unfavorable numbers, they've taken a hit. and three, foreign tour. the overseas tour. this was supposed to be an easy one for romney. nice clips, nice pictures. nothing of the sort. total disaster. they look at it, total it and say, you know what? let's take a chance. >> i don't think it's quite as desperate as you think. in fact, the reason i considered paul ryan a long shot is i didn't know mitt romney was

going to have the confidence. we talked about this before. i felt like, you know, there are some guys who don't want to date a really hot girl because they don't want to be threatened, they don't want her to get too much attention. >> i don't know any guys like that. >> i worry that mitt romney might make a pick based on insecurity and an insecure pick would be a safe pick like rob portman or a gimmicky pick, chris christie. i thought the only confident pick was paul ryan. he's got a national cachet not because he's been a kooky speaker but because he's a policy wonk. that's interesting. he's young, refreshing, articulate. there's nothing wrong with this guy as a pick. you can all talk policy, that's fine, but this was the confident pick. so just on sheer optics of it, i like to see this new confident

mitt romney standing next to the hot girl saying i'm not afraid, bring it on, i'm psyched to be with her. >> i think what you get here is a change of tactics. i was running this sort of campaign as we talk about a non-entity. i'm not going to put any meat on the bones of who i am, i'm not going to talk anything to getting very specific. i'm only going to talk the economy and blame obama to owning this ryan budget. so when you change tactics, that does not suggest that you thought you were winning. if you were doing the right tactics, you would continue and you would choose portman or maybe pawlenty. going in an entirely different selection with an ultimately conservative guy would not mean to shorttown base. to your original question, i think we do see a new excitement out of romney, a new energy out of romney. sure, that will happen when you're in a new rain, especially with a really cute guy but he will go back to being what he is. he's 65 years old.

he's not going to get a personality implant here. he's going to be v.p. >> he seems proud of himself of his position. >> trophy wife. >> is that what he is? mitt romney's trophy wife? i like that characterization. you can see from mitt romney and the republicans some nervousness about how to deal with the ryan budget and some attempts to distance himself. mitt romney was on 60 minutes and there was a moment there that calls to mind for me. >> well, i have my budget plan, as you know, that i've put out, than's the budget plan that we're going to run on. >> so he's saying, paul did that, that's nice, but that's not mine. a lot of what paul ryan said, not only did romney come out and endorse but he came up with it in his plan, including where

rich people are getting tax cuts and to close loopholes in the way romney says he's going to, taxes would be increased on the poor and middle class and social programs that primarily benefit the poor and middle class would also be cut which is the general structure of the ryan budget so i think it's going to be tough for him to truly distance himself from the ryan plan when there are so many differences. >> ryan admits he knew this budget whu he put it out was going to be controversial and unpassable. he meant it as a conversation starter i think that's what romney was saying. this is a conversation starter. >> but his spokesman did confirm. if you're -- what strikes me as interesting is we've seen a presidential race like this before. it was in 1996. bill clinton was running against bob dole and a republican congress that had tried to make deep redukszs in medicare.

he ran against the republican congress, medicare cuts. it was very effective that year. what i sense is maybe a little different here. the push back from republicans now is, well, okay, you've got this ryan plan. you also have the health care reform law and cuts president obama included that. they're trying to confuse you because the same cuts are in the ryan plan. >> the other thing we haven't touched on is ryan is the most imaginably anti-abortion person possible that life begins at conception, that certain forms of birth control are outlawed. if you thought we had a gender gap, this might move it to a gender canyon. >> in that he's a staunch devout catholic, yeah, but more strict catholic doctrine than the kinds that led 54% to vote for obama

but that will be a very interesting thing to talk about. >> we haven't heard but i have a feeling we may. up next, the other story everyone is talking about, the olympics. our favorite moments from the game. olympic gold-medal winning sommer sanders. she'll join us next on "the cycle." ri a ning ri a itnlthakr tw♪srd hi®g ri a po yut hi®g ri 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.

starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news.

i will miss hearing that music. the olympic flame has been extinguished but the 30xxx olympiad is still alive. 2016 host rio de janeiro and the upcoming paralympics round out the top ten and, of course, we're still talking about the golden moments from the games from breaking records to breaking barriers and inspiring the next generation.

it was ultimately the athletes who kept us glued to our sets and our next guest is an athlete. she knows about going for gold. she was the most decorated winner, summer sanders. you were a major inspiration to me growing up as a simmer. it's an honor to speak to you. >> thank you. >> you are who i was watching when i still had some olympic dreams but you have been in some role for nine times now. what do you think history is going to remember about these london olympic games? >> oh, gosh. you can start with michael phelps. the swimming portion was the first of the games. that we were here to witness the last of his games, 22 medals and

18 gold. i think that was really a special moment not just for swimming but the entire olympic community at that moment. >> i was glad to see him close on his career in such a spectacular fashion and the other obvious one for me was gabby douglas winning gold in all-around. her smile and persona, you couldn't help but watch her and feel absolutely delighted. i kind of wanted to go around the table here. did you have a particular moment? >> i watched the olympics for different reasons than most people so right now i'm wearing my tunisia basketball t-shirt. i'll be self-deported afterward. the tunisia team ended. i want to tell you my favorite olympic moment. let's go back to saturday, august 4, in the early morning hours, it was the middle of the day in london and the kour ages

team electricity lithuanians. they took an improbable shocking 84-82 lead. the entire country believed anything was possible at that moment. >> then lebron took over and united states won. inspiring. >> you were rooting against your brothers from america. >> i was rooting for the und underdog. >> there's nothing more american than routing for america. >> go ahead, summer. >> you were rooting for a good game. wi want to see that in the olympics, especially in basketball and they definitely gave them a good game and it was a wakeup call and that's when team usa said, okay, we do have to bring our a-game, and they were really determined to bring the gold medal. there was a disgrace when they

didn't and remember what it felt like. the fact that that was on the line was so great. lithuan lithuania, when you were cheering for them, did you cheer for the woman who brought the -- >> i'm retroactively -- >> the t-shirt will be ordered tonight do. they have t-shirts for swimmers? >> i bet you can get one. s.e., did you have a particular -- >> because i'm an american and a patriot, yes, i did and i had an american moment. that's when kim brody won the skeet shooting. she earned a gold in women's skeet tying a word record by hitting 99 of 100. if that doesn't sound hard you don't know how hard it is.

it was an incredible moment to watch and she's an incredible athlete. >> she's fantastic. >> and an american. >> i, too, am a patriot and i love rooting for american peoples and i was especially moved by the u.s. women's soccer team. but to see usain bolt establish himself as the greatest of all time at his sport, sprinting, a very natural instinctive sport. run, go. no balls, no rules, stay in your lane, run, go. he's the greatest sprinter of all time? i was blown away. summer, were you blown away by what you saw from this man? >> yeah. i think usain electrified that entire stadium and if you've never been in the stadium for 100 meters or 200 meters, especially with usain bolt on the track, then you haven't experienced this moment where 70,000 people hush and are

absolutely quiet for one moment in time. i mean you could hear somebody's cell phone ring in that stadium if they didn't have it on silent just from the start and as soon as it starts, flashbulbs everywhere going crazy. so i do think that was a pretty special moment and then he's got such character, right? you just love. you wonder what let's going to do next and everyone around london was doing the usain bolt move. it was really fun how it transcended the sport aerchd was captivated by him and what he did. >> when you talk about transcending the sport, the performance of the american women athletes at this olympiad was so extraordinary, i mean more gold medals from them than all be 2000 nations and this is the value or the child, the daughter of title 9 and that years ago we said we are going to make sure that women athletes have as much right to participate in sports as male

athletes and this is the child of that, right, summer? >> yeah. and i actually am a child of title 9. i was born in '72, i'm 40. you have to remember it's the word of opportunity. and if you have a sister or you have a daughter, you certainly want them to have the same opportunity as any guy out there who is skilled at a sport. and it allows them to go onto college and pursue their dreams. what you're seeing is a woman like kerri walsh and misty may-treanor and the fact that they can come back time and time again and make a career out of it and enjoy it well into motherhood, that is the precious gift of title 9 and the opportunity they were given. >> fantastic. thank you so much for joining us, summer sanders. >> thank you. and straight ahead, what we did during our little olympic break. chance to get to know each other and also for you to get to know us a little bit better, and we're going to start today with s.e. that's next.

humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify.

see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant.

when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect. let's take s.e. she's a columnist. she trained at the washington ballet and the washington ballet for ten years. i didn't know that. she's a self-askrob ed sports fan. loves hunting and fishing, has done so all around the world but her fare is hammer head sharks and giant squid. is all that right? >> yeah, that's true. that was embarrassing. >> is there some basis for the

giant squid issue? >> they look really prehistoric and gross. >> who is not squared of the giant squid. >> i could see, but squid? >> yeah. i'm not comfortable. i'm not comfortable. i'm also, in case you didn't know, friendly with someone i really like a lot, the mayor of newark, new jersey, cory booker. we met on "realtime with bill maher." during a conversation on religion, me, an atheist republican and the mayor a christian democrat were agreeing and gauging up on bill. take a look. >> the crusades. >> wait, wait, wait. not true. >> humans. >> that's rue. >> humans cause war. >> we've been killing people. >> and it's finding that common ground across political and ideological lines that made me

want to spend one morning while we were on hiatus with the mayor because i agree and he does too if we agree, we can get a heck of a lot more done. look at the mayor and his relationship with governor chris christie. they're from opposing parties and while they disagree about many, many things they're working together on issues like education, producing seinfeldesque viral videos. i asked the mayor to give us a tour of europe and show us what the cooperation is actually accomplishing. take a look. where are we headed right now? >> we're down on a main strip in newark and this strip for a long time was struggling like many main strips in many cities but the powerful thing about this strip now is it's ground zero in the positive sense for economic revival. newark is in its biggest economic development period since the 1950s. two office towers right in this

neighborhood that are going to be going up for the first time in 20 years. a resurgence going on and we now have in the pipeline over 6,000 jobs coming to our city. it pushes the unemployment rate down one point. >> a wonderful job. crime is down. but how about the employment? we need jobs. second chance program. we're looking for jobs and hopefully the second chance program will help. >> we have a good second chance program but you've got to follow through. >> what was happening there. >> he was going by and said, hey, booker, i need a job. sometimes because of the chaks of my constituency. sometimes we joke that that's my name, not cory booker but "i need a job." >> we're here at the park looking at war sculptures. does this name mean anything to you? >> it means nothing to me. >> this sculpt ter also sculpted

mt. rush more. >> you are telling me something i did not know. >> welcome to newark. >> is there an election going on? >> did you not hear that? >> i did not hear that. >> some have suggested that governor romney is too white to appeal to black voters. when romney went to philadelphia to visit a charter school, mayor nutter asked, i don't know why this guy's here. with attitudes like that, should he bother trying to court black voters? >> i'm hoping mitt romney and his campaign will elevate the level of dialogue and be afraid to go anywhere in the country because 80% of americans live in cities or directly in their suburbs. if you don't have an urban agenda as a president, then you don't have an agenda for america. i believe very strongly that barack obama has a significantly better agenda. >> what are his challenges now in 2012?

>> i think he's getting message out. i don't think people realize the hope was x and the delivery on that in this challenging world economy has been actually, in my opinion, pretty significant. this is probably the most significant. he took thebe past administrati. number two, the economy. the lilly ledbetter law, the auto industry. >> i actually see a lot of similarities between you and president obama. do you see yourself in him? do you see a presidential run in your future? >> look. first of all, any comparisons to me and the president are flattering to me but he might take insult. to me it's flattering. for me life is not about a position but a purpose. only 40 people have held that in the entire history. if that's your purpose, that's a shallow position for a purpose. i want to live in a country where if you're born to a single

mom in a low income neighborhood you have the same access to nurturing your status and achievements. that's something we can achieve in america. to me that's a fight. >> well, it was a really fun moment. we spent two hours talking and challenges left remaining. i think what's really interesting, though, is at the table among the four of us, i might be his biggest fan. >> i'm not sure about that. i'm not sure about that, but i do think that was a fantastic package and you have raised the bar for all of us because we're all going to come behind you and do things like that, not necessarily interviewing a politician, but whatever we choose to do. it's great tv. congrats to you and really a nice balanced interview where you're challenging him. >> thank you. >> i was really impressed with that because it reminded me. you did a really good job with that. i have not followed him what's

always struck me about him and i saw it come through in that interview, he makes such a great impression with a national audience. national people go through and interview him and he comes across. he still has not won acceptance in the city of newark. it's amazing. he's been mayor since 2006 and he's been try so hard for a decade, decade and a half. >> you're right. i asked him about that. i asked him more and you can catch that all this week on thecycle.m ss nbc.com. and up next, the creator of the show toure and steve are both addicted to. the man behind breaking back to talk about the mild mannered chemistry teacher who became a vicious meth dealer. i have never encountered such a burning sensation...

until i had the shingles. it was like a red rash. like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. it's something you never want to encounter. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com

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. over the past 20 years there have been three epic tv shows about drama. breaking bad is about your average run of the mill high school chemistry teacher who gets cancer and because he lives in a world without obama care he's unable to pay his bills. so in order to save his family from financial ruin and leave some money behind when he's gone, he starting making and selling crystal meth like anybody would if you were a

chemistry genius. in time his cancer goes into remission but h goes on to be a huge meth dealer. >> son of a bitch. son of a bitch. >> get out of the way. >> done talk. i'm done listening to this asshole talk. what did you do, jessie. >> do you even know? do you even know what he's done. >> he saved his own life. >> one more word. >> look, look. if you kill him, you're going to have to kill me. come on. >> vince gilligan is the creator and executive producer of "breaking bad" and i'm excited to have him on the show. vince, why do you think "breaking bad" has become so successful and touched a nerve with so many people?

>> wow, i'll tell you, if i knew the answer to that, i -- i am just happy that so many people are watching our show and enjoying it. it is -- it is honestly something that's speculated on quite a bit. i'm surprised the show is even on the air, to tell you the truchkt but i think walter white is a character that if people -- i guess if people not get behind, walter white is nonetheless someone people find interesting and they want to see what he's going do next. that's the best attempt at an answer i can come up with. >> when you say people can get behind im, i think that makes sense. two of them are about criminals, tony soprano and the people of the wire, criminals who are being humanized as opposed to walter white who is a relatively normal person who becomes criminalized so you can kind of follow his journey a little bit better. do you think there's anything to

that. >> i think you're right about that. i think walter white is a guy who when the show started represented some of us, quite a few of us. i'll speak for myself. i'm just an average shmoe who has never really broke an law in his life, never so much as -- well, i've jaywalked a little, but that's about it. i think walter white is a character who most of us can relate to, at least when the show starts. but as the episodes progress, he gets more and more dark and he does some really terrifyingly horrible things, so it's almost as if with every episode we perhaps slough off hopefully not viewers but we slough off a little more of the sympathy that the viewers have for this character and he become as little lit identifiable to us even though at the beginning of the whole thing he was very identifiable. >> that means, steve, we've been arguing about this. i think he's a good guy placed in bad situations and you thing

he's bad guy. as vince is talking about it gets more difficult in each episode to say is he a good guy or bad guy. >> i'm rooting against walter white when i'm watching the show. >> of course you are. >> >> my underdogs don't kill people. that i know of. vince, i wanted to ask you about walter white. he is so memorable because the acting from bryan cranston is so strong and it's been a revelation to people because before the show bryan cranston was the dentist on "seinfeld" and the father on "malcolm in the middle." not roles you would think would recommend somebody to play this role we're describing. what is it you saw in bryan cranston that made you say, yeah, he could be the meth kingpin of the southwest? >> well, admittedly if i'd only known him from the dopey dad on "malcolm in the middle" i would have had a hard time picturing myself. i was fortunate to have worked

with him about a year and a half before he did "malcolm in the middle." he was in an episode of the "x-files" i wrote and he played a very dark character who was kind of an anti-semite and just a general creep, all-around bad guy who was trapped in a car with agent mulder played by david duchovny for like the whole hour. and yet at the end of the hour you had to feel bad when, here comes the spoiler alert, the guy dies at the end of that particular episode. sorry to ruin that for you. and this actor who i did not know up until that point, bryan cranston, did such a marvelous job playing that role, i was so very impressed with his work. he was such a bad guy, so very dramatic and scary and yet you felt sorry at the end when he pass passed away that i knew to myself, this was back in 1999, i knew to myself -- i at that point said to myself i'd better find something for this guy in the future because i want to

work with him again. >> one thing that fascinated me is the new yorker wrote a piece called the uncanally accurate depiction of the meth trade in "breaking bad." how did you get all those details just right? >> google has been a big help. >> xwoog l? >> come on. google. >> seriously. seriously. >> there you go. very interesting. >> search engines and what not. it is amazing what you can find out there. and the dea, since the show has gone on the air, has been a great help to us. they have an office in albuquerque, a district office that's been very helpful to us and one in dallas, texas, and one right here in los angeles that have been very helpful to us. >> there's your non-google-able research there, you've been working with the dea. i have ten seconds, should we take a pro-obama care message from the show because in a world of universal health care you have no narrative. >> we should all be meth dealers.

>> taking that as a yes. >> vince gilligan, awesome to have you. we're going to continue watching. congratulations to you. >> thank you so much. great talking to you guys. >> still ahead, my take on the man who could be vp and, yeah, we're going to have some more zeppelin for paul ryan because he loves him and i do, too. with the spark cash card from capital one, sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice.

what's in your wallet? we believe small things can make a big difference.e,

like how a little oil from here can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. we discovered that by blending enhanced botanical oils into our food, we can help brighten an old dog's mind so he's up to his old tricks. it's just one way purina one is making the world a better place... one pet at a time. discover vibrant maturity and more at purinaone.com.

♪ you made me so very happy >> when the ryan pick was announced, conservatives were

very happy. finally there was a real right-wing conservative on the ticket. and many liberals were happy, too. finally a real right-wing conservative on the ticket. i bet that when obama got the news, he was very happy, too. he's thrilled to see romney transform his campaign in a way that probably had him singing ♪ now you're somebody that i used to know ♪ he concedes that being a shapeless candidate wasn't going to succeed. so he shifted from creating a referendum on obama to a choice between divergent philosophies. he's transformed the race from all about the economy to being about the economy and medicare and a potentially radical restructuring fl society that's been woven into our fabric since jfk was president. romney has gone from playing tennis as a baseliner, to a serve and attack volleyer. passing shot angles are seen everywhere. the democrats say the ryan plan,

which romney now owns, would be the end of medicare as we know it. nearly 50 million americans are on medicare. the government's most popular program. the end of medicaid, food stamps and pell grants could motivate the electorate and make a difference in florida, pennsylvania and ohio. ryan aims to cut taxes for the rich while removing the social safety net that protects the middle class and the poor, thus proposing history's biggest transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich. budget and policy priorities called it robin hood in reverse on steroids. obama's been using bain and romney's mysterious income taxes to paint mitt as rich and cold and out of touch and unlikable. the democrats think the ryan plan help make the case by abandoning the elderly, the poor and the sick by telling them, hey, make it on your own. up now it's been a campaign lacking substance, a petty contest with conversation that was uninspiring and unproductive. now we have a big elected, a

choice election, a contest of ideas. do we want a governor that sees its mission as protecting its people and trying its best to save them when they fall on hard times? even if it makes it hard for government to be fiscally responsible or do we want a government that depends on supply side economics, trickle-down economics, a true battle of ideas. game on. >> so one thing i would push back on a little bit is like you do this will be a big election but i don't think we're going to see some particularly high-minded debate. we'll have a base election where the goal is to sling mud. it's still going to be very ugly and i don't think we should count on the republican side to lay out in precise detail exactly what's in the plan. >> you certainly don't want to have a precise discussion about that or much of anything. all right, that does i for "the cycle." karen finney is in the chair for martin this week. good to see you there. >> thanks to the team at "the cy"